Movie reviews

CINEMAFORUM 2023

As usual with this festival, I only attended some screenings, time allowing.

JAN MACHULSKI AWARDS - NOMINEES:

PIESN HUMBAKOW (THE WHALE SONG)

Watchable. Nothing to do with whales, well, there is some humpback sound kind of mixed with the background music, but the tale is about a man. It's a bit crazy and chaotic but very stylish - Polish early 90s and a set of peculiar characters. 

SZEREG SYCZACY (THE CLENCH)

Watchable. A cathartic drama about a relationship between a speech therapist and her patient. Totally engaging. Perfectly acted. Still, while it looks as if there was some secret behind them two, nothing else happens. Simple yet effective.

AKWIZYTORZY

Watchable. A day in the life of a salesman. Crazy incidents abound, each driven by the bizarre characters he encounters.I loved a hilarious bit: "Obrus prababci sprzed wojny! Nic tego nie spierze." "Ależ spierze! Najlepsza chemia z Niemiec" ("Great grandma's tablecloth from before the war! Nothing will wash it off." "But it will! The best chemicals from Germany"). No conclusion, just a story of the evening.

FUNERALIA

Watchable. A crazy story with bizarre yet stylish characters. Not everyone's motivations are clear. 

THE EDITOR READS THE SCRIPT.

In the Q&A about her profession, editor Magdalena Chowańska mentioned the Netflix algorithm: If it drags, the algorithm asks to cut but in reality movies often drag because they were shortened, because the viewer feels bored if they don't understand the film. Never is the initial script unaltered in the outcome movie. The least editing in her career has been "Supernova" because it couldn't be cut differently without damaging the movie. Scriptwriters lack visual imagination, overuse dialogue, sometimes an actor has a worse day or something else is unfeasible on set. Technology-wise, you only need a full HD screen, no bigger computer is necessary. Taking breaks is important. She once went for 2 months with nearly no sleep.

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION SCREENINGS:

48 HOURS

Watchable. It's a boring family drama but the girl's reactions are just like a dog's so it's all easy to understand even for the childless.

THE STORM

Watchable. Another family drama but this one speaks volumes about Chinese culture: one forcing to study hard and enforcing obedience to elders. 

CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE

Watchable. Poorly acted and directed which detracts from an awesome twist in the story.

ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES

Watchable. A boring, slow-paced depiction of a very mundane life.

THE FLYING SAILOR

Watchable again. An incredible story inspired by a real life incident appears in a differently animated form: from the splendid outer space, through the evocative sea, to an ugly naked fellow.

ICE MERCHANTS

Watchable. A climate change, or maybe just a season change, drama. Poor animation, a simple story, yet with an incomprehensible ending.

BOLERO

Watchable. Very gay and obscene - an all-gender crowd gets aroused by a drag queen's dance... in a toilet. Only music saves the film.

FAIRPLAY

Watchable. People engage in ludicrous record-beating games. No reason for that or for this film is provided.

AN AVOCADO PIT

Recommended. The lead actors are amazing in this sensual trans flick. The two actors fascinate and they manage to take you from A, through B, C, to Z with the immigrant (probably from Brazil) issue. 

NA ZYWO (LIVE) AND Q&A

Watchable. Not a genuine reconstruction of an event in Belarus, you don't know who the people are and what is happening - comprehensible only for people in the know.

The Belarussian director was a Belsat journalist 10 years earlier. Those knockings, dragging people out, took place because OMON was looking for the 2 journalists but couldn't find them. Now you can go to jail for a like under a Facebook post. 1 of the 2 journalists was let out after the 2-year sentence, the other got accused of spying and is serving an 8-year sentence now. Belsat was created as a TV broadcasting from Poland, kind-of free Europe. Now political prisoners get not 2, but 6 years in prison. The film stands no chance to be shown in Belarus, that could be risky for the audience too. In real life the girls were taken out by force, in the film they finish it on their own terms. The director has finished a full-length film about it too but with a different plot.

AMERICAN SHORTS:

TAKE ME HOME

Watchable. Some moral preaching about how hard it is to cope with a disabled family member and institutions.

IN THE FLESH

Watchable. Weird and incomprehensible, both her sexual fantasies and her fears.

ENDLESS SEE

Recommended. Powerful condemnation of the US healthcare system where medication prices are life threatening. Told through one person's struggle it puts you in her shoes.

THE VACATION 

Recommended. Simple, tricky, with smart dialogue.

CLOSING DYNASTY

Watchable. What an annoying kid! How are we to feel sorry for her? Well, smartly titled and scripted. The child actress ruins the message.

THE BREAKTHROUGH

Watchable. Dark, tongue-in-cheek but over-the-top, implausible, contrived. The breakthrough is too physical.

SPECIAL SCREENING:

RANDKA  AND Q&A

Watchable. I was a bit late to the screening. To me the woman acts normal. So it's hard to see why it's a film about female autism.

Explanations came only in the Q&A. The female protagonist of this Polish film is autistic just like the male director. Her autism appears mostly under the table, in her nervous stimming, touching her face, tendency to lecture. The director's friend has a friend whose son is autistic: "a nie widać" "Doner, pokaż panu autyzm" ("but it doesn't show" "Doner, show autism to the gentleman"). Female autism is more subtle. 

BAFTA SHORTS:

THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE

Recommended. Looks beautiful, the animation sees shimmering snow and sky at times, on the big screen.

BAZIGAGA

Watchable. Hard to work out the plot, who is who and what and why. But it shows the woman's strength as she opposes the military.

BUS GIRL

Recommended. Wonderfully shot with Xiaomi, visually its the company commercial.

But it has a story too, one of a career and the upper class.

AN IRISH GOODBYE

Watchable. British sarcasm at its best Irish way. The set-up and the plot are a bit far-fetched, one is quite dumb so it turns vulgar. Interesting anyway.

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION SCREENING:

THE BEADS

Watchable. You don't know what it's about. Bright colours.

BASRI & SALMA IN A NEVER-ENDING COMEDY

Recommended. A wonderful anti-natalist flick Bollywood style.

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THE FIGHT

Watchable just as a short in a set. A pile of nonsense, no idea what it was meant to be about.

FILE

Watchable. An intense sociological thriller with a bit disappointing ending which doesn't conclude the story.

POLISH DREAM AND Q&A

Watchable. A perfect depiction of Poland in the 80s: the issues, the aspirations and absurdities of the reality. The tale is served with a pinch of salt, it's comical but it leans towards a psychological family drama which ruins the film.

Most of the scriptwriting work was the protagonists' backstory.

MASTERS, MASTERS:

ROZDZIOBIA NAS KRUKI, WRONY AND Q&A WITH DIRECTOR JAN HOLOUBEK

Watchable. Old, black and white.

The film was developed from Jan Holoubek's 3rd year of Cinematography school etude. He was trying but failing in directing for many years. He's never been into cinematography though - others try to play with light and colour. But a director also works with how to frame images. He learnt most from elder schoolmates and his own mistakes. Over years he was taking small steps towards directing. His first big production was "Rojst" ("The Mire"). He had been writing for 9 years but no one had wanted those scripts. The "Rojst" ("The Mire") series is still on platforms. Now he's preproducing a miniserial about the sinking of ferry Heweliusz. 8 people survived it. He's met one of them still sailing on a ferry. They've got the script, but details, objects require rewriting. The first movie is always the worst paid, you pay to make etudes. "Wielka woda" ("High Water") is also his series. But directors don't get royalties from sold tickets. Confidentiality clauses in his contracts preclude him from revealing how much he earns. One of the Cossacks in the short caused a problem: the actor lied he could horseride so the director had to decide how to shoot on set. He chose this story because he wanted to show how unceremoniously people kill, just like that. He's actors' son but he's always been excited by the camera. He shoots in panoramic CinemaScope. He always focuses on his next project. 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS:

POLACY DONBASU (THE POLES OF DONBAS)

Watchable. Not a particularly revelatory documentary. The only shocking bit is that evacuation of Donetsk wouldn't start until the first Pole was killed. 

WIARA. NADZIEJA. MILOSC (FAITH. HOPE. LOVE)

Recommended. More emotional. Also, it discusses the Mariupol syndrome.

Q&A WITH DIRECTOR MAGDALENA JUSZCZYK

About 30 people refused interviews out of fear. When Russia encroached on Donbass, evacuation plans started on the Polish side. Lots of young people: 20-30-year-old who are in Lviv are without limbs. The first film was finished long before 24th Feb. 2024, in December 2021, the second film was being made over the whole 2022. Only two countries evacuated their citizens form Donbass in 2014/15: Poland and Israel. But in 2022 the Kharkiv consulate for all of Ukraine packed up hastily leaving Polish people behind, many died. They have nowhere to go back to, i.e. no homes.

No paper catalogue at the festival, even the voting cards had the white circles so small it was hard to write in your note. The bag I won in a draw bled black in contact with water - it had been promoted as more environmentally friendly than paper catalogues. Instead it bleeds some toxic dye, is useful if it rains - awful greenwashing. I still keep past years catalogues since they're more useful and durable.