Jean-Luc Godard is a man the world lost in September this
year. I am positive someone like me is less than dust beneath his chariot
wheels but before I even knew of French New Wave, I came across a quote which I
later learnt were his words:
“Photography is truth and cinema is truth 24 times a
second.”
These words left a mark on me and I saw them again in a dark
theatre at my first visit to Kolkata International Film Festival in 2021. I was
there for hardly a day and I went with some of my friends. I saw four movies
and liked all of them. While my memory doesn’t allow me to recall the names of
the movies and while I was yet to sit with a Godard movie, I had already begun
my journey into the world of international cinema in 2020, when the world was
in lockdown. I had started with Akira Kurosawa and then moved on in utter
chaos, shape without form as Eliot says and ravenously devoured as many
international movies as I could.
I wanted to come back to KIFF again (and again, and again)
and jumped at the chance to attend it this year, the 28th iteration
of the festival which wrapped up on 22nd December, 2022. I am
writing this post in the wee hours of 23rd December, 2022 because
sleep eludes me, for I am still wandering around the world in the darkened
theatre of Nandan- I. Come walk with me through the fifteen or sixteen films I
managed to watch over the course of December 19th to December 22nd
2022. I have my journal open alongside me, where I have noted down the names of
all the films I saw.
KIFF DAY 1 (19th
December, 2022)
Hot on the heels of the FIFA World Cup final, the day began
with me waking up at cock’s crow and heading into the kitchen to make tea and
some food to carry with me to the venue. After whipping up a lunchbox and
feeling totally like a schoolboy off to enjoy his day, I arrived at the venue
and walked into The Gospel According to St. Matthew, a Biblical drama
directed by Pasolini (of Salo fame, the one film of his I had seen
before and been traumatized by). The film was an intense experience with good
pacing and showed a side of Jesus Christ that I had never read about or seen
before. I refer to my friend Jeffrey Jacob’s Telegram message, where he told me
that Pasolini’s take on Jesus is important to note because it was one of those representations
that depicts hope and empathy over salvation. Pasolini was Marxist, gay and an
atheist in 1950’s Italy and thus his take of the Gospel according to Matthew
fits the archetype of a revolutionary leader. I got this message post the
film’s ending and having read it understood the film a little better.
The second film was Russian and called Pervii Sneg
(First Snow), directed by Nathalia Konchalovsky. It was a beautifully shot film
with great use of colours and angles. I was most impressed with the
cinematography. It follows the tale of Kristina whose life is spent in daylight
as a paralegal and in moonlight with her mother watching a TV series. Kristina
is being nagged at by her mother to get a guy and at this juncture she meets
Pavel, her upstairs neighbour who is a terrible “musician” and claims to be
researching glaciers for his doctoral thesis. Kristina is also training in
Aikido and as we are told later in the film, her Aikido coach is the husband of
her boss at the law firm.
The film progresses to show rebellion in Kristina, after she
lies to her mother about having a date and going clubbing and how she feels
suffocated at the firm she interns at. She chooses to coach Aikido to children
at the dojo and sleeps with Pavel as well. Later she learns Pavel lied about
his job to her and is underage. She confronts him and calls off their
relationship.
However, the film takes another interesting turn. Kristina’s
mother tries to woo one of her clients and goes on a date with him as well, but
it doesn’t work out. Pavel is underage. And the cherry on the cake is,
Kristina’s boss is unable to spend time with her daughter due to the pressure
of her work at the firm and is ashamed and angry about this, which is brought
out very well in the form of two scenes where there are arguments between her
husband and herself. Their daughter makes videos on YouTube and organises a fan
meeting for her followers at which her mother comes. I found this to be a very
poignant way to depict the relationship between the working mother and the
young child.
The film ends with Kristina leaving her apprenticeship,
becoming a full time Aikido coach and the little girl joining the group of
students she teaches.
The third film I saw was Mireasa Mortului (The
Deadman’s Bride), which was a collaborative effort between Romania and France,
directed by Cornel Gheoghita. I would not hesitate to rank this as the worst
film I saw at this festival.
A crew of French film makers wants to make a film about
Romanian traditions. They decide to film a baptism, a wedding and a funeral,
but are unable to film the funeral. Unfazed by this, they decide to fake a
funeral by burying a living man (or rather lower a coffin into an open grave)
according to Romanian customs. I found this to be highly odd and it made me
uncomfortable to tell you the truth.
There is however a love story being shown in this as well,
where one of the French film makers falls in love with a deaf and mute girl and
swears that he’ll come back for her post the shooting of the burial scene. Unfortunately,
they are involved in a car accident and their decision to bury a living man is
met with horror by the village priest who states that he must purge the village
of this sin by prayer. The film maker injured in the car accident drives back
to the village despite being told not to by his friends and is there chased by
a mob because ominous things have happened in the village. Ultimately, both he
and the girl he’s in love with die in a fire.
This plot summary is deliberately shoddy because it left no
impact on me whatsoever in the wake of the other films I saw. I went into it
excited because I thought it was a horror movie and was bitterly disappointed.
The next film to be screened was Beurokeo (Broker)
directed by Hirokazu Koreeda from South Korea. I had heard great things about
this film and was definitely not disappointed. In brief, Dong-soo and Sang-hyeon
are child traffickers, choosing to pick up babies from a church’s baby box and
then sell them under cover of Sang-hyeon’s laundry. However, when they
intercept the baby Woo-sung, they find a note that says the mother will be back
for the baby. Now apparently this is a regular affair and the mother’s don’t
ever return for the abandoned babies. This one, does. Enter Moon So-young,
whose basic statement is that “I did say I’d return for my child. Where is he?”
What follows is the trio and the baby travelling to many
places and trying to find a good home for Woo-sung. Spicing the pot even more
is the police in form of two detectives, Soo-jin and Lee (both women) who are
hot on the trial of the baby in order to shut down the trafficking ring run by
Dong-soo and Sang-hyeon.
Instead of delving deeper into the plot, and instead urging
you to watch this movie pronto, I will say that the chemistry between Dong-soo
and So-young is brilliantly brought out. This character development with
Dong-soo initially looking down on So-young for wanting to abandon the baby,
but ultimately acknowledging that she’s trying to do the right thing Is what
for me was the best part of the movie. A solid performance by the child actor
Im Seung-soo as Hae-jin, who brings a lot of comic relief and wisdom into the
film make this a movie that’s not only watchable, but one that will leave you
thinking for a long time.
A delight!
The final film on day one of Kolkata International Film
Festival was A24 Studios’ offering The Whale, directed by Darren
Aronofsky from the United States of America. It stars Brendan Fraser as I’ve never
seen him before. Morbidly obese, rocking a blood pressure of 200/138 or so,
gorging himself on pizza, soda and confectionary, this man is a teacher of
literature. And how. However, he does not turn on the camera in the meetings he
takes where he teaches and he urges his students to think out of the box. You
will find yourself instantly connecting with Fraser’s portrayal of Charlie. Add
to that his nurse Liz, played by Hong Chau who is more a friend and less a
nurse and even says so in the film many times and you’re almost set for a
treat. I say almost because there’s two more characters- the missionary Thomas
(Ty Simpkins) and Charlie’s daughter, Ellie (a staggering portrayal by Sadie
Sink).
The long and the short of it is that Charlie was married to
his wife Mary (Samantha Morton) and Ellie was their child, but then Charlie
developed feelings for his student Alan and left his family when Ellie was
eight years old. He’s separated from Mary and lives by himself and teaches said
online class, until one day Ellie storms back in, now seventeen and then the
fun begins. Ellie’s not been doing well at school and needs him to look at one
of her essays. Charlie offers to pay her to come visit him and she agrees. The
angle of the missionary Thomas is that he feels Charlie needs saving and that
God has brought him to Charlie to help.
The twist is, Alan is Liz’s brother and the church that
Thomas says he’s from is not very popular with Liz or Charlie, seeing as Alan
died. That’s why Charlie has spiralled down to this state in the first place.
Ellie also meets Thomas and proceeds to rag him left, right
and center. It is revealed that Thomas is no longer in the employ of the
church, that Thomas has stolen from the church and is ashamed. It is Ellie who
finds all this out through sleuthing and confronts Thomas about this, recording
a confession on her phone.
On the other burner, Charlie urges Ellie to write what she
really feels about her schoolwork. She mouths off Walt Whitman with panache. We
also learn that Charlie has kept aside a very large sum of money for Ellie and
in his own words, that money was always meant to be for Ellie.
The core theme of the film is honesty. Honesty about what
you feel about a piece of literature, honesty to yourself and it’s an amazing
and heart-warming tale. You will need tissues; tears of joy will flow at the
ending of this movie. Do not miss it!
KIFF DAY 2 (20th
December, 2022)
Since I was not very impressed with the Pasolini movie the
day before, I skipped the screening at 9AM and arrived to watch the 11:30AM
show. The movie being screened was Mezhsezone (In Limbo), from Russia,
directed by Alexander Hant. This was about teenagers and their angst with their
parents and followed two teenagers, a girl and a boy who ran away from home and
started to vandalise public property and even stole a police car containing
guns and counterfeit cash and took off for a joyride.
Eventually, they holed up in a cabin and refused to
surrender, resulting in the S.W.A.T team
attacking the building and both of them dying in the encounter.
Plot wise this film did not do too much for me, however the
cinematography of the film made it stand out clearly. The night shots were
especially great. The theme of teenage angst is explored fair enough here, but
it is not a very thought-provoking film. I just got the impression that the two
teenagers Sasha and Danny could have just gone to therapy for their problems, not
stolen a police vehicle and guns.
The 2PM offering was Travels Inside Foreign Heads
from France, directed by Antonio Amaral. This was again a strange film about
three aliens who had come to the Earth for a certain purpose and were using
human bodies as vessels. When the body was dying, it would turn to soil and the
extra-terrestrial would find a new host.
Things turn sour when the Rare Visitor commands them to
return home and one of the aliens doesn’t want to do that. Since it was science
fiction, I tried my best to like it, but once it ended its second act, my
interest perished and seeing as the next film was Saim Sadiq’s Joyland
which I absolutely wanted to catch, I left early.
I don’t think I have it in me to speak too much about Joyland.
It is a good film, with solid acting and given that it is from Pakistan and
given that the theme is about a transgender woman finding love of sorts with a
man, I’d say it is bold and what keeps it afloat is the brilliant acting done
by the entire cast. I really would also like to say that the hype for the film
led to nearly 200 people not getting entry into the auditorium and that there
were a lot of people sitting on the steps to watch the movie or lying on the
floor because of lack of seats. I also vividly remember that I watched it right
from the front seat with my head at a 60-degree angle. Thus, more than the
film, the experience of watching it stood out more for me.
The 7PM screening was Neighbours directed by Mano Khalil
and for me this was the film of the festival, although that honour was shared
between two films, neither of which was this film.
We follow the journey of a boy called Sero. He is six years
old and his village is on a checkpoint. The two sides of the checkpoint are occupied
by those who will not let you speak in any language but Turkish and those that
won’t let you speak in any language but Arabic. Add to this a new teacher who
won’t let you call him “teacher”, but insists on being called “Comrade” and you
have a recipe for another nuclear bomb waiting to go off.
Sero cannot understand Arabic and so does not understand why
“Comrade” hits him with a stick. He goes home and cries to his mother and asks
her why his father and mother created him. She tells him he is the brightest
star in their lives and the kindest boy in the world. This is a brilliant way
of contrasting the culture shock that is Sero’s school life.
Sero’s neighbours are Jewish and their daughter Hannah is in
love with Sero’s uncle Aram. This brings a breath of fresh air to the film and
the courtship is shown beautifully. However, when Sero’s mother is accidentally
killed by the soldiers, his world turns upside down. Uncle Aram goes ballistic
and is taken away by the secret police and whipped and tortured. He is then
given 48 hours to enlist in the military and he chooses instead to join the
resistance.
In school, Sero keeps getting in trouble and “Comrade”, not “Teacher”
is planning a play where the so called “Jewish menace that stole Palestine” must
be vanquished.
I remember the director speaking to us before the film
started and saying that he wanted to show how easy it is to hate and to sow
hate in young minds. That is what this film portrays and portrays magnificently.
I will wrap up this review with a quote from the movie: “Mr.
Teacher, what would your life be like without Israel as an enemy?”
Look out for part 2, coming soon!
The Bilge Master
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