AWCH Film Reviews -- 2004 Hamburg Film Festival

(Becky T) by Joram Lürsen, The Netherlands

Remco, like all young boys, dreams of becoming a professional soccer player for the Dutch national soccer team, complete with orange soccer jersey. He is talented and industrious. Encouraged by his sports-loving father, Erik, he tries out for admittance into the national youth team for boys, 12 years and under. Life deals him a cruel blow when he is injured during the game and, even worse, when his father falls ill and dies. The film shows him struggling to live a normal life, while being forced to grow up quickly. He hides his injury from his mother and continues to play, although the doctor predicts dire disabilities; he “talks” with his father as if he were still alive; he lashes out at his mother’s new boyfriend who attempts to rescue the family business; he seeks advice from his African teammate’s voodoo relative; and finally he runs away from home for a night, while everyone searches for him. Taken as just a straight story, the film is enjoyable. Under the surface, though, it has a message for children without preaching: namely, parents can leave (probably more often through divorce than death), a helping hand must be grasped, goals are worth working for and there is often a happy ending.

(Kirsten G) by Susan Emshwiller, USA

In the Land of Milk and Money is a social satire about how quickly fear can create a mob mentality. It presents a world where a corporation introduces genetically-altered cows that produce milk that, when drunk, causes mothers to kill their children. While scientist Peter Cochran (Chris Coulson), the creator of the formula that alters the genes, races to find a cure, society copes with the crisis by rounding up all mothers and putting them in internment camps. It will take all the efforts of Peter and his pregnant reporter ex-girlfriend Laurie (Kim Gillingham) to save the world!

First-time director Susan Emshwiller took her inspiration from 50s-style science fiction films, and the film has a great campy quality to it. It has a retro feel to the production design, and its quirky musical score enhances the humor and “horror”. The overall premise is clever, and the screenplay is sharply written, but the plot is too thin to sustain a feature-length film. The acting is a bit over-the-top, and the pacing is too slow, but it’s not a bad first try. It may not end up being a big money-maker, but Land does have some interesting things to say about contemporary society.

(Adele R) by Zeki Demirkubz, Turkey

The Berlinale Film Festival winner of the Golden Bear, Fatih Atkin (for Gegen die Wand), was asked to choose six Turkish films from the past 38 years to be shown at the Hamburg Festival this year. They are all classics, and if they were all as good as this one, I am really sorry I could not see more.

This lovely, almost metaphorical film tells the tale is of a nice, unassuming man, Yussef, who is released from prison (against his will) after nearly thirty years. He has nowhere to go and finds no refuge with his sister and her choleric, alcoholic husband. But he makes friends with a man, Bekir, in his hotel after helping to rush his small, deaf and dumb daughter to a hospital. Bekir commits suicide because he cannot stop his wife, Ugur, a singer in tawdry nightclubs, from prostituting herself to earn money for her lover who is in prison. Yussef is left with Ugur and her daughter. The film provokes the viewer to re-examine the concepts of innocence (portrayed by both Yussef and the child) and guilt, love and passion, poverty and the use or loss of language. If you can find this at a German videothek — possibly in the Schanzenviertal, I highly recommend it.

(Becky T) by Katja von Garnier, USA

How amazing is it that a young German director should be the one to remind American women how they got the right to vote in the U.S.? Although Susan B. Anthony worked for women’s suffrage in the U.S. with the result that nine states had ratified a constitutional amendment by 1914, women still did not have the vote. The women’s organizations were stuck in a conservative rut, and it took some young rebels to turn the course of history. Among them were Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor). They began as part of the mainstream and then, when support was withheld, founded their own women’s protest organization. They and their friends were arrested for picketing in front of the White House on a trumped-up charge of obstructing traffic. They were spat upon and worse by angry men and even women. They went on a hunger strike in prison, were force fed, and finally released. In the end, President Wilson supported their cause and U.S. women got the vote (a right already held by American men of all races) on August 26, 1920.

This film is highly recommended. These women were condemned for “criticizing a president (Wilson) in the time of war (WW I).” How pertinent is that today! How important is it that we vote today – a right that women in other countries (New Zealand, Russia) had long before the U.S. did. Look at the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. which, after 60 years, still needs the vote of a few more states in order to become an amendment to the constitution. Enjoy this film for the historical importance, but also for the fabulous acting, not to mention the ladies’ hats.

(Adele R) by Wim Wenders, Germany

Wim Wenders, the German director of Paris, Texas, who has lived in Los Angeles for many years, has co-written and directed this politically-charged film. But this one is neither polemicized nor partisan like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, although it is also a movie about the United States after that terrible September day. Without doubt, it is also a love poem to America. But it is America with all its warts showing, especially the deeply pervasive poverty which no politician or administration bothers to address (the desperately poor never make party contributions and rarely vote).

Balancing this is a vision of humanity, generosity and faith richly portrayed by Wendell Pierce as Henry, the pastor of a homeless mission in downtown LA, and Michelle Williams, in a moving performance as Lana, the 20 year-old daughter of an American missionary in Palestine. Lana has been sent to Los Angeles with a letter from her dead mother to her uncle, Sgt. Paul Jeffries (John Diehl). In Jeffries, a traumatized Vietnam vet, Wenders and his co-author Michael Meredith have created the perfect figure to embody America’s fears and paranoia after 9/11. Diehl, who has never had the lead in any major movie, gives an extraordinary, Oscar-worthy performance: full of contradictions, spewing insanity, deeply vulnerable, often unwittingly funny, and hiding a soft but damaged heart under a lead-lined shell.

In a surveillance van equipped with the latest technical marvels, Paul spends 20 hours a day spying on the world around him, relentlessly searching for the members of the Arab cell he knows is out there preparing their next terrorist strike on his beloved America. He finds a suspect and what he believes to be evidence. His niece, Lana, ends up helping him on the case, more out of concern for her uncle than conviction that he is right.

The photography is remarkable although the cameraman, Franz Lustig, used only digital hand-held cameras. (The entire film was shot in 16 days, which must be a record.)

Sadly, the last 10 minutes, tacked on after a moving scene which would have been the perfect ending, are too saccharine for words, but it doesn’t destroy the strength and fascination of the film.

(Becky T) by Benoit Mariage, Belgium/France

L’Autre means the other, which in this case is the “other” unborn twin. The doctor refers to it as the other is smaller, on the left side, easier to reach, etc. Clair (Dominique Baeyens) and Pierre (Phlippe Grand’Henry) expect twins. A saleslady shows them various baby carriages. They can chose to have their twins sit side by side, facing each other, or one behind the other (that word again). Suddenly the thought of twins is a tangible reality and Clair panics. She and her husband convince the doctor to abort not that one, but the other one. They return home with one unborn foetus. Pierre can’t live with his deed nor his wife’s immaturity; he rides off the movie on his bicycle. Claire befriends a blind patient of her absent husband (Pierre is an ophthalmologist). Her awareness of the blind boy’s needs plus having to paint the baby’s bed herself cause her to grow up. Perhaps there is hope for them in the end. This soft and quiet film is a coming of age story, but the monstrosity of the deed kills any sympathy I may have had for the wife. Nothing against abortion, but why not accept two or none? The storyline will stay in my thoughts for a long time.

(Mary W) by Peter Howitt, Great Britain

Well-heeled New York divorce attorney Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) follows the rules of law. She lives in a fabulous flat where she spends her evenings wolfing junk food glued to the Weather Channel. Having never lost a case, she figures having the prenup signed by a trophy wife tossed out will be a piece of cake since at the last minute moneybags hired an out-of-town shyster. Audrey flounders when the smooth-talking, charmingly dishevelled Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) takes the cake, winning round one of their preliminary hearings. They are, of course, both smitten but don’t bite. Daniel wins. Next case.

Audrey faces Daniel again, this time representing an outlandish rock star (Michael Sheen) whose fashion designer wife (Parker Posey) demands financial justice for all of his screwing around. Both parties demand their Irish castle. To settle true ownership, Audrey and Daniel go to Ireland to interview the castle staff, arriving just in time for a local festival. Local stiff drinks and dirty dancing end up with Audrey and Daniel married. The morning after hangover takes them back to New York, only to find their marriage announced in The New York Post. Rather than face the embarrassment of a very public immediate divorce, they move in together.

Comparisons have been made to Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn, but Moore and Brosnan have a comic rhythm all their own. Divorce has never been quite so funny!

(Kirsten G) by by Fernán Rudnik, Argentina

A dreamlike film with imagery based on the paintings of American Edward Hopper, Little Village is a tale of a town that tries to stand up to forces that want it to change. Little Village has sat on an undeveloped area of Argentinean coastline for many years, watched over by its protective mayor (Lorenzo Quinteros). One day some men arrive, hoping to take over Little Village to develop the area’s prime real estate. When the mayor refuses, the town is cut off from the outside world, with radio contact cut off and supplies withheld. The mayor, his girlfriend Maria (Carla Crespo), and the sailor Antonio (Diego Starosta) must find a way to keep the town while keeping its people from starving.

Director Fernán Rudnik has written that he wanted to “call attention to some events that have occurred, and are still occurring, in [Argentina’s] history – weakening the people to make conquest easy.” The film certainly shows the mayor stubbornly refusing to allow any progress to happen, but doesn’t make a good case for why progress is so bad. Only one person comes to see the mayor to complain about the food shortages – aren’t any of the other villagers concerned? Might some of them welcome progress in a place that the mayor states just got running water in the past few years? Rudnik’s film seemed a bit too simplistic for me, and his very slow pacing and lack of much of a plot didn’t help matters (neither did the poorly-done subtitles). Perhaps some of the themes are lost on non-Argentineans, but I need more convincing to share Rudnik’s sentiments.

(Mary W) by Kamal Tabrizi, Iran

Reza (Parvis Parastui) is a thief, sentenced to life imprisonment for so many offenses. He is called Marmoulak, or the Lizard, because of his ability to climb walls. When a white dove becomes entangled in the barbed wire fence on top of the prison wall, Reza climbs the wall and sends the dove to freedom. For his efforts, Reza is put in solitary confinement and upon release into the prison yard, he is confronted with guards standing on the top of the walls. After a fight, Reza recovers in the prison hospital where his bed is next to a religious cleric or mullah. Reza is not a religious man but finds himself listening as the mullah reads from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry about being tamed and the need for one another. A kind of friendship develops and Reza seems to listen as the mullah explains that there are as many paths to God as there are people. When the mullah is discharged from the hospital, he tells Reza that he will shower first and leaves all of his clothes on the bed, giving Reza the chance to escape. Dressed in the mullah’s clothes, Reza walks out of prison, free like the dove. So begins an amusing satire of the privileges and powers of being a mullah.

Reza is quite surprised at the respect his clothes command. People offer him rides, taking advantage of his religious influence to bypass road blocks. Others seek genuine advice. Confronted with officials, he claims to be the new mullah at a small mosque. The officials insist on taking him there and his life as a mullah begins. His first attempt at leading prayers is hilarious as he mumbles gibberish, bowing at appropriate times. When he is caught by local religious students trying to get a passport to leave Iran, he covers by explaining that he didn’t want any credit for helping the local poor. His actions cause a grass roots effort within his village to help the poor. As his popularity as a mullah grows and his unwitting benevolent influence changes lives, his path to God is interrupted by the appearance of the prison chief.

The Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of Iran’s Guardian’s Council, banned this film calling it a “bad influence”. Mocking clerics is forbidden under the Islamic government. Directed by Kamal Tabrizi with intelligence and humor, Reza’s path to God is clearly a road not normally taken but one not to be missed.

(Becky T) by Kensaku Watanabe, Japan

A contract killer is on the run. His stepfather/teacher has a new apprentice who wishes to learn the killer trade. A young girl seeks revenge for the death of her parents. She blames her father’s lover. She has no fear of the contract killer when they meet and he asks for the use of her motorcycle. She also makes the acquaintance of his gun, called “Akira.” In the end several people are dead, as you would expect when the topic is killing, but there is hope that two people will have a future. What may seem confusing at first, falls into place once you stop worrying about the plot and decide to enjoy each small turn in the story. After all, the characters aren’t concerned about the future either (they have more or less accepted their possible demise) as they discuss the color of bullets from a gun (e.g., yellow for cowards) while sitting over bowls of hot noodles. Most interesting is that the Japan of this film is almost totally empty from the highway to an apartment to a hospital to scenes in the woods. Where are all the people?

Second Opinion by Nancy T

The Loved Gun reveals codes of honor in the gangster world, although the director says it is a film about love. The young hero Hayamada (Masatoshi Nagase) meets a young troubled girl (Aoi Miyazaki). But the brooding self-absorbed characters have no room or energy in their lives for romance.

Hayamada is “the best natural hitman I’ve ever seen” according to his foster father, hitman Maruyama (Ittoku Kishibe) who resembles Humphrey Bogart with his saggy-eyed quiet authority. Hayamada is determined to avenge the killing of his father. As a child, he swallowed 4 bullets he believed to be his father’s. Now, each time he is in danger on his quest, he spits up a bullet which saves him. Unbeknownst to him, the bullets are really his stepfather’s, and cannot protect him in his 4th and last confrontation.

According to one code, the color of a spent bullet reflects the emotional state of the shooter and is also indicative if it will reach its mark: black is for vengance, and would hit, yellow is for cowardice, and you can’t kill with a yelow bullet, blue is for sadness… In their duels, there is much posing with long extended arms, reminiscent of old samurai illustrations – and symbolically emphasizing the importance of the gun.

Japanese sensibility is weaved throughout the film, which my western eye often misinterpreted as fantastic. For example: the doomed hero walks down a deserted highway bordering on a wide river with a huge fish on his head. This makes total sense in the context of the film but can be abstracted as a dadaesque image with a symbolic “life of its own.” Also, a needed pair of scissors appears, floating in front of the person, waiting for him to grab it from midair.

Kensaku has his own unconventional form of fantasy, which appears perfectly natural. A truly interesting film.

(Coppelia HB) by Andrés Wood, Chile

The backdrop of this historical drama is based on real events that occurred during Allende’s socialistic Presidency and ensuing military dictatorship by Pinochet. Father McEnroe (Ernesto Malbrán) is the priest and director of an elitist private school where a social experiment is underway to integrate underprivileged children from the surrounding shantytowns into the classrooms. Director André Wood actually participated in this experimental educational project as he grew up in Santiago and attended this school. This fabulous film depicts the friendship between Gonzalo Infante (Matias Quer), son of a well-to-do family, and Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) from the slums across the river. Father McEnroe envisions teaching the children to treat each other with respect as fellow human beings, regardless of social or economic background, but reality amongst the school children, and their parents, proves to be a different story. As the eleven year old boys come into each other’s worlds, they find a way to overcome their differences through friendship and trust. Part of this process is shared by Pedro’s neighbor Silvana (Manuela Martelli), who is older and fiery and leads the boys into the exploration of intimacy. She delivers a brilliant performance as a feisty teenager that fights back with tooth and nail. As nationalists and communists clash, the surrounding country plunges into chaos. These are tumultuous times with food shortages, and people waiting in line on end to obtain basic goods which are actually being stockpiled. On September 11, 1973, there is a military coup and Pinochet takes over, imposing a military regime that proved to be deadly to many. Overnight the illegal shantytown disappears and so does Pedro Machuca. The end is a sobering tragic reality. This is Wood’s fourth film and has been described as “a masterpiece of South American cinema.”

(Becky T) by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland, USA

Adrian, a fat New York doorman, “buys” a wife out of a mail order catalog because, “it’s the best way to meet someone without all that bullshit.” He picks up his new Burmese wife, Lichi, at the airport. At home he trains her to clean the toilet, including putting in the toilet paper with the paper coming out over the top and not from the bottom. He also takes her down into the basement of his house to photograph some soft porn with her as the feature attraction. A documentary film maker, Andrew, can’t stand it any longer and arranges for Lichi to move in with him. He exploits her just the same, but in more subtle ways. What both men don’t’ know is that Lichi is more than a match for them. When she leaves them, they plot revenge and seek a way to lure her back into the U.S. For this they engage a third man.

This comedy is filmed like a documentary, similar to The Blair Witch Project. Producer Nina Yang said in Hamburg that Americans were angry about the film because they thought it was “real” and disliked the idea of a film about exploitation of Asian women (especially since Yang herself is an Asian woman.) Director Andrew Gurland submitted only 60 pages of script and the excellent actors (himself included) made up lines as they went along. Gurland already has a cult following just from his short films, all dealing with the topic of revenge, and films such as Frat House or Cheaters. I wasn’t a bit surprised that the men were all stupid. Lichi might be from Burma, but in this film, she is Chinese, and I’ve never met a Chinese woman who didn’t have control of her man.

(Mary W) by Farah Khan, India

Farah Khan in his directorial debut weaves three plots among toe-tapping, shoulder-shimmying songs in this three hour Bollywood extravaganza. Major Ram Prasad Sharma (Shahrukh Khan) is ordered to pose as a student to protect Sanjana (Amrita Raol), General Amarjeet Bakshi`s daughter from a mysterious bad guy known as Raghavan who wants to derail an exchange of prisoners between Pakistan and India. Ragjavan killed Ram’s soldier father, who on his death bed revealed to Ram that he has a half brother and wants Ram and his other son to scatter his ashes together. Luckily for Ram, his half brother attends the same school as Sanjana and happens to be a best friend of hers. Sanjana, however, has more than brotherly love in mind, and Ram finds good chemistry with his chemistry teacher. Just enough of a little of everything – music, dance, romance, action – for a real good time.

(Adrian and Shelly S) by Peter Timm, Germany/Netherlands/Great Britain

Hamburg’s second Children’s Film festival opened with an exciting and lovable comedy by Peter Timm. The ten-year-old Marietta’s (Maria Ehrich) biggest dream is to have a dog. In fact it is an obsession which has taken over her entire room. Unfortunately, she isn’t allowed to have one due to her brother’s allergies. Her brother’s dream is to be on television but he is too small. For her birthday she gets a picture of a dog, a stuffed animal dog and a magic stone from her sponsored brother in Africa. When her parents go on a long overdue holiday which is badly needed to save their marriage, she decides to give the magic stone a try. Her brother turns into a dog and ends up being a movie star. Marietta spends most of the time protecting her brother dog from the not-so-nice grandmother (Irm Hermann) and the T.V. director who need him for a show. The story line is quite complicated but even the youngest children seem to be able to follow it with no problem. At the film festival the children also found it exciting to have the chance to see live the teenage group The Lollipops do the title song from the movie, and two children won a ride in the cool ecomobil which was used as a prop in the movie. So all in all this movie is a winner!

(Kirsten G) by Mario Barroso, Portugal

Cinematographer turned director Mario Barroso presents The Miracle According to Salome, a romance set in Portugal in 1917. Salomé (Ana Bandiera) is a country girl who finds work in the city as a prostitute in one of Lisbon’s best-known brothels. There, she is loved by both the other girls and her clients. Because of her good reputation, she is picked to accompany a wealthy older banker (Nicolau Breyner) for a weekend holiday. He falls in love with her and asks her to live with him at his mansion. But during a party he holds for her to introduce her to society, she falls in love with young, handsome Gabriel (Ricardo Pereira), starting on a path of destruction for them both.

Miracle looks great on the surface: the costumes and sets are gorgeous and extravagant, the cinematography lovely, the actors all beautiful or handsome. But the content of the film, from a book by the same name, is both confusing and a bit shocking. The film’s title comes in part from an assertion that a pivotal event in Portugal’s history – the miracle of Fátima, where three young shepherds see a vision of Mary – is in fact a mistake: the shepherds have actually seen the prostitute Salomé dressed similarly to Mary. Plus, much of the rest of the intrigue in the plot also only makes sense with knowledge of Portugal’s political history (which it is unlikely most international audiences will have). Although the film broke box office records in Portugal, I doubt that it will repeat that miracle elsewhere.

(Coppelia HB) by Victor Arregui, Ecuador

Director Victor Arregui’s first feature film takes place in Quito, Ecuador, and depicts the social and economic collapse of the country, and the conflicts that the lower social classes are faced with when overnight they lose what little life savings they might have had in the bank. Juan (Manolo Santillán) is a young and innocent good natured boy whose father is a policeman, drinking his money away with his buddies, and whose mother is unemployed, daily leaving the house in pretense of searching for work but ends up playing bingo in her desperation and losing what little money she has. His older brother just sits at home and is literally glued to the TV all day, where we see the news of the country’s collapse unfolding day by day, event by event. Juan‘s dream is to go to Europe, where he has a friend that tells him of the wonders of living and working in Spain where he has made his life. Juan drops out of school and only dreams and speaks of going to Spain, but he has no money. Surrounded by despair and abuse and lured by the wrong crowd, he enters the world of drugs and delinquency. In the end, he is driven to crime by the circumstances in an attempt to fulfill his dream and escape. A very depressing movie which, although realistically depicts the harsh internal realities of life for the lower social classes in Ecuador, becomes monotonous with its theme.

(Mary W) by Hella Joof, Denmark

Moses Jackson (Malik Yoba) travels to Denmark with a Gospel choir from Harlem. Moses, a Baptist preacher, directs the choir with much enthusiasm, although behind the scenes he is an unhappy alcoholic. Leaving a small village, their bus runs into housewife Hannah (Lotte Andersen) who seems to be in a trance from the Gospel performance and fails to control her bicycle. Moses returns to the village to recover from his injuries. Hannah, encouraged by her friend, visits Moses to apologize and leaves in embarrassment when her friend tells Moses that Hannah is directing their own new Gospel choir.

Recovering from his injuries, Moses comes to the church for choir practice and agrees to help the small group. He preaches about love and Jesus to the skeptical singers. Slowly, they all learn to trust each other and to sing with soul. In the meantime, Hannah’s marriage is falling apart. She and Moses fall in love, albeit a bit unbelievably. Humor abounds among the choir members as they learn to sing Gospel for their own reasons. Although the love story seems out of place, the good clean fun and spirit of Oh Happy Day will brighten even the rainiest day in Hamburg.

(Becky T) by Keren Yedaya, Israel/France

Seventeen-year-old Or lives with her mother in a poor neighborhood in Israel. They have a sisterly relationship, with Or being the more mature of the two. She attends school, has a boyfriend, and works odd jobs to make ends meet. Money is important, because enough of it will make it unnecessary for the mother to prostitute herself. Or so Or thinks. Actually, the mother can not see herself doing anything else, especially not cleaning houses, although Or supplies her with references.

The excellent acting and camera work portray a gritty hopelessness. The hand-held camera often leaves out the actors entirely to focus on the pathetic apartment or someone’s leg or the street, etc., so that the viewer’s imagination often completes the picture. Director Keren Yedaya dedicated her film to “enslaved people” when accepting the best-first-film prize at the Cannes film festival. I found this to be less about slavery and more about dependence. The mother is emotionally dependent on men; Or is emotionally dependent on her mother. She rejects the helping hand of teachers as well as the help of neighbors when they criticize her lifestyle. In the end Or also turns to prostitution. What better way to show undying love than to become the mirror image of that loved one? This is a vicious circle, and I predict it will continue for generations until perhaps a great-granddaughter will have the strength to leave. The film is universal, powerful, and depressing. It’s so difficult to watch adults mess up the lives of children.

(Kirsten G) by Robert Jan Westdijk, The Netherlands

The title of this film pretty much gives away the whole point of the plot, which tells you that there isn’t much depth to this Dutch romantic comedy. Phileine (Kim van Kooten) is a confident twenty-something woman only interested in fun. She stays with men until they make her mad or get too emotional on her, then quickly moves on to the next best thing. But when she finally thinks she’s found “the one”, Max (Michiel Huisman), he suddenly informs her he’s moving to New York for a year to study acting. However, when she surprises him there three months later, she discovers the type of acting he’s doing is a pornographic version of Romeo and Juliet.

This film won several awards in the Netherlands, but obviously those award-givers’ taste is very different from mine. No one in the film is likeable – Phileine and her friends treat everyone like dirt – and no one thinks twice about sleeping with anyone and everyone (some of which is shown quite explicitly). The film has an interesting visual style, but Phileine’s periodic talking straight to the camera goes from being clever to getting very old very quickly. By the end, I barely cared whether Phileine ends up saying she’s sorry or not, but I was almost sorry that I made the effort to stay until the end of the film.

(Kirsten G) by Beto Gómez, Mexico/Spain

A look into the underworld of organized crime and its affect on those it comes into contact with, Pink Punch focuses on a young man who dreams of a better life. Jimmy (Rodrigo Oviedo) prepares bodies for display at his father’s funeral home by day and boxes by night. His world changes, however, when he witnesses a contract killing. Then he is thrown in jail for refusing to throw a fight in order to erase his father’s considerable gambling debts. While in jail though, he comes face to face with the perpetrator of the contract killing, crime family second-in-command Germán (José Yenque). Germán takes Jimmy under his wing and manages to spring them both from jail in hopes that both can escape the life of crime in which they both seem trapped.

Punch has some good acting by Oviedo, and the action is presented at a good pace. However, there is nothing new here. This is a Mexico seen many times before in film, with no startling revelations. The plot is confusing at times – trying to figure out who’s on whose side – and some of the events don’t make much sense. Overall, thought it had big ambitions, the film doesn’t pack too much of a punch.

(Mary W) by Yann Moix, France

Bernard Fréderic (Benoit Poelvoorde) is the world’s greatest impersonator of 70s French pop sensation Claude Francois. But he gave up his career to become a banker and have a stable home for his true love Vero (Julie Depardieu) and their son. Living in a model home (where potential buyers visit at all hours) with a seemingly model life, Bernard longs for those days on the road. When a contest for the best impersonators is held, Bernard takes leave from his job and his family life to become Claude Francois.

Poelvoorde is terrific as Francois, who according to pop legend electrocuted himself in 1978 trying to change a light bulb in the bathroom while standing in the tub. Websites abound about Francois and his Claudettes, and this light comedy is interspersed with actual footage of Francois and his concerts, highlighting just how much like Francois Bernard has become. The costumes, the Bernadettes and the music fuse into a disco pop sensation that will have you smiling and tapping your toes.

(Adele R) by Aleki Salmenperä, Finland

A psychologist at a fertility clinic, Venla (Minna Haapkylä), dreams of having her own child. When her boyfriend (who doesn’t want children for fear that it will destroy their relationship) manages to thwart her desires, she decides to undergo artificial insemination. She becomes attached to the young woman doctor, Satu (Minttu Mustakallio), who helps her. Satu has her own ambivalence about men, but the possibility of a relationship between these two is not without hurdles, not the least of which is Venla’s continued relationship and love for her boyfriend, Antero (Kari-Pekka Toivonen).

Director Aleki Salmenperä has deliberately kept the men in the film somewhat colorless and unattractive and allowed the women to (as he put it) “shine”. And Satu, especially, shines. Nonetheless the film fails to make Venla’s love and almost pig-headed loyalty to Antero at all comprehensible, and that is a major flaw.

(Kirsten G) by Richard Jobson, Great Britain

A film in the vein of The Matrix and Blade Runner, The Purifiers imagines a future where gangs rule the inner cities, which are divided into zones for each gang. When one man, Moses (Kevin McKidd of Trainspotting), tries to unite the gangs to take over the whole city, it is up to the head of the oldest gang, John (Gordon Alexander), and his gang to stop him – even if they are destroyed in the process.

About the only good things about this film are the martial arts and the music. The fight photography and choreography are excellent; most of the actors are accomplished martial artists and it shows. The kicks and flips are amazing, especially since they were done without wires. But it seems that good acting was sacrificed for good fighting. There is no character development, and most of the acting consists of stares and sneers; the usually-excellent Dominic Monaghan (Merry in The Lord of the Rings) is lost on a small part. There is also very little plot and no real resolution. If you’re looking for truly mindless escape, then this is the film for you; otherwise, save your brain cells for something more meaningful.

(Adele R) by Andrea Manni, Italy

This is The Fugitive, Italian style. And like Richard Kimball’s desperate story of injustice, this one too, is true.

In January of 1976, a nineteen year old boy, Massimo Carlotto (Daniele Liotti), walking down a street on his way to his university class in Padua, hears a woman’s screams and runs into the open door of an unfamiliar villa where he finds a woman’s body. Frightened, he runs away, but then, on the advice of his father’s lawyer, decides to go to the police two hours later to tell them what his small part in the tragedy had been. To his horror, he is arrested for murder.

Carlotto, who is involved with a radical left wing group at a time in Italy when the Red Brigade is fomenting terror, appears to be the perfect scapegoat for the police. His lawyer and family suspect that he is being used to cover for someone of political importance, but they have faith in the justice system and assume that he will be freed quickly.

Instead, Carlotto endures 11 trials, six years of prison with weeks of solitary confinement, and five years on the run in Paris, Barcelona and Mexico where he is finally betrayed to the police and badly tortured. Seriously ill, he is flown back to Italy for more years of courtrooms and prison. It is only in 1993, after a concerted campaign in the press, that he receives a presidential pardon. Along the way he has lost his girlfriend, Alessandra (Claudia Coli), his health, and 17 years of his life. But unlike Kimball, who died in prison still accused of the murder of his wife, Massimo is alive and free today, and has become a successful author and playwright. The script, which he co-wrote with director Andrea Manni, is based on his best-selling book, Il fuggiasco.

(Adele R) by Christian Johnston, USA

A journalist/filmmaker takes a crew to Afghanistan eight months after the 9/11 attacks to do a story on bounty hunters searching for Osama bin Laden. What starts out with a naïve American acting like a kid playing cowboys and Indians and his nervous Afghani translator and film team suddenly turns very nasty as the crew find themselves in extremely dangerous situations way over their heads. On August 18th, the team disappears. On September 3rd, video and sound tapes are discovered in an Al-Qaeda cave.

The film deliberately confuses the audience. Is this a documentary recreated from the tapes and film footage of a filmmaker and his team who have truly disappeared and are presumed dead? Did this all really happen? Or is it a feature film created out of whole cloth and filmed like The Blair Witch Project with a jerky, hand-held camera? In fact, it is a little of both.

According to interviews with director Christian Johnston and producer Wali Razaqi (an Afghani actor who lives in Hollywood and also plays the lead in the film), a loose script for the film crew was developed in Hollywood. The interviews and scenes with police, Northern Alliance men, the black market arms suppliers, none of them actors, were unscripted and often not directed. The documentary film footage was shot in Afghanistan under precarious conditions. It includes real bounty hunters, real arms dealers, real hostile police, real interviews and even more frightening, real guns shooting real bullets.

George Calil is the ex-Army guy, Don Larsen, turned documentary filmmaker, producer Wali Razagi is the translator Wali, and Sunil Sadrangani, the cameraman, Suni. The scenes in Kabul are taken right after the war and are fascinating, but once they get into the desolate countryside, an area sympathetic to bin Laden and the Taliban, it becomes truly frightening.

Even knowing the background story, it is almost impossible by the end of the film to separate fact from fiction in what you are seeing.

(Kirsten G) by Kang Woo-suk, Korea

Based on a true event in the 60s, Silmido tells the story of 31 death row inmates in South Korea who were recruited by the government to train for a suicide mission to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung. After two years of brutal training on a remote island, the mission is suddenly called off when the South Korean government re-establishes friendlier relations with North Korea. Suddenly, the soldier-inmates are an embarrassment that must be eliminated . . .

Silmido was a huge hit in Korea, and after watching it, you can see why. It is a Hollywood blockbuster-type action drama in the vein of Gladiator or Saving Private Ryan. The camerawork is excellent, the musical score epic, the action scenes heart-pumping, and the acting quite good. But it is the compelling story – with its themes of patriotism, friendship, loyalty, and overcoming adversity – that really sells it. The interaction between the soldiers is very realistic, and the audience really feels for every soldier lost. For a dose of adrenaline coupled with a good message, Silmido is the film to see.

(Becky T) by Arash T. Riahi, Germany/Austria

A filmmaker finds some old Super-8 home movies at a flea market. He is intrigued with imagining who made them, who the people are, and whether they can still be found. During his search he comes across an active amateur film club where members meet regularly to share films and critique each others’ work. Most of the amateurs seem to be elderly men. They tell him that when the professionals fall down on the job, e.g., are too late, then people look for a hobby filmmaker who might save the day (for the press, for example). The club members dislike clichéd titles in films, recommend the use of a tripod and regret that young people are no longer interested in keeping permanent records of baby’s first step or junior’s sixth birthday party. One man said, “Everyday you don’t film, that day is lost to the world.” This is serious business and there are contests and prizes to prove it. The film almost has an old-fashioned super-8 aura about it. It is, however, slow, and only your desire to discover the author of the flea market films keeps you in your seat.

(Kirsten G) by Geoff Murphy, New Zealand

Based loosely on a true story, Spooked is a conspiracy thriller about second-hand computer dealer Kevin (Christopher Hobbs), who buys some old computers and floppy disks, only to find sensitive bank data on the disks. He thinks he can make a quick buck by offering to sell the disks back to the bank; instead, the bank accuses him of extortion, and he’s suddenly being followed, his phones are tapped, and he gets beat up. Is the bank really involved in a vast conspiracy, or is Kevin just being paranoid? When an investigative reporter (Cliff Curtis of Whale Rider) starts looking into the story, things really get out of hand.

Writer/director Geoff Murphy (Young Guns II, Freejack, second unit director on The Lord of the Rings) got the idea for the story from the book The Paradise Conspiracy by Ian Wishart, which was about a New Zealander who found sensitive bank information on computer disks in 1992 and subsequently died under mysterious circumstances. Using the real incident as a jumping off point, Murphy created this story in part as a commentary on New Zealand’s place in the global political scene. Everyone involved in the film is from New Zealand, and Murphy aimed it at a New Zealand audience. But even we non-Kiwis can appreciate the tight storytelling, good acting, interesting camera angles, and biting humor on display in Spooked.

(Shelly S) by Antonio Mercero, Spain

This film stood out at the film festival as very special and important. It deserved to be the winner of the Michel Prize. Antonio Mercero captures a group of boys who are confronted with the possibility of a terminal illness and their daily struggle to live life to its fullest. These boys suffer from cancer and are hospitalized. Despite being in wheelchairs and having lost limbs, they are normal wild and crazy boys who support each other with optimism and black humor. They write down their fears and anxieties in their diaries, but rarely show them to one another. The movie makes you laugh as well as cry. These extremely humorous boys are your typical teenagers who like girls and music and get into mischief, while facing their illnesses and perhaps eventual death. By the end of the movie, you realize just how precious daily life really is. Antonio Mercero can be very proud of this film, and for me it was the best children’s film despite that topic was very tough. It certainly gives insight and respect to those who have to confront a terminal illness.

(Adele R) by Hassan Yektapanah, Iran

This film was the winner of the Silver Leopard for the Best First or Second Film in Locarno 2004 and the Netpac Best Asian Film. Having said that, I would not have voted for it had I been on either jury.

The story of an Iranian filmmaker who decides to film smugglers leading people across the border should be gripping. It begins with the filmmaker bribing a smuggler to take him and his timid cameraman along on the bus headed for the border. The passengers do not want to be filmed and demand that the men leave the bus. But eventually, when the travelers are on foot running through the hills, the film crew catch up and in a confrontation with the border guards, manage to save everyone, including themselves, by convincing the police that they are all actors making a film.

Except for one scene, the film is tediously predictable, and the travelers are given clichéd roles: a young couple fleeing arranged marriages, a businessman fleeing his debts, a young mother who has lost custody of her child and has kidnapped him. In the end, when the story becomes “undone,” it seems as predictable as the rest of the film.

(Shelly S) by Marziyeh Meshkini, Iran

The story takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan. A brother (Zahed) and sister (GolGhoti) are, by day, wandering the streets collecting wood and paper which they trade for food and, by night, bring some to their mother who is in prison. At night they sleep in their mother’s prison since they have no home. Their mother is in prison for remarrying after her first husband disappeared for five years and was presumed dead. When the original husband returns, he refuses to excuse her from her “sins” even though the new husband is now dead. He also shows no compassion for his children who are living on the street and beg him to set her free. The children’s situation becomes more desperate when the laws change, and the children are no longer allowed to sleep in the prison. The guard tells them that this is a prison and not an orphanage. The children, along with their stray dog that they rescued from death, decide to commit a crime in order to be imprisoned with their mother.

The story is very moving but also depressing. Meshkini used inexperienced child actors for these parts and was amazed at their talents. She decided to make this movie after seeing homeless children living in the prisons in Kabul. She filmed actual street life; for example, there was a real dog fight that she decided to incorporate into her film. It shows the daily struggle of life and the suffering of the people who live there. This movie reminded me a lot of the film At Five in the Afternoon, and it was interesting to find out that she also worked on that one as well. This movie was not as optimistic as At Five in the Afternoon but well worth seeing if you are interested in Afghanistan.

(Becky T) by Torsten Wacker, Germany

Elviz (Denis Moschitto) sponsors a dance competition in his Hamburg disco. First prize is a lamb which is one of the first indications that Elviz is not your typical German businessman, but Turkish. He lives with his brother, sister-in-law and niece, later to be joined by mama from Turkey. Their wicked uncle Cengiz has loaned him money for the failed disco (which was closed due to under-aged patrons) and now believes that he can legally grab family property in Turkey because Elviz has no way to repay him. Elviz responds to a community need and opens a Turkish telephone-sex hotline called Superseks in the back of his brother’s bakery.

This is a delightful film for anyone who understands enough German and is interested in the phenomenon of creative Hamburg-Turkish film teams. Although director Torsten Wacker isn’t Turkish, his film is only about Turks, including their clichés: sensitive macho men, head scarves, moustaches, the all-mighty mosque and the caliph, marrying off your daughter, Turkish bread, etc. This, like other successful Hamburg-Turkish films, e.g., Head-On (Gegen die Wand) by Fatih Akin, or En Garde by Ayse Polat, was made possible by the FilmFörderung Hamburg. This office is threatened with huge budget cuts, which would be a tragedy. There are Hamburg scenes of the old war bunker at Heiligengeistfeld, the St. Pauli soccer stadium, the Speicherstadt, and Altona. Moschitto, who is Turkish-Italian, really sings an Elvis song, In the Ghetto. One of the funniest characters is Nilüfer (Hülya Duyar) who oversees the hotline. This is a happy film with a pearl of wisdom or as the Turks say, “Stick your feet out only as far as the blanket is long.”

(Nancy T) by director Gen Sekiguchi, Japan

Totally unrelated stories eventually connect:

- A flamboyant magician who hypnotizes a father into thinking he is a bird, is then murdered in the middle of his performance, before he has returned the man to his normal state. The birdman’s family is left to adapt to his new identity. (The bird-brained father, marvelously played by Ittoku Kishibe, is also the bogartesque “Maruyama” in The Loved Gun and displays his versatility in these contrasting roles.)

- A man murders his wife, repeatedly. Each time he buries her, she returns to their fantastic home to continue their violent interaction – until he breaks their destructive pattern and hires a hit man.

- An obnoxious foreign gangster, through his Japanese translator, snarls the same question at everyone, “What is your purpose?”

That question must be often posed by director Gen Sekiguchi, who comes from a distinguished career in advertising. Commenting on Survive Style 5+, his first feature film: “This film is made like a commercial…My aim is to show all audiences that there are strange films in Japan.”

There is a current Japanese trend to go over-the-top, to push their ideas of American culture to an extreme. Gen Sekiguchi does this very well. A film that is funny in parts, but with always dark humor.

(Thelma F) by Steven Spielberg, USA

Tom Hanks with an East European accent? Yes, very credible when you experience him as Viktor Navorski, the star of Steven Spielberg's airport comedy The Terminal. Navorski is unfortunate in that he lands in New York just as a coup is taking place in his country. His passport becomes temporarily invalid, and he is denied entry to the U.S. – that is, except for the confines of the international lounge of JFK airport. The trials and tribulations of not understanding spoken English, having to learn how to get along on a daily basis without enough money, etc., equal the problems of immigrant life in the real U.S., except that the ones in the film provide lots of laughs. Inside JFK for months, Navorski still manages to get a whiff of multi-cultural America and even to find a little romance with a flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones). In the end, everyone at the airport, including the strict airport supervisor Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), is in some way touched by having met Viktor Navorski.

(Mary W) by Manuel Gomez Pereira, Spain

Hortensia (Ana Belén) is a middle-aged divorced mother of two who works in an employment office. She is just coming out of a depression and accepts her single status. Then Jorge (Eduard Fernández), who by finding a coin on the street thinks that hoy, or today, his life will change, walks in looking for a job and immediately believes that Hortensia is meant to change his life since her initials spell out HOY. Jorge, who has himself just survived a major life crisis, is so excited by Hortensia that he faints. Hortensia helps him and offers to have a bite with the younger man. Her act of kindness leads Jorge on, and he follows her to a movie that evening, acting like it was pure coincidence. Then he invites her to the First Communion of his daughter, and they end up spending the night together. Jorge is in love but Hortensia just wants to be alone. How they come together is a poignant, romantic, somewhat funny story of two lost souls searching for the things that make life worth living.

(Kirsten G) by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, Israel

To Take a Wife, a semi-autobiographical film by siblings Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, tells the story of Vivian and Eliyahu, a couple who have been married for twenty years and have four children, but have completely different personalities, nothing in common, and are miserable. Vivian would like to leave Eliyahu, but her brothers talk her into giving the marriage one more chance, reasoning with her by saying that her husband treats her much better than many other husbands, that a divorce would put shame on the family, and so on. We then get a glimpse of Vivian’s life, where indeed her husband doesn’t shout at her, or hit her, but neither does he appreciate her. Whatever intimacy there was has been replaced by duty and the daily grind of raising four children. But when Vivian is given a second chance at happiness with an old flame who would love her children as his own, she doesn’t go, giving in to duty and remaining with her husband.

This film made a lot more sense to me after reading the press notes, which suggests that the subtleties of cultural and family value differences between the couple – which the filmmakers apparently tried so hard to convey – are somewhat lost on Western audiences. It was difficult watching this Israeli woman who could have taken her children and left her husband, supported herself, and been much happier, but didn’t for some unknown reason having to do with cultural constraints. The acting was good – lead actress Ronit Elkabetz won the best actress award at the 2004 Jerusalem Film Festival – and the film was well-made, but its bleak subject matter just left me frustrated that, even in the 21st century, in many places women’s rights haven’t progressed much.

(Adele R) by Simone Bitton, Israel/France

In June 2002, the Israelis began construction of a “security fence” between the Israeli and Palestinian territories. Originally it was to follow the “Green Line” established after the 1967 war, but the Israelis often bend the line, in their favour, and accumulate land that should be on the other side. They refer to this new division as the “seam line”. The wall divides villages, families, Palestinian farmers from their farmland and, yes, Arabs from Jews.

The documentary follows the construction of the wall, in many places 16 foot high reinforced concrete, and in other places an electronic fence. In both cases there is a no man’s land, heavy coils of barbed wire, guard towers and soldiers with loaded guns. To Germans it is all very familiar. The occasional passages through the wall are opened capriciously when it suits the Israelis and those Palestinians with work permits on the Israel side have great difficulty getting to work. People breach the wall constantly wherever possible and at risk to their lives, of course.

Simone Bitton speaks both Hebrew and Arabic fluently, and she interviews people on both sides of the wall. All the men and women she speaks to deplore it; no one finds that it brings security; all fear the eternally divisive quality of the barrier. In this film, only the Israeli Defense Minister is unequivocally in favor. Bitton herself, in a video conference with a psychiatrist in Gaza, says she feels she is going mad. The psychiatrist says, “No Simone, you are normal; it is the others who are abnormal. Anyone who thinks this wall is a good idea is abnormal. Our world is now controlled by extremists on both sides and you, who are normal, are caught in the middle.”

(Mary W) by Lotte Svendsen, Denmark

Director Lotte Svendsen takes an ironic look at comfortable, ordinary life around Copenhagen. Inge (Helle Dolleris) lives in a pristine home and dreams of having it shown in Lifestyle Magazine. She is obsessed with style, such that her alcoholic husband is almost invisible, only paying attention when he gets sick on her cream-colored sofa. Svend (Claus Ryskjaer) is the last Marxist in Copenhagen organizing while sick and alone. Other characters include Jens who lusts after supermodel Gry and to win her affection (have sex) pays a handicapped friend to portray his disabled brother. Jens gets his quickie, his imposter brother gets a hand job and Gry’s disabled cousin gets out. In the meantime, another resident decides to take control of her life by killing her dog to free herself up to win a pole-sitting-in-the-sea competition. So what’s wrong with this picture? So many neurotics, so little time – it’s just not funny!

(Shelly S) by Yun In-ho, Korea

This movie by Yun In-Ho gives an inside view on growing up in the 60s and 70s in Korea. Yeo-min is the captain of his clique in school. He is a nice boy with a strong sense of right and wrong. He has a secret job to earn money, because he wants to surprise his mother with a pair of sunglasses since she is blind in one eye. The people in the town ostracize her, believing that she brings bad luck; Yeo-min is determined to protect her. He extends his role of protector to the pretty new rich girl, Woo-rim, at his school. Schoolmates dislike her because she is a constant liar as well as a snob. She claims to have lived in America, where her father lives and from where he sends her clothes. Yeo-min, whose amazing wisdom shines through at age nine, tries to tell the others to leave her alone: she must have her reasons for lying. Naturally, in the end it comes out that her father has died and she was having difficulty accepting it. Upon her return to Seoul, she must face her deceit. She also learns the value of true friendship and repays Yeo-min by granting him his one wish: a pair of sunglasses for his mother.

The boy is an example for others; he tries to help those who are less fortunate than himself. He always remains polite and humble even when he is being beaten. The movie is full of lessons to be learned. It shows a time in which corporal punishment at school and home was extremely brutal. It would be difficult to count how often the kids were punished in this film. There were also a number of school fights between the kids. I found that the rating of this film for eight-year-olds and above was too relaxed. It made me very uncomfortable to see the violence in this film, and I do not think I would like even my eight-year-old seeing some of these scenes. The acting was very good and the story was quite touching. I am not sure whether this film needed all these violent scenes to make the point of this film. It was also disappointing to have the director present and not willing to discuss his film. His only comment was, “Hamburg is a lovely city and I would not mind living here.”

(Mary W) by Daniel MacIvor, Canada

The little island of Wilby is just a short ferry ride from the mainland but a recent scandal reveals how behind the times the locals live. A day in the life of Wilby begins with transplanted mainlander Dan (James Allodi) climbing a bridge over a rushing river. He is interrupted by local handyman Duck (Callum Keith Rennie). As Dan climbs down, Duck doesn’t believe he was only getting some exercise.

Carol (Sandra Oh) is another transplant who sells real estate and is married to the local cop Buddy (Paul Gross). Carol is trying to climb the social stepladder but Buddy isn’t interested and doesn’t like the machinations of his wife. He seeks solace in an old flame Sandra (Rebecca Jenkins) who came back to the island to take over the once popular Iggy’s café. Sandra’s daughter is appalled that her mother is up to her usual shenanigans.

Dan goes to his empty house which is up for sale, puts his head in the oven and turns on the gas. Carol happens by to show the house and smells the gas. Dan acts innocent as Carol explains she can’t possibly show the house with such a gas smell and calls someone to check for leaks. Dan goes back to his hotel where Duck can be seen observing him from the parking lot.

The island scandal is slowly revealed through the impact on everyone’s lives. Although described as a hilarious black comedy, perhaps the humor is homegrown because as a mainlander, the search for a quiet place in which to commit suicide didn’t strike me as funny. Interesting story but not a film that will make you die laughing.