February 17th
Quo Vadis, Aida
Beyond the Wasteland
Flee
A Stitch in Time
Aline
Transitions Film Festival - five films reviewed
Reminder: Japanese FF online is ongoing - Europa! Europa FF is ongoing
It's full steam ahead with some wonderful new releases, festivals ongoing and starting, and generally more films than one can shake a stick at. This week's selection should definitely have something to please everyone. Why not see them all?
Quo Vadis Aida
Dir: Jasmila Zbanic
Length: 101 mins
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErLD8P4VUjY  |
| © Palace - dramatic, powerful and moving |
An Oscar nominee for Best International Feature from 2021, this powerhouse film revisits the Bosnian conflict, at a specific time when thousands of refugees, under threat from the Serbs in their home town of Szrebenica, converged on the United Nations base, a so-called "safe zone". Meantime the Serbian forces pressed forwards, finally deporting people from their home town, and killing 8000 of the local men. Aida (Jasna Djuricic) is a translator for the UN, and seeks frantically to get her two sons and husband onto "the list", knowing if they are not sent away on the buses they will no doubt be killed. It's one thing to read about far-flung conflicts in the newspaper; it's another when a film captures so viscerally the feel of what things must be like for people when their lives fall apart, and they are treated as little more than animals. The UN come across as toothless tigers. Djuricic's performance captures the frantic determination of a woman to save her family, while the film as a whole keeps up a breakneck pace that only underscores the urgency of the situation for the victims. This is such important viewing to remind us of the horrors of prejudice, persecution and futile war. 4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended
Beyond the Wasteland
Dir: Eddy Beyrouthy
Length: 93 mins
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ThaWpzsOE  |
© Umbrella - a high octane treat for
Mad Max lovers |
Mad Max fans get ready for your dream come true. This wild ride of a doco follows groups of Mad Max fans from all over the world, tracing their obsessions, their passion and their coming together at various locations and events to celebrate the films and their hero. Several of the cast of the first two films are here, including eccentric Frenchman Bertrand Cadart, who starred in the first film then became a mayor in Tasmania! Other cast members reflect upon their roles, but the real focus is the community of "Wastelanders" who dress and live to honour the films. Some have devoted decades to building replica Interceptor cars, and wild motorbikes. Shot in Australia, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the USA, this is a total hoot of a movie, but with a serious side: the importance for people to feel a sense of belonging to a group. Of course it's also a celebration of and homage to an iconic Aussie film that has become a cult. BTW: For true devotees, Aussie outback town Silverton now features a Mad Max museum:4 - highly recommended
Flee
Dir: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Length: 89 mins
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUVeuX1u04  |
© Madman - stunning story-telling -
beautifully crafted |
As a youngster, Danish director Rasmussen met refugee Amin , who had fled Afghanistan with his family. In adult life, the filmmaker decided to make a docudrama/animation telling Amin's story. As Rasmussen interviews Amin, the narrative toggles between past and present. The movie is intensely personal, and I've never felt so engaged and connected with a drawn character (even if he is the animated version of a real human). Amin describes how, being gay, he could never be his authentic self back in Afghanistan, recounts the ghastly years lived in drab Russia searching for a home, then being separated from his family, smuggled to Denmark and finally meeting his partner Kasper, who he is about to marry. This is told with imagination, creativity, compassion, and insight, and with a few insertions of archival footage it reminds us of the truth of an ongoing, never-resolving situation for the unfortunate people of that war-torn country. The film already has umpteen wins at previous festivals, and now is a nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature, and Best Feature Film - wow! what accolades. 4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended
A Stitch in Time
Dir: Sasha Hadden
Length: 98 mins
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqtzp_m4N7s  |
© Hadden Motion
Pictures - sweet
and touching |
Liebe (Maggie Blinco) is a Holocaust survivor, who was sent away from Germany as a child. In Australia she has spent 50 years living with partner Duncan (Glenn Shorrock), now an unpleasant-natured has-been musician, still dreaming of making it big. Visiting a local market, Liebe meets Chinese fashion designer Hamish (Hoa Xuande), who reignites in her the passion she once had for dress-making. Duncan is unsupportive, so if Liebe is to pursue her dreams a few things need to change radically. This film is very naturalistic in its style, so much so it can seem a touch naive at first, but the acting has a compelling authenticity which adds to the film's charm - real people conducting real lives. As the story builds and Liebe rediscovers and reinvents herself, it emerges as a heart-warming and moving narrative involving a theme that is not seen enough in life these days - friendship and respect between the very young and very old, along with some great cross-cultural interactions.4 - highly recommended
Aline
Dir: Valerie Lemercier
Length: 128 mins
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KqpF-VUyB4  |
| © Rialto - a big tribute to Celine Dion |
Aline Dieu (played by director Lemercier) is the youngest of 14 children born in Quebec in the 1960s. Already having a prodigious talent at age 5, she soon becomes a singing sensation, urged on by her parents, and manager Guy Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel). This is the unofficial biopic of the singer with the BIG VOICE - Celine Dion. Lemercier plays Aline from age 5 until the film's conclusion, making the early scenes totally bizarre (a child with a digitally shrunk child's size but an adult face - hmmm!) But as the adult Aline she is wonderful, looking so much like Dion. Victoria Sio does the vocals and her voice is a near dead spit for the actual singer. Aline's life reads like a soapie, in love with her much older manager since she was a kid, and getting a world-wide hit with the love theme, My Heart Will Go On, from the film Titanic. She becomes one of the biggest selling artists worldwide. Her glitzy singing and dancing shows and her Las Vegas performances are vibrantly rendered, and overall the film is a terrific entertainment, and an absolute homage to the real Celine. I was sure entertained!3.5 - well recommended
Transitions Film Festival
18th Feb - 13th March
Streaming on demand
In the words of the film's publicists: The Transitions Film Festival returns this February with an enthralling program of world-changing documentaries about the existential challenges, creative innovations and heroic pioneers helping us to envision a better world. The program features over 20 virtual sessions available online, nationwide, as well as a small selection of screenings in Melbourne. With an emphasis on the greatest threats facing humanity and the solutions to our collective challenges, this year’s festival features a huge line-up of films about climate change, activism, biodiversity, plastics, economics, and innovation.
Transitions Film Festival needs to be seen by lots and lots of people so it is not preaching to the converted. The issues the films deal with are both inspiring and critical for whether life on this planet can go forward with any quality.
As always I've previewed several and they are all excellent.
The Ants and the Grasshopper: Malawian woman Anita has a gift - she can get things growing in her impoverished soil in Africa, and convince some men in her village to get off their lazy bums and out of their cultural convictions and help with the "women's work". When she travels to the USA her mission is even larger - to convince American farmers than climate change is real, and how changing their farming practices can have world-wide good effects. This is the story of a courageous woman, and of course the message she carries is critical.
To Which we Belong: Regenerative agriculture is such an important concept in a world of degraded soils and destructive farming practices.In this doco we meet ranchers/farmers in Montana, Nebraska, Connecticut and Kenya. All are championing alternative farming (on land and sea) methods that regenerate the soil, and keep an ecological balance. An inspiring doco bringing hope and solutions.
Food for the Rest of Us: Four different groups of people are trying to get back to the land. An indigenous group of young folks in Hawaii are running an organic farm, an African-American man in Kansas city is growing food on an old carpark site, in Colorado a young woman is defying gender stereotypes and teaching the art of kosher butchery to an interested group, and in a remote Inuit community, locals are growing fresh fruit and veggies under a geodesic dome. This is an inspirational doco, helping us to understand the importance of connectedness to the food we eat, and it also touches upon how this all relates to black history, gender equality and climate change.
The Forest for the Trees: The director, a ex war photographer, spends four years in British Columbia with tree planters. The young folks return year after year to do backbreaking work of reforestation, at the same time grappling with issues in their own lives and getting in touch with the earth and themselves. This is an intriguing doco that becomes almost like a meditation, while showing us the importance of taking time to immerse and figure what matters in life. The people we meet are easy to like and their journey shows us the healing power of nature.
70/30: In 2019 Danish activists took to the streets demanding political action on climate change. This doco tracks the intersection between politics with the interests of economics and big business, vs public opinion and the critical need for change before it's too late. Denmark eventually made a commitment to dramatically reduce emissions by 70% , but soon found the actuality of change at odds with the economy. Though there is a lot of political debate and talking heads, viewers should find the youngsters inspirational, and retain a healthy scepticism towards the politicians!
Again in the words of the festival organisers:
The Transitions Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing
inspirational documentaries about the social and technological innovations,
revolutionary ideas and trailblazing change-makers that are leading the way to
a better world.
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