The Films of Aleksey Balabanov

Earlier this year, mubi featured a spotlight on the films of Aleksey Balabanov. I first encountered a film by Aleksey Balabanov back in 2009 with the release of Cargo 200. I saw the film without knowing anything about the topic let alone the meaning of the title but the film proved to be a jolting experience. 

Cargo 200

 

The title Cargo 200 refers to the coffins in which dead Soviet soldiers from Afghanistan were sent. Cargo 200 stayed with me because it was the first film that I had seen that showed the death toll from the Soviet perspective. Until that time, I had only seen American films about Afghanistan and what was missing from the cinematic landscape was the perspective of the Soviet soldiers and their families. Balabanov’s film filled a missing gap but I didn’t get to see any of his other films until this recent mubi spotlight.

Brother (1997, Russia)

Brother emits a similar raw gritty energy to that of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy while making terrific usage of location. Interestingly, the first Pusher film came out in 1996 just one year before Brother. That comparison to N.W. Refn is only on the surface because as it turns out, Brother’s shooting technique has rules which share some intentions with that of Dogme 95:

Balabanov was one of 13 signatories of a 1996 statement proposing a set of rules for filmmakers who were intent on making small-budget films without state assistance (hardly forthcoming in those years in any case): a shooting schedule limited to two or three weeks; filming exclusively on streets, in courtyards and in the apartments of friends and relatives; crews working gratis, with payment contingent upon any profit the film might make. — John Mackay, Senses of Cinema

In Brother, Danila (Sergey Bodrov) is a newly discharged ex-soldier who is back from the first Chechen war and immediately finds trouble in his village. With no clear job perspective, Danila heads off to St. Petersburg to look for his brother Viktor (Viktor Sukhorukov). As it turns out, Viktor is seeped deep in crime and that works nicely for Danila who is able to put his cold blooded killing to good use. And whatever money Danila gets, he spends on music cassettes (yes, those good old walkman tapes).

After slaying all the dragons in St. Petersburg, it is only natural for Danila to move to a bigger city for a larger crime net. That opportunity comes courtesy of Brother 2 in 2000 when the brothers find themselves in Moscow. In the sequel, Danila also makes his way to Chicago.

The two Brother films nicely establish Aleksey Balabanov’s raw style and show that he isn’t afraid to depict sensitive topics like racism and ethnic conflict. Also, the scenes of the local market in Brother are refreshing and show the importance of using location in film. There are some market shots that made me think of Sergei Loznitsa’s cinema.

Considering that Sergey Bodrov’s character Danila returned from the first Chechen war, it isn’t surprising that Balabanov’s follow-up to Brother 2 is War (2002) set against the backdrop of Chechnya. These films are part of Balabanov's crime/violent movies but early in his career, he tackled Kafka with 1994’s Zamok, based on Kakfa’s The Castle.

In recent years, I have associated Russian cinema set in Caucasus with that of Kantemir Balagov (Closeness) but Aleksey Balabanov was there first.

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.

 

Euro 2012: Russian Films

Entry #16 of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight looks at the two Russian films.

Silent Souls (2010, Aleksei Fedorchenko)



Two men undertake a journey so that one of them can perform the final rituals to cremate his wife. The two share a deep friendship as illustrated by their interaction especially the comfortable silence they share. They understand each other and are perfectly content to sit quietly when needed and not fill the silence with empty words. There are many tender scenes spread throughout Silent Souls which reaches a high emotional moment during the cremation and spreading of ashes. The river/sea play a key part in the film’s theme as illustrated by some of the cinematography and dialogues. In one sequence when the two friends are talking, the shot of traffic in the background appears like a river, constant and ever flowing. The film also contains the following lines:

”because a live woman’s body is also a river that carries grief away...
It’s only a shame you can’t drown in it.”

Like another Russian film Euphoria, Silent Souls is elevated to a grander scale by its microscopic focus on two characters. The film depicts unique moments in their lives but those sentiments can also be extrapolated to apply on a larger scale.

How I Ended This Summer (2010, Aleksey Popogrebskiy)



An experienced meteorologist Sergey (Sergey Puskepalis) is working with a younger man, Pavel (Grigoriy Dobrygin), in a lonely outpost in the Arctic taking measurements. Sergey can’t wait to return home to his wife and his child while Pavel has no such family attachments but still can’t wait to return to civilization. When Sergey goes on an extended fishing trip, Pavel receives a radio message regarding an accident in Sergey’s family. Pavel knows the news will cause Sergey to worry so he decides to delay the news until a ship will come to take Sergey home. However, covering up the lie proves too difficult for Pavel and the guilt combined with the isolation drives him crazy. As a result, the film heads off into a different direction with paranoia and fear overtaking events.

How I Ended This Summer focusses on two men just like Silent Souls. The difference is that Sergey and Pavel are not friends but brought together because of their job. If Sergey and Pavel men shared a friendship, then that would have ensured a more open communication between the two and not the direction the film takes. There is no rational explanation to describe why Pavel acts the way he does but his inexperience and fear cause him to make things more difficult than needed.

CIFF 2011 -- All about the Mavericks

Calgary International Film Festival 2011

Every year I joyfully look forward to the 10 day cinematic adventure that is the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF). Normally, I have my festival specific routines and relish tweaking my schedule as the festival goes on, adding in extra films or altering my plan to get some rest. However, this year my schedule for the opening weekend was decided well in advance because I was invited to be on the three person jury to judge the Mavericks competition award. The Mavericks competition featured eight films from first time directors. The goal was to watch all eight films in the cinema along with the audience during the opening weekend and then deliberate to come up with the award. As per the film schedule, I had two options to see all eight films:

1) 2-3-3: Start off with two films on Friday and then take in three each on Saturday or Sunday.

2) 3-3-2: Three on the opening day and end the weekend with two.

I opted for the second option and added two more films for personal viewing, making the format a much more soccer friendly 4-4-2. This format also allowed me to give my full attention to the Mavericks films.

The eight Mavericks films seen in order of viewing:

Maria, my Love (2011, USA, Jasmine McGlade Chazelle)
Heat Wave (2011, France, Jean-Jacques Jauffret)
The Sacrament of Life (2008, USA, Joseph Sorrentino)
Flowers of Evil (2010, France, David Dusa)
Radio Free Albemuth (2010, USA, John Alan Simon)
Old Goats (2010, USA, Taylor Guterson)
The Whisperer in the Darkness (2011, USA, Sean Branney)
Sunflower Hour (2011, Canada, Aaron Houston)

All the eight films are quite wonderful and different from each other which made it fascinating to judge the competition. The eight films are also clearly a labor of love by the filmmakers and it was a great experience to hear the stories about how some of these films saw the light of day. I had the pleasure to listen to Jasmine McGlade Chazelle, Joseph Sorrentino, Sean Branney and John Alan Simon talk about their films and had a very nice chat with Joseph Sorrentino. These films highlight the importance of film festivals in helping to showcase talented filmmakers whose works would otherwise be lost in the overpowering Hollywood dominated North American cinemas. I relished viewing all these films and hope they get the larger audience they deserve.

In the end, we chose Flowers of Evil as the winner of the Mavericks award.

Here is our jury statement:

Flowers of Evil is a bold, innovative film brimming with fresh new ideas. David Dusa has crafted a unique film that smartly integrates social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube within the film’s visual language while maintaining the story’s flow. Dusa’s film contains living breathing three dimensional characters who draw the audience into their lives thereby creating an emotional connection with the characters lives in Paris and a revolution taking place in a far off land.

In addition, Flowers of Evil also features a grooving soundtrack and makes great use of Shantel’s Disko Boy song.

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The other two films that I saw on the opening weekend were Kill List and Alps.

Kill List (2011, UK, Ben Wheatley)

Ben Wheatley’s film packs quite a powerful punch and increases the tension and violence as it races along at a riveting pace. One remarkable aspect of the film is that it keeps certain elements off the screen thereby allowing the audience to fill in their own version of certain events related to the characters background story and even to the cult group. The violent scenes cause plenty of discomfort although the film’s most shocking scene won’t seem as a surprize to those who saw a certain 2010 film.

Alps (2011, Greece, Giorgos Lanthimos)

Lanthimos’ follow up to Dogtooth features far more deadpan humor and less of the strangeness that might have put some people off Dogtooth. That is not to say that ALPS is without its quirky dark humor but it is presented in a much more accessible manner than Dogtooth. The material that is presented in ALPS only seems much more darker and sinister when one walks away after seeing the film and thinks about the characters and their lives.

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Some quick comments on other films that showed at the festival:

Guilt (2011, Canada, Marc Bisaillon)

This excellent Canadian film is based on a true story and raises some worthy moral questions about guilt/punishment. There is some humor as well regarding how the champ jock is given preferential treatment but the humor is subtle and does not draw attention to itself.

In Heaven, Underground (2011, Germany, Britta Wauer)

The story about how the Weissensee Jewish cemetery survived the Nazi era and continued to operate for more than a century is certainly extraordinary. Surprisingly, this is a very light tender film about the heavy topic of death and features many poetic and contemplative moments.

Target (2011, Russia, Alexander Zeldovich)

Like all good sci-fi films Target uses a single topic, elixir of youth in the film’s case, to explore larger issues about human behavior and morality in society. Plus, the film uses current trends of China’s growth to extrapolate a future where the political power balance is altered. One forgets the sci-fi element 30 minutes into the film after which the story unfolds like an epic Russian novel, carefully highlighting the disintegration of the principal characters. The ending shot certainly evokes Tarkovskiy’s Solaris as do certain other aspects in the film.

Journey of a Dream (2011, Canada co-production, Shenpenn Khymsar)

This worthy documentary is a fascinating mix of a memoir, a road journey, a political film about Tibet's struggle of independence and a look at the underground music scene in Darjeeling. Each part contains many engaging aspects which are nicely tied together in the end when the filmmaker draws a line between his Buddhist beliefs and love of metal music.

Le Quattro Volte: I wrote about this film previously and it is still a front-runner for one of my favourite films of the year.

George the Hedgehog (2011, Poland, Wojtek Wawszczyk, Jakub Tarkowski, Tomasz Leśniak)

And now for something completely different...George the Hedgehog is a Polish animated film that is a blend of political and social satire packed with plenty of sexual innuendo and some nudity to boot. The film is surprizingly liberal with its sexual depiction and is not afraid to offend with its crudeness and racial jokes. George the Hedgehog also smartly includes the impact that online videos can have in swaying public opinion and starting a revolution of sorts.

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The ones that got away

The opening weekend certainly exhausted me and that meant I had to give away some of my film tickets over the next few days just to recover. So I missed seeing Take Shelter, Monsieur Lazhar, The Skin I Live In and The Bengali Detective. On top of that, family commitments meant that I missed the closing gala film Take That Waltz along with three of my must-see picks for the festival -- Le Havre, El Bulli and The Salt of Life. Still, CIFF 2011 was another great festival experience highlighted by the outstanding Mavericks competition.

Oh Canadian weather

CIFF has always taken place place in the final week of September and usually spilled over into the first few days of October. As a result, my memories of the fall season have always been associated with CIFF because my waiting in line for films has gone hand in hand with a chill tinged air. However, remarkably last year the weather during the first week of the festival was summer like thereby making the walks in between the cinemas pleasant and fun. Incredibly, this time around the first weekend of the festival (Sept 23 - 25) featured temperatures in the range of 29-30 deg C thereby meaning some of the warmest summer weather of the year took place in the fall. If this summer like weather occurs during the festival next year, then it will certainly be further proof of the changing weather pattern.

Snapshots of War

Stage One: Man to Man Combat

In ancient times war was an accepted part of life. Be it over a matter of land or a girl, a man gathered his group to avenge and fight for his cause. While the weapons were not as lethal as those in modern warfare, the savagery was not any less. Chopping and hacking was aplenty ensuring maximum blood. The one thing that made the ancient form of warfare stand out was that everyone fighting on both sides knew the reason for their war and in most cases knew their opponents.

Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol shows an example of the persistent state of war in ancient times. While the film is about the rise of Genghis Khan and his conquests in ancient Mongolia, many of the elements of war could apply to other nations in ancient times like the Nordic or Moghul India. In Mongol love and war keep equal pace at times and when the blood letting starts, the family and loved ones have to be left behind until the next battle, which is always around the corner.

Stage Two: Trench warfare

As the weapons used to kill other men got more sophisticated and advanced, the distance between the fighting soldiers also increased. The hand to hand combats were replaced by the trench warfare, where opposing armies lay in hiding before firing bullets over to the other side. In such cases, a solider never really knew if he managed to kill someone or not and even if he did kill someone, didn’t find out the identity of his enemy. In Kon Ichikawa’s masterpiece Fires on the Plain one of the Japanese soldiers utters this very relevant truth when he hears the American soldiers in the distance. He peeks to get a look at a passing group of American soldiers in trucks and comments that was his first look at the enemy despite being in combat for months. It is hard to imagine that men fought other men with neither side speaking the same language. In fact, they didn’t need to communicate as they let the bullets do all their talking. Fires on the Plain takes place in Philippines between the American and Japanese soldiers and also highlights another changing aspect of warfare in that two nations would fight in a third nation’s turf, a much more common aspect of war starting from WWII onwards.

War is a savage thing no matter how much one tries to defend its reasons. Kon Ichikawa captures this animal nature of war perfectly in his film while also accomplishing the rare feat of objectively showing the war from the perspective of the soldiers, the everyday men forced into combat. There is no jingoism in the film with none of the soldiers ever talking about the “good of the nation” as each person is only trying to survive and do what they believe is right, even if that means eating another man’s flesh.

Stage Three: Remote warfare, espionage and propaganda

World War II combined both past and even futuristic aspects of war. On one hand, trench warfare was still common but so was the use of aerial bombing, with the two atomic bombs signaling the future nature of combat. But World War II also ushered in a new stage of espionage and its spy game routines led directly to the cold war. Information became just as important as weapons and the cat-mouse game certainly ensured that the war was a complicated affair.

In ancient times, there was no need to sell war to ones citizens. But in the modern civilized world, war had to be sold to its citizens as men and women had to be given a reason why war was necessary. So propaganda became a very common currency during WWII, on both sides of the fighting.

Valkyrie combines the espionage and propaganda elements that took place during WWII. The film shows a true story about an assassination attempt of Hitler. Even though one knows that the characters attempt will end in failure, the film is still a gripping watch.

Stage Four: The inner war and path to recovery

Ok, the war is over. Now what? Can the horror be erased from the soldiers minds? Can the warring leaders actually enjoy the peace and listen to soothing music? Unfortunately, history has shown that peace can never be achieved with war. It never was and it never will. But this does not stop nations from trying to achieve peace with wars. After the war is over, the soldiers are left to fend on their own. In some cases, the men are fine and integrate into society. In other cases, the men can’t shut off the inner demons and look for a new war. Gran Torino can add its name to the list of movies where the men are never really free from their war. Even though the main character Walt (Clint Eastwood) appears to be at peace with his killings in the Korean war, when things get ugly he does reveal that he is still haunted by his demons and heads towards a very un-Hollywood like resolution in hopes of achieving peace for himself and his neighborhood.

Stage Five: Filming the war

Ever since Apocalypse Now, there have been directors who have aimed to film the most realistic war movie by ensuring their audience gets the grim details of war and feels the blood for themselves. Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder tries to parody such a director who aims to make the most realistic war film ever! In his quest for perfection, the director (Steve Coogan) take his cast to a jungle far away from the comforts of a studio set. But things don’t go as per plan and the cast hilariously find themselves in a real war. While the film does a very good job of assembling some excellent characters such as the sleazy film executive (Tom Cruise), the shallow agent (Matthew McConaughey), the fake war writer (Nick Nolte) and the actors aching to dive into their characters (Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr.), it comes across as a missed opportunity for something greater.

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Ratings out of 10 for films seen in this series:

Fires on the Plain (1959, Japan, Kon Ichikawa): 10
Mongol (2007, Russia/Mongolia/co-prod, Sergie Bodrov): 8.5
Gran Torino (2008, USA, Clint Eastwood): 8
Valkyrie (2008, USA, Bryan Singer): 7.5
Tropic Thunder (2008, USA, Ben Stiller): 5

Eastern Europe, part IV

The Eastern Europe series continues to provide rich cinematic viewing. The previous collections involved only watching features but this selection has six documentaries and three features. When I started this experiment more than a month ago, I wanted to study Eastern European soccer and film together. But as the weeks have gone on, the soccer spotlight has fallen a bit short. Still, the films have made provided a good viewing point into past and current Eastern Europe.

Films:


Part I started with war and collapse of a nation. Other topics were touched upon in part II but part III ended with the army take-over of a city. Part IV picks up exactly from that theme.....

Nation & city under siege:

Emir Kusturica's Underground had this memorable line: "A war is not a war until a brother kills a brother". Well in Kusturica's When Father was away on business, it is not a brother but a brother-in law who turns on his family. But one can argue such a situation is bound to happen in a state when people are kept under constant watch and citizens are encouraged to put the good of the nation before individual freedom. While this political situation is considered evil, in soccer it is such a situation that works wonders for a team -- if all players work hard for a team and put their own egos aside, sometimes a team can achieve victory. So if something works in soccer, then why can't it work in society? The difference is that in soccer, if a person goes against the system, he is not tortured and put in prison.(unfortunately, Iraq is an exception where soccer players were put in prison and beaten after bad results. A topic for another time...)

So what happens when a man is put in prison for something he said? It sets a horrible example for others and keeps the fear machine working. As the film's title points out, the kids of such a father are told that their beloved dad is away on business while he is locked away in a prison. Only when the kids are older do they understand what their father had to go through. As it turns out, the father was arrested by his brother-in law but it was the father's girlfriend who tipped off the brother-in law. So when the father returns to society, he seeks out the ex-girlfriend for revenge. And revenge ends up being a passionate animal like love making session. While the fucking is going on, the innocent son, who was kicking a soccer ball, catches a glimpse of his father with another woman. He leaves the soccer ball on one side and instead watches the other game. What is going through his mind? We will never find out but the goal has been scored and the soccer ball & the woman lay harmlessly on the ground. Waiting to be touched again...one day...

A peaceful city. Then war and destruction. Death is at every corner as buildings are destroyed. Slowly, the city tries to rebuild and finds some joy when some of the enemies are sentenced for their crimes. Sergei Loznitsa does a remarkable job in putting together a film from Soviet government archives of the siege of Leningrad. Blockade has no dialogues but is actual archive footage between 1941-1944 which shows how the city is shattered. Loznitsa has recorded a new sound-track which is remarkably in sync with the images shown on screen. This film proves that sometimes scripted film can't even close to the drama that everyday life offers. But it is amazing that someone was actually capturing all these images back in 1941?

The beautiful Hungarian film Happy New Life never really tells us which city is under watch but in the film's fictional world, we learn that young kids were taken from their homes and then experimented upon. After more than decade, these kids are released into society as adults. Who are these kids? What was their childhood like? These people will never know and they struggle with modern life. We come across such an adult who tries to find about his past. But all he gets are a few pieces of paper which tell him nothing. So he is forced to resort to his own ways to dig up his past. He goes about his regular life but each day is painful for him and he is constantly on the verge of living and dying. Amazingly shot, this vintage film lets the images paint as a picture of a suffering victim who is trying to cope with life after his government took away his innocence. An official selection for TIFF 2007 and hopefully it makes out for CIFF and VIFF as well.

Sometimes only a portion of a nation can is clamped down upon while the rest of the country goes about their life as usual. In Balkan Champion Réka Kincses shows the political struggles that her ethnic Hungarian father faced in Transylvania. The current geographical map shows that Transylvania belongs to Romania but it was once part of Hungary. So understandably, the region is populated by plenty of ethnic Hungarian people whose rights were not recognized by the Romanian government. Kincses tried to fight for his people but the political games forced him into exile. Réka does a wonderful job of digging into the past and tries to understand the reasons for her father's problems. This is an emotional film that shows the suffering that the family also had to undergo as a result of the father's political battles.

Suffering:

A nation's political situation is not the only cause for a individual's suffering. Circumstances sometimes deal an unlucky hand to some people. The powerful Czech doc Marcela brutally shows the destruction and suffering of Marcela. Her life has been captured by tv for over 25 years and we see it go from good to terrible. In 1980, everything was good for Marcela -- she was newly married with the love of her life. But a year after the birth of her first child, her marriage starts to fall apart and she gets a divorce. A few years later, the reunion of Marcela and Jiří takes place (once again captured on camera) but that ends again. We see this woman change over time and find her getting sucked into deeper depression. The hammer blow comes when tragedy strikes her daughter, plunging Marcela into utter darkness. But she survives her attempted suicide attempts and continues to carry on when the camera leaves her in 2006.

This is another example of the power that documentaries have over scripted features. Although watching such raw footage of a person's collapse is not pleasant viewing but it is still worthy cinema because it can show how easy it is to get sucked into an endless cycle of misery. One can see the film and acknowledge the problem but can everyone be strong enough to fight their inner demons?

The Romanian dark comedy A Roof Overhead shows the suffering two women go through in a mental hospital. Their suffering is almost matched by the constant stress that the doctors have to go through daily while working in the under-staffed and under-funded hospital. So in order to alleviate the funding problem, a lot of the patients are discharged. So the two women find themselves free in society. However, they find more problems in their everyday life. On a suggestion by one of them, the two head to the country side to live in an inherited house. But the country house is no longer a luxury place; it does not even have a roof (hence the title). We come across plenty of colorful and eccentric characters in the country-side. An often hilarious film with a tinge of sadness tucked away. The movie feels similar to The Oak, another film which managed to capture the raw spirit of the Romanian life. And yes, the gypsy music is also present.

The well shot Romanian film Village of Socks shows how poverty & unemployment effects life in a small Romanian village. Thankfully, some of the village women are able to make money thanks to sock making to generate some income. At times the topic might be dry but this is a polished film that captures some precious shots of everyday life.

Beauty & everyday life:

Miss Universe 1929 chronicles the life and times of Austria's only Miss Universe. The film uses rare raw footage and old photographs to show a love story of Lisl Goldarbeiter, Austria's shining beauty. Even though there are plenty of repeated shots and dull moments, the film has some merit when it highlights everyday life as the World War disrupts a country.

I first heard about Georgia thanks to Shota Arveladze & Kaka Kaladze, two acclaimed soccer players. But it is Kaka's story that made plenty of headlines. In 2001, his brother was kidnaped in Georgia and a huge ransom was demanded. Despite his parents paying the ransom, the brother was not returned. It is believed that his brother's dead body was found in 2005. What can one infer from this? Even a powerful soccer player, a national hero, can't use all the political and financial resourced to get his brother back. So what of the ordinary citizen?

So I was glad to get the chance to watch Akhmeteli 4, a documentary which shows everyday life of the residents in the director's former apartment building. Artchil returns back home to Tbilisi after more than a decade to see how things have changed. A simple film which manages to show how everyday citizens are going about their lives. We even see the locals betting on Western European soccer scores. It is amazing to see how much knowledge the locals have of Western soccer while most of Western Europe hardly knows anything about Eastern soccer. But I am sure that knowledge will improve in upcoming years as Eastern European soccer players are becoming very important to the big European soccer leagues. In the meantime, the betting will go on -- will Chelsea win by 2 goals, with the Dutch team avoid defeat this week? The bets are placed in Eastern Europe, the games are played in the West, and maybe, just some money makes it to the winner in the East. So as to continue the circle of betting in between shots of coffee and alcohol.