A Fitting Prologue
(Epilogue, Israel)
The 11th Pune
International Film Festival (PIFF) started off on a perfect note with
a brilliantly crafted film from Israel. Amir Manor's Epilogue, takes
a microscopic look at the lives of an octogenarian couple, Hayuta and
Berl, who are finding it harder by the day to adjust in today's
Israel. After years of struggle, the two refuse to give up their
communal dreams and revolutionary plans to build a welfare state in
Israel. The film looks at the final segment of their life -- a night
of disillusionment when the two decide to leave their home for the
ultimate journey.
Although
culture-specific, the film deals with the universal concept of
alienation, that is felt by most elderly members of any society. In
its intricately constructed scenes of long duration, the audience
ends up becoming some sort of an insider-outsider, where they are not
only witnessing the lives of the protagonists, but are feeling their
angst and pain too.
Amir Manor constructs a
realm of the two characters, played achingly well by Yosef Carmon and
Rivka Gur, with such a command over cinematic grammar that you feel
involved in the narrative all throughout the film. Guy Raz's
cinematography of a thoughtful screenplay depicts certain mundane
activities like we have never seen before. The haunting isolation
felt, when Hayuta is sitting in an empty cinema hall long after the
movie is over, or when Berl is passed out on the kitchen floor with
the lights out, give you the chills.
Building steadily on a
visual pattern that it sets, Epilogue is a fresh film that is
thoughtful, sensitive, well-crafted and carefully presented. This
film from Israel was just the prologue that this year's PIFF needed.
DIRECTOR: AMIR MANOR
CAST: YOSEF CARMON, RIVKA GUR
A Haunting Memory (Roza,
Poland)
Sometimes, you walk into
a film, watch it, and then walk out of the film. But there are some
special films that you walk into, but when the time to walk out is
upon you, you only walk out of the cinema hall, with the movie still
running inside you. Roza, from Poland, is just one of those movies
that begin as a film, but as it progresses, makes you an inseparable
part of it. It is a movie that will live inside your mind and your
soul, if you believe in such a thing, until the very end.
The film begins in the
summer of 1945 when Tadeusz, a Polish soldier, arrives in Masuria, a
German territory that was granted to Poland after the war. There he
meets Roza, the widow of a German soldier whose death Tadeusz had
witnessed.
A cold reception and some
indifferent exchanges later, Roza realises, however reluctant to
admit it, that she needs Tadeusz to protect her from the looters and
rapists that are rampant in the region. Slowly, Tadeusz gets used to
a life in Masuria and gradually finds out the causes of Roza's
solitude. In a world devastated by the war, the two find love in each
other -- setting the stage for a final battle between hope and
despair.
The screenplay is honest
and within the first few minutes of the film, you forget it's a film.
The feeling that can come closest to it is putting your head into a
pen-sieve and experiencing a really strong and true memory --
preserved in all integrity by the one who is narrating it. The
cinematography, which is a strong point of contemporary Polish films,
is out of this world. The imagery of Van Gogh's Potato Eaters in
every frame emphasizes the point the film tries to make. Add to that
the superior production quality which recreates the period with
authenticity and outstanding performances by both the leads played by
Marcin Dorocinski and Agatha Kulesza. Marcin, who plays Tadeusz, has
a morose yet sharp face and has the looks that resemble Lamberto
Maggiorani (Antonio Ricci from The Bicycle Thieves).
Scoring full marks on all
the parameters, Roza is a celebration of the spirit of cinema. It
makes you forget your life and existence and makes you live the life
of its characters. You smile with them, cry with them, get tortured
and humiliated like them and just like them, you live in hope that
there will be a happy ending.
DIRECTOR: WOJCIECH SMARZOWSKI
CAST: MARCIN DOROCINSKI, AGATHA KULESZA and others
Hurray Revolution! (White
Lions, Serbia)
Foreign films are a
projection of a window on the silver-screen, a window which gives an
insight on the scenario in the country in which it is made. Lazar
Ristovski’s White Lions does just that in case of Serbia. A dark
socio-political satire that chronicles the life of a family that has
been living in the driveway of a shutdown factory for six years
without pay, White Lions portrays grief, anxiety and oppression with
a deep sense of humor.
“What did you have for
breakfast?” a voice asks Dile, who is our protagonist – an
unemployed worker and union leader. His reply, “Sunny side up, on a
sky blue plate.” This is just one of the several instances in the
film which keeps on pulling witty punches at capitalism and all the
evils it feeds. Dile’s son Gruia is an unemployed filmmaker and
stripteases to earn some money. His wife-to-be, an opera singer also
tries to earn an income in these hard times.
The film is about broken
factories and morose workers who are disappointed that there is no
one who can lead them to a better and fairer life. Lazar Ristovski,
in his role as Dile, puts up a tremendous show and almost
single-handedly guides the narrative, both as the protagonist as well
as the director. With satirical content that flows freely in the
characters’ conversations, the film also uses the closed factory
setting to great use, creating an imagery of a fallen system.
With amazing use of folk
songs and an insane rap number in the end, White Lions is rooted in
the working class’s aspirations and struggles. And through its
lighthearted take on a severe problem, at its heart, it only has one
message – rich, poor, capitalist or communist, we all end up in the
same place.
DIRECTOR: LAZAR RISTOVSKI
CAST: LAZAR RISTOVSKI,
GORDAN KICIC,HRISTINA POPOVIC and others
Of Death and Life (The
Last Step, Iran)
A country that is
consistently making its presence felt at film festivals and award
functions, it is now almost habitual to watch a Persian film from
Iran at every film festival. This year’s entry into the competition
section is Ali Mosaffa’s The Last Step.
The film begins when a
popular film actress, Leila, finds herself unable to control her
laughter before the camera, soon after her husband’s death and no
one could figure out the reason behind this hysteria. Leila Hatami, a
popular actress plays the role of Leila while Ali Mosaffa himself
plays the role of her dead husband.
Narrated in a non-linear
pattern, The Last Step is a long and intriguing jigsaw which only
unveils one random piece at a time, but by the end, you have the big
picture and it is beautiful. However, the film sticks too much to the
typical treatment that dominates modern Iranian cinema. For such an
intriguing plot, where you wonder what must have happened, and how
certain events must have taken place, the simplistic storytelling
style feels a little inadequate.
All in all, The Last Step
is a story of love, loss, life, death and its implications. A
universal theme, yet again, which is so rooted in culture, the film
is a great experience.
DIRECTOR: ALI MOSAFFA
CAST: ALI MOSAFFA, LEILA
HATAMI, ALIREZHA AGAKHANI and others
Turtles Live Long
(Kurmavatara, India)
Of all the films that are
either based on the life and struggles of Mahatma Gandhi or his
ideologies and the Gandhian philosophy, Girish Kasaravalli’s
Kurmavatara is perhaps one of the most relevant stories of the
contemporary era. The film narrates the story of Anand Rao, a
Government employee who lives by the book and has no regard for
anything other than his work, not even his family.
But destiny puts forth an
opportunity before him to rid his family of all their financial
problems, thanks to his resemblance to the Mahatma. He is cast in the
role of Gandhi in a biographical TV series, which changes his life
forever. It leads him onto a journey where he runs into the dichotomy
of fame – the assignment brings him prosperity but it comes at a
cost of his morality. The film, calmly chronicles the character’s
predicament and how he strives to make things right until the very
end.
A crisply written
screenplay sometimes tends to be a little incongruous within itself
and the overall film is little too long for the subject. Apart from
that, the sequence of events that occur in the narrative are very
well blended while drawing parallels between the life of the
protagonist and the life of Gandhi. The title of the film,
Kurmavatara, is not only a metaphor of Lord Vishnu’s incarnation as
the turtle during the samudra manthan and the connotations of the
stress and responsibility; it is also a physical motif that appears
and then reappears in the film at distinct points.
Kasaravalli’s film has
the content but its treatment is too mellow and effortless. When
compared to the other competing films, it also lacks the production
value that comes with big budgets. To sum up, Kurmavatara makes you
judge the protagonist but not feel his dilemma and therefore fails to
transport you into its realm.
DIRECTOR: GIRISH
KASARAVALLI
CAST: SHIKARIPURA
KRISHNAMURTHY, JAYANTI, CHESWA NINASAM, RASHMI HARIPRASAD and others
Better late than never
(La Demora, Uruguay)
Everyone around you is
going through a struggle to make some ends meet, everyone is
suffering and everyone has a story to tell. Rodrigo Pla’s The Delay
tells one such story of a middle-aged single mother who is
overworked, underpaid and is the sole bread winner and caretaker of
her three children and a senile father.
The film opens on a well
choreographed scene where Maria, played by Roxana Blanco, is helping
her father shower and then dress himself up, sets the tone for the
film and speaks volumes of the director’s command over the medium.
The film then, scene by scene, builds up the frustration of living
such an unappreciated and stressed out life. Maria decides to give up
and wants to admit her father into a home. But unfortunately, she is
not rich enough to afford the service and at the same time, her
income suggests that she isn’t poor enough to qualify for benefits.
Angry and defeated, Maria abandons her father at a complex and
returns home, only to realise her responsibility and then sets out to
search for him.
The neo-realist treatment
given to the narrative makes you feel Maria’s angst. This, combined
with outstanding performances by both Roxana Blanco and Carlos
Vallarino amount to a superior level of realisation of the meaning.
Maria’s secret smoking habit, Augustin’s senile responses that
make him so adorable yet burdensome, the children fighting among
themselves and complaining to their mother – all are a part of a
screenplay that shows you life at eye level without any pretence.
The film, doesn’t
patronize its characters and neither does it judge them in any way.
The main theme of family responsibility is just portrayed in its
natural state of existence without making any remarks on its
morality. To add to that, the universally appealing theme of
helplessness, abandonment and love for family add up to a brilliantly
crafted film.
DIRECTOR: RODRIGO PLA
CAST: ROXANA BLANCO,
CARLOS VALLARINO
Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) between January 11 and 15, 2013
