Nisimazine Karlovy Vary #2

2

Nisimazine Karlovy Vary special

The Sea Nina Kadri Koussar and Lee Ingleby

picture of the day

Editorial Mirona Nicola (Romania)

Here we are, half-way through our Czech odyssey. We could probably make our way through Thermal blind-folded if we had to, at this point. As yesterday’s confession proved, there’s no keeping us out of screenings! For the details, refer to the Nizimazine blog.

Today we’re looking at a different take on a Roman holiday (Nina- in the Variety’s 10 Director’s to Watch section) and we take a trip to The Sea (in competition for the East of the West trophy). We also talked with director Kadri Kõusaar and main actor Lee Ingleby, of The Arbiter (also East of the West) on killing in the name of moral codes and highbrow tastes. Intrigued? Well you should be!

What you should also be is expectant of our next newsletters and the e-book. soon to be available in an e-mail inbox near you!

NISIMAZINE KARLOVY VARY SPECIAL 28th June- 6th July 2013 /# 1

A magazine published by NISI MASA in the framework of a film journalism workshop for young Europeans.

EDITORIAL STAFF

Director Fernando Vasquez Editor and project manager: Mirona Nicola Layout: Lucía Ros Photography and cover: Lucía Ros

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Lilla Puskás, Nino Kovačić, Mirona Nicola

NISI MASA

99, rue du Faubourg Saint-Dénis 75010, Paris, France Phone: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38 in Cannes: +33 (0) 6 32 61 70 26 europe@nisimasa.com www.nisimasa.com

reviews The Sea

Alexandra Strelyanaya (Russia) – East of the West

A young, dandy fashion photographer escapes his unsettling urban environment to find a piece of mind in a village and its endless scenery at the North Sea. While filming the locals who tell him tales of the past and the sea, he meets a girl, innocent and folk-wise, and naturally (as opposites attract, right?) they fall in love. This romanticist fiction recipe is however intermixed, broken up and patched with documentary-like interviews with the locals, that resemble an anthropological inquiry, with further attempts to spice it all up by fusing visual and verbal poetry. Uh, now that sounds heavy! Does the concept float, allowing the film to hold its head above the water?

It can be said that the intention and pretensions set forth in the fiction/faction poetic feature The Sea seem to be set up quite high, considering the multiple forms and styles, as well as clear references to the film tradition of Dziga Vertov’s Man with the movie camera aesthetic wanderings and Tarkovsky’s poignant visual style.

However, The Sea is stylistically burdened and overweight, anchoring the two main characters by not allowing them to evolve any further then the proclaimed romanticist stereotype. Also, it does not give enough respectful space to the interviewees, among whom there are some quite colorful and interesting characters. Due to this heavy stylistic impregnation, over-usage of ellipses and metaphors, all the characters seem to be only mediums of the author’s own poetic declamations. The mentioned film references also seem to

lose most of their significance due to this. The main character could be understood as the central medium for the viewers, their fantasy peephole...wouldn’t we all rather be chillin’ by North Sea then stressing over «him-leaving-her», in a stuffy theater hall?

An epiphanic question comes at one point to the photographer’s mind: «Is it life, or a film?». Indeed, my friend, indeed. Perhaps the question that needs to be answered first is: what do you consider life and film to be?

Although potentially interesting in several ways and certainly visually rewarding, The Sea finally just doesn’t seem to hold enough water.

by Nino Kovačić (Croatia) narration which makes time stand still. The focus is on Nina’s romantic relationship with Fabrizio and the evolving friendship with her neighbour, the 10-year-old Ettore.

It’s worth to mention the impressive visual world of the movie: frontal set-ups which are rooted in traditions of photography, postcard-like frames which portray Rome’s emblematic places, symmetrical compositions, reflecting surfaces, frame-within-aframe takes, and other ingenious set-ups where aquariums, bird cages and other items are used in a way which creates the illusion of split screen. Besides the visual fascination, everyone who likes the music of Mozart and Bach will definitely enjoy every single minute in the screening room.

by Lilla Puskás (Hungary)

Nina

Elisa Fuksas (Italy) - Variety’s 10 Directors to Warch A metropolis during a hot summer in the Mediterranean: everybody left for holidays. Nina is nearly the only one who stayed in Rome to take care of pets whose owners are away. Her solitude is expressed through the empty spaces which she walks across from time to time. The whole city can be considered as Peter Brook’s bare stage. A stage which is suitable for performing: singing, dancing, behaving oddly; being different then others.

Nina doesn’t want to be unconventional, she is just afraid of having an ordinary life, a decent job, a house or a boyfriend. But at the same time, she longs for all of these. Instead of a classical plot, sequences of Nina’s summer activities, temporary jobs, quest for friendship and love enchain on screen in a repetitive

interview Germany when the whole nation silently accepted what was happening to the minority. And also some people forget that she’s a child, she doesn’t have to be fighting against the father, but eventually she does.

What is the role of classical music in the movie?

Is there any connection between The Arbiter and Clockwork Orange?

Kadri Kõusaar & Lee Ingleby Director & actor of The Arbiter (Estonia) - East of the West

We had an interview with the director and the main actor, from The Arbiter. The movie is about an ordinary man who creates a theory on people’s uselessness for the society and one day he decides to go on a killing spree in the name of his ideology.

What is the motivation of the main character of The Arbiter? How is his ideology shaped exactly?

Lee: As he says, he doesn’t care if somebody is black or white, rich, poor, a prostitute or a housewife, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is what the individual brings to society, what the rest can benefit from him.

Kadri: Exactly. It is very evident in the judging scene, where there’s like a panel of judges in his dream.

Why did you find it important to add the character of the daughter? Did you want to have a witness for everything that happens?

Kadri: Yes, the daughter is necessarily a moral counterpoint, because there had to be somebody who asks normal questions, like Why?, What?

Like what we would ask. Some people have told me that the daughter is sort of weak and innocent and the father dominates her. You can see what happened in the 1930s in

Kadri: There can be, actually. Classical music is what he values as classical art. He even talks about it: he is happy that his daughter shares his musical preferences. For me it was interesting to combine classical music with electronic one. One crucial scene is also in the night club, where he forcefully puts Bach on and all the regular people disappear. So in his opinion they have to be sent to a gas chamber, because they don’t have this high taste. They escape from Bach, hence they are not valuable human beings, they have no taste, they are stupid, they should be sterilized. Not killed, because he is a good man, but they don’t deserve to have offsprings. You know, he is really rational.

As I read on the website of the movie, first of all you are a writer but you have experiences as a DJ as well. How did you become a filmmaker?

Kadri: I still do radio programs for fun. It was a natural way I would say, because I drew comic strips, made music shows since I was 13 and wrote for magazines and then wrote novels. I was always connected with art, music and literature, so in the film I combine them. It was totally logical. People could say you are not in film school, why do you want to make films? But what is a film? I think every idea tells you what it has to be, also in terms of other artistic genres. I also have an idea for a novel at the moment, and it has to be a novel. I’m just a victim of those ideas. I know, It sounds a bit schizophrenic, but the idea tells me what to do and I’m doing.

Interview by Lilla Puskás (Hungary)