Algeria/2012
Direction: Djamila Sahraouri
TRAILER
"YEMA" of DJAMILA SAHRAOUI projected yesterday Ibn Zeydoun
On behalf of the mother!
By: Sara Kharfi
The success of the feature film lies in several points. We appreciate (finally!) a film that deals with a subject that is heavily meaning in our country: the family. In addition, the bias of the director, screenwriter and leading actress are largely justified. All supported by great actors, play flawless.
bury her child is one of the most horrific experience for a mother.Surviving is his child as well. That the death of this child, perhaps caused by his brother seriously complicates things. at this level, it is not a question of forgiveness or redemption. Gaping wound will always and never heal.
then the mother occupies the mind, looking for something to which it can be attached, but the pain of losing a son and never have to give to another will always , still present. This is what happens to the heroine of "Yema", directed by Djamila Sahraoui.
Ouardia (Djamila Sahraoui) buries his son Tarek, a soldier may be killed by his own brother, Ali (Ali Zarif), the head of an Islamist maquis. Ouardia, supervised by one of the men Ali (portrayed by the excellent Samir Yahia including "Yema" is the first experience), his son buried not far from his home, located somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Algerian countryside, and looking for a new reason for living.
decor in arid and deserted life Ouardia looking for a reason to live, or at least a link that justify its survival, existence and alleviate a little bit the pain. It begins with cultivating a garden.
trying to make it flourish. She tries to give life again, after failing with his first two experiences: it will never see one because he is no longer the world of the living, and she refuses to see the other. The hard work of the mother will eventually bear fruit.
With his guardian, Ouardia tied a certain complicity, although it keeps its distance from the beginning, her maternal instinct will eventually take over, and the keeper amputated part his left arm as a result of an explosion, become almost like a family member. One day, the cursed son, Ali, returned, holding in her arms a child he claims to be his. Ouardia collects and sees the baby in her a second chance that life offers. Life reasserts itself so until Ali returns to her mother ... wounded in the leg. Produced by Films of Olivier, Neon Productions and the Algerian Agency for the cultural influence [with the support of Fdatic, Onda, EPTV, Fonds Sud (France) and the Fund Enjaaz (Dubai)] " Yema "uses the black decade period as a catalyst for family passions - and not a cause.The characters carry with them a lot of resentment. Ali blames his mother Tarek prefer.
And if this was precisely the theme of this whole painful story. It is said that love is often disappointed cruelest.Perhaps this the breaking point between the mother and her children in this film built like a Greek tragedy with a fratricidal conflict insoluble, sequences and cathartic many ambiguities.
Djamila Sahraoui excels before and after the camera. As an actress, she managed to bring the suffering of his character with simple gestures of daily life, including his hard work in the garden. Behind the camera, the delays and static shots become aesthetic biases, sometimes close to those of the documentary.
Staging serves the narrative, which seeks detailed and metaphorical. The characters and goalkeeper Ali are personalized and as complex as that of Ouardia. The acting was impeccable.
In his second cinematic experience, Zarif Ali gave consistency to his character, with a fairly wide range, multiplying postures and traits. Samir Yahia gave candor and light to the film, embodying the character of the guard who seemed to be trapped in a family dispute that exceeded. The whole point of "Yema" lies in the fact that the director chose to tell a story.
A single story. A family history complicated by its aesthetics and its purpose. The greatness of a story is not it openly said but it suggests.
Shutter, debut directorial venture of Joy Mathews(Amma Ariyan fame)'Shutter' depicts contemporary social issues with Lal and Sreenivasan come in lead .Vinay Fort, Premkumar are in the cast of the movie which is cinematographed by Hari Nair. Sound design is done by Oscar winner Rasool Pookutty. 'Shutter' is produced by Sathyan Booklet in the banner of Abra films international.
Auto and auto drivers are essential part of Keralites routine life. Lot of movies are made in Malayalam film industry based on Auto rickshaw drivers. Malayalees are mostly dependent on auto rickshaw for travel purposes. When we research about the drivers union, the most unique and powerful force is the union of Auto drivers. The best examples of these are upcoming movies like Shutter and Friday. These movies are revolving around the story related to Auto drivers. The movie shutter has also been pointing out contemporary deception moral duties of present society and the issues and problems developing with it.
Upcoming Malayalam movie shutter has directed by debutant Joy Mathew. He had been part of Malayalam movie industry through acting in the movie Amma Ariyan from the eminent director John Abraham. Joy Mathew has been making his directorial debut through the movie shutter. According to him fame director Ranjith is the biggest inspiration to make him a movie. The movie shutter has been featured by the casting of Sreenivasan and Lal in central characters. Drama artist Sajitha Madathil has been doing female lead in this movie. Emerging actor Vinay forrt and 22 female Kottayam fame Riya are handling notable roles in the malayalam movie Shutter. Augustine, Prem Kumar, Salu kootanadu, Vijayan Karanthoor, Madhu master, Professor T Shobeendran, Appunni Shashi, Nisha Joseph, Suresh, Raveendran, Vijayan V Nair, Albert Alex, Ruben Gomez, Kareem etc have given life for other major characters in this movie along with drama artists about 60 from Kerala and Gulf. The director himself has penned the script of the movie which handling variety concept. The movie shutter has featured with presence of Oscar winner Rasool Pookkutti. He has done sound direction of the movie while Harinayar has handled the cinematography. The movie shutter has been featured with including poetry of Pablo Neruda from the tune of Shahabas Aman. Sathyan booklet has produced the movie
TRAILER
Story of the movie shutter
The movie shutter has portrays unexpected life incidence happen in two morning and one night under the canvas of Kozhikode. The tale has been progressing under the virtue of auto drivers of Kozhikode. The movie features Kozhikode regional slang for the characters. The tale of movie shutter has been developing from the unknown trapped situation of a Gulf malayalee family man Rasheed. Lal is up with role of Rasheed while Sreenivasan as director Manoharan. Manoharan is an unfortunate director who unable to make his second movie during eighteen years. An auto driver named Nanmarayil Suran has become the cause of relation between Rasheed and director Manoharan. Vinay forrt has come up in the role of Nanmayil Suran. Veteran actors Agustin and Prem Kumar have been returning to Malayalam film through the movie shutter. Augustine plays the role of old producer while Prem kumar has been casting in a role of police.
Crew of the movie Shutter
· Banner: Abra film international
· Producer: Sathyan booklet
· Direction: Jou Mathew
· Script: Joy Mathew
· Sound direction: Rasool Pookkutti
· Cinematography: Harinair
· Music: Shahabas Aman
· Editing: Bijith Bala
· Art director: Sunil Kochannoor
· Costumes: Sameera Saneesh
· Make up: Ranjith Pattambi
· Production controller: Clinton Perera
· Production designer: Alex E Kuryan
· Stills: Giri Shankar
· Advertising Art: Collins
· PRO: Nasar Mannakal
Talented actor Vinay Forrt has been emerging into primary lines of actors in Malayalam film industry through movie Shutter. He has signed with more than five upcoming movies in this year including Shutter, Prabhuvinte Makkal, Karmayogi, Navagathark Swagatham etc. He will definitely be one of the future promises in Malayalam movie. Shooting of the movie Shutter has completed in Kozhikode and adjacent places. The movie shutter has come up with a caption of a poetical violence of celluloid and likely to release this year.
ONTREAL -- Investigating moral and ethical issues around "death with dignity" from a variety of angles, some more productive than others, Masayuki Suo's A Terminal Trust (based on a novel by Tatsuki Saku) centers on a doctor whose own personal life informs how she handles the grave request of a terminally ill man. More slow-moving and drawn-out than its somber subject requires, the film would be more appealing to arthouse distribs if trimmed far back from its current runtime of almost two and a half hours.
A TERMINAL TRUST
Japanese Film Festival 2012 Review: A TERMINAL TRUST Is So Close To Being Another Suo Masayuki Classic
Hugo Ozman
Even though the name Suo Masayuki may not be immediately recognizable, you have probably seen or at least heard of the director's two best films: Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1992) and the original Japanese version of Shall We Dance? (1996). Both films won the Best Film and Best Director Awards at the Japanese Academy Awards and are considered modern Japanese classics. Suo's latest film, A Terminal Trust, is a really good film that sadly just falls short of being his new classic.
A Terminal Trust tells the story of Mr Egi, a man with severe asthma who is suffering from frequent episodes of life-threatening exacerbations, and his relationship with the treating doctor, Dr Orii. The great Yakusho Kôji and Kusakari Tamiyo, both previously seen in Shall We Dance?, play Mr Egi and Dr Orii respectively. Their performances are stellar and the best scenes of the film are those showing the pair together. Unfortunately, the film is structured so that Yakusho does not appear in the last hour of the film, which focuses on a prosecutor's (Osawa Takao) interrogation over the part Dr Orii played in Mr Egi's death. This latter part is too slow and drawn out and certainly is not as strong as the film's first 90 minutes, which has prevented A Terminal Trust from being a great film.
The film's portrayal of a dying man is insightful, with his desire to revisit childhood memories, concerns about close family members and contemplation of death all being very realistic. End-of-life issues (including euthanasia) are explored in some depth and from different points of view, including those of the doctor, the patient, his/her family and the legal system. Most of the film takes place within a hospital, and with very few exceptions (such as when a nurse declares the 61-year old patient's blood pressure of 79/48 (which is very low in reality) being normal), the medical scenes generally carry a high degree of accuracy and show that a lot of care has been taken in creating them. One particularly unforgettable scene is the one showing Mr Egi's death, which is so real and violent that it is frightening.
Director Suo seems to have a lot to say about today's Japanese society. The portrayal of the prosecutor as a cold-blooded executioner and the unjust manner with which he conducts the interrogation direct criticisms towards the justice system in Japan (which he also did with his previous film I Just Didn't Do It). Factories with ducts emitting smoke are shown in a number of scenes, perhaps suggesting pollution is the culprit responsible for Mr Egi's deteriorating health. There is also a message, for the younger generation, that one should cherish the people around them, as beautifully illustrated by the heart-wrenching scene where Mr Egi's children say to their father parting words that are filled with regrets and apologies.
A Terminal Trust is a thought-provoking film that will please viewers who like serious dramas. Its pacing is a bit slow in some parts but overall it is a beautiful film with deep meanings and some of the best performances in a Japanese film this year.
7sex7: Montreal Review
Internist Ayano Orii (Tamiyo Kusakari), having made a failed suicide attempt after a romantic breakup, finds herself unusually sensitive to the pain of her patient Shinzo Egi (Kôji Yakusho), whose severe asthma attacks will soon threaten to kill him. It helps that Egi, stoic about his own pain, finds indirect ways to assuage hers. The two have long, heart-to-heart visits that may look like fantasy to anyone who's ever fought for two more minutes of a busy doctor's time.
Coming to feel that he can trust her more than his own family, Egi asks Dr. Orii to promise she will end his life once things get bad enough that his body can only breathe and be nourished through tubes. (The film includes so many shots of architectural ductwork that one suspects Suo thinks a building's respiration has something to say about that of an ICU patient.) Orii sadly agrees, and some time later -- in a scene suggesting that "pulling the plug" can be a violent, terrifying thing even when done lovingly -- she helps him die.
We see all this in flashback, as Orii sits, three years later, in the waiting room of a prosecutor investigating her actions. That prosecutor (Takao Osawa) is drawn as such an officious, manipulative man that we're pushed into identifying even more strongly with Orii. When, very late in the film, he questions her choices, what should be a legitimate debate -- one that would cause viewers to think harder about these issues as they play out in the real world -- the film has all but forced us to dismiss his accusations as heartless persecution.
It's easy to imagine a version of this story that would need to run over two hours, but A Terminal Trust isn't it. Suo's script spends so much time upfront on the relationship between doctor and patient that, without becoming a miniseries, it can't fully explore the issues raised by his incapacitation and death. It's understandable Suo would want to give so much screen time to the highly sympathetic Yakusho, but doing so doesn't serve the dramatic structure of a film that might've been much more provocative than it is.
Production company: Altamira Pictures
Cast: Tamiyo Kusakari, Kôji Yakusho, Taka Osawa, Tadanobu Asano
Director-Screenwriter: Masayuki Suo, based on the novel by Tatsuki Saku
Producers: Ken Tsuchiya, Naoto Inaba, Takao Tsuchimoto, Shinyato Horikawa
Executive producers: Chihiro Kameyama, Shôji Masui
Director of photography: Rokuro Terada
Production designer: Norihiro Isoda
Music: Yoshikazu Suo
Editor: Junichi Kikuchi
Today (Aujourd'hui):
Today (Aujourd'hui): Berlin Film Review
7:30 AM PST 2/10/2012 by David Rooney
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The Bottom Line
Alain Gomis’ lilting film is an unusually serene, non-Western meditation on the inevitability of death.
Cast
Saul Williams, Djolof Mbengue, Anisia Uzeyman
Director
Alain Gomis
Screenwriters
Alain Gomis, Djolof Mbengue, with Marc Wels
Death comes calling with a day's advance notice in French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis' gentle but beguiling drama.
BERLIN — For a film about a day of atonement and reckoning in anticipation of impending death, Alain Gomis’ Today (Aujourd’hui) is laced with surprising moments of lightness amid the melancholy tenderness. Unfolding in a vein that might be described as impressionistic heightened naturalism, the French-Senegalese drama is somewhat earnest and draws attention to its quite studied visual aesthetic. But there’s a spirituality and soulfulness to the simple allegorical story that keep it captivating.
Bestiaire: Berlin Film Review
Played with understated intensity by American actor-musician Saul Williams (Slam), Satche is an apparently healthy man who wakes one morning at his mother’s house on the outskirts of Dakar aware that he will die at the end of that day. This is a place where death warns of its arrival 24 hours in advance, inspiring feelings of dread tempered by matter-of-fact acceptance.
Satche’s friends and family also know of the death sentence without being informed. A large group waits to greet him outside his room, some of them emotional, others stoic and supportive. They gather in a circle to acknowledge the grace of death and augur a beautiful final day, expressing thanks for the goodness of Satche’s life before bluntly outlining his shortcomings. That critical voice is led by his rancorous wife, Rama (Anisia Uzeyman).
He goes with his buddy Sele (co-screenwriter Djolof Mbengue) into the city, where he calls on an old flame (Aissa Maiga), a regal beauty still burned about being passed over for marriage. He leaves shaken after she taunts him by saying, “You are going to die, but you haven’t lived.” They visit Uncle Thierno (Jean Mendy), who holds court in a garden nestled in the middle of a tin-shack shantytown. Encouraging Satche to be grateful to have a day of calm preparation rather than to question his fate, Thierno gives him a sobering rehearsal of the ceremonial washing of the body. In a surreal scene, Satche is summoned to town hall to meet local dignitaries at a function in his honor that appears to have taken place without him.
The film is edited by Fabrice Rouaud with a rhythmic fluidity that suggests the porousness of time, and the day’s events proceed in this loosely episodic fashion. Satche experiences memories pleasant and sad, loving and hostile. He witnesses joy, madness, violence and, in a protest met by a riot squad, the hopelessness shared by many about the future. That strain feeds into the unanswered central question of why Satche returned to Senegal unexpectedly after a year of study in America.
Inexorably, the film builds toward a sense of peace and clarity, notably in the poignant, almost wordless closing stretch when Satche goes home to Rama and their two young children. Via small gestures like fixing a broken door handle or playing with the kids, he overcomes his wife’s resistance and they relax into mutual harmony. In one lovely jump-cut sequence, he sits down with her as night falls and he sees into the future when the children are in their late teens. When death arrives, it comes with gentle finality.
This is a quiet film, modest and dreamlike, full of extended silences punctuated by bursts of talk or lazy drumming. What’s refreshing is that unlike so many France-based directors whose excursions into Africa are marred by the patronizing quaintness of colonialist guilt, Gomis (who was born in Paris to a French mother and Senegalese father) balances respect for his cultural setting with healthy observational detachment and emotional economy.
The poetic sensibility is definitely mannered compared to that of the trailblazing Francophone African filmmakers such as Senegal’s Ousmane Sembene, Burkina Faso’s Idrissa Ouedraogo or Mali’s Souleymane Cisse, who put the cinema of that part of the world on the map. But there’s an unassuming, contemplative quality to Today that keeps you watching.
Elegantly shot by Christelle Fournier in crisp colors and with a pleasing yet unfussy sense of composition, the film perhaps is over-reliant on probing close-ups for its solemnity, homing in often on pensive eyes and fretful hands. But as the camera caresses skin, we are given evocative reminders of the temporary occupancy of the human body.
Venue: Berlin International Film Festival (Competition)
Cast: Saul Williams, Djolof Mbengue, Anisia Uzeyman, Aissa Maiga, Mariko Arame, Alexandre Gomis, Anette Derneville Ka, Helene Gomis, Charlotte Mendy, Tony Mendy, Jean Mendy
Production companies: Granit Films, Maia Cinema, Cinekap, Agora Films
Director: Alain Gomis
Screenwriters: Alain Gomis, Djolof Mbengue, with Marc Wels
Producers: Eric Idriss-Kanago, Gilles Sandoz, Oumar Sall
Executive producer: Oumar Sall
Director of photography: Christelle Fournier
Costume designer: Salimata Ndiaya
Editor: Fabrice Rouaud
Sales: Wide Management
THE REPENTANT
EL TAAIB
Algeria, France
2012
87 MinSYNOPSIS
Algeria, region of the high flatlands. As Islamist groups continue to spread terror, Rashid, a young Jihadist, leaves the mountains to return to his village. In keeping with the law ‘of pardon and national harmony’, he has to surrender to the police and give up his weapon. He thus receives amnesty and becomes a ‘repenti’. But the law cannot erase his crimes and for Rachid it’s the beginning of a one-way journey of violence, secrets and manipulation. —Quinzaine des Réalisateurs
BFI London Film Festival 2012: 'The Repentant' review
★★★☆☆
The latest offering from veteran Algerian director Merzak Allouache, The Repentant (El Taaib, 2012) plays in the 'Debate' strand of this year's London Film Festival - and it's easy to see why. In 1999, after eight years of civil war and an estimated 200,000 lost lives, the Algerian government offered an amnesty to the jihadist rebels. They could lay down their weapons, return to civilised society, be dubbed 'repentant' and face no repercussions. When Allouache returned to Algeria in 1999, he found a country trying to forget the hatred and bloodshed and has very much looked to examine the situation and inspire discussion with this latest offering.
Following the tale of Rachid (Nabil Asli) from his long escape down the snowy mountains, the film delves into what a return to civilised society was like for such a man. Claiming to have no blood on his hands, he is shunned and threatened by the people of his home town who lost family members in terrorist attacks. Fleeing to the city, Rachid is helped out by a policeman who gets him a job in a café, in return for the promise of information. When Rachid recognises the local pharmacist, Lakhdar (Khaled Benaissa), secrets that should have been left up in the mountains also come flooding down.
Attempting to explore what he deems to be something of a gag-order on the Algerian people, Allouache's film looks to portray what it is like for a 'repentant' to try to function in normal Algerian society and how that society can function. The Repentant highlights how difficult it is for those on either side of the conflict - or caught in its crossfire - to just forgive and forget what has been done and in its climax, it serves as a reminder that violence is still present.
Trying to marry all of these different aspects into a satisfying whole is a difficult task and one at which the director makes a valiant attempt. The performances from the three leads, also including Lakhdar's wife, Djamila (Adila Bendimerad) are fantastic and the slow drip feeding of plot creates a palpable tension. A stand-out scene being one in which we see a revelatory phone call only from the point of view of the one listening, Lakhdar, and must guess at its contents from his emotional reaction.
Where The Repentant does fall down is actually that it feels like it needs more time to breathe. Characters such as the café owner and especially the policeman, Redouane (Mohamed Takiret), end up feeling neglected and the audience is left wishing they'd been allowed a little more time to understand these characters' compelling stories. One thing which is certain though, is that it can easily serve as the genesis of a great debate.
Cannes
Directors' Fortnight
The Repentant
El taaib
(Algeria-France)
By JAY WEISSBERG
Nabil Asli and Adila Bendimerad in 'The Repentant.'
A Sophie Dulac Distribution (in France) release of a Baya Films, JBA Prod. production, with the participation of TV5Monde, Fonds Sud Cinema, Le Centre National du Cinema et de l'Image Animee, L'Institut Francais. (International sales: Doc & Film Intl., Paris.) Produced by Yacine Djadi. Co-producers, Jacques Bidou, Marianne Dumoulin. Directed, written by Merzak Allouache.
With: Adila Bendimerad, Khaled Benaissa, Nabil Asli, Hacene Benzerari, Belkacem Bentata, Mohamed Takiret, Mohamed Adar. (Arabic dialogue)
After several misfires, Merzak Allouache delivers not just his best film of the past decade, but arguably his best in 36 years in the helmer's seat. Tracking a former jihadist and a separated couple whose lives were destroyed five years earlier, "The Repentant" is a beautifully made, deeply emotional drama that catches auds up in its troubled protags' lives, all the way to a staggering finale. Though cinema is awash in Islamic fundamentalist themes, Allouache goes beyond mere issues with his intimate approach and narrowed focus. This is one Algerian movie that could finally see worldwide exposure, including Stateside.
Allouache not only strips the story down to basics but reduces the exposition: Background details are spare, and what's not said is more powerful than what is. This suppression is tied to the helmer's message of a country paralyzed by a self-imposed gag order, in which the past remains an unbearable weight that cannot be discussed. But as "The Repentant" demonstrates, the past is very much alive, and a refusal to confront it head-on allows fear, corruption, and fanaticism to thrive.
In the late 1990s, the Algerian government attempted to end years of terrorism by offering jihadists amnesty. Islamic fighters came down from their hideouts, registered with the authorities as "repentants," and were integrated into society. Rachid (Nabil Asli) runs away from his fundamentalist compatriots in the mountain and reports to the cops; the police chief, Redouane (Mohamed Takiret), gets him a job with embittered cafe owner Salah (Hacene Benzerari), and Rachid appears to be fitting into normal life.
Then, he meets pharmacist Lakhdar (Khaled Benaissa). What actually transpires between these two isn't seen or heard: first a one-sided phone call that visibly upsets Lakhdar, then a meeting that isn't shown. What's clear is Lakhdar's intense isolation: He lives in a bare apartment, drinking copious amounts of wine and watching Chinese television at night, though presumably he doesn't understand the language. Like everything else in his life, the boob tube merely fills the hours, since Lakhdar's only engagement is with his inner demons.
After meeting Rachid, he calls his ex-wife, Djamila (Adila Bendimerad), who angrily makes the long drive to see him. They exude tension when together, uncertain how to behave and unsure if the chasm between them can be bridged. When she snaps that she can't go back to the same hell as five years earlier, he replies, "Go back? I'm still in it." They tensely wait for Rachid to call again, yet Allouache withholds explanation of how these three fit together until late in the film. Before the wrenching finale (bring hankies), all that's clear is that Djamila and Lakhdar had a daughter who died five years earlier.
Many of Allouache's films express disheartened concern over the rise of fundamentalism ("Bab el Oued City," "The Other World"), but in "The Repentant," possibly for the first time, he's fully engaged with a jihadist's psyche. Rachid's escape from his Islamist life is real, and his desire for re-entry into society feels genuine. He has a childlike appreciation of the world around him, yet there's something else that prevents him from fully assimilating; his denial of past atrocities isn't convincing, and a skirmish with a revenge-seeker reveals an animal-like violence that's never far from the surface. On one level, Rachid really may be sorry for what he did, but his personality shift following inculcation into the cult of terrorism can't be completely buried.
All three leads deliver perfs of stunning emotional depth and complexity, quietly embodying the conflicts raging within. Only Djamila explodes, and when she does, Bendimerad's expression of rage and grief is devastating. Young d.p. Mohamed Tayeb Laggoune displays a firm control of his handheld camera, appropriately responding to emotions onscreen. Visuals reflect the story's intimacy while capturing the region's empty landscape, whose vastness can feel crushing.
Camera (color, HD), Mohamed Tayeb Laggoune; editor, Sylvie Gadmer; sound (Dolby Digital), Ali Mahfiche, Xavier Thibault, Carole Verner, Julien Perez; assistant director, Nadjib Oulebsir. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Directors' Fortnight), May 19, 2012. Running time: 87 MIN
Present Tense
Dir: Belmin Söylemez Turkey. 2012. 104mins
Here is a perfect example of a certain tendency in Turkish cinema to become too secretive for its own good. For its entire running time, Belmin Söylemez’ first film unfolds at an even, leisurely pace, uneventful and bland, offering faint, minimalist suggestions of motives and themes which the viewer is expected to develop at his own risk, using his imagination and knowledge of the background, to round it all up. A festival item by definition, mostly addressing female audiences, its insistence to abstain from any clear statement down to the very end will turn it into a hard sell outside specialised film events.
This melancholic elegy poetically wallows in its own uncertainties.
Those who will be willing to face the challenge, will probably infer after a while that Present Tense (Simdiki Zaman) is all about the condition of women folk in a world which still considers them to be second class persons, while at the same time suggesting a sort of loose marginal society dreaming of a better future without having a very clear idea of what that may be. All of this, while in the background, Istanbul, its people and even its streets, are undergoing their own changes.
The main character, Mina (Sanem Oge, best actress at the Istanbul Film Festival 2012 for her role here), wants to go away to America. Or at least, this is what she thinks she wants. A brief pre-credits sequence shows her being photographed for the visa but until she puts all the documents in order and has all the money necessary for the trip, she squats in a dilapidated building destined to become at some stage or another a hotel in the city’s bustling entertainment district, Beyoglu.
Then she gets hired as a fortune teller in a new café, though it is clear to everyone concerned, that is her employer Tayfun (Ozan Bilen) as well as the other girl Fezi (Senay Aydin) with whom she shares the responsibilities of looking into the future, that she has no idea what she is supposed to do and no previous experience whatsoever to lean on.
Undeterred, she unabashedly takes on clients, all of them female, who drink Turkish coffee, turn the cup around on its saucer and expect her to tell them, from the dreg patterns left on the bottom of the cup, everything about past, present and future. And she does it in a sort of dreamy, indecisive manner, as if she is digging deep into her own past and establishing that after all, her emotions, her hopes and her disappointments, would be shared by most of her clients anyway.
Trying to see a difference between one dreg pattern and another, or even suspect that there is anything in the entire exercise that has to do with coffee at all, is evidently preposterous. But most of her clients do not expect more in any case, they are willing to pay in order to listen to something that connects deep down with their feelings and satisfies their need to confirm them
A solitary recluse, who was abandoned as a child by her mother that she hopes to find on the other side of the Atlantic, and whose past includes an obviously bad marriage she won’t talk about, Mina converts every single Lira she makes into dollars, but the way she hides these savings is either terribly naïve or intentionally irresponsible. While lackadaisically going through the necessary bureaucratic procedures necessary for her journey, she becomes close to her boss, Tayfun, who is limply and quite unsuccessfully trying to make a go of his stalled business, and to her fortune-telling colleague, whose very active romantic life includes a long line of men she had dated and separated from and whose dream is to open a café of her own in the center of town.
Mainly a mood piece, decoratively adorned by Peter Roehsler’s atmospheric and creatively framed images but underexploiting the expressive potential of his lead actress, Sanem Oge, who is only too rarely allowed to come alive on screen, this melancholic elegy poetically wallows in its own uncertainties, suggesting that all its characters are drifting down to the bottom of their own unclear doubts, just like the dirty coffee cups in the picture’s last frame.
My Universe in Lowercase
(Mi universo en minúsculas)
Directed by Hatuey Viveros
Synopsis
Aina, Catalan and nurse by profession, lives with her grandmother. After discovering her past, traveling to Mexico City in search of the house of her father, whom she believed dead. To find him she has an old photograph and an address without the name of the colony. On this trip, she faces a city where she will find opportunities that will change her life.
Iranian movie ‘The Last Step’ gets festival screening
The Iranian film ‘The Last Step’ premiered at the 47th International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
The movie is the latest screen performance by the Iranian actress Leila Hatami and directed by her husband Ali Mosaffa.
Her role in the Oscar award-winning ‘The Separation’, directed by Asghar Farhadi, made Hatami one of the best-known Middle Eastern actresses internationally.
“This was not my first experience as a director working with Leila Hatemi, she was also the lead character in my previous film. But I am not sure whether she will be in my next film or not.... she could be, but I am not sure. The film has not yet been screened in Iran, this is the first time it is being shown at this international festival. I hope that when it is shown in Iran, people will welcome it,” said director Ali Mosaffa.
Mostaffa also stars in the film alongside his wife. He plays a character who dies in an accident, but lingers on screen to shadow his wife, a film star, and offer observations about their marriage.
“This is not the first time I have worked with Ali. I got to know him during filming of the movie Leila. It was a natural progression for us to first be colleagues and then get married. Our friendship is deeper as colleagues than anything else. And working for him and with him is easy, whether he is working as the lead role opposite you or he is directing he is very supportive. The only thing I can say is that though we knew each other very well, working for him at first was hard, but now that we have known each other for many years, it is easy,” said actress Leila Hatami.
‘The Last Step’ is Mosaffa’s second feature-length film and will compete for the Crystal Globe award of the Czech festival, which runs from June 29 to July 7.
It is not the only Iranian film in the festival. Also in the programme from Iran is ‘A Respectable Family’ by Massoud Bakhshi, which premièred in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
"Nos Vemos Papa",
good by papa
Co-writer of 2010’s “Leap Year,” a Mexican film we reviewed at VIFF ‘10, Lucia Carreras makes her directorial debut with “Nos Vemos Papa,” an almost hermetically sealed film about grief that strays early on from thoughtfulness into ponderousness and never really returns. More’s the pity, because the performances are soulful and committed, particularly from lead Cecilia Suárez who is onscreen almost every moment and who really sells her role as Pilar, a woman so completely adoring of her father that she essentially unravels following his death (thematic comparisons to the aforementioned “Leap Year” abound.)
Unfortunately, Carreras allows that unravelling to take place at an excruciatingly slow pace, with minimal dialogue and minimal human interaction, and becomes overreliant on Suárez’s haunted, bewildered expression to communicate the inner story. And when Pilar’s monomania devolves into quasi-incestuous territory (she fantasizes about having sex with her father, only to be discovered, in flagrante, by her horrified brother), even then the opportunity for drama is ignored in favour of Pilar mooning about again, now in her brother’s house, exerting a creepy but wordless and unexplored influence over her niece. The fact is, that while the restraint demonstrated by Carreras may possibly ring more truthful than a more hysterical approach, it is not exactly cinematic, and so we get extended periods of the movie which feature nothing but Pilar moving slowly from room to room, picking things up… and… then… putting… them… down… again.
A rather bleak ending, in which her brother more or less washes his hands of her and she almost joyfully reverts to her quietly deranged former way of life, in which she simply imagines her father to still be alive and carries on conversations and plays games with him, does prompt some interesting questions about familial duty and whether you should intervene in someone’s insanity if it is the only thing keeping them content. But by that stage the film has rather overstayed its welcome anyway. Pilar seems destined for a fate as a lonely, Grey Gardens-style shut-in whose only company is a ghost animated solely by her grief. But the real mystery is how the hell we can watch and understand all that, and yet remain largely unmoved. [C]
Ivan's woman (La Mujer de Ivan)
When Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped in Vienna at age 10, it shocked the world by the paradoxical relationship that was generated between her and her abductor. Inspired by this story, Director Francisca Silva brings us her opera prima - Ivan's woman. With the young woman's coming of age, they find themselves acquiring a new level of intimacy, spurred on by their isolation from the world, closed limits of captivity and most importantly the extinction of moral values.
SPECIAL MENTION NEW ENGLAND FESTIVAL OF IBERO AMERICAN CINEMA 2011, WINNER OFFICIAL SELECTION FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE BOGOTA 2011.
Filmistan
Filmistan : Movie breaking the barriers of Indo Pakistan Border
I have just come back after seeing Nitin Kakkar's movie 'Filmistan' at MAMI Film Festival screened at Cinemax. Nitin himself was there along with his cast and crew uniformed in blue teeshirt inscribed 'Filmistan'. The viewers after watching the movie gave standing ovation to the movie and Nitin Kakkar. Frankly,being a film critic, I normally do not impress with any movie so easily, but can say with conviction that a new star of direction has arrived in Bollywood.He should be welcomed as a game changer in Bollywood genre, who is capable of entertaining the viewers along with delivering healthy and purposeful cinema.Not many people are aware that before the word Bollywood became famous, the Hindi film industry was termed as Filmistan, coined after the name of a film studio and a famous production house established by S. Mukherjee who branched out from legendary Bombay Talkies. Filmistan studio produced a number of hit movies during 1940s to 1950s.
Let us talk about the movie first. It is about a wannabe actor and a Bollywood fanatic Sunny Arora. A friend of him, suggested to work as Assistant Director to understand niti griti of film business instead of trying to be an actor . Friend gave example of super stars like Amir Khan, Hritik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Ranbir Kapoor who had started their filmi journey as Assistant Director.
On recommendation of his friend, Sunny Arora gets an assignment as assistant with an American crew who were shooting near the Rajasthan border. Border between India and Pakistan in the dessert area is very porous, provide opportunities to infiltrators, smugglers, terrorists and all kind of anti social elements. Sunny Arora (Sharib Hasan) is kidnapped by a Pakistani terrorist group, who cross Indian borders despite patrolling by BSF, Indian Army as well as State Police, mistaking him as an American journalist.
The movie deals with his interactions with the terrorists as well as people of a pakistani border village and when they finally find a common ground of interest - Bollywood movies, how their conversations revolve around films and they then realise that culturally as humans we all are same.
In fact Filmistan is about power of Bollywood movies, they represent common language of India and Pakistan. It breaks artificial border and barriers of mind and a theme like this is so true to the International Film Festival like MAMI.
Arijit Dutta has given music which brings life to the movie and represent sajha culture of both the countries. The costumes designed by Payal Ashar enrich the performances by actors Sharib Hashmi, Inaamulhaq, Kumud Mishra, Saroj Sharma amongst others. A special mention for Subhransu Das who is the Director of Photography, every frame is worth an applause, deserts never looks so lovely and Sharib Hasmi as the lead has done a fabulous job bringing the character Sunny Arora to life and Inaamulhaq who plays the role of a film pirate, in the movie he says that Sunny is behaving like ‘Bombay Talkies’, an honour to era of gone by, 100 years of films and 65 years of India- Pakistan.
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| Nitin Kakkar |
So far lot of movies have been made on partition of British India into India and Pakistan. The movie tries to depict an honest treatment of a 65 years old problem. The movie grows on you and the director has been commendable to derive great performances from all his cast especially the kids, loved the scene leading to the climax where sunny arora and the kid from Pakistan exchange a hug below the starry dark night. The direction and screenplay of Filmistan by Nitin Kakkar, his first feature film, spellbound the audience in the world we all love - the Movies. The only flaw I could find in the movie is lengthy political kind of speech by a narrator when it comes to an end.It kills the natural flow of the story line.
അഭിപ്രായങ്ങളൊന്നുമില്ല:
ഒരു അഭിപ്രായം പോസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യൂ