Drive My Car: Not your average road movie

 

Japanese language ‘Drive My Car’ has earned a very well-deserved Academy Award for Best International Foreign Film 2022.

And the Oscar for Best International Feature Film goes 'Drive My Car' (Japan). Congratulations! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/JXd6SRrTri

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 28, 2022

The writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has finely crafted this monumental take on the journey towards self-understanding, exploring love, loss, grief and guilt along the way. It is based on Haruki Murakami short stories, a surprise given its 2 hour 59 minutes duration. 

Film critic Douglas Laman has explored how Hamguchi and co-writer Takamasa Oe have interwoven two famous plays, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Anton Chekkov’s Uncle Vanya, into the characters’ inner lives:

'In leaning on a work of the past like Uncle Vanya, Drive My Car excels on countless levels, including in finding a way to capture the interior voices of characters who refuse to overtly communicate.'

Hidetoshi Nishijima, as stage actor and director Yūsuke Kafuku, gives a first-class performance which is complemented by an outstanding cast. It is a truly international gathering, especially the ensemble required for the multi-lingual Uncle Vanya production. In addition to Japanese, the actors use Korean, Korean sign-language, Mandarin and English.

The car, a red 1987 Saab 900 Turbo, is a character itself. When Kafuku directs a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima, his assigned driver, Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura), is an unlikely confessor as they share their personal nightmares and confront the past.

Adam: A window to the inner world of women

 

Adam is, as the cliché goes, based on a true story. Writer/director Maryam Touzani drew on personal experience to craft this very moving film. It is set in the narrow streets of Morocco’s Casablasnca medina, where widow Alba and her young daughter Warda reside. The arrival of homeless and very pregnant Samia changes their settled and seemingly dreary life.

We share the lives of three females of different ages and experience: mother, child and mother-to-be. The actors' backgrounds also mirror their characeters' life experience. Lubna Azabal, who plays widow Alba, has an extensive filmography. It includes numerous awards such as the 2014 Magritte for best actress in Incendies. Nisrin Erradi, as pregnant Samia, is an up-and-coming star of Moroccan cinema and has gained international recognition for her role in Adam. Douae Belkhaouda, as Warda, gives the natural performance we might expect from a first-timer who brims with confidence. Maryam Touzani found her playing in an alley.

Aziz Hattab, who plays Slimani, delivers the only significant male role as Alba's admirer with a gentle touch.

The tension between the two women is the key ingredient of the story. In often highly charged exchanges, each woman helps the other to face her personal predicaments and choices. The lack of music during the film heightens the impact of these clashes. The music that is present is usually a key part of the process of their opening up.

Cooking is the main device that brings them together. Alba supports herself by selling prepared food through a counter window. Samia is a skilled cook who helps her with recipes and preparation. The dough kneading scene encapulates its emotional importance.

Most of the action takes place in the confined space of Alba's house or the narrow streets and alleyways of the medina. Touzani has described the atmosphere as being 'akin to a theater stage, with the shop window being their one opening onto the world'.

I highly recommend that you join this inner world. It is no surpirise that this film was featured in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and was Morocco's 2019 entry for the Acadmeny Award for Best International Feature Film.

1945: Stirring Our Collective Memory

1945 is a Hungarian film that uses the personal to focus on the highly charged topic of the holocaust. Just after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and the Soviets declared war on Japan, two orthodox Jews arrive in a small Hungarian town. They bring two boxes with them, which supposedly contain fragrances. Their arrival sparks panic and confusion amongst many of the locals who fear that they have come to reclaim their property.

The Jewish father (Miklós B. Székely) and son (György Somhegyi) say almost nothing, yet their silence says everything as they honor their dead family members.

During a Q&A session Director Ferenc Török has described the film as “a powerful, basic story”. Its black and white format carries the audience into the brief time between the holocaust and the communist decades. Our collective memory is jabbed by haunting images evoking photos and film from the immediate post war period.

The impact of the visual imagery strongly reinforces the key themes.

Hermann Sámuel (Iván Angelus) and his son (Marcell Nagy) arrive via train to a small 
village in Hungary full of secrets - Photo courtesy  Lenke Szilagyi / Menemsha Films

Two brief images of a photo album touch on a history of friendship and betrayal. Moreover, the use of smoke during the film connects poignantly to the holocaust’s crematoria.

The local authorities, in particular the town clerk, the police officer and the priest, seem to have been the leading collaborators with the Nazis. However, many others were complicit and benefitted by the removal and extermination of the Jewish community.

However, the villagers are divided, with families torn apart by the events of 1944. Some sympathised with and even helped their neighbours. Others are wracked by guilt for their part in the final solution. There are also those determined not to give up what is, for some, newly acquired prosperity.

1945 has an exceptional cast. Péter Rudolf as the powerful town clerk István and Eszter Nagy-Kálózy as his tormented wife Anna are outstanding. Apparently the pair has been married in real life since 1990. Another veteran actor, József Szarvas, gives a faultless performance as the tortured alcoholic Kustár.

Neither the cathartic climax nor the departing steam train, with all its distressing symbolism, brings real resolution. The coming clouds of communism hang over the community, with the “new world” promised by local Soviet sympathizer Jancsi (Tamás Szabó Kimmel) not far over the horizon. But that’s another story.

A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica): Validating Love

Francisco Reyes & Daniela Vega at the Berlinale 2017
Image courtesy Martin Kraft (Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) set two firsts at this year’s academy awards. The highly acclaimed winner of the 2018 Oscar for best foreign language film is the first such award for a Chilean film. In addition its star Daniela Vega was there as the first openly transgender presenter.

When I saw the film I was unaware of any of this, in fact only knew the title and that it's a Spanish language film. What a delightful surprise! The extravagant praise for its director/co-writer Sebastián Lelio and Daniela has been more than well deserved.

[Please excuse any spoilers.] When the partner of transgender woman Marina dies suddenly, her world implodes. She is brutally ostrichised by Orlando’s family as she struggles to cope with the loss.

It is difficult not to reach for the cliché kitbag. The confrontation is disturbing and painful. At the same time, her personal journey is also joyous and uplifting, love and life affirming.

Daniela’s powerful, passionate performance as Marina is one of the best of the academy year. Her talent as an aspiring opera singer brings added depth to her character. Co-star Francisco Reyes gives a strong, professional performance as Orlando.

Lelio displays the filmmaker's craft at its very best. The tight direction and script grip the viewer from the start. The backdrop of 21st Century Santiago underlines the complexity of this very modern drama. The Chilean Spanish is surprisingly easy to follow for novices. This official trailer should whet your appetite:

The film has certainly brought out not-unexpected arguments online. This exchange is just part of the reactions to distributor Curzon Artifical Eye’s preview post on their Facebook page:

Xabier Santesteban: Science says that this guy has still XY chromosomes.

Kaisa Mäenpää: Wow, another transphobe misgendering a trans woman, how original haha. Modern science literally says gender and sex are not the same thing (check it out yourself, because you clearly haven't), and that even though sex can be determined by looking at chromosomes, gender can't.

Daniela raised some of the issues in a recent interview for the Guardian:

“The film wants you to question where you stand in society. Are you with Orlando’s family or with Marina? Instead of answering questions, the film’s trying to ask questions about everything. What bodies can or can’t we inhabit? Which love stories are valid and which aren’t? Why is it that certain groups oppress other groups because they’re not within what they consider normal boundaries?”

Valeska Freire, founder of Magic Haus Films, http://www.magichausfilms.com/team has been one of many to promote this discussion:

Let’s have conversations about transgender people and the civil right issues they have to deal with in Latin America. #AFantasticWoman. Best foreign language film to get an #Oscar 2018.

— Valeska (@modestia_aparte) March 5, 2018

It's a topic that is trending across the globe. Recent instances include:

Sport: Hannah Mouncey Becomes First Transgender Player in Australian Women’s State League Football

Journalism: Marvia Malik, Pakistan's First Transgender Newscaster, Wants to Change Societal Attitudes Toward Her Community

The Other Side of Hope - Toivon tuolla puolen

The Other Side of Hope is another gem from Finnish writer/director Aki Kaurismäki. It picks up some of the themes concerning refugees of his 2011 French language film Le Havre.

Set in another port city, Finland’s capital Helsinki, it tells of the developing friendship between a Syrian asylum seeker, Khaled (Sherwan Haji) and a former shirt salesperson turned restaurateur, Waldemar Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen).

It has Kaurismäki’s signature mix of offbeat humour and serious social issues. He makes the audience uncomfortable as we laugh at a topic which should not be a joke.

The restaurant, and its staff in particular, seems to be have time-travelled from the 1950s. The Golden Pint’s no frills décor and menu match the expectations of its working-class customers. Waldemar’s stumbling attempts to embrace 21st century hospitality bring some comic relief from the grim obstacles facing the refugees.

Nevertheless they have a common thread in their battles with authority. Even the lacklustre restaurant staff shine in comparison with Finnish bureaucracy. However, immigration security is not the only foe, as neo-nazis are lurking with intent.

Khaled’s stay at the open-door but depressing detention centre has its upside. During his journey from his home in Aleppo, he has become separated from his sister. His Iraqi friend helps with his attempts to find her.

One of the bright sides of this movie is the music, led by singer/songwriter Tuomari Nurmio. He appears in musical vignettes as a busker and lead singer for a band. There are several videos of the soundtrack online, including this glorious performance:



The cast includes several other veterans of Finnish entertainment, who help to energise the oddball collection of local characters. If their world seems quite daft, it triumphs over the unhinged reality that the refugees have fled and what they now face in exile.

Anyway, you’d have to cry if you didn’t laugh. Perhaps, that’s the other side of hope.

The Ornithologist: Bizarre Flights of Fantasy

The Ornithologist is an intriguing Portuguese contribution to the latin magical realism genre. Its opening's stunning scenes of birdlife along a river near the Portugal/Spain border have the quality of a David Attenborough nature classic.

João Pedro Rodrigues pulls off a hat trick: director, screenwriter and actor. Auteur with attitude. This film has echoes of some of the work of Federico Fellini.

Unfortunately, the film loses much of its meaning and impact if you don't know the religious backstory. It is difficult not to slip into spoilers. Our birdman Fernando, played convincingly by Paul Hamy, has a tortuous journey along the river after a mishap. It draws on a bizarre mixture of elements: pilgrimage; Greek epic; and even the John Boorman classic Deliverance.

He faces a series of trials that ultimately produce a phantasmagorical transformation. The range of languages used gives an indication of the strange characters we encounter: Portuguese, English, Mandarin, Mirandese, Latin. We are taken somewhat seductively somewhere between a spirit world and a spiritual one.

Rodrigues has called his intentions blasphemous and irreligious. There is little doubt he meant to offend some and delight others. If you're looking for something a bit different, then join his flight of fantasy.

Marshland: Old-fashioned crime

Director and co-writer Alberto Rodríguez has come up with a classy crime mystery in Marshland (La isla mínima, 'Minimal Island'). The Spanish language film swept the Goya awards for 2014. It is set in the south west of Spain in 1980 as two detectives track down the brutal murderer of two sisters.

In the process they uncover the dark side of this rural community. They are an odd couple. Pedro (Raúl Arévalo) is trying to get back to work and family in Madrid and Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) has a cloud over him from his days as one of Franco's 'Gestapo'. They are just the tip of a very professional cast.

It is just five years since the Generalissimo's death. Their relationship is strained by Juan's use of vigorous interrogation methods honed during the dictatorship.

The film has a very convincing late 70s atmosphere. Rodríguez seems to have borrowed both from Chinatown and Blowup for his inspiration. Photography is a key element linking both the crimes and the investigation. In addition the cinematography captures the bleakness of the environment and the despair of the local people whose lives are dominated by poverty and unemployment. This is especially true of the young women who are desperate to escape the traditional family and social bonds.

This a an old-fashioned movie with a very modern edge. It's film noir without the wit or the femme fatale.

Wild Tales: Mad as Hell

Writer/director Damián Szifron's so-called black comedy Wild Tales" (Relatos Salvajes) is a real hoot. This collection of six short stories has lashings of the classic elements of melodrama mixed into its contemporary contexts.

"Pasternak" mixes vengeance with everyone's airliner nightmare.
"Las Ratas" ("The Rats") also plays on revenge, as a nasty loan-shark meets his match in a diner.
"El más fuerte" ("The Strongest") takes road rage to new heights and depths.
"Bombita" ("Little Bomb") lives out all drivers's fantasy when trapped by the parking police. Our hero is as mad as hell and isn't going to take this anymore.
"La Propuesta" ("The Proposal") is another auto-related drama based on a hit-and-run.
"Hasta que la muerte nos separe" ("Until Death Do Us Part") has the archetypal wedding party where betrayal is a double-edged sword for the bride and groom.

These modern day morality plays have an excellent Argentine cast, too numerous to single out.

There is plenty of biting social satire complete with the obligatory stereotyping. The rich, big government, police corruption, family relationships, lawyers: all cop a pasting.

Ida: Poland's Haunting History

IDA from Opus Film on Vimeo.

Ida is a small but powerful gem from Poland. It has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2015 Academy Awards. Set in 1962 and directed by co-writer Pawel Pawlikowski, it is a mere 82 minutes in length.

Ida is memorable just for the two main performances. Agata Trzebuchowska gives a haunting portrayal as Anna/Ida, while Agata Kulesza excels as the haunted Wanka.

Anna is a novice nun who learns about her Jewish origins from her aunt Wanka, a former Stalinist prosecutor. The holocaust legacy, communist rule and the dominance of the Catholic church are all part of the complex backdrop to this quest. Ida's personal search for identity is further complicated by coming face to face with an alien, but enticing secular culture.

The black and white production reflects the bleaker elements of the story and the times. Similarly, the jazz soundtrack underlines the growing alternative spirit amongst youth at the time.

Anyway, in the old cliché, this film is about questions not answers. It's about the personal choices we all must make and their consequences.

Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed: Innocence Regained

It should be hard not to like writer/director David Trueba's Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados). Antonio (Javier Cámara) sets off on a quest to meet John Lennon who is making a film in Almería, Spain. It's 1966 but this middle-aged teacher of English and Latin would be an unlikely Beatles fan except that he's a dreamer, but that's another song.

He picks up two hitchhikers, both lost souls like himself: young hairdresser Belén (Natalia de Molina) and sixteen-year-old Juanjo (Francesc Colomer). Speaking of souls, the film is set against the backdrop of Franco's fascist regime, with its all pervasive police and religious controls. We are reminded that Lennon had said that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus".

The journeys of the three central characters typify the rebellious sixties that John symbolised for those looking for a better way, in particular in contesting the authority of church, state and family. Trueba is not preaching but his messages are clear, if gently delivered.

Cámara lives up to the quality you would expect from the lead in Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her. His young offsiders give equally controlled, understated performances. They are matched by Ramon Fontserè as Ramón, a bar owner and Rogelio Fernández as his son Bruno who has cerebral palsy.

Of course, the title comes from Lennon's lyrics for Strawberry Fields Forever. The adventures of this unusual triangle are about innocence lost and innocence won. It would be a great story even if it weren't based on Juan Carrion's actual experiences.

Definitely a film for baby boomers seeking to regain some of their lost innocence from the sixties. Various Gen X-Zs, who are given a yardstick to measure how far we've come, may also reflect on the courage needed to bring about change. Here endeth the review.

The Rocket: Festival of Hope

Australian writer/director Kim Mordaunt's The Rocket is a little gem. He sees the film as "a rite of passage story of a boy’s journey through grief, guilt and self-doubt - set against the timely universal themes of the displacement of people by industry and the legacy of war". It certainly fits that description but in many ways it is a classic fantasy, a young boy and his family's quest to regain the life they have lost, symbolised by finding a place to plant the mother's mangoes.

It's a feel good movie with fun and humour. However, at its core is a very serious drama. It has been banned in Laos, where it is set, apparently because it deals with the dispossession of villagers from their land to build dams. The film was Australia's nomination in the Best Foreign-language category for the 2014 Oscars but didn't make it to the short list.

The two children go well beyond the cliché of stealing the show. Sitthiphon Disamoe as 10 year-old boy Ahlo romps through the film with boundless energy, displaying the rare ability to handle comic and dramatic moments with equal ease. Loungnam Kaosainam gives her 9 year-old character Kia a real edge. Her full-on attitude is as infectious as Sitthiphon's.

Former stuntperson Sumrit Warin as Ahlo's father Toma, gives a rock-solid performance that matches his chiselled countenance, saying lots with minimal dialogue. Bunsri Yindi as grandma Taitok and Alice Keohavong as the mother Mali have the kind of presence you'd expect of skilled, experienced professionals.

The other show stealer is the accomplished Thep Phongam as Purple, so named for his James Brown fixation. In Mordaunt's words, Purple is "a powerful metaphor for Lao’s history. He was full of contradictions: a deep Lao heritage but also a clone of western US influence from the Secret War when the Lao Hmong tribes people were recruited by the CIA to fight for them". He is also a great clown.

The film was produced by Sylvia Wilczynski, who is the other half of the Australian film company Red Lamp Films with Kim Mordaunt.

As befits the magnificent setting in the hills of Northern Laos, we saw the movie at the Shadow Electric outdoor cinema at the former Abbotsford convent in Melbourne. Without creating much of a spoiler, it was also appropriate that the bats made their customary dusk journey overhead before the screening.

The applause at the end indicated The Rocket's impact. Not because it could have happened, but because it should!

Ship of Theseus: Sum of the Parts

Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus is ambitious in scope and and original in treatment for a first feature-length film. As director/co-writer he is both captain and helmsman.

This movie is three stories and one, which befits Theseus' paradox that begins the voyage. 'If the parts of a ship are replaced, bit-by-bit, is it still the same ship?'

It is a overly long film at 2 hours 20 minutes. That's three-quarters-of-an-hour per story. At times the slow pace is annoying until the importance of detailing everyday life becomes clearer.

The cast is well chosen. Aida El-Kashef plays Aliya Kamal, an experimental photographer. Neeraj kabi is Maitreya, the sick monk. Sohum Shah is Navin the young stockbroker. They face their own individual searches for identity and life's meaning. But the key is the sum of the parts.

This is a bold experiment in filmmaking. Its background development is explored on Wikepedia.

The Gatekeepers: Israel "Winning the Battles, Losing the War"

When we were in Jordan last month (Aug 2013) we spoke to a Palestinian who lives and works there. He had gone to an Israeli university before moving to Jordan. He remarked that if they did not have enemies, they would tear themselves apart. His comment reverberated after watching Dror Moreh's documentary The Gatekeepers.

The film centres on revealing and candid interviews with six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service: Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter, Yuval Diskin, Carmi Gillon, Yaakov Peri, Avraham Shalom.

It divided into 7 segments, as outlined on Wikipedia:

• No Strategy, Just Tactics – covering the emerging role of the Shin Bet from the Six-Day War and the occupation of the Palestinian territories
• Forget About Morality – about the Bus 300 affair
• One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter – about the peace process following the Oslo Accords
• Our Own Flesh and Blood – about Jewish terrorism, including the Jewish Underground and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
• Victory Is to See You Suffer – about negotiations with the Palestinians during the Second Intifada
• Collateral Damage – about the assassination of Yahya Ayyash and other prominent Hamas militants
• The Old Man at the End of the Corridor – consisting of reflections on the activities of the Shin Bet and their ethical and strategic impact on the State of Israel

These are the men who had responsibility for targeted assassinations of the enemies of Israel, prisoner interrogations, the lives and deaths of their Prime Ministers. They would weigh the possible loss of "innocent" lives, the so-called collateral damage. They were dedicated to doing what it takes to protect the State of Israel. It is a job they did with passion and commitment. Several of the interviewees see religious parties and the political parties of the right opposed to a real settlement with the Palestinians as key obstacles to securing last peace and security.

Some of the quotable quotes;

Carmi Gillon:
"For Israel, it's too much of luxury not to speak with our enemies. When we refuse to talk, we make a mistake."
"We are making the lives of millions unbearable, into prolonged human suffering, ... it kills me..."

Avi Dichter:
"You can't make peace using military means".

Ami Ayalon:
“We’re winning all the battles ...and we’re losing the war.”
"You can't make peace using military means".

Yuval Diskin:
"What's unnatural is the power you have to take three people, terrorists, and take their lives in an instant..."

Avraham Shalom:
“we have become cruel, to ourselves as well, but mainly to the occupied population, using the excuse of the war on terror.”

Yaakov Peri: “when you leave the service, you become, a bit of a leftist.”


This is a must-see documentary for all who are interested in understanding the Middle East and the continuing quest for a negotiated peace.

The talking heads are never boring. They are effectively complemented by archival footage and computer animations by Mac Guff. It was nominated for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Tabu: Paradise Regained

The footprints of Portuguese Miguel Gomes, as director, co-writer and narrator of Tabu, are everywhere. It is a truly original piece of film making, despite the debt he acknowledges to F.W. Murnau's 1931 silent movie of the same name.

In fact, Miguel reckons Murnau's is a better film. There is lots more in the interview below.

Its short prologue is a strange tale centring on a lone European on safari. A crocodile and a mysterious woman are links to the main story. This ambitious work is refreshingly different. Its cast includes several strong performances. Part 1 (Paradise Lost) is set in Lisbon where Pilar (Teresa Madruga) helps her elderly neighbour Aurora (Laura Soveral). When she finds Aurora's lost lover Ventura (Henrique Espírito Santo), he reveals the secrets of their fatal romance.

Part 2 (Paradise) takes place in colonial Africa. Apparently there was no written script. Gomes chose to shoot on location in Mozambique. Young Ventura (Carloto Cotta) is a cross between Errol Flynn and Rudolph Valentino, with young Aurora (Ana Moreira) a fitting femma fatale. The deft use of silence helps to take this melodrama to another level, especially through its quirky humour.

The dialogue in Part 2 is silent, but other sounds and music are present. The sequences with the band performing are priceless. The film has clean, crisp black and white photography in 1.37:1 aspect ratio, a silent movie format.

Tabu is not an overtly political piece, despite its connections to the Portuguese colonial wars of the 1960s. The audience is left to draw its own conclusions.

Miguel Gomes' movie has all the hallmarks of a cult classic. One for true cinephiles.

NO: 'Happiness is Coming'

No completes a trilogy about his home country by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, following Tony Mareno (2008) and Post Mortem (2010). Fifteen years after taking control of Chile in the bloody coup of 11 September 1973 General Augusto Pinochet called a plebiscite to endorse his leadership. No leads us through the media campaigns in the shoes of fictional advertising colleagues who direct the opposing TV spots. These were 15 minute segments over 27 nights before the vote. The originals can be accessed on the official website.

The film has the feel of a documentary quite deliberately. It uses archival footage that merges almost seamlessly with the modern takes shot on analogue U-matic videotape in 1.33 (4:3) aspect ratio. Some will find the loss of quality annoying. It certainly blurs the line between the real and the imaginary but that's one of the movie's strengths.

Gael García Bernal stars as René Saavedra who brings his background in TV commercials to the political task that many feel a lost cause from the start. Bernal clearly revels in roles that reflect his personal philosophy such as Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries.

There has been criticism of No because it does not tell the full story of the campaign and exaggerates the importance of the advertising approach with its upbeat 'Happiness is coming' theme and rainbow logo. Some even see it as glorifying the advent of politics as marketing. That might have been the case in Chile given its fifteen years of dictatorship and censorship but western democracies had embraced the political spin merchants in the early 1970s if not long before.

No well deserved its Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film for 2012.

Rust and Bone - De rouille et d'os

Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) is an unusual romance, by director and co-screenwriter Jacques Audiard. Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts are strange bedfellows to say the least. When they meet Stephanie is a killer whale trainer and Ali is a kick boxer cum bouncer but things change quickly for both of them.

It's kind of The Wrestler meets Free Willy, Fight Club without the hype.

He's having trouble getting used to looking after his 5 year-old son Sam (Armand Verdure). She is about to face an even greater adjustment.

The film has a very hard physical edge, which is fitting for the director of the powerful 2009 film A Prophet. This is not the territory of sitcoms or Hollywood rom-coms.

It is a French language film , set mostly in Antibes in southern France. The strong cast includes Corinne Masiero as Ali's battler sister Anna.

Without slipping into a spoiler, it's fair to say that the use of Computer-generated imagery (CGI) leaves you wondering about the how virtual is the reality.

Rust and Bone is a grim and disturbing but fundamentally uplifting tale. Not for the faint-hearted.

Incendies

French Canadian writer/director Denis Villeneuve brings Wajdi Mouawad’s dark play Incendies to the screen with the intensity the story deserves. Mouawad is Lebanese but this fable is set in a fictional Middle Eastern country with the intention of divorcing it from a specific political conflict or participants.

The message is about ending anger thorough personal rather than the public reconciliation such as that seen in South Africa. The scale of the violent horrors is immense: rape and torture, cold-blooded execution of ‘innocents’, adult and children.

The cast is first class. Lubna Azabal gives a haunting portrayal as Nawal Marwan, a Christian whose youthful romance sparks this dark mystery.

Her children Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) are sent on a quest to discover their father and brother with the assistance of notary Lebel (Rémy Girard). The journey to discover their brother Nihad (Abdelghafour Elaaziz) is interspersed with flashbacks to Nawal’s youth.

The surprises and twists in the plot are a little too predictable at times and sometimes beyond belief as well. We have to take it as allegory if the ‘message’ is not to be lost.

A powerful, disturbing film that ends on a note of hope. Not for the faint hearted.

In A Better World: Beating Bullies

In A Better World (Hævnen) is a morality play where evil and goodness contend. Three archetypal bullies dominate their worlds: a schoolyard thug, a dystopian warlord/godfather and a belligerent sociopath.

They test the principles of liberal adults who abhor violence. The story confronts the ultimate dilemma: how to overcome violence and intimidation without embracing it. How to turn the other cheek without being defeated or giving in. When their children decide on retaliation rather than rationality, the fragile lives of the adults do not seem to offer any answers.

The standout of the highly professional cast is Markus Rygaard who plays Elias, one of the sons.

The plot moves both inevitably and predictably to its dramatic climax and rather trite resolution.

As an allegory, its message is too in-your-face to be the stuff of first class fiction. Nevertheless, In A Better World is a movie with merit that should appeal to all ages. We'll let the ten-year-olds decide for themselves.

Flickcrit: How I Ended This Summer

"Against the haunting backdrop of an Arctic outpost, 2 men with fiery tempers ignite in a deadly conflict. A handsome newcomer threatens the hostile veteran amidst thick fog, sharp rocks, and the merciless Arctic Sea."

A film of 124 minutes featuring only two characters needs to have something special going for it. Alexei Popogrebsky’s How I Ended This Summer has both first class performances and stunning photography of its remote location.

It is dominated by its amazing physical environment – a meteorological outpost on the Arctic Sea. He has used the Russian Valkarkai Polar Station as the setting for an intense drama between two men and two generations.

Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis) is the middle-aged old-hand, obsessively committed to the routines of reporting daily weather readings. The work also involves monitoring a Soviet era radioactive relic. That task goes to his assistant Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin). He is a twentysomething novice on a summer job who is more interested in video games than keeping meticulous records.

Although Dobrygin is also a novice, his film debut is impressive. He more than matches the intensity of his older colleague.

This movie is classed as a psychological thriller, which suits writer/director Popogrebsky who majored in Psychology at Moscow State University. It is a clash of personalities, values and generations. On top of this, the extreme environment plays a not insignificant part as one of the protagonists.

The slow pace in the first half of the film creates the necessary mood of isolation and establishes the fear that Pavel has for the unbalanced Sergei. When Pavel withholds bad news it is because he dreads that the older man will tip into uncontrolled rage and violence. The decision backfires, of course, and his summer faces a nightmare ending. Pavel starts to join Sergei on the dark side.

Unfortunately, the second half takes too long to build to its climax. The film could have been shortened considerably by tighter direction and editing. It is too mono-paced. Nevertheless, How I Ended This Summer is worth a visit to the cinema.

MIFF 2010: City of Life and Death

1937.

Japanese troops beseige and conquer the Chinese captial Nanking.

City of Life and Death is fiction but is based on the experiences of real people who were caught up in this shocking tale of war and inhumanity. It has the feel of a documentary and recreates in black and white, the horror captured on film at the time. Mass executions, brutality, rape, and forced prostitution are presented in the matter of fact way that they were carried out.

This isn't anti-Japanese propaganda though the shame of their actions should not be forgotten. Kakodawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), a young soldier, represents the human side of the invaders. Just as Mr. Tang (Wei Fan) shows the desperate attempts that some locals tried to protect their families.

If there are heroes in this story, they are the women. Plus one child, Xiaodouzi (Bin Liu), who is still alive today. The dramatic focus is the International Safety Zone, where an illusory attempt to help refugees from the slaughter takes place.

This film should be compulsory viewing in a world that still seems obsessed with going to war.