KATALIN VARGA **
This first feature-length film by UK film director Peter Strickland was made entirely independently over four years, costing less than 30,000 Euros to make. The film was shot in the Hungarian-speaking part of Romanian Transylvania and follows Katalin Varga when she is banished from her village and sets out on a quest to find the biological father of her son in order to take revenge for what happened in the past. In the Q&A after the screening, Strickland told the audience that he got the idea for the film from a solo record by Nurse With Wound’s Stephen Stapleton who instantly agreed to make the film’s score. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is too explicit and robs the movie of its integrity. Although Béla Tarr collaborator Gyorgy Kovacs creates a vivid picture of the region and the story is well-developed, it often feels like Strickland is imitating his idols. Moreover, some scenes have an irritating horror movie feeling and the end isn’t very memorable. Katalin Varga would have benefited much more from a modest approach like in Kornel Mundruczo’s 2008 Cannes title “Delta”. Now, Katalin Varga is just a nice hommage to the grim and sinister Eastern-European cinema of Béla Tarr and Krzysztof Kieslowski.
POLITIST, ADJECTIV **1/2
An enthralling film that follows a young detective during a time-wasting case trailing weed smoking teenagers. There’s hardly any action, but this slow-paced movie makes the audience participate in an interesting reasoning about the complex question of morality & consciousness. A movie that replays in your mind, long after the credits are gone.
TURISTAS *
I wasn’t impressed by Alicia Scherson’s successful début PLAY and I am equally unimpressed with her second feature. An implausible storyline, uninteresting characters and silly humor.
NO PUEDO VIVIR SIN TI ***
A simple & powerful Taiwanese film about a down and out man and his little daughter who live in an illegal hovel until the authorities intervene and ruin their happy & peaceful life. A sensitive melodrama, shot in black-and-white images.
YUKI & NINA ***
A children’s drama made for adults, with a faint touch of magic-realism. Faced with having to move to Japan with her mother, young Yuki seems more distraught about leaving her best friend Nina than she is about leaving her French father. After failing to change her mom's mind, Yuki runs away with Nina. An original look at the impact of a divorce on children’s behavior.
LE ROI DE L’EVASION ***
A burlesque comedy about a middle aged homosexual man in a small French village becomes involved with a sixteen year old girl. A good laugh!!!
INDEPENDENCIA *
The American occupation of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War is the backdrop of 'Independencia’, a simplistic & boring tale, made in the style of silent films.
WILD FIELDS **
Wild Fields tells the story of a young doctor called Dmitri who is sent to a remote village in the Kazakh steppe. Brilliant cinematography captures the harsh beauty of the landscape, while a host of outstanding performances build a complex picture of the post-Soviet psyche.
KYNODONTAS *
Winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, this story about a father who is convinced that the best way for his children to remain uncontaminated by the world is to completely cut them off from it lacks persuasiveness. Most of the time, it looks like Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos mocks his own film. A disappointment.
HELP GONE MAD *1/2
A Russian comedy that would have benefited from tighter editing.
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