Nisimazine Venice 28th August- 7th September 2013
Tom Ă la ferme White Shadow Giorgio Bosisio
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picture of the day
Editorial Fernando Vasquez (Portugal)
This year’s selection at the Venice Film Festival is eclectic to say the least. To many people’s surprise, comedies, Science Fiction and straight out genre films, including horror flicks, have made it to the bill. Regardless of personal taste such a variety is always welcome. Right? Discrimination is definitely not Venice’s cup of tea and cinema is taken as a whole. Discretely, the spectrum of thematic approaches expands enlightening us all film by film. As you would expect, the Nisimazine army of writers and photographers is in no way oblivious to this fact and is working hard preparing the impending Ebook that will cast much light on the Orizzonti competition. Yet for now we bring you our third Newsletter just to give you a glimpse of some of the difficult issues being dealt with in the different programs. So do take a look, if you dare! We’ll start you off with Xavier Dolan’s courageous new film about a young gay man’s strange and magnetic experiences in rural Canada; Travel to Africa to understand the plight of albinos who secretly live in fear of death and persecution in Noaz Deshe’s debut feature that is causing quite a sensation at this year’s Critics Week; and to finish off, an excerpt of an interview with Giorgio Bosisio, a young Italian filmmaker who is here in Venice competition for the Orizzonti Short Film award with a tale of adolescent angst and self-discrimination entitled Un Pensiero Kalasnikov. Enjoy!
NISIMAZINE VENICE
28th August- 7th September 2013 /# 3 A magazine published by NISI MASA in the framework of a film journalism workshop for young Europeans.
EDITORIAL STAFF
Director Fernando Vasquez Coordinator Mirona Nicola Layout Lucía Ros Photography Valentina Calà
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
Fernando Vasquez, Mirona Nicola, Andrei Șendrea, Raluca Petre
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
reviews Tom à la ferme
Xavier Dolan (France / Canadá) – Official Competition
Ever since he took the festival circuit by storm at 20, the film press keep blabbering about the revelation that Xavier Dolan is. No wonder he feels like he is not taken seriously. While being a prodigy might be flattering, by now he must want that somebody really looks at his films and admires them for what they are, regardless of his age. And there is plenty to admire, indeed. A very sensual aesthetic, the rusty colors and the play with sound, the moody, melo, stuckin-adolescence plot and characters, and the constant exploration of queer themes have become his style. His approach to the latter offered a fresh perspective- whereas the focus usually tends to be on the social aspects of the gay and transgender community, Dolan commuted to emotions, feelings and corporeality above all. With the exception of his previous film, his own performance as an actor is also part of his trademark.
and rather goes for very sharp, or very deep sounds meant to send your heart throbbing.
But now he has decidedly embarked on a mission to grow up as a director. His latest film, Tom à la Ferme, has him neck in neck with big shot directors in the main competition in Venice. With his story of a city boy facing the hard life in the countryside, tackling prejudices far greater that he could find in the urban landscape, he also sets to prove he can do genre film- namely, thriller. The matter of him succeeding though is questionable. It could not be said that his previous films were devoid of inspiration, but what he does here is a veering towards full-on pastiche of the masters of the genre. To name just one example, Tom’s running through the dry, razor-sharp corn brings Hitchcock to mind. And then he plays on the full arsenal of darkness, shadows, barely seen faces, and, above all, music. An omnipresent score keeps very little of what was Dolan’s usual feel,
But their effect is merely an artificial one. There is very little empathy one can feel with the characters for the most part. The construction of suspense is also faulty, due to his desire to tick off as many boxes on the ‘to do for thriller’ list. Whatever’s left of the Xavier Dolan in J’ai tué ma mère and Heartbeats is mainly his own performance in the role of Tom. While that’s the most like him, it somehow comes across as out of tune with the rest. Tom à la ferme can, nonetheless, be an enjoyable film, and potentially, even one able to reach a wider audience than his previous ones. Still, Dolan should not feel pushed to abandon his own brand of Neverland. The teenager there in many of us is still hungry for his moody take on (queer) love stories. by Mirona Nicola (Romania)
But most importantly, Alias is an adolescent, a young man in love, still playing childhood games with his much younger albino best friend. This is the most important facet of the character because it binds all the other aspects together and balances all his obvious but exotic hardships with one that hits closer to home for the average viewer: love troubles.
White Shadow
Noaz Deshez (Italy, Germany, Tanzania) - Critics’ Week From a deconstructivist point of view (that is to say, from an audience point of view) White Shadow could by summed as A+A+A. The film tells the story of an adolescent African albino, the triple A mentioned above that add up to triple trouble. Alias, the young protagonist, is an albino in a community where people like him are ostracized at best. At worst they are extremely valued- valued for their body parts whom witchdoctors sell as good luck talismans. Alias is a poor African boy, he scrapes the city dumping sites for recyclable computer materials. After finding one such treasure he climbs a small heap of waste and yells his fortune to the world “2GB RAM!”.
These three qualities of the main hero combine in various modes throughout the story to give the audience a complete understanding of the inner and outer universe that govern this young man’s life. This is also a great point for the film in terms of honesty towards the viewer and the character. Even in fiction films we are used to see the victims of such atrocities as statistics, fueling our rage and also our impotence. But first time director Noaz Deshez shows the viewer the other side of things, he delivers the social message (“this is real, this happens”) but without the desperation and guilt burdening the audience as they get up from their chairs. And that is not easy, keeping it hardcore real and making the audience laugh in the same film. White Shadow shows the audience the shadows but also the white. As it happens with the main character at the end of the movie, the audience too gets a choice between these two. For my part, I choose to end this review with this image from the film: Alias the albino and Antoinette, his black love interest, holding each other, brief close-up on their bare feet tangled, a classic shot of two lovers, a cliché really. Now, guess what color their feet are. by Andrei Șendrea (Romania)
interview asking your parents what to do. You’re looking at your friends, trying to find your own answers and failing lots of times, getting doors shut in your face. What does growing up mean for you and how exactly did you translate this in the film? To grow up you need to suffer in a way. It’s strange to say, but somehow you’re lucky when you’ve been able to go through pains, through grief, to be able to understand, not only on a practical level, but also on an emotional level, and to be able to decide where you want to go. And this a very simple thing that shows at the end of the film; it’s the decision of Pietro to stay with the mother in the room rather than staying on his own and avoid her, like before. He doesn’t share anything with her. But he learns something, he makes a decision. So growing up is this- going through something and probably being overwhelmed by it, and next time being able to take a decision- which doesn’t have to be the best one.
Giorgio Bosisio
Director of ‘Un pensiero kalasnikov’ - Orizzonti Competition Director Giorgio Bosisio is presenting his graduation short in the Orizzonti short films competition. Un pensiero kalasnikov, a story of growing up, had the director juggling memories and themes about adolescence, aiming for a genuine and straightforward portrayal of his character. What’s the story of the film and what’s the story behind the film? This film is my graduation project from London Film School. It started from my wanting to make this film in Italy. I needed to go back to my own language, places and a culture that I knew. It came, probably, because coming back is a very strong experience because you go back to all these places like the park where you used to play as a kid, the kinder garden- you look like wow! everything is so small... It was all of these things. Coming back everything was very fresh. I think, in
the end, it’s a mix between memories and themes that I am attached to. So the film plays on the idea of changes and transitions that Pietro undergoes. It is about growing up. For lots of young people it’s a challenging time. In this particular case, he doesn’t have a father anymore, and the mother tries to start a new life. It’s the point where you just find yourself trying to give answers. I remember lots of time, being young, things happen, and especially at that age you stop
Part of what gets this character across for the audience is the use of symbolic objects and moments- like Pietro watching himself in the mirror. Why did you decide to insert such symbols? At that age you start paying more attention to your image. Before you don’t care about the way you look, the way you dress and then all of a sudden you start noticing and being interested in building an image of yourself for the world that is looking at you. It shows in moments like looking in the mirror, or taking the father’s coat, or the scene in the bathtub. That particular scene is supposed to capture the way that at that age you are more aware about your body and start wondering about it, it’s when sexuality kicks in- not in the sense of drive, just something that explodes inside you and makes you wonder about it. I didn’t use these things as symbols. For sure you can pick on anything and look for them. They came out quite spontaneously, I didn’t build them to be symbols of something. I think, for films that use symbols in such a way, if you don’t know the symbols, you can’t relate to the film. It’s not the way I like to relate to film. I prefer a more organic, spontaneous way. Interview by Mirona Nicola and Raluca Petre (Romania)