Treeless Mountain Wins Natuzzi Prize

*** This Just In ***

Director So-yong Kim was announced as the winner of the Natuzzi International Award for Best Feature Film on the closing night of the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival.

For her film, Treeless Mountain, Kim won a cash prize of $25,000, beating out 12 competitors for the award, which is the first of its kind in Australia.

The seven-person jury, comprising key figures in the international film and art scene, was led by Jury President Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

The 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival has been judged a huge success with twenty two world premieres, including nine features and three documentary features, 62 Australian premieres and 143 films from 49 different countries screened over just 11 days.

The Film Festival has been visited and enjoyed by numerous well known players in the Australian film industry including Hugo Weaving, Natalie Imbruglia, Rolf de Heer, Scott Hicks, Bruce Beresford, Matt Day, Sarah Watt, William McInnes, Warwick Thornton, and Aden Young – to name just a few.

Attendances across the main screening program grew by 30% from 2007, with 18% of sessions SOLD OUT.

I myself managed to see 13 film out of a planned 15. In the end, for a variety or reasons, I was too exhausted to even consider attending my two scheduled screenings last Saturday. One was the free screening of Bruce Beresford’s Black Robe, which was to be followed immediately by a new documentary on the Senegalese singer, Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love.

I’m really glad I was able to immerse myself in the Film Festival to the extent I could. Technically it would have been possible to see up to five movies a day for 11 days straight, but that would have taken a Herculean effort on my part, and quite frankly I wasn’t up to it.

Considering I didn’t attend even one screening last year, I think I did very well this time around.
I’m still in the process of writing reviews for a bunch of films, which I will eventually add here, but overall the highlights for me were Steven Soderberg’s, Che (parts 1 & 2); the Korean film, Treeless Mountain, and the Turkish film, Three Monkeys. I was also very impressed with JCVD starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and the new Australian film, Van Diemen’s Land.

Image courtesy of 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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In Review: JCVD

Australian Premiere screening at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

Look at the face in the image above. You’ve seen it before of course, but not like this. This time it looks older, more haggard, more real.

Yes, it is the face of Jean-Claude Van Damme, the legendary ‘Muscles from Brussels’, B-grade movie star in any number of second rate, straight to video, action flicks. And here he is in a ‘real’ movie, showing us his human side. Showing us he can act and emote, and that he has a sense of humour as well.

I loved the premise of this film.

Going on 50, JCVD is a washed-out action star with a troubled life: sued by his wife for custody of his only child, barely able to pay his lawyers, and, to add insult to injury, losing parts to Steven Seagal! And now, here he is, caught up in a real-life hostage situation. Suddenly, when the gun pointed at his head is filled with real bullets, we see that he is just an ordinary guy, filled with fears, contradictions and hopes like the rest of us. It’s just that some people, hostage takers included, have trouble telling where the difference between real life and the life of an actor begins and ends, and when that happens it can lead to disastrous (and humorous) results.

It would be nice to think that JCVD could lead to bigger and better things for Van Damme. That it could do for Van Damme what Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta. That is, turn him into a bankable actor again, with a real career in movies he is proud to be involved in.

Then again, that may be asking too much of the film, although French director, Mabrouk El Mechri should be thanked for trying. Hopefully though, people will recognise and understand the hole Van Damme he has dug himself into by essentially playing the same character in variations of the same movie he has ever made.

Van Damme may never fully dig himself out of that hole, but at least we have seen a glimpse of what he could have been, and may still become if his fans would allow him to. And not just his fans of course, but his writers, producers and directors.

JCVD created a small sensation at Cannes with its wildly innovative combination of humour, pathos, remarkable cinematography (and a little action thrown in) to create a portrait of the action star as aging prisoner of his own legend and his all-too-human frailties. Who would have thought the ‘Muscles From Brussels’ was capable of such a reflection on the vicissitudes of celebrity?

Three and a half stars
Image curtesy of 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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In Review: Che (Parts 1 & 2)

Australian Premiere screening at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival.

What on earth was director Steven Soderbergh thinking when he decided to tackle the story of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, the Argentinian born doctor and revolutionary who joined Fidel Castro’s campaign to take Cuba back from the American backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista?

What motivated the director of Oceans Eleven,Twelve and Thirteen… to make this amazing 4½ hour bio-pic. Why Che Guevara, and why now? How did he even manage to get the funding for a film about a communist revolutionary in the first place? What was the pitch?

Not that there is anything wrong with the film. Far from it. Soderberg tells Guevara’s story with loving attention to detail, and without resorting to sentimentality or melodrama.

This is not the first time Che’s story has been turned into a movie. The 2004 film, The Motorcycle Diaries, examines the formation of Guevara’s early politicisation, and …

But Soderberg’s film (with Benicio Del Toro in the lead role as Che Guevara), is the first to try and tell the whole story of Guevara’s involvement in the Cuban revolution, and his subsequent attempt to spread the revolution to Bolivia, where he was eventually caught and killed in October 1967.

Part 1, deals with the fight against Batista. The long hard slog of waging a guerrilla campaign is covered in great detail as a boatload of 82 revolutionaries head for Cuba during November 1956, and the struggle to win Cuba back for the Cuban people begins.

The first film draws extensively on the Guevara’s own writings, especially his memoir "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War". The months and years of protracted guerrilla warfare are inter-cut with beautifully recreated scenes showing Che addressing the United Nations in 1964, and conducting numerous interviews with a range of media outlets.

Soderberg uses these scenes to explain some of the history and ‘back story’ to the Cuban revolution, and to give the audience some insight into Che Guevara – the man and revolutionary.

Part 1 of Che ends in 1959 as Batista flies into exile in the United States, and the revolutionaries under the leadership of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are about to enter Havana.

Drawing on Guevara’s ‘Bolivian Diary’, Part 2 of Che takes up the story as Che, going under the pseudonym of ‘Ramon’, lands in Bolivia in 1965, and begins trying to recruit local guerrilla’s with the intention of overthrowing the ruling government.

Here, his campaign to recruit local peasant farmers fails, and before he and his small band of revolutionaries are able to launch any sort of major anti government attack, they are hunted down and killed with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Che Guevara was wounded and captured on or about October 9, 1967. It is a matter of record that he was alive at the time of his capture, and that he was subsequently shot and killed to ensure he would no longer be able to foment revolution either in Bolivia or elsewhere in Latin America. How ironic then that his execution has sparked a ‘cult of the revolutionary’ that has not diminished over the intervening 40 plus years since his death.

Of course, apart from the Oceans… series of films, Soderberg has shown he is socially aware by also directing Erin Brockovich, Traffic (again with Del Toro), and The Good German, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he decided to tackle the story of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara.

Don’t be fooled by the inclusion of other A-list cast members (Julia Ormond, Matt Damon, Franka Potente, and Lou Diamond Phillips) in Che. All of these actors have minor roles, and small support parts. In fact Matt Damon is on screen for less than two minutes! I can only assume that Soderberg needed some additional well known actors to help secure finance and distribution for the film.

However, this is without a doubt Benicio Del Toros’ film. His performance is a revelation. He inhabits the role of Guevara so well, that there are times when I wasn’t sure if the historical footage – recreated in black and white – didn’t have the real Che Guevara in them.

According to the program notes, Soderberg is working an a middle part to Che’s story. This film will apparently cover Guevara’s experiences in Africa. If this is the case, then this trilogy will indeed constitute Steven Soderberg’s masterpiece. I can think of no other biopic to rival it, and the finished series should help to keep the legend of ‘Che’ Guevara alive for at least another 40 years.

Outstanding: Five stars
Image courtesy of 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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In Review: Three Monkeys (2008)

Yesterday, was my ‘movie marathon’ day at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, where I caught three films. Here they are, reviewed in the order in which I saw them.

I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a Turkish film before, which is a pity, because if Three Monkeys is anything to go by, I have missed some terrific movies.

This is a dark, stylish, noir thriller which sees a man agreeing to take the rap for his political master who is involved in a car accident. In return for doing time for a crime he did not commit, his boss will continue to pay his salary to his family, and also settle the ‘debt’ with a lump sum payment when the man is eventually released. While he is in prison, his wife is left to hold the family together and she and her son quickly get caught up in a web of passion and betrayal.

Director, Nuri Bilge Ceylan carried off the Best Director Award at Cannes for this, his fifth feature, and it’s not hard to see why.

Three Monkeys is is a dark, brooding film, where every shot has been thought through and framed with meticulous detail. Long, intense close ups of the principal characters produces sustained psychological tension as unspoken words seem to fly through the air like knives.

The principal cast of Three Monkeys; Yavuz Bingöl, Hatice Aslan, Ahmat Rifal Sungar, and Ercan Kesal, are univerally good, but top credits should go to Hatice Aslan, the femme fatale of the piece, who has the ability to convey many layers of meaning by saying little and feeling much.

Highly recommended.

“Every shot seems lifted right off the wall of an art gallery and just as powerfully, if quietly, satisfying.” (Hollywood Reporter)

Four stars
Image courtesy of BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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In Review: Vacation (2008)

Another day, another Australian Premier screening at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, this time the film, Vacation, the latest work from Japanese director, Hajime Kadoi.

If you had to describe the way the Japanese live based on what is depicted in their films, one word would have to sum it up. Spartan.

Vacation is more spartan than most Japanese films. Much of the drama unfolds inside the confines of the tiny cell of a prison inmate. In deed, Kaneda, the prisoner, is on death row for a crime that is never mentioned or explained. We learn nothing about what the man is thinking beyond the fact that he spends every day drawing landscapes in a large sketch book.

As the drama unfolds, we are introduced to Hirai, a prison guard who is marrying a beautiful young woman with a six year old son. His only means of getting time off for a honeymoon is to act as a “supporter” at Kaneda’s execution. Again, we learn little about the woman and her child apart from the fact that her husband has apparently died.

Or has he?

Why does the little boy spend almost all of his time drawing in a large sketch book? And why does the Hirai, the guard say “Sorry” to the boy following the execution of Kaneda, the prisoner? Could it possibly be because the woman was Kaneda’s wife, and the boy his son?

We can only guess at the answers. Like Three Monkeys, this too is a darkly sombre film – understandable given the subject matter – filled with long silences, and beautifully framed shots.

According to the program notes, Vacation was a “break-out success” when it was released in Japan last year. This is director Kadoi’s second feature film and it bodes well for the future of his career, and for Japanese film.

Three and a half stars
Image courtesy of 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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In Review: Road to Roubaix (2008)

It’s late and I’m tired, so I’m going to cheat and quote from the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival program notes for this one.

“If you know bikes, you need no explanation of Paris-Roubaix, the greatest and the toughest one-day classic in world cycling. The famed 260 kilometer race over a brutally difficult cobblestone surface … is a race known as the Hell of the North which requires, as one competitor puts it, “an immense appetite for the physical toll the race can take.”

And there is this: “Here’s your testosterone hit for the festival: the poor hopeful fools in the breakaway, the implacable peloton, the dreams and bikes broken on the cobblestones, the vanquished riders coated in blood, dust and sweat.”

Unfortunately, the program promised much – but Road to Roubaix delivered little.

OK, maybe I am being too harsh, but this is definitely one for the aficionado's. At 75 minutes, this documentary spent far too much time talking to the riders, officials, and other key players in international road racing, and far too little time on the real action taking place on the cobbled Paris to Roubaix route.

Maybe the co-directors, Dave Cooper and David Deal didn’t have permission to get close enough to the action to film the actual event, and had to make do with a mix of television footage, historical photographs, and other vision to fill out their story.

Not that the story isn’t compelling.

Stars of the past and present, including Lance Armstrong, Sean Kelly, George Hincapie, and Tom Boonen, all give insights into the gruelling ordeal. One star who was not interviewed, was Adelaide rider Stuart O’Grady, who threw everything at the 2007 Roubaix – the background to this film – and went on to win it.

After the dark subject matter of the first two films reviewed above (Three Monkeys and Vacation), Road to Roubaix was a pleasant enough way to wind down my marathon movie viewing session for the day.

Two Stars
Image courtesy of 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (2007)

Yesterday I also attended the screening of Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, another premier screening at the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival, produced and directed by Kim Longinotto. This is another documentary featuring children as its central focus, but what a complete contrast to Los Herederos this film is.

To quote, in part, from the Festival notes:

“For the forty children who call it home, Mulberry Bush is their last chance. Excluded from school for extreme behaviour, and often having suffered severe emotional trauma, they are given three years at the Oxford boarding school to try to turn their lives around. The fragile young boys at the heart of her [Longinotto’s] film lash out in shockingly extreme ways -- hitting, swearing and spitting their way through the misery of their blighted childhoods.”

Forty children; 108 staff members; and days filled with tears of rage, and physical and verbal abuse from children as young as eight and nine years of age.

It is hard to believe what the teachers and staff at Mulberry Bush had to contend with. No-one could ever argue that the children attending this boarding school were over indulged or spoilt, but hasn't the school ever heard of 'time-out'. Don't they have a room where children can be left for ten minutes at a time to scream and rage on their own without putting other children and staff at risk? Wouldn't that be better than forcing staff to physically restrain errant children by virtually sitting on them?

And what staff! These people must have the patience of the biblical, Job. And just like Job, who took whatever his Lord was prepared to heap on him in an attempt to test his resolve - the staff of Mulberry Bush put up with whatever some of these children dish out to them.

Unfortunately, I couldn't help thinking that the boundaries weren't clear enough for the children, and that as long as they were (up to a point), able to get away with spitting on staff and kicking and punching them, their behaviour would take longer to control.

Of course, none of the above constitutes a review of the film, it is more a criticism of the how I felt the boarding school operated.

Again, like Los Herederos, Hold Me Tight... makes no use of voice overs or other on screen aids to try and explain what is unfolding before the viewers. Again, you are left to draw your own conclusions. Of the forty children one assumes are at the school at any one time, we are presented with just three or four - all males, although females students are clearly present.

Were the few children examined in the film the worst of forty students? The 'best' of the school? There are no clues, and no answers.

Maybe I was just emotionally wrung out from viewing Los Herederos but by the end of Hold Me Tight... my nerves were on edge, and I was happy to get outside into the sunshine and fresh air.

Three stars
Image courtesy of BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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In Review: Los Herederos (2008)

Mexico has been on my wish list of go to places for some time, especially since I keep hearing so many good things about that country: its history and culture; its art, music and dance; and the remnants of ancient civilisations. On my next visit to North America I plan to travel through the southern states of the US, and since I will be in the area, I hope to include Mexico on my itinerary.

It’s safe to say, the Mexico most tourists and visitors experience is not the one depicted in Los Herederos (The Inheritors), a new documentary by Eugenio Polgovsky which screened yesterday as part of the 2009 BigPond Adelaide Film Festival. Ten years in the planning, Los Herederos follows children as they work alongside their parents and other adults in tasks as diverse as farming, brick making, weaving, the harvest of tomatoes, chili and maize, and numerous other labour intensive activities.

You will see no sun drenched beaches here; no Mariachi bands, and no luxurious hotels. Just everyday depictions of the hard daily grind of rural Mexican life.

Where the smiles are few and far between; where farming is often still done the old way – behind a wooden plough pulled behind a couple of oxen; where if you don’t work you don’t eat, and if you don’t eat you die; where this simple imperative forces even the most elderly and infirm to contribute something, no matter how little; where if you are ‘lucky’, you get to spend the day tending goats, instead of planting corn; where the ‘lucky’ girls get to spend their days weaving at the loom, instead of picking tomatoes or beans all day in open fields; where labour is always hard, back breaking and by hand; where any education or schooling is of the ‘hard knocks’ variety; and where finally, the concept of ‘doing your chores’ is meaningless, because in this world, you are born to work and contribute to the family table whether you want to or not.

How apt then, that in one scene we see a damaged alarm clock on which the thin hand ticking away the seconds is actually turning backwards!

“Rage and awe fuel my desire to pay homage to their abilities and their courage,” says writer, director, and producer, Eugenio Polgovsky.

There are few scenes of fun or rest and relaxation in this powerful documentary. Indeed, it was only the young boys herding goats who found the time to pause and look at a rainbows, or play by rolling down hills. Neither does the film show any sign of a formal education being directed towards the children in these communities.

There is very little dialogue in this film. It seemed to me that everyone was working so hard at their various tasks, they didn’t have the energy to waste on idle conversation. Neither is there any explanation in the form of a voice over or on screen text, to try and place the images we are viewing in some type of context. Polgovsky is content to let the images speak for themselves, and quite rightly so.

The scenes of children, some as young as five or six toiling for hours alongside their parents, picking beans, tomatoes and chillies, says more than mere words can ever hope to convey.

This is an eloquent portrait of the lives and daily struggle for survival of rural communities in today's Mexico. While the children may have inherited tools and techniques from their ancestors, they have also inherited their day to day hardship. Generations pass, but child workers remain captive in a seemingly endless cycle of inherited poverty.

Four stars
Image courtesy of BigPond Adelaide Film Festival

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