Nisimazine Tallinn 25th Nov. - 1st Dec. 2013
Stray Dogs Our Heroes Died Tonight Rok Bicek
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picture of the day
Editorial Fernando Vasquez (Portugal)
As large film programs go, the 2013 edition of the Tallinn Black Night Film Festival places itself fearlessly between the never-ending offer of the Berlinale and Rotterdam´s thoughtful variety. You only need a quick look through the program to understand that the Estonian programming team have been busy, managing to congregate some of the year´s most talked about films. Alex Van Warmerdam´s Borgman, Alexander Payne´s Nebraska, Xavier Dolan´s Tom at the Farm, Amat Escalante´s Heli, Kim Ki Duk´s Moebius and Ari Folman´s The Congress have all ended up here, among many other names and titles. In the midst of this endless showcase, these Black Nights have also found a way to bring in some precious light on regional productions, most notably on Kertu, the most recent feature by local favourite Ilmar Raag, perhaps the greatest pearl of modern Estonian cinema. Unquestionably large programs make it impossible to find the necessary space and time for in-depth discussion on each film, but taking in consideration the space reclaimed by this event in the international film festival calendar, Tallinn provides a unique overview and summary of this long and fruitful year. The incessant rain and ever present threat of cold surely makes the prospect of locking yourself in a warm and cosy film theatre very appealing. The chance to catch up with what you’ve missed all year round is therefore more than welcome. Nisimazine closes here in Tallinn one of its longest years. You would think energy would be running low by this stage, but have no doubts that you would be completely wrong. Estonia welcomed our 15 writers, photographers and video bloggers with open arms, and all this enthusiasm is all the fuel we need for the task ahead. So sit back, get a warm drink and enjoy this: our first Newsletter of Nisimazine Tallinn 2013, the first of many releases to come.
NISIMAZINE TALLINN
15th Nov. - 1st Dec. 2013 # 1
A magazine published by NISI MASA in the framework of a film journalism workshop for young Europeans.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor in Chief Fernando Vasquez Assistant Editor Mirona Nicola Location Director Merli Antsmaa Location Manager Emilie Toomela Image Tutor Liis Mehine Layout Lucía Ros
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
Saulius Kovalskas, Tom Cottey, Raluca Petre, Marta Lucic Picture of the day & Cover Agnieszka Pokrywka
NISI MASA
99, rue du Faubourg Saint-Dénis 75010, Paris, France Phone: +33 (0)1 48 01 65 31 europe@nisimasa.com www.nisimasa.com
Stray Dogs
reviews
Tsai Ming-Liang (Taiwan) – Official Competition EurAsia “There are directors who try to make films which will change the world, but who are we hoping to influence in a world where speed prevails?” said the director Tsai Ming-Liang at the Venice Film Festival, where he received the Grand Special Jury Prize – and indeed, the world seems to be unchangeable, stuck in the ever-speeding carousel of haste and indifference that is recreated in Stray Dogs (Jiao you) – the last film, as he claims, of the director, who for over twenty years worked on finding and expressing appreciation for different kinds of slowness, until his cycle finally came to an end with an almost wordless story about two children and their father: a homeless man, portrayed by Lee Kang-Sheng – a long-time collaborator with slow and subtle style of acting, based on Stanislavski’s method, who has not only appeared in each and every film of the director but is also partly responsible for the unique style of Ming-Liang, helping his ideas come to life, giving them a concrete shape like in the Stray Dogs universe, where he works as a live advertisement stand, ironically (and irony here is used well – often moving the audience from tears to laughter), promoting house sales, making the viewers doubt whether they are seeing an actor’s performance or a real person, living his hopeless tale of reality right in front of the camera, the motion of which is so minimalistic that it seems like it’s not even there. With such stationary camera, lack of sophisticated editing techniques and absence of any kind of soundtrack the audience is left with no other choice (exceptions being sleeping or leaving) but to focus their attention
on the people on screen because that is where all the action is happening – inside them – the people, in whose eyes you can see the infinity of human psyche, while on the outside all there is is but a human shell – alive, with its bodily functions, covered in cheap plastic raincoats, just like meat being sold in supermarkets; with every such slow paced shot the director fires a shot at human dignity but despite all the attempts to humiliate, to dehumanize, the opposite happens and while some will walk out wondering what (if anything at all) they were supposed to take away from Stray Dogs, others will see it as a reminder that human is a lot more than just a bag of meat and bones, thus changing if not the whole world, then at least an individual’s perception of it.
Saulius Kovalskas (Lithuania)
villainous opponent, a black masked brute named the ‘Butcher of Belleville.’ Actors Jean-Pierre Martins and Denis Ménochet bring muscular physicality to their roles, yet there is an emotional undercurrent that contradicts their appearance; the frustrations and insecurities of both men are on show.
Our Heroes Died Tonight
David Perreult (France) - Forum Selection
In a bizarre union of black & white Nouvelle Vague style, Béla Tarr-esque dark irony and Lucha Libre style wrestling, David Perrault’s Our Heroes Died Tonight is a sublime, yet puzzling achievement that probably shouldn’t have worked. Despite being a filmic melting pot of references and ideas, it is an ambiguous but mesmerizing film that eventually defies comparison. Set in France in the early 1960’s, Our Heroes Died Tonight revolves around a wrestler called Simon. In the ring Simon wears a white mask and is known ominously as ‘The Spectre.’ When his friend Victor returns from the Algerian war, Simon gets him a job wrestling as his
The excellent supporting cast make up a tapestry of intriguing personas, from Simon’s Serge Gainsbourg loving girlfriend Anna to the otherworldly gang boss Tom. The film’s stark black and white photography (by cinematographer Christophe Duchange) perfectly underscores the elemental conflict between the wrestlers, but the film delves beyond style to look at the psychological effects of the Algerian war. As Victor’s post-traumatic stress forces him to see his villainous wresting role negatively, Simon offers to trade masks making Victor the hero. Gradually Victor overcomes his negative self-image, giving way to ungrateful arrogance. The film’s score waltzes throughout the narrative in a hypnotic manner that at times means the film’s style smothers the impetus for plot. The film also utilizes visual motifs, such as a dream sequence featuring the black mask to lay Victor’s fears on heavily. However, there is something so enthralling in each of the film’s period framing of wrestling, the Algerian war and French cinema that it manages to transcend its faults. As the film builds towards its climax Perrault throws in an utterly bizarre character called ‘the Finn’, played by Pascal Demolon. His performance is delivered with such comic energy that he risks stealing the show, but the film’s dark moral ambiguity keeps us in a state of strange contemplation. Ultimately Our Heroes Died Tonight is an art film of the most absurd and entertaining kind.
by Tom Cottey (UK)
interview the same generation. He’s really good at writing dialogues and I asked him if he could help me with this because in two lines he can express more then I can in a few pages. In Slovenia journalists have been talking about a new wave for a year and a half now and because we are from the same town, they call it the Nova Mestonew wave. There are two other directors who are quite known in Slovenia, so there are four of us from the same generation. Nothing of the sort had happened before in Slovenia so the journalists are asking how this happened. But yeah, we are working together and I hope that in a couple of years we could talk about a new generation of film-makers, like in the 90s there was one in Denmark, and a few years ago in Romania. Minimalism seems to be the preferred form of the new European filmmakers. Did you choose it solly for artistic reasons or was it also a result of financial constraints?
Rok Bicek
Director of ‘Class Enemy’ (Slovenia) - Panoraam Rok Bicek´s impressive and unforgettable debut feature Class Enemy is one of those rare cases that seems to generate much debate wherever it is shown. Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival was surely no exception. We caught up with the young director a few months ago to hear some of his thoughts about his work and also to find a bit more about what is going in Slovenia, a country with a surprisingly active film community. You said that the film was inspired by your experience from when you were young. Do you think your point of view changed with time? Yes. 10 years ago I was more on the side of the students, now I’m more in between. As you see in the movie, you can never choose one side because it’s up to you which side you want to take, if you do want to take one. I think that nothing is black and white.
The co-writer of the film is Nejc Gazvoda, the director of A Trip. Could you tell us more about the film community in Slovenia, do you guys work together by necessity or is it because you share common interests and visions? We are a small country; there are only 2 million of us. So in the film community we know each other quite well. Nejcwas my classmate, not really in the same class but in
From the early beginning I knew that if we were going to get some funds, it would be a very small amount. So I wanted to make a movie that took place in only one location due to financial constraints, but also because the classroom can be seen as a group protagonist, because when they are outside of the classroom they do not work together. All of my three films were shot in the same way, in a minimalist style. I don’t like to use music in an American way, when music tells me when I have to feel something. If you are incapable to feel emotions out of actors without this then it’s better not to shoot it.
Interview by Raluca Petre (Romania) Photo by Marta Lucic (Croatia)