Nisimazine Abu Dhabi 2011 #4

Nisimazine Abu Dhabi

A Magazine by NISI MASA, European Network Of Young Cinema

‫مجلة تصدرها نيسي ماسا ـ الشبكة االوربية للسينما الشابة‬

2011 ‫ أكتوبر‬17 ‫ يوم االثنين‬- 4 ‫العدد‬

#4, Monday 17 October 2011

‫نيسيمازين‬

from Best Intentions

Sam Neave ‫سام نيف‬ Tahrir 2011 2011 ‫التحرير‬ On the Edge ‫على الحافة‬

‫‪NISIMAZINE ABU DHABI‬‬

‫ا فتتا حية‬

‫‪Monday 17 October 2011/# 4‬‬ ‫‪A magazine published by the NISI MASA in the‬‬

‫محمد بشير (مصر)‬

‫‪framework of a film journalism workshop‬‬ ‫‪for young film journalists from Europe and the Arab‬‬

‫هل يمكن الحديث عن مصر بمعزل عن التطرق‬ ‫للثورة؟ طبقا لكاتب السيناريو مصطفى زكري‬ ‫الذى يقدس العزلة فان‪« :‬المشكلة إن السياسي‬ ‫يصلني حتي بيتي»‪.‬‬ ‫شهدت الحركة الفنية فى مصر موجة من االنتاج‬ ‫المتنوع الذي ظهر كرد فعل فوري للثورة‪ ,‬و هو‬ ‫االمر الطبيعى فى حدث محركه االساسي من‬ ‫الشباب‪ .‬بيد ان رؤية النقاد و المنسقين الفنيين‬ ‫لهذا النتاج لم تكن على نفس درجة الحماس‪,‬‬ ‫مبدئيًا بسبب قصر الفترة الزمنية لتطوير هذة‬ ‫المشاريع بالمقارنة بضخامة الحدث‪ ,‬مما يشى‬ ‫بدرجة من عدم النضج فى التناول‪ .‬اال ان السبب‬ ‫االكثر وضوحا االن هو غموض الرؤية انذاك‪,‬‬ ‫فالتقلبات السريعة التي سيطرت على المواقف‬ ‫السياسية و االيدولوجية و االجتماعية منذ احداث‬ ‫‪ 25‬يناير حتى االن اكدت استحالة مسايرتها‬ ‫ابداعيا فى هذة المرحلة‪ ,‬ببساطة الن الثورة لم‬ ‫تنتهى بعد‪.‬‬ ‫من جهة اخرى‪ ,‬اثبت االهتمام العالمى بالوضع‬ ‫المصري أنه سالح ذو حدين عندما يتعلق االمر‬ ‫بالسينما‪ .‬فاالقبال غير المسبوق على االعمال‬ ‫الروائية و التسجيلية المتعلقة بالثورة فى‬ ‫مهرجانات السينما العالمية ‪ -‬بغض النظر عن‬ ‫المستوى‪ -‬كان امرا مستغربا‪ ,‬خصوصا ان نفس‬

‫هذة المهرجانات كادت تتالفى االفالم المصرية‬ ‫تماما فى العقود السابقة‪ .‬هذا الخلط فى‬ ‫التعامل مع النص السينمائى باعتباره مصدرا‬ ‫للمعلومات حول االحداث بدال من كونه عمال فنيا‬ ‫يقع فى مركز االشكالية‪.‬‬ ‫ال شك ان الصورة و المادة الفيلمية لعبت دورا‬ ‫رئيسيا فى الثورة المصرية‪ .‬فقد جاء استشهد‬ ‫خالد سعيد – الذى اطلق شرارة الثورة‪ -‬بسبب‬ ‫وجود مقطع فيديو على هاتفة المحمول‬ ‫يسجل تورط احد افراد الشرطة فى صفقة‬ ‫مخدرات‪ ,‬ناهيك عن االالف من المقاطع االخرى‬ ‫التى دونت جرائم مماثلة‪ ,‬و افعال المقاومة‬ ‫ضد هذة الجرائم‪.‬‬ ‫فى النهاية ال يمكن تفادى ظهور نتاج فنى يسئ‬ ‫اسغالل الحالة الثورية‪ ,‬سواء عرضيا أو بسوء نية‪.‬‬ ‫و من المؤكد أن مثل هذة االفالم تشوش الصورة‬ ‫الحقيقية للموقف‪ .‬لكن هذا ليس سببا كافيا‬ ‫الستهجان كل االعمال التى تستلهم الثورة‬ ‫فى هذة المرحلة‪ .‬ربما حان الوقت لنا ‪-‬كنقاد‬ ‫و كمشاهدين‪ -‬لنتبنى رؤية اكثر ثورية في‬ ‫تعاملنا مع االفالم و فى نمط استهالكنا لها‪.‬‬

‫‪World with the support of‬‬ ‫‪the Abu Dhabi Film Festival‬‬

‫‪ EDITORIAL STAFF‬هيئة التحرير‬ ‫المدير المسؤول‪ :‬ماثيو داراس‬ ‫‪Director of Publication Matthieu Darras‬‬ ‫رئيس التحرير‪/‬التصميم الفني‪ :‬مارجه ألدرس‬ ‫‪Editor-in-Chief/Layout Maartje Alders‬‬ ‫المشرفان‪ :‬جي وايسبيرغ و زياد الخزاعي‬ ‫‪TutorS Jay Weissberg‬‬

‫\‪Ziad Khuzai‬‬

‫المساهمون في العدد‬

‫\‬ ‫سارة إسحاق \محمد بشير \جنكه باركوزي‬ ‫فؤاد هندية \ جبهة التحرير الشريط السينمائي‬ ‫فيليبو زمبون‬ ‫‪Contributors to this issue‬‬

‫‪Janka Barkoczi, Fuad Hindieh‬‬ ‫‪Mohamed Beshir, Sara Ishaq‬‬ ‫‪Celluloid Liberation Front‬‬ ‫‪Filippo Zambon‬‬ ‫‪NISI MASA 99 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis‬‬ ‫‪75010, Paris, France‬‬ ‫‪Phone: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38‬‬ ‫‪europe@nisimasa.com‬‬ ‫‪www.nisimasa.com‬‬

‫صورة اليوم ‪picture of the day /‬‬

‫)‪BY MARTINA LANG (AUSTRIA‬‬

‫‪,‬‬

‫‪by Filippo Zambon‬‬

‫صورة‪ :‬فيليبو زمبون‬

review / ‫عرض نقدي‬

editorial

by Mohamed Beshir (Egypt) Is it possible to conduct a conversation about Egypt nowadays without tackling the revolution? According to secluded Egyptian screenplay writer Mustafa Zikri “The politician is being home-delivered now.”

The surge of artwork and films that peaked right after the revolution, as an immediate reaction to it, was somehow expected from such a youth-driven struggle. Yet the overriding stance from critics and art curators in Egypt was not as excited, unsurprisingly because of the expected immaturity from such a hasty conception process. The other evident reason was the ambiguity of the situation. Undeniably, from January 25th until now, the revelations induced by the frantic pace of events sustain a constant state of distress, rendering the whole situation impossible to fully analyze at the moment, especially since the revolution is nowhere near an end.

On the other hand, international attention towards the Egyptian situation was a double edged sword when it came to films. There is an unprecedented demand for postrevolutionary fiction and documentaries in film festivals, same festivals that had hardly any Egyptian films screened in the past decades. This clutter between consuming films as an informative product and treating them as piece of art added more conflict to the situation.

Images and video footage played such an integral role in the Egyptian revolution; Khaled Said, the young man whose murder by police officers ignited the demonstrations, was targeted originally because of a video he had on his mobile phone exposing a police officer’s involvement in a drug deal.

Let alone the thousands of similar clips that surfaced before and during the revolution, commemorating similar crimes and the acts of resistance against them.

For an event as colossal as the Egyptian revolution, it’s inevitable to encounter a level of abuse of the image, be it purposeful or accidental. Image expropriation is definitely fogging the truth about the situation, but that is not enough reason for us to shun all art emerging from it. Instead, maybe it’s time for us - critics and audience alike - to revolutionize our take on how we consume films and react to them.

Tahrir 2011:

The Good, The Bad & The Politician Tamer Ezzat, Ayten Amin, Amr Salama - Egypt/UAE - Documentary Competition Readily equipped with thirty years worth of brewing anger, infectious revolutionary zeal and an unwavering determination, a stampede of Egyptian youth flocked to the streets of Cairo on January 25th, 2011 to demand an end to widespread political corruption, police brutality, unemployment and poverty. Little did they foresee the ripple effect that their Facebook-instigated demonstrations would trigger across their nation, resulting in the rapid ouster of Mubarak - a once-perceived fixture on the presidential throne.

The Bad, directed by Ayten Amin, juxtaposes our newfound perspectives from within the square with the perspectives of those behind the firing line – the security officers. Amin, reveals the tactical bullying and coercion inflicted upon officers by the Mubarak regime, and also daringly sheds light on the motives, experiences and ethical challenges faced by four officers through candid testimonies. This segment of the film poignantly illustrates the tendency of society to tar everyone perceived as the ‘enemy’ with the same proverbial dehumanizing brush.

Just as the popular chant of cooperation and solidarity “Eed wahdah (All One Hand!)” resonated across Tahrir Square – the epicentre of this year’s Egyptian revolution - three young directors embodied this principal in a collaborative effort to assemble the film Tahrir 2011 with three consecutive, yet independently made shorter films: the Good, the Bad and the Politician. Fresh from the middle of the square and awash with the exhilaration of their recent victory, Tamer Ezzat, Ayten Amin and Amr Salama set out to document their respective films from a place of personal reflection, rather than one of political or societal analysis.

Last but far from least, Amr Salama draws the film to an end on a lighter, satirical note with The Politician. This segment is a whimsical portrayal of the ousted Hosni Mubarak’s thirty-year stint in power, leading us through the film with a playful guide on “how to become a dictator in ten steps”.

Insightful interviews with political figures, who were either close allies of Mubarak or longstanding opponents, cleverly expose the absurdity of the man behind the once formidable reputation.

Tamer Ezzat’s The Good encapsulates the eighteen turbulent days of the Egyptian revolution through the retrospective stories of a group of youth. Coupled with archival footage of the events that took place in Tahrir square, young protagonists recount the highs and lows they experienced amidst an ocean of their compatriots.

This segment of the film is symbolic of the power of social unity in the face of adversity – humanity at its best in a time of need, so to speak.

Although each chapter is different in style, mood and content, this impressive documentary ensemble is woven together seamlessly to form a poignant narrative continuum and an all-rounded account on Egypt’s 2011 revolution.

Sara Ishaq

Monday 17/10 VOX 2 - 1:00 PM

Flowers of Evil David Dusa, France Showcase

Flowers of Evil is more than a present-day love story from Paris: it is an offspring of a brand new generation.

The narrative turns around ordinary young people, and obviously demonstrates the new communication and political system of today’s world. Using Twitter, blogging and updating YouTube are the most natural habits of youth, and we can observe these activities in this movie in their most natural form.

The work of the Hungarian born David Dusa assumes a double mission: it is a charming love story and a political pamphlet at the same time, with great sweeping potential. The story involves the relationship of an intellectual Iranian girl who fled to France following the turbulence in 2009, and a boy who is a second generation immigrant. Their love develops with the troubled background of the news from Iran, but it remains no more than impressions of music, poetry and homesickness. Although the movie has not just nice but also beautiful moments, it is marred by repetition.

Armin Franzen, the cinematographer, never stops using handy cam, even if it is not necessary. In addition to this, it seems as if the director couldn’t decide between the two topics which he was interested in, and the audience stays a little bit confused between the personal and the general sides of the film.

Although the script has some weaknesses, the news and amateur footage of the turmoil shocks the viewer, and creates the feeling of watching a kind of documentary. We can consider Flowers of Evil as a witness to the big technological and socio-psychological turns of the 21st century, and at the same time, it is a promising start for an ambitious director’s first feature.

Janka Barkoczi

Monday 17/10

VOX 2

3:30 PM

On the Edge Faceless people are standing next to the endless production line. They are wearing the same plastic uniform (pink and blue, pink and blue, pink and blue everywhere); they are working on the same stuff; they feel the same. Nobody knows what the end product will be, and nobody even cares about it. Shapeless bodies are doing the same mechanical motions under the artificial light from the beginning till the end of time.

The picture is taken from Manufactured Landscapes, directed by Jennifer Baichwal in 2006. The film follows the journey of a photographer, who is on the mission of documenting the changes in landscapes caused by the developing industry all over the world. The piece was inspired by works of Andreas Gursky, a German visual artist particularly interested in architectural and land scenes. His large-scale, color photographs on deserted routes, huge blockhouses and salesrooms - often taken from a high point of view, show the ironic beauty of capitalism. At the same time, these photos make us aware of the fact that if we can be delighted by the picture of the crowded Tokyo Stock Exchange, we definitely have urgent socio-cultural topics to think about.

Take the scene of Leila Kilani’s On the Edge in which we discover several places in Andreas Gursky’s style: white dressed women are sitting next to each other in neon light, concentrating on their never-ending tasks. The talented Moroccan director examines the possibilities of two women working in a shrimp-processing factory of Tangier’s poorest neighbourhood. Badia and Imane, the main characters of the story, are not children of the industrial revolution, but they are simple slaves of it, and they believe they can find a better world and more chances in the city’s ‘Free

Zone’. The film harshly criticises the effects of capitalism, meanwhile weighs the good and harmful consequences of globalisation as well.

To understand the role of industrial landscapes in the cinematic arts, we have to go back to the earliest beginnings. For instance, Metropolis, the 1927 movie by Fritz Lang, tells about a Utopian society which is divided into two parts: one part for the comfortable rulers, another for the invisible workers of the factories. This early movie already discovered the possibility of the visual structure dominating events shown in the scenes. The dynamic, sharp, black-and-white lines and the impressive pictures of the moving mass give the joyful/desperate feeling of living in a techno cult community with all its advantages and disadvantages.

Even though the cinema industry is also considered a ‘factory’, the authors rarely take upon themselves to go into a real industrial environment. A few exceptions to this are for example Eraserhead by David Lynch or Dancer in the Dark, a musical film by Lars von Trier. Both take place in a depressive technological milieu which provides an unquestionable aesthetic, but questionable lifetime experience. Aki Kaurismäki’s The Match Factory Girl and Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert show women in industrial environments, and guide us to the contemporary dilemma of alienation. It seems that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the only recent cinematic example of factories presented as colourful and ideal places, but unfortunately we can be sure that they are limited to our imagination.

Existing in a modern environment gives a specific chance for contemporary society to define itself. The definition can happen through the feeling of independence from nature or the free forms of design. The abstract structures of artificial objects help to flare modern dilemmas, and also inspire to start dialogue on them. Such films like On the Edge find the way to use manufactured landscapes as a set and the way to ask these hard questions in their most natural form.

Janka Barkoczi

Screenings On the Edge Monday 17/10 VOX 6 3:30 PM Wednesday 19/10 VOX 2 3:45 PM

FOCUS / ‫بقعة ضوء‬

& Manufactered Landscapes

top: On the Edge by Leila Kilani, bottom: Manufactured Landscapes by Andreas Gursky

Monday 17/10 VOX 4

photo by Filippo Zambon

interview / ‫مقابلة‬ 4:15 PM

Sam Neave Director of Almost in Love, USA New Horizons

The director Sam Neave was looking for intimate uninterrupted moments between the characters and the audience in his film Almost in Love. He shot a film that tracks a love triangle in two uninterrupted 40-minute takes.

What did you want to express with these two uninterrupted takes?

The idea first came to me from watching a long take that I’d shot for another movie. It was a 5 minute take filmed at dawn and although you couldn’t see the light shift in real-time, if you looked at it in high-speed or by scrolling through the timeline in the editing machine, it was pretty distinct. So I started to think about expanding that into something larger. The other aspect is that I am an editor by trade and in my previous films I have relied on improvisation

immediately, which maybe is a good thing. We shot the first half over a long weekend – and of course when you time your shoot to the sunset (or sunrise) you can only shoot really one take a day. So we shot it 4 times I think (although takes 1 through 3 were unusable). The second half was shot in a magnificent house in the Hamptons and all of us were able to stay in the house and rehearse for a week. We would wake up at midnight, start to play games and loosen up and by 5:30 am we were ready to shoot. It was a strange and fun week

I am an editor by trade and in my previous films I have relied on improvisation and long takes. and long takes. This time I wanted to see if I could combine the natural intimacy of the previous films with something more precise. Obviously we took this to a sort of extreme with this film but I do think the audience reacts differently when they are watching something without a break. It’s as if it all happens in two breaths.

Can you tell us about the shooting conditions?

We realized very quickly that there are many good reasons why people don’t make films this way! You have to throw out the idea of perfection

but we managed to shoot five complete takes - again the last one was the best by far.

Did you use specific angles, lenses camera movements, etc.?

The film was shot HD on a Panasonic VariCam, because of the great card system. The major aesthetic difference between the first and second halves is that the first is on the dolly whereas the second is hand-held. We made this choice early on because we wanted to reflect a shift in tone from the slightly more polished, smooth, upscale barbecue to the messier la-

te-night-into-early-morning drunken haze of the post-wedding celebrations. I should also give full credit to my DoP, Daniel McKeown, who was able to carry this massive camera on his shoulders for 45 minutes each morning!

How did you recruit the actors to do such style of acting of long continuous takes?

I like to use the same actors I know as much as possible. Many of them have theater backgrounds, which makes my style of work easier. We always talk about building a character and then releasing them into the specific environment. And while there was a full script for both halves, I am always open to improvising and changing things around – the most important thing for me is what I’m hearing. I don’t care too much about the specific words usually. Another interesting aspect was that everyone was ‘miked’ individually: as soon as the take begins everyone was forced to remain in character for the entire duration. This

way, even if you are not on camera, I can use your audio later on in the editing room.

As an “Iranian director by birth and a New Yorker by choice”, how can an artist fight for things he is doing?

This is a tough question to answer for me. I consider myself very fortunate to have grown up in societies that encouraged (or at the very least allowed) me to pursue my own path and where freedom of expression is almost taken for granted. I have not had to fight for those rights personally but I do hold them very dear. Sometimes this translates into an obligation to make films or art about “serious matters” which is basically code for political art. I suppose we could get into an argument about whether or not everything is political but one thing that I am certainly against is art with a message: films that read like a newspaper.

By Fuad Hindieh

meet mahfouz

The Hunger

َAli Badrakhan (Egypt, 1986) Timely melodrama on the corrupting influence of money and the political power that comes with it, The Hunger by Ali Badrakhan has Sirkian undertones but firmly rejects the reconciling hypocrisy of Hollywood. Adapted from episodes of Mahfouz’s novel The Harafish from 1977 and set in 1887 the film follows the diverging paths of two brothers. One will bow down before material wealth walking proudly down the avenue of prestige; the other will walk up the unglamorous alleyway of idealism. Will they meet again?

Charged with allegorical references The Hunger resonates loud in these days of rage when global multitudes are rising against the undisputed blackmail of financial terrorism. Its theme is universal, its message timeless and its call urgent.

While men pursue ephemeral profits, women steer through the triviality of life to aim straight to the essence of communal life.

The film is indeed also a hymn to the dignity of Arab femininity for its non-objectified beauty is the fundament of society. The soave fire of their eyes is the guiding light, their voluptuous discreetness the gate of bliss, their determination and gentle competence our best hope. “Why is man so weak in the face of the devil?” asks the mother to the wiser son after refusing the money coming from her crooked son. When famine will strike, the humble brother will feed the poor stealing from his richer brother. The law will punish him but the ‘feral underclass’ has awakened.

When desire and rage meet the simulacrum of power will vanish, the unkind has been warned: “Trade is one thing and humanity another”.

The unkind is blinded by prosperity, deafened by the noise of luxury, trapped in his fortress of solitude. Once the kinder brother wins the heart of the people he will not guide them.

“Trust yourselves, not me” is his self-discharge from an unwanted leadership. A hungry man is an angry man; if conscious he will need no leader. “Have no mercy with the merciless” shouts the anonymous stone thrower, the secular intifada against patriarchal capitalism will know no respite. Faced by the just and necessary anger of the oppressed sharpening their weapons of subversion, the almighty narrator will crumble into insignificant pieces.

Celluloid Liberation Front

‫الجوع‬

‫ علي بدرخان‬- ‫ مصر‬1986

‫م��ي��ل��ودرا م��ا خ��ال��دة ع��ن الفساد المالي الذي‬ »‫ شريط «الجوع‬.‫يترافق مع القوة السياسية‬ ‫للمخرج علي بدرخان ا ل��ذي يستعير اشتغال‬ ‫ لكنه‬،‫المخرج اال م��ر ي��ك��ي دوغ�ل�اس سيركن‬ .‫يرفض بحسم النفاق التوفيقي الهوليوودي‬ »‫مقتبسا عن رواية نجيب محفوظ «الحرافيش‬ ‫ التي تجري احداثها منذ‬1977 ‫ا ل��ص��ادرة ع��ام‬ .‫ ح��ول ح��ي��وات شقيقين مصريين‬1887 ‫ع��ام‬ ‫االول��ي��ن��ح��ن��ي��أم��ام��ال��ث��روةال��م��ادي��ةم��ف��ت��خ��را‬ .‫واآلخرسوفيمشي ف��ي طريقالمثالية‬،‫بهذا‬ ‫فهل يلتقونمرةأخرى؟‬ »‫مشحون بالمجازات والتلميحات يطرح «الجوع‬ ،‫موضوع له صدى عال تحديدا في ايامنا هذه‬ ‫في حين ان صوتا ضد االبتزاز باالرهاب المالي‬ .‫ ان��ه لموضوع عالمي ود ع��و ت��ه عاجلة‬.‫يرتفع‬ ‫بينما يحقق الرجال المكاسب الزائلة تخطوا‬ .‫ال��ن��س��اء ل��م��ا ه��و ج��وه��ري ف��ي ه���ذه الحياة‬ ‫واقعالكرامةالعربيةودور‬ ‫الفيلم‬ ‫ي��ن��ا ق��ش‬ ‫المرأة وصورة انوثتها التي تتمتع بتأثير حاسم‬ ‫ ي��ك��ون ت��وه��ج ا ل��ح��م��ا س��ة في‬.‫ف��ي المجتمع‬ ‫عيون االبطال يعني تصميمهم وكفاءتهم‬ ‫ «ل��م��اذا يكون‬.‫التي تقود ال��ى افضل االم���ال‬ »‫االن��س��ان ضعيفا ف��ي م��واج��ه��ة الشيطان؟‬ ‫تتساءل االم ف��ي وج��ه االب��ن الحكيم بعد ان‬ ‫ حينما‬.‫رفض استالم مال من شقيقه الفاسد‬ ‫تضرب المجاعة الجميع يكون على الشقيق‬ ‫المتواضع ان يوفر الغذاء الى الفقراء عن طريق‬ ‫ لكن العقاب سيكون في‬،‫سرقة اخيه الغني‬ .‫انتظاره الذي يقود الى استنهاظ الطبقة الدنيا‬ ‫حينما ت��ت��واج��ه ال��رغ��ب��ة م��ع ا ل��غ��ض��ب تتالشى‬ :‫الدافع الزائف للسلطة ويكون التحذير قاسيا‬ .»‫ واالنسانية شيء اخر‬،‫«التجارة شيء‬ ‫ وي��ص��م اذن���ه ضجيج‬،‫ان ال��ش��ر يعميه ال��رخ��اء‬ ‫ عندما يحصل‬.‫ وتحاصر قلعته العزلة‬،‫ا ل��ث��راء‬ ‫الخيرعلى حب الناس ودعمهم وحبهم‬ ‫االخ‬ ّ ‫ وليس ب��ي» فهو‬،‫لن يقودهم «ث��ق بنفسك‬ ‫ االنسان الجائع هو‬.‫ال يسعى لمنصب القيادة‬ ‫ يصرخ فيه‬.‫انسان غاضب حينما يغيب الوعي‬ ‫»ال تشفق‬: ‫رج��ل ج��ا ئ��ع بينما يلقي ال��ح��ج��ارة‬ ‫ان االنتفاضة العلمانية ضد‬.»‫على من ال يرحم‬ ‫حين يواجه المقموع هذا‬.‫الرأسملية لن تهدأ‬ .‫ فانه سيسقط ويتفتت‬،‫الظالم‬ ‫جبهة التحرير الشريط السينمائي‬

Monday 17/10 VOX 3 Tuesday 18/10 FMT

You can find all our coverage online on:

www.nisimazine.eu

Read the portrait of Leila Kilani, director of On the Edge, made in Nisimazine Tehran 2008 http://www.nisimazine.eu/Kilani-Leila.html

9:15 PM 7:30 PM

Adrian Sitaru

In Romania, an Eastern European country of twenty-one million inhabitants, to everybody’s astonishment not a single film was exhibited in the year 2000. During the next ten years, if it is possible, the astonishment became even bigger, because the fresh Romanian new wave made a hit at the festivals all over the world. After the new millennium depression, the cinema of the country rose from the dead, and began to flourish thanks to several young and ambitious ‘rioters’. Adrian Sitaru is one of those directors, whose films strongly define the spirit of the world cinema of the 2000’s.

As a matter of fact, the works of this generation can be described via some common attributes, even though, according to Sitaru, this could have happened by accident or by a simple miracle as well. Their minimalist movies are full of great realistic power, close to the style of ‘cinéma vérité’. These projects are financed on the basis of low budgets (Sitaru’s first production was made without any state support, and he wants to stay independent in the future), and built mainly on the very talented actors of

Romania. Furthermore, they usually part from the classical rules of editing, and that is also the point of Sitaru’s biggest invention. As we see, his works instinctively follow the trend of the new wave, but in their own particular way.

Adrian Sitaru was born in Timişoara in 1971. After receiving his Computer Science Degree, he moved to Bucharest to study film directing. He shot principally shorts and films for television until the big success of the short Waves in 2007 which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and won numerous prizes afterwards. His first feature, Hooked, which was selected at the Venice film festival in 2008, tells the weekend-long story of a couple whose original plans are deranged by a stranger. Under the effect of an unknown person who hooked on them without a question, the lovers discover that their relationship is in deep crisis, and begin to look for its origin. As their stories suggest, Adrian Sitaru’s films are neither promoting some thesis, nor judging human beings. They speak more about life in general than political background, contrary to other Romanian directors, who were also children under Ceauşescu’s regime. To verify this, let’s take the plot of Waves, which takes place on a crowded beach, where bored people are just watching each other.

Lying in the sun, the middle aged couple is scandalized by a young girl sitting next to them, who gives a massage to an old man. In the end the wife tells her husband resignedly: “It is democracy, darling.

Some democracy.”

portrait / ‫بورترية‬

Sitaru’s art is far from the idea of depicting the exotic and victimised nation of Eastern Europe, as for instance Herta Müller in her novels or Cristian Mungiu in his films. He is engaged with a more personal way of storytelling, and quotes Lars von Trier, Gus van Sant and Mike Leigh as models. His latest film, Best Intentions, is also based on his own experiences, because the story exactly happened to the director and his parents. The main character, Alex (Bogdan Dumitrache) wants to help his mother, lying on a hospital sick bed as a result of a stroke.

The worrying son is ready to do everything to help the patient, but he can’t be sure which the best advice is. The topic is similar to Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, but contrary to Puiu’s motionless minimalism, Sitaru chooses something spiritual and regularly changes his directing according to the different characters’ points of view. Just as in the case of Hooked, he frequently uses POV shots, rarely adopting an objective angle. This trademark keeps the tension of the audience, which has a serious lack of knowledge, while it can easily identify itself with the characters. In this way, Sitaru expresses the desperate feeling of helplessness and uselessness in a deeply human sense.

Janka Barkoczi

Screening times Monday 17/10 VOX 8 8:30 PM Wednesday 19/10 VOX 8 4:15 PM