Movie reviews

LE CHANT DU LOUP (THE WOLF'S CALL)

Recommended. Outstanding cinematography. Starts with a fantastic shot of water from which something emerges - a whale or a submarine? Soon followed by a top-notch sound effect: first, you hear something strange and you only see the helicopter after a while. While sounds are key, the thriller also pulls all the right strings building tension and warming you to the protagonist. Hot François Civil in the lead role, in episodes accompanied by Paula Beer with mesmerising eyes. An 80s-style nuclear threat is transported to modern political reality. In the beginning, the crew, even the most French of them, wiggle to Arabic music. Later, when Al-Jadida attacks, it's clear terrorism has nothing to do with nationality. The plot is military but you get to feel it on the personal level, experiencing the world of sounds "Chaussette" ("Sock") lives in. Powerful ending. 

MANOU - FLIEG' FLINK! (MANOU THE SWIFT)

Watchable. The plot is pleasant and sufficiently complex to satisfy an adult too. This animated photoplay features birds of varying faces and introduces children to intercultural differences via the world of flying creatures. Good music. 

MAIDEN

Recommended. It was a phenomenal feat of dogged determination. The documentary is gripping like a thriller. The girls first refurbished a scruffy, derelict second-hand yacht and then sailed the world winning two legs of a marathon race. They lacked funds and in 1989 no one in Britain believed in them but a powerful outsider did. King Hussein of Jordan bailed them out while Christian circles only kept asking them about boyfriends or whether they were lesbians. The women battled -20 degrees Celsius temperatures on the Southern Ocean when their skin would flake off (they look all right now). You can't help but root for them as they re-live the endeavour on the screen. As one of the crew points out, "if we believed everything we're told we can't do, how far would humanity get?"

LES DISTANCIES (DISTANCES)

Walked out. About people so average I couldn't force myself to care about them. And when one of them went missing I still didn't care.

CALE SZCZESCIE (THEIR LUCKY STARS)

Watchable. A warm and naive love story with occasional funny elements like: "Szybciej, szybciej, bo przepadnie!" ("Faster, faster or you'll miss out!") when a customer is going to collect his order from a grumpy fresh fish vendor or another one when the main protagonist runs naked to the oven and is surprised by a visitor.