Vancouver International Film Festival 2008

Adoration

Review by Desirée Leal

Multi-layered with symbolism in every nook and cranny, Adoration delivers a true Atom Egoyan experience, but with a wonderful new and deeply emotional twist. This is the story of a young man, his uncle, his dead parents and his French teacher - and how their lives converge. But more importantly it is a story about faith, point of view and the basic need to be heard, even if one is not understood.

As part of a class project and closely supervised (and encouraged) by his teacher, a high school student named Simon takes on a false identity - that of the son of a would-be terrorist - and talks to his classmates about the terrorist attack, orchestrated by his father, that almost happened. In school, as well as on the internet, Simon soon becomes the centre of passionate discussions on faith, sacrifice, martyrdom and racism - themes that are just as present and problematic in his family's real past.

Though still very didactic in its overall tone, Adoration has some truly sensitive moments that show it to be a film not quite as aware of itself as other Egoyan films have been. It also brings the subject of tolerance to a much more manageable size by using the personal and the family as the main catalyst for discussion and radiating outward from there -- something which we have also seen before in Egoyan's films but seems particularly effective here. With great performances by Devon Bostick and Scott Speedman and some really beautiful cinematography, Adoration was a joy to watch and talk about at length over a bite to eat afterwards.

Adoration
Atom Egoyan | Canada | 2008 | 100min

Canada

Heaven on Earth

Review by Desirée Leal

I am always grateful to Deepa Mehta for using the experience of her cultural background to speak about universal issues such as isolation and victimization. Heaven on Earth is no exception. We follow the journey of Chand, a young Indian woman who is married off to a family in Canada as part of a bargain for immigration sponsorship into Canada. Chand starts out on her journey excited and looking forward to being a new wife in a new country, but is soon plunged into a life of abuse and isolation at the hands of her husband Rocky and his family. This is a film about a woman finding strength and taking power for herself in the knowledge of her own sense of justice. Chand finally does break free from her situation, though it's unclear how. She escapes into her imagination at times when her world seems particularly bleak and tells herself a story. This story begins to take on real form in Chan's regular daily life and, eventually, the lines between reality and imagination blur beyond recognition. The allegorical element of the film drifts in and out of the narrative in a way that can be confusing at times, but the intensity of the performances draw the viewer in and make the "reality" portion of the story - Chan's day to day at work and at home - almost feel like a dream and Chan's imaginative tale feel like the true reality, where the real Chan lives.

Heaven on Earth is a beautiful film, though far less lyrical than Water. The narrative is fractured with abrupt changes in mood as well as within the aesthetic (changes from black and white to colour, hallucination to reality). But all this seems to work in that it brings about in the viewer a general sense of nervousness that jolts us awake to the brutality what we are watching.

Heaven on Earth
Deepa Mehta | Canada | 2008 | 106min

Hong Kong

Sparrow

Review by Desirée Leal

The write up in the VIFF program guide certainly made this film sound appetizing, but nothing could have prepared me for the fun I had watching Johnnie To's Sparrow. A reference to a nickname for pickpockets, the title is also apt because of the film's swift and graceful narrative flow. The seamless blending of cinematic styles is the best I've ever seen. The gangster genre, the romantic comedy, the action adventure and even the French New Wave are all present in this amazingly poetic visual piece.

The carefree lives of four brothers who make their living as a gang of pickpockets in the streets of Hong Kong are suddenly disrupted when they meet a young woman -- a caged bird, who, through her beauty and seductive powers, manipulates them into helping her escape her "arrangement" with a wealthy older "businessman". The pace is fast (with a lot of running in high heels!), but not the least bit confusing or chaotic - mostly due to some artful editing, great music and action that is more choreographed than blocked. The dialogue is witty and Simon Yam's delivery is smooth as silk with all the charm of Cary Grant, all the sass of George Clooney, and all the comedic timing of Peter Sellers.

Playful and witty, Sparrow also has some wonderfully unexpected, tender moments that are not only a treat to watch, but also show depth in characters that might otherwise be written off as simple devices against which the two main characters play. Sparrow is a great piece of cinema as well as a giddy and exhilarating ride. Wheeee!

Sparrow
Johnnie To | Hong Kong | 2008 | 87min

Modern Life

Review by Anu Sahota

Modern Life (La Vie Moderne) is the third in French photojournalist and documentarian Raymond Depardon's profils paysans films (L'Approche and Le Quotidien are the first two) set in the small agricultural areas of southern France. This somber film (which begins with a long take from Depardon's dashboard mounted camera to the music of Gabriel Faure's Elegie Op. 24) has Depardon returning to interview dairy farmers in the mountanous Haut-Garonne region.

Quotidien chores are filmed in a way that recalls those 17th Century portraits of rural life so familar to most. However Depardon's images are heavy with an awareness that the labour that these farmers have long dedicated themselves will not pass through time much longer. Depardon, who was himself raised on a farm, does not spell out why this is the case, instead it's gleaned through what the farmers tell him about family members who have moved away and failed to take up the family business. Those who never had children are still working, like octogenrarian brothers Raymond and Marcel Privat.

As the couple seated in front of me rose from their seats at the film's end, the husband turned to his wife and sighed, "that's not an easy life; no one wants to work that hard." No, not anymore.

Modern Life
Raymond Depardon | France | 2008 | 90min

South Korea

Hansel and Gretel

Review by Desirée Leal

Long, repetitive and cyclical are the labyrinthine narrative and pace of South Korean director Yim Phil-Sung's Hansel and Gretel. And this is a good thing! The deeper we go, the more intense and intricate the path - and that path, at times, leads us to destinations entirely different from the one we initially intended. Dark and deeply emotionally evocative, Hansel and Gretel is not child's play. It is a beautifully lyrical story of a young man about to become a reluctant father. While driving to see his sick mother - and in the middle of heated phone conversation with his pregnant girlfriend on the very subject of his responsibilities - Lee Eun-Soo has a car accident in which his car crashes into the woods and he is thrown clear. A young girl walking alone in the woods finds him barely conscious and bleeding from his injuries. She takes him to her family's home. At first he finds nothing more unusual than the cheerfulness of the girl's sickly sweet parents, older brother and little sister - who are all too happy to take him in for the night, but have no phone he can use to call for help. But soon Eun-Soo discovers he cannot leave the woods that surround the house, and every attempt at escape leaves him more confused and desperate. He then realizes that the "parents" are actually the children's prisoners and that any adult unfortunate enough to drift into those woods are forced to remain forever at the house to "look after" the young girl and her siblings. What unfolds is a gripping tale about a man trapped by the playfulness of children's imaginations as well as the rage brought on by the horror of childhood abuse and neglect.

Beautifully shot, Hansel and Gretel explores the idea that people often, in their adult lives, remain trapped in repetitive patterns of fear and anger that always lead back to the source of our deepest emotional wounds in childhood. As Eun-Soo struggles to find, earn or fight his way out of the woods and the children's grasp, he is forced to face the wounds of his own past so that he may free himself and emerge from the dense and entangled forest of childhood pain where many adults are doomed to remain. Apart from a few cliché horror movie-type devices which the film frankly it did not need to be creepy and suspenceful, Hansel and Gretel is a wonderful achievement showcasing some amazing acting by the cast over all, but particularly excellent on the part of the three children - the youngest of whichcould not have been more than five years old! This was a definite VIFF highlight for me.

Hansel and Gretel
Yim Phil-Sung | South Korea | 2007 | 116min

Fri. Sept. 26 | 10:00am | Empire Granville Theatre 7
Thur. Oct. 2 | 6:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre 7
Fri. Oct. 3 | 1:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre 2

Canada

Belonging

Review by Desirée Leal

Environmental documentaries are a dime a dozen nowadays and - no matter how noble the cause or how urgent the message - it seems as though most of them blend together like so much recycled paper product. It seems terrible to say, but we've heard it all before, and we all know we're in deep sh*% (literally!). As more people become educated about environmental concerns, the vast majority of audiences who go to see environmental docs are already pretty aware of many if not all of the issues that are most pressing to the overall health of our planet. And, more often than not, these films become little more than a simple case of preaching to the choir. This was sadly the case for directors Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy at VIFF's first screening of BELONGING. Though the overall look of the film is more consistent with something you might flick to at midnight on a public television station on a Sunday night, the images were quite beautifully shot and gracefully edited in a way that really draws you in. But unfortunately that was not enough to sustain my interest and I found myself becoming increasingly bored and eventually irritated - like being in grade ten with no substitute teacher for Biology class.

This is not to say that the subject matter addressed is not interesting or deeply moving. The main problem with BELONGING lays in the fact that it is far too general. At first I thought I was about to watch a film about the Inuit and how environmental abuses have impacted their lives, but soon the narrative digressed into a wide rage of discussions which, although connected, are not immediately relevant to the initial journey. After a while, BELONGING becomes diluted - like dipping an inked brush into a glass of water. The ink disperses into the liquid and colours it, but in the end it's still just murky water which you can't exactly paint with. Having said all of this, I applaud Ungerman and Brohy for their efforts and hope that many more filmmakers will, like them, take up the challenge of communicating the urgency of the environmental message to the world. The act of delivering these messages shouldn't be regarded as futile or depressing. But the message is too important to muddle and therefore needs - now more than ever - to be bold, loud and, most of all, clear. BELONGING carries a noble intention, but lacks the clarity of vision needed to make an impact in a noisy and cluttered visual world.

Belonging
Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy | Canada | 2008 | 58min

Thur. Oct. 2 | 8:45pm | Empire Granville Theatre 5
Sat. Oct. 4 | 1:15pm | Vancity Theatre

South Korea

Night and Day

Review by Cameron Maitland

One thing that often makes a film a decidedly more unique experience is when a director leaves his home country to film a story abroad. In Night and Day famed Korean director Hong Sang-Soo turns his lens on Koreans in France and comes up with something very different.

The film follows Kim Sung-Nam, a Korean painter who flees to Paris after a series of trumped up marijuana charges makes him paranoid. From there we follow Kim aimlessly meeting up with exes, attempting to seduce young art school students and generally wandering around Paris trying to make a new life. The director deftly makes a film that shows both sensibilities of Korean and French cinema and the mix in visual and acting styles is quite enjoyable.

The strength of the film, beyond the directing, definitely lies in Kim Young-Ho's lead performance. All of the pathetic humour is delivered with ease and the audience never wonders when they should be laughing with the character or at him.

That said, the film's focus on monotony and repetition stomps over the thin line of humour into actual boredom. While it is amusing to see a buffoon caught in a cycle of his own problems after a while the audience themselves gets caught in that same cycle until nobody is having any fun at all. For a film that extends over the two-hour mark Hong Sang-Soo seems to have made his point about three quarters in but just tags on more film for unnecessary emphasis.

Night and Day is by no means a disastrous failure. It is watchable and amusing for the majority of its length but audiences are likely to want to walk out before the final point is made.

Night and Day
Hong Sang-Soo | South Korea | 2008 | 145min

U.S.A.

Afterschool

Review by Cameron Maitland

In a world wrapped up in new media prospects like Youtube and various other internet clip sources one can often wonder film's place in this new world. Antonio Campos' Afterschool makes quite a case for both the failures of these new mediums and the strengths of true film.

The film follows Rob, a grade 10 student at a New England prep school who is obsessed with Internet clips and how they might show something 'real'. In the wake of a tragedy he's involved in, he is invited to make a video memorial and from there he begins to dredge up emotions and memories as he examines his state of personal isolation.

Though the film does often smack of 'first feature' in a few ham handed metaphors it does ultimately succeed. It is unique in its attempt to show the reality behind the so-called 'real' clips on the Internet and the inclusion of many already famous clips makes it seem fresh as well as visually eclectic.

Perhaps more laudable though is its depiction of modern private schools in America and the pressures, falsehood and isolation that creeps around every corner. There are a lot of films that examine private schools in history and in other countries. Afterschool's contemporary American location is just as unique, dramatic and rife for storytelling in America.

Afterschool is not a film without stumbling or preaching but if you are looking for something unique both in execution and theme, it's a hard piece to beat.

Afterschool
Antonio Campos | USA | 2007 | 106min

Thur. Oct. 9 | 6:20pm | Empire Granville Theatre 4
Fri. Oct. 10 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 2

France

Four Nights with Anna

Review by Cameron Maitland

Polish filmmaking has always been praised for having a unique take on story and emotion. It is no wonder that director Jerzy Skolimowski's Four Nights with Anna shows a side of love and obsession that has never before been tackled by conventional filmmaking.

The story follows a hospital worker, Okrasa, and his love for the girl across the field, Anna. We see him follow her and spy on her - eventually breaking into her house multiple times - but the point of the film is not what he does as much as why he does what he does and the consequences his actions.

The strength of the film is its ability to play with the audience's perceptions. When we are first introduced to Okrasa, he is buying an axe, haunting music playing in the background, and looking at a severed hand, we assume him to be nothing more than a slasher movie villain. But, as the film slowly unfolds, we find Okrasa's place in the world to be something quite unique and as his past, revealed in flashbacks, gives the audience insight which shames their original perceptions. All of this slow unfolding creates great tension within an audience, who faces a man doing despicable things for somewhat altruistic reasons and makes them question how they feel about his obsession.

The film is short but it shows a mastery of pacing in its revelatory information in slow, silent shots. Four Nights with Anna is a unique and well-crafted film that is sure to stay with its audiences long after it ends.

Four Nights with Anna
Jerzy Skolimowski | France/Poland | 2008 | 87min

Thur. Oct. 9 | 6:40pm | Empire Granville Theatre 3
Fri. Oct. 10 | 11:00am | Empire Granville Theatre 4

Spain

[REC]

Review by Cameron Maitland

It's a hard thing for a horror movie to get footing at a film festival without being particularly unique in its storytelling or style. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's [REC] may at first seem to be an interestingly styled, run-of-the-mill horror film but, in the end, it proves to be a very unique experience.

The story, seen through the lens of her cameraman, follows a news reporter who covers a fire rescue gone wrong in an apartment building that quickly becomes the site of violent attacks. From there the crew and those trapped in the apartment begin to turn on each other and things quickly descend into horror. The film's use of the first-person perspective in making the cameraman a character isn't a brand new idea but Plaza and Balagueró take the idea and run with it, creating one of the more effective uses of the idea ever put to film.

What really ought to be praised though is the ability of the directors to create tension. From the first frame - before any attacks - they have the viewers on edge waiting for a fire alarm to go off and once the real horror is underway they barely give you a moment as an audience to catch your breath. The film clocks in at just slightly over 70 minutes but all that time on the edge of your seat makes it seem longer and it is just the right amount to not overstress the viewer.

While the film can be faulted for delving into plot clichés and has plenty of cheap pop-out scares, there is a bit more under the surface. The last few reels of the film at the outset seem to fall for the foreign horror trap of attempting to be unique by placing a preposterous premise on top of the existing fantastic premise. But it shows the dual directors' creativity in the fact that, by the end of their night vision sequence and once the audience sees some of the amazing creature effects, all is forgiven.

[REC] may very rarely raise itself above popcorn entertainment level fun, but in it's unique twists and mastery of certain elements of the horror genre, it deserves a place among the film festival elite.

[REC]
Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza | Spain | 2007 | 75min

Wed. Oct. 8 | 9:45pm | Empire Granville Theatre 7
Thur. Oct. 9 | 4:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 7
Thur. Oct. 9 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre 2

France

Tokyo!

Review by Cameron Maitland

Tokyo! is an interesting film because it exists as one of the loosest anthologies I've ever seen. Granted, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho all created short films set in the city, but each film couldn't be more different.

Gondry's "Interior Design" follows an artistic couple moving to Tokyo who is having trouble both in their relationship and in setting up roots. Carax's "Merde" follows a strange monster emerging from the sewer and creating destruction and havoc. The final film is a romance that focuses on the lives of shut-ins and the cultural acceptance of them in Japan. Each presents a different view of Tokyo - though it could be said that they are all somewhat critical of their subject.

If anything brings these films together it is their abject strangeness - both visually and in their storytelling. There isn't a single film in this collection without elements of fantasy or magic realism pervading the base story. This not only make each film unique, but it also tends to be a strong and consistent anchor to the metaphorical content of the films that is almost lost in the translation and re-translation. The first two films can also be applauded for eschewing the expected French orientalism for a subtle emotional story and, well, almost the complete opposite.

While it may feel like a strange disjointed trip, and I'd be surprised if anyone liked all three portions, Tokyo! should offer something for every viewer to love at the very least in its strange dreamy visuals and unique storytelling.

Tokyo!
Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho | France/South Korea | 2008 | 112min

Wed. Oct. 8 | 2:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 2
Thur. Oct. 9 | 7:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 7

China

The Love of Mr. An

Review by Cameron Maitland

Though much can be made of the artistry and writing involved in creating a good documentary, there is still an x-factor involved which cannot be quantified. In the simple act of following a life Yang Lina's film The Love of Mr. An manages to capture something few other films manage.

Her documentary follows Lo An, a 90-year-old man living in Beijing and enjoying his golden years. The film focuses on his relationship with Xiao Wei, a younger married woman who is both his dance partner and sometime caretaker. Their relationship highlights issues the Chinese face in aging, love and, most importantly, marriage and friendship amongst the sexes. Most people, including Lo An, think that he's in love with Xiao Wei and almost everyone think he's being taken advantage of in the relationship.

Lo An and Xiao Wei's relationship takes a shocking turn halfway through the film and Yang manages to capture more emotion and tension than most dramas could ever dream of. The film really captures lightning in a bottle both emotionally and in how this turn of events effects everything it was trying to say before.

In the end the film succeeds due to Yang's ability to take an unexpected turn of events and use it to her advantage. The Love of Mr. An is a heartbreaking work exploring unique ground both culturally and emotionally.

The Love of Mr. An
Yang Lina | China | 2007 | 84min

Thur. Sept. 25 | 7:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre 1
Mon. Sept. 29 | 12:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 5
Wed. Oct. 8 | 12:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 5

Costa Rica

El Camino

Review by Chris Walts

El Camino is the story of two Nicaraguan children who set out to cross the border into Costa Rica to find their mother who left them with their abusive grandfather eight years earlier. Skillfully directed by Ishtar Yasin, El Camino examines the reasons behind people's migration and the lengths they will go to change their lives. Although the reason for twelve-year-old Saslaya's (Sherilyn Paola Velásquez) journey makes sense, her life consists of picking through a garbage dumb for scarps and being sexually abused by her grandfather, her journey also mimics those around her which ultimately seems like the realization of the grass-is-always-greener dream. Whether this is Yasin's overriding metaphor or not is up for debate, but the fact that it is gently weaved through the film gives testament to his strong directorial vision. Darkly shot, this sometimes poignantly funny film was an enlightening experience to watch.

El Camino
Ishtar Yasin | Costa Rica | 2007 | 91min

Bosnia

Snow

Review by Chris Walts

Most people know something about current events and world conflicts, but, once the wars are over, people tend to overlook the fact that lives have been forever changed. Snow is a film about the remnants of an isolated Bosnian village and its survivors trying to eke out some sort of existence after the war. With all of the able-bodied men missing - their bodies have never been found - the women are forced to sell jam by the side of a road that no one ever drives down. Their luck changes when a rich Serb shows up and offers them all a large sum of money for their land. The women are now faced with a choice: move on, leaving their old life behind, or fight for what they have left. Moving on could mean a new start, but it also likely means foregoing all of their old traditions, and also accepting that their husbands are dead. Beautifully shot and wonderfully directed by Aida Begic, Snow is a sobering film that forces you to remember that the end of a war means the beginning of an entirely different struggle.

Snow
Aida Begic | Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Germany, Iran | 2008 | 99min

Canada

Growing Op

Review by Chris Walts

Growing Op is a good Canadian film. I know that these are words often seem like an oxymoron, but, unlike the stereotypical Canadian film set in the Prairies in the middle of winter, Growing Op is set in the suburbs, and it has a good Canadian twist on the high school coming of age story: the parents run an extensive grow-op. While this concept is nothing new to Douglas Coupland fans (he used it in "Everything's Gone Green" and "Jpod"), director Michael Melski puts his own unique spin on the twist by presenting the pot-growers (Rosanna Arquette and Wallace Langham) as overbearing parents who vehemently conform to a strict set of rules - the rules just happen to be their own. Unfortunately for the son Quinn (wonderfully played by Steven Yaffee), one of these rules means being home schooled, which results in him having no friends and even fewer social skills. All of this changes when a sexy new girl (Rachel Blanchard) moves in next door and asks Quinn to walk her to school. Quinn accepts, and is exposed to a whole new world outside that of his hippie parents - and he loves it.

Growing Op is loaded with laugh out loud jokes, but thankfully most of them aren't based on pot smoking teenagers. The humour in this film comes from the heart of what it is really about - the difficulty and awkwardness of growing up. Underneath all of the smoke and mirrors, Growing Op has a real story that is wonderfully acted and a pleasure to watch. It almost makes you proud to be Canadian.

Growing Op
Michael Melski | Canada | 2008 | 100min

Iceland

When It Was Blue

Review by Chris Walts

When It Was Blue, directed by Jennifer Reeves, is an experimental environmental film that presents, rather than discusses, our current world and the environmental issues surrounding it. Shot with a visual style that almost seems borrowed from Sin City, Reeves works from a base pallet of black and slowly adds in vibrant colours pushing her central metaphor of our dark world once being full of life and colour.

When It Was Blue can be a difficult film to try and engage with it at first as it only offers a jumble of images in black and white that are seemingly random. As an audience member you simple have to let go of your preconceived notions and enjoy the splendor that is before you. There is a journey that takes place when watching When It Was Blue, but instead of it belonging to a protagonist it belongs to the audience. Reeves takes us from our busy urban black scrambled lives through to beautiful blasts of colour in nature, and then ultimately back to the ocean where we all began. I would highly recommend When It Was Blue for anyone looking for a fresh new look on the world around us, and what we need to do to save it.

When It Was Blue
Jennifer Reeves | Iceland | 2008 | 68min

Sweden

Let the Right One In

Review by gloria wong

The first time we see Oskar, a nerdy twelve-year-old boy living with his mother in Stockholm, he's in his bedroom late at night, fantasizing about exacting revenge on his bullies with a very real pocket knife. That is also the first time his new neighbour Eli, also twelve (or thereabouts), sees him - through the window. Eli and Oskar meet the next night in their apartment building's courtyard. He says that she smells. She says they can't be friends. Of course, they have to become friends but first they must overcome a small problem - Eli is a vampire.

I have to say, I love vampire stories - is there a more potent metaphor out there for human isolation and longing? Let the Right One In doesn't offer any particularly novel twists on the genre, but it is a well-executed and surprisingly touching story about children who are burdened with problems bigger than themselves.

Let the Right One In
Tomas Alfredson | Sweden | 2007 | 114min

Canada

Control Alt Delete

Review by Cameron Maitland

The cruel hardships that face an independent comedy are often ignored when a success is examined. Working indie comedies' effortlessness seems to prove that comedy is the genre to attempt on a low budget. Films that don’t work so well though, such as Cameron Labine's debut Control Alt Delete, bring light the fact that pitch-perfect writing, acting and directing are necessary for a bare-bones comedy to succeed.

If nothing else, the film has a unique premise; it follows the trials of a computer programmer who, facing the Y2K crisis and stress at home turns to having sex with his machines. Y2K and the increasing disastrous nature of his actions drive the plot, as well as a few romantic and comedic interludes in between..

Labine has written a film that mostly seems like a whimsical drama but much of the directing and acting, save that of Labine's brother in the lead, often errs of the side of slapstick or screwball humour. An entire b-plot about co-workers trying to find the computer rapist seems out of place compared to the subtler comedy at play in the main characters relationships. Thankfully the film never has moments where as an audience you can see a joke that doesn’t play. Instead Control Alt Delete just seems to consistently miss its own full potential by spreading itself so thin the audience is left confused as to the filmmaker's intentions both in story and direction.

Overall the film has chuckles throughout but unless you think a fat man nude or the idea of a man humping a computer is hilarious, you aren’t likely to think it much of a masterpiece. Still, for a first time Canadian filmmaker on a micro-budget, that may still be considered a triumph.

Control Alt Delete
Cameron Labine | Canada | 2008 | 91min

Israel

Lemon Tree

Review by Cameron Maitland

Like a tried and true genre, some world issues get worn and start to seem cliché when returned to relentlessly on film. That’s why Eran Riklis's Lemon Tree, a film dealing both directly and metaphorically with the Israel-Palestine conflict, needs finesse in telling its story.

Lemon Tree follows the intertwined lives of two women - one a Palestinian lemon farmer living along the Israel border and the other (her neighbour), the wife of the new Israeli Defence Minister. When the secret service deems the Palestinian lemon grove a security threat, it begins a cold war of lawyers, guard posts and fences in which the two women are caught, with little say in their own destinies.

As a political metaphor the film is cumbersome and obvious in its execution but, thankfully, as a drama the film is a delight. Each character has layers and intricacies that betray the heavy-handedness of the political agenda. Though it is a film about bitter fighting, there are heavy doses of whimsy and humour that accompany the day-to-day lives of these two women and especially the outside players in their lives. The acting and directing also serve to raise the film, with truly effective and subtle performances, above the level of propaganda.

Lemon Tree proves that it doesn’t take a fresh political view or strange artistic hand to re-tell the same ideals that other films have touched on before. Instead it simply takes a good story, well told with enough unique flavour to keep it afloat.

Lemon Tree
Eran Riklis | Israel | 2008 | 106min

Mexico

The Desert Within

Review by Cameron Maitland

The genre of tragedy rarely gets a foothold in modern American film yet, if festivals are any indication, it continues to thrive around the world. Rodrigo Pla's The Desert Within may seem like the next in line of South American tragedies but it has a few unique things to say.

The film follows a father, Elias, who, faced with religious persecution during the Mexican Revolution, attempts to get his unborn son baptized. A series of tragedies sparked on by selfish decisions leaves Elias castaway from his village into the desert with his children attempting to redeem himself in the eyes of God waiting for a sign. He employs his children in building a church to please God and defy the revolutionaries. As the tragedy continues and God’s signs are questioned it becomes clear that Elias' intentions may not be so holy.

The film is shocking and heart-wrenching in its unflinching portrayal of tragedy and hardship and almost teeters on the edge of melodrama. Luckily the solid pacing, effortless acting and great use of the church set pave over many of the bumps in the story. Pla also takes advantage of rudimentary animation that adds a lot of uniqueness and heart to the otherwise cold tragedy.

Where many South American tragedies dealing with the hardships of revolution turn to subtly deal with religion's place, this film turns directly to it, for good or ill. Its questioning of motivations and practice in religion are unique enough to make the film, and the tragedy contained within, haunting and unique.

The Desert Within
Rodrigo Pla | Mexico | 2008 | 112min

Cambodia

Paper Cannot Wrap Embers

Review by Cameron Maitland

Often when the subject of a documentary is shocking or new, it can take over for many of the artistic elements other documentaries rely on. Rithy Panh, in turning his camera on the prostitutes of Cambodia, finds a riveting subject for his film Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers, but at the sacrifice of style.

The film follows a young prostitute A’Da and her attempts to support her family as well as her interactions with other girls and the general pursuit of prostitution in Cambodia. Panh ends up revealing a society still reeling from the effects of the Khmer Rouge and the botched aid job done by the UN. A’Da works to support her daughter and mother as well as the various financial demands of a capitalist society all while facing drug addiction, AIDS and unimaginably poor conditions.

No one can deny the documentary is shocking in its portrayal of the crumbling lower class in Cambodian society and A’Da’s story heart wrenching in its desperation. Still, there is a certain arc lacking in the film that made it feel a bit flat. It definitely is opening my eyes to a problem and a way of life far worse than expected yet the story just seems repetitive in its constant badgering of the point of how bad these women’s lives are. Any contradictory moments are fleeting and the most development in their stories seems to come from the titles that end the film, saying where the girls are today.

Paper Cannot Wrap up Embers is definitely a film that should be seen to open eyes to the conditions in Cambodia and the struggles of prostitutes yet, it still feels like a film that could have been more compelling if told with a bit more artistry.

Paper Cannot Wrap Embers
Rithy Panh | Cambodia/France | 2006 | 90min

U.S.A.

The Atom Smashers

Review by Cameron Maitland

Perhaps the hardest type of documentary to make is a scientific one. It must not only worry about being artistic and interesting, but also avoid the pitfalls of being incomprehensible or a glorified educational film. Thankfully, writer/directors Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross’ film The Atom Smashers so masterfully balances these elements it could almost be the archetype against which all other science docs are measured.

The film documents a year and a half in the life of Fermilab, an Illinois lab containing (at the time) the world’s premiere particle accelerator, and the lab’s attempt to find the infamous Higgs Boson particle. With recent events in the scientific community, it’s easy to tell this story quickly turns into a race to find the particle with Fermilab becoming the underdog to the European Large Hadron Collider and the results becoming their chance to justify more funding from an imposing conservative U.S. Government.

The film’s real success though is not relying simply on the easy thrills of this end of the story. It instead focuses just as hard on the day-to-day lives of a few physicists involved and tries to understand the socio-cultural perception of science and how that shaped the past, present and future of Fermilab and its operation. The film deftly switches gears between these elements of the story often and suggests certain artistry in the link between the elements that tends to go missing from the general views of science.

The Atom Smashers succeeds because it’s not simply a film made for the Discovery Channel by scientists about science but instead a film made by real artists, passionate about science and trying to capture all the ideas, struggles and joys the process of scientific discovery can bring.

The Atom Smashers
Clayton Brown & Monica Long Ross | USA | 2008 | 81min

France

A Christmas Tale

Review by Matthew Tsang

Arnaud Desplechin's heavy-hitting drama is essentially about a dysfunctional family reuniting for the Christmas holiday. However, there is much more to it – a perfect set-up makes audiences salivate at the thought of the troubled characters meeting. The film has moments of brilliance and dark comedy that make the lengthy film feel less than it's full two and half hours.

The film opens with the story of Abel and Junon's first son, Joseph. At a young age, Joseph is diagnosed with a disease in which the only cure is a matching bone marrow transplant, so the married couple turns to their youngest daughter Elizabeth as a potential donor. Unfortunately, the daughter isn't a match for the brother, and Joseph dies at the tender age of six. Fast forward to the present, and the melancholic Elizabeth, in need of serious counsel, is now married with a schizophrenic teenage son, Paul. She has two younger brothers, the unpredictable and self-destructive middle brother, Henri, who was banished by her after having needed to bail him out of his last predicament, and Ivan, the sweet, and slightly naive youngest child with a beautiful wife, who seems to have received the aftermath of the family's initial problems. When all these characters reunite for the first time in half a decade, the result is more (delightful) chaos between extremely convincing characters you don't understand or relate to just enough to know that this dysfunction, however much it is beyond you, is very real.

Desplechin does well in providing the audience with messages about family love, despair, and trauma. When the movie ends, audiences are convinced that sometimes the most unrealistic characters and situations on film can be the most realistic in real life.

A Christmas Tale
Arnaud Desplechin | France | 2008 | 151min

Czech Republic

I Am Good

Review by gloria wong

The latest from popular Czech filmmaker Jan Hrebejk and frequent collaborating screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky (Cosy Dens) shows the duo easing themselves off of one of their key trademarks. No doubt I Am Good displays their astute eye for human weakness and strength and it is, like many of their films, a story of unlikely alliances. But I Am Good eschews the large-scale political statements that tied together many of their previous successes.

Instead, I Am Good is a well-executed caper film revolving around a retired magician who cheats at cards more to show off his skills than to win money, a neighbourhood of underdogs who hang out at the local pub, and a group of shell game con artists working the local flea market. The film is funny and satisfyingly old-fashioned, but hardly the most impressive film in this great duo's catalogue.

I Am Good
Jan Hrebejk | Czech Republic | 2008 | 102min

Tues. Oct. 7 | 7:00pm | Ridge Theatre
Thur. Oct. 9 | 2:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 4

Japan

Still Walking

Review by gloria wong

The latest from one of the world's great humanist filmmakers, Japan's Kore-eda Hirokazu (Nobody Knows) is, like most of the director's body of work, a finely crafted small-scaled drama centred around grief and loss. The film captures 24 hours in the life of the Yokoyama family as they reunite on the 15th anniversary of the death of eldest son Junpei (who died saving a young boy from drowning). Before I completely turn you away from the film, Still Walking is an often funny, startlingly honest film that happens to be about a family suspended in grief.

Kyohei is a retired doctor who regrets not having a son who followed in his footsteps. Toshiko busies herself with food preparation and light conversation in an attempt to hide the intense anger fueling her grief. Only daughter Chinami seems a bit flakey at first but she ultimately proves to be the most well-adjusted and observant member of her family. Then there's remaining son Ryota, a secretly failing art restorer whose recent marriage to a widowed single mother seems to have disappointed his parents even further.

Nothing much happens in Still Walking but its moments add up to a tremendously satisfying whole. It might be the most realistic portrayal of adult familial relationships I've ever seem on film. Filled with warmth without sentimentality and truth without sanctimony, Still Walking is another nearly perfect drama to add to Kore-eda's impressive filmography.

Still Walking
Kore-eda Hirokazu | Japan | 2008 | 114min

Brazil

Plastic City

Review by gloria wong

Plastic City begins rather promisingly as an international action/thriller set in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Yuda works the local politicians to secure his blackmarket import/export business interests. He is also the adoptive father of his next-in-command Kirin, a young man with a taste for Brazilian strippers and anime-inspired violence. When Taiwanese representatives of a more powerful crime syndicate show up and convince the local crooked cops and more powerful crooked politicians to turn on Yuda and his small gang, it seems like the perfect setup for intrigue.

Unfortunately, the film devolves into a genre mish-mash with a few too many endings. Twists and genre-blending are one thing; meandering from dead-end to dead-end is an entirely different thing.

Plastic City
Yu Lik-wai | Brazil/China | 2008 | 115min

Canada

Maman est chez le coiffeur

Review by gloria wong

The latest from veteran Quebecois director Lea Pool (Emporte-Moi) displays the director's key strengths - a light comic touch, the ability to develop complex relationships, and especially her remarkable gift for working with young actors. Maman est chez le coiffeur depicts one trasformative summer in the lives of a 1960's Quebecois family.

On the surface, they are living an idyllic small-town life. Dad is the town doctor. Simone, the mother, is a journalist for the CBC. Youngest son Benoit seems adorably eccentric. Middle son Coco's summer project is creating a kick-ass go cart... But eldest child Elise is right at that age (13-ish) when she's just becoming old enough to see adults for what they are but hasn't yet grown the skin most people eventually do to insulate themselves from the horror.

One day, a small, nearly wordless scene involving a mother and daughter and eavesdropping on the telephone confirms long-held fears for the other while leaving the other devasted. Within days, Simone has left the family to start a new life in faraway London, and the small cracks in the family's facade turn soon to breaks. Elise decides she will start to do whatever she wants, while Benoit's eccentricities give way to dangerous behavioural problems.

A tender and sweetly evocative coming-of-age story from one of Canada's great filmmakers.

Maman est chez le coiffeur
Lea Pool | Quebec | 2008 | 97min

Hong Kong

High Noon

Review by Chris Walts

High Noon is 24-year-old director Heiward Mak’s debut feature, and judging from how expertly it was made, Hong Kong has a brilliant new talent to look forward to. High Noon is the coming of age story of seven high school boys trying to make the most of their fleeting moments of freedom before the shattering force of the rest of their lives takes hold. The story revolves around a transfer student, played by Lam Yiu-sing, who is quickly befriended by the other six boys, falling right into their nonchalant study habits and love for mischief and horsing around. The story quickly turns dark however as Mak explores the pitfalls of today's technology-heavy viral social media culture. A sex video shot with one of the boys' phone is accidentally sent out to everyone in his phonebook.

Masterfully shot, Mak knows exactly when to shift from surreal back to reality. She also gets great performances from the entire cast particularly her lead Lam Yiu-sing. One of the strongest features of High Noon is its current and poignant feel. Mak doesn’t shy away from dealing with abusive parents, teenagers sleeping around, drugs, suicide, and gang violence. As a frequent film watcher I was sick to death of the high school coming of age story, but Mak successfully breathes a full breath of fresh air into an overall stagnant genre.

High Noon
Heiward Mak | Hong Kong | 2008 | 106min

China

The Longwang Chronicles

Review by Chris Walts

The Longwang Chronicles are director Li Yifan’s year in the life of the poor Chinese farming village Longwang. Structured according to the traditional Chinese almanac, Li captures the events his film with surprising fly on the wall freedom and detail. Although there is absolutely nothing flashy about this film my interest was held the entire time by the honesty of the events portrayed on screen. Some of the highlights of the film include the uncensored castration of a pig, attempts to extinguish cult religious groups, a fraudulent civic election, and various displays of Communist Party rhetoric. As a Westerner with very little direct knowledge about what is happening in rural China, The Longwang Chronicles provides a thoughtful and compassionate insight into the daily lives of a large group of people I would otherwise have no knowledge about.

The Longwang Chronicles
Li Yifan | China | 2007 | 90min

Mon. Oct. 6 | 12:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 5

China

24 City

Review by Chris Walts

24 City is the story of Factory 420, an aeronautical plant utilized during the Korean War that is being turned into a luxury housing complex, and the people connected to it. In its heyday Factory 420 was a top-secret factory that manufactured planes for the war effort while providing a good living for everyone involved. After the war, its usefulness faded, taking with it the good lives of the many people connected to it.

While this documentary feels like it is trying to point out that progress comes at a cost, its point is never fully realized. The film in structured in such a way that you never really connect with the people telling it. The opposite message actual comes through clearer as you realize that the only reason people had a good life was because of war. Regardless of the actual intent of director Jia Zhangke, the entire film feels like pure information that would be better suited for a 20-minute news special than a documentary film. Apparently Zhangke even created some of the interviews as a sort of meta-comment but this to also falls far short as there is no real evidence of this in the film. It’s not that the film is horrible or hard to watch; its message has simply been done better many times before.

24 City
Jia Zhangke | China | 2008 | 107min

India

Paruthiveeran

Review by Chris Walts

Paruthiveeran is a complex story that interweaves love, murder, humour, and the Indian caste system almost effortlessly. Paruthiveeran, the male lead, is a drunk who resists the tender Muthazhagu’s love, instead choosing a life of mischief and hookers. Muthazhagu knows a different Paruthiveeran however, and has sworn that he will be the only man to see her naked after he saved her life as a child. Beautifully shot, writer/director Ameer's films seems to have been inspired by Shakespeare as it probes the complexities of family relationships and social expectations.

Unfortunately Paruthiveeran has a couple major flaws, the main one being largely illegible subtitles. Because of the way it was shot or colour timed, the white subtitles often got lost, especially in the flashbacks where much of the exposition needed to understand the story takes place. If the film had been as deep most of what is going on could have been ascertained by just the action, but because the film was so complex I just felt lost. The editing was also not that strong as the film often utilized jump cuts for seemingly no other reason than to cut down on overall run time. While these two flaws inevitably made the film unwatchable for me, if you can understand Tamil you are (probably) in for a wonderful filmic experience.

Paruthiveeran
Ameer | India | 2007 | 139min

Hungary

Delta

Review by Cameron Maitland

Films are often praised for using a setting as a character in and of itself. Kornel Mundruczo’s Delta may follow a brother and sister in their struggles, but it is undeniably the titular stretch of the Danube that is the focus of the film.

The film follows the strange man Mihai, who returns to his hometown upon his father’s death to deal with his mother, her new violent husband and a half-sister he never knew about. The siblings make a choice to live together on a small island in the Delta and build their own house, which arouses much suspicion amongst their family and the locals.

Delta exists as a quiet, meandering meditation on the subjects of passion and family brought up by Mihai’s return and the jealousy and fear aroused in his sister’s new interest in him. Much of the action and progression of the story is implicit in the faces and small actions of the townsfolk as well as the siblings. That said there are a few shocking and disturbing scenes throughout, not to mention the ending, which make the filmmaker’s point clear.

The achievement of this film though is its ability to capture the lifestyle and surroundings of the Delta. The cinematography rivals Malick or any of the great, slow landscape masters in its contemplative wanderings. Even if the plot ever grows too slow or tiresome there is always something to look at and consider. Though the plot may telegraph itself slightly, its combination with the breathtaking scenery and camerawork makes this an unforgettable, moving film.

Delta
Kornel Mundruczo | Hungary | 2008 | 92min

Wed. Oct. 1 | 2:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 4
Fri. Oct. 3 | 9:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre 4

Laos

The Betrayal

Review by Cameron Maitland

It’s often easy to think that to make a good documentary all it takes is finding the right subjects and turning the camera on them. Examining Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath’s The Betrayal though you can easily see it takes the strong hand of a good director to make even interesting emotional material work.

The film begins interestingly enough illuminating the story of co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath’s youth in Laos and the role the U.S. government played there during the Vietnamese war. Thavisouk’s father was enlisted in a secret force used to attack their own country and when the communists took power years later, and it turned his family into outcasts, forcing them to escape to America. All of this sounds compelling, doubly so considering the film has decades worth of footage following the family and their immigrant struggles but many choices by the filmmakers really turn the movie into a grating, boring piece.

First, and most obviously, the choice to use Thavisouk as the narrator seems to be the fatal flaw. He seems to dually lack an interesting outside perspective or a solid emotional voice so instead he lays somewhere in the middle as a fairly boring voice. Also, though his broken English does serve to show how far he has come as an immigrant, when compared to the lyrical thoughts and emotions expressed by his mother and father in their native Laotian, it seems grating to have to head his often barely grammatical attempts at expressing his feelings in his second language. Finally, the filmmakers seem to choose the most obvious and clichéd parts of the family’s journey as their focus, something that slows down the film and creates little sympathy in an audience. While an absentee father, lost loved ones, gang violence and poverty in this immigrant experience are tragic things, it’s something we’ve seen countless times before and the filmmakers’ refusal to focus on anything innovative in the telling of these events does a disservice to what the Phrasavath family has been through.

The Betrayal is unfortunately an interesting story, poorly told and an example of how much the influence of the filmmaker has on the effectiveness of their documentary.

The Betrayal
Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath | USA/Laos | 2008 | 96min

Wed. Oct. 1 | 12:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre 1
Wed. Oct. 8 | 7:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre 2
Thur. Oct. 9 | 4:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre 1

Philippines

Serbis

Review by Cameron Maitland

There are many films that achieve greatness by showing a ‘day in the life’ of a social microcosm and exploring the greater influences that play upon them. Brillante Mendoza’s film Serbis exists as one of these pieces but explores a microcosm very far from what any Western film has ever touched.

Serbis explores the in’s and out’s of the somewhat ironically named Family Theatre, a run-down pornographic movie house in a run-down district in the Philippines. The theatre is run by the large extended family of powerful matriarch Nanay Flor. The action tends to focus on Flor’s daughter Nayda, a former nurse who is put in charge when her mother must attend a court case prosecuting their father. The court case alone brings light to the socio-economics of the Phillipines but the entire day in the life of Nayda exists as a sort of upstairs/downstairs drama of the theatre and its guests. But of course, in a world like, this upstairs are transsexual prostitutes and downstairs are accidental pregnancies.

Beyond the fascinations the intricate and layered plot brings, the film also is a success due to its evocative cinematography. The run-down theatre is as much a character as its patrons and the voyeuristic eye of the camera does often take the outsiders view of the action that allows even the most foreign audiences an ‘in’ for understanding the characters and their surroundings.

Serbis is often shocking and scathing in its subtle attacks on Filipino culture and some scenes are not for the weak of heart or stomach but if you stick through you’ll definitely leave with an entertaining experience that also illuminates more about their culture than perhaps the filmmakers even intended.

Serbis
Brilliante Mendoza | Philippines/France | 2008 | 94min

Wed. Oct. 1 | 10:30am | Empire Granville Theatre 2
Thur. Oct. 2 | 9:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre 3

Japan

Lucky 7

Review by Cameron Maitland

When a director takes on the task of orchestrating and achieving a smooth anthology film, they tend to be setting themselves up for failure with a final product too disparate and chunky to enjoy. With her collaboration Lucky 7, Singaporean filmmaker Sun Koh hopes that the surrealist concept of the exquisite corpse can change negative perceptions of the anthology film.

Invented by the surrealists, the exquisite corpse is a collaborative piece rotated amongst creators wherein the next creator can only see the very end of the piece made before them. In this case Koh allowed each director to only see the last minute of the 10-12 minute segment produced before them but made the demand that the same actor, the undeniably flexible and talented Sunny Pang, appear in each segment.

In the end we get a film that has seven segments ranging from intimate dramatic pieces about love and dying to bombastic animations about pedophilia. Each director brings their own take and style and no two sections are too similar, which definitely makes the entire experience fast-paced.

Unfortunately, too many of the pieces are weak and the whole collapses under the stress. More than half juvenilely fumble with overly provocative portrayals of sex, sadomasochism, violence and gender issues. While it’s laudable to bring up such issues in a society like Singapore, the execution leaves much to be desired. The few pieces that do work are overwhelmed or mocked by the failures of the segments around them and their clear lack of bother to create any links or cohesion between segments. Worse yet, the filmmakers who try to play homage to surrealist film create bigger trainwrecks that would seem more at home in a first year film class than alongside great short pieces.

In the grand scheme of anthologies, Lucky 7 falls prey to the same problems as many of its anthology predecessors. Though there are glimmers of hope in some of the segments, but in the end you wish they’d just have existed as a series of shorts rather than a collected whole.

Lucky 7
Sun Koh et al | Singapore | 2008 | 82min

Sun. Sept. 28 | 7:15pm | Vancity Theatre
Mon. Sept. 29 | 3:45pm | Vancity Theatre

Japan

German + Rain

Review by Cameron Maitland

When you go into a film from another culture and another country, there’s nothing more disheartening than the frequency with which you find cookie cutter Hollywood films can come from anywhere. Thankfully there are still films like Yokohama Satoko’s German + Rain that are so unique that they seem almost from another world, let alone another country.

While the plot is too faceted to summarize, the general action follows anti-social 16-year-old Yoshiko and her attempts to make a life for herself when the rest of the world abandons her. What could have been a heart-warming tale is turned on its head when the put-upon Yoshiko ends up being more dark hearted, bilious and strange than any of the roadblocks put in her way. Yoshiko is a social misfit in an eccentrically violent and surreal way, her life a sort of Lynchian Welcome to the Dollhouse and the rest of the world, like the audience can’t help but sit by and watch as she tears around like a force of nature.

If that cinematic comparison seems hard to comprehend, don’t worry, it definitely is. Though the film will have you constantly engaged, it will just as frequently have you scratching your head. It’s hard to know when to laugh and when to cringe but, when you know, you definitely feel it and that’s where most of the fun of the piece lays.

German + Rain is bound to divide audiences with its multitudinous interpretations and wild plot but it is definitely a breath of fresh air from a unique and interesting director.

Germain + Rain
Yokohama Satoko | Japan | 2007 | 71min

Sun. Sept. 28 | 9:45pm | Vancity Theatre
Mon. Sept. 29 | 1:15pm | Vancity Theatre

Turkey

Three Monkeys

Review by Cameron Maitland

Three Monkeys is the latest from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. While this film shows many of his trademarks, it also emerges from an interesting and conventional place.

The film follows the story of a working class driver who takes the fall when his boss, a politician up for re-election, accidentally kills a pedestrian. What follows is the fallout from this decision and how the money offered to him effects both himself and his family. It sounds like a conventional enough plot of a thriller or noir but Ceylan’s careful attention to characters and their complex and often contradictory motivations is what makes the film special. Recognizable from Ceylan’s other films is the family’s inability to communicate played out through long lyrical silences for each character on screen. The acting from every performer has to be top notch to bear the weight of such intense and quiet emotions but luckily every cast member is up to the task.

This film is definitely not for anyone who craves melodrama or instant satisfaction. Much of the emphasis is on what is not said and the slow burn of destruction surrounding the family. I even found myself at times losing interest with the slow pace in the middle of the film but luckily, the payoff is well worth the wait and the overall message of the film deserves the space and time Ceylan gives it.

Three Monkeys
Nuri Bilge Ceylan | Turkey | 2008 | 109min

Sun. Sept. 28 | 4:00pm | Ridge Theatre
Mon. Sept. 29 | 10:30am | Empire Granville Theatre 2
Tues. Sept. 30 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre 7