SHORT FILM COMPETITION
ANOTHER SUNNY DAY
Watchable. About an albino who lives kind of like a vampire - having to stay in most of the day. He slops on sun protection to go out, obviously. Nothing you wouldn't expect. 24 hours in Namibia are shown beautifully.
LODGERS
Recommended. A smart comedy, with outstanding British and Nigerian actors, about being an immigrant to the UK. It picks on: entry formalities, initially incomprehensible English accent, language differences, mispronounced names, educational and professional background assessment, getting the national insurance number, British politeness and consequential cultural misunderstandings, indirect discrimination - all in a comic manner, e.g. when United Kingdom is mentioned, the Nigerian responds: "We are very united where I come from. But I don't know about your kingdom."
DEAR MR SHAKESPEARE
Watchable. Very well, in a modern way, delivered Shakespeare quotes. Was supposed to treat about racism but I don't remember what it was about so I guess the contents didn't stand out.
ONCE AN OLD LADY SAT ON MY CHEST
Recommended. About the dilemma of staying true to your roots versus changing your name in order to land a job in Britain. The old lady is the girl's late mother from Africa. Thought-provoking.
BECAUSE I AM
Watchable. Just unbelievable what people do to lesbians in Zimbabwe. They get gang raped, accused of magic, oppressed by the Church. It's an animation which lessens the impact.
آية (AYA)
Watchable. About a Tunisian girl torn between two worlds: traditional and western. It explains she's covering up because she's dreaming of meeting God. Her parents and social circles are ambivalent too. You just don't know which way to live in such a society. Insightful but the conundrum remains insoluble.
SUKUT
Watchable. I can't remember what it was about but I didn't feel like walking out.
IMFURA
Watchable. Slow and with no clear message. The cultural side, i.e. the speaking manner or the village court is a bit interesting.
WÙLU
Recommended. Glamourous drug dealing like in "Blow". Excellent cinematography. Very good technically, which isn't the norm in Africa and it's a Mali-Senegalese-French co-production. Riveting plot.
Watchable. Tear-jerking. In Swaziland, inhabited by 1.2 m people, 200 thousand are infected with HIV which results in numerous orphans. The orphaned children in the film are incredibly strong and are amazingly talented actors. The animation inserts picture the story they invent. It's clearly based on their own experiences. The whole thing is too slow.
FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES
Walked out. Predictable. Quite a standard western. Or "southern" since it's South African. Terribly protracted.
Air-con - insufficient or blowing air on one row while leaving other overheated - was the main problem in this year's festival venue - Kinoteka in Warsaw. At the same time the movie selection was significantly better than last year. Meetings with film makers were time-restricted but the organizers insisted on everything translated from/to English even if the audience knew the language. The interpreter was an amateur but humbly accepted occasional corrections from the audience. I found bits of incorrect Polish in film subtitles. The very head of the festival, Przemyslaw Stepien, did said translations. The staff were generally very friendly. Sadly it overlapped the Film Spring Festival.
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