By Anne Brodie Oct 17, 2009, 15:43 GMT
The 25th anniversary edition of the Warsaw Film Festival is underway and despite constant rains and stormy skies, audiences are jamming the the multiplex to catch what they can of the latest European and Eastern films. This is a city that is passionate about film. A tiny smattering of American films is available - Michael Imperioli's Hungry Ghosts, Gigantic with Paul Dano and 500 Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. British films include An Englishman in New York with John Hurt as Quentin Crisp and Sally Potter's mobile movie Rage with Lilly Cole and Dame Judi Dench. Charles Officer's Nurse.Fighter.Boy and Ron Mann's film Know Your Mushrooms represent Canada. The films of Eastern European and Middle East dominate; films from Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, thje Netherlands, Sweden, Kazakhstan and Turkey. Native Dancer by Guka Omarova A striking supernatural drama from Kazakhstan called Native Dancer concerns an elderly woman, a shaman who who runs a village of devoted followers whom she's healed and who are entirely dependt upon her. Their tent sits in the mountain desert, far from civilisation, except for the odd tetra pack of juice and dish of macaroni and cheese. The new world intrudes violently as a local gang steals her land to set up a gas station and the local police under the gangs orders threaten the shaman; she dies. They abduct the child of the only man with the power to stop them, a moral and resolute man who refuses to be drawn into their Hollywood style brinksmanship.
He decides to inflitrate their gaudy Las Vegas-inspired world, a vivid contrast to the shaman's settlement to find the boy. But then someone spies the old woman in the city market - is she the shaman? Will she be able to use her powers to heal hearts? Native Dancer is an exotic treat and glimpse into a world few of us know, the world of magic as it was practised for millenia in the rural reaches of a faraway place. and yet even there, mobile phones, spoiled mistresses and contemporary western greed thrive.
Low Lights by Ignas Miskinis The Lithuanian thriller Low Lights captures the zeitgeist of the clandestine world of street racing as seen by three grown-ups intent on recapturing their youth and lust for life through danger. Two men come from different sides of the track, one mysteriously returned from the United States and the other a local insurance salesman. The salesman's wife is the third member of the adult vagabond club. She's driven to humiliate and manipulate her husband and refuses to reveal her identity to the friend.
The balance of power shifts between these three throughout the story, as they drive through the city streets at night, lights off at times, thumbing their nose at the law like rebellious school kids on a joy ride, inviting the unknow. It's as though they want to escape the dull repetition of their unfulfilling lives but can't move beyond adolescence.
Reverse dir Borys Lankosz, stars Agata Buzek (Poland)
Two remarkable films have emerged as competitors in the Warsaw Film |Festival. The intensely haunting The Other Bank and a giddy, post War horror romp called Reverse.Reverse stars Agata Buzek as a young woman sharing a tenement flat with her mother and grandmother in 1952 Warsaw. They want her to marry to ensure her future through a child, but she openly disdains the suitors sent her way. One night she is accosted by street thugs, and a handsome noir-ish hero emerges from the mist, saves her and sweeps her off her feet. She takes him home to seduce him with sweet smiles and cake while her bedridden grandmother listens through walls and her mother does her nervous best to make him feel welcome. Their romance takes a dark turn when he asks her to spy on her boss at the publishing house, unleashing strange, horrific events. The 1952 scenes are black and white and a few modern scenes are color. The film has a joyous spirit and the legs to appeal to international audiences, and a luminous performance by Buzek who clearly has what it takes to achieve international stardom.
The Other Bank dir George Ovashvili stars Tedo Bekhauri (Kazakshtan)
The Other Bank is an emotionally taut and riveting road movie about a boy who embarks on an extremely dangerous trek across Eastern Europe to find his father whom he hasn’t seen in seven years. He’s not even sure he’s alive following the war. He learns along the way that the city has been flattened and no one was spared, still, he moves forward navigating politically treacherous borders, beatings, mental abuse, starvation and the worst humanity has to offer.
But through it all, Bekhauri’s character maintains his will. The first time actor who is maybe eight years old has that haunted quality of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. His shining young face is the film’s focal point and his undeniable strength is a testament to the struggles of Eastern Europe in the past decades when enemies were under every rock. The breathtaking scenery of Georgia offers comfort, beauty and power.
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