February 16th 2023

Women Talking

We are Still Here

Europa! Europa Film Festival - SIX films

When a film festival like Europa! Europa has such great films that you may never otherwise catch, it pays to choose a few and get yourself along. I suggest several for you this week, along with a creative anthology about Aussie and New Zealand First Nations people, and a powerful drama about brutalised women in a Mennonite community.  

Women Talking

Dir: Sarah Polley

Length: 104 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0mFhMqDCE

© Universal - wonderfully acted, timely
for the #metoo era, and hauntingly disturbing

Fact: In the early 2000s, a group of women and girls  living in a remote community of Mennonites in Bolivia were systematically drugged and raped by a group of eight men. This inspired author Miriam Toews (herself a Canadian Mennonite) to write a book about it, and now Sarah Polley has turned that story into a film. It is touted as an imagined response; what the women may have done when pushed to the limit with these ongoing attacks on themselves and their children.  They meet in a barn where they invite a gentle and honorable (male) teacher August (Ben Wishaw) to come and take the minutes of their debate. They discuss three options: to stay and do nothing, to stay and fight, or to leave. Sweet and optimistic Ona (Rooney Mara) is pregnant from a rape, Mariche (Jessie Buckley) suffers extreme brutality from her husband, Salome (Claire Foy) is militant and encouraging everyone to leave, while some of the older women bring greater experience, balance and wisdom to the discussion, except for Scarface Janz (Frances McDormand), a woman committed to staying within her closed colony, regardless. It's hard to imagine a film based entirely upon one and a half days of talking, but this absolutely works; it is compelling, captivating and deeply disturbing, as the truth of the horrific deeds is gradually revealed. Simple on one level and deeply complex on another, the film also delves into the religious elements of forgiveness and the Mennonites' obsession with entering the kingdom of heaven, and how violence or defiance could prevent this. Every role, from the leads to the smaller ones of the younger girls, is beautifully portrayed. Despite being set in an old-fashioned community, the film is so timely and works as a horrific metaphor for broader societal violence towards women, and the ongoing dominance of the patriarchy. 

With my mission statement of short ("five-minute") reviews, no way I can cover the details here, so for further fascinating insights go to: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/women-talking-movie-review-2022, and for the BBC's report of the upshot of the real-life trial go to https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14688458

4 - highly recommended

We Are Still Here

Dir: Bec Cole (supervising director of 9 other directors)

Length: 82 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOBmjUvKts&t=5s

© Universal - a powerful and creative anthology
of eight stories of First Nations resilience

Fresh from opening the Sydney Film Festival, We Are Still Here is an anthology of 8 stories featuring First Nations peoples from Australia and New Zealand. It examines the cataclysm that has been wreaked upon them since the arrival of the British. Each story is distinctive in its style and tone, beginning with a semi graphic novel illustrative style, in which two Aboriginal women in a fishing boat land a mighty catch - a ship from the First Fleet! Another story deals with the massacre of the Australian Aborigines, and another with Maori tribes preparing for war with the British. There is a fascinating futuristic tale a bit Blade Runner-esque in style, and one so current about the treatment by police of indigenous people in the NT, especially as they attempt to purchase alcohol.  A smidge of humour is even injected in one tale, set in the trenches of Gallipoli. The stories interweave amongst each other, so we are left hanging and anticipating the next segment of each - a great device that makes for tension and interest. The actors, some known some not, are all powerful in their roles, and this is vitally important content for the present day, reminding us, as the title says, that First Nations people aren't going anywhere, and need to be treated better in their societies. 

4 - highly recommended

Europa! Europa Film Festival

Feb 16th - March 7th

Sydney (Ritz Randwick) and Melbourne (Lido and Classic)

For all details visit www.europafilmfestival.com.au

After its inaugural run last year this very special festival is back, bringing you the best of European cinema from countries as diverse as Croatia, Slovenia, Finland, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia and more. 29 films from 24 countries include every genre your heart desires from comedies, to thrillers, period pieces, relationship dramas, feel good films . . . and 8 of them are their country's submission for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. The festival's artistic director, Thomas Caldwell, has a great eye for choosing wonderful arthouse films. Many of them don't end up on the mainstream circuit, so here is your chance to catch them. And for fans of the Kieslowski trilogy Three Colours (Blue, White and Red) there will be a screening of each in glorious 4K restoration.

Here are some recommendations from those I've been lucky enough to preview. And not to labour the point, these are outstanding films that you may never get the chance to see elsewhere, so get your act in gear!  

Aurora's Sunrise (Armenia, Germany, Lithuania)

Without a doubt one of the most affecting and heart-breaking films I've seen in a long time, it tells the true story of Arshalouys (Aurora) Mardiganian, who escaped Armenia during the genocide that began in 1915 and ended up as an actress and author in the USA.  The film is a genius blend of exquisite animation, archival footage, interviews with Aurora as an old woman, and excerpts from rediscovered scraps of a lost film, Auction of Souls, made in 1919 and in which Aurora played herself. The film, the memoir she wrote, and Aurora herself became a rallying point for a huge charity that raised money for orphans. This is not for the faint-hearted; although the animation will lift your heart, the depictions of the atrocities inflicted by the Turks upon the Armenians, especially the women, are ghastly. But ultimately it is a story of resilience and hope, and remains ever timely in our world today.

More than Ever (France/Norway)

Helene (Vicky Krieps) has been happily married to Mattthieu (Gaspard Ulliel) for years. But now she has a terminal lung illness and is faced with a decision that threatens her relationship; she wants to die on her own terms, alone and preferably in Norway where she will meet up with a stranger she has met on an internet blog. That man, Bent (Bjorn Floberg), shares and has empathy for her experience of life-threatening illness and imminent death. The film is suffused with heartbreak, but without ever stepping into mawkish territory. The scenes of the Norwegian fjord landscape are magnificent, and all performances are beautifully understated. As a reflection upon whether you can still enjoy life, with death around the corner, this intense, moving and beautiful film makes for highly emotional viewing.

 

My Love Affair with Marriage (Latvia/USA/Luxembourg)

Another very creative animation, but more light-hearted than Aurora's Sunrise, this is nevertheless an exploration of love and relationships that will resonate deeply, especially with many women. The main character Zelma has been raised believing girls should behave in a certain way, and that love and marriage with make her life fulfilled. But two marriages later this is not the case. The animation is imaginative, fanciful, a bit quirky, and features an intriguing chorus of harpy-like creatures who do a lot of great harmony singing. 

The Beasts (Spain/France)

Antoine (Denis Menochet) and Olga (Marina Fois) have moved from France and bought a small plot of land which they farm ecologically in a remote Galician village in the north of Spain. But their neighbours, uneducated farmers, are very keen that the locals all sign up to having a wind farm put on their land. When Antoine refuses to sign, two brothers, Loren and Xan begin to threaten them. This is an intensely powerful film, very subtle, but also strong in its sense of constant menace, and exploration of how people can deal psychologically with such a threatening situation. Everything abut this film feels 100% authentic from the script to the characters, each impressively portrayed by a superb cast. No wonder this film has 30 big awards to its name. 

L'Accusation (France)

Alexandre (Ben Attal), who studies in the US, is visiting his divorced parents in Paris. Claire Farel (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and husband Jean (Pierre Arditi) are well known and respected in the media. Claire is living with Adam Wizman (Matthieu Kassowitz), estranged from his ultra-Orthodox wife. When Alexandre takes Adam's daughter Mila (Suzanne Jouannet) to a party, the girl returns and accuses Alexandre of having raped her.  A protracted trial ensues. Everyone's lives are irrevocably altered.  Much-awarded director Yvan Attal has come up with a gripping, intelligent and thought-provoking film that is spot-on timely, with the many current cases around sexual assault and the legislation around consent. The film has a three-part structure of interpretations of the events, the accused's, the victim's, and the courtroom arguments. After hearing testimony that could in fact imply several versions of "the truth",  the moral choices are left to the audience. The actors inhabit their roles, legal arguments on both sides are compelling, and the non-judgmental scripting allows audiences to come up with their own conclusions. One of the finest legal films I've seen in a long time.

The Odd Job Men (Spain) 

A bit of light relief with this one. Moha is an immigrant from Morocco to Spain. He joins a small firm running a plumbing and electrics business. One co-worker Pep is a gentle older man, about to retire but the other, Valerio, is bombastic, outspoken, prejudiced and intolerant and believes Spaniards won't accept an immigrant worker. The film follows one week in the lives of these men. The film has plenty of humour as Moha tells, in voice-over how he views Spain, life and his co-workers, but underneath are the serious issues of the migrant experience along with insight into the topic of what it means to be a man. The film is fun, and extremely entertaining, with a terrific performance from the three leads, along with a motley crew of fascinating clients they meet along the way.