At last year's Toronto International Film Festival, my favorite tennis match was between the Discovery and Masters programs, which I wrote up for
Greencine. I'm tempted to replicate the sport this year.
As
indieWIRE noted when they recently interviewed Cameron Bailey, the Discovery program has doubled this year—26 titles up from 13—and there's a noticeable increase in American fare—7 films up from 2—but, notwithstanding, it's still an eclectic mix of regions, with 18 countries being represented overall. When asked the reasoning for the increase in slots, and what Bailey's general thoughts were regarding what emerging filmmakers are up to, he responded: "Well this one is by design. Discovery was one of the sections I wanted to work on this year and I'm really proud of how it's turned out. I wanted Discovery to be the place that people go to discover new talent at our festival where we show what we consider to be some of the most exciting new voices in cinema from all over the world. To do that I took off some of the restrictions we had on the program in the past in terms of the premiere status and distribution status. We had quite a number of limitations on what was eligible for our Discovery section in the past. That's changed and as a result I think this is really just a great showcase for new talent in the movies."
It's certainly where I intend to catch some of the festival darlings from Cannes08:
Better Things,
Hunger,
Snow,
Tony Manero and
Tulpan. And, of course, I couldn't be prouder of SF homeboy Barry Jenkins'
Medicine for Melancholy for being included in the line-up. If removing some of the program's previous restrictions accounted for that, I'm all for it because it puts Barry in the running with the other 25 feature-length Discovery titles to be eligible for the Diesel Discovery Award chosen by the Festival press corps, which consists of over 1000 accredited media from around the world. I can honestly say, however, that I doubt I'll catch much of the U.S. fare, presuming these indies will travel Bayside in due course. I'm more prone to take a chance with
Zift from Bulgaria, or
The Paranoids from Argentina, or the Israeli/Australian animation. Or maybe I'll just let myself be creeped out by
Tale 52 from Greece? Ultimately, it comes down to the calendar.
* * *
$9.99—Tatia Rosenthal, Israel/Australia. Unemployed and still living at home at 28 years old, Dave Peck discovers a booklet claiming to answer the meaning of life for the low price of only $9.99. In his struggle to share his amazing find with the world, Dave's surreal path crosses with those of his unusual neighbors, including an old man and his disgruntled guardian angel, a magician in debt and a bewitching woman who likes her men extra smooth. A stop-motion animated film, $9.99 features the voices of Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia. Todd Brown offered the first glimpse at
Twitch earlier this year. At
The Australian, Sandy George has detailed how a chance encounter led to the first Australian-Israeli co-production: an animated adult feature.
World Premiere.
Apron Strings—Sima Urale, New Zealand. Food and love are intertwined in this tale of two mothers who must find the courage to confront the secrets and misunderstandings of the past, in order to set their sons free.
Apron Strings is a parallel story of two families and two cultures set in suburban Otahuhu in South Auckland, New Zealand. Joe Sheppard dispatches to
The Lumière Reader from the New Zealand Film Festival.
Flicks.Co.NZ interviews Urale.
North American Premiere.
Better Things—Duane Hopkins, United Kingdom. Deeply inflected by the UK's visual arts scene, Duane Hopkins's feature debut focuses on three groups of characters: Gail, who must overcome agoraphobia and an addiction to romance novels; Rob, coming to terms with the loss of his girlfriend; and the Gladwins, who, following years of unspoken truths that have built a barrier between them, are going through a shift in their 60-year relationship. The
BBC has a video visit to the set of
Better Things. Via
The Greencine Daily,
Hopkins blogs at The Guardian why screening
Better Things in the Critics Week at the Cannes08 meant so much to him. Also at
The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the reviews from Cannes08. Nick James contextualizes
Better Things and Steve McQueen's
Hunger for
Sight and Sound. Ryan Gilbey interviews Hopkins for
The Guardian. James Mottram does the honors for
Channel 4 Film. In his Cannes report to
Film Comment (July/August 2008, p. 60), Gavin Smith says
Better Things is as much a prison movie as Steve McQueen's
Hunger, but that "its great achievement is to envisage the possibility of escape for its inarticulate and emotionally isolated characters."
Better Things, he writes, "ultimately transcends the dead-end miserabilism that's
de rigueur when detailing the spectral lives of the addicted, the old, and the infirm. But said boldness is also due to the way the film's elliptical and unusually spare rhythms, stark compositions, and quiet sense of time passing break so decisively with the grammatical norms of English cinema."
TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Cold Lunch (Lønsj)—Eva Sørhaug, Norway. The paths of five people intersect in the Oslo district of Majorstua. After Christer disconnects a main fuse in his building in an attempt to save the rent money he mistakenly placed into the laundry, he sets off a chain reaction of consequential events that will change the lives of a caretaker and his daughter, and a new mother and her child.
Cineuropa offers an alternate synopsis and a review by
Camillo de Marco dispatching from the 2008 Venice International: "Seemingly harsh (no director has ever dared inflict such a horrible end on a newborn baby, attacked by fierce Hitchcock-like gulls) but tinged with human empathy,
Cold Lunch closes with a final chapter entitled 'Paradise regained'. Perhaps it's possible to emerge from Hell but it's difficult to escape from loneliness. Northern European films thus continue to tackle social issues with flashes of paradox."
TIFF08 Program Capsule. International Premiere.Daytime Drinking (Natsul)—Young-seok Noh, South Korea. In a drunken attempt to mend his broken heart, Hyuk-jin and his friends decide to take a trip to the small town of Jeongseon in the Gangwon province. But as the only one to actually make it on the bus, Hyuk-jin embarks on a strange journey that finds him in the middle of a snowy highway without his mobile phone, wallet or pants. At
Variety, Derek Elley writes that this "Ultra-Korean tale, anchored by the social courtesies of soju consumption, is a mildly black comedy of escalating misadventure" and "is proof that a good script and simpatico direction and performances can overcome budgetary restrictions." At
The Hollywood Reporter, Ray Bennet says the film is "a spirited concoction full of surprises and dry rewards."
Bae Ju-Yeon reviews the film from the Jeonju International Film Festival where it won the Korean Cinema on the Move award.
North American Premiere.
Delta—Kornél Mundruczó, Hungary/Germany. Having been away since childhood, a young man returns to the wild, isolated landscape of the Danube Delta. Introduced to a sister he never knew he had, he and his newfound sibling build a house on stilts in the middle of the river, far away from everyone else. But when they invite the villagers over to share a meal together, it becomes apparent that the coarse locals do not accept their "unnatural" relationship.
Cineuropa offers an alternate synopsis and the
trailer. At
Hungarian Film Week,
Delta won the Best Film Award and the Gene Moskovitz prize offered by the foreign press. Lead actor Félix Lajkó was likewise awarded for his film soundtrack. At
The Greencine Daily Dave Hudson gathers the reviews from Cannes 08, where it won the FIPRESCI Competition prize. At
Undercurrent, João Antunes writes: "
Delta, in its full geographical and metaphorical sense, is a movie about difference and its acceptance—or not" whose "non-political message [is] surpassed by the psychological portrait of a community that felt menaced by the presence of the strange."
Gigantic—Matt Aselton, USA. Smart and well-educated, Brian (Paul Dano) feels adrift in his life and his job at an upscale mattress store. The one thing he knows is that he wants to adopt a Chinese baby, and is on a wait list to do so. When he meets Happy (Zooey Deschanel), an odd and feisty rich girl sent to pick up a mattress for her father (John Goodman), he falls head over heels. But Happy has deep reservations about dating a guy who could become a dad at any time. As they negotiate their increasing intimacy, Brian awaits the call from the adoption agency. Earlier this summer, Jason Guerrasio filed a production report for
indieWIRE.
World Premiere.
Hooked (aka Angling, Pescuit sportive)—Adrian Sitaru, Romania/France. A Sunday picnic seemed like the best way for Mihai and Sweetie to spend some quality time together and take their relationship to a new level. But a series of odd and unexpected events quickly turn this idyllic weekend getaway into the strangest day of their lives.
North American Premiere.
Hunger—Steve McQueen, United Kingdom.
Hunger follows Bobby Sands and the other political inmates of Northern Ireland's
Maze Prison in 1981 as they seek to gain special category status for republican prisoners. At
The Guardian,
Ryan Gilbey interviews McQueen after his Caméra d'Or win. At
The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers together the critical response from Cannes08 and—more recently—a fascinating monograph by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith for
Frieze Magazine, wherein Léith explores "the strange complicity between starvation and loquacity" and the "nexus between flesh and word, between corporeality and textuality" frequent in McQueen's museum films, up into
Hunger. At
Undercurrent, Mohammed Rouda says the film "is, among other things, an observing eye itself." He concludes that
Hunger "is a film about souls who are considered by some as unworthy, and about the dignity of the victims. It's only when we watch the film carefully, we understand that life is still so highly valued by the prisoner despite the surroundings." In his Cannes report to
Film Comment (July/August 2008, p. 60), Gavin Smith writes: "More interested in the ethos of resistance than in ideology, but with an approach that's meticulous, disapassionate and, in terms of both tone and camera work, reminiscent of the work of touchstone English TV director Alan Clarke, McQueen has taken an important piece of recent British history and brought it back to life with harrowing conviction."
Matt Riviera writes up
Hunger's win at the Sydney Film Festival. Picked up by IFC for distribution.
TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Kabuli Kid—Barmak Akram, France/Afghanistan. Kabul taxi driver Khaled picks up a woman and, after settling on a price, takes her to her destination. The woman gets out and a new passenger climbs in, only to find a baby in the backseat. Khaled leaps out after the woman, whose face had been obscured by her burqa, but she has vanished. He's left holding the baby—a six-month-old boy. Who was this woman and how will Khaled find her?
North American Premiere.
Lovely, Still—Nik Fackler, USA. With the approach of Christmas causing him to feel lonely in life and love, Robert Malone (Martin Landau) returns home from his job at a grocery store to find a stranger (Ellen Burstyn) in his house. What begins as an odd encounter quickly blossoms into a full-blown love affair, leaving the two struggling with the baggage attached to their late-in-life romance. Also starring Elizabeth Banks (
Zack and Miri Make a Porno) and Adam Scott,
Lovely, Still features original music by Conor Oberst and a score by members of Bright Eyes. Since locally it's big news that the film is being shot in Omaha, The Nebraska Independent Film Projects website
profiles Nik Fackler and offers
production backstory.
World Premiere.Lymelife—Derick Martini, USA. From the filmmaking team behind
Smiling Fish and
Goat on Fire (TIFF 1999) comes an examination of first love, family dynamics and the American Dream in late 1970s Long Island, as seen through the innocent eyes of a 15-year-old. Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin) is a gentle boy—a direct contrast to his blustery father, Mickey (Alec Baldwin). After an outbreak of Lyme disease hits their suburban community, the lives of the Bartletts and their neighbors begin to crumble in the wake of illness, confrontation and paranoia. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Lymelife co-stars Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Kieran Culkin, Emma Roberts and Cynthia Nixon.
World Premiere.
Medicine for Melancholy—Barry Jenkins, USA. Two African-American 20-somethings wake up in bed together having no recollection of how they arrived there. Wandering the streets of SF, the pair meditate on issues of race, class, identity and gentrification. I was one of the first to write this one up back in February for
The Evening Class and then it played at SFIFF08, where through the skilled art of eavesdropping I learned early on that IFC picked it up for distribution and that TIFF included it in their Discovery Program. My interview with Barry and cinematographer James Laxton will be published by
Greencine in the near future. Preceded by the Johannesburg-set short film
Jesus and the Giant (South Africa) by Akin Omotoso.
The Paranoids (Los paranoicos)—Gabriel Medina, Argentina. At once an unmotivated procrastinator, fearsome hypochondriac and unenthused children's party entertainer, Luciano (Daniel Hendler) is on a fast track to nowhere. When his successful friend arrives from Spain, he is forced to face his own uninspired existence. At
Variety, Robert Koehler kindly admits that "Daniel Hendler's dry and underplayed perf as paranoid
numero uno keeps pic afloat and helps its international profile" but ultimately dismisses the film as slack.
Parc—Arnaud des Pallières, France. Georges Nail (Sergi López) lives in a new suburb. He's married, loves his wife, son and dog. Paul Hammer (Jean-Marc Barr) is goodlooking, rich and intelligent, but torn between his severe judgment of the world and his desire to be part of it. When their paths cross, Nail sees an opportunity for new friendship. But Hammer sees a new reason for living—to crucify the perfect image of the happy western man and his incarnation in the person of Georges Nail.
North American Premiere.
Rain—Maria Govan, Bahamas. In hopes of reconciling with the mother who abandoned her, Rain leaves her simple, sheltered life on rural Ragged Island for the big city of Nassau. But her dream of a loving reunion is quickly shattered when she meets Glory, a scarred, angry woman who bears no resemblance to the mother she had hoped for. Driven by a passion for running and the support of a caring track coach, Rain must find the inner strength to build a new life. Jason Buchanan offers an alternate synopsis for
All Movie Guide via
The New York Times.
World Premiere.
Snow (Snijeg)—Aida Begic, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Germany/ France/Iran. Eastern Bosnia, 1997. Headed by the young and stubborn Alma (Zana Marjanovic), the residents of the war-ravaged and isolated village of Slavno face a dilemma. Should they accept an offer from two visiting businessmen willing to pay them to pick up and leave their homes for good, or do they stay, following their hearts but risking life-threatening poverty? Winner of the 2008 Cannes Critics' Week Grand Prize. At
The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers together the critical response from Cannes08.
Emanuel Levy has published Begic's directorial statement. My only regret is that TIFF didn't program two films called
Hail and
Sleet so that I could carry on with the postman's oath.
North American Premiere.The Stoning of Soraya M.—Cyrus Nowrasteh, USA. In a remote Iranian village, a woman stands falsely accused of adultery—a moral crime for which the punishment is death by stoning. Voiceless women, armed with only their innocence and dignity, are no match for the overwhelming primal forces that overrun their town. Based on the book by Freidoune Sahebjam,
The Stoning of Soraya M. stars Academy Award™ nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo.
Darius Kadviar interviews Cyrus Nowrasteh.
World Premiere.Tale 52 (Istoria 52)—Alexis Alexiou, Greece. After Iasonas and Penelope meet at a dinner party, the flirtatiousness between them quickly blossoms into a relationship. But awaking one morning to find that Penelope has mysteriously disappeared, Iasonas is unable to reconstruct what happened. The disappearance of his new girlfriend drives the rather shy Iasonas to despair, prompting confusing delusions on top of his already fragile mental state. Dispatching from the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Todd Brown reviewed this "elliptical reality bender" for
Twitch. "Alexiou," he concludes, "has aimed high with his feature debut and hits his mark square on, the end result a truly potent work on the relationship between perception, reality and our own minds." At
Variety, Jay Weissberg defines
Tale 52 as "a meticulously crafted thriller." Several other reviews are listed at
IMdb External Reviews.
North American Premiere.
Three Blind Mice—Matthew Newton, Australia. Tension mounts between three young Australian naval officers as they hit the streets of Sydney before being shipped out to Iraq. Dispatching from the Sydney Film Festival,
Matt Riviera found this "tightly scripted semi-improvisational drama to be engrossing and ultimately quite moving." At
The Hollywood Reporter, Megan Lehmann wrote the bottom line is that the film's "rat-a-tat-tat dialogue drives this smart and funny drama about a trio of sailors on shore-leave." Mark Lavercombe "comfortably recommended" the film for
Hoopla.nu.
Tony Manero—Pablo Larraín (Fuga), Chile/Brazil. Santiago de Chile, 1978. Dancer Raúl Peralta is obsessed with imitating Travolta's character in
Saturday Night Fever. His quest for stardom seems within his grasp when a TV station announces a Manero impersonation contest. At
The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08 where
Tony Manero—"the buzzed-to-death, stylistically intriguing Chilean psycho-comedy" (
Senses of Cinema)—was featured in the Directors Fortnight.
TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Tulpan—Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany/Switzerland/Kazakhstan/ Russia/Poland. Before he can realize his ambition of becoming a shepherd, Asa must first get married. Tulpan, his sole prospect for a future bride, rejects Asa due to his big ears. But Asa refuses to give up. At
The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson has gathered the reviews from Tulpan's Un Certain Regard win, Cannes08. In her Cannes report to
Film Comment (July/August 2008, p. 54), Amy Taubin writes: "
Tulpan brought tears of joy to demoralized festival viewers with a shot lasting several minutes that witnessed the birth of a lamb. …Whirling sandstorms and generational conflicts give the film its brink-of-chaos energy, but its most memorable images are of animals."
TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Vacation (Kyûka)—Hajime Kadoi, Japan. A middle-aged prison guard, Hirai follows an alienated work routine of strict rules and arduous duties, attending to death row's model inmate, Kaneda. When Kaneda's execution order is signed by the minister of justice, Hirai has the unexpected opportunity for a week of vacation. But there is a price to pay for this well-deserved break, as Hirai must assist Kaneda during his final moments.
International Premiere.What Doesn't Kill You (aka Real Men Cry)—Brian Goodman, USA. Childhood friends Paulie (Ethan Hawke) and Brian (Mark Ruffalo) grew up looking out for each other in their Irish-Catholic neighborhood in South Boston. Trapped in a cycle of gangs, gangsters and shady crime, they are constantly dodging local turf wars and the watchful eye of an encroaching police detective (Donnie Wahlberg). But with Brian's wife (Amanda Peet) growing increasingly distraught by her husband's lifestyle, will the tried and tested friendship between these two Southies crumble once and for all?
World Premiere.
Winds of September—Tom Shu-Yu Lin, Taiwan. Yen, Tang and their gang of baseball-loving friends are in their last year of high school when a scandal involving their beloved sport takes the nation by storm. With one fatal misstep, they will learn how fragile life can be, how delicate their friendship really is and how much courage they'll need to face the adult world. After embracing Best Film of Asia New Talent of the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival, Tom Shu-yu Lin's first feature
Winds of September also heralded 4 awards at the 10th Taipei Film Festival. Ho Yi interviews Tom Shu-Yu Lin for
Tapei Times. At
The Hollywood Reporter, Maggie Lee says
Winds of September is a "melancholy yet sweetly nostalgic male coming-of-age film."
North American Premiere.Zift—Javor Gardev, Bulgaria. The Moth is freed on parole after spending time in prison on wrongful conviction of murder. Jailed shortly before the Bulgarian communist coup of 1944, he now finds himself in a new and alien world—the totalitarian Sofia of the 60s. His first night of freedom draws the map of a diabolical city full of decaying neighborhoods, gloomy streets and a bizarre parade of characters. Gardev won Best Director at the Moscow International Film Festival. As Todd Brown has commented at
Twitch, the trailer for
Zift (which can be found at the
Twitch TIFF08 Trailer Park) also "opens with one of the most politically incorrect tattoos ever dreamt up."
North American Premiere.Cross-published on
Twitch.
24 City (Er shi si cheng ji)—Jia Zhang-ke (Still Life), China. A state-owned munitions factory in Southwest China shuts down to be replaced by a gargantuan luxury housing complex called 24 City. Through reflections on the life of work that binds them all, old workers, factory executives and yuppies assemble a history of China. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson has gathered the critical response from Cannes08. A couple of days later, Dave spotlighted Manohla Dargis calibrating her initial impressions of 24 City for The New York Times, which include points of convergence and divergence with—of all things—Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! "Without nostalgia but with sensitivity and depth of feeling," she praises, "Mr. Jia is documenting a country and several generations that are disappearing before the world's eyes." IMdb reports that during the Cannes press conference, Jia Zhang-ke, Joan Chen and Tao Zhao observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the 2008 devastating earthquake in China. The film was shot in Chengdu, in Sichuan province where the earthquake struck. In her Cannes report to Film Comment (July/August 2008, p. 52), Amy Taubin writes: "More problematic in its hybridity, Jia's 24 City, like his great Still Life, bears witness to China's economic miracles and the wreckage it leaves in its wake." As if catching 24 City at TIFF08 isn't exciting enough, I'll return from Toronto just in time to appreciate the Pacific Film Archive's Jia Zhang-ke's retrospective! TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Birdsong (El Cant dels Ocells)—Albert Serra, Spain. Stunningly shot using only natural light, El Cant dels Ocells is a contemplative reinterpretation of the Biblical journey of the Three Wise Men in search of the newborn Messiah. With a cast of non-professionals performing an improvised script, Albert Serra's second feature builds on his ongoing interest to cinematically express real time through the exquisite exploration of earth and sky. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08, where El Cant dels Ocells screened in the Directors' Fortnight. Robert Koehler reviews El Cant dels Ocells for Cinema Scope and—though not available online—in the same issue Mark Peranson (who portrays Joseph in the film) diaries on his participation with the project. At l'Humanité, Jean Roy declares "this contemplative, sensitive film takes us on a quest for the essence of cinema." Duane Byrge drivels alliterative disdain at The Hollywood Reporter, describing the film as "tiresome twaddle" and "pretentious piffle." Dispatching to Senses of Cinema, Markus Keuschnigg admits El Cant dels Ocells is "a mixed package", which is "at times transcendental and enlightening … at times harrowingly slow and pointless." One thing remains certain, Keuschnigg asserts despite reservations: "Albert Serra is one of the most innovative and daring artists in world cinema." TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Je veux voir (I Want to See)—Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lebanon. Their first film since the 2005 critically acclaimed A Perfect Day, filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige ask the question "what can cinema do?" and translate that into a version of reality in Je veux voir. Catherine Deneuve and Rabih Mroué star as themselves, traveling to Beirut and driving through the regions devastated by the 2006 war in Lebanon. This unpredictable adventure aims to reveal the beauty in an area ravaged by war. Cineuropa offers an alternate synopsis. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08. "Seeing means traveling to the most hard-hit parts of Lebanon to witness the aftermath of the recent war, the pockmarked buildings and caved-in brick walls," Ali Naderzad dispatches to Screen Comment, though he adds that "the film's intentions are a bit hazy." In Joumane Chahine's Cannes report to Film Comment (July/August 2008, p. 64), Chahine complains that the potential of this film's intriguing conceit "makes the resulting 75 minutes of utter insignificance all the more unforgiveable." Preceded by the short film Expectations (South Korea/France). Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's follow-up to the 2006 award-winning Daratt (Dry Season) charts the journey of a man fleeing his debts by attempting an arduous desert crossing. TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Liverpool—Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Netherlands/ Spain/Germany. During an Atlantic crossing, Farrel asks the captain of the freighter he is sailing for permission to go ashore at the next port. He wants to visit the place where he was born to find out if his mother is still alive. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08. At Senses of Cinema, Markus Keuschnigg writes that Alonso's Liverpool "basically continues the corporality of his previous films" but that—though "satisfying enough" as a film—"it lacks the profound coherence of his 'trilogy'—La Libertad (2001), Los Muertos (2004), Fantasma (2006)." At Film Comment, Kent Jones is eloquent in his appreciation of Alonso's aesthetic. "Alonso is a fascinating figure," Jones explains, "who probably thinks more about form than any other narrative filmmaker his age. His attempts at overall unity are impressive if not fearsome, even when he miscalculates. At his finest, Alonso settles on journeys that accumulate observation (of landscapes and ways of life) that expand along the way into collectively internalized visions of existence and their horizon lines." These are qualities that fans of Alonso have come to expect. What is unexpected in Liverpool "is the unforced grandeur of the narrative/formal/thematic arc: out at sea one longs for land, and stuck on land one dreams of sailing over the horizon." TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Salamandra—Pablo Agüero, Argentina/France/Germany. In the valley of El Bolson in Patagonia—a haven for renegades from all over the world—Alba and Inti try to build a normal life as mother and son. indieWIRE interviewed Agüero at Cannes07 when the project was in development via the Atelier de la Cinefondation. At Cannes08 Milos Stehlik—dispatching to Facets Features—found Salamandra to be a "wonderfully exciting surprise" and added he would go see the film again if it were showing anywhere. Harry Tuttle practices a more distanced critique at Screenville. At Variety, Justin Chang admits that Salamandra marks Agüero as "a talent to watch", praises rising Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi as "beautiful" in her "chain-smoking, vanity-free abandon" and draws comparisons to the work of Lucrecia Martel. At The Hollywood Reporter, Duane Byrge observes that Salamandra is "a horror-of-personality story, carved and gutted from a mother-son relationship." TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
The Sky Crawlers (Sukai kurora)—Mamoru Oshii, Japan. Celebrated animated film director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) delves into a world that is eradicated by war, where private contractors enlist fighter pilots known as Kildren to perform in an endless war that people watch on TV. Kildren do not age, living in a state of eternal adolescence until they die in action. Embracing the reality with which they are faced, the Kildren are conscious that each new day could very well be their last. AsianBeat has an informative profile on Oshii with an anticipatory focus on The Sky Crawlers. Jason Gray weighs in with an appreciative review. At Japan Times, Mark Schilling writes that "the film's air battles, which put the audience in the passenger's seat for each meticulously rendered climb, roll and plunge, [and] are thrilling in a primal, adrenaline-pumping way" but disclaims that Oshii is trying to make a typical fighter-pilot film. "Instead," Schilling asserts, "he is conducting an investigation into the consequences of messing with the core definition of humanity. What happens when you wipe out a person's past? Make him ageless? Enlist him in a war that never ends—and a life that has no future?" Underscoring that the film's true tragedy lies "not [in] an aborted future, but [in] the lack of a past." TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Süt (Milk)—Semih Kaplanoğlu, Turkey/France/Germany. Young Yusuf is upset when he learns that his mother Fatma is having a secret affair with the town's railroad stationmaster. He must decide whether to behave in accordance with the traditional male-dominated culture of the town, or to develop a newly open perspective that is more modern. indieWIRE interviewed Kaplanoğlu at Cannes07 when the project was in development via the Atelier de la Cinefondation. TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
Vinyan—Fabrice du Welz, France/United Kingdom/Belgium. Eastern spiritual themes of despair are paired with maternal concerns in du Welz's second film after his 2004 Midnight Madness debut, Calvaire. Starring Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell, Vinyan concerns a couple who are torn after the loss of their son Joshua. Glimpsing a boy who resembles Joshua in video footage from a village of orphaned children on the Thai-Burmese border, Jeanne (Béart) becomes consumed by the belief her son was kidnapped by traffickers in the chaos that followed the 2004 tsunami. The Gomorrahizer offers an alternate synopsis at Gomorrahy.Com. Bloody Disgusting scores an interview with du Welz. TIFF08 Program Capsule. North American Premiere.
