* If you arrived here after a search, either scroll down to the film
you were looking for, or search the text for the name of the
film.
My notes of all Q&As are just notes - they are not
complete transcripts, but they should be representative summaries.
The Festival is over now, and so here is a list of my top 5
films, of the 23 features that I saw, in accordance with the rating
I gave them:
Pather Panchali
All That Breathes
The Quiet Girl
Small Bodies
Into the Ice
Calendar Girls
Documentary. Sweden & USA. 4/5.
Begins well with interesting establishing shots of somewhere in
Florida. It’s Christmastime and the dance troupe “Calendar Girls”
showcases their first number: a jazzed-up version of “O Come All Ye
Faithful!” You get the idea that this is different. The “girls,” who
are seemingly all over 60, wear nutty costumes with crazy
headdresses. They come in all shapes and sizes and seem to be quite
unselfconscious – at least, after they acclimatise themselves to
membership. I like the way that the use of slo-mo makes the rather
poor dancing look good. It is as if the film was made for MTV in the
1980s. But it is not all fluff: one interesting woman asks, “What is
my purpose?” The question is, what happens to you when you’re not
needed by your family or job any more. The MTV effect continues
beyond dancing, to provide a montage of the working life of a female
“linesman,” and it is very effective.
This is not at all the film I was expecting. It’s much better. It
also provides what might be a Festival theme: coverings for the
lower leg! Here they are furry and white, like the ones Verdine
White from Earth, Wind and Fire wears. Believe me, there are more I
the films that follow. Other things in the film that deserve
mention: “patriotic reindeer with patriotic antlers,” a David
Lynchian red curtain, a Shiva effect, and the technique of putting
one’s chin up for a photo, which allegedly knocks 10 years off one’s
age. And of course, the hilarious discussion about how to achieve
suicide (assisted or otherwise) without creating a mess! The
original music is also above average. The Swedish directors have
brought a perceptive eye to this fascinating group of women.
Hide and Seek
Documentary. UK & Italy. 4/5.
A young man, Entoni, lives with his mother and young brother in the
Spanish Quarter of Naples. His father is in gaol. Entoni’s is the
story of a whole generation of young men and boys (and perhaps some
girls. The filmmaker has spent 4 years with her subjects, which,
interestingly, include Entoni’s doting grandmother, who has a
history seemingly as a crime boss, and is bound by the Omerta, so
cannot divulge her past, but dtill commands respect in the
community.
This is a fascinating and important story, beautifully filmed and
edited, but one wonders at the ethics of inserting yourself into a
young man’s life. What effect has the camera had on his life, which
is increasingly depressing. The film begins slowly, taking its time
to introduce its characters using pictures rather than words. “Those
with guns only end up on gaol or die,” says the young Entoni, who
doesn’t want “to be like this…” Will Entoni (or his brother Gaetano)
escape that fate?
There are some beautiful images, including a white wedding dress
hanging on a high washing line, floating in the breeze, together
with a bucket. That wedding dress will appear again later in the
film. And a file is opened on Gaetano…
Pather Panchali
Fiction. India. 5/5.
This must be the third time I’ve seen this film and it only gets
better.
This is the result of a restoration done by the Criterion Collection
(and I think, the BFI), after the film’s negatives were destroyed in
a fire. There are a few anomalies (notably on the soundtrack,
if I’m not mistaken) but otherwise it is a brilliant job.
This film has a slow accretion of detail which, before you know it,
draws you into this family’s trials, troubles and emotions.
Exquisite photography and lighting enhance the experience, but it is
very hard to extract yourself from the experience for long enough to
make such observations. Scenes stay in the mind: Auntie threading a
needle, Apu’s sister having her hair braided, Apu hearing a train
whistle, Apu and his father writing at low desks next to each other.
The whole sequence of sister taking Apu to see a train, the fields
and the electricity wires, and Apu coming up a little rise, as
viewed from under the train between its wheels. And Auntie sitting
beside the road, not moving, with her song in the background, and we
know what has happened. The scene with Dragonflies on the water,
with waterlilies and elephant ears, is exquisite enough, but Ravi
Shankar’s music makes it sublime. Perfection!
Friday 10 June
Children of the
Mist
Documentary. Vietnam. 3.5/5
Similarly to the director of Hide and Seek, this filmmaker spent 3
years with her subject, Di, and the ethics of this will be
challenged (physically), as seen later in this film. We hear that
“kidnap the bride” is a tradition of the Hmong people during the
Lunar New Year Festivities. The family that the director has
embedded herself with is the result of the father kidnapping the
mother, so they consider it “normal,” even if it sounds horrific to
us, the audience. There are 2 daughters of “kidnappable” age
(seemingly around 14), and one has already been kidnapped and had a
baby. The director documents development which result in a
“kidnapping” by one child of another, and the director gets involved
physically, as noted above. But the director, who was at the
Festival, was diplomatic in describing this. The tradition, she
said, was considered a beautiful one by the Hmong people, but also
has its dark side, which can even involve kidnapping Hmong girls for
Chinese husbands (China is not far north of this part of Vietnam.
Technically, though, this film is amazing. The director, Diem, gets
so close to everyone – she is almost one of them – and the camera is
actually hit more than once. It is interesting how involved Di’s
teachers get: “You must study first, and help your parents later,”
says a teacher when she goes through students who have missed
classes. They also get involved and threaten to call the police on
Di’s mother when she tries to force Di to leave school and
marry her kidnapper, Vang. The director even gets Vang to admit: “I
am still a child. I don’t know why I kidnapped her.”
This is one of those true Film Festival films which take you places
and shoe you things you didn’t even imagine. Not only is this Diem’s
feature film debut, she is not even a professional filmkaer, but
more of a social worker setting up arts programs in the north of
Vietnam. But on the evidence of this film, I truly hope she will
tell more cinematic stories, because they are clearly there to be
told. And there are fuzzy leg warmers in this film too….
Q&A followed:
Q: When did you meet Di?
A: In 2017. I saw them in the village when we were doing an arts
programme for children. I saw her and I knew about childhood
marriages as a friend had told me. The film took 3 1/2 years of
filming. I finished last year. I didn't speak Hmong, but only
Vietnamese.
Q: Was the “dragging awa scene difficult to film – Di calls out to
Diem?
A: Very scary. Only sisters and brothers are allowed to help in such
circumstances but Di’s parents allowed me to help. I turned the
camera on Di’s mother because she knew she could stop this – and she
did.
Q: What has happened to Di?
A: Di went to a boarding high school 20 kilometres away from the
village. It was a new school, friends, teachers and Di got a
scholarship from Australia to allow her to finish high school and to
go to university. But schools closed during Covid. Di left school
and has since fallen in love and had a daughter. They lost contact
for a while, but now Di has been back in contact to show Diem her
baby.
Q: Was Di’s reputation damaged because of refusing Vang?
A: it is complicated. The dowry is very low, so it can be a good
thing [to be kidnapped], but it can turn into women being trafficked
to China. So it can turn dark. It is very complicated to say no. The
Hmong consider it part of their culture.
Q: Is this your first film? You have shown us something we've not
seen before and you got in so close.
A: Yes. Thank you.
Q: Have the Vietnamese seen it yet?
A: No. Also I'm waiting for Di to feel better about the film.
Q: The kidnapping – does it usually involve rape?
A: It was a beautiful tradition but it can turn dark. There was
another kidnapping of a girl who was on the swing with Di. Sometimes
it is a happy thing and turns out well – as in that case.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Nothing yet. I am still working in the Central Highlands of
Vietnam.
Small Body
Fiction. Italy, France & Slovenia. 4.5/5
A feminist fable set in northern Italy or thereabouts, some time in
the late 19th or early 20th century, this is a strange but wondrous
film. A young woman gives birth to a stillborn daughter, but she
cannot be baptised because she has never drawn breath. This means
that mother and daughter cannot be reunited in heaven, and the
mother, Agata, cannot accept that. She defies the Church, her
fisherman husband and her community, and sets off to visit a church
that apparently will baptise the child. It is a strange and
dangerous journey, but somehow, with the help and hindrance of a
young fellow, Lynx, who is extraordinarily striking-looking
(reminding me of the young Terence Stamp), she finds her sanctuary,
and achieves a resolution, though not the kind she might have
imagined.
There are some similarities between this film and a later film, You
Won’t Be Alone, but this is the superior film I think. I wish it
were in competition.
All That
Breathes
Documentary. India. 4.5/5
An early contender for my favourite film of the Festival. Two
brothers set themselves up in polluted Delhi as wildlife rescuers,
specialising in Kites and other birds of prey. Amazing
cinematography, and arresting story, important work and charming
people make this the least stereotypical story you’ll see about
India.
We were lucky that one of the brothers, Nadeem, attended the
Festival in person. He introduced the film, telling us that the
director’s inspiration for the film was his concern that Delhi is
one of the most polluted cities in the world. There are no blue
skies, he said, and the sun always looks blurry.
The film opens with amazing shots of birds, and a quote: “when they
fly, all other birds show their effort. But the kite swims.” Before
we know it, a kite has swooped on the brothers’ assistant, Salik,
and stolen his glasses. It's an incredible moment. Nadeem
later confesses that though he has had a life devoted to
wildlife rescue, but... he feels trapped. Later in the film we learn
that he gets the opportunity to study in America. There is no
telling where this will lead. An inspirational story of hard
work undertaken against all the odds, and the willingness of these
men (and their families) to give and give with only the work as its
own reward.
Q & A followed with brother, Nazeem Shehzad:
Q: How are things in Delhi now?
A: It is very hot weather now in Delhi. They are getting lots of new
young birds, dehydrated. The caseload is 50% more than usual.
Q: What was the process of filming with the camera around all
the time?
A: It took 2½ years, 3-4 days a week. The director said he would not
film until they felt comfortable, (then started filming).
Q: How were the birds on camera?
A: They panicked, tried to escape, but over time they got used to
it.
Q: The level of pollution in India has increased so much over the
years, and I am aware of the concept of selfless service there. What
are your plans for funding in the future?
A: Now we are just surviving. We don’t have to close. In the past we
were going to close down. Now we need proper funding to move
the hospital from the house.
Q: How will your studies help you?
A: There is not a lot of wildlife knowledge in India. So we need
more knowledge, education and information. This will help dealing
with injuries and illness. The basic studies about bird behaviour
are not there in India. It is needed.
Q: With so many birds, how did you go during Covid and what causes
them to fall out of the sky?
A: In Covid lockdown, people were not out but we continued to work
as we were an essential service. And kite-flying causes many of
their injuries – moreso during Covid. They fell out of the sky
because of kite-flying, or if they are young they fall out of the
nest. Also pollution-related problems. This can cause disease
Q: What's the most prevalent injury?
A: Cut wounds due to kite-flying – nearly 70%. It takes 1 1/2 hours
to fix one bird and a month for it to recover.
Q: First scene with rats. How can birds be undernourished? Also what
was the film’s dedication
A: Film dedicated to the father of the director who died during the
shoot. Rat poison is a problem in Delhi. Regular problem, but
manageable and treatable. Metabolic bone disease is an imbalance of
vitamin D which causes dehydration in young.
Q: Your late mother's influence in bird rescue? She told fables and
stories. Was she involved with the kites?
A: Our kite work started in 2003 and our mother died in 2017. Both
parents were very much into it. It was her dream.
Utama (My Home)
Fiction. In competition. Bolivia, France & Uruguay. 4/5
Beautifully crafted film with non-professional actors playing people
from the same community, with an underlying environmental message,
which makes this film resemble in some respects a later film in the
Festival, Alcarras. Then lead actor has a face as serious and
magnetic as Toshiro Mifune. Attention to detail is immaculate. The
llamas are stars. A worthy contender in the competition.
Q & A with Director Alejandro Loayza Grisi
Q: The two leads were a couple and not actors. Were they from the
area? What was it like to work with them?
A: They are from the region and could relate to the situation and
empathise with their characters. They are different to the
characters they portray. There were easy to work with, very
committed, and rehearsed for two months.
Q: 1. Where in Bolivia did you film?
2. Do the actors live in that area?
A: 1. South of Bolivia, near Potosi, near Chile.
2. Yes, in a small village, with a similar
way of life. No llamas, they grow quinoa. Small
village of 50 to 60 people.
Q: Environmental problems in Bolivia?
A: Yes, climate change: glaciers disappearing. Rain is coming less
because of deforestation. Rain doesn't come in the rainy season and
this kills the quinoa. People have to walk longer distances to get
water.
Q: Thanks for filming where fossilised coral, and volcanoes which
I’m shocked to see with no ice. The landscape is devoid of water.
A: Thank you.
Q: How was it working with non-professional actors?
A: To make actors comfortable, you need to protect them. We created
an environment for them. Even professional actors can feel insecure.
They need to know what's going on. The crew should be ready for them
when the actors come on set. Lots of rehearsals with camera to
explain what shooting was like. We had fun.
Q: llamas were intriguing. What impact on industry?
A: In the area, the llamas were for transport in the past. Now
they're only for wool and meat. Their food is now being brought from
the city. Few now walk them to graze.
Q: What is it like directing llamas?
A: They are very smart. They did something once and then they know
what to do.
Q: Did you film the shots for showing in a cinema?
A: Yes, we wanted it to be very cinematic. Planned all the shots and
then discussed improvising with the DP.
Q: Process of writing script. Languages both Spanish and Quechea?
A: I am first a photographer, then a DP then a director, so images
come easily to me but not words. It took me ages to write it and I
first had only 45 pages, finally got to 75, more descriptive. I
changed the dialogue to Quechea.
Q: Language – concerned by grandson not speaking Quechea. Are
indigenous languages being lost.
A: Yes. 36 different languages in Bolivia. Most are disappearing. No
not so much Quechea, but some variants of it are disappearing. Also
there is discrimination of non-Spanish speakers. A language is a way
of thinking and seeing the world. If the language is lost, that way
of thinking is lost.
Nude Tuesday
Fiction. New Zealand. 2/5
Unfortunately, this is not very funny. On paper, it should have
succeeded. A sex therapy group weekend, with Jemaine Clement as the
sex guru, with dialogue all in gibberish, should be funny, but I
think the filmmakers have missed the point. By providing (funny)
subtitles (written by English comedian Julia Davis, and Australians
Cecilia Pacquola and Ronny Chieng), they have negated the effect of
the gibberish. It could have been any language, and perhaps,
funniest of all, it could have been a different script in English.
But doing it as they have done, the filmmakers have made it
unoriginal. Plenty of people have provided alternative subtitles to
scripts in another language, notably Mystery Science Theatre 3000,
who did it for 1950s sci-fi films for US TV, to hilarious effect.
I’ve even done it myself, years ago. And I’ve seen a play in Finnish
with no subtitles (intentionally) which was fascinating,
clever and eventually understandable. So this was disappointing.
Missed Q & A.
Saturday 11 June
Into the Ice
Documentary. Denmark & Germany. 4.5/5
Another of my favourite documentary films, involving courageous and
committed filmmaking. It documents three expeditions onto the ice
shelf of Greenland by three different professors, each obtaining
data in different ways: the first by ice core drilling, the second
by taking local readings, and the third by dangling into ice
caverns, called “moulins,” to absorb the melt-flow of water. This is
truly fantastic filmmaking with great characters and with a natural
dramatic arc that makes it a well-rounded film. And I want Claus to
supervise my next expedition!
You Won't Be
Alone
Fiction. In competition. Australia. 3.5/5
I mentioned earlier that this film resembled Small Bodies in some
respects. I preferred Small Bodies, but this film is in the horror
genre with blood and gore, so quite different in that sense, and not
to my taste. That said, it is an extraordinarily accomplished film
debut by the Australian, and it has interesting and important thing
to say. It could be a winner of the Sydney Film Prize because it is
certainly “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous” filmmaking. A
strange fable about a child-stealing witch who converts one of her
captured children into a shape-shifting witch, but one who is
curious about the world and other people, having been deprived of a
normal childhood. The filmmaker is one to watch.
Alcarras
Fiction. In competition. Spain & Italy. 4/5
Again, I mentioned earlier that this film resembled Utama in some
respects. Perhaps SFF director Nashen Moodley’s taste is making
itself felt. A beautiful and sweet film from Catalunya, about
the loss of fertile farming land (in this case, for a peach orchard)
under the Spanish Government's policy of encouraging solar panel
farms. Non-professional actors from the area portray a real extended
family with grace and authenticity. The director’s own family comes
from the area, and so she might be just a touch in love with her
characters, and so the story is a little loose, but still very
affecting.
Seriously Red
Fiction. Australia. 2.5/5.
A confused Australian film about a Dolly Parton impersonator. The
lead actor, also the writer, is charming and convincing, but the
Kenny Rogers impersonator looked nothing like Kenny Rogers (though
he sounded good). This is surely a serious problem – unless, as I
thought ¬– the joke could have been that he only thought he looked
like Kenny Rogers, and no one else did. But no. So I'm still
puzzling as to what the point of the film was, given that the
obvious point about being true to yourself was constantly undercut.
The style was something like Strictly Ballroom in its overblown and
campy charm, but one wonders what the point of it all was.
Wednesday 15 June
Short film:
Dixie: USA: 4/5. An excellent evocation of the south and
all sorts of problems and reminiscences which arise during research
into the family tree to determine if they really are related to
Robert E. Lee.
The family named their dog “Dixie,” which soon became problematic
such as when they were introducing it to a distinguished older
African American history scholar. There are many still photos and a
few film clips, all in black and white, with a narration by the
director. One example of a reminiscence of the grandmother: “She
left for college when she was 17 and never went back. The cats all
died on the road outside the house.”
She concludes “ The General Lee story is just a story. But I do know
where I come from now.” The credits revealed Dixie as having been
renamed “Pinky” – but isn't that just as bad?
Three Minutes –
a Lengthening
Documentary: Netherlands & UK. 4/5.
A fragment of three minutes from a 1938 film is found in Palm Beach
Gardens FL, taken by David Kurtz. Kurtz did a grand tour of Europe
in 1938 and, apart from visiting large cities in France and
Switzerland, also went to some towns in Poland where he had
relatives. One town is suspected, where 3,000 Jews from there were
killed by the Nazis. However, a man in Florida identifies it as his
home town, Nasielsk, 30 miles north of Warsaw, where nearly all its
inhabitants were also killed by the Nazis, and the town destroyed.
This was also the birthplace of David Kurtz. Nothing remains of the
Jewish population of this town. No sign, nothing. All were deported
in December 1939 to various towns, then to Treblinka, the death
camp, where they were murdered. A few survived using false papers to
escape. Seven were still living in 2012 and two of these are in the
film, Mr. Maurice Chandler and Feige Tick (sp?), a woman. Eleven
people were eventually identified as surviving.
This film is based on a book by Glenn Kurtz, the grandson Of David
Kurtz, and is narrated by Helena Bonham-Carter. It is an extremely
important film because it provides the only evidence of the
existence of victims of the Holocaust in this particular town. The
film brilliantly explores the process of uncovering the identities
of the various people who appear in this little fragment of film. It
is quite the detective feat. An example of this is the way that the
sign over the grocer's shop is identified as such, and the name of
the proprietor discovered by a combination of guesswork, sharp
eyesight, and the use of directories of grocers. Thus the film gives
us faces, rather than names, as a memorial dash or as the film puts
it, faces as tracers.”
The question of the possibility that film will no longer be
manufactured for personal use, now that we all use digital cameras,
only brings into sharper relief the significance of fragments of
films such as this one.
A Love Song
Fiction. USA. 4/5.
The film begins with a song coming from a portable radio in a
caravan in a trailer park in what we eventually find out is
Colorado: “Loving from my Baby’s Eyes” must be the longest song ever
written as it plays from the film’s opening, moving from day to
night. A striking-looking older woman (Dale Dickey, as Faye) seems
to exist entirely on yabbies (they call them crawdads) and I
wondered: doesn't she have any vegetables? Nothing much happens
until a visitor drives up in a truck but turns around when they see
that somebody is already in that camp site.
And so we just see the lake, crawdads, wildflowers and the odd bird.
Where is this?, I wondered, because we aren't told it's Colorado
until the end credits. Faye says, “It used to rain a lot more here
then” and “the water came all the way up to here.” So here is
another film about environmental change.
The dialogue is so simple – to the extent that it sometimes verges
on the awful – that it needs a very good actor to sell it – and
they've got one in Ms. Dickey. To a lesser extent, her high school
sweetheart, played by Wes Studi, is also able to sell the dialogue.
It transpires that the radio is a magic one. Dickey says “Give it a
twirl – it always plays the right song.” I was longing to know the
identity of those songs because most of them I had not heard.
The film continues, paying great attention to the flowers the trees
and the skies. There are few birds seen, but they are heard. Dickie
goes for a walk over the fields, climbs a hilltop, than a mountain
top, watches a sunset, stays out all night in the wind, and wakes to
see a universe of stars. Comic relief is provided by 5 Mexican kids
who arrive to rebury their dead father and end up borrowing an
engine from Dickie, a bush pilot. Other visitors include a lesbian
couple and the mailman.
This movie is a really slow burn. It was shot in southwest Colorado
and there was one song by Jerry Jeff Walker. Recommended.
Before, Now and
Then
Fiction. In competition. Indonesia. 3.5/5.
Douglas Sirk goes to Indonesia. This lush romantic film, beautifully
shot and with extraordinarily evocative music, has its longeurs, but
it is worth persisting. There are dream sequences, there are
unexpected turns of events and there is a very subtle backdrop of
the political troubles in Indonesia as President Sukarno hands over
the regime to President Soeharto – there’s even a joke about the
similarity of their names. The film verges on Wong Kar Wai’s In the
Mood for Love in its romantic excess but it also contains
interesting details of an upper-middle-class existence in Indonesia
during these years, including the extraordinary procedure for
divorce, where everyone in the extended family seems to have a say.
A subtle aspect of the film is the tradition that troubles and
secrets are kept by women under the bun in their hair. Our heroine,
the extraordinarily-named Happy Salma, keeps scratching and poking
at her neck under the bun and this indicates to us the turmoil going
on in her mind, under her calm, serene, beautiful exterior.
Shadow
Adapted from a play, staged non-fiction? Australia. 4.5
This impressive and important piece of theatrical film is
unclassifiable as fiction or non-fiction. There is a meeting – some
kind of summit – but it is a little unclear as to what the status of
this meeting is. Never mind, it proceeds and a group of “disabled”
(neuro- and physically-diverse?) people discuss various problems,
leading us on a journey that dies not go where we might expect.
Along the way I learned a lot about seeing people as they want to be
seen and behaving accordingly. Highly recommended.
Preceding it was the excellent short film Voice Activated, a
hilarious and moving exploration of the difficulties that might
present themselves to a small business operator with a speech
disorder (a stutter). When technology tried to be helpful, it can
have unfortunate consequences, as this little film powerfully shows.
Elvis
Bio-pic. Australia & USA. 3/5
Half the people I have spoke to loved Elvis and the other half hated
it. I loved it. But it has its problems.
First, the good things: Austin Butler is simply astonishing as
Elvis. He looks and sounds like him, but more importantly he
projects the effect that Elvis must have had on everyone he met. I
particular, Baz Luhrmann is able to capture the orgasmic effect of
Elvis in concert as his young female fans scream and moan in
response to his sexual magnetism. Next, Baz’s montages are once
again superb, as he telescopes aspects of Elvis’ life, such as
explaining how Elvis imbibed gospel, soul and blues influences from
mostly black culture, musicians and personalities. All of
this, and the music, is superb.
But Tom Hanks as Col Tom Parker? The Dutch/ Southern accent might be
accurate, but it is too weird – as are the prosthetics. He’s hard to
watch and hard to listen to. This makes getting the character across
almost impossible. Priscilla (Olivia de Jonge) is as pretty a doll
as Priscilla was, but surely they could have approximated her
outrageous hairdos rather than toning them down. This rather misses
the point of the excess, doesn’t it? Some of the other Australian
supporting cast don’t seem quite right either, but a standout from
the pack was Helen Thompson, superb and almost unrecognisable as
Elvis’s mother, Gladys.
For me, the good outweighed the bad, and I think everyone should see
this new Elvis. Austin Butler, I mean. Thursday 16 June
The Box
Fiction. In competition. Mexico & USA. 4/5
Director Lorenzo Vigas (who is Venezuelan but lives now in Mexico)
was present in person. It is his first visit to Australia, and
he was particularly charming. When we were told he would be present
at the Q&A at the end of the film, he suggested that the
audience could ask him questions, but he could also ask the audience
questions.
How could there be two films in the festival in which a young person
carries the remains of a dead person around in a box (See Small
Bodies)? Further, this is yet another film in which missing fathers
(or one reason or another) have a profound effect on their sons’
lives.
A boy picks up the remains of his dead father’s body, given to him
in a box. We don't know why the father is dead, but there are lots
of families doing the same thing. The boy (Hatzin) phones his
grandmother, who had authorised to pick up. He then returns to his
motel on a bus, but he sees a man in the street that seemingly
resembles his father and convinces the bus to stop. From then on
Hatzin will not let this man go, returning to him again and again.
The film does not explain whether this man (Mario) is in fact the
boy's father, but I did not think it was. He starts out looking like
a philanthropist, but soon we discover that there is a darker side
to this man, and he draws the young man into his world. In this
respect the film is a little bit like Breaking Bad in that a person
is drawn little by little into an immoral world, starting by making
decisions which can be justified, and ending in total moral
disintegration.
Though in this case, the film ends on a note of hope. But along the
way it has shown us how far a boy will go to please his father.
Q&A with Director Lorenzo Vigas
Q (Sandy George): We do not know whether Mario was Hatzin’s father.
Do you care what we think?
A: I like leaving space for the audience to finish the film in their
minds. Making the audience part of the film. Most important is that
Hatzin desperately believes this.
Q: Did you have a personal connexion with this film? What was your
drive?
A: I worked on a trilogy of father/ son relationships in Latin
America and this is the third of the three. This is common. Many
fathers leave home. What are the consequences for the boys? But my
relationship is not like this. Also, the father figure is an
archetype in Latin America. I've heard that when you don't have a
father at home you get a relationship and loyalty to a father-figure
(even political figures like Chavez or Peron)
Q: You are Venezuelan. Why did you tell a Mexican story and shoot
some of it in Chile?
A: I've lived for 21 years in Mexico. My heart is a bit Mexican now.
I was sensitive to those Mexican issues.
Q: 1. The film begins with industrial sound (which is striking).
2. Are there any photographs of Hatzin
smiling or laughing, because he does not do so in the film?
A: 1. The sound design of the film. I don't use outside music. The
sound universe of the film is all about how to enhance emotions with
the sound. The factory is like another character. We wanted to put
across the sound of the factory.
2. We chose Hatzin from hundreds of boys. He had
never made a film before, but from his interview at school, I found
he had hatred inside and I found out he had the same story as in the
film. For him making the film was important. He is now studying to
be an actor.
Q: 1. Was it shot in Mexico in part?
2. What was the film’s reception in
Mexico?
A: 1. 99% shot in Mexico. The snow-storm was shot in Chile.
2. The film opens in October in
Mexico. So far it has had only festival screenings. It has had a
good reception, but it is a difficult film for Mexicans.
Q: how did Hatzin get to the point of killing the old lady? And then
to recoil.
A: Hatzin risked everything to belong. And it was against everything
he believed but he did it in the moment. In the end he was repelled.
Q: 1. Casting for all the characters?
2. Focus on current events
A: 1. We had a combination of professional and non-professional
actors. Some were from Mexico and others from Chihuahua. The young
boy Ricky who helps Hatzin is from Chihuahua. It was important
because they have a different accent.
2. The current problem of the women
disappearing in the border area – 20,000 women have disappeared in
the north of Mexico in recent times.
Q: What was the best thing about making the film?
A: Hatzin. He's amazing and we came to love him. The ending is
optimistic and you can choose at the end. In the end, he chose
chooses “the box.”
Hommage
Fiction. South Korea. 4/5.
I wonder about the spelling of the title. Is it meant to be a pun? I
doubt it: the director didn’t mention it. Is it an error? We were
all too polite to mention it at the Q&A.
Nashen Moodley introduced the film to us by saying that it has a lot
to say about what's going on in Korean cinema right now. The
director, Shin Su-won, was present at the festival, and spoke
through an excellent interpreter.
In Hommage, a female director has made a film about a female
director working on a film made by one of the first Korean female
directors! How meta is that?. The result is terrific. There's sound
and footage missing from a film called “The Woman Judge,” based on
the true story of the first woman judge in Korea. The director,
Ji-wan, is appointed to restore the film for a showing at a Film
Festival retrospective, and so tries to track down missing
soundtrack and footage. Thus the film is basically a detective story
about tracking down material from an old film and so, of course, I
loved it. The film tells us that the first woman judge was poisoned
and murdered, perhaps by her husband, but this theme is not pursued
in the film of the judge’s story, which has a happy ending. The film
is visually inventive (shadows come to life and there’s also
shadowplay on the sheets on a washing line) and it’s funny too
(the slogans on the family’s t-shirts are hilarious). The
mystery centres on censorship so that aspect also attracted me.
There’s an interesting parallel, too with another SFF film this
year: Three Minutes. And I loved the character of the older editor,
and how she contributes to the culmination of the film: it’s like a
Korean Cinema Paradiso.
Q&A with the director, Shin Su-wan:
Q (Nashen): We screen lots of Korean films, but so few by Korean
women filmmakers. Tell us about why so few?
A: The reason I made it is in line with your question. I don't know
why. I made my first film in 2010 and then I made a documentary. In
that process I found director Hong made a film in 1950 [? 1962?].
The first Korean female filmmaker was Park Nam-ok who directed A
Single Widow {1955]. And she was very scrutinised at the time. She
carried a young child on her back. In the 1960s director Hong [Hong
Eun-wong] directed three films, which was unprecedented but none of
those films survived [til recently]. The existence of A Woman Judge
[1962] was discovered in 2016 and that was my inspiration for this
film. I thought these women were very entrepreneurial and brave –
not even just a question of male versus female.
Q: Is there a portrayal of you in the movie?
A: Yes. Because I made the film, but not all of it. The 40-minute
documentary on finding the film is no longer in print. I had a deep
desire to seek it out. I've never done a sound restoration myself. I
have lingering thoughts about whether I could go on as a filmmaker.
About 20% of what you saw reflects my own experiences.
Q: The use of shadow in the film is amazing. Where does it come
from?
A: Have you ever walked alone at night on the streets? Your own
shadow follows you. Sometimes it feels like a friend. I've always
wanted to do shadow effect in my film and in this film it represents
a bygone era and a lost sentiment and this was the perfect vehicle.
I wanted to use the shadow to portray this. These were sentiments
ingrained in the film but they are no longer there. I used it in
several scenes: the folding of the blanket scene and the rundown
cinema scenes. I saw the shadow there from a car. And there's a
strong representation in the credit sequence.
Q: These days all films are fast and disposable. Your film was
beautiful for its pauses that allowed the audience to sit with those
moments. Please tell us about this.
A: First, thanks for the comment. I have taken great care to cast
the actors in this film. Our lead the film [Lee Jeong-eun] was in
Parasite which I loved. I told her not to get too attached to the
character. Be emotionally true to the characters as she met them. We
chatted a lot, always about the character. This is her first man
character role in 30 years. She was surprised looking at the monitor
to see her reactions and facial expressions. We developed a great
friendship. Even the other actors – I tried to tone them
aesthetically down to make everything as real as possible.
The word “homage” means respect and thanks and I respect and thank
you, SFF.
Friday 16 June Midwives
Non-fiction. Mexico & USA. 4/5
This is one of the films that make you really appreciate the Sydney
Film Festival. Because it clarified through everyday detail some of
the problems facing the Rohingya people in Myanmar.
The film begins with the drone shot of misty mountain country.
Buddhist monks pass by on bikes but we soon realise we are in a very
busy Asian town with motorbikes, trikes and trucks. The setting is a
health clinic for pregnant women and we see a woman arrive prone on
a trike for treatment. She is very ill and we see a drip hanging
from spidery rafters in a wooden shed. This is not a sterile western
clinic.
We then see the workings of this clinic, run by a strong Buddhist
woman, Hla, and her husband (who stays mostly in the background as
far as treatment is concerned, though he seems to have the idea that
he is in charge). But this is his wife's story, and the story of her
Muslim assistant, Nyo. Nyo is an apprentice and needs a lot of
training but is extremely ambitious and aims to set up her own
clinic. Eventually she does this, but one wonders whether she has
anything like the incredible skill and knowledge of her mistress,
Hla, who is able to predict the date a woman will give birth based
only on a physical examination of her pregnant belly. She is truly
astonishing. At the same time, the film gradually reveals the
difficulties of the Muslim minority in the Myanmar state of Rakhine
which suffered ethnic cleansing begun in 2016 with the army
“crack-down.”
There are bemusing scenes of war and military parades, where we are
shown tanks driving along streets (with their no doubt substandard
Chinese tyres, as appeared in the Ukraine invasion by Russia),
presided over by generals with absurd amounts of military
decorations on their chests. The conflict between the Buddhists and
the Muslims is also exemplified in the everyday discrimination and
prejudiced language used even by Hla against Nyo Nyo. However, their
relationship is, on the whole, positive, as shown by the way that
Hla criticises the arrangement of Nyo Nyo’s new clinic, but at the
same time expresses pride in her student. If it weren't for the
military coup (February 2021) these people might still live in
peace, as they did in the past, even if it is a begrudging one.
Father’s Day
Fiction. Rwanda. 3.5/5
A third film (amongst those I saw at the SFF) about the cycle of
violence and poverty that occurs when men fail their children or
their wives. Here the fathers are not physically absent but somehow
they are not there. We see various kids roller skating – who knew it
was so popular in Rwanda? We see a father teaching his son to
“hustle,” a doctor instructing a woman on all that she has to do to
donate part of her lung to her father, and a man trying to bully a
masseuse into giving him a “happy ending.” She refuses, but this
does not placate her lazy “Christian” husband, who considers her as
akin to a harlot, but he won't save money to help with his son's
education, preferring to donate to his Church. A priest is no help
in advising the daughter whether she should donate her lung to her
father (whom she hates), telling her she has no choice, and if she
does not, she is “playing God.”
Finally these women find each other, and another woman who gives
them permission to look after their own needs. A montage of dancing
in a club gives a joyful dénouement to the film – but there follows
a bitter coda. The film skilfully weaves together the various
stories without spilling over into melodrama. Subtle performances
hit just the right note. The Quiet Girl
Fiction. In competition. Ireland. 4.5/5
Director Colm Bairéad was at the festival to introduce the film and
take a Q&A at the end of the film. As he told us, The Quiet Girl
is a quiet film. He told us that this is the first
all-Irish-language film to play at the SFF. He is bilingual, as is
his wife, the producer, Cleona Ni Chrualaoi.
The Kinsella family consists of a worn-out wife, a gambling and
philandering husband and four daughters of whom the “quiet girl” of
the title is Cáit, the most wayward. She has trouble at school, is
afraid of both her parents, and hides from them if she can. Her
pregnant mother sends Cáit away to stay with her (he mother's)
cousin and her husband Séan, who lives in beautiful county
Waterford. Their neat and tidy house on a dairy farm looks like a
palace compared to the run-down slovenliness of Cáit’s home. But the
couple do have a secret (despite Eibhlin's denials), and Cáit learns
from this couple about family love and care, but also about loss.
What I particularly loved about this film was its observational
tone: we are left to work people out, not from what they say, but
from what we see. And Eibhlin's husband, Séan, has some great lines
about the virtues of staying silent. As he says, “there are many who
lost the opportunity to say nothing,” [and lived to regret it].
There's a certain inevitability towards the end of the film, but the
film is not always predictable, and ends on a suitably melancholy
note. Watching this film was a quietly beautiful experience.
Q&A with Director Colm Bairéad
Q (Sandy George): Catherine Clinch played the quiet girl. Where did
you find her? Was she like that?
A: It took seven months to find Catherine. We started with in-person
auditions near county Waterford. We had to deal with different
dialects. We wanted to use the same dialect from the South. We saw
hundreds and then Covid happened. We put out a call through the
Celtic school network. One day we got a tape from Catherine Clinch.
It was incredible! She makes you lean in. She pushes emotions inward
and allows the camera to be like an X-ray machine. Understanding the
character of the girl required the building of a shell. Is she like
this in real life? She is hyper-intelligent, observant and quiet.
Q: Working with such a young actor. What was the environment like?
A: We tried to shoot the film chronologically to aid her journey
through the film. Catherine is like another adult in the room.
There's never a need to talk down to her. The number of takes
required was definitely less for Catherine then for the others. The
Kinsellas’ farmhouse and outbuildings – we were lucky – it had every
element needed for the film. I wanted to create a safe
intimate space, which I could do there.
Q: Thanks for a really intriguing film. What is your inspiration to
film in the Irish language?
A: All my earlier work is drama in drama was in the Irish language.
This film was part of a scheme to disseminate the Irish language. It
is based on a long short story – a great contemporary short story
writer, Claire Keegan – “Foster.” When I read it I was profoundly
moved by the work, but I could also see it was perfect for an Irish
language film. The Irish language is only spoken in the everyday
working environment in some small areas here and there. Miraculously
the rights were still available from the story’s publication in 2010
until 2018 when I wanted to make the film. But the story itself
could be set anywhere.
Q: is the Irish language well supported for kids up to year 12 in
schools?
A: It is one of the big conundrums that Irish is the official
language of Ireland. Everyone learns Irish in primary and secondary
school but most people don't speak it. Maybe this is because not
many people see any benefit in speaking it.
Q: We are studying Irish. Will you release the screenplay?
A: [After hesitating] Yes.
The Forgiven
Fiction. UK. 3/5
It was not the ideal environment for viewing this film, given that
we had been forced to stand in the foyer of the State Theatre for
more than 20 minutes, in a crowd, during Covid. Hardly anyone wore a
mask, except for us. When we complained to the usher, he did
nothing. Further complaints eventually lead to another usher
stopping further people being let into what another staff member
referred to as the “holding pen.” We felt exactly like animals in a
pen. However, we did stay to watch The Forgiven, and unfortunately
it did not lead live up to expectations.
The stars, Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, gave excellent
performances, I thought, but the subject matter of the film is
problematic and most of the cast were playing people so
objectionable as to make them appear as caricatures. The overall
effect was that the writer and director had set up straw men and
expected us to be pleased when they were skewered. That was not the
effect achieved for this viewer. There was an interesting choice
made to have all the credits up-front. But this only tipped me off
to the fact that there was going to be a downbeat ending.
Underwhelming.
At this point we decided the SFF was too dangerous an environment
for us to stay if we wanted to avoid contracting Covid, and so we
did not see the films of the last two days. Pity!