Nisimazine Karlovy Vary #1

Nisimazine the magazine by NISI MASA - European Network of Young Cinema

KARLOVY VARY 2014

Mon 7th July 2014

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@Film Servis festival Karlovy Vary

Quod Erat Demostrandum Fish & Cat Class Enemy Calvary

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CREDITS

Editorial

NISIMAZINE KARLOVY VARY July 4-12, 2014 Edition of Monday July 7th 2014/#1

I must start with a confession: I am a Karlovy Vary virgin. Despite having spent the last few years on a never ending, obsessive and ruthless quest that has led me to the large majority of the major film festivals in the old continent, KV has been little more than one huge blank gap on my list.

Other obligations have always kept me away from what I have been repeatedly told is the coolest festival in the circuit.

The chance to verify the veracity of such reports finally arrived this year, so I wasted no time in grabbing such an opportunity by the throat.

In little more than 48 hours I am surprise to say the tales are in fact insufficient to describe the level of “coolness” that contaminates the air and water in this old spa Czech town. I know I may come across as a dreadfully eager and excited teenager when I write this, but there is something oddly exhilarating about Karlovy Vary.

Contrary to many other events of this nature KV is filled with youth. And guess what? In here there was no need to lower the standards of the selection or price of the tickets. They did not even bother to set up specific youth film sections.

On the contrary, KV this year is presenting one of the most provocative and risky competition programs I’ve seen all year, while at the same time it includes some of the denser works from this year’s Berlinale and Cannes Film Festival.

How exactly they have managed to congregate so many young film lovers with such a challenging program is still to be discovered. Whatever it is one thing is for sure: at least until now, Karlovy Vary appears to be the perfect answer to the negative pessimism towards the future that infests the contemporary film industry.

by Fernando Vasquez (Portugal)

A magazine published by NISI MASA in the framework of a film journalism workshop for young Europeans EDITORIAL STAFF Director Fernando Vasquez Coordinator Matthias Van Hijfte Layout Francesca Merlo Contributors to this issue Ioana Florescu, Mirona Nicola, Raluca Petre, Catherine Poueyto, Matthias Van Hijfte, Fernando Vasquez NISI MASA European Network of Young Cinema 99 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis 75010 Paris, France +33 (0)1 48 01 65 31 europe@nisimasa.com www.nisimasa.com www.nisimazine.eu Special thanks to Tereza Perinova, Jo Mehlberger, Kristina Timmermann and Nikolas Samalekos.

With the support of the Youth in Action of the European Union. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

© Catherine Poueyto (France)

Picture of the day

Never mind the great summer weather, the gorgeous historical setting, the kitsch film theatres, the cheap booze or the 5 star treatment the festival provides its guest

and members of the press alike. What is particularly fresh about KV is its audience.

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review

Quod erat demonstrandum

@Film Servis festival Karlovy Vary

Andrei Gruzsniczki, Romania/EFP/Variety Critics’ Choice

In focusing on the draconian tools employed by the Communist state to control society, Andrei Gruzsniczki’s second feature Quod Erat Demonstrandum (QED) may appear to be a rehashed Romanian version of The Lives of Others. Indeed, its 1984 setting can be both an Orwellian allusion as well as a hint to the German cult film. It is as if to assure us that Gruzsniczki, as both writer and director, knows that the subject has been tackled before and that he wants to delve deeper into a similar political context, showing a rather different aspect of it.

The film explores the destructive impact that state surveillance had upon Romanian society in the 1980s, with an emphasis on the nature of the relationships amongst citizens whose state encouraged informing upon one another. Each character’s actions gain a complex dimension because their motivations are revealed, as Gruzsniczki is not concerned with pointing fingers and finding scapegoats. Instead, he intends to show the nuance that humans feel when pushed in a certain direction by a political system.

Sorin is a mathematician, who- frustrated by the lack of recognition and professional mobility in Romania- publishes his innovative theory in an American journal. He does this with the help of a university friend, who fled to the West and whose wife, Elena, and child are waiting for permission from Romanian authorities to join him abroad. Therefore, Elena has much to lose should she be caught engaging in anything the state deems to be subversive.

The Romanian secret police assigns an agent to spy on Sorin and to prevent him from further publishing abroad. Instead of physical coercion, the agent prefers more psychological methods that strain friendships and moral integrities, ultimately leaving individuals feeling isolated, resentful and ashamed.

particularly relevant today, given the NSA scandals. Gruzsniczki is concerned with Romanians leaving the country for the West, as the context of Elena’s husband having fled to France leads to conversations revealing idealised visions of Western society and the difficult realities confronted once one does leave, an issue that is very much alive in today’s Romania.

When Sorin’s mother hints that she would want a colour TV, Sorin replies that there’s no difference between a coloured and a black and white image, “all you need is some extra imagination.”

However, the same cannot be said for the film’s cinematography, as the fact that it’s shot in black and white is a stylistic element that most obviously sets it apart from previous Romanian films set in that era. Its beautifully contrasted cinematography fuels a narrative that thrives on mystery, where the unsaid matters as much as the said and, therefore, where powerful images gain extra weight. Close-ups of gestures, of a lit candle in a room that sees daily power cuts do not only offer an insight into daily life in Communist Romania, but are also reminiscent of a film noir, in which tension relies on images of shadows and expectations of deceit. The film could have benefited from more tension by revealing less until the final scene or revealing a surprising trait exhibited by a character, as, at times, it feels like the film is hoping to be more suspenseful than it is.

Ultimately, the pleasure of reading the film on several levels, of thinking about the ironies of the title and of different comments made by characters throughout is QED’s greatest asset.

by Raluca Petre (Romania)

QED is subtly self-aware, with nods and double entendres to both our contemporary political climate as well as the film world.

Early on, the agent is convinced that every “civilized state” spies on its people, using the CIA as an example, a comment that is 3

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@Film Servis festival Karlovy Vary

review

Fish & Cat Shahram Mokri, Iran - Horizons

If a David Lynch influenced by Asian horror films would have directed Elephant instead of Gus van Sant, the result would probably have looked a lot like Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri’s second feature, Fish and Cat. Having as a starting point a true story about a restaurant that served human flesh for food, the action of Fish and Cat takes place in the winter, mostly by a lake where some students are organising a kite flying competition.

Not far away from the lake there is a small hut, whose three inhabitants seem to be keeping a restaurant. One by one, the students start to disappear.

Although just like in Elephant the camera follows at turns the characters and the same action is often shown several times and from different perspectives, there is one extremely important technical detail that distinguishes Mokri’s film from Gus van Sant’s work: Fish and Cat was shot in a single take. This implies that, in order for some of the scenes to be repeated, the

actors had to quickly regain their position, wait for the camera’s return and then try to re-enact the scene as accurately as possible. An immense endeavour, meant to help the main theme of the film, time, to stand out. Fish and Cat laughs in the face of the widely spread opinion that using long takes is a more transparent technique of filming, one that goes hand in hand with realism. Proving that this assumption is not completely true is one of the main reasons why this film is very innovative.

The manipulation of time is taken even further. Voice-overs accompany some of the movie scenes and it can be suspected that the lines is, at times, come from the future, from a time beyond the ending of the action that the film shows. The film discourages the audience from trusting either time, nature or characters. As it develops, the spectator loses any certainty it might have regarding the linearity of time.

Nature also seems to have been toyed with. The trees seem to be pulsating throughout the film, the sky can rapidly get darker and then become lighter again, although still of an oppressive shade of grey.

It is hard to set apart the real characters from the unreal ones.

A man who only exists in the imagination of a schizophrenic girl can be seen by the audience clearly as any other character.

Threatening dissonant music often follows the images. At times we get brief glimpses of clues that point out to the death of yet another student. A foot standing out of a pile of leaves, plastic bags filled with blood and meat. None of the killings is actually shown on screen. There is no need for it; fear is being induced by plenty other means.

Fish and Cat is very likely one of the most innovative films in recent years: a shattering, unsettling cinematic experience altogether.

by Ioana Florescu (Romania)

Nisimazine’s 2014 agenda Venice Film Festival 27 August - 7 September San Sebastian Film Festival 19 - 27 September Tallin Black Nights Film Festival 14 - 30 November For additional information and application please contact us at: fernando@nisimasa.com

www.nisimasa.com

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reviews

Class Enemy

@Film Servis festival Karlovy Vary

Shot in a minimalist observational style, the film builds a quiet sense of tension as the measures taken by the students against their teacher become increasingly provocative and the relationships within the student group begin to crumble.

Rok Biček, Slovenia/EFP/Variety Critics’ Choice A film that promises to put Slovenian cinema on the world cinema map, Class Enemy masterfully uses the microcosm of a high school classroom to raise questions about group mentalities, resistance and our impulses to see things in absolutist terms.

Rok Bicek’s debut feature is based on a case that he witnessed as a teenager, where a girl’s suicide led her classmates to ally against a new teacher who is trying to help them cope with the situation.

While minimalist approaches have been criticized for alienating audiences, this is not the case with Class Enemy. The absence of non-diegetic music makes the ordinary sounds of the classroom, chairs drawing back and chalk on the blackboard, all the more present, drawing us into this microcosm.

Bicek’s approach to his characters is highly sensitive. He does not en- courage us to take sides, but rather allows us to weigh the arguments of each character, to see how their emotions influence their actions. The actors, all non-professionals who were found by Bicek in high schools, provide outstanding performances that offer the film great intensity and authenticity.

The only downside is the film’s ending, which aims to portray the transformation of the students, but feels slightly out of tune with the rest of the film in its execution; the girl who committed suicide is shown to roam around her classmates on their endof-year trip to a sentimental effect that is absent in the rest of the film.

Class Enemy is groundbreaking in its fresh, sociologically infused approach to the coming of age theme, a must-see.

by Raluca Petre (Romania)

Calvary

@Film Servis festival Karlovy Vary

action, it feels more like a village.

John Michael McDonagh, Ireland-UK EFP/Variety Critics’ Choice Calvary immediately throws you in the middle of the lion pit, along with its main character, father James. At confession, he is informed by a man that he will be killed in a week’s time. The man seeks revenge for being abused by a priest in his childhood.

His abuser is dead now dead and the confessor had nothing to do with it. In turn, he will have his vengeance by killing a good priest- and father James fits the bill.

McDonagh not only directed, but also wrote the script of his second feature, which orbits around the figure of James. The character is present and active in every scene, he is the motor for it just like he is for the wacky parish in an Irish town. Set in a beautiful sea-side scenery that is often longingly explored by the camera in transition shots, or used as backdrop for the

Father James would like to have the community life revolve around his church, but the fact is it does so more around the local bar. So he takes his preaching there, to the streets, to the beach, to the houses of his parishioners. They attend Sunday mass, despite being more or less convinced atheists. In the narrative they are types fitted around the central one, the good priest, supporting the weight of his character’s arc: the cynical doctor, the loose morals wife, her black lover, the overly accepting husband (also the butcher), the old sea farer become writer, the bar owner.

Some of the above don’t necessarily sound like well-established and defined types, yet these characters play that function in a deus ex machina structure putting them in and out of the frame and story at precise moments. All this gives a theatrical feel that might not fare well with some viewers, reinforced by the decoupage that follows a precise path- the main character is often in the center of the frame, key moments being also accentuated by the fact that they eye is forced towards the edge of the screen instead.

Calvary centers on the idea of faith- in God, in other peopleputting in perspective the role of the church nowadays without being preachy. Father James is a flawed man, yet a good priest.

To the end, the film plants the seed of doubt in our minds: does James accept his death as a christian way of ‘turning the other cheek’ or is this just his solution to have his life ended without recurring to a suicide that would go against his faith? In the end, not all types are what they seem to be.

by Mirona Nicola (Romania)

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© Catherine Poueyto (France)

Ivan Ikić Director of Barbarians, Serbia East of the West-Competition

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interview Ivan Ikic’s latest film explores radical youth in the suburbs of Belgrade. We sat down with the director to find out what drove him to embark on such a provocative and thought provoking portrayal of an extreme generation amongst a society struggling with the times.

You started doing music videos and documentaries. How was the jump into feature filmmaking?

I started in the documentary world a long time ago but from the beginning I had the feeling that I wanted to make something different, something that had more structure. With features you can put in more drama, suspense. If you want to do that in a documentary, mostly you have to push hard to change to real life of your characters. That is not what I wanted for this film. I had to be honest and I didn’t want to manipulate the story because it would make me feel bad. Let’s put it this way, I wanted to do some Frankenstein experience between documentary and fiction. So, I wrote a simple story with ideas. Then I found the characters and did a lot of rehearsals with improvisation and finally I rewrote the whole script to fit the actor’s characters.

You are clearly very concerned with the trauma that hangs over former Yugoslavia, is this still a neglected subject?

It is the right time to discuss this topic. When you have discussions in the media it is always calculated, with some hidden aim.

Barbarians is a metaphor about how we feel about the whole European value system. It is frustrating because young kids feel that the EU or this European identity is not going change anything for them. After the Yugoslavian wars we couldn’t consider our own values: free education, free health system, and a flat for ever working person. Nowadays if you’re a young person in Serbia you have to work sixty years to get your own flat. The situation is harder in every way, now it is normal to pay for education.

Being a Kosovar yourself, how did your experience help you understand the subject?

I’m from the ‘last’ suburb of Belgrade, where a lot of Kosovars live. My parents immigrated to this area in the 50s. The Kosovars moved for decades because the pressure was high. When I grew up in my suburb I also had that feeling of living in a lost land, like the Jewish people. The kids from the film are also refugees from Kosovo, which is still a taboo in Serbian society; they use Kosovo always as a manipulation tool when they need voters in elections.

But it’s not discussed in the right way; nobody discusses how the people of Kosovo live in nowadays Serbia. In my neighborhood is a quite melancholic topic that not a lot of people want to discuss but we should talk about it more.

Was it difficult to work with non-professional actors?

It was actually easy to convince them. My mother first told me about a gang here, she told me all the people had problems with them and they were very dangerous. So, I said wow, find me those people because they are just kids. I actually know a guy who knew them and he called them for the casting and they all showed up one morning. Thirty guys, you know [laughs]. We talked to them all day, took their pictures, talked about their interests. It was nice for them, because nobody called them for anything because there are simply no jobs, no opportunities. Schools are totally out of touch over there because they teach you stuff for jobs that don’t exist anymore. We asked if they wanted to participate, they rehearsed and improvised and then we realized that we had the right guys. They showed a lot emotion. Although their attitudes are much more radical than mine, I could somehow relate to their feelings. When I was their age I had the urge to rebel as well, but that went away as I grew older. I also tried to incorporate that in the film because the main character also makes that switch in the film.

Could you elaborate on the difficulties regarding shooting on a mixture of different locations?

but after the Yugoslavian wars it was totally in ruins. Now it is just a little town with nothing really happens. I tried together with my cinematographer not to shoot the transitional look of town. Transitional for me is like one of greatest Ukraine photographers said: transition is the plastic doors and windows. We wanted to shoot the places of the golden age of the town in the communist period, they look now devastated but we wanted to preserve that spirit of old days. So we tried angles where the plastic doors and windows wouldn’t be in the image. That was difficult but it was very easy to choose locations because there is no prize to pay, the area is not commercialized. In Belgrade we shot a couple of scenes and that was more complicated because we had an issue with the American Embassy, we couldn’t shoot in front of their building.

How do you prepare a big scene as the one in Belgrade with that crowd going wild?

I was very hard, because we were at the end of our budget, so we had very limited resources to do this. But we did it with 150 good guys who were actually there when the real protest happened. So the guys who set the American flag on fire were professionals [laughs], they do that in real life. It saved us a lot of time.

There were a lot of scenes where we follow Luka walking. Was that a conscious decision?

Those shots where we follow the main character in the back when he is walking, I see as modern subjective shots. You see the world from his perspective. His presence is strong, there is almost no scene without him. I think this film’s language comes from video games. It comes from GTA, it is connected with young people, and they understand it very well. When you follow the main character from the back, you are in his skin. I like it because all the guys in the film play it and I play it too. It’s a perfect language for this film.

The film even reminded me a bit of the Dardenne’s film. Can you find yourself in that filmmaking style?

Oh, really. Are you kidding me? [laughs] I really love the Dardenne brothers; I never felt that anyone would see their style in my film. I don’t think I did achieve this here. They totally draw you in, they are stylistically more radical. For instance, they light their scenes very well but you never feel that, the camera moves in the way they program it to move but somehow it always looks natural. So I have to disagree with you [laughs]. Nonetheless, they had some influence on me but I would not compare my style to theirs.

How do you think people in Serbia will react? Did the actors already see the film?

The actors saw it when we recorded the sound in the sound mixing studio. But we tested the film and people really gave good feedback. But I even don’t know if it is going to reach a lot of people in Serbia because young guys don’t go to this kind of cinema, they go to American blockbusters. And if it plays on television we get very little money out of it. They want something commercial. We searched for a platform but the best way to reach this audience is maybe going to be on the pirate websites. It is just reality. If you put this on YouTube you’ll maybe get a million views, in cinemas we would sell 20.000 tickets.

by Matthias Van Hijfte (Belgium)

We shot mostly in my neighborhood. It was an industrial town 7

@Film Servis festival Karlovy Vary