Incendies

The film opens at present day in Montreal with twins in their twenties, Jeanne and Simon Marwan, hearing the will of their mother Nawal Marwan, who has just passed away, from a notary Jean Lebel she’d worked for many years. Her last wish is for them to find their father and brother, to their bewilderment, because they thought their father dead and they never heard about having a brother.

At first, only Jeanne is willing to undertake the journey to an unnamed country in the Middle East (however, this clearly refers to Lebanon, where the author of the play himself was born at and escaped from) while Simon, questioning their mother’s sanity, refuses to embark on such a crazy quest.

Simultaneously, their mother’s story entwines with their research. An incredible story of a woman who is caught between the conflict of religious conflict between Muslims and Christians, especially the war in the country in the 1970s’ and 80s’.

What gives the story an extraordinary strength is exactly this comparison between the perceptions Jeanne and Simon who grew up in a free country versus the life, habits and ways of a nation in the middle of a raging conflict in a country so distant from their lives, especially – and this is apparent during the entire film – because Nawal has shared nothing of her past with their children.

This is portrayed during the twins encounter with the local tradition, especially at one moment, when Jeanne meets the villagers who could have known her father and is told by an elderly woman that “she is looking for her father, but is her mother she knows nothing about”. This exactly depicts the relation of the audience in the western world, who, unless they’ve lived in similar conditions, cannot relate to some of Nawal’s later radical actions and the endurance with which she accepts the imprisonment that follows.

This endurance of Nawal through the atrocities she is faced with during her life before the final escape to Canada is mind-blowing. Death, abuse, inhumane conditions and life-lasting rage are emotions Villeneuve has captured with a divine skill.

All pieces to the puzzle are gradually served to the audience (depends of how quickly you pick up on the clues) and the moment you realize what actually happened just stops your heartbeat for a second.

Like many of the critics, I would have thought this film would win the Oscar for the best foreign film. It has everything a film should have to be more than welcomed to the Hall of Fame and a message that clearly, is immortal.

Attenberg

Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari

I saw this film at a KVIFF screening today and just have to sit down and write this bit about it. I think I’ve seen quite a bit, but this was a real “cinema extraordinaire”…

Like Dogtooth, which Tsangari coproduced, Attenberg is a clear criticism of contemporary Greece and the decay of values on a sample so precious to the Greek culture – a family.

Inspired by the BBC series studying the behavior of animals by David Attenborough, the film tries to do something similar, only the with people. Mispronunciation of the biologist’s name provides the title to the film.

The plot is quite simple and easy to get. Marina, a 23 year old is only just starting to experiment with her sexuality at the background of a deserted factory, a remnant of industrial Greece of the last century. Her father, who’s dying of cancer, only speaks of the procedure of having his body cremated elsewhere, as this is apparently a taboo in Greece. Marina’s experimenting her first sexual experience with her best friend Bella, who has apparently had her share already. Enter “Engineer”, a nameless character, who serves Marina almost like a human figurine for her first sexual experience.

Let the story begin. Hold on, but there’s no story here. Tsangari is not interested in her characters and their journey of how they got being what they are or where they’re going. Rather, she studies their character and she does so mercilessly.

She doesn’t stop before anything including stripping her characters (and their protagonists) naked, literary. Its not just their bodies we see naked, but also all their secret thoughts and feelings, lets them express everything on the screen for the voyeur-predator sitting in the audience, serving them blood-dripping raw.

To even deepen the animal-like impression the audience gets when seeing the four lead characters, Tsangari lets them act like real animals, and uses these sequences as intermission, sort of, in her film, giving it an even more bizarre impression.

The colors are very simple as well, the general greyness interrupted only by images of the monstrous factory nearby. Camera bets everything on stills having the pattern interrupted only by a moment when Marina and Bella play tennis and tensions between them escalate.

Overall, a very interesting film more likely to shock and make your head spin rather than bore you.

Herzog goes underground in 3D

I absolutely LOVED his Encounters at the End of The World. His narrating in English with a German accent is just so mystical that it goes perfectly with those remote and strange places he picks to film. It's sheer magic, absolutely breathtaking.

I can't wait to see his new documentary in 3D, I think it's actually the first time I am looking forward to see anything in 3D without the usual voice at the back of my head whispering "it's a waste of time and money". Not this one, folks!

3 Idiots

All I expected from this film was some light, easy fun, a simple “Bollywood inside”, but what these almost 3 hours got me was just so much more then that.

India’s best film of 2009 has indeed many things to be proud of. An excellent story-line made to inspire and break the chains the caste system binds Indian society with, the film follows how three students of engineering Rancho, Raju, and Farhan, wrestle with the education system. Rancho is the “cool guy” at school, talented, smart, but good-hearted, always ready to help is friends and fight against the system mainly based on middle-aged memorizing and success clichés.

Freely based on the best-selling novel 'Five Point Someone' by Chetan Bhagat, the film takes liberty to change the plot a bit to highlight other important issues troubling India such as poverty, raping people’s dreams for the sake of future income, the schools‘ monopoly on everything from the curricula to the testing methods, forced marriages, etc. etc. and does so in an entertaining way so typical for Bollywood (yes, there’s dancing, you’ll get to see men cry and women fight for love against their fathers will again, ladies).

On top of that, director Rajkumar Hirani proves he’s the master of his craft by pointing the camera exactly to what we want to see, keeping the flick consistent, even spicing it up with some sequences á la 1950’s footage. It never bores, never slows down, which is remarkable for its length.

I’m not an expert on Indian acting, but Aamir Khan’s (Rancho) performance is so convincing I was close to shedding a tear several times. He’s supported by other brilliant performances (of which Boman Irani’s “Virus” I found the least convincing, but still entertaining enough).

If you get a chance to watch this film, don’t miss it. It’s really worth it. Especially for those who are struggling to make it out there doing what they really love and not just follow any job the system serves them to do because, as the parents always say “that’s what you should do or you won’t earn enough to make a living”.

I won’t spoil it for you but from now on when I have doubts or feel a bit down, I’ll just keep telling myself that 'Aal Izz Well' and I know I will feel better instantly :)

happythankyoumoreplease

This definitely must be one of the best films I've ever seen. Storytelling just doesn't get any better than this.

Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and winner of the Audience Award at Sundance last year, I had my eye on this flick for quite some time already. But the result was so much more than I expected!

The story follows nine New York hipsters and opens with Sam (Josh Radnor), the loser-writer, on his way to an important meeting with a publisher when he crosses paths with young Rasheen, who gets separated from his foster family on subway.

While he struggles with the decision whether to "return" Rasheen to the system or not and suffer the legal consequences he meets Mississippi, a starting singer, whom he tries to have something deeper than the usual one-night stand.

The side story follows his friends Mary and Charlie, already in a serious relationship trying to figure out where they are at the moment, where they want to be as well as combat all the demons that go with it.

A brilliant connection between these two is Annie, Sam's best friend, whose ups and downs help to pull the story together and highlight some of the important messages of the plot.

Honestly, I just couldn't find any flaws in this picture. I can't for a second agree with the critics' complaints about it's excessive cheesiness, life doesn't work like that, the music's too much and so is the number of "high on emotion" scenes, where is the storyline, and other blah blah blah quasi-sophisticated film criticism. I don't buy that.

It was nice to see a film that tries to reflect what people my age go through, decisions they have to take as they see their moral standards collapse under the burden of the daily grayness – the only sure thing adult life has to offer.

Randor is a brilliant actor and, apparently, a very promising talent in screenwriting and directing. Casting was brilliant and so were the sets, editing and camera.

With the last frame, I just couldn't help but exhale the usual "aaaah", a sound that only comes very rarely with exceptional films, which Randor's directorial debut Happythankyoumoreplease definitely is.

Japanese film festival report

A little piece I wrote for Czech Position.