The 22nd Miami International Film Festival

[Chris Knipp]

This was showing at the MK2 Beaubourg when I was in Paris in September but I missed it. Lazy, I guess; it seemed too edifying. I'd have seen it if I could have gone with you, though, for sure.

[oscar jubis]

It'd be nice to watch a film together. You know I value your opinions in general, but perhaps most in the area of politics and current events. I'm glad the film below is coming to the Bay Area (April 15th) and other major markets because I'm specially curious about your reaction to it. My comments (last paragraph) may reveal plot elements you may want to discover on your own. I hate to do this but it's imperative in order to point out potential flaws and weaknesses.

Turtles Can Fly

The new film from Bahman Ghobadi ((Marooned in Iraq, A Time for Drunken Horses) won the big prize at the Chicago and San Sebastian festivals. The film is set in the refugee camps located in the Irak-Turkey border, mostly populated by Iraqi Kurds. The film starts just prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and focuses on two main characters: "Satellite", the resourceful leader of the orphan kids and an electronics wiz, and Agrine, a beautiful girl he attempts to befriend. Satellite is dynamic, caring 13 y.o. responsible for providing cable access to many villages in the vicinity. His English-peppered speech gives elders the impression he can translate news report regarding the impending US invasion, but it's Agrine's armless brother whose prophetic statements prove magically accurate. The sullen, suicidal Agrine rejects any human contact. She appears to be traumatized, shellshocked, and increasingly unwilling to care for Rega, a blind toddler she and her brother are raising. Satellite organizes the motley group of kids in activities such as stacking empty shell casings, and disabling and selling landmines to the U.N. or to arms merchants. It's a precarious existence. A helicopter drops leaflets with empty promises and naive pronouncements as the US invades Iraq.

There are two major aspects of the highly accomplished Turtles Can Fly that can be considered flaws or weaknesses:
1) The film is extremely subtle in terms of being critical of the forces that brought on the crisis tragically affecting these kids. The film assumes a great deal of knowledge and capacity for analysis on the part of the audience. The fact that the deformities and missing limbs on many of the children were caused by chemical weapons deployed by Saddam's army and landmines planted by his enemies is merely hinted at. There is a legibility problem for a mainstream audience. The World Socialist Web, for instance, states in its review that Ghobadi's focus on the here-and-now results in drama that is "squeezed and constrained", failing to assign blame in a clear, pointed way. Ghobadi's approach is the polar opposite of John Sayles' didactic, emphatic filmmaking.
2)There's a flashback scene showing troops attacking Agrine's village. We see tanks, people running under the rain, Agrine falling on a puddle and being grabbed and pulled by a soldier. She has stated earlier that the toddler (Rega) is "their child". I'm convinced we are to assume that Agrine (played by an actress who looks about 12) was raped about three years ago by Hussein's troops and got pregnant with Rega. But the casting and mise-en-scene make it unclear, vague, even unlikely. Several members of the audience I spoke with appeared confused. One review on-line simply states "Agrine saw her village attacked by soldiers and her parents killed", another states she and her brother are "responsible for a blind toddler", and a respectable Brit website refers to the toddler as "their infant brother". Given the primacy of Agrine's trauma and her relationship to the toddler in the narrative, I consider this a major flaw in an otherwise remarkable film.

[oscar jubis]

Oldboy (South Korea)

This film directed by Chan-wook Park (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes over well-received films by Wong Kar-wai, Emir Kusturica, Agnes Jaoui, Oliver Assayas, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and A. Weerasethakul. Some reports blame it on jury president Quentin Tarantino's arm-twisting. What I know is that Oldboy is a movie his fans will love. A shocking, hi-tech, fashionably gory tale of revenge that has nothing to do with the real world. Oldboy is an implausible, unpredictable, entertaining mystery thriller. I feel no animosity toward it until I read reviews/comments that regard it as anything more than disposable, transgressive fun. I won't spoil it for you by discussing the preposterous plot at all. UCLA grad Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow) will direct the English-language remake.

[Chris Knipp]

UCLA grad Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow) will direct the English-language remake.

I am one of those who liked Better Luck Tomorow, but this seems a dubious operation. Can you really call something a "remake" that is turned out immediately? I thought a remake was a movie made twenty years later. Hence this would be more like a profit-taking spinoff of something already rather schlocky and Mr. Lin would be heading downhill fast.

[oscar jubis]

Los Nombres de Alicia (Spain, 2005)

The debut from director Pilar Ruiz Gutierrez concerns the effects of a charming, mysterious girl on a burgeois family. It's known to the audience but not to Marisa and Juan Setien that Mina is not the live-in English teacher they intended to hire to teach their kids. The attractive girl has a catalytic effect on the whole family as Marisa and Juan gradually unravel the network of mysteries and lies that permeate her story and identity. The problems with Alicia's Names are numerous: Mina is played by a Portuguese actress who speaks English with an accent, several scenes are poorly staged, the script and acting fail to provide motivation for Juan's bizarre behavior, the plot seems carelessly put together,etc. It's simply a mediocre production overall.

[oscar jubis]

Ferpect Crime (Spain, 2004)

Director Alex de la Iglesia has a cult following among European youth via black comedies that skewer established genres (Day of the Beast, 800 Bullets, Perdita Durango). In his latest, Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) is an arrogant playboy who manages the women's section of a large department store. A promotion is offered to the manager of the department with the highest sales. The competition is fierce, so much so that Raf get into a fight with the effeminate men's dept. manager and accidentally kills him. Lourdes, the ugliest salesgirl is the sole witness. She will take full advantage. Ferpect Crime satirizes the male ego and consumerism with aplomb. The film is often crass though, somewhat repetitive and only occassionally witty. A hilarious dinner scene involving Lourdes' strange relatives provides evidence of what the director can accomplish when inspired.

[oscar jubis]

Live-In Maid (Argentina)

The debut feature from writer/director Jorge Gaggero won a Special Jury Prize (2nd place) at Sundance last month. Cama Adentro dramatizes the effects of Argentina's down-sliding economy on Beba (Norma Aleandro), an upper-middle class divorcee who struggles in vain to maintain her comfortable lifestyle. Most significantly, she has been unable to pay her live-in maid Dora (Norma Argentina) for seven months. Dora has been living at Beba's for 30 years. The unwritten codes of their complex relationship are gradually changing. Beba is forced to sell her jewelry and china, pour national spirits on imported bottles, and sell cosmetics at the beauty salon in exchange for services. But all this pales in comparison to the possibility of losing Dora, whose relationship with Beba is quite familial.
Live-in Maid pairs "la gran dama" of Argentine cinema with a complete novice and their scenes together are an absolute delight. The leads are perfectly cast, but Gaggero's script also deserves credit for its naturalism, economy and avoidance of cheap sentiment. At the present time the film doesn't have a North American distributor, but I recommend you look for it at one of the many Hispanic or Latino film festivals in American cities.

[oscar jubis]

Symetria (Poland)

A brief foreshadowing scene shows an anonymous hand drawing up a suicide report. Lukasz is introduced, an unemployed 26 year-old with a geography degree who lives with his mother and younger sister. He's pick out of a line-up by an old woman who was assaulted, although we're led to believe he probably is innocent. Shortly after Lukasz is jailed, the victim has a stroke and dies and there are no other witnesses. We gradually become acquainted with his cellmates and learn of their past crimes_including an intellectual who killed his wife's rapist, an older man who refuses to pay alimony, a roughneck who works for the mafia, and a quarrelsome brute. Slowly, along with Lucasz, we learn the culture of the prison_ the slang, the class divisions, and the unwritten rules that impact his daily life. Then, a new prisoner is brought into the cell, someone who will be a catalyst for tragedy.
Writer/director Konrad Niewolski's second feature was a critical and commercial hit in his native country, but hasn't made much of a splash abroad. Symmetry is a frank account of prison conditions , but perhaps appears tame compared to other prison dramas. A menacing mood is palpable throughout, but there are only allusions to male sodomy and overt violence is only shown near the conclusion. Niewolski's palette favors cool greys and greens, and the most dramatic scenes are punctuated by a quick montage of shots of the prison from an outsider's perspective. The performance of Arek Detmer in the lead role also deserves commendation.

[oscar jubis]

Day and Night (Sweden/Denmark, 2004)


The opening voice-over by Bergman-regular Earland Josephson leaves no doubt as to the outcome: Thomas shot himself in the head on September 11, 2003. The rest of the film takes place on that day. 40-ish Thomas (a superb Mikael Persbrandt), at the end of his rope, encounters his 13 year-old son, his ex-wife, his mother, his girlfriend, his friend (and ex's lover), and a prostitute. He needs to resolve some issues, settle scores, say goodbye. Borrowing from Abbas Kiarostami's 10, the whole film is shot from two DV cameras mounted on the car's dashboard. Some of the action takes place just outside an SUV, but most encounters occur inside while Thomas drives through city and countryside.
Day and Night was directed and co-written by Simon Staho and features a first-rate cast of Scandinavian actors, including Pernilla August (Fanny and Alexander) here cast against type. What drives the film is the intensity of feeling of the protagonist, his eloquence makes Day and Night quite revealing and engaging. Films like Day and Night are the raison d'etre of audience-friendly film festivals like Miami's_to give movie lovers the opportunity to watch excellent movies distributors have deemed to have poor commercial prospects.

[oscar jubis]

Hoam Rong aka The Overture (Thailand, 2004)

A fictitiuos biopic inspired by the last great master of the ranard-ek, a wooden xylophone indigenous to Thailand. Sorn, the imaginary protagonist, lives in a village where his older brother is killed by a rival musician. He eventually convinces his reluctant father to allow him to play the ranard-ek. He wins a village showdown but, during a trip to Bangkok, the overconfident youth is humilliated by a musician from the prince's court. Sorn swears he will one day replace his new rival.
Impeccably shot in exotic locations and featuring a compelling score, The Overture is enjoyable and entertaining. The film gains poignancy when the celebrated folkloric tradition comes under attack from a post-WW II government bent on westerization. The plot elements are extremely formulaic though, and the depiction of the protagonist is overly idealized. Hardly compelling but quite pleasant.

[Chris Knipp]

The sequence of movies you describe on this page shows the festival to have an impressive variety and range of offerings. I'm looking forward to your final survey and evaluaton, but I wouldn't envy you the formidable task.

[oscar jubis]

Quite formidable: 25 reviews of new films and one essay about the Jean Rouch retrospective (3 features, 2 shorts). I'm proud to have this fest in my town. The selection is good and, unlike many, every single director is offered a payed visit and most accept. I met fest director Nicole Guillemet (A French woman formely at Sundance) at the Liv Ullmann press conference and I told her I hope it never becomes an "industry event" for the sake of national headlines. I don't want it to be like Toronto or Sundance. Miami's is the type of fest in which if you plan a bit you can get into every single screening you want, without having to stand on "rush lines" like I had to do at Toronto. It's no different for out-of-towners. Just a few miles to the north is the Fort Lauderdale festival in November. Most of their selection is mediocre-to-watchable indies and fluffy foreign "miramaxicals". It caters to retirees who live in the coastal condos a bit too much. Of course it offers a handful of worthy films, last November they had the American premiere of Ken Loach's A Fond Kiss...on my dad's birthday. But the difference in quality and international flair between Miami and Lauderdale's is quite evident.
I still have 7 films to post about, including three I highly recommend (from Sweden, Argentina and Wales).

[oscar jubis]

A Way of Life (UK, 2004)

Writer/director Amma Asante just received a British Academy award for Best Newcomer for A Way of Life. Just like Day and Night, Symmetry and other films in the festival, Assante's film begins with a flash-forward prologue. A man is being beaten mercilessly by a group of teens. The only girl involved is Leigh-Anne, a young single mom who exerts a malicious influence on her brother and his two buddies. They live in a working-class neighborhood in South Wales and spend a great deal of time drinking and goofing off. Leigh-Anne's relationship with a boy named Gavin seems limited to casual sex. Then Gavin begins to show a growing interest in Julie, a pleasant girl of Turkish descent who lives nearby. Leigh-Anne's wrath will eventually involve Julie's dad, whom the white kids call "Paki".
Asante's film fits within England's social-realist tradition but Ken Loach's films, for instance, generally feature a somewhat sympathetic protagonist. Leigh-Anne (newcomer Stephanie James in a career-defining performance) behaves in ways that deem her unredeemable, not cardboard-thin evil mind you, but certainly not the sympathetic protagonist certain audiences demand. Hence, this assured, gripping film has yet to secure American distribution, no matter how glowing the reviews from film festivals worldwide.

[Chris Knipp]

Very interesting and a very good write-up, by the way. Well done!

[oscar jubis]

Los Muertos (Argentina/Netherlands/France, 2004)

The Dead is the second feature written and directed by 29 year-old Buenos Aires native Lisandro Alonso. Argentina is most definitely the Latin American country most influenced by Europe and its artistic legacy, something that has been historically evident in its cinema. Against this current, Mr. Alonso has aligned himself decisively within a Third World tradition in his two features. Both La Libertad and The Dead explore rural environments and the relationship between man and nature by imposing a slight, fictional narrative on the documentary form.
As the film opens, the camera meanders through the dense folliage of the Amazon. The focus is lost temporarily to painterly effect and regained to show two bloodied corpses floating on the river. Cut to 54 y.o. Vargas, waking up to his last day in jail. Upon release, he lives the small town by bus and begins his long journey back to the river, in search of a daughter he barely remembers. At a small village he buys some candy and a blouse (for his daughter he says) and something to eat, has sex with a prostitute, walks to the riverside, finds a fisherman who directs him to a canoe he's arranged to hire, and begins to make his way down river. The trek is recorded in what feels like real time. Vargas is obviously in his environment as he expertly extracts honey from a honeycomb, and slaughters and guts a goat. This part of the film is almost ethnographic, depicting the daily activities of a "river man" in detail. But the The Dead is much more ambitious, as it returns to themes of memory's impact on current reality and a man's re-insertion into a family unit after a long, traumatic absence. The film makes very minimal but powerfully effective use of both dialogue and music. Mr. Alonso is, based on the evidence, the most original of the Argentinian filmmakers who've emerged in recent years.