This one is at the top of the list for my must-see, year-ending films for 2016!
Posted by Larry Gleeson
Dear Cinephiles,
NERUDA is a fireworks display of a movie about poetry and politics – directed by brilliant Chilean director Pablo Larrain who also directed this year’s JACKIE. Just like the latter film, NERUDA – about the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Pablo Neruda, this film is not your typical biography. Do not miss one of the best foreign films you’re likely to see this year.
Pablo Larraín’s ‘Neruda’ is a richly imagined biographical fantasia
By Justin Chang – Los Angeles Times
“Neruda,” an intoxicating puzzle of a movie directed by Pablo Larraín, chronicles a strange, harrowing episode from the late 1940s, when the Chilean government’s crackdown on communism drove the great poet and politician Pablo Neruda underground. Specifically, the film unravels the tricky game of cat-and-mouse between Neruda and an ambitious police inspector named Oscar Peluchonneau, who sought to track down the dissident artist whose writings had struck a dangerously resonant chord with the working class.
There was, in fact, no Oscar Peluchonneau — or at least, none who fits the description blithely concocted by Larraín and his screenwriter, Guillermo Calderon. The charm of “Neruda” lies in its insistence that there may well have been, and that it scarcely matters if there wasn’t. Drolly and persuasively, the movie demonstrates that when it comes to evoking the artist and the nature of his art, historical fidelity and literal-minded dramatization go only so far. Fiction, lovingly and imaginatively rendered, can bring us much closer to the truth.
“We must dream our way,” Neruda once wrote, and it is nothing short of enchanting to encounter a biographical drama that, rather than merely shoving that quote into its protagonist’s mouth, treats it as a guiding aesthetic and philosophical principle. Like (and yet completely unlike) “I’m Not There,” Todd Haynes’ fragmented 2007 cine-riff on Bob Dylan, “Neruda” is less a straightforward portrait of a great contemporary poet (and eventual Nobel laureate) than a rigorously sustained investigation of his inner world.
Although informed by the busy workings of history, politics and personal affairs, “Neruda” proceeds like a light-footed chase thriller filtered through an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” by the end of which the audience is lost in a crazily spiraling meta-narrative. Who exactly is the star and author of that narrative is one of the film’s more enticing mysteries.
Initially it seems both roles must be filled by Pablo Neruda, played with prickly, preening brilliance by Luis Gnecco (“Narcos”), who donned a wig and gained more than 50 pounds to achieve his remarkable physical resemblance to the real deal. The key to the performance is that, despite the shimmering inspiration of Neruda’s poetry, neither Gnecco nor Larraín seems to feel any obligation to make Neruda himself a particularly inspiring figure.
From the opening scene, a political gathering wittily set in an enormous public lavatory, Neruda, a senator and member of the Chilean Communist Party, is shown to be a proud and vociferous critic of his country’s leadership. But in the very next sequence, a lavish party crammed with half-naked revelers, the film presents the idea of Neruda as a Champagne socialist — a vain, hedonistic hypocrite who, like so many left-wing elites, loves “to soak up other people’s sweat and suffering.”
That damning bit of mockery is delivered by the aforementioned detective, Oscar Peluchonneau (played with mustachioed elan by Gael García Bernal), who slyly complicates the film’s notions of authorship and agency. When Chilean President Gabriel González Videla (Alfredo Castro) outlaws communism in 1948, responding to mounting Cold War anxieties, Peluchonneau eagerly leads the manhunt for Neruda, who has gone into hiding in the port city of Valparaíso with his second wife, the painter Delia del Carril (Mercedes Morán, excellent).
Many of the individual scenes in “Neruda” serve a fairly clear narrative purpose. We see the poet consorting with his allies, arguing with his wife, and disobeying his party-appointed bodyguard (Michael Silva) to slip out for a frolic at a nearby brothel or bohemian enclave. We rarely see him writing, though his poems are shown being secretly distributed and playing a huge role in keeping the communist movement alive underground. But even these relatively simple moments are transformed and complicated by the sheer audacity of Larraín’s stylistic conceits.
In the hands of the editor Hervé Schneid, an extended conversation between two people might span three or four different locations, transporting the viewer without warning from a private room to a perch overlooking the Chilean countryside. Elsewhere, Sergio Armstrong’s sensuous digital photography evokes the mood of the past even as it encourages us to view the film as a formalist construct, from the faded, purplish coloration of the images to the use of phony-looking rear projection in the driving scenes.
In one of Larraín and Calderon’s most telling flourishes, it is Peluchonneau who provides the film’s running voice-over commentary, often in contrapuntal harmony with Neruda’s journey. The two men are almost never seen in the same frame, and yet the ever-mobile camera seems to ping-pong restlessly between them, as though blurring them into one shared, active consciousness.
Peluchonneau’s words may be sardonic and self-flattering, but as the film advances and his own footing in the narrative begins to shift, they also take on their own mysterious, downright Nerudian poetry. (A few verses from his posthumously published “For All to Know” might seem appropriate here: “I am everybody and every time/I always call myself by your name.”)
“Neruda’s” formal spryness and nontraditional appreciation of history will come as little surprise to admirers of “Jackie,” Larraín’s other great bio-experiment of the moment, or his 2012 drama, “No,” a compelling snapshot of the end of the Augusto Pinochet regime that also starred Bernal (with Gnecco and Castro in prominent supporting roles). His filmography, which includes such festival-acclaimed favorites as “Tony Manero,” “Post Mortem” and “The Club,” has sealed his reputation as one of the most distinctive and continually surprising talents in world cinema, though nothing he’s done to date has forced him to take such intuitive leaps, to abandon realism so completely, as “Neruda.”
Unspooling the picture earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, Larraín confessed that, even after making the movie, he wasn’t at all sure he knew who Neruda was. And in a typically counter-intuitive gesture, “Neruda” doesn’t pretend to know, either. It keeps the man at a playful distance, firm in its belief that the art will sustain our interest, long after the passing of the artist and his historical moment. It’s possible that Pablo Neruda himself would have concurred with this sentiment, though Oscar Peluchonneau might have begged to differ.
“10 Directors to Watch” debuted in 1996 and the annual event moved to the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2011. “10 Directors to Watch” was the first of Variety’s “10 to Watch” series spotlighting the most exciting new talents in the fields of directing, writing, producing, acting, cinematography and comedy.
This year’s “10 Directors to Watch” include:
MAREN ADE, Toni Erdmann
RITESH BATRA, The Sense of an Ending
OTTO BELL, The Eagle Huntress
JULIA DUCOURNAU, Raw
GEREMY JASPER, Patti Cake$
BARRY JENKINS, Moonlight
EMMETT & BRENDAN MALLOY, The Tribes of Palos Verdes
KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO, Aquarius
WILLIAM OLDROYD, Lady Macbeth
DAVID SANDBERG, Lights Out
Past “10 Directors to Watch” honorees have included Ben Affleck (“Gone Baby Gone”), Wes Anderson (“Bottle Rocket”), Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”), Ava DuVernay (“Selma”), Marc Webb (“500 Days of Summer”), Christopher Nolan (“Memento”), Sam Matt Ross (“Captain Fantastic), Taylor Wood (“Nowhere Boy”) and Benh Zeitlin (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”), among others.
“One of the most exciting things for me about the festival is being able to host Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch brunch,” said Michael Lerman, Artistic Director. Not only is it a fantastic event, but it also nicely compliments our festival program with selections from our Talking Pictures and Awards Buzz sections, as well as the director of our opening night film The Sense of an Ending, Ritesh Batra. It’s an exciting list this year!”
The event will be presented by Mercedes-Benz with venue partner the Parker Palm Springs.
About Variety
Variety remains the seminal voice of the entertainment industry for 111 years and counting. Featuring award-winning breaking news reporting, insightful award-season coverage, must-read feature spotlights and intelligent analysis of the industry’s most prominent players, Variety is the trusted source for the business of global entertainment. Read by a highly engaged audience of industry insiders, Variety’s multi-platform content coverage expands across digital, mobile, social, print and branded events and summits.
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About The Palm Springs International Film Festival
The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, annually welcoming more than 135,000 attendees for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The Festival is also known for its annual Film Awards Gala, a glamorous, black-tie event attended by 2,500 guests, presented this year by Chopard and sponsored by Mercedes Benz and Entertainment Tonight. The Film Awards Gala honors the year’s best achievements in cinema in front of and behind the camera. The celebrated list of talents who have been honored in recent years includes Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Matthew McConaughey, Julianne Moore, Brad Pitt, Eddie Redmayne, Julia Roberts, David O. Russell, Meryl Streep, and Reese Witherspoon. PSIFF is organized by The Palm Springs International Film Society, a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization with a mission to cultivate and promote the art and science of film through education and cross-cultural awareness.
For more information, call 760-778-8979 or 800-898-7256 or visit www.psfilmfest.org.
About Mercedes-Benz USA
Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), headquartered in Atlanta, is responsible for the distribution, marketing and customer service for all Mercedes-Benz products in the United States. MBUSA offers drivers the most diverse lineup in the luxury segment with 14 model lines ranging from the sporty CLA-Class four-door coupe to the flagship S-Class and the Mercedes-AMG GT S.
MBUSA is also responsible for Mercedes-Benz Vans and smart products in the U.S. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found at www.mbusa.com, www.mbsprinterusa.com andwww.smartusa.com.
About Parker Palm Springs
Situated on 13 lush acres, the Parker Palm Springs is an estate where luxury is fun. Designed by Jonathan Adler, the property boasts 131 rooms, 12 villas and the 2 bedroom Gene Autry Residence. There are 4 restaurants – Norma’s (of NY fame), mister parker’s a dark and seductive French bistro, Counter Reformation a hidden wine bar and the Lemonade Stand, perfect for an afternoon bite or cocktail. The Palm Springs Yacht Club spa at over 18,000 sq. feet is well-known and a place to indulge in a treatment, take a yoga class or even lounge at the Deck. Additionally the hotel has 4 red clay tennis courts, grounds consisting of games such as croquet and petanque as well as outdoor firepits and fountains. The perfect desert escape! 4200 East Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92264. (760) 770-5000, www.theparkerpalmsprings.com.
Women, female relationships and political intrigue were the hallmarks of Korean cinema this year.
A number of films that delved into the world of the occult, driven by unfathomable forces of evil, also stood out in a year that saw the return of some of Korea’s most renowned directors, including Park Chan-wook and Na Hong-jin, who each added significant pieces to their idiosyncratic oeuvre.
Spotlight on women
Arguably the most globally lauded Korean film of the year, Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden” took on the subject of a lesbian thriller romance, featuring two female lovers against a world of demented male figures. Provocative scenes were portrayed against a fairy tale-like backdrop.
“Handmaiden” has nabbed various international accolades since its screening at the Cannes International Film Festival in May. Vogue.com named it among the “10 Most Fashionable Movies of 2016” for its lavish mise-en-scene, while the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards gave it a best production design award.
The New York Times listed Kim Tae-ri, who stars as Japanese lady Hideko’s earthy, unabashed handmaiden Sook-hee, in a September article titled “Four Actresses Everyone will be Talking About this Fall.”
Female romance also featured in Lee Hyun-ju’s indie film “Our Love Story,” a subtle, realistic tale of an encounter between an art student and a stranger.
Antagonistic relationships between women were explored in films like Kim Tae-yong’s “Misbehavior,” which draws on the jealousy and pride between two female teachers fighting for the affections of a male student. Both Kim Ha-neul and Yoo In-young are excellently cast in their roles: One is reticent and downtrodden, while the other is vivacious, young and self-absorbed.
Director Lee Eon-hee’s “Missing,” meanwhile, saw the unlikely reconciliation between two women — a mother and the nanny who kidnapped her daughter, played by Uhm Ji-won and Gong Hyo-jin.
In a mature tale of womanhood, “Bacchus Lady” explored the world of Korea’s elderly prostitutes and the universal solitude of growing old.
Veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung portrayed the feisty protagonist, who, at 65, turns tricks for a living. Directed by E J-yong, the film offers an emotional reflection on life and death as Korea advances into an aging society. It was screened at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.
Scandalous politics
This year also saw a number of films portraying disasters and authorities’ damnable responses.
Director Park Jung-woo’s “Pandora,” set to be streamed globally on Netflix, depicted a nuclear power plant meltdown and the lack of an emergency response system, resulting in the preventable deaths of nuclear power plant workers and residents of surrounding areas.
Kim Seong-hun’s “Tunnel” saw actor Ha Jung-woo trapped inside a collapsed tunnel for weeks on end, with members of the rescue squad wringing their hands at the ineffectual orders from those higher-up in the government.
Kim Sung-su’s “Asura: The City of Madness” depicted a bloodstained web of criminals and politicians.
The latest political thriller “Master,” helmed by Jo Eui-seok, stars actor Lee Byung-hun as a con artist who amasses astronomical wealth and bribes government officials to exert power in state affairs. The flick which opened last week, rang an eerily familiar bell in Korea, which is currently embroiled in an influence-peddling political scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye.
Ride into the occult
Two of this year’s most striking films were in the horror genre, ruminating on morality and human nature.
Yeon Sang-ho’s apocalyptic zombie thriller “Train to Busan” showed everyday characters — from students to office workers — fighting for their lives while trapped on a torpedoing train swarming with flesh-hungry zombies. It premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival’s Midnight Screenings section and has been picked up for a US remake by Gaumont, a French film studio.
Na Hong-jin’s occult thriller “The Wailing (Goksung),” which also screened at Cannes’ Out of Competition section, took viewers on a terrifying journey toward unreasoning evil. Fourteen-year-old actress Kim Hwan-hee delivered a chilling performance as a possessed child.
A period in time
A number of period pieces also sought to reinterpret historical events from the Japanese occupation era.
Kim Jee-woon’s “The Age of Shadows” transformed the story of Korean independence fighters smuggling in bombs from Shanghai to Korea into a stylish noir.
In “The Last Princess,” director Hur Jin-ho focused on the early stages of the Japanese occupation of Korea through the eyes of Joseon princess Deok-hye, weaving the historical into a personal tale.
“The Portrait of a Poet” by Lee Joon-ik offered a moving portrait of poet Yun Dong-ju, in colonial Korea where the Korean language was banned.
The 98-minute film, written and directed by Diab, depicts the political turbulence and uncertainty after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, particularly the conflict between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and those backing the military.
The film is set entirely in the back of a police van, into which both Brotherhood and military supporters had been thrown, in the wake of demonstrations following the overthrow of Morsi in July 2013.
Eshtebak was nominated to represent Egypt at the Oscars in 2017. Moreover It was among the opening films at the Cannes Festival’s. The movie was also screened at the Kairali Theatre, one the of the venues of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), and won three awards at Valladolid Film Festival, Spain’s largest film festival.
Nawara
Through the life of a domestic helper named ‘Nawara’ working for a rich family in Cairo, the film reflects the humanitarian and social conditions of Egyptians before and during the January 25 Revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. The film is directed by Hala Khalil.
This movie has won several awards, as actress Menna Shalabi who plays the title role of Nawara won the Best Actress Award at Morocco’s Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival and Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).
In June 2016, the movie was screened at the 23rd Munich Film Festival and was also selected among the opening and closing films of the 6th Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden.
Hepta
The movie is based on a novel written by Mohammed Sadek in 2014. The story is about a renowned social-psychology specialist, Shukri Mokhtar, who decides to give one last lecture about the very simple question of “How do we love?” Through four different stories, the movie answers this question by showing the seven ‘stages of love’.
Hepta participated in the Festival of Arab Camera in Rotterdam. Moreover it competed for the Golden Award for Feature Films at Annaba Mediterranean Film Festival, where the film grabbed the attention of both critics and audience. The movie was chosen as one of the opening and closing films at the 6th Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden, where it was nominated for the Best Feature Film Award.
Meanwhile, the movie won the audience award at the Annual Arabian Sights Film Festival in Washington D.C. In addition, the movie participated in the Anab d’Or in the Feature Film Competition at the 2nd Mediterranean Film Festival of Annaba (FAFM) in Algeria and was screened at the Arab Camera Festival in Rotterdam.
Jeanne d’Arc
Influenced by Carl Dreyer’s 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc, the movie is a modern documentary, which through dancing, poetic narrative and mythology, sheds light on women’s circumstances and issues of women’s emancipation in post-2011-uprising Egypt.
Through interviews with several women, including artists and a poetic voiceover, the film draws attention to women’s repression and their suppressed feelings of guilt, especially among Egyptian female artists. The film is directed by Iman Kamel.
Jeanne d’Arc was screened at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in December 2016.
Jareedy
Directed by Mohamed Hisham, the film highlighted the the story of a Nubian boy named Konnaf who faced his life with fear but in the end overcame it. Konnaf’s challenge was to reach a rock in the middle of the Nile through a traditional boat which is ‘Jareedy’ as he is not a swimmer, which is unusual for one who lives on the banks of the Nile.
During the journey, the Nubian boy is guided by an old boat craftsman who witnessed the displacement from Nubia in 1964. After telling the young boy stories from the past, he succeeds in helping Konnaf to reach his dream.
Jareeedy was shot in Nubia and tells the hidden stories in its own mother language, drawing attention to the marginalization of the Nubian people.
The movie was awarded Best Cinematography at London Film Festival in the UK. It participated in several other festivals, including Jaipur Film Festival in India, Afrika Film Festival in Belguim and the 12 Months Film Festival in Romania.
Mawlana (The Preacher)
Directed by Magdy Ahmed Ali, the film’s poster showcases actor Amr Saad alongside a sentence that reads: “There are more than 120,000 preachers in Egypt’s mosques. This is the story of one of them.” The story is based on a novel by the same name, written by Ibrahim Eissa.
Saad plays the character of Sheikh Hatem, a young preacher who was working in a governmental mosque then became a TV celebrity. Saad earlier told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the movie shows the lives of several sheikhs and calls for the reform of religious discourse. He added that the movie will be shown in several countries, including China, Malaysia and Latin America.
Mawlana was chosen to be screened at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).
Har Gaf Sayfan (Dry Hot Summers)
This 30-minute film depicts the story of two lonely people at opposite chapters of life: the old Shawky and young Doaa accidentally meet on a scorching hot summer day in a Cairo taxi. They are both overcome by their gringing day-to-day routines, but suddenly, their race through the city evolves into a journey of self-discovery that reconnects them to life.
The film was directed by Sherif Elbendary, grabbing widespread attention as it premiered at the DIFF 12th edition in December 2015. While in April 2016, the movie was selected to open the 18th edition of the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts.
In February 2016, Har Gaf Sayfan (meaning “Hot and Dry in Summertime”) won the Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Award for International Cooperation at a gala held during the ‘Berlinale Talents’, an annual summit and networking platform of the Berlin International Film Festival for 250 outstandingly creative filmmakers.
Moreover, the film participated at the Carthage International Film Festival in October and was also screened at the Dhofar Arab Film Forum in Oman in August.
Tuk Tuk
The film tells the story of kids who are working as TukTuk drivers in the streets of Cairo, through a camera trip in Egyptian slums. The film is directed by Romani Saad.
Speaking to Al-Wafd newspaper, Saad said that he tried to come closer to the real life of these street children to create a concrete background about their experiences and social conditions, pointing out that he chose two children and asked them to let him into their daily lives without his interference in their actions.
The movie participated in the Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival.
In the Last Days of the City
The movie talks about a 35 years old filmmaker ‘ Khalid’ who faces a loss in his life, then he decides to shoot a film that captures the soul of the city but he gets in trouble; Khalid’s friends support him to overcome the struggles and send him footages from Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin which enthuses him to keep going through the difficulty and capture the beautiful atmosphere of Cairo.
The movie is directed by Tamer Al-Saied and it is a co-production between Egypt, Germany, the U.K., and the U.A.E.
The film had its world premiere at the Berlinale talents, where it was awarded the Caligari film prize. However, the film was excluded from the Cairo Film Festival this year. It was the only work by an Egyptian director to take part in the 46th annual Berlinale Forum and win the Grand prize at the MFF T-Mobile Nowe Horyzonty Film Festival in Wroclaw.
Moreover, the film participated at the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy; Olhar Cinema Curitiba Film Festival in Brazil; and Malta’s Valletta Film Festival.
Who Killed the Armenians
The film is the first of its kind produced in Egypt and dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. It was directed by Egyptian satellite TV anchor Myriam Zaki and film director Mohamed Hanafi.
The 70-minute film was shot in Armenia, Egypt, and Lebanon, from where it presents rare documents, testimonies of survivors of the genocide and footages that prove the violent acts by Ottoman Turks against the Armenian nation, beginning with the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896), the Adana Massacre (1909), and the 1915 genocide. These documents were revealed to Arab audiences for the first time.
The film won the Audience Award at the New York Film Festival and the director was awarded the Vanya Exerjian prize for Empowering Women and Girls.
Um Ghayeb (Mother of the Unborn)
Directed by Nadine Salib, the movie talks about a woman ‘Hanan’ who is yearning for a child for 12 years. She lives in a small village in Upper Egypt where it is common for women who suffer infertility to be called “Um Ghayeb”.
In spite of its international recognition, this extremely humanistic movie was only screened one single time in Egypt by Zawya, according to director Nadine Salib. The movie was screened in IDFA, along with the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, and Yamagata Film Festival in Japan.
It also participated in Carthage Film Festival and won the Best Documentary Award at Abu Dhabi festival. It also received the Peter Wintonick Special Jury Award for First Appearance at the IDFA 2014. It moreover won the first prize for Best Documentary in Mizna Twin cities, and the award for best documentary in AfryCam Film Festival.
Ali, Mea’za we Ibrahim (Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim)
The film tells the story of Ali who suffers the loss of his beloved fiancé who has died; Ali then falls in love with a goat naming it with the same name of his fiancée ‘Nada’. Ali’s mother insists on visiting a healer. At the healer’s clinic, Ali meets Ibrahim who works at a recording studio and claims that he hears voices frightening him; the healer said that both Ali and Ibrahim are “cursed” and their medication is to throw three “magic” stones in Egypt’s three water bodies.
Ali, Ibrahim and the goat start on a long adventure that takes them to the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Nile, building a good friendship along the way.
The movie had its MENA premiere at the DIFF and the actor Ali Sobhy, one of the cast, won the prize of best actor at “Al-Muhr Al-Tawil” competition at DIFF.
Abadan Lam Nakon Atfal (We Have Never Been Children)
The film is about a divorced woman who looks after her four kids. By and by, her life circumstances change gradually. The film is directed by Mahmoud Soliman and it is co-produced by four countries, including Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, and Lebanon.
The movie was premiered at the DIFF where it won the Best Muhr Non-Fiction Feature Award. Moreover, it was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Documentary Films category. It also participated in the Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival in March.
Hayat Tahra (Tahra’s Life)
The movie tells the story of Tahra, a woman from Upper Egypt who worked in all the men-restricted jobs including construction, bricks and cement lifting, metalurgy-related jobs, as well as sewing, all to earn a good life for her five children after her husband’s death. These professions, along with several small projects enable her to raise LE 150,000.
This movie was directed by Mohanad Diab and was premiered at the Shorts Corner at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival. The movie was screened also at Dhofar Arab Film Forum.
Haram El Gasad (Sins of the Flesh)
Directed by Khaled El Hagar, the film was shot in only one location farm in the desert, using only fire and kerosene lamps, no electricity. The film is a drama set against the 25th of January uprising. The story examines love, revenge, passion and the misuse of power of four people who live on a desert farm during the uprising of 2011 and who get their news only via the radio. It shows how what was happing in the farm reflected what was happing in Egypt.
The movie participated in Carthage International Film Festival within the long feature film section, and was selected for screening at the 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Rabie Shetwy (Wintry Spring)
The film is directed by Mohamed Kamel. It tells the story of Nour a schoolgirl who lives alone with her father, and is going through a very critical period in her life, as suddenly she is becoming a woman. She cannot reveal this to her father and keps it as her own secret, so her father cannot understand this change that occurrs in her life, which results in tension between them.
The film won the best short film and best actor awards from the Italian festival Fotogramma d’Oro and the Best Short Film Award at the Sose International Film Festival.
The movie, moreover, was selected for screening at the Shorts Festival which chooses films shorter than 20 minutes that have received more than one award in 2015.
Al-Nossour Al-Saghira (The Small Eagles)
The film tells the story of Mohamed, the son of a simple worker in the city of Alexandria, where he dreams to move to Cairo, to become a filmmaker. He then meets Ali, Salma and Bassam. Mohamed finds that his new friends’ parents were leftists which enthused him to search in his father’s histor, hoping maybe to find something precious.
The film is directed by Mohamed Rashad and had its world premiere at the 13th DIFF.
Al Ma’a Wel Khodra Wel Wagh El Hasan (Water, Greenery, and a Beautiful Face)
Directed by Yousri Nasrallah, this movie depicts the troubles of Egyptian traditional marriage by telling the story of a family in a small Egyptian village preparing for a big wedding celebration.
The film was screened in the Locarno International Film Festival competition that included 17 movies from Greece, Portugal, Germany, Italy and several other European countries.
Withered Green
This indie drama narrates the life of a conservative girl Iman’s who feels stuck in antiquated traditions and norms especially after losing her parents; she attempts to convince any of her uncles to attend her younger sister’s engagement in her deceased father’s place, as is traditional. However, a shocking discovery prompts her to do away with all these withered traditions that she once clung to.
Directed by Mohamed Hammad, the movie won the “Directors of the Present” competition at the Locarno International Film Festival where it premiered.
Moreover, it was also the first Arab movie to ever be screened at the Singapore International Film Festival, in addition to being screened at the Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (FIFF) in Belgium.
Bara fe El-Share (Outside on the Street)
The film is based on a group of workers of Helwan neighborhood in Egypt. The film showed 10 workers joined in an acting workshop, but during the rehearsals they tell the stories of injustice inside the factory, the violence of the police, of courts that fabricate charges and an endless number of stories of corruption and exploitation by the employers.
The movie is directed by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk and won the Best Feature Film Award at the 5th Latin-Arab International Film Festival in Buenos Aires. It was screened within the official selection at the 26th edition of the Carthage in Tunisia, in addition to its featuring at the German Pavilion at the Venice.
Coma
The movie takes one on a long journey inside the human-self to restore memories, confront fears, and appreciate the blessings they have in life. As It tackles how we value people and objects from a human-interest perspective.
The movie is directed and produced by the young director Ghada Ali. The movie participated in the Fez International Film festival of Cinema & Education in Morocco, along with OZARK Shorts Film Festival in Missouri in the United States, GATFEST Film Festival in Jamaica.
The film was selected for screening at the Asia International Youth Short-Film Exhibition in Wenzhou, China, The Colour International Film Festival in India, and the International Women’s Film Festival in Kabul.
It has also won many awards including the Official Selection for the Biennial Edition of Ciné Women of America and the Best Cinematography award at FILMSAAZ of India.
Before the Spring
In 2008, the film maker travelled to Egypt to tell the story of metal and rock bands’ struggles in a conservative Muslim country.
“We meet the kids in Cairo’s tight-knit underground music scene who are the film’s main characters, including the sons of the country’s foremost political dissidents and the Muslim World’s first all-female metal band,” the film makers said.
After the 2011 uprising, the film makers shed light on new horizons and presented the main characters with a new set of life-changing dilemmas.
Directed by Jed Rothstein, the movie won the New York Festival’s Grand Prize for Best Narrative Feature Award.
Osbou we Yomen (One Week and Two Days)
The film which is directed by Marwan Zain talks about the love story of a couple who faced some troubles over their decision of giving birth.
The movie made it to the competition in the 13th DIFF Muhr Shorts category.
The selection process for the 12th Forum Expanded is currently being finalised. This year’s theme is “The Stars Down to Earth”.
The search for ways to enable art to deal with an increasingly intangible reality forms an essential similarity between the selected works. Bringing one’s gaze back down to earth now seems more necessary than ever before. Yet how can one use film to take hold of something real when that very concept is ever harder to grasp?
The films and installations in the programme approach this question by attempting to both look and listen as closely as possible. In the video installation Twelve, for example, Jeamin Cha examines the pragmatic process underpinning the annual secret wage negotiations held between Korean employer and employee associations. Berlin artist Sandra Schäfer’s video installation Constructed Futures: Haret Hreik investigates city planning and redevelopment in Beirut and the political and religious ideologies they contain.
In her film Studies on the Ecology of Drama, Eija-Liisa Ahtila explores ways of finding film images that move beyond cinematographic anthropocentrism by shifting her gaze away from people and onto their environment.
The Karrabing Film Collective from Australia, whose work Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams is being presented in the group exhibition, shows three different variants of one and the same story, demonstrating how different approaches to a problem don’t just bring forth contradictory solutions but also mutually complimentary ones.
For his part, Joe Namy does away with pictorial representation almost entirely. His installation Purple, Bodies in Translation – Part II of “A Yellow Memory from the Yellow Age” merely shows a purple-colour surface, while the soundtrack explores the question of which details are lost in translation and what additional elements and contradictions are created by the differences between subtitles and image.
Studies on the Ecology of Drama by Eija-Liisa Ahtila
The central event location is once again the Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg. A group exhibition of work by 14 artists takes place here together with screenings of numerous films. The artists already invited include Haig Aivazian, James Benning, Duncan Campbell, Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy, Noam Enbar, Mohamed A. Gawad and Lina Attalah, Eva Heldmann, Laura Horelli, Oliver Hussain, Ken Jacobs, Mahmoud Lotfy, Bernd Lützeler, Peter Miller, Rawane Nassif, Tomonari Nishikawa, Marouan Omara and Islam Kamal, Lukasz Ronduda, Ginan Seidl, Philip Scheffner, Merle Kröger and Izadora Nistor, Fern Silva, and Mohanad Yaqubi.
Forum Expanded will also be presenting different film archives and archive projects as part of a symposium to be held at the Kuppelhalle at the silent green Kulturquartier in Wedding, including ones from Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Palestinian Territories. SAVVY Contemporary are presenting an installation by Israeli filmmaker and artist Amos Gitai in their own exhibition space at the same location.
The Marshall McLuhan Salon at the Embassy of Canada at Leipziger Platz and the Arsenal Cinema at the Filmhaus at Potsdamer Platz form the other festival locations once again.
The full list of participating artists will be announced in the next press release in mid-January.
The works for this edition of Forum Expanded were selected by Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (head curator), Anselm Franke (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), Nanna Heidenreich (ifs internationale filmschule köln), Khaled Abdulwahed (filmmaker and artist) and Ulrich Ziemons (Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art), with Bettina Steinbrügge (Hamburger Kunstverein) acting as a consultant.
To attract attention to the Festival these inquisitive animals are again making their rounds throughout town!
*All poster motifs of the 67th Berlinale
Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick
“Berlin is big and this year we’ll again follow the bear tracks to some typical spots in the capital,” remarks a delighted Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.
Once more the motifs have been designed by Velvet, a Swiss advertising agency.
The six posters in the series will be visible around town as of mid-January 2017. They will also be on sale at the Berlinale Online Shop starting January 16.
(Source: Press Release provided by Berlinale Press Office)
The eventful and unorthodox life of the Nobel Prize–winning poet, politician, committed communist, unapologetic hedonist, and Chilean cultural icon Pablo Neruda provides plentiful territory for cinematic exploration. The poet’s early-1950s exile in Procida previously inspired Michael Radford’s Il Postino, a fictionalized story about Neruda’s relationship with a local postman that left few cinemagoers dry-eyed. Now, Pablo Larraín, Chile’s most inventive and provocative contemporary filmmaker, takes a wholly unique approach to his famous countryman’s life and work with Neruda, which is set during the poet’s sojourn underground in the late 1940s.
“A captivating original literary chase thriller.”
Justin Chang – LA Times
“Stunningly inventive… A work of cleverness, beauty and power.”
Jay Weissberg – Variety
“Neruda is a warmhearted film about a hot-blooded man that is nonetheless troubled by a subtle, perceptible chill.”
A.O. Scott – NY Times
Screening: Friday, December 23 @ 11:00am Saturday, December 24 @ 11:00am Sunday, December 25 @ 2:00pm Monday, December 26 @ 7:30pm Tuesday, December 27 @ 5:00pm Wednesday, December 28 @ 7:30pm Thursday, December 29 @ 11:00am Friday, December 30 @ 11:00am Saturday, December 31 @ 11:00am Sunday, January 1 @ 2:00pm Monday, January 2 @ 7:30pm Tuesday, January 3 @ 5:00pm Wednesday, January 4 @ 7:30pm
at the Riviera Theatre – 2044 Alameda Padre Serra
NERUDA
Directed by Pablo Larraín
Written by Guillermo Calderón
Starring Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco,Alfredo Castro, Michael Silva, Mercedes Morán, Pablo Derqui
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Rated R (for sexuality/nudity and some language)
Subtitled
Julie Dash’s DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST is one of the most important indie films. It was the first film directed by an African American woman to receive a wide release 25 years ago. The film is beautiful, haunting and a true work of art. Beyonce’s groundbreaking feature length music film “Lemonade” pays homage to “Daughters of the Dust”.
Below is an article about the film from the Los Angeles Times. Come check out the 25th Restoration of this masterpiece tonight (Thursday) at 7:30pm at the Riviera Theatre.
See you at the movies!
Roger Durling
‘Daughters of the Dust,’ Julie Dash’s 1991 triumph, makes a welcome return
By Justin Chang
“Daughters of the Dust,” Julie Dash’s magical 1991 debut feature, captures a sad, thrilling moment of transformation for a community of Gullahs, who are the descendants of African slaves who lived on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. On an August day in 1902, several generations of the Peazant family are preparing to move to the U.S. mainland, bidding farewell to their island home and the vibrant, uniquely African-influenced culture they’ve succeeded in keeping alive.
All good period pieces achieve and sustain a sense of immersion in a different time and place. “Daughters of the Dust,” which Dash spent many years researching, producing, writing and directing, goes further than most. Its examination of a bygone way of life is so patient and evocative, so beholden to its own storytelling conventions and rhythms, that watching it is a bit like submitting to a form of time travel. You emerge from the experience feeling slightly dazed and disoriented, but also deeply and thoroughly ravished.
This is partly due to the hypnotic pull of Arthur Jafa’s cinematography (which won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival) and the atmospheric drumbeats of John Barnes’ score, which conspire to establish an enveloping, dreamlike mood at the outset. But it is also because of the strong, vividly detailed personalities of the women at the film’s center, each one representing a different voice in a timeless tug of war between tradition and modernity, assimilation and isolation.
There is the family’s octogenarian matriarch, Nana Peazant (Cora Lee Day), who is determined to remain on the island with her rituals and herbal potions to the chagrin of her embittered granddaughter-in-law, Haagar (Kaycee Moore), who looks forward to the prosperity that she hopes awaits them on the mainland.
Two other women have returned for the Peazants’ final island gathering after leaving home years ago, though their experiences could scarcely have been more different. Viola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce) has become an outspokenly devout Baptist while Yellow Mary (Barbara O.), who returns with her girlfriend (Trula Hoosier) in tow, is ostracized by her family members for being a prostitute.
One of the few who openly embraces Yellow Mary is the spirited Eula (Alva Rogers), who was raped by a white man on the mainland and may be carrying his child, to the horror of her husband, Eli (Adisa Anderson). It is Eula who becomes the film’s wrenching voice of conscience and sanity when she cries, “Let’s live our lives without living in the fold of old wounds!” — a plea that, even for ears unaccustomed to the thick, West African-inflected creole of the region, cuts to the bone.
Viola has brought a photographer (Tommy Redmond Hicks) to the island to document the occasion. He’s something of a stand-in for Dash, whose father was a Gullah, and whose film becomes its own striking act of witness. The manner of that witness — including the use of voice-over narration from the perspective of Eula’s unborn child — shows a remarkable integrity.
Rather than telling her story via clean, linear strokes and manufactured crises, Dash lingers on the sights and sounds of Sea Island life, from the unforgettable images of women on the beach in floor-length white dresses to the close-ups of fresh-cooked prawns, hard-boiled eggs and other dishes served at the Peazants’ feast. These moments are not incidental to the narrative; they are essential to it, as Dash seeks to convey the very look, feel and texture of something that is about to be lost forever.
When “Daughters of the Dust” premiered in the dramatic competition at Sundance in 1991, the field included two other major indie breakthroughs: Todd Haynes’ “Poison” (which won the grand jury prize) and Richard Linklater’s “Slacker.” That their directors have gone on to become prominent auteurs on the independent scene is an undeniable testament to their genius.
But it also speaks to the cultural and gender-based norms that kept a singular talent like Dash from the filmmaking career she deserved — in part because “Daughters of the Dust,” one of the most striking American independent movies ever made, didn’t conform to any studio executive’s ideal of what a “black” movie should look and sound like. (The year 1991 saw a mini-renaissance for African American commercial cinema, including “Boyz n the Hood,” “New Jack City,” “Jungle Fever” and “A Rage in Harlem.”)
Even still, “Daughters of the Dust” hasn’t exactly languished in obscurity. Although it struggled to find a distributor post-Sundance, it did become the first film directed by an African American woman to receive a wide theatrical release (courtesy of Kino International). Its reemergence in theaters is timely for any number of reasons, a widely spotted shout-out in Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” not least among them.
The present-day resonance of a movie about an immigrant community caught between a traumatic past and an uncertain future can largely speak for itself. But it’s especially meaningful in a year marked by a remarkable range of serious new works from black filmmakers, from Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” and Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” to Denzel Washington’s forthcoming “Fences” — each one offering a different vision of African American families trying to rise above a deeply entrenched legacy of oppression.
As an example of how to realize that vision without compromise, “Daughters of the Dust” remains a pioneering work of art — a vibrant dispatch from our historical and cinematic past that continues to look ahead to a more hopeful future.
The first seven films have now been invited to participate in Perspektive Deutsches Kino’s programme in 2017: to date, four full-length graduation films and three 30-minute ones. “More so than ever it’s worth going to the Perspektive’s opening film and then making yourself comfortable in Berlinale cinemas for the subsequent nine days. Coming and staying guarantees you’ll feel lucky ten times over,” section head Linda Söffker says in anticipation of these ten fiery days in icy February.
Mia Spengler’s graduation film, Back for Good (prod: Zum Goldenen Lamm Filmproduktion, co-prod: Filmakademie Ludwigsburg) will open the Perspektive with the story of Angie, a former trash-TV starlet (Kim Riedle), her despised mother (Juliane Köhler), and her pubescent sister (Leonie Wesselow). By returning to the hick town of her childhood, Angie wreaks havoc on their relationships, so that all three have to redefine their roles in life. Back for Good is an ode to humanity – softly hummed while an auto-tuned pop song blares from the radio.
Angie (Kim Riedle) in Back for Good by Mia Spengler (Photo credit: @Zum Goldenen Lamm)
The fiction film Ein Weg (Paths, dir: Chris Miera, co-prod: Miera Film, Hildebrandt Film) was made while studying at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and is the cautious exploration of a long love relationship that ends in separation. Over 15 years, as son Max gradually grows up, we accompany Andreas (Mike Hoffmann) and Martin (Mathis Reinhardt) through the highs and lows in the daily life of a partnership. Shot like a documentary, with a small team and budget at real locations, Ein Weg develops with great intensity and flexibility – and through the process of editing finds its special form of telling a story over time.
Director Tian Dong grew up in China and attended the KHM in Cologne. He has now completed his studies with the documentary Eisenkopf (Ironhead), about a young soccer team skilled in Shaolin kung fu. Tian Dong visits its young members at their sports school, and talks to them about their everyday lives and dreams. In doing so he paints an unsettling picture of China’s political situation.
In Julian Radlmaier’s new film, Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes (Self-criticism of a Bourgeois Dog, prod: Faktura Film, co-prod: dffb), a bourgeois dog confesses how he has gone through multiple transformations, from a love-struck filmmaker, to an apple picker, a traitor of the revolution, and, last but not least, a four-legged creature. In a political comedy full of burlesque escapades, we meet Camille, a young Canadian (Deragh Campbell); Hong and Sancho, a pair of proletarians who believe in miracles; a mute monk with magical powers; and a bunch of strange field labourers who indulge in idealistic visions.
All three of the medium-long works contemplate Europe and its future in quite similar yet different ways. What would happen if one day people in Europe had to flee, director Felicitas Sonvilla asks in her poetic science fiction film, Tara (prod: MOTEL Film Kollektiv; co-prod: HFF Munich). A young woman called Mira (Sasha Davydova) tells of her flight from Paris. In search of a different life she takes a train heading east to the utopianesque town of Tara. Kontener (Container) was the first medium-long fiction film that Sebastian Lang made at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. In it he portrays “two Polish ladies” who work at a dairy in Brandenburg. From the perspective of Maryna (Joanna Drozda), who narrates the story, the film depicts the last night before Tava (Anka Graczyk) disappears. The third film, titled Mikel, is about a young refugee who has left Nigeria for Berlin in search of a decent life with a properly paid job. It is the first medium-long film by Cavo Kernich, who with this work has completed his studies in “narrative film” under Thomas Arslan at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.
The entire Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme will be announced in January.
The following films have been invited so far:
Back for Good
By Mia Spengler
With Kim Riedle, Juliane Köhler, Leonie Wesselow
Feature film
World premiere
Eisenkopf (Ironhead)
By Tian Dong
Documentary film
World premiere
Kontener (Container)
By Sebastian Lang
With Joanna Drozda, Anka Graczyk
Medium-long feature film
World premiere
Mikel
By Cavo Kernich
With Jonathan Aikins
Medium-long feature film
World premiere
Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes (Self-criticism of a Bourgeois Dog)
By Julian Radlmaier
With Julian Radlmaier, Deragh Campbell, Beniamin Forti, Kyung-Taek Lie, Ilia Korkashvili
Feature film
German premiere
Tara
By Felicitas Sonvilla
With Sasha Davydova, Leo van Kann, Lena Lauzemis
Medium-long feature film
World premiere
Ein Weg (Paths)
By Chris Miera
With Mike Hoffmann, Mathis Reinhardt
Feature film
World premiere
13 Hours, Arrival, Denial, Genius, The Late Bloomer and Septembers of Shiraz to be Featured
Palm Springs, CA (December 19, 2016) – The 28th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will host the 3rd annual two-day symposium “The Power of Words: Book to Screen,” curated by Barbara Keller and Susan Rosser. The event will take place on Wednesday, January 4 at the Hilton Palm Springs. During the event, authors will be joined by screenwriters and producers in sessions moderated by well-known film and literary critics in addition to other distinguished leaders. PSIFF will be held January 2-16, 2017.
Expected “Book to Screen” participants include author Mitchell Zuckoff and screenwriter Chuck Hogan (13 Hours), author Ted Chiang and screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Arrival), author Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt and producer Gary Foster (Denial), author A. Scott Berg (Genius), author Ken Baker and screenwriter Joe Nussbaum (The Late Bloomer), and screenwriter/producer Hanna Weg (Septembers of Shiraz).
Select films from the “Book to Screen” symposium will screen the day before, on Tuesday, January 3 (full schedule of panels, discussions and screenings will be available by December 20). An all-day $200 pass provides full access to all “Book to Screen” panels, discussions and screenings. Benefactor and Concierge pass holders for the 2017 festival will also have access to the “Book to Screen” program/screenings at no charge, requiring only a confirmed RSVP.
Books will be available for purchase at a Barnes & Noble pop-up store at the venue, and authors will be onsite for a short period of time after each session to sign books. In addition, during the month of December, the Barnes & Noble in Palm Desert will feature a special section of “Book to Screen” authors and films.
About The Palm Springs International Film Festival
The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is one of the largest film festivals in North America, welcoming 135,000 attendees last year for its lineup of new and celebrated international features and documentaries. The Festival is also known for its annual Film Awards Gala, an upscale black-tie event attended by 2,500, honoring the best achievements of the filmic year by a celebrated list of talents who, in recent years, have included Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Matthew McConaughey, Julianne Moore, Brad Pitt, Eddie Redmayne, Julia Roberts, David O. Russell, Meryl Streep, and Reese Witherspoon.
For more information, call 760-322-2930 or 800-898-7256 or visit www.psfilmfest.org.
Directors to Watch brunch,” said Michael Lerman, Artistic Director. Not only is it a fantastic event, but it also nicely compliments our festival program with selections from our Talking Pictures and Awards Buzz sections, as well as the director of our opening night film The Sense of an Ending, Ritesh Batra. It’s an exciting list this year!”
Chuck Hogan (13 Hours), author Ted Chiang and screenwriter Eric Heisserer (Arrival), author Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt and producer Gary Foster (Denial), author A. Scott Berg (Genius), author Ken Baker and screenwriter Joe Nussbaum (The Late Bloomer), and screenwriter/producer Hanna Weg (Septembers of Shiraz).