Top 20 for CIFF 20

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the Calgary International Film Festival. Leading up to the 20th anniversary edition of the festival, I submitted an entry of my top 20 films from the previous 19 editions of the festival. It is republished here for reference.

Top 20

1. CERTIFIED COPY directed by ABBAS KIAROSTAMI (France/Italy/Belgium/Iran)

CERTIFIED COPY was the second Kiarostami film shown at the festival after TEN showed in 2003. However, CERTIFIED COPY marked a vital shift in his directorial career as it was the first time he shot a film outside of his native Iran. Featuring a radiant Juliette Binoche, the film shot in Italy was a breath of fresh air and showed how a master director could reinvent himself. CERTIFIED COPY was the first in a planned series of films Kiarostami was going to make outside of Iran. LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE shot in Japan came out in 2012. Sadly, the next film in this series never arrived as the director passed away in 2016.

2. THE GLEANERS & I directed by Agnès Varda (France)

Cinema lost a leading voice recently when Agnès Varda passed away on March 29 at the age of 90. She was a pioneer of the French New Wave, the “mother or grandmother” of the movement, and directed her first feature in 1955 (LA POINTE COURTE). She experienced first-hand the evolution of cinema and moved from shooting on film to digital. For filming THE GLEANERS AND I, she used her first digital camera and that opened a new world of possibilities for her. The end result is an essential philosophical documentary that offers a heart warming and meditative commentary on our world today.

The film showed at the 2001 Calgary International Film Festival.

3. VOLVER and BAD EDUCATION directed by Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)

Pedro Almodóvar has had 5 films at the festival and all could have easily made this list. In the end, it was tough to separate VOLVER (one of the closing films at the 2006 Wrap Gala) and BAD EDUCATION (Calgary Film 2004) because each of them are brilliant in their own way. Yet, put both of these films together and you get a sense of the themes and styles often found in Almodóvar’s films which are a seductive mix of Hitchcockian suspense and mystery powered by incredible acting. Penélope Cruz steals the show in VOLVER while Gael García Bernal puts in a jaw-dropping performance in BAD EDUCATION. Vintage cinema!

Note: the other Almodóvar films at the festival have been BROKEN EMBRACES (2009), THE SKIN I LIVE IN (2011) and JULIETA (2016).

4. HOLY MOTORS directed by Leos Carax (France/Germany)

Sometimes a film comes along that jolts one’s senses. Watching Leos Carax’s HOLY MOTORS at the 2012 Calgary International Film Festival was such an experience. The film is a dizzying wild ride through multiple genres. Over the course of almost two hours, Carax creatively captures the essence of cinema from the silent era to contemporary times while paying homage to key genres throughout.

5. 2046 directed by Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong co-production)

So far, 2046 is the only Wong Kar-wai film to have played at the film festival. The film showed at the 2005 edition and was the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the seductive IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000). Like his earlier films, 2046 is a feast for the senses.

6. CACHE/HIDDEN directed by Michael Haneke (France/Austria co-production)

Haneke was always known to shock his audience and CACHE is no exception. The topic in the film was urgently relevant back when the film came out but has taken on a greater meaning given the shifting political landscape in France.

7. 4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 2 DAYS directed by Cristian Mungiu (Romania/Belgium)

Cristian Mungiu’s 4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 2 DAYS won the Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and justified the buzz around Romanian films that started with THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU at Cannes 2005. The screening of 4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 2 DAYS at the Globe at the 2007 Calgary Film festival helped introduce local audience to what is now known as the Romanian New Wave.

8. L’ENFANT/THE CHILD directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium/France)

The Dardenne brothers have redefined cinema with their verité style and have inspired a host of filmmakers. Each of their films is an immersive experience. The Palme d’Or winning L’ENFANT, shown at the 2005 festival, is no exception. THE SON, shown in 2003, is the other film from the brothers at the festival.

9. UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand co-production)

Apichatpong ‘Joe’ Weerasethakul was already established as one of the best directors in the world when his UNCLE BOONMEE competed at Cannes 2010. His films were critical favourites and he had twice won at Cannes with BLISSFULLY YOURS (Un Certain Regard, 2002) and TROPICAL MALADY (Jury Prize 2004). There was anticipation among film fans for UNCLE BOONMEE and shortly after the first press screening at Cannes ended, Twitter started buzzing with high praise from critics with ratings of 10/10, 9/10. Then a few days later, the unexpected happened. The competition jury led by Tim Burton awarded UNCLE BOONMEE the Palme d’Or. The top Cannes prize also ensured that it was a full screening at Eau Claire Cinema 5 at the 2010 Calgary International Film Festival.

It was the first Apichatpong film that I had seen in a cinema and the decision to pick the right spot to sit in was agonizing but I need not have worried. Joe’s mastery was such that it was easy to get lost in his world where only he can blend dreams, spirits, reality, past and future in a single flowing work. Plus, there were some images that stayed long in the memory. Red Eyes. Spirits at dinner table. And that catfish.

10. LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan)

Hirokazu Kore-eda is a top director and his films have always been loved by Calgary audience as evident by the high ratings his films get in the audience votes. 5 of his films have shown at the festival starting with AFTERLIFE in the first ever Calgary International Film Festival in 2000 to the Palme d’Or winning film SHOPLIFTERS at the 2018 festival. The remaining films were I WISH (2012), LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (2013), OUR LITTLE SISTERS (2016). All of these films could have easily been in this list but I opted for LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON because it represented a change in his filmmaking.

Kore-eda’s films often focused on families and children but after he became a father himself, his attention to detail and the family dynamics got even more refined. This change in filmmaking was first seen with LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON which tenderly showed the two-way relationship that exists between parents and their young children. The film showed that both kids and parents change by their interaction with each other.

11. DISTANT directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)

Four of Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films have shown at the Calgary International Film Festival starting with DISTANT in 2003, THREE MONKEYS (2008), WINTER SLEEP (2014) and THE WILD PEAR TREE in 2018. WINTER SLEEP won him the Palme d’Or but it was DISTANT that first got him wider recognition. The beautiful visual language that Ceylan showed in DISTANT has been evolving with each successive film.

12. ASH IS PUREST WHITE Jia Zhang-ke (China/France/Japan)

ASH IS THE PUREST WHITE showed at the 2018 Calgary International Film Festival and is the 4th of Jia Zhang-ke’s films to show at the festival with the other 3 being THE WORLD (2005), USELESS (2008) and MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART (2015). ASH IS PUREST WHITE stands brilliantly on its own but builds on themes and references from his last few films. In that regard, the film feels like a cumulation of his illustrious cinematic career.

13. A SEPARATION directed by Asghar Farhadi (Iran/France)

A SEPARATION was Farhadi’s 5th feature and he had already won awards for his previous features but this was the film that catapulted him into the spotlight. A SEPARATION dominated the Berlin Film Festival in 2011 where it won the top prize and both acting categories. This was also one of the fastest films to ever sell out at the 2011 Calgary International Film Festival. The film continued to win awards on the film festival circuit and its amazing year was concluded when it won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Film in 2012.

14. DOSAR / THE COMPANION directed by Rituparno Ghosh (India)

The Calgary International Film Festival had the international premiere for Rituparno Ghosh’s masterful DOSAR in 2006. It was his second film to show at the festival after CHOKHER BALI showed in 2004. DOSAR is one of the finest films directed by the late Rituparno Ghosh and manages to perfectly capture the intricacies of marital life and features a career defining performance by Konkana Sen Sharma.

15. TAXI directed by Jafar Panahi (Iran)

Jafar Panahi was banned from making films in 2010 and not allowed to leave Iran. It felt like the world would lose a vital voice in cinema. Despite the hurdles, Panahi showed that a true artist can still find a way to express themselves even if they are pushed into a corner. TAXI was the third film he made after the ban, following THIS IS NOT A FILM and CLOSED CURTAIN. In the previous two films, Panahi was confined to his apartment and a house respectively but in TAXI he drives around the street of Tehran in a taxi. The end result is a wonderful film that serves as a medium to bring forth relevant discussions about society, freedom, censorship, public vs private space and even film distribution. Everything is presented with plenty of humour, some melodrama yet bathed in reality.

TAXI won the top prize at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival and showed at the 2015 Calgary International Film Festival. Panahi’s subsequent film 3 FACES showed at the 2018 Calgary festival.

16. EVERYONE ELSE directed by Maren Ade (Germany)

Maren Ade’s EVERYONE ELSE is an insightful look at how professional competition can put an already fragile relationship under more stress. Ade skillfully uses the body language of the actors to depict the inferno of emotions that is on the verge of exploding at any moment. The end result is a fiery film packed with raw emotions and brutal honesty.

EVERYONE ELSE showed at the 2009 Calgary International Film Festival in the Mavericks competition and Maren Ade was present at the festival. Ade’s third film TONI ERDMANN was shown at the 2016 Calgary International Film Festival.

17. THE WORLD BEFORE HER directed by Nisha Pahuja (Canada)

Nisha Pahuja’s first documentary feature BOLLYWOOD BOUND (played at the 2001 Calgary International Film Festival) was a lovely film that announced her talent. THE WORLD BEFORE HER reaffirms that. The film, shown at the 2012 festival, is a balanced examination of two different camps of thought in India: beauty pageants and fundamentalism. The two different camps contain the essence of issues that are both dividing and driving India. On one hand, western capitalist ideas are flowing through India while on the other hand, traditional religious and cultural values are trying to block the western tide. Nisha Pahuja examines these issues with an objective eye and treats her subjects respectfully thereby allowing them space to bare their souls.

18. THE NOTHING FACTORY directed by Pedro Pinho (Portugal)

THE NOTHING FACTORY is a genre-bending film that uses an individual factory to highlight the financial crisis across Europe. The film starts off as a comedy, transforms into a documentary and ends as a musical. The middle documentary portion is essential and brimming with ideas. The film poses many questions about the meaning of relevant work in our lives, what happens to workers when a factory closes, how workers are trained when an industry they work in is no longer viable. The questions the film asks are ones that are impacting every part of the world and are clearly influencing the political spectrum across Europe and North America.

19. SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE directed by Park Chan-wook (South Korea)

The midnight screening of SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE at the Globe at the 2003 Calgary International Film Festival was a startling experience. It was the first Korean film I had seen and that led to an exciting few years of discovering and seeing as many Korean films as possible. Park Chan-wook and Korean Cinema have gone from strength to strength over the last two decades and have a much larger following than back in 2003.

THE HANDMAIDEN, shown at the 2016 festival, is the other Park Chan-wook film to have played at the festival.

20. DONNIE DARKO directed by Richard Kelly (USA)

DONNIE DARKO was released in 2001 but it never got a proper theatrical release. Instead, word of mouth ensured that it developed a cult following and became a must-see film. It was exciting to finally experience the brilliance of DONNIE DARKO in a cinema at the 2004 Calgary International Film Festival!

21 other memorable screenings in alphabetical order:

AND NOW…LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… directed by Claude Lelouch (France/UK), shown at the 2003 festival

I went to see this film at the 2003 Calgary International Film Festival based on Claude Lelouch’s directorial credits and the presence of Jeremy Irons. However, the reason I ended up loving the film was due to Patricia Kaas, both for her soulful vocals and her arresting screen presence. I hadn’t heard any songs by Kaas before I saw the film but I bought the soundtrack for the movie after the screening. It still remains one of my favourite movie soundtracks. On a cold snowy day, I put the soundtrack on and Kaas’ voice transports me back to the warm Moroccan landscape where this film’s action took place.

AUDITION directed by Takashi Miike (Japan), shown at the 2001 festival

The film screening made for a shocking experience especially since I saw the film without reading anything about the story. For good or bad, there are images that still continue to linger in my memory and refuse to leave.

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS directed by Denys Arcand (Canada/France), shown at the 2003 festival

An intelligent breathtaking film that packs in a lot of emotions. The film premiered at the 2003 Cannes film festival where it won Best Screenplay and Best Actress before going on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign film at the 2004 Academy Awards. It remains the last Canadian film to have won a Foreign Film Oscar.

BE CALM AND COUNT TO SEVEN directed by Ramtin Lavafipour (Iran), shown at the 2009 festival

This stunning debut film took my breath away with its poetic beauty. Shot on Qeshm Island south of Iran, in the Persian gulf, the film is unlike any other Iranian film that I have seen and exudes life in every frame. This film competed in the 2009 Mavericks competition and the director was present in Calgary.

EL VIOLIN directed by Francisco Vargas (Mexico), shown at the 2006 festival

EL VIOLIN depicts how the seeds of revolution are laid and passed on through generations. Shot in gorgeous black and white, the setting and events of this Mexican film could easily apply to any Latin American country where a military dictatorship crushes voices of dissent among the people by usage of rape, torture and violence.

EXILES directed by Tony Gatlif (France/Japan), shown at the 2004 festival

A mesmerizing film that follows two characters on their life changing journey from Paris to Algeria as they seek to find their roots. The film is shot with such purity and love that it justifies the best director award that Gatlif won at Cannes 2004.

GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH directed by Damien Chazelle (USA), shown at the 2009 festival

Long before FIRST MAN and LA LA LAND, Damien Chazelle made his feature film debut with GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH. Chazelle was at the 2009 Calgary International Film Festival as his film competed in the Mavericks competition. His debut feature is a lovely black and white jazzy film that is a breath of fresh air and has shades of John Cassavetes’ cinema.

INCENDIES directed by Denis Villeneuve (Canada/France), shown at the 2010 festival

An emotionally devastating film that established the brilliance of Denis Villeneuve. I saw it in a packed Eau Claire Cinema 5 and the gasps in the audience were audible when everyone unraveled the mystery.

KHOSLA KA GHOSLA directed by Dibakar Banerjee (India), shown at the 2006 festival

Dibakar Banerjee is one of India’s best known directors today but he was an unknown when his first feature premiered at the 2006 Calgary International Film Festival. KHOSLA is a lively smart comedy that was the first in a new wave of Indian films which used urban and rural settings to depict honest everyday stories and characters.

KONTROLL directed by Nimród Antal (Hungary), shown at the 2004 festival

Before he directed movies in Hollywood, Nimród Antal made his feature film debut with KONTROLL, a wild film that follows the lives of the Budapest underground subway metro staff on their daily routines. The humorous first half looks at the insanity, the male power games, the inner turmoils, and hilarious passengers but the second half shifts gears and explores the shades of darkness lurking beneath the surface.

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT directed by Bi Gan (China), shown at the 2018 festival

Bi Gan’s sumptuous film provides an emotional ride across space and time by mixing past, present and dreams. The transition from 2D to 3D half-way through the film made for a unique experience as the cinema was filled with noise of audience tearing wrappers to put their 3D glasses on.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES directed by Walter Salles (Argentina/Brazil co-production), shown at the 2004 festival

The long line-up at the Uptown theatre made me worried that I wouldn’t get in to see the film but luckily I managed to get one of the last remaining seats near the front. Seeing this beautiful road journey film on a large screen remains one of my cherished memories at the film festival.

POLICE, ADJECTIVE directed by Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania), shown at the 2009 festival

A shining example of the Romanian New Wave, the film depicts a bureaucratic circle of paperwork hell. The serious conversations about the meaning of words and proper usage of grammar may be agonizing for the characters (and the people forced to live that reality) but Porumboiu’s style ensures plenty of humour.

PRIMER directed by  Shane Carruth (USA), shown at the 2004 festival

Made with a budget of just $7000, the film bursts with creativity as it depicts four young engineers working in a garage (outside of their regular 50 hour a week jobs) to come up with the next big thing. What the big thing is supposed to be, none of them knows; they just go with the flow until two of the men find a way to create their own time machine.

THE ROBBER directed by Benjamin Heisenberg (Austria/Germany), shown at the 2010 festival

The two highs of running and robbing give Johann’s life meaning and as a result, the entire film is defined by fast movement, shown by Johann's marathon runs or his perfectly timed car getaways. The end result is a highly entertaining intelligent film.

SAW directed by James Wan (USA), shown at the 2004 festival

Before the never ending sequels, there was the original SAW. The buzz that followed its Sundance premiere ensured it was a packed midnight screening at the Plaza.

SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR directed by Roy Andersson (Sweden co-production), shown at the 2001 festival

Swedish director Roy Andersson has carved a vital place in cinema with his absurd comedic style about the state of human existence. Evoking Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot”, SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR shows characters that are always in motion looking for happiness.

THE SMALLS: FOREVER IS A LONG TIME directed by Trevor Smith (Canada), closing gala film at the 2015 festival

This film throws out the rule book when it comes to music documentaries and rewrites the script. Even though the film is about The Smalls, its smart editing and overall framework gets to the essence of why people fall for a certain band and why a piece of music resonates with some individuals more than others. Werner Herzog has mentioned how he loves letting the camera run a little bit longer after a scene is over in order to capture a magical moment. Such a magical moment takes place in THE SMALLS as well, where the camera stays a little bit longer at one of the band’s concerts. This magical scene depicts the trance like impact music has on people and why people pour their heart out when listening to their favourite band. The entire film is also enhanced by some beautiful contemplative shots which allow us to get a sense of the wider universe around a musical band and how ordinary objects and venues spring to life when musical notes fill the air.

TRANSIT directed by Christian Petzold (Germany/France), shown at the 2018 festival

Christian Petzold’s masterful adaption of Anna Seghers’ 1942 book is a cinematic treat that shows how history repeats in cycles.

VALHALLA RISING directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark/UK), shown at the 2010 festival

Nicolas Winding Refn was already an established director due to the PUSHER trilogy and BRONSON. However, that wasn’t enough to prepare me for the savage bloody rawness of VALHALLA RISING.

WAYDOWNTOWN directed by Gary Burns (Canada), shown at the 2000 festival

The Calgary International Film Festival has shown films from all corners of the globe but the distance of WAYDOWNTOWN was as local as it got. WAYDOWNTOWN is set in downtown Calgary office towers and the +15, just a few blocks from where the film was shown at the first ever edition of the festival in 2000.

Sundance Film Festival

2014 marked the 30th anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival, a festival that has been the launching pad for many exciting cinematic voices over the years. The festival’s importance in discovering new directors was nicely highlighted by the trailer shown before all the films which gave a glimpse of some of the stellar titles that played at the festival. The first Sundance was held in 1985 but it is acknowledged that the festival shot into the limelight in 1989 with Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotapes which changed the perception of the festival. Besides being the launching pad for Soderbergh, Sundance ushered the discovery of many other American directors including Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, 1992), Kevin Smith (Clerks, 1994), Kelly Reichardt (River of Grass, 1994), Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight, 1996) and Darren Aronofsky (Pi, 1998). All of these directors, plus many more, have made the jump from Independent to Commercial cinema thanks to their discovery at Sundance. Even James Wan’s Saw premiered at Sundance before it transformed into a multiplex franchise. 

The success of certain Sundance films or genre means the media attention seems to gravitate towards a similar subset of the festival’s output. One hears plenty about how a certain work is a “Sundance film”, words which paint the festival in a single light. In recent years, that term has been associated with Little Miss Sunshine or Sunshine Cleaning, two films that seem to embody the kind of films that Sundance loves. But these films are not representative of the entire body of carefully programmed films that make up the Sundance film festival. Over the years, documentaries and a growing list of foreign films have premiered at the festival. Although, one would not know that from the media coverage. As this year showed, the films at Sundance represented a multi-tiered global outlook, not only in terms of the foreign film selections but the topics covered in many American films as well. Even though many films were American productions, they were shot in foreign locations or featured topics that were universal in theme. And as it turned out, through a series of intriguing choices, I ended up with many films which were tied together despite coming from different parts of the world. The 13 films I saw can be grouped together in the following 5 categories.

The Arab Spring 

Talal Derki’s Return to Homs embodies the characteristics of the “Direct Cinema” movement that originated in the 1950-60’s. Just like the pioneers of Direct Cinema, including Michel Brault, Derki shared the same quarters as his subjects and thereby put himself in harm’s way to get footage of the Syrian Revolution. Once the Syrian Revolution started in 2011, most of the Syrian media were not allowed in the country. Derki was a rare person who was able to capture the events which makes the footage essential in understanding what went on while the rest of the world continued to sleep. Derki and his crew continued filming even when bullets were fired in their direction. Such vérité footage results in many gut wrenching moments when people are on the verge of dying on-screen. By keeping the focus on a few key people, Return to Homs shows the human impact a revolution has on people. But one can also extrapolate these personal experiences to a larger scale and understand what motivates people to act the way they do. In essence, the film focuses on a few streets in a city but this microscopic focus helps shed a light on similar struggles going on in other streets not only across Syria but the rest of the Middle East.

While Return to Homs views the Arab Spring from a street level, We Are the Giant takes a few steps back and looks at the Arab Spring from a bird’s eye view not only in the present but even from the past. We Are the Giant inserts quotes and pictures from the past which frames the Arab Spring in context of past revolutions and the inclusion of tweets and social media footage shows the currency of protests. Social media is the new weapon of protest. Previously, the printing press allowed people’s revolutionary messages to be distributed but as We Are the Giant shows, social media manages to accelerate the revolutionary process by distributing live video with text to portray events in real time. And just like how the printing press threatened those in power, the same applies for tweets and blog posts. A blog post or a single tweet can land a person in jail and subsequent torture as shown by We Are the Giant. The film examines the Arab Spring from a larger scope but it highlights three stories about families from Libya, Syria and Bahrain whose loved ones are impacted. The stories are shattering but help one to understand the reason why the Arab Spring revolution started and why people are taking to the streets. We Are The Giant is the only Sundance film that I saw which got a standing ovation for its director, Greg Barker, which it rightly deserved.

Return to Homs and We Are the Giant pack a heavy emotional punch but both are essential viewing that allows one to see the world in a new light. In 2013, The Square, a documentary about the Egyptian revolution, premiered at Sundance. 2014 saw the world premiere of We Are the Giant while Return to Homs got a North American premiere. The programming of these three films shows a different side to Sundance, one that is going beyond the traditional media coverage to highlight relevant stories.

Neo-Noir: blood spilled to defend a family 

Blue Ruin (USA) and To Kill a Man (Chile/France) come from different countries but they compliment each other and present a complete picture of what happens in a society where the innocent are left to protect themselves.

An alternate title for Blue Ruin could easily be “To Kill a Man” because a killing takes place early on in the film. Dwight (Macon Blair) has no choice but to kill in order to protect his family. The killing dates back to a family feud and his murder is a further addition in a cyclic act of an “eye for an eye”. Blue Ruin wastes no time in jumping right into events and moves at a rapid pace while maintaining the tension on a knife’s edge for much of the film. A few moments of humor are sprinkled throughout the film which provide a welcome relief as the humor releases some of the tension. Blue Ruin is a perfectly realized neo-noir that depicts some of the same spirit that has made Justified such a worthy show. The film debuted in Cannes 2013 but will only get a wider American release in April 2014. As it stands, Blue Ruin is the best American film of 2013 that I have seen.

To Kill a Man can be called a precursor to Blue Ruin because the film shows the path a man is forced to undertake when contemplating murder. Jorge (Daniel Candia) is bullied and humiliated by a local gang to the extent that his family is no longer safe. The law cannot act fast enough and as a result, Jorge has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. To Kill a Man contains many sequences which defy belief and just when one expects the film to end, it continues and further astounds. When all is said and done, the words “Based on a true story” appear just before the closing credits. The decision to show these words at the end of the film is masterful as it manages to put the entire film in a different light. Without the appearance of those words, one would question the decisions that took place in the film. Yet those words lend reality to the events and instead manage to make the film a larger case study of what can happen in a society where the innocent can no longer be protected by the law, the same law which makes it easier for the guilty to always evade capture.

Hostile World, defending oneself 

Liar’s Dice and A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, debut films directed by women, also depict a hostile world where women are potential prey to men. But the two films take radically different approaches in how the female characters handle their situation.

In Geethu Mohandas’ Liar’s Dice, Kamala (Geetanjali Thapa, mesmerizing) travels from Chitkul to Delhi in order to find her husband whom she has not heard from in 5 months. She takes her daughter and their family goat along the journey. However, a woman traveling without a male companion in India, especially in Delhi, is never safe from men’s constantly prying eyes; a fact that has gained a lot more exposure in the last 2 years with the huge number of documented rape cases. Kamala meets a completely untrustworthy stranger (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) but the film shows that given the dangerous setting, even this stranger becomes a rope to cling on. Liar’s Dice manages to stay away from the usual romantic attitude that Bollywood and foreign films depict India in. Instead, harsh reality is allowed to filter in. The cinematography is breathtaking and shows snowy parts of Northern India rarely seen on screen. The acting is also memorable with Geetanjali Thapa properly expressing her character’s anger and fear while Nawazuddin plays his dishonest persona to perfection.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night beautifully turns the table from a girl who could be an easy prey and makes her the hunter instead. As per the title, a girl does walk alone but she is not the one in danger. Instead, every man in her sight is. This is because the black and white Iranian film is a contemporary take on a Vampire story. The fact that the girl wears a hijab when attacking men can clearly be read as a subtext on the treatment of women not only in Iran but the Middle East. But instead of being subdued by the men, the girl bites back. Ana Lily Amirpour’s film is seductive and features a pulsating soundtrack which combined with the Californian setting gives the entire work an American feel, except that it is in Farsi and takes place in a fictitious place called “Bad City”. Plenty of touches of Jim Jarmusch can be found plus a nod towards early David Lynch as well.

Natural Resources: Corporations, Cycle of Boom and Bust 

A few films highlighted the methods that corporations go about in extracting natural resources from nations and the impact it has on local residents of a city/nation.

In Marmato, the gold mining methods in a small Colombian town are shown and how the Canadian corporation’s decisions play a part in the resident’s lives. The town residents have been gold miners for centuries and they live close to the mines on the mountains. However, the corporation wants to instead use an open mining technique which would level the mountain, thereby displacing the residents. The residents try to fight the corporation but their plight faces a tough political battle as depicted by the film. One could easily replace gold with oil, shale, silver or any other natural resource and the film would still be relevant in the unfolding of events.

We Come as Friends examines the newly formed nation of South Sudan and depicts how colonialism still exists but hides in a new mask related to resource exploitation. In the film, the resource in question is oil which governs the level of foreign interest in the nation. One can imagine that the rest of the world would not have have cared about what happened if there was no oil.

The cycle of boom and bust related to resource discovery has been repeated throughout history and many films have shown towns that fall in either categories. The Overnighters shows the impact on the local economy when an influx of workers arrives. Williston, North Dakota is the site for a new gold rush to speak, that of shale gas. The town cannot accommodate the hundreds of new arriving workers who have no place to sleep. On top of that, the residents of Williston are wary and fearful of the strangers, who are Americans moving from different states.

A local pastor, Jay Reinke, puts up as many workers in his church as possible and helps find accommodations for others. But some of the workers are ex-convicts or felons which causes the town residents to fear them more. Reinke goes out of his way to treat every worker equally but that puts his reputation on the line. As the film progresses, the pressure of the town and the overnighters takes its toll on Jay Reinke, who is almost on the brink of losing everything, his faith and reputation. In fact, events threaten to make Reinke an overnighter as well. The film shifts from the larger focus of the town to a personal story about the pastor’s life because what happens is not foreseeable. The film was awarded a Special Jury Prize for intuitive filmmaking and that is justified as events take an unexpected turn but director Jesse Moss trusted his instincts and continued filming. Also, Jay Reinke and his family deserve credit for allowing the camera to stay on in their households even though many personal conversations were taking place. In many moments, Moss achieves a Direct Cinema style of intimacy and the camera becomes one with Reinke’s household. When all is said and done, The Overnighters leaves one shaken at what they have just witnessed. Such was the case with many audience members at the sold out show.

Young Ones shows a future when water has become a scarce resource and where humans fight for every drop of water. The film is sci-fi but the desert surroundings and theme of revenge evoke a Western genre. The story unfolds in three chapters, with each chapter highlighting a key character. Michael Shannon stars as the father, who is willing to fight for his family’s benefit, a theme shown in other films at the festival. The film highlights the battle of survival that ensues when a society is on the verge of collapse.

Cutter Hodierne’s Fishing Without Nets shows a Somali village where all jobs have dried up and the only real money that can be made is by piracy. The film covers a similar topic to Captain Phillips and A Hijacking but Fishing Without Nets is told entirely from a Somali perspective. The feature film is an expansion of Cutter Hodierne’s award winning 2012 short film by the same name which also debuted at Sundance. It is a wonderful time in cinema when three films such as A Hijacking, Captain Phillips, Fishing Without Nets can exist in a similar timeframe. The three films are directed by men from three separate countries but they present a 360 degree view of events. There are many scenes where the three films directly reference each other and show an opposing perspective. For example, in Captain Phillips, events are seen from Tom Hanks’ character’s point of view such as when he sees the pirates approaching on boats and boarding the ship. In Fishing Without Nets, the camera is instead in the pirate boats and events unfold from the pirates’ perspective when they are climbing onto the ship. Another example is regarding the negotiations between the pirates and the shipping company. A Hijacking shows the parent ship company offices when the pirates phone to demand ransom while in Fishing Without Nets, only the pirates are shown talking on the phone and we never get to see the company on the other side. Therefore, these three films paint a complete picture of the entire piracy operation including the men who fund the process and provide supplies to those who kidnap the hostage and those that make the deals.

Portrait of an Artist 

Tim Sutton’s Memphis is a beautiful contemplative film set in the city that has fulfilled many musical dreams. However, the film is not about an artist who is on the verge of discovery. Instead, it looks at an artist’s life when the lyrics stop. Willis Earl Beal plays a famous musician who is struggling to finish his new album. He is told by his agent that he needs to come up with something but as Willis indicates, lyrics escape him. He is suffering from the equivalent of a writer’s block and as a result, the film applies to any artist struggling to produce a work. Willis procrastinates, wanders the city and manages to find solace among the unemployed people who can barely make ends meet. Yet, Willis has a talent. A close friend advises him that Willis has a responsibility to God, to realize his artistic duty. Willis has the keys to the kingdom, he is at the state that thousands other want to be. But he decides to turn in his keys to the kingdom and goes on a less traveled but difficult journey. Casting Willis is quite the coup as the film shatters the boundary between reality and fiction. The film is not autobiographical but there are some moments which depict Willis’ working methods regarding his music recording. The decision to withhold music for most of the film is also smart because that makes one thirst for Willis’ songs. And when we finally listen to Willis’ voice, it is magical! The music and words of “Too Dry to Cry” are sprinkled throughout the film, elevating the film and giving the entire work a soulful momentum. Memphis is a worthy addition to Contemporary Contemplative Cinema and is one of the most original American film in years.

Mr. Leos CaraX is a documentary that demystifies Leos Carax and allows a window into his style. The film is an ode to the director and includes plenty of clips and interviews which help shed a light on Carax’s references and usage of citations. Denis Lavant is featured prominently and his interview is quite useful in understanding his growth as an actor over the years in working with Carax. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Harmony Korine, Richard Brody, Kent Jones, Gilles Jacob also provide insightful critical analyses. Tessa Louise-Salomé’s documentary makes one want to revisit Carax’s films while eagerly awaiting his new work; which hopefully is not another decade away.

Top 5 Films: a tie for 5th means 6 films

1. Return to Homs (Talal Derki)
2. Memphis (Tim Sutton)
3. Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier)
4. We Are the Giant (Greg Barker)
5. The Overnighters (Jesse Moss) and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)

I missed many other wonderful films due to scheduling conflicts or sold out shows. Whiplash (winner of both Jury and Audience Award for US Dramatic film), Imperial Dreams (Audience Award, Best of NEXT) and The Green Prince (Audience Award, World Documentary) were high on my see list. Discussing with dozens of other cinephiles, there were a few common titles that popped up on many other top lists. Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was #1 on many lists as was Mike Cahill’s I-Origins, talking about which made some people giddy with excitement. I-Origins was the winner of Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, a prize which Cahill also won at Sundance back in 2011 with his first feature Another Earth. Raid 2 was #1 on few lists and almost everyone was certain that the film’s extreme violence meant the film would not be released without some cuts in North American cinemas. Other films that got plenty of buzz were E-TEAM (Winner of the Cinematography Award: US Documentary), Wetlands, Watchers in the Sky (Winner of two awards for Animation usage and Editing), Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory (Audience Award for US Documentary) and Happy Christmas. We Are the Giant is the only film from my list that featured on two other’s list at #1.

An overall festival experience is made or broken by one’s choices. In this regard, almost all my choices delivered, which helped! Of the 5 films that I bought advance tickets to, 3 won top prizes. To Kill a Man won the Jury Prize for World Cinema Dramatic category, Return to Homs won the Jury prize for World Documentary while Fishing Without Nets bagged the Best Directing prize. Along with Return to Homs, Memphis, Blue Ruin and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night were on my must-see list before the festival started. Therefore, it was especially delightful to discover that these films were worth attending.

The only disappointments were Young Ones and We Come as Friends, but only because the films could not build on an early impressive setup. In the case of We Come As Friends that is understandable as the film was clearly impacted by the degrading situation in South Sudan. The film won a Special Jury Prize for Cinematic Bravery which recognizes the effort of director Hubert Sauper who tired to cover as many different angles to the South Sudan nation creation story as possible. We Come As Friends shows that making a documentary in a dynamic and constantly changing landscape can be challenging. This was also demonstrated in Marmato when the situation of the town residents worsened. However, Marmato ends before the tensions rose to a boil. One of the producers mentioned that they had to leave the country when there were concerns about their safety, something which helped give the film a natural ending. In the case of The Overnighters, the reason why the change in direction worked was because the main subject Jay Reinke was part of the film early on. As a result, he provided a continuation thread when the film changed course.

Return to Homs, We Are the Giant, We Come as Friends and Marmato depict a window into current events which are getting worse and changing constantly. As a result, these films don’t offer a natural conclusion because the ending of these struggles has not yet been written. But these films are essential because they serve as a living breathing digital document.

Sundance is interchangeable with American cinema and will always be a place where new American directors will be discovered. However, as this year’s festival showed, Sundance is giving a peek into the wider world outside of American shores by including films which are relevant and timely. No matter what category a film was programmed in and how different it was, it still fit in the overall program and showed that there was careful attention paid to ensuring all the films had a purpose.

The festival gets a lot of attention for its distribution side along with the celebrity presence. There are many private parties around the festival which feature celebrities and grab a lot of media coverage. This gives the appearance of a large closed-off film festival. But that is not the case as the festival has successfully managed to bridge its larger media aspect with a smaller independent feel. This is evident not only from the film selections but from some of the panels. I attended the Film Church on the final day of the festival where the Festival Director John Cooper and Director of Programming Trevor Groth talked about their festival highlights. Both John and Trevor were candid about some of their programming decisions and challenges that took place. The panel made it hard to believe that Sundance is the media crazy festival that some publications make it appear. Instead, Sundance felt like an intimate festival that is open to film lovers from all walks of life. This is also reinforced by talking to many of the volunteers and other festival patrons. There were many volunteers and patrons who have been attending for decades and shared a zest for cinema. In fact, every single volunteer I came across was a bona-fide cinephile, something I have not seen at another festival. One of the volunteers was a documentary maker and I learned that many of the volunteers working at one of the venues also worked regularly at the Toronto International Film Festival. Overall, Sundance proved to be a more open and inviting festival than I expected. And the variety of programming choices meant the festival balanced both artistic and commercial cinema while keeping its ears tuned to global events.

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Cross-published at Wonders in the Dark.

CUFF 2013

This past April marked the 10th anniversary of the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) and the festival celebrated it by having the strongest lineup in their history. The remarkable aspect about the selection was that it felt like someone read my mind in booking the films. 7 titles from my must-see list played at the festival. I had been eagerly waiting to see Berberian Sound Studio, Computer Chess, Frances Ha, Pieta, Sightseers, The Act of Killing and Upstream Color. So I was delighted CUFF booked them. Unfortunately in the end, I could only see 5 of those titles:

Berberian Sound Studio (2012, UK, Peter Strickland)
Upstream Color (2013, USA, Shane Carruth)
Pieta (2012, South Korea, Kim-ki Duk)
The Act of Killing (2012, USA, Joshua Oppenheimer)
Computer Chess(2013, USA, Andrew Bujalski)

I also missed out on Clip, Vanishing Waves, The Rambler and The Final Member, films that got really strong word of mouth buzz.

Here are some brief notes on the films, arranged in order of preference.

1) The Act of Killing

Even though the documentary is rooted in Indonesia, it is universal in depicting how men kill with the aid of media and politicians. The depiction of torture/killing could easily be set in Latin/South America/Africa while the media manipulation applies to most nations. But no individuals will ever admit their crime with such brutal honesty as those in The Act of Killing, making it a living digital document. The killers walk about the city freely, sometimes boasting about their murders. Such honesty ensures the film hits like a ton of bricks but it is one of the most essential and relevant docs ever made.

2) Computer Chess

A playful look at various computer programmer personalties, ranging from the very shy to those whose supreme confidence borders on arrogance. The black and white visuals coupled with the video footage give the film a 1980’s look and feel, at a time when computers were bulky machines that required some effort to transport from room to room. The humor is derived from the collection of eccentric personalities and as a result, the scenarios feel natural and not forced. As a bonus, the film also literally depicts HAL's birth.

3) Berberian Sound Studio

An eerie slow-burning film that smartly uses sound manipulation & cues to abstract a horror genre. As a result, one can appreciate the few elements that make a horror film nerve racking and terrifying. This aspect is reinforced by the decision to not show the film-within-film, thereby letting viewers fill in their own worst images.

4) Upstream Color

A multi-shaped puzzle that assembles the look and feel of a Lynchian nightmare with a Malickian landscape. The film manages to find a balance between sci-fi, horror and nature by rapid fire editing and a score that contrasts the mood of the images that the viewer is seeing. The film’s two editors, Shane Carruth and David Lowery, cover a lot of ground in the opening minutes. One can make 2-3 features from the opening 20 minutes of Upstream Color. After the fast paced opening, the film settles down a little, allowing viewers to get a brief footing before heading off in a different direction altogether.

Credit must be given to Andrew Sensenig whose wordless performance speaks volumes and lends the film a graceful covering. Also, Upstream Color also extends Godard's quote: "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl" plus some pigs & worms.

5) Pieta

I believe Kim Ki-duk made this film on a bet. He must have wagered with friends that he could make a sloppy film in a few days and throw enough heavy references to fool critics into thinking the film meant something. And his ploy appears to have paid off with the top prize at Venice 2012, even though festival rules prevented The Master from getting that prize. Still, it is hard to imagine that jury, which consisted of Michael Mann, Matteo Garrone, Pablo Trapero, Marina Abramovic, Ursula Meier, Ari Folman, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Laetitia Casta, Samantha Morton, could not have picked any other film if they could not select The Master. Maybe the jury picked Pieta to prove a point that if they could not pick the best film in the competition, they would pick the worst. But given the praise Pieta has gotten in some quarters, it does feel like maybe some in the jury gave the prize on merit.

The entire film feels like a joke on the audience. Pieta contains shocking scenes for no reason other than to get a reaction from people while the acting and editing give it a B-grade appearance. As painful as the experience proved to be, I managed to get through it. Thankfully, the many other stellar films at CUFF quickly washed away the experience of Pieta.

CIFF 2012 Wrap-up

The 13th Annual Calgary International Film Festival featured a mouth watering line-up of films from all corners of the world and excelled in both quality and quantity. Continuing the trend from last year, CIFF had encores of most films and added extra screening slots making it more convenient than ever before to catch the films. CIFF scheduled two weekday matinee screenings (2-2:30 pm, 4-5 pm) in addition to the two traditional weekday evening shows and also had a midnight film for all 10 days. These extra time slots opened the door for a dedicated cinephile to take in more than 50 films and at the same time made it a lot easier to see 40 films than previous years. I mention 40 films because this was a goal for a lot of friends in the past but they always fell short, sometimes ending up at either 36 or 39 films. I briefly played with the idea of making it to 40 films this year but I remembered the painful aftermath of seeing 30 films over 10 days a few years ago. So, I instead opted for a comfortable target of 20 films which allowed me to enjoy all the films with enough time for socializing and discussing films with fellow cinephiles.

Here are the 20 films seen in order:

Wrong (2012, USA, Quentin Dupieux)
The Day I Saw Your Heart (2011, France, Jennifer Devoldère)
See Girl Run (2012, USA, Nate Meyer)
Fat Kid Rules The World (2012, USA, Matthew Lillard)
Amour (2012, Austria/France/Germany, Michael Haneke)
Rust and Bone (2012, France/Belgium, Jacques Audiard)
The Misfits (2011, Mexico, Javier Colinas/Marco Polo Constandse/Jorge Ramírez Suárez/Sergio Tovar Velarde)

Reality (2012, Italy/France, Matteo Garrone)
Holy Motors (2012, France/Germany, Leos Carax)
As Luck Would Have It (2011, Spain/France/USA, Álex de la Iglesia)
No (2012, Chile/France/USA, Pablo Larraín)
Rebelle (2012, Canada, Kim Nguyen)
Battle of Warsaw 1920 (2011, Poland, Jerzy Hoffman)
Margarita (2012, Canada, Dominique Cardona/Laurie Colbert)

The World Before Her (2012, Canada, Nisha Pahuja)
Antiviral (2012, Canada/USA, Brandon Cronenberg)
I’m Flash (2012, Japan, Toshiaki Toyoda)
Mars et Avril (2012, Canada, Martin Villeneuve)
All In Good Time (2012, UK, Nigel Cole)
The Ambassador (2012, Denmark, Mads Brügger)

The relaxed schedule allowed me take something memorable from each of the 20 films and I am glad I was able to attend them. I hope to write longer about the films in the future but for now just some quick notes along with my top 5 films.

Top 5 Films in order of preference

1. Holy Motors: An incredibly wild and creative ride that effortlessly glides through all film genres. Leos Carax has managed to capture the essence of cinema from the silent era to contemporary times while playing homage to key genres throughout. This is pure cinema and proof for why films hold such sway over people.

2. The World Before Her: Back in 2001, I was lucky enough to see Nisha Pahuja’s debut documentary feature Bollywood Bound at CIFF. That lovely film proved Nisha to be a born filmmaker. And she has reaffirmed that with The World Before Her, a perfectly balanced and insightful film that examines two very different camps of thought in India. The two camps, beauty pageants & fundamentalism, contain the essence of issues that are both dividing and driving India. On one hand, western capitalist ideas are flowing through India while on the other hand, traditional religious and cultural values are trying to block the western tide. Nisha Pahuja examines these issues with an objective eye and treats her subjects respectfully thereby allowing them space to bare their souls. The end result is one of the best documentary films of the year, cleverly edited and infused with a refreshing soundtrack.

3. No: Pablo Larraín’s gripping account of the 1988 plebiscite that put an end to Pinochet’s dictatorship may be rooted in Chilean history but the political issues at the core of the film are relevant to any nation trying to break free from an oppressive regime. The film also wonderfully recreates the grainy video look of the 1980’s and surprizingly contains one of the most catchy songs of the year.

4. Reality: Matteo Garrone’s film starts with a mesmerizing wide shot of Naples which depicts the vast beauty of the city and proceeds to follow a few different characters and does not settle in on one particular person. This creates the illusion that the film plans to chart the lives of multiple people. However, that illusion is shattered when the camera sets its focus on Luciano (Aniello Arena) and shuts the rest of the world out. This microscopic examination of Luciano results in a devastating case study of a man who is so blinded by his quest for fame that he starts to lose grip on reality.

Luciano bears a close resemblance to a young Robert De Niro which coupled with the film’s topic echoes De Niro’s performance in The King of Comedy. However, Martin Scorsese’s film heads into darker territory while Garrone’s film maintains an air of fantasy about it due to a dreamy musical score combined with a few Felliniesque moments. Reality is not on the same wavelength as Gomorra but it is a remarkable film about society’s obsession with celebrities and how that can cause some individuals to throw their life away.

5. Rust and Bone: Matthias Schoenaerts plays a different shade of his tough character from Bullhead. In Bullhead, Schoenaerts is a physical force of nature but one who has trouble finding love because of a past which has scarred him for life. His character is still physically imposing in Rust and Bone but he has no trouble getting love and can pick up a woman at the drop of a hat. The Dardennes' style used by Jacques Audiard ensures that Schoenaerts and Cotillard’s characters are properly showcased thereby finding beauty in moments of brutality & pain. Also, the visual style is definite proof that Marion Cotillard is gorgeous without any make-up.

A few quick notes on some other films

I unfortunately missed the opening night gala for Midnight’s Children but thankfully I caught the Black Carpet & Closing Night Gala for two other creative Canadian films. The Black Carpet Gala, Antiviral, marked the fascinating debut of Brandon Cronenberg. The film looks at a not too distance future where society’s obsession with celebrity culture results in people lining up to buy meat grown from celebrity cells and happily injecting themselves with the same virus that a celebrity has. Given current addiction to anything celebrity related, such a scenario is not entirely unbelievable so full credit to Cronenberg for extrapolating the present in such a thoughtful film. Martin Villeneuve adapted his own graphic novels for the poetic and meditative Mars et Avril, CIFF's closing night gala film. The visually beautiful Mars et Avril proves that a sci-fi film can be made without any horror or mindless action scenes. Both Brandon and Martin come from famous Canadian cinematic families as Brandon is David Cronenberg’s son while Martin is Denis Villeneuve’s brother. However, both Brandon and Martin have successfully made their own mark with their debut feature films.

Amour: For the most part, a warm film infused with plenty of humour that is hard to recognize as a Michael Haneke feature. Therefore, Haneke has included a scene or two to jolt the audience to let them know that he is still pulling the strings lest someone get too comfortable with the film.

Wrong: Quentin Dupieux’s follow-up to Rubber is a delightful leap forward and is packed with plenty of witty absurd humor.

Rebelle: This powerful film was joint winner of the CIFF narrative audience award along with My Awkward Sexual Adventure. In the hands of another director, Rebelle could have resulted in a violent film but Nguyen has ensured that the camera is not fixated on blood but instead on the characters and their plight.

My earlier preview post mentioned some of the other stellar films at this year's festival including Found Memories, The Bright Day, Unfair World, Teddy Bear, Barbara and King Curling which are some of the best films of the year.

Overall, it was another vintage year even though I missed some worthy features. Still, I preferred to properly enjoy each film as opposed to running from cinema to cinema to see 3-4 films a day, something which I regularly did in past festival editions.

CIFF 2012

The Calgary International Film Festival kicks off today, Sept 20, with the much anticipated opening gala of Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children and runs until Sunday, September 30. As usual, the line-up is stellar and contains a healthy dose of worthy International, Canadian & American films. Also, new this year is a spotlight on 3D which contains a dazzling list of titles. I am looking forward to discovering some new gems and will put up a final report at the end of the festival but for now, here are ten favourite films that I have already seen.

Found Memories (Argentina/Brazil/France, Júlia Murat) 

A mesmerizing film that deceptively appears as a contemplative piece but contains another layer beneath the surface. The film starts off by capturing daily rituals in a sleepy Brazilian town, routines which are slightly disrupted by the arrival of young Rita. Rita does not attempt to alter the lives of the residents too much and keeps to herself while photographing sites and the town folk. However, she does not realize that her presence is critical to the residents, something which is only apparent by the film’s end. The ending, which puts a completely different spin on the overall film perception, haunts long in the memory because it forces one to rethink the lives of the residents and why they have continued to stay in a place cut-off from the rest of the world.

 

The Bright Day (India, Mohit Takalkar)

Mohit Takalkar, an experienced theatrical director, makes his cinematic debut with a beautiful, poetic and hypnotic film. The story revolves around Shiv who leaves his home to travel across India in search of his identity. There have been many films made about characters who undergo a self-discovery journey in India but those films were from the perspective of a foreigner arriving in India. On the other hand, The Bright Day shows a born and bred Indian who leaves to travel within his country. This makes a world of difference as the film does not focus on a checklist of items that must be shown in a film about India but instead dives deeply to uncover the torment that the main protagonist experiences. The visuals are striking as is the use of background music to enhance the film’s mythical tale. Plus, there are some smart touches such as using the same actor Mohan Agashe to play different characters that highlights how Shiv perceives people around him.

 

Unfair World (Greece/Germany, Filippos Tsitos)

This smart Greek film shows how two cops efforts to save an innocent person leads to murder thereby forcing them to cover their tracks. Each frame is packed with absurd comedic moments which are slowly revealed as the camera movements act like a drawn out punch line. The film’s comedic style is reminiscent of Aki Kaurismäki, Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) and the recent wave of Greek films directed by Giorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps) & Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Attenberg). Appropriately, Unfair World stars Christos Stergioglou who played the father in Dogtooth. The film swept the top Greek Academy awards this year and is Greece’s foreign film submission to next year’s Academy Awards.

 

Teddy Bear (Denmark, Mads Matthiesen)

A charming and delightful film that depicts an award winning bodybuilder who not only lives with his mother but is afraid of her. Despite his hulk like appearance, he has no luck with love. So he decides to fly to Thailand to find a bride. This setup brings plenty of humor and credit to the director to allow events to follow naturally without any extra drama.

 

Mallamall (Canada/India, Lalita Krishna)

An excellent and timely Canadian documentary that looks at India's economic rise via the countless malls being constructed there. The film also highlights a Canadian connection crucial in developing these mega stores, something that is hardly ever seen in any newspaper headlines.

 

King Curling (Norway, Ole Endresen)

Finally, a well made curling film! This Norwegian film incorporates some of the competitive in your face humor from Dodgeball within a deadpan framework similar to that of fellow Scandinavians Bent Hamer (O’ Horten and Kitchen Stories) and Roy Anderson (Songs from the Second Floor, You, The Living).

 

Generation P (Russia/USA, Victor Ginzburg) 

This Russian film combines the fierce energy found in Night Watch, the Russian film based on Sergey Lukyanenko’s novel, with some of Mad Men’s creative advertising ideas and tops things off with a layer of religion, nationalism, philosophy and mythology. There are plenty of conspiracy ideas presented and even though not all those ideas are tied up at the end, there is plenty to chew on.

 

Barbara (Germany, Christian Petzold)

Christian Petzold’s pitch perfect film features an incredible performance from Nina Hoss in depicting life in East Germany. Hoss plays the titular character, a doctor, who is sent away from Berlin to the countryside as a punishment for seeking to leave for the West German side. The forced exile does not dampen her plans as she tries to still seek an escape to the West with her lover. However, her presence is closely monitored forcing her not to trust anyone and maintaining a distance from the hospital staff. But with time, she slowly starts to warm up to her job and starts to develop relationships which force her to rethink her situation. Petzold’s cool looking film is completely different to The Lives of Others because of its singular focus on Barbara and using her as a lens to examine others. The film is Germany’s submission to next year’s Academy Awards.

 

I Wish (Japan, Hirokazu Koreeda)

Hirokazu Koreeda has come up with another masterful work that looks at two young siblings who are forced to live across Japan due to their parent’s separation. It is always amazing to see how Koreeda manages to bring out such rich performances from his child actors. His style ensures that the acting is natural and the film maintains a perfect emotional tone without resorting to melodrama.

 

The Dynamiter (USA, Matthew Gordon) 

The film follows a young teenager Robbie who is forced to fend for himself and his younger brother in a harsh and unforgiving environment after the mother leaves the family. It is a steep learning curve for 14 year old Robbie as he finds himself as man of the house and at first, his actions and behavior land him in some trouble. But his teacher gives Robbie a chance to atone for his stealing and poor grades by asking Robbie to write an essay that will allow him to graduate. Robbie tries his best but his task is made harder by the arrival of an elder brother who is not the role mode that Robbie once thought. Full credit to director Matthew Gordon for maintaining a sense of hope in depicting the kids which makes for a fascinating character study. The Dynamiter is a visually stunning award winning film that belongs to the same category of New Realist American cinema such as Ballast and Wendy and Lucy, films that show a true slice of American life by focusing on characters completely absent from the big Hollywood productions.

 

Montreal -- World Film Festival

Montreal’s World Film Festival is now in its 35th year but somehow it is invisible to most of English speaking Canada and much of North America. A quick look at the line-up gives an idea why this may be. The festival is devoid of big name Hollywood films so that ensures that majority of the mainstream media would likely stay away. But one would think that a festival with hundreds of foreign films should be able to attract cinephiles and film critics? Unfortunately, North American film magazines and critics hardly cover the festival either. In the last few years, I have never seen a mention of the festival in either Film Comment or Cinema Scope (a Canadian publication nonetheless). In 2010, I came across a report by Cineaste but the article was only restricted to the web and not in their full magazine. The reason for ignorance from film magazines or cinephiles could be that Montreal does not get most of the big name Cannes films which have their exclusive Canadian or North American premier in Toronto. Yet, if cinephiles and critics are not seeing any of the films shown in Montreal, then how would they know what they are missing?

For example, these are this year’s competition feature films:

ANTOKI NO INOCHI, Dir. Takahisa Zeze, Japan.
CHE BELLA GIORNATA, Dir. Gennaro Nunziante, Italy
CINCO METROS CUADRADOS, Dir. Max Lemcke, Spain
CORAÇÕES SUJOS, Dir. Vicente Amorim, Brazil.
COTEAU ROUGE, Dir. André Forcier, Canada.
CZARNY CZWARTEK, Dir. Antoni Krauze, Poland.
DAVID, Dir. Joel Fendelman, United States.
DER BRAND, Dir. Brigitte Maria Bertele, Germany
DER GANZ GROSSE TRAUM, Dir. Sebastian Grobler, Germany
HASTA LA VISTA, Dir. Geoffrey Enthoven, Belgium
INJA BEDOONE MAN, Dir. Bahram Tavakoli, Iran
KRET, Dir. Rafael LewandowskI, Poland - France
L'ART D'AIMER, Dir. Emmanuel Mouret, France
LA RUN, Dir. Demian Fuica, Canada
PLAYOFF, Dir. Eran Riklis, Israel - France - Germany
TAGE DIE BLEIBEN, Dir. Pia Strietmann, Germany
TATANKA, Dir. Giuseppe Gagliardi, Italy
WAGA HAHA NO KI, Dir. Masato Harada, Japan
WAN YOU YIN LI, Dir. Tianyu Zhao, China
ZILA-BILA ODNA BABA, Dir. Andrey Smirnov, Russia

Only CHE BELLA GIORNATA and DER BRAND are 2010 films with the rest being brand new 2011 films from around the world, untouched by negative press that almost accompanies ever single Cannes festival title. In fact, I have not seen a single mention of any of these films anywhere. The only film that I am slightly aware of is Tatanka but that is because of a personal interest in the film as the story is written by the incredible Roberto Saviano whose book Gomorrah is one of the best books I have read in the last few years.

There are many unknown films in other categories but surprizingly it is only in the Out of Competition category that some familiar titles show up:

This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb)
Black Bread (Agusti Villaronga)
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
What Love May Bring (Claude Lelouch)

There is indeed a very good chance that most of the films shown at Montreal will disappear without a trace. For example, I have not seen most of the previous year’s award winners. Just taking a small subset of award winners from a few categories produces many undiscovered older titles.

In 2010, the top three prizes went to:

Grand prix des Americas: 
OXYGEN (ADEM) by Hans Van Nuffel (Belgium/Netherlands)



Special Grand Prix of the jury: 
DALLA VITA IN POI (FROM THE WAIST ON) by Gianfrancesco Lazotti (Italy)



Best Director ex-aequo:


LIMBO by Maria Sødahl (Norway/Sweden/Denmark/Trinidad and Tobago)

TÊTE DE TURC by Pascal Elbé (France)

I have not seen any of these 2009 winners even though I have seen a few of Tony Gatlif’s previous films.

Grand prix des Americas: KORKORO (FREEDOM) by Tony Gatlif (France)

Special Grand Prix of the jury: WEAVING GIRL by Wang Quan’an (China)

Best Director: VILLON’S WIFE (VIYON NO TSUMA) by Kichitaro Negishi (Japan)

Thankfully, I have seen the 2008 award winner, Departures:

Grand prix of the Americas:
OKURIBITO (DEPARTURES) by Yojiro Takita (Japan)

Special Grand Prix of the jury :
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE (CE QU’IL FAUT POUR VIVRE) by Benoît Pilon (Canada)

Best Director :
THE TOUR (TURNEJA) by Goran Markovic (Serbia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

However, if I keep going back through other years, I draw a blank for the award winners. And these are only for the films that got an award. There are hundreds of films waiting to be discovered via the archives.

The global film world is large indeed and one needs a proper fishing net to capture a good set of the films that exist. Unfortunately, the global distribution network only moves a select few titles around. Cannes plays a big part in this distribution stream as most of its new titles blindly get booked by a majority of film festivals and eventually get a DVD release. Sundance provides North American theaters with a few alternatives to Hollywood films while Rotterdam, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Buenos Aries, TIFF, VIFF and Pusan also help in injecting new titles into the mix. Yet, despite all these festivals, a good number of international films still remain out of reach.

I appreciate what Montreal is doing and I am glad that a film festival exists that is helping bring many new and unknown titles out of the shadows. The distribution framework to give these films a life outside of Montreal may be broken but awareness of titles is the first step.

Venues & Outdoor cinema

During my stay for Fantasia, I saw plenty of banners and advertising for the World Film Festival because the festival was going to kick off 11 days after Fantasia ended. As it turned out, my hotel was very close to two of the World Film Festival venues. I was also within touching distance of the Cinema Under the Stars location and since I was very close to a Metro station, the remaining three cinemas were also very easily accessible. Of course, given Montreal’s excellent Metro system, most locations are easily within reach.

As indicated by the name, Cinema under the Stars films are shown outside on a closed-off street. This year, the collection features a few Hollywood and Bollywood musicals such as Singin’ in the Rain, All That Jazz, Chicago, Devdas, Lagaan along with two Jacques Demy films The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and Les demoiselles de Rochefort . Combined with the great summer weather in Montreal, Cinema Under the Stars will make for some fun viewings while the amazing selection of brewpubs and third-wave cafes in Montreal should provide enough fuel to discover films that apparently most of North America is unaware of.

Note: The Cine Files blog on Montreal Gazette’s website is providing coverage of the World Film Festival including links to some of the film trailers.

Fantasia 2011

Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival is in a class of its own. It is one of the best genre film festivals in the world and as such entertains, thrills, chills and jolts its audience with fascinating films from all corners of the globe. The festival has gone from strength to strength in its 15 years of existence under the magnificent direction of Mitch Davis. Fantasia runs for a staggering 3.5 weeks (24 days) and is a film festival truly for the fans. When it comes to film festivals, one hardly talks about the atmosphere generated by film fans but in the case of Fantasia, for years I had heard about the rocking atmosphere that took place in the Concordia Hall theater when 700 fans brought the cinema down. Attending Fantasia was on my wish list for a long time so this year, in the 15th anniversary of the Festival, I decided to finally take the plunge.

8 in 3 days

I attended 8 films during my first trip to the Vancouver Film Festival in 2006, the same number as I did at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The common number was just a coincidence but in both cases this total allowed me to enjoy a decent selection of films, spend time with family/friends, get some rest while taking in some of the best the cities had to offer. So this time around, I decided to go with the number 8 again, but the overall breakdown ended up being different. In Vancouver, I had a 3-4-1 tally with 3 films on a Friday, 4 on a Saturday and a single film on sunday while in Toronto I registered 4-3-0-1 with 4 films on a Thursday and a single one again on the sunday. For Montreal, the number ended being 2-5-1, starting with 2 on a friday. I could have packed in more films at Fantasia but I also wanted to spend some time visiting the city’s numerous brewpubs and third-wave cafes.

So the lucky 8 films in order of viewing:

Blackthorn (2011, Spain/USA/Bolivia/France, Mateo Gil)
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011, Canada, Panos Cosmatos)
Gantz (2010, Japan, Shinsuke Sato)
Gantz: Perfect Answer (2011, Japan, Shinsuke Sato)
Article 12 (2010, UK/Argentina, Juan Manuel Biaiñ)
Dharma Guns (2010, France/Portugal, F.J. Ossang)
Morituris (2011, Italy, Raffaele Picchio)
Redline (2009, Japan, Takeshi Koike)

I had planned my trip long before the final film schedule was released so it turned out many of the films from my wish list were not playing during my visit but I still had plenty of hope from my picks. On paper, Blackthorn appeared enticing. It marked the English language directional debut of Mateo Gil, a writer I held in high regard because of his excellent writing for Thesis, Open Your Eyes, The Sea Inside and The Method. The cast of Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea and Magaly Solier (she stole the show in both Claudia Llosa features Madeinusa and The Milk of Sorrow) was equally tantalizing. Plus, the fictional account of Butch Cassidy’s apparent survival and secret life in South America (Bolivia) had all the making of a cult film. Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment. Even though Blackthorn contains many memorable sequences, good acting and some picturesque shoot-outs, the good individual parts never add up to a complete whole. The film does contain some memorable lines especially regarding how three different characters curse Bolivia because they were ultimately defeated there. Interestingly, Che Guevera was also defeated in Bolivia, so there is certainly a cinematic possibility in exploring the political games played out in Bolivia.

Beyond the Black Rainbow had plenty of buzz around it and Todd Brown’s excellent write-up was certainly inviting:

Born of the pre-teen fantasies of writer-director Panos Cosmatos as he browsed the selection of early 1980s Canadian science fiction and horror VHS tapes that he would never be allowed to rent, BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is a psychedelic head trip of the highest order. Cosmatos captures the aesthetics of an era effortlessly while fusing those influences into something bold and visionary and entirely his own. The accomplished music video director — he’s done work for the Handsome Furs, among others — plunges the audience into a sort of sensory overload as he fuses elements of Reagan-era paranoia, social engineering run amok and a drug-fuelled step up the evolutionary ladder to create a hypnotic experience that plays out like a Tarkovsky-style science fiction picture as filtered through the visual style of LOGAN’S RUN. Michael Rogers delivers a mesmerizing performance as Barry Nyle, his cold and clinical exterior concealing a layer of obsession and... something else. But as gripping as Rogers is, it’s the world that Cosmatos creates that is the real star, the visuals providing a truly immersive experience matched by the original score, composed by Black Mountain’s Jeremy Schmidt entirely on vintage analog synthesizers. Just let it all wash over you.

Panos Cosmatos has indeed done an excellent job in recreating the 1980’s feel and I felt I was watching a horror/thriller from that era on a VHS tape. On top of that, the film’s bright neon tinged palette leads viewers on a tipsy hallucinatory psychedelic ride. Unfortunately, when the stylistic layers are peeled off, there is very little depth in the film. There are plenty of references to conspiracy theories/experiments but those references appear to be elements inserted in the film to allow audience to draw their own interpretations and add more meaning to the film than there really is. For majority of the film, the style dominates but once the bright lights are turned out, the film comfortably settles into B-grade mode.

Gantz came in second place for the Audience Awards at the New York Asian Film Festival and was one of the films I was most looking forward to. So were about 699 other people. Only in Fantasia can 700 people be packed in a theater at 11:25 am on Saturday morning and be in amazing spirits. Each frame of the film was cheered on until the opening credits and after that, the film’s key scenes elicited huge roars of approval. Gantz has an incredible opening sequence, perfectly outlined by Rupert Bottenberg in the Fantasia film guide:

Two young men wait among the crowd on a subway platform, a flicker of recognition passing between them. Before they can speak, a man falls, helpless, on the tracks. One youth jumps down to save him. The other reaches down to help, and falls himself. The train is coming, fast, and they don’t have time to climb back up out of its way. The train slams into them — and they find themselves, from one split second to the next, in a clean yet unfurnished apartment overlooking Tokyo. In the room with them are several other men — a gangster, a slacker, a pair of nervous salarymen — who seem just as confused and disoriented as they are. Also in the room is a sphere. A large, smooth, hard black sphere, which quickly reveals itself to have strange and amazing powers. Text scrolls across the sphere, explaining that the old lives of all in the room are now over. Their new lives belong to the sphere. That’s when the weapons come out, and the players’ first target for extermination revealed.

The mysterious black orb is naturally Gantz and it controls all the players lives and wants them to fight aliens that are living among humans on Earth. It scores the players based on their performances in exterminating the aliens. If a player reaches 100 points then they can either use the points to return to their lives or use the points to resurrect another player but be stuck in the game themselves. The first Gantz film spends time developing the characters and lays the foundation for how the players learn to use their new found powers. The second film Gantz: Perfect Answer promises to answer everything but instead it creates more subplots and weaves an even bigger web of mystery around Gantz. The film introduces a palm sized black orb which is instructing a former Gantz player to kill other people to introduce them in the game. On one hand, Gantz is getting people killed and introduced in the game while on the other hand, players are on the verge of returning to their former lives. Eventually, the mystery around the two black orbs are tied and the film offers many answers but still many things are left untied, presumably for a future sequel or even a prequel. Put together the two films are very entertaining but each film contains many disposable sequences that simply draw out the plot longer than needed. The first film is a better overall work than the second film which spends a generous amount of time on players vs alien fight sequences. Still, Gantz is worth watching and will certainly create a huge fan base.

Article 12 explores how modern technology is reducing people’s right to privacy without people’s awareness. The film features prominent speakers, including Noam Chomsky, and echoes George Orwell in exploring the eroding private/public boundaries in modern Western society. However, the 75 minute film basically contains 10-15 minutes of interesting ideas and spends the rest of the time repeating the same messages over and over. As a result, the film easily wears
out its welcome and ends up being quite tiresome.

F.J Ossang’s Dharma Guns is a film with great potential and incredible style. The first image in the film is in color but the rest of the film is in black and white and features a possible end of the world scenario where a mysterious drug is turning people into zombies. The key to save the world lies in an unfinished script that Stan Van Der Decken cannot complete because of his memory loss. On top of that, he cannot get a hold of his mysterious agent and is hounded by an underground group called Dharma Guns. No zombie is ever shown on screen and that gives the film an air of mystery and doubt. Plus, there are many engaging ideas presented in Dharma Guns but unfortunately, the end result is a lackluster film that cannot thread all the elements together.

One of the things I was most looking forward to in Fantasia was seeing a midnight feature in the Hall theater. The opportunity to witness a packed audience elevate the thrills of a horror feature was one I did not want to miss. So I was surprized when the midnight feature Morituris was not even half full. The feature prior to Morituris was jam-packed and had an after-party around midnight so maybe that drew some people away. Or people were more interested in the International Fireworks competition taking place in Montreal that night. Whatever the reasons, it turned out the audience was smart enough in staying away. However, the lack of crowd did not deter director Raffaele Picchio who was in great spirits because this screening marked the international premier of his film. He told the audience that they would witness a "nasty" film and he was right. Although before the nastiness started, Morituris starts off in a flashback mode with found camera footage showing a family’s picnic going horribly wrong when the family is killed by a mysterious evil force from within the forest. The film then cuts to the present when a speeding car packed with five people, three men and two women, is en route to the same forest for a rave party. The conversations flow naturally among the five in the film’s best segment. However, once the five enter the forest, things go wrong as expected. In keeping with the horror film template, the nasty things happen to the women first. The suffering of the men is not far away but when the evil finds the men, it is in the form of men in body paint and gladiator attire, looking more comical than scary. There are some torture segments in the finale but the film ends up being an awful viewing, mostly due to uninspired direction in the final third. As an aside, one would think that in this day and age needless abuse of female characters in horror films would stop but directors keep thinking of new ways to inflict pain to female characters, all for the sake of shock.

Redline, the eight film, was pure fun. Once again, it was incredible to see a packed hall at 11 am on sunday morning, this time cheering on a Japanese anime. The story of the film features incredible car-racing sequences in a futuristic Japan where races take place on various planets between aliens and humans alike. The cars of Speed Racer have nothing on Redline which feature nitro-powered cars flying at unimaginable speeds. The high speeds led to the racers eyes on the verge of popping out and eventually result in complete breakdown of the cars. One incredible sequence in the film features a disintegration of a car but the human drivers fly across the track to still finish the race.

Ratings & Overall comments

A rough ratings of the films out of 10:

Blackthorn: 5.5
Beyond the Black Rainbow: 6.5
Gantz: 8
Gantz: Perfect Answer: 7
Article 12: 5
Dharma Guns: 6
Morituris: 2
Redline: 8

Unfortunately, my picks may not have resulted in too many stellar films but overall, Fantasia was the best film festival experience of my life. As diverse as the films were, they still demonstrated purposeful programming and each film fit perfectly within the festival’s desire to hunt the world for genre films which push the envelope and are not afraid to take risks. Plus, the framework around the festival ensures a great experience. The two main theaters, Hall (capacity 700) and J.A. De Seve Theater (capacity 173), are not only across the road from each other but are connected by an underground tunnel. The tunnel also leads to the Metro, the most efficient metro system in Canada, which ensures one can get to most spots around Montreal in minutes. Also, there is an excellent selection of restaurants, cafes and brewpubs around the two theaters which means a person is always well nourished in between the films.

The timing of the film festival in summer also means that one can enjoy the great weather of Montreal which makes for relaxing walks in-between destinations even late at night (say 2 am after a midnight feature) when downtown is still bursting with life. Given that that film festival lasts 24 days means a minimum of a one week trip is required to properly assess the films and soak in the best that Montreal has to offer.

Note: some of the brewpubs and cafes I sampled during Fantasia are listed in a separate post.