Vancouver International Film Festival 2008

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

Germany

Tulpan

Review by Cameron Maitland

It’s hard to imagine, in a festival climate obsessed with obscure ethnographic films, that there’s a culture that has yet to be portrayed on film. That’s why Sergey Dvortsevoy’s portrayal of Kazakh nomads in Tulpan comes as such a shock and delight.

The film follows Asa, just back from the Russian Navy and living with his sister and her goat-herding husband, as he attempts to find a wife and his own flock on the steppe. His plans are stymied by a general lack of women, his own daydreaming, the gruff nature of his brother-in-law and particularly the mysterious Tulpan, who refuses to marry him due to the size of his ears.

The success of Tulpan lies in its own refusal to fall into lazy ethnography conventions. The audience never feels that they are seeing a ‘way of life’ because the characters have been individually crafted and the camera focuses on Asa’s personal struggles while slowly, peripherally revealing the day-to-day life of these Kazakh nomads. Not everything is explained, but the whimsy of the plotting and the emotions of the characters make it easy for the audience to connect.

Films of this nature often get stuck on cinematographic concerns or documentary-like portrayals where plot and substance fall by the wayside. Thankfully with Tulpan, Dvortsevoy has avoided these pitfalls and created a joyous, effecting film that never bores or does disservice to his subjects.

Tulpan
Sergey Dvortsevoy | Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland | 2008 | 100mins

Fri. Sept. 25 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville, Theatre 7
Thur. Oct. 2 | 6:40pm | Empire Granville, Theatre 3
Fri. Oct. 3 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville, Theatre 7