Movie reviews

JE SUIS FEMEN (I AM FEMEN)

Recommended. A fascinating documentary which answers all the questions I've had about the topless feminists and reveals even more. Ukraine certainly has worse problems than we could imagine in Poland or Britain: a girl was raped and burned alive, survived, had har limbs amputated after which she died anyway and the suspects were let free or a zoo owner poisoned animals to take over the land. All the more you get to appreciate the activists' determination to bring the perpetrators (often successfully) to justice. So why do they protest half-naked? Because: 1. it guarantees attention and media coverage, 2. feminists are said to be ugly and unattractive so they've decided to show you can be beautiful and sexy and still be a feminist. Who finances them? The media and their online shop sales. Other little known facts are that the Euro 2012 brought about a huge rise in the number sex parlous in Ukraine, again something we didn't experience in Poland and that the girls where tortured in Russia and Belarus. Kudos to Femen heroes!

PHOENIX

Recommended. A gripping story where "will he recognise her or not?" keeps you on the edge of your seat and a disturbing truth about human emotions is shown as well - no one wants to hear about the woman's concentration camp memories, all people want is to see her just the way she was before the war. The final song is very beautiful and constitutes the film climax.

FEHER ISTEN (WHITE GOD)

Recommended. Not a film I'd like to see again - it's full of cruelty to dogs and humans - but it's unusual - certainly nothing like whatever I had seen in the cinema before. And clearly made by someone who loves dogs. A disturbing must-see.

I'm adding a comment about 1.5 years later when I had a chance to ask the director, Kornél Mundruczó, about the film. The story behind the film harks back to his visit in a dog rescue where he saw dogs which were, effectively, waiting for death. This film, just like his later "Jupiter Holdja" ("Jupiter's Moon), is a mirror or ourselves. The title comes from a South African philosophical essay by John Maxwell Coetzee: a man from a dog's perspective is a white god. Dorota Chrobak asked him about cruelty common to Hungarian cinema. The director explained that the conflict of poetry and reality came from Hungarian tradition. It's present in folk tales and in Bartók's works. Unlike French or Romanian cinema, which is built on realism, mixing reality with poetry is typical for Hungarians. Scriptwriter Kata Wéber added that black humour was common in Hungarian society and that could be seen as brutality.

PLEMYA (THE TRIBE)

Watchable. Very poorly acted. Mildly interesting just because, as you're told upfront, "the film is all in sign language with no subtitles or translation". At the same time it's full of talking - sign language - which only adds length to the film.

THE PYRAMID

Watchable. While I hate horrors full of jumping monsters, I have to admit these ones are scary. I hope they won't make a sequel.

LA FAMILLE BELIER (THE BELIER FAMILY)

Recommended. I laughed and cried and wallowed in the songs. A heart-warming family comedy (the sign language "translations" are brilliant).

DEUX JOURS, UNE NUIT (TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT)

Watchable. It's intriguing to see how people will react to a choice of saving a colleague's job vs. getting a pay bonus of 1000 euro and you're obviously curious to find out if the main protagonist gets to keep her job. Other than that the film and the actress in a leading role are quite average, quite clearly couldn't win the Oscar.

SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY

Watchable. Very well acted. With some hilarious situation humour, especially a few scenes with dogs, yet not that funny throughout.

LA DISTANCIA (DYSTANS)

Walked out. I couldn't make any sense of those ugly people, mostly dwarves, doing weird things.