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Ali Aydin: KÜF (2012)
Elegant, austere Turksih first film is a slow-moving study of a lonely widower in the Anatolian outback who will not rest till he is told what happened to his dissident son in the Nineties. Won a prize for most promising new work at Venice.
Kazik Rawwanski: TOWER (2012)
Toronto film about a nebbishy 34-year-old living in his parents' basement and not doing much seems a more shallow, non-Jewish version of Todd Solondz's 2012 feature, DARK HORSE. Shot in a hurry with lots of closeups and non-actors. 76 mins. Better luck next time, maybe. The actor doesn't seem quite the nerd he's imagined to be. Shown at Locarno, Viennale, TIFF and ND/NF. Somebody likes it more than I do.
Tobias Lindholm: HIJACKING (2012)
A highly polished action movie about a Somali takeover of a Danish freighter for ransom money and the protracted negotiation with the CEO in Denmark while the crew starve, sweat, and fear for their lives. The action moves back and forth, with good authentic feel in each venue. Lincholm has co-directed one feature before, written a successful TV series and collaborated with Thomas Vinterberg on his recent success for Mads Mikkelsen, THE HUNT. In Danish and English. 99 mins. Magnolia Pictures release.
Lonesome Solo: BURN IT UP DJASSA (2012)
A tragedy told in the ghetto of Abijan, Ivory Coast. An attempt to get the country's filmmaking back on its feet, this is a simple, quickly shot tale about trouble in a family. 70 mins.
Rachid Djaďdani: RENGAINE (2012)
Introduced at the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, it won the FIPRESCI Prize, and later the César for Best First Film. Composed of many very short scenes, it tells what happens when in Paris an African Christian and an Algerian Muslim fall in love and decide to marry. Her elder brother summons 39 "brothers" to enlist them to prevent what he considers a highly inappropriate union. Djaďdani is multi-talented. He was a champion fighter, actor with Peter Brook's stage troupe, and has published three novels in France, the first a bestseller. "This film," says a festival blurb, "is part love letter to the irresistible energy of Paris, part call for interracial tolerance." Some sloppy handheld camerawork cannot hide the wit and talent.
78 mins.
Tizza Covi, Rainer Fimmel: THE LIGHT OF DAY (2012)
Blending documentary and fiction, which they first did in their 2010 LA PIVELLINA/THE LITTLE GIRL (ND/NF, SFIFF 2010), the Italian-Austrian couple bring together famous German actor Philipp Hochmair and retired bear wrestler and knife thrower Walter Saabel as nephew and uncle, who have never met till Walter turns up where Philipp is working on a new play in Hamburg. He turns up again in Vienna. The development of the two personalties (they essentially play themselves) is engaging, but one wishes the film had somewhere more specific to go.
Joshua Oppenheimer: THE ACT OF KILLING (2012)
Oppenheimer spent seven years exploring the 1965 massacres of a million communists in Indonesia. He focuses on the killers, and gets them to reveal more about their actions (never punished) by having them act in and advise in the making of a lurid Indonesian film depicting their actions in which they play both perpetrators and victims. A shocking revelation that remains morally muddled, and might have used sharper editing. Oppenheimer gained exceptional access to his subjects, but the extent of their self-awareness or repentance remains unclear.
Daniel Hoesl: SOLDATE JEANNETTE (2012)
A beautiful and elegant film of art and ideas by a young Austrian dandy about a woman who flees a posh life and material concerns. A pleasure to look at; I wish there was ultimately a bit more going on in the screenplay.
Sophie Letourneur: LES COQUILLETTES (2012)
This story of three 30-something film festival groupies who go to Locarno in search of men has been compared to Lena Dunham's hip, popular "Girls" TV series. It's a slice of contemporary French life that will not much please fans of Maurice Pagnol.
O Muel: JISEUL (2012)
This wintry, visually gorgeous black and white film, full of loud portentous music, about a Korean offshore island is too artfully abstract and impressionistic, chronologically disjointed and hard to follow to do justice to its subject, a long hushed up 1948 war attrocity in which as many as 30,000 people may have been massacred.
Jazmín López: LEONES (2012)
This dreamy ramble through the woods is full of portents and hints. Despite the danger of being trumped by THE LONELIEST PLANET, it seems to have a lot of potential. But it feels like it has has too many outtakes and alternative endings tacked onto the end. The 28-year-old López is an Argentinian visual artist who has shown video installations. 80 mins. (the last 15 might have been better cut). Haunting stuff though.
That's the end of the week's screenings. Next week there will be another 12 films, shown at co-sponsor MoMA instead of Lincoln Center.
This week has had many suggestive if rough efforts. The most finished or impressive:
BLUE CAPRICE, first feature about the Beltway snipers that explores their personalities and motivations.
KÜF, another austere Turkish film, this one about government repression of dissidents.
HIJACKING, strong, realistic, suspenseful Danish film about bargaining with Somali pirates for the lives of a freighter's crew.
RENGAINE, rough but inventive Paris ghetto film about a mixed couple, Arab muslim/African Christian
THE ACT OF KILLING, overlong and morally confused but powerful doc about 1965 Indonesian massacre of communists.
Marcello Lordello: THEY'LL COME BACK (2012)
In this well-written and acted Brazillian film, a 15-year-old girl abandoned with her older brother by the side of the road by their upper middle class parents as punishment is stuck out in the country and has experiences that change her world view. An original and surprising treatment. One of the best of this year's New Direcors/New Films series.
Alex Pitstra: DIE WELT (2012)
The director was raised in Holland and took his Dutch mother's name. He creatively imagines a young man of the time of the "Jasmine" revolution whose experience might be like that of his own Tunisian father. Angry, witty, inventive, multilingual, a bit rough, a welcome viewpoint, first seen at the Doha International Film Festival and admired by the writer for Variety Arabia.
Matiás Pińero: VIOLA (2012)
This young Argentine director makes distinctive and consistent films about actors who live their roles, recently using some of Shakespeare's romantic comedies. He has a team of players, a regular cinematographer, a style, perhaps a cult following, but is largely unknown due to the lack of popular appeal of his work. Distinctive festival-only fare.