2006 Global Lens Festival

[oscar jubis]

The Global Film Initiative is an organization which promotes cross-cultural understanding through cinema by supporting, financing and presenting acclaimed films from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The organization recognizes the value of cinema as a medium that builds bridges between people from different cultural backgrounds. Its film board is composed of recognized filmmakers from throughout the world, including directors Pedro Almodovar, Carlos Reygadas, Lars von Trier, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Bela Tarr, and cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

Every year, as many as 10 films are selected and compiled into a traveling film series titled GLOBAL LENS, which is now in its fourth year. The festival serves as a corrective to gaps in the distribution of acclaimed films from the developing world. Several of the films exhibited during previous festivals have been made available on dvd through a partnership with First Run Features.

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1970. The Big Island prison near Rio houses both common criminals and activists imprisoned by the military dictatorship in power. Miguel, an idealistic young leftist, manages to organize the prisoners and persuade them to adhere to a code of conduct. As a child, he befriended Jorge, when their musician fathers were friends. Jorge, a black slum-dweller, happens to be imprisoned for criminal charges at the Big Island. They renew their friendship, but their different backgrounds and beliefs are obvious strains on their relationship.

Director and co-writer Lucia Murat is no stranger to the film's milieu. She and her husband were arrested and tortured for their political activity during the 70s. Almost Brothers flashes back and forth between 1957, 1970 and the present, when Miguel is a socialist congressman and Jorge runs a lucrative criminal enterprise from prison. The cinematography and art direction skillfully and artfully separate these temporal shifts to orient the viewer. The changes in the bond between Miguel and Jorge over time are quite interesting to contemplate. The characters, who are representative of different but inter-dependent social classes, are well realized by the script written by Murat and Paulo Lins (City of God). Both central characters are provided with enough nuance to stand as individuals, not simply class reps.

The sole misstep is the inclusion of a subplot involving Miguel's teenage daughter's fascination with a favela gang leader. Significant time is wasted on this predictable tale that somewhat dilutes the film's impact. We never quite grasp how these two youths really feel about each other, and it provides no useful counterpoint to the main narrative thread. The wonderful score by world-renowned musician Nana Vasconcelos is a consistent delight though. Almost Brothers won the Fipresci Prize and the Best Director award at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.

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Near Iran's border with Turkey, Reyhan, a mother of two young daughters, plans to re-open the roadside diner that's been closed since her husband Ismael died. Her brother-in-law Nasser, concerned about the family's reputation, demands she follows the local custom in this tradition-bound region. He wants to marry Reyhan and have her and the girls move into his house. Reyhan refuses to marry Nasser and gets the old waiter Ojan to return to his post and assist her in opening the diner. It quickly develops a devoted international trucker clientele attracted by Reyhan's excellent cooking and the cozy athmosphere of the establishment. Nasser gives up his plan to marry Reyhan but insists she needs to close the diner and come to live in a new addition to his house being built for her and the girls. If she wants, he proposes, Reyhan can do her cooking at his less-than-successful restaurant. The independent-minded widow categorically refuses. Two outsiders provide further complications: Svieta, a young Russian woman traveling alone in search of her estranged sister, and Zachario, a heartbroken Greek trucker, who grows closer to Reyhan and the girls during a border closure.

Border Cafe aka Transit Cafe was written and directed by Kambuzia Partovi, who penned the celebrated scripts of The Circle and I am Taraneh,15. The film is masterfully edited by Jafar Panahi, the director of The Circle and Crimson Gold. The film's structure is rather complex, for instance, the first two scenes are flash-forwards showing Svieta and Zachario in different locales telling others about the remarkable woman they met near the Iran-Turkey border. The film returns again to Svieta and Zachario in the future tense and contains a brief flashback, but these never deter from the focus on the present. The kitchen scenes feature plenty of sensuous close-ups that render Border Cafe a must-see for foodies, who'd enjoy it as much as Tampopo and Babette's Feast. Outdoor scenes are mostly filmed in medium and long shot, with the one involving Zachario's tentative physical gesture towards Reyhan being particularly memorable. Following a narrative ellipsis, the last scene is pregnant with meaning and provides satisfactory closure with great economy. Border Cafe's biggest asset is the performance by Fereshten Sadr Orfani, the director's wife, in the title role. She was the girl's mother in The White Balloon and had a significant role in The Circle, but Border Cafe is her showcase. Orfani's Best Actress award at Iran's most prestigious film festival is well deserved.

Four of the eight films featured at this year's Global Lens Festival have feminist themes. Border Cafe is my favorite. Besides Orfani's award, the film received the Best Screenplay award at the Fajr Film Festival and the FISPRESCI Prize at the Dhaka International Film Festival.

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A grown Yan'ni relates via voice-over how she was brought to Beijing by her mother to be raised by her aunt and grandmother. They made sacrifices for her but they also resented her presence and didn't show affection towards her. Stolen Life shows Yan'ni at different stages of childhood, privileging those moments when her mother came to Beijing from the countryside to visit her. Yan'ni grows up with feelings of abandonment and low self-worth largely because she misinterprets her mother's actions as selfish and because of her caretakers' contempt. The bulk of the story involves Yan'ni getting accepted to college, which surprises her relatives, and how she sacrifices her future by placing her love for the wrong guy above her aspirations. Shaohong skirts the inherent melodrama by having a future Yan'ni reveal from the start the duplicitous, criminal nature of Muyu, a handsome delivery man with whom she falls in love. As a result, the movie takes a detached, almost clinical approach to the true story of one of the victims of a man who seduced and impregnated women in order to sell their babies. The second half of the film allows a glimpse of Beijing's underground city, a maze of interwinding passageways containing semi-clandestine shops, small apartments and work spaces. Stolen Life is a visually splendid movie, lensed nimbly in HD by Gao Hu, that consistently provides color and texture variations that reflect the protagonist's predicament and state of mind. Yan'ni is played by Zhou Xun, one of my favorite actresses of the past decade (the star of Peter Chan's new Perhaps Love and the femme fatale in Suzhou River). Zhou Xun gives a riveting performance that takes the character from vulnerable ingenue to a woman that has overcome her need for revenge and achieved a hard-earned wisdom.

The latest film from veteran fifth generation director Lee Shaohong (Blush) was named Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival.

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Many years ago, Abu, ashamed of his eldest daughter's ill-deserved reputation as a loose woman, moved his family into a hovel in the desert, far from town. The family scratches out a living by illegally cutting down wood from a nearby forest and burning it to make charcoal. It's a hardscrabble existence, isolated and lonely, without running water or electricity. His son Shukri tries to attend school in town but Abu forces him to stay and supervise the charcoal fires. His wife and daughters constantly plead for a return to town but Abu refuses. He builds a pipeline to bring water from over the hill so they don't have to haul it in. One day, they wake up to find someone has tampered with the pipeline. The mother thinks it must have been Israeli soldiers or settlers. But perhaps Abu is facing rebellion from within his own family.

Thirst is an intense family drama of mythic dimensions. The barren, striking locale, wonderfully captured by cinematographer Asaf Sudri, contributes greatly to its epic quality. The film evokes many tales of patriarchal repression in which family members keep their private dreams and secrets locked away from each other. The Israeli occupation and the military that enforces it are like a dark cloud hanging over the proceedings, like a menace that never becomes manifest. Writer/director Tawfik Abu Wael also deserves credit for guiding a cast of non-professionals who are consistently believable and inhabit their roles effortlessly.

Thirst won the FIPRESCI award the Cannes Fest's Critics Week. It also won the Israeli Academy award for Best Cinematography.

[Johann]

Happy that Stolen Life was screening and you went to see it. It's images and story still haunt me...

Why isn't this film shown in wide release?

- you don't have to answer- I was just expressing my angst over movies like this never getting a chance.

Your posts are a movie lovers friend oscar

[oscar jubis]

Thanks man, likewise. I found your post from the Vancouver Film Fest and re-read it along with others. It's clear, isn't it, that distributed films don't represent the breath of the films being made that are at least worth seeing. As a matter of fact, there are so many must-see movies that never get near commercial screens that only avid festival goers can "cover" the medium's output. And, if I may say so, only festival goers who don't waste time on distributed films they'll have a chance to watch later anyway. I just watched two Mexican films at a local fest, extremely challenging and ambitious movies that truly took me to new places in more ways than one, that don't have any chance of ever being shown outside festivals. Two of the organizations trying to do something about this are Film Movement, and the Global Film Initiative, the sponsors of this Global Lens traveling fest. A labour of love, far as I'm concerned.

Take Suzuki's Princess Raccoon, which you reviewed in your Vancouver thread. Will have to import the dvd and watch it at home because no distributor took a chance on it. Lamentably, it's the rule rather than the exception. Film even features mega-star Zhang Ziyi for chrissake!

[Johann]

Princess Raccoon would've been the best film I saw at the festival if it wasn't for Isabella Rossellini.

Isn't Suzuki a cinema legend?
No distributer?
That movie is a must own- perhaps Criterion will get the opportunity to release it.
It's actually a comedy. A comedy-musical.
It has some really funny moments.

Re: seeing films at festivals. I agree .
Why see The DaVinci Code at a festival?

Watch those rare, obscure ones from Tiki Miki Mango.

I saw Black Gold @ the Bytowne- it's about the Ethiopian coffee growers who never get a fair trade for their beans.

It's about how the international price of coffee is decided in New York (and London) and how the growers' families children are being weighed every week in a sling to see if they are emaciated enough to receive a food ration- sickening.

The growers are being paid nil for hard labour while the consumer pays 2 bucks a cup.

ENJOY THAT COFFEE, JETSETTER!
The ethiopian who picked the beans is starving while you enjoy a caffeine buzz.

Sorry, did I ruin your morning?

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Just ordered a Hong Kong release on dvd of Princess Raccoon. Only $12, plus a second dvd was only an extra $6 (I picked the original version of Chen Kaige's gorgeous The Promise, not the abbreviated one released in the States).

Black Gold sounds like a compelling and important film. I was glad to find out it's being distributed at select cinemas including my hood's Cosford Cinema, but maybe not until Jan according to the programmer. Anyway, the distributor has also promised a dvd release (no dates announced).