Festivals         Venice International film festival 2017 (30th August-9th September)

     

    Giornatedegliautori – Venice days

    Started in 2004 and inspired by the prestigious Cannes Directors’ fortnight, Giornate degli autori is, according to its organisers, “a section in search of talent, emotions, ideas and auteur cinema. Itis devoted to seeking out originality and diversity. Not to astonish, or provoke by riding the wave of easy titles, but to share the delight of discovery. Of celebrating difference.Of finding the ones who march to the beat of a different drummer.”

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    This year’s programme of Giornatedegliautori (Venice Days) was outstandingly innovative. The Fedeora jury, composed of Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, Ninos Mikelides and myself, had a difficult task of deciding on three awards: the best film, the best young filmmaker and the best actor award.

    Jury

    The great focus on Italian cineasts ranged from Il contagione, by Matteo Botrugno and Daniele Coluccini, on the shady business and corruption of powerful mafiosis affecting the lives of a “quiet” working class neighbourhood, to convincing L’equilibrio, by Vincenzo Marra, another film on corrupted society, focused on the spiritual challenges of the priest Giuseppe (wonderfully played by Mimmo Borrelli) who is transferred from a small Rome diocese to his native land, in a small village outside Naples; Valentina Pedicini’s Dove cadono le ombre, on the depressing life at orphanages (based on a true story), which has a noble motivation and goal, but ultimately fails to convey cinematically its raison d’être.

    Other, international, works included Pengfei’sThe taste of rice flowers, masterfully filmed feature on harsh divisions between Chinese rural and urban settings, addressing the issues of left-behind children and youngsters by their parents who head to cities for a better life.Austrian Life guidance, a sci-fi dystopian feature by Ruth Mader, is an interesting take on the near future Western society of perfect capitalism, where all people are “encouraged” by Life guidance state agency to be top-achievers (as under-achievers are easily eliminated, even physically).Israeli Ga’Agua (Longing) by Savi Gabizon, who also signs the screenplay (which becomes the principal problem of the film), focuses on an aging man who finds out he has/had a son with his college girlfriend. Unfortunately, the screenplay goes out of control with an exaggerated, even soapy, grotesque element, which is a pity, as this could have been a fine drama on parenthood, human relations, the loss of loved ones and the obsessive wish to procreate.

    Iranian-born Shirin Neshat’sLooking for Oum Kulthum, offers an elaborately documented and rich portrait film-within-a film on the legendary Egyptian singer and diva Oum Kulthum, but turns sloppily into an auto-biopic journey of personal dilemmas of the author herself. Shirin Neshat is one of the most acclaimed visual artists of the contemporary art scene: her first feature Women without men received the Silver Lion award at the Venice film festival and her video installation Turbulent and Rapture had won the Golden Lion at 48th Venice Biennale ten years earlier.

    MoroccanVolubilis by Faouzi Bensaidi, a touching story of a married couple in love in the Moroccan city of Meknes, shows in a nuanced way how socially marginal lives are shaped by the devastating traditional socio-political narratives and the corruption of the new financial powerful elites.

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    M, a debut feature by Sara Forestier, which was awarded the best young director award of our Fedeora jury, isa tender love story between two creatures, most unlikely to meet, but Lila, who has a paralysing speech impediment (brilliantly interpreted by Sara Forestier) and Mo (played by wonderful Redouane Harjane, awarded the best actor prize of our Fedeora jury) who has a secret burden, which the viewers will discover before Lila, succeed in showing us the power of love less usual.

     

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    Sara Forestier on her film experience: “Mo and Lila are opposites, and yet similar. Both sayings are equally true when explaining their attraction to one another. I like that this duality cannot define their connection in a facile way, and that their relationship possesses a more mysterious or hidden dimension.

    The last film screened within the section of Giornate degli autori is, surprisingly, out best film winnerEye on Juliet, by Kim Nguyen, who also signs the screenplay. A moving story of love seen and lived through the eye of a spider drone, beautifully and touchingly played by Joe Cole and Lina El Arabi, the film is illustrative of rare humanity that brings people closer in spite of geographical and cultural distances, thanks to compassion and empathy, which give humans back the lost dignity in the age of alienating hi-tech Global village.

    Candelaria

    Another film with an extraordinary human touch in this section is Candelaria,by Columbian Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza, who, after producing and co-producing many international film productions, made his directorial debut with the short film When the boys come in 2010, his first feature two years later Choco, which screened at the 2012 Berlin festival, followed by Saudo, Labyrinth of souls in 2016.

    candelaria

    Set in Cuba,Candelariais a story of Candelaria and Victor Hugo, an old couple in their late seventies, who continue to live their quiet, slow-paced lives in 1994’s Havana, although the world around them is at turmoil: the embargo is at its peak and the Soviet Union is disintegrating. They survive on little food in their modest flat, where Candelaria has a few chicken pets, which she wouldn’t let be used for food even when she and Victor Hugo are starving. Their lives are changed one day when Candelaria finds a camera in the laundry of the hotel where she works and takes it home. Not knowing how to use it at first, they both gradually learn and start using it. The camera, initially an alien object to them, becomes as instrument for the rediscovery of their love and - life. They seem to live again, forgetting for a moment at last that one of them is sick. The scenes of their dancing, laughing together, kissing, and making love, are one of the most tender scenes seen in the contemporary cinema.

    This beautifully and sophisticatedly shot film, with nuancing warm colours of the Cuban exterior reflecting the sparked up love between two aging individuals, suggestively transmits its profound message on humanity, but is not devoid of social and political commentary. Protagonists’ lives and the local socio-economic crisis reflect each other in a mirror-like effect, with all frailties and vulnerabilities exposed, both that of the system and of the individual. Nevertheless, Candelaria resonates universally

    If there were an award for both actors as one prize for two, not to be shared but as one whole composed of two, it would be for these two extraordinary actors - Verónica Lynn as Candelaria and Alden Knigth as her husband Victor Hugo, as one doesn’t exist without the other, even if they have rare screen moments apart.

    Hinestrozaexplaines the film title: “Once, in downtown Havana, I ran into a woman on the street who was almost ninety, named Candelaria – the same name as the daughter I was expecting, who never came. She came out of nowhere to tell me one of those stories that inspire and encourage you to keep on living and triumph over adversity. With her dark eyes and burned skin, Candelaria spoke to me in a hoarse voice, singing more than speaking, really, and invited me to buy her banana cake. I ordered two and paid US $20 and she laughed. She laughed so hard that I didn’t know what to say. That was the moment this beautiful story started. It was a universal story, but even more, it was a lesson in humanity.”

     

    RyuichiSakamoto: Coda

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    Made over a five-year period during which Ryuichi Sakamoto was diagnosed and treated for stage 3 throat cancer, the intimate documentary portrait Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda by Stephen Nomura Schiblereveals the figure of Oscar-winning Japanese composer, electronic music experimentalist and a synth-pop icon back at work - at his home music studio, layering various elements into hypnotic soundscapes, butalways returning to piano, his Steinway, as the centerpiece of his work.His creativity seems to be the essential part of his most personal and intimate self.

    The film begins with Sakamoto at a high school in Northeast Japan, tinkering with a Yamaha baby grand piano that survived the 2011 tsunami, saying "I felt as if I was playing the corpse of a piano that drowned".He is shown not only as an artist, but as a socially-engagé activist, joining a massive protest after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, visiting a shrine in memory of the earthquake and tsunami victims and playing a beautiful arrangement for piano, violin and cello of his, now anthological, theme from NagisaOshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, the 1983 film showing all his androgynous beauty in famous scenes opposite David Bowie.

    Sakamoto’s artistic inspirations range from organ chorales of Bach, Paul Bowles and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s work, environmental sounds gathered first-hand from Arctic Circle glacier or Lake Turkana, Kenya (where the world's oldest human remains were discovered) to the films, photographs and sounds of Andrei Tarkovsky.

    I wanted to make music for a non-existent film, in a way like Tarkovsky made recorded sounds in his films. He was a musician, not just a film author”, says Sakamoto. Then, we observe him collect sounds in a forest, or placing different vessels to catch chiming raindrops outside his house in Tokyo.

    A vast assemblage of clips, images, sounds and anecdotes of his work, hardly fitting into one documentary, follows: his early synth-pop years in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when he was a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra(such nostalgic iconic clips!), his work on soundtracks for Bertolucci’sThe Last Emperor (which won Sakamoto an Oscar) and The Sheltering Sky, Inaritu’s The Revenant etc. The Sheltering Sky and the thoughts of Paul Bowles (whose novel the film is based upon), another amazing figure of a composer, writer, translator, philosopher, seem to have had a profound effect on Sakamoto, when he gives this long quote of Bowles in the film:

    “Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet, everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”

    But the film ends with the artist’s expression of his wish to create more, defying death and mortality: “I want to create a metaphor for eternity – durable soundsthat last forever...”

    RuyichiSakamoto: Coda is a film that proves once more that Sakamoto, similarly to Tarkovsky, Godard, Bowles and other great masters, is not only a composer and musician: he is a philosopher, inventor and a complete artist, whose oeuvre will last forever.

     

    Maja BOGOJEVIĆ

      

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         Festivals         Venice International film festival 2017 (30th August-9th September)

    The multiple magic of Venice

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    Venice film festival is always an exciting place, with high concentration of good films across all sections, star-studded red carpet, full cinemas and, generally, laid-back, exuberant and warm Mediterranean atmosphere, luckily, devoid of fan crowd hysteria without which some other big festivals wouldn’t even exist.At least, I didn’t notice much red carpet hysterical noise (typical of Cannes, for example), in spite of the daily presence of divas and‘sexy hot stars’, perhaps due to the more humane logistical cinema entrance system, which is less hierarchical and more accessible, perhaps thanks to the kind and unusually patient entry ticket staff (unexpected of the Mediterraneans), or perhaps thanks to the ever-present Adriatic sea breeze. Speaking Italian helps, too.

    I suppose that the beauty of Lido itself, its entourage and the magic of the city of Venice help, too. One can’t resist being mesmerized by the magic of Venice – even if this is the umpteenth time to visit it – especially when semi-empty,clamour-freevaporettostake you back from Lido to Venice after the late night screeningsand the only sound heard is that of the sea canal wavesin the moon-lit Venice. For a moment, it seems confusing which magic is more real – the one on the Lido screens or the one right in front of you as you gaze from vaporetto. But it is precisely this magnificent magic of blending – filmic, architectural and natural– that leaves you undecided which “screen” to look at first,making the very moment of choosing all the more enchanting. Rare festival setting is so magnetic, adding to the mystique of the whole festival. And this is not betaken for granted. Those who do, have stopped believing in the magic of film art, too.

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    This spellbinding full-moon ambiance was occasionally marredby,almost daily, torrential rains, but instead of spoiling the festival good mood, they only made it more adventurous (you meet some of the most interesting people trying to shelter from rainstorms in a compact square meter allowed for smokers), driving more people to leave the beaches and giardini and head to cinemas. If they could find tickets, that is.

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    Venice film magic (or the lack of it?)& red carpet Hollywood

    The film programme is highly varied, if one doesn’t expect to discover many master-pieces. But then, which festival showcases even one masterpiece, let alone more of them, in today’s cinema creativity impasse? Good films have become rare and art enthusiasm has subdued, so big festival discussions of film professionals nowadays sound like the talks of Wall street bankers (it’s all about money, budgets, profits and distribution deals) rather than genuine artists talking about the quality of artistic works. Yawn. Yes, film is in crisis, but not only because of the lack of money, but because of too much obsession with it: too many films are being made, most of the small-budget ones can’t get a breakthrough outside festival circuits, resulting in theobsession with money and creativity crisis. But, as you know, we live in the age of imagination deficiency and short-span attention (if you’ve read the text this far).

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    The 74thMostraInternazionaled’ArteCinematografica di Venezia was opened by Downsizing, a sci-fi comedy, a sort of satire of modern-day Lilliput, by Oscar-winning Alexander Payne, the director known for his excellent Nebraska, All about Schmidt, Descendantsetc.The grandiose opening of la Mostra can be about anything else but ‘downsizing’, as it has become something of an Oscar winner harbinger (or an omen, at least),

    if you recall the success of Gravity, Birdman and La La Land, all opening Venice festival films.George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, Sally Hawkins, Mat Damon or, possibly even, Frances McDormand and Judi Dench, are all racing for Oscar advantage.

    The competition line-up, packed with 21 films by such auteurs as Guillermo del Toro with Shape of water, Paul Shrader withFirst reformed, Abdelatif Kechiche with Mektoub, my love: canto uno, Darren Aronofsky with the horror Mother,

    Martin McDonagh withThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Andrew Haigh’sLean on Pete, Frederick Wiseman, and Samuel Maoz, known for mesmerizing Lebanon, and returning after a long time with the new film Foxtrot, was not an easy task for the jury, headed by AnetteBening. The festival director, Alberto Barbera, explaining his choice of the woman president, exclaimedthat it was high time to stop the long list of male presidents and invite a brilliant, talented and inspiring woman to head the jury of the international competition programme, referring to AnetteBening, the actress with four Oscar nominations so far, not shunning away from challenging and daring roles.

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    Hollywood stars dominated the red carpet galore, with great attention being received by RiteshBatra’sNetflix Our souls at night, which reunites Robert Redford and Jane Fonda for the fourth time, but not since 1979’s The Electric Horseman, on which occasion they both, fittingly and long deservedly, received the honorary awards. Amidst the ovations of the packed Sala Grande’s cinema, childhood screen memories started rolling in front of my eyes: The Chase, Barefoot in the park, Three days of the Condor, The Way We Were, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Out of Africa…And I felt dizzy with too much magic.

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    The innovation of 74thMostra was also the segment “Virtual reality”, showcasing, as the title explicitates, the new technology films, set outside Lido, on the small island ofLazzarettovecchio, which the audiences could access by boats in order to enjoy the interactive experiences enabled by new technologies. The programme echoed the success of AlejandroIňaritu’s installation Carne y arena, exhibited earlier this year in Cannes.

     

    Parallel sections

    Much was expected of this 74th Venice edition, especially after the lukewarm Cannes edition, but only a few films managed to catch my attention.Due to my late arrival, I missed Zama, the first film in seven years from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, one of the most interesting directors of today (La Cieneaga, La mujer sin cabeza…). But I managed to catch another Argentinian film, Invisible,screened in Orizzonti, the Romanian new wave-style minimalist social-realist Argentinian feature by the long-awaited return of Pablo Giorgelli (who triumphed with prizes, including the Cannes Camera d’Or for his equally minimalist “Las Acacias”). With a scarce verbal narrative, long takes of the socially marginalised and simply depicting Ely’s daily routines (magnificently played by Mora Arenillas), this is the film that sticks in your mind.

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    Parallel sections of Orizzonti and Giornate degli autori (Venice days) displayed vibrant new films, spiraling from outright masterpieces (such as Invisible) to promising debuts, such as Jusqu’a la guarde, a debut by Xavier Legrand, which won 2 prizes: Horizons Silver Lion for best director and Luigi de Laurentis award.

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    Nico, 1988, the best Horizons film prize, by Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli, known for her 2009 debut Cosmonauta, is a moving biopic of the late German singer, who was part of the cult Velvet Undeground band and Andy Warhol’s muse. Set between Paris, Prague, Nuremberg, Manchester, the Polish countryside, it focuses on the last two years of Nico’s life – 1987 and 1988. Nico died in 1988 while on vacation with her son Ari on the island of Ibiza.

    Charlotte Rampling received the best actress award for Andrea Pallaoro’sHannah, giving a memorable speech, thanking Italy for being the greatest inspiration, as well as thanking her masters Visconti, Liliana Caviani etc. for making her the actress that she is.

    Much awaited work by the talented Italian director Andrea Segre, systematically dedicating his work to migrant issues (his poeticIo sono Li won many international awards, including the financially rewarding Živko Nikolić prize for best film at the Montenegrin 2012 MOFFEM festival in Kotor), L’ordine delle cose received the Human Rights Film Network Special mention. The new featureis an interesting take on immigration, but it fails to deliver, in spite of the bigger-budget production (or precisely because of it) which makes the film look more like a poor Hollywood slick thriller parody – all cosmetics without any substance - rather than a genuine art film by a, once, promising talented author.

     

      

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         Lucidno        

    Two French Godard Books: Informational Obstacles (and Teasers)

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    Here are two recent valuable acquisitions I’ve made via French Amazon — Antoine de Baecques’s 940-page biography of Jean-Luc Godard, the first one in French (after two in English, by Colin MacCabe and Richard Brody), published by Bernard Grasset, and Godard’s 107-page “book” version of (or companion to) his recent Film Socialisme, published by P.O.L, his usual publisher, and subtitled Dialogues avec visages auteurs (literally, “Dialogues with faces authors”).

    It’s far too early to make any sweeping judgments about either book — which would be presumptuous for me to attempt to do at any point, given my less than perfect French — but a few first impressions are in order. De Baecque’s biography is full of interesting details, in particular ones drawn from formerly unavailable or unfamiliar documents, e.g., a letter from Pasolini to Godard about La chinoise, and, roughly two decades later, a letter from Godard to Norman Mailer about some of his plans for King Lear. But it also appears that De Baecque can’t be trusted very much when it comes to his handling of American criticism about Godard. A minor complaint (which I hope doesn’t sound churlish, given how flattering he is to me elsewhere in this book): he claims, based on the French translation of my autobiographical Moving Places, that I spent “half my time in Paris between 1966 and 1968″ seeing or reseeing Godard films on drugs; but in fact, apart from a couple of summer visits to Paris during this period (during which my Godard viewing goes unmentioned), my extended sojourn in Paris was between 1969 and 1974, and my accounts of watching Alphaville on grass and Band of Outsiders on acid on the pages he cites were actually in New York in 1965 and in London in 1970, respectively. Far more serious is de Baecque’s groundless claim that Pauline Kael, in her 1966 essay “Movie Brutalists,” attacked Godard’s “genre” films (for de Baecque, these are Breathless, Le petit soldat, and Band of Outsiders)

     while defending Godard’s socially-minded films (for de Baecque, these are The Married Woman, Masculine Feminine, and Vivre sa vie). But anyone familiar with Kael’s Godard criticism knows that she supported Breathless, loved Godard’s films about youth (especially Band of Outsiders, Masculine Feminine, and La chinoise), and dismissed Vivre sa vie, The Married Woman, and Alphaville, among others. Like de Baecque’s implication that John Simon — who probably has hated Godard’s work more than anyone else on the planet — was one of his most passionate defenders during the mid-60s, this suggests that de Baecque’s reading knowledge of English simply isn’t up to taking on these kinds of critical surveys.

    Godard’s book, on the other hand, probably raises as many questions about Film Socialisme as it answers. Like his other P.O.L books, it often reduces the verbiage of his film to Chinese-fortune-cookie-like epigrams. It’s also important to note that the passages in the film’s soundtrack in German, Italian, Russian, English, and Persian (or is it Arabic?) remain in those languages here, and that the book concludes with a reproduction of a nine-page, handwritten letter in French from philosopher Jean-Paul Curnier to Godard, with three separate passages crossed out, dated 9 novembre 2009. But perhaps the most striking thing here, accounting for the book’s subtitle, is the method of attributing quotations: not by name but by mug shots — among those that I recognize, photographs of Hannah Arendt, Patti Smith, Jean-Paul Sartre, Neal Gabler, William Faulkner (accorded, if I’m not mistaken, two separate photographs and two separate quotations), William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Billy Wilder, and Walter Benjamin.

    Jonathan ROSENBAUM
    first published in:
    www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2017/04/two-french-godard-books/

      

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         Lucidno        

    «Mort à Sarajevo», danse macabre pour une Europe défunte

    Le film de Danis Tanović construit, autour de la commémoration du centenaire de la Première Guerre mondiale, un labyrinthe hanté par la tragédie des Balkans et l'arrogance des grandes puissances.

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    Il y a bien eu dans la capitale bosniaque, le 28 juin 2014, cette commémoration du centenaire de l’assassinat de François-Ferdinand d'Autriche, marqueur du début de la Première Guerre mondiale.

    Il y a bien eu une pièce écrite pour l’occasion par Bernard-Henri Lévy, intitulée Hôtel Europe, interprétée par Jacques Weber et jouée en grand apparat sur la scène du Théâtre national.

    Il y a bien eu, surtout, cet atroce abandon d’un pays en guerre, puis dans un après-guerre imposé dans des conditions qui ne pouvaient que mener à une impasse glauque.

    L'ombre de deux guerres et l'arrogance de l'Europe

    Il y a bien eu ce mélange d’arrogance et de désinvolture des puissances européennes, des dirigeants politiques, des experts et des stratèges de tous poils.

    Il y a bien eu cette ombre atroce de la grande boucherie de 1914, «célébrée» (!!!) là, à Sarajevo, au nom de tout ce qu’elle était supposée nourrir a contrario d’amitiés entre les peuples, de construction de la maison commune Europe: mascarade ayant laissé les Sarajéviens incrédules devant le luxe vide des festivités, si loin de leur existence.

    Il y a bien eu cette double mémoire –mémoire des tranchées, mémoire du siège et du massacre de Srebrenica– abandonnée aux rats de l’oubli et à la misère quotidienne, opaque et mafieuse, qui règne sur cette partie des Balkans.

    C’est cela que met en scène Danis Tanović avec une virtuosité où l’amertume terrible n’empêche ni la tendresse ni l’humour –qui a partie liée avec le désespoir, pas forcément avec la politesse.

    Reprise en fiction d'événements réels

    Trois ans après l’admirable La Femme du ferrailleur, le cinéaste bosniaque propose une autre variation, différente, à partir de la reprise en fiction d’événements réels, dans un tissage serré d’authenticité et de romanesque.

    Jacques Weber dans son propre rôle, répète seul dans une chambre (Allociné).

    Voici donc Jacques Weber qui débarque à l’hôtel, fait repasser sa chemise blanche modèle BHL, et se prépare à jouer un rôle qu’il ne connaît pas bien, ne comprend pas complètement, et n’est pas sûr d’apprécier. Voici les médias locaux qui, faute des grands noms de la politique internationale annoncés puis excusés, se rejouent les interminables conflits locaux,

     cristallisés par la figure de Gavrilo Princip, l’assassin de l’archiduc, héros des uns, criminel pour les autres.

    Faketa Salihbegovic, bombardée leader de la grève (Allociné).

    Et voici, au rez-de-chaussée, les employés de l’hôtel acculés à la grève; au sous-sol, les truands bien en cour; dans son bureau, le directeur qui bricole son livre de comptes.
    L’hôtel est devenu un champ de forces de différentes natures, chacune avec sa charge de tristesse, de brutalité ou de désarroi.

    Vu de Bosnie

    Cauchemardesque, Mort à Sarajevo ne l’est pas seulement pour la situation qu’il décrit, mais par sa construction en labyrinthe fluide, où des éléments hétérogènes soudain se relient, où des obstacles effrayants surgissent: violence physique des gangsters, égoïsme ou soumission des employés, fourberie des responsables, indifférence des grandes puissances, instrumentalisation par un intellectuel médiatique…

    Vu depuis Sarajevo, depuis la Bosnie, le constat est d’une extrême noirceur, et pourtant le film n’est nullement sinistre.

    Chorégraphie

    Grâce à un sens dynamique de la circulation, grâce à une affection intense pour certains de ses personnages, une compassion pour d’autres malgré leurs travers.

    Grâce aussi, à cette sorte de sincérité déconnectée, inutile, malheureuse mais pas ridicule que fait vibrer Weber dans un emploi et une situation qu’il a vécus.

    L'amour-haine entre deux idées du pays, et de l'histoire, avec Vedrana Seksan et Muhamed Hadzovic (Allociné).

    Le film est une chorégraphie, celle d'un infernal trafic, où circulent et s'échangent les armes, les mots, les billets.

    Il trouve sa forme et sa solidité en se déployant et se redéployant dans ce lieu à l’intérieur duquel tout se joue et rien ne se dénoue, cet hôtel-décor lui aussi bien réel (l’Holiday Inn de Sarajevo, haut lieu du siège et qu’a chanté Marcel Ophüls dans ses Veillées d’armes), qui acquiert peu à peu un autre statut. Celui de tombeau pour une idée de l’Europe défunte.

    Jean-Michel FRODON
    www.slate.fr/story/150195/mort-sarajevo-danse-macabre 

      

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         Festivals        

    SARAJEVO Film festival: 11th – 18th August
    Film Festival of Hearts in the city
    with the greatest heart of all

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    Sarajevo Film Festival, with its regular rich and vibrant sections of film competitions, In Focus, Open air, Kinoscope, Summer Screen, Teenarena, Children’s, Tributes programmes, CineLink Industry Days etc., is the most important regional film event and the most creative meeting point for film professionals, never to be missed. Each new edition brings a fresh wave of surprising and pioneering contents with its impressive film programmes, numerous fascinating guests – renowned film figures and talented promising newcomers, alike, including exceptional master-classes by some of the most exciting leading film authors of today and sidebar events, exquisitely combining the impeccable festival professionalism with the city’s cosy and unique ambiance and charming hospitality and generosity of the festival hosts. The opulent offer of enticing cafés (kafići), bars, pattiseries and irresistible ćevabdžinicas (traditional local restaurants), mainly concentrated in picturesque Baš Čarsija, add a special “ćevapi touch” to the Jarmushian coffee and cigarettes package going well with films, especially with films in Sarajevo (and especially for a Turkish/Bosnian coffee lover like me), making it all the more difficult not only to choose which events to follow but also which place to choose for a short refreshment break, the shortness of which is dictated by the huge programme variety, that one becomes almost breathless trying to go and be everywhere, even if most of the venues are practically situated very close to each other, including most hotels.

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    And this is all set in Sarajevo, the city that, abandoned and neglected by the arrogant international powers and the whole international community, suffered the longest siege in the heart of and before the eyes of Europe, and became the symbol of war resistance and freedom, showing still today signs, architectural and other, of ailments from its recent war history and bringing back haunting memories of monstrous massacres and genocides of its neighbouring towns and villages, but ever flourishing with the invincible and contagious enthusiasm and the famous unmatched humour of its citizens. Such an exciting setting makes the festival all the more special and internationalist, only to prove yet again the famous Langlois’ notion of film as a separate nation, making it a perfect combination for me: my favourite art in my favourite city. The name of the Heart of Sarajevo award couldn’t be better fitted for a city that wore its heart on its sleeve during the war and continues to give it generously in peace.

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    Honorary Hearts and Dealing with the past: Oliver Stone, John Cleese and Joshua Oppenheimer

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    Out of 235 films from 54 countries, screened in 18 different programmes, many are in competition sections with separate juries – feature, documentary, short, student etc. This year’s feature competition jury, headed by Michel Franco and composed of Mark Adams, Goran Bogdan, Fatma Al Remaihi and Melisa Sozen had a difficult task of deciding for the best feature film, best director, and best actor and actress Heart of Sarajevo. Documentary film competition includes Heart of Sarajevo for best film, Human rights award and Special jury award, sponsored by Al Jazeera Ballkans. Partners awards comprise Sarajevo short film nominee for the European film awards 2017, EDN talent grant for promising new documentary filmmakers from the region, CICAE (The International Confederation of Art Cinemas) and Cineuropa prize – all awarded films are rewarded financially.

    Sarajevo 2017 060

    23rd SFF edition was further spiced up by two honorary hearts – for extraordinary contribution to the art of film – to the living legend of comedy John Cleese and the iconic filmmaker, Academy award winner, Oliver Stone. Stone’s award acceptance speech at the open air stage, surrounded by buildings with faded or war torn facades, as a testament to the recent tragic past, couldn’t be a more moving and resonant anti-war statement:

    John Cleese


    {niftybox background=#dff178, width=360px}OFICIJELNE NAGRADE

    TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – IGRANI FILM

    Žiri:

    Michel Franco, reditelj, scenarista, producent (Predsjednik žirija, Meksiko)

    Članovi žirija:

    Mark Adams, umjetnički direktor EIFF (Velika Britanija)

    Goran Bogdan, glumac (Bosna i Hercegovina, Hrvatska)

    Fatma Al Remaihi, direktorica Doha Film Instituta (Katar)

    Melisa Sözen, glumica (Turska)

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI FILM

    STRAŠNA MAJKA / SASHISHI DEDA

    Gruzija, Estonija

    Režija: Ana Urushadze

    Producent: Lasha Khalvashi

    Novčana nagrada u iznosu od 16.000 €.

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJEG REDITELJA

    EMANUEL PÂRVU

    MEDA ILI NE TAKO SJAJNA STRANA STVARI / MEDA SAU PARTEA NU PREA FERICITĂ A LUCRURILOR

    Rumunija

    Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 10.000 € osigurava Agnes B.

    SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

    glumački ansambl - PRAVCI / POSOKI

    Bugarska, Njemačka, Makedonija

    Režija: Stephan Komandarev

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJU GLUMICU

    Ornela Kapetani, BUĐENJE DANA / DITA ZË FILL

    Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 2.500 € obezbjeđuje Tondach.

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJEG GLUMCA

    Şerban Pavlu, MEDA ILI NE TAKO SJAJNA STRANA STVARI / MEDA SAU PARTEA NU PREA FERICITĂ A LUCRURILOR

    Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 2.500 € obezbjeđuje Tondach.

    TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – KRATKI FILM

    Žiri:

    Igor Drljača, reditelj i scenarista (Bosna i Hercegovina, Kanada)

    Milica Tomović, rediteljica (Srbija)

    Florian Weghorn, voditelj programa Berlinale Talents (Njemačka)

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI FILM

    U PLAVETNILO

    Hrvatska, Slovenija

    Režija: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović

    Novčana nagrada u iznosu od 2.500 €.

    SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

    SOA

    Crna Gora

    Režija: Dušan Kasalica

    SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

    COPA - LOCA

    Grčka

    Režija: Christos Massalas

    TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – STUDENTSKI FILM

    Žiri:

    Boaz Frankel, reditelj i montažer (Izrael)

    Guillaume de Seille, producent (Francuska)

    Teona Strugar Mitevska, rediteljica (Makedonija)

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI STUDENTSKI FILM

    ČISTOĆA

    Bosna i Hercegovina

    Režija: Neven Samardžić

    Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 1.000 € obezbjeđuje Vijeće za regionalnu saradnju.

    SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE ŽIRIJA

    LJUBLJANA - MUNICH 15:27

    Slovenija

    Režija: Katarina Morano

    TAKMIČARSKI PROGRAM – DOKUMENTARNI FILM

    Žiri:

    Claas Danielsenglavni izvršni direktor filmskog fonda "Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung GMBH" (MDM) (Njemačka)

    Gitte Hansen, zamjenica direktorice filmske kompanije "First Hand Films" zadužena za međunarodnu prodaju i stručne usluge/distribuciju u Švicarskoj (Švicarska)

    Želimir Žilnik, reditelj (Srbija)

    SRCE SARAJEVA ZA NAJBOLJI DOKUMENTARNI FILM

    GRAD SUNCA / MZIS QALAQI

    Gruzija, SAD, Katar, Holandija

    Režija: Rati Oneli

    Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 3.000 € obezbjeđuje Vlada Švicarske.

    SPECIJALNA NAGRADA ŽIRIJA

    DJECA / KINDERS

    Austrija

    Režija: Arash T. Riahi, Arman T. Riahi

    Novčanu nagradu u iznosu od 2.500 € osigurava Al-Jazeera Balkans.

    SPECIJALNO PRIZNANJE

    DOM

    Hrvatska, Bosna i Hercegovina

    Režija: Zdenko Jurilj

    HUMAN RIGHTS NAGRADA

    MR. GAY SYRIA

    Turska, Francuska, Njemačka

    Režija: Ayse Toprak

    Nagrada za ljudska prava dodjeljuje se za najbolji film iz Takmičarskog programa – dokumentarni film, koji obrađuje tematiku ljudskih prava. Nagradu u iznosu od 3.000 € obezbjeđuje Vlada Švicarske.

    POČASNO SRCE SARAJEVA

    John Cleese, glumac

    Oliver Stone, reditelj

    CINELINK NAGRADE

    NAGRADE CINELINK KOPRODUKCIJSKOG MARKETA

    Žiri koprodukcijskog marketa:

    Uldis Dimisevskis, Georges Goldenstern, Behrooz Hashemian, Čedomir Kolar, Annamaria Lodato, Tomi Salkovski i Jani Thiltges.

    EURIMAGES COPRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT NAGRADA

    HALF-SISTER

    Režija: Damjan Kozole

    Scenaristi: Damjan Kozole, Urša Menart

    Producent: Danijel Hočevar

    Producentska kuća: Vertigo

    Slovenija

    - 20.000 €{/niftybox}

    "I am honored to receive the heart of Sarajevo because I know this city has a heart. You, who know war, remember the legacy of war, its callousness and what it does to people, need to pass it on to new generations. We know the president of my country which, I fear, lost its balance and it's a generation of people who don't remember the pain and tragedy of war. Things are being said publicly which are stupid and dangerous and I am praying that people who have memories can do something to counterbalance this suicidal desire. Our president talks about wars as if it's a game. But remember that, before this president, our country has militarily built up its muscles for 70 years, steroids have made it unrecognisable in its war powers. This is very scary for everybody in the world and we must always be aware of it and we must fight against this desire to build militarily... This is so dangerous. I urge you to, please, remember this. It is in the spirit of peace I accept this heart".

    Oliver Stone held two magnificent master classes that seemed as if they could have lasted forever, given the great interest, questions and vibrant discussions with the highly inspired audience, before the screenings of brilliant Snowden (yes, you should see it many times) and provocative Platoon, with screening tributes also of the now anthological Natural born killers and controversial and captivating The Putin Interviews. One could also enjoy a coffee chat with the Minister of Comedy John Cleese, as well as with other numerous guests, at the festival daily regular meeting point “Coffee with…” at the Festival Square.

    A very special segment, not surprising in this city and a necessary project in the whole Balkans region, is, self-evidently, named “Dealing with the past”. This year it hosted and paid tribute to an extraordinary truth-seeker documentary filmmaker, Joshua Oppenheimer, with his two astonishing (if one word could describe these painful film voyages into the human soul and the human evil) documentary films, The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, that established him as one of the most brave and thorough contemporary film authors.

    Sarajevo 2017 105

    His master class was another of those that could go on forever with numerous insightful questions coming from the audience as intellectual bombshells (if only such intellectual experiences could replace the real bomb stuff). During his talk, Oppenheimer, proving to be one of the most patient and kind interlocutors I have witnessed, stressed that "the past is us", evoking W. Faulkner’s "the past is never dead, it's not even past".

    For nine years in a row, Sarajevo FF organises Human Rights Day, in cooperation with the Swiss Government, with this year’s topic “Women’s rights today: regression, stagnation or progress”, screening The Divine Order by Petra Volpe, followed by a panel, drawing attention to the widely held myth that the Western world is more progressive when it comes to women’s rights (as a matter of fact, few know that Switzerland, which granted women rights to vote only in 1973, was decades late compared to some under-developed countries, including Yugoslavia, and, while we are on the subject, Saudi Arabia became the last country in the world, except the Vatican City, 42 years later, to grant women this basic right). Outlining both the conservative, patriarchal Swiss society and the emerging emancipation movement across the country, Volpe’s film and the panel afterwards highlight the current backlash against feminism in the Western world and stress the need for more work to be done in this area, as the battle for women’s rights is far from over. After the latest, massively publicised, shocking, outrageous Hollywood scandal, called “Harvey Weinstein’s case of sexual harassments”, it has become clear, unfortunately, that the battle for women’s rights has only begun, particularly concerning sexual harassment in the corporate entertainment industries, now that many famous actresses and stars have finally started talking openly about it.

    Dystopian future, bleak reality of the Balkans and changing patriarchal societies

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    The world premiere that opened the competition feature programme was the much awaited international co-production, The Grain, by Semih Kaplanoglu, the author of extraordinary, now anthological, trilogy Egg, Milk, Honey. This dystopian film, seemingly only a roadie, set in the (not so distant?) future of completely dead lands, devastated by the human doing and genetic modifications of crops, focuses on the scientist working for the state-run corporation, Erol Erin (Jean-Marc Barr), who embarks on his journey of truth-seeking about the dying crops. During his devoted and detailed research, he comes across the name of the “missing’ scientist Dzemal Akman and his visionary “Genetic chaos theory”, and becomes more determined in his endeavours and searches for this forgotten scientist. Shot in black-white, with astonishing photography, the film plot highlights many questions of binaries revolving around human life/corporate power, individual freedom/confining ruling system, human justice/corporate profit, science/religious faith, the dystopian real/myth (to list but a few). These philosophical, ethical and aesthetic questions are left to the viewer alone to find the possible answers.

    Ana-Urushadze-Nata-Murvanidze-Scary-Mother-Sashishi-Deda-Locarno70

    This year’s best film winner, young Ana Harudze with her debut Scary mother, on the story of the mother of three, rebelling against her family by embarking on a literary career, heralds a new Georgian film wave. A similar topic is explored in another excellent Georgian film screened in In Focus, My happy family, the second feature by the real-life couple Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, who tackle the middle-age crisis of a woman who leaves her husband and family. Beautifully shot by DoP Tudor Vladimir Panduru (who also worked with Cristian Mungiu on his magnificent Graduation), with the brilliant cast (Ia Shugliashvili, Merab Ninidze, Berta Khapava, to name but a few), this nuanced and touching sociological drama convincingly shows the alienating effects of the constraining patriarchal society.

    The award for best director went to Emanuel Parvu, actor-turned-director (actor in Mungiu’s Baccalauerat) for his debut feature world-premiered in Sarajevo, Meda or the not so bright side of things, which, as a harsh crtitique of the local context, with universal overtones, focuses on Doru (brilliantly played by Serban Pavlu) who faces Kafkaesque obstacles in his struggle to keep custody of his daughter, after the death of his wife. Extraordinarily shot, the film efficiently and ruthlessly exposes the everyday life of a Romanian isolated small village with its poverty, corruption, hypocrisy, mediocrity, bribery and ignorance, to convey the touching struggle of one man to just have a decent life and preserve the little dignity left in the life of the Balkans, not just Romanian, human beings.

    meda1 -_h_2017

    Special jury prize was given to another film depicting the bleak reality in the Balkans, Bulgarian Directions by Stephane Komandarev. With a documentarist, almost cinema-verité visual approach, this vignette-styled film focuses on EU Bulgaria’s taxi driver’s life, packed with singular and sad stories and adventures as he drives through the streets of Sofia. The protagonists’ despair and bitterness are balanced by satirical black humour (such as excellent one-liner: “I am an optimist, because all pessimists have left the country already”), that could be easily applied to all the countries of the fallen Balkans.

    Maja BOGOJEVIĆ











    {niftybox background=#dff178, width=360px}MACEDONIAN FILM AGENCY CINELINK NAGRADA

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    - 30,000 €

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    Produkcijska kuća: Unafilm, Art & Popcorn

    Njemačka, Srbija

    - 10.000 €

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    Kreatori: Ivan Knežević, Miloš Pušić

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