Offscreen Notes
World Film Festival 2009 Preview
Every year, Montreal filmgoers face the extremely difficult decision of choosing films to see at the World Film Festival/Festival des Films du Monde (WFF/FFM). No matter how cinephiliac one is, it is virtually impossible to predict what films by unknown directors, that have never shown anywhere, are going to be like. Although the “Class A” international film festival rules dictate that no film in the official competition can have been shown internationally or at another festival, previously—they must be “world” or “international premieres”—in the past, the WFF had shown few films in other sections in these “permiere” categories. According to my calculations, now fewer than 72 of the new 212 feature films showing (34%) at the WFF are billed as “world premieres” and a further 64 are “international premieres.” With only 2 films having been screened somewhere in Canada before, this leaves a mere 74 feature films (less than 35% of the total) that are receiving their Canadian or North American premieres and that are likely to have been reviewed in the media. We, at Offscreen have only viewed 10 of the WFF feature films (on screen), but, we have also done some research, and, we hereby boldly give our recommendation to 10 films. Readers can still buy a 10 film sheet of coupons for $60, and we believe you can do far worse than taking a chance on the following titles:
Tatarak (Sweet Rush) is surely Andrzeij Wajda’s finest film in over 25 years. Starring the great Krystyna Janda, Poland’s senior filmmaker has crafted a beautiful, but extremely sad homage to those who die, old and young alike. Don’t read the catalogue copy, because it gives away too much of the plot (and is also wrong on at least one point). It was in competition in Berlin (winning the Alfred Bauer prize), and is showing here in the “Hors Concours/out-of-competition” (HC) section.
Poltory Komnaty Ili Sentimentalnoe Puteshestvie Na Rodinu (A Room and a Half) by first time director Andrey Khrzhanovsky (Russia) showed in both the Rotterdam and Istanbul festivals and, like Tatarak, has been included in the very tight and sophisticated line up for this year’s New York Film Festival; which is why we are recommending it, sight unseen. It is also in the Out-of-competition section of the WFF.
Villa Amalia (France), may not be Benoît Jacquot’s best film, but is a very credible entry in the HC section. It features yet another brilliant performance by Isabelle Huppert, and, after a harrowing opening, it documents the picturesque flight of an aggrieved woman to a remote Italian island, in attempting to obliterate her past. The film was in competition at this year’s Karlovy Vary festival.
Lille Soldat (Little Soldier) directed by Annette K. Olesen (Denmark) is our 4th and final HC selection. I am picking this film based on my experience with Ms Olesen’s earlier work, including her first feature, Minor Mishaps (2002) which received a brief, unattended commercial run in Montreal, and, which struck me as being exactly the kind of realist “no-style” film that should be representative of the Danish, Dogme movement. Continuing the tradition set by her other films, Little Soldier won an award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
Bist (Twenty), directed by Abdolreza Kahani (Iran) won the Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary. Although it begins very depressingly, this film gradually emerges as being a relatively optimistic view of class and gender relations in the contemporary Iranian workplace. Somewhat reminiscent of Bahman Famanara’s films, Bist is showing in the large, “Focus on World Cinema/Regards sur les cinemas du monde” section (REG).
Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Troops), Riri Riza (Indonesia) is my 2nd choice in REG. We don’t get to see very many films from Indonesia in Montreal, and this one showed in the Berlin Panorama and won the Signis Award at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The Bend, a first fiction feature by Jennifer Kierans, is my Canadian film pick this year (and 3rd and final selection in the World Cinema section). Ms Kierans has a great track record as a short filmmaker, and, we’re hoping that The Bend lives up to its promise. Interestingly, more than 40 of the feature films at this year’s WFF are directed by women, approximately 20%. We don’t think that festival president Serge Losique, or the “Directrice générale” Danièle Cauchard are exacyly “feminist” but, something unrecognized this year and last, is the inclusion of so many female directors. Well done!
Dia Dokutâ (Dear Doctor), Nishikawa Miwa (Japan) is the lone choice from the main, World Competition. Both of the Japanese entries this year seem interesting from their catalogue descriptions. And we can only assume that after winning last year, with Departures, the Japanese would not want to put on a lesser show this year. Nishikawa is yet another female director, and I’m counting on her to put on a good show.
Los Canallas (Riff Raff), Cristina Franco, Jorge Alejandro Fegan, Diego Coral López, Nataly Valencia (Ecuador), will be my risky choice of film in the First Films World Competition, if for no other reason than it is co-directed by four film students (at INCINE in Quito). The catalogue description of the plot makes it seem very convoluted—could it be that all four young directors worked independently?—but, it could turn out to be a very interesting experiment. Also, two directors are male, and two female (a good gender balance). And, I wanted to include at least one film from Latin America, a region which always produces one or two nice surprises. Our final choice should fit the bill.
Garapa, José Padilha (Brazil), my last choice, and the only film in the Documentary section, is unlikely to be the least of the choices. Indeed, I am predicting that some of the very best work this year might be found under the heading “Documentaries of the World.” Padilha made the great Bus 174 (2002), and the trustworthy critic, Amy Taubin has this to say about Garapa in the latest issue of Film Comment: “And then, in a class of its own [at the Tribeca film festival] there was José Padilha’s Garapa, a documentary that depicts the day-to-day struggle against starvation by three families living in northeastern Brazil who survive on a government allowance of $50 a month. Garapa is more than a great film—it makes almost all other films seem beside the point.” (Peter Rist)
