(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The opportunity to watch films from distant countries ruled our choice. Films from Iran, Afghanistan, China, Bosnia, Lithuania and Argentina were at the top of the wish list, but also Norwegian, Swedish and British. The high turnout and a bit of ticket chaos meant that we did not get all our wishes fulfilled, but managed eight impressions on a hectic weekend and gained insight into a partly exotic world.
Britain is not exactly an exotic country. But the story of Vera Drake is added to a slightly "exotic" time, more specifically to an English metropolis in 1950. Director Mike Leigh has made a big dramaturgical move by portraying the working woman Vera Drake as a selfless, sacrificial and diligent surplus person who is just good and helpful, and by this grip build up a story where all sympathy lies on Vera Drake's side as the long arm of the law catches up with her. What has she done? In her zeal to help people, she has assisted young girls who have come "in the accident" completely free of charge, to provoke abortions by injecting soapy water. The moment the police enter her home while the family celebrates a happy event, a great film-dramatic moment arises with a silent cinema hall and an audience with moist eyes.
"Vera Drake" is an unusually gripping social document with typical British unsentimental realism. The cast is perfect, from the self-righteous protagonist, the emaciated daughter, the ambitious son to the deeply understanding police inspector. The film will still be an important debate post about self-determined abortion, views on women, the letter of the law and class divisions.
awarded
An equally important, but completely different realistic drama, was called "Turtles can fly". Director Bahman Ghobadi is a Kurdish Iranian and added the plot to a Kurdish refugee camp in Iraq just before the US invasion. We see no able-bodied men or women in the camp, at least not up close, we see a few old men, but otherwise the children are in focus, despairing, physically and mentally maimed.
It is a brutal film, full of despair and hopelessness. With "turtles that can fly", the filmmaker probably refers to the unexploded landmines in the area. But he can also aim at injured children who want a different life. One of them, a raped young girl, raises her arms and "flies" to death down a cliff. A mutilated boy has no arms to raise, but shouts his despair into the mountain landscape.
Some scenes have a surreal feel, like when the people of the village try to mount a small forest of TV antennas to bring in American news. Some get a touch of humor when an English-speaking youth translates Bush's speeches. But otherwise everything is tragic. The children are waiting for an American Liberation Army, but the soldiers just pass by quickly and uninterested. In the end, it is the armless boy who, by his predictions, is the informant. Predictions of the type "- In 275 days something will happen!" gives yet another hopeless time perspective. After showing a documentary about how the feature film came to be, director Ghobadi said he was completely hopeless for the children in this area – "intelligent young children who have never experienced a peaceful life".
"Turtles can fly" received the festival's main prize, the Aurora Prize. Another Iranian production received the "Norwegian Peace Film Award". The film "Beautiful City" (Shah-re Ziba), directed by Asghar Farhadi, shows special aspects of a country's legislation and views on women – not unlike British "Vera Drake". An 18-year-old boy can avoid the death penalty after murdering his girlfriend, if the victim's father appeals against it and receives a certain amount in "blood money" (a smaller amount for a girl than for a boy).
The death row inmate's sister and a friend from the juvenile prison do what they can to influence the bitter father, but become entangled in a game of conditions that bring those involved into an unsolvable situation – and so the story ends without any clarification. The film gives a good picture of the environment on the outskirts of a modern Iranian city. It is striking that all the women in the film wear uncovered faces – that is not what we learn about Muslim countries?
Best movie?
Neighboring Afghanistan is the scene of the events in the movie "Earth and Ash" (Khâkestar-o-khâk). Director Ariq Rahimi is from Kabul, but lives in France with political asylum. The film is about an elderly man and his five-year-old grandson, they have escaped a village massacre and are on their way to a remote mine to tell the child's father (and grandfather's son) that the rest of the family is dead.
The plot is not an essential part of the film narrative. This is a lingering, aesthetic and exceptionally beautiful film, but with sequences and an undertone that makes it a harsh anti-war film. There are lots of dry desert landscapes, swirling sand, great distances, war-torn infrastructure and miserable communications, both the material and the human. The glimpses of two massacred cities, not to mention whether Russian or American planes have bombed them, give us a painful realism. Likewise the images of survivors burying their family members in shock or apathetically fleeing, of an unpleasant guard out in the wilderness and the image of the motionless woman who has settled down by a broken tank with her obedient daughter. The five-year-old boy is far from obedient, he scolds and is annoying, but gradually it becomes clear to us that the bombs have made him deaf. He blames everyone else, people like donkeys, for losing their voice. He wants to go to a place "where there are noises".
An awkward aesthetic, with a touch of abandoned humor conveyed by a traveling salesman of wooden toys and an urban greengrocer in a place without inhabitants. One of Ny Tid's broadcasters believes that this was the Tromsø festival's best film – of the selection he got to see.
distinctiveness
We think it is good that films give us something of the country of origin's uniqueness. For all we know, "Earth and Ash" may have been recorded in the Tunisian desert, but it gave us a clear Afghan picture. But the Chinese film "Green Hat" (Lu mao zi), by director Liu Fendou, could have been made anywhere. It was for the most part an "action film" of the American brand, "dared" in a banal way with a focus on masturbation and erection problems. Is this an expression of a modern western-oriented China, it is sad.
In return, Bosnian Pjer Zalica's film "Hos onkel Idriz" (Kod amidze Idriza) gave a credible picture of a suburb of Sarajevo. A low-key and strolling photo series with very common remarks about everyday events, but still presented with a nerve that kept interest captured.
The Argentine "Familia Rodante", under the direction of Pablo Trapero, was much more fast-paced. The matriarch Doña Emilia gathers children, sons-in-law and grandchildren, about ten, in a caravan on a trip from Buenos Aires to the Brazilian border. A worthwhile trip with everything that can happen, such a wonderful mix of good and bad family characters in what we think is recognizable as South American temperament and individuality. Great movie memories by choosing from the top shelf in a colorful festival.
