Catalogue International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 by International Film Festival Rotterdam

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

New Zealand/Germany, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 86 min, English Pro: Fiona Copland, Karl

Baumgartner, Raimond Goebel Pro Comp: Filmwork Ltd.,

The Strength of Water

Pandora Film Produktion GmbH Sc: Briar Grace-Smith Cam: Bogumil Godfrejow Ed: Elizabeth Kling Ad: Rick Kofoed Sound: Dave Whitehead Mu: Peter Golub, Warren Maxwell With: Nancy Brunning, Melanie Mayall-Nahi, Hato Paparoa, Isaac Barber, Mick Innes, Pare Paseka Print: Pandora Film

Produktion GmbH Sales: NZ-Film

Armagan Ballantyne

The northern coast of New Zealand in the Hokianga region forms the backdrop for a story set in a small Maori community. The film maker chose to work with people from the community instead of professional actors. Thanks to this, but also to the harsh location, the film looks very authentic. The little boy Kimi Kaneha is suffering greatly after the death of his twin sister. He doesn’t really accept her death. For instance, he eats for two and hence becomes very fat, all in order to keep her spirit with him. He almost always drags a chicken round with him, one of the thousands from the family farm, as a kind of furry toy. He isn’t taken very seriously, but does seem to have more insight than everyone thinks. His strange way of coming to terms with his sister’s death might just work. The film focuses on Kimi, yet he still remains an outsider. In the end it is more about the lives of the adults around him. They are forced to lead a harsh and frugal life and don’t spare each other. Just as you have road movies, this is a film that stays in one place. In the same windy place with the same unusual people. The very committed film maker does not have a Maori background, but co-writer Briar Grace-Smith does (he is of Ngapuhi origin). Together they developed the story during a Sundance workshop and also at the Amsterdam Binger Filmlab. (GjZ)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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New Zealander Armagan BALLANTYNE (1972) studied film making at FAMU in Prague and received her Masters in Directing at AFTRS in Sydney, Australia. Her short films have screened at various festivals around the world, including Venice, New York, Telluride and London. The Strength of Water is her début feature. Films: Little Echo Lost (1999, short), Stories on Human Rights (segment Lily and Ra, 2008), The Strength of Water (2009)

12-01-2009 01:48:09

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

Canada, 2009 colour, 35mm, 95 min, French Pro: Henry Bernadet,

Myriam Verreault Pro Comp: Vostok Films Ltd. Sc: Henry Bernadet,

Myriam Verreault Cam: Patrick Faucher Ed: Myriam Verreault Ad: Louis Blackburn, Émily

Bélanger, Henry Bernadet, Myriam Verreault Sound: Mathieu Campagna With: Alexis Drolet, David Bouchard, Anne-Sophie Tremblay-Lamontagne, Yoann Linteau, Sandra Jacques, Micaël Minguy-Bédard

À l’ouest de Pluton At West of Pluto Henry Bernadet, Myriam Verreault

At West of Pluto sketches a portrait of 24 hours in the lives of 12 teenagers who live in the outer suburbs of Québec, Canada. The film looks so lifelike that some people have experienced it as a documentary. The makers, feature debutants Henry Bernadet and Myriam Verreault, found the 15 and 16-year-old actors at their own former secondary school, where they also held the auditions. Prior to the film, they then improvised with them for months so they would get to know each other and their characters. It partly explains the true-to -life character of the film. The language, tone and attitude of the young people is strikingly captured in occasionally very stylised or rawly shot scenes. Pierre-Olivier has trouble coming to terms with the fact that Pluto has lost its status as a planet; Jérôme wants to express his feelings to the one he loves; Nicolas and Steve are looking for a good name for their punk band; Émilie is organising a party in her parental home, but that gets out of hand... The young characters are confronted with the opinions they have about themselves and their friends and their surroundings. And they experience all kinds of things for the first time: infatuation, seduction, drugs, alcohol, unexpected nocturnal adventures. At West of Pluto is characterised by an infectious mix of humorous dialogue and dramatic situations. (EH)

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Print/Sales: E1 Films

International

In 1999, Henry BERNADET won Vidéaste Recherché, a programme to support film makers. He made a number of reports for television and the internet. At West of Pluto (2009) is the first full-length film he wrote and directed, together with film maker Myriam Verreault. Myriam VERREAULT began her film career with Quebec’s Kino, a group founded in 1999 to provide a forum for the screening of short films by young film makers. For her short Comment le Dr Ducharme enfreignit le code d’ éthique, she won the Vidéaste Recherché. Since then, she has worked primarily as an editor. Together with Henry Bernadet she founded the independent film company Vostok Films. At West of Pluto (2009) is her first feature film, made together with Bernadet. Films: (Henry Bernadet) À l’ouest de Pluton/At West of Pluto (2009, co-dir) Films: (Myriam Verreault) Comment le Dr Ducharme enfreignit le code d’éthique (2003, short), À l’ouest de Pluton/At West of Pluto (2009, co-dir)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:09

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

Turkey, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 89 min, Turkish Pro: Tulin Cetinkol Pro Comp: Hokus Fokus Sc: Tarik Tufan, Gorkem

Yeltan, Ismail Kilicarslan Cam: Refik Çakar Ed: Çiçek Kahraman Ad: Selda Çiçek Sound: Murat Çelikkol,

Nurkut Ozdemir Mu: Rahman Altin With: Nadir Saribacak, Görkem Yeltan, Ersan Uysal Print/Sales: Hokus Fokus

Uzak ihtimal Wrong Rosary Mahmut Fazil Coskun

Mahmut Fazil COSKUN (1973, Turkey) attended courses at the Bilgi University in Istanbul from 2001 until 2004. Wrong Rosary is his feature début. Films: Wrong Rosary (2009)

This is a story of sensuality, love and grief, growing in the anonymity of a big modern city. It takes place in present-day Istanbul, in Galata. Musa is a beginning muezzin who comes to the city for the first time in his life. He is assigned to work in a mosque and receives an apartment. Upon his arrival he meets his next door neighbour Clara, a Catholic nurse. She takes care of the older nurse, Sister Anna. Excitement and a simultaneously warm sensation emerge from this first encounter. In the beginning, the young muezzin is quite hesitant to confess to himself what is actually happening, but as time passes his love for Clara pervades his life. Another storyline emerges when Musa comes across the bibliophile Yakup at the church that Clara attends regularly, and starts working for him. A few surprises and unexpected turns emerge when the lives of the three intersect. Slow-paced, with a pleasant rhythm and an eye for detail, the film depicts different ambiances of multi-religious Istanbul, within its distinctive spaces and through the stories of a variety of unusual characters. This exceptional début by Mahmut Fazil Coskun is certainly a strong voice amongst the up-and-coming young talents from Turkey. (LC)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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12-01-2009 01:48:10

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Taiwan, 2008 b&w, 35mm, 85 min, Mandarin Pro: Chen Wen-Pin Pro Comp: Luminoso

Film Co., Ltd. Sc: Leon Dai, Chen Wen-pin Cam: Chang Hsiangyu, Chou Yih-wen Ed: Leon Dai Sound: Li Chang-lei Mu: Tamio With: Chen Wen-pin Print: Luminoso Film Co., Ltd. Sales: FAME Universal

Entertainment Limited

No puedo vivir sin ti Leon Dai

It’s immediately obvious through the powerful black-and-white images of an industrial harbour landscape that Leon Dai did not want to make a common film. Yet the realistically told story is as sensitive and accessible as a melodrama. The story is about a father and his little daughter - or more about how that loving father loses his daughter. Is based on a true story that caused quite a stir on Taiwan. Li Wu-Hsiung is a middle-aged man without a profession or education. He does odd jobs on the quayside and lives with his little daughter in illegal accommodations. The child’s mother left soon after her birth, but the father and daughter survive thanks to their close bond. You could even say they are happy together. It’s only when the girl reaches school age that being together gets tangled up in an unbending bureaucracy. Li cannot prove that he is the father and the child is taken away from him. In the end, he resorts to a drastic act in despair. The power of the film is in the simple and powerful images and the extremely authentic realism, especially also in the acting. The title of the film, No puede vivir sin ti (‘I can’t live without you’), certainly lives up to the contents, but it remains a mystery why this Taiwanese film has a Spanish title. (GjZ)

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Leon DAI (1966, Taiwan) is a famous director and actor in Taiwan. He has worked in the theatre since 1990 and participated in the shows of Godot Theatre Company and Ping-Fong Acting Troupe. From 1993 he started to act in films, advertisements and TV dramas. He also writes modern poems. Films: Two Summers (2001, short), Taipei Twenty Something (2002), No puedo vivir sin ti (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:10

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 77 min, Indonesian Pro: Meiske Taurisia Pro Comp: Babibutafilm Sc: Edwin Cam: Sidi Saleh Ed: Herman Kumala Panca Ad: Iqbal Raya, Eros Eflin Sound: Wahyu Tri Purnomo Mu: Windra Benyamin With: Ladya Cheryl, Pong

Harjatmo, Carlo Genta

Babi buta yang ingin terbang Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly Edwin Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly is a film that is both serious and playful. The film tackles a sensitive racial political issue, namely the denial of the cultural identity of the Chinese minority in Indonesia, but is also filled with humorous and bizarre jokes and situations. The film is made up of several sketches that can differ in their tone and approach, yet keep returning to the central issue of the glossedover Chinese identity. The insecurity, fear and uprooting this causes among Chinese Indonesians is the real subject of the film. The subject is obviously close to the maker’s heart. It’s a film that does not reveal itself directly when being watched. The striking, fragmentary structure is far from mathematical, because the maker only follows his intuition. There are several storylines, but that of the firework girl Linda is one of the most important. People from her surroundings, and also from her past, each get their own minor narratives, including the pig from the title. The film is often funny, but not light. A well-known song by Stevie Wonder is for instance repeated so often that it becomes confusing and worrying. The maker obviously doesn’t want to make a comfortable film, nor only to paint surrealistic scenes. That’s why the film also includes real images of real anti-Chinese riots and plundering. (GjZ)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Sales: Babibutafilm Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

EDWIN (1978, Indonesia) studied graphic design in Surabaya and film in Jakarta. Besides short fiction, Edwin makes music videos and documentaries. In 2005 his film K ara, the Daughter of a Tree became the first Indonesian short ever invited to the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. For the IFFR, Edwin made the short film Hulahoop Soudings (2008), a kind of remake of Joel Coen’s final examination film Soundings. Films: A Very Slow Breakfast (2003, short), Dajang Soembi: The Woman Who Is Married To a Dog (2004, short), Kara, anak sebatang pohon/Kara, the Daughter of a Tree (2005, short), A Very Boring Conversation (2006, short), Hulahoop Soundings (2008, short), 9808 Antologi 10 tahun Reformasi Indonesia/9808 An Anthology of 10th Year Indonesian Reform (segment Trip to the Wound, 2008), Babi buta yang ingin terbang/Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2008)

12-01-2009 01:48:11

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

United Kingdom, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 103 min, English Pro: Allan Niblo, James

Richardson Pro Comp: Vertigo Films Sc: Brock Norman Brock,

Michael J. Groom Cam: Rob Hardy Ed: Simon Ellis Ad: Sami Kahn Sound: Tim Barker Mu: Tom Bailey With: Luke Treadway, Kate

Heppell, Michael Socha, Richard Riddell, Sammy Dobson Print/Sales: Protagonist Pictures

Dogging: A Love Story Simon Ellis

In the north-east of England an ensemble of characters united by amorous misadventure search for love in all the wrong places. Dan is a university graduate who, having so far failed to secure work as a journalist, sleeps on the sofa of his cousin’s plush city centre flat. He investigates the phenomenon of dogging (sex in cars) via the Internet. While browsing the chat rooms he makes the acquaintance of ‘HORNY GEORDIE LASS’ and finds himself pretending to be the dogging expert that he clearly is not. His career-minded girlfriend Tanya is tired of his lack of ambition. Rob’s cousin Dan is an overconfident estate agent who boasts of dogging experience and, like Tanya, takes great pleasure in ridiculing the Internet approach to journalism. Convinced that Dan needs to ditch Tanya and start living, he wastes no time in suggesting he experience the dogging scene for himself. Rob’s current partner Sarah also enjoys carefree, al fresco sex. Living nearby with her over-protective father, Laura lives an exciting life via Internet chat rooms as ‘HORNY GEORDIE LASS’. She is meanwhile pursued by Jim. Charismatically persistent, he thinks nothing of haplessly approaching girls for a phone number and maybe a kiss or a cuddle. Dogging: A Love Story is a quietly comic take on sex, danger, jealousy and 21st century romance in the great dark outdoors. (EH)

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With his numerous awardwinning shorts, Simon ELLIS (1973, UK) has established himself as one of the UK’s leading young directors. His first short non-comedy drama Soft (2006) was awarded dozens of festivals awards. Dogging: A Love Story is his feature début. Films: Thicker Than Water (1996, short), Repeaters (1997, short), In Out (1998, short), Thousand (1998, short), Square One (1999, short), The Fiver Thing (2000, short), Telling Lies (2001, short), Doing Really Well (2001, short), Bass Invaders (2001, short), 10 Again (2002, short), What About the Bodies (2003, short), What The (2004, short), Freya (3) (2005, short), A Storm and Some Snow (2006, short), Soft (2006, short), Dogging: A Love Story (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:11

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

France/Denmark, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 90 min, French Pro: Marianne Slot, Marie Gade Pro Comp: Slot Machine,

Zentropa Entertainments Sc: Juliette Garcias Cam: Julien Hirsch Ed: Catherine Vilpoux Ad: Olivier Guerbois Sound: Yolande Decarsin Mu: Kasper Winding, Kristian Eidnes Andersen With: Anaïs Demoustier, Bruno Todeschini Print: Slot Machine Sales: TrustNordisk

Sois sage

Juliette GARCIAS (1970, France) graduated in art history from the Sorbonne University in Paris. She worked as an editor for numerous documentaries and fiction films between 1994 and 2007. In 1998 she directed Under the Tables, her first short film. Be Good is her first feature.

Be Good Juliette Garcias

There’s something strange about Nathalie, the girl on the brink of maturity. She regularly causes uneasy situations by coming up with all kinds of dubious stories: that her handball-playing Spanish fiancé has had an accident, that she has a relationship with a lawyer in London, that she likes to cut the nails of her piano-playing married boyfriend, that she is really called Eve. In the meantime, she works for a baker in a village in the French countryside. She spies on an older married man with a small child in a mansion. Slowly but surely, the mystery unfolds. The suspense is carried by powerful visuals, pregnant with symbolism: two similar pillows on a bed, an ice-cream scoop in a murky washingup basin, two pairs of hands on a piano, a girl’s hand rummaging in a bucket of snails, cutting fingernails until they bleed, teasingly feeding red strawberries to a baby, killing a persistent, randy dog with a stone in the night. Be Good is the directing début by Juliette Garcias (1970), who studied art history at the Sorbonne in Paris before editing many features and documentaries. She has a wonderful eye for detail with which she communicates the drama indirectly and insistently, and a great talent for directing actors, as a result of which the ethereal young Anaïs Demoustier is able to play a glorious role.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Films: Dessous les tables/Under the Tables (1998, short), Sois sage/Be Good (2008)

12-01-2009 01:48:11

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 105 min, English Pro: Stefan Schaefer,

Diane Crespo Pro Comp: Cicala Filmworks Sc: Michael Imperioli Cam: Dan Hersey Ed: Erin Greenwell Ad: Victoria Imperioli, Illya Radysh With: Steve R. Schirippa,

Sharon Angela, Aunjanue Ellis, Nick Sandow, Emory Cohen Print/Sales: Cicala Filmworks www.thehungryghostsmovie.com

The Hungry Ghosts Michael Imperioli

Hungry ghosts refers to a concept in Eastern religions for dead people who cannot say farewell to the living. The term is often a metaphor for people who do not realise that it is increasingly painful and difficult to find happiness if they continue to believe in their illusions. In this feature début by actor Michael Imperioli, his characters float as spirits through life, looking for happiness, looking for the fulfilment of a desire. Imperioli has been an actor in, and scriptwriter for, The Sopranos and played in more than 30 films, including ones by Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese. In The Hungry Ghosts, several narrative lines run together. There’s a rundown radio presenter (a beautiful role by Steve Schirripa, also from The Sopranos) who keeps on his feet using drink and pills and quarrels with his ex-wife on the phone about their son who has gone off the rails. There’s a young woman who is fleeing her life and visits girlfriends and ex-boyfriends looking for a place to sleep. In the course of the film, set in and around New York in the period of 36 hours, it becomes clear and inevitable that the narrative lines will come together. The film is reminiscent of the best TV dramas, thanks to the subtle directing of the actors, the rapid sketching of situations in a character’s life and the creation of space through clever moments of non-activity. (EH)

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Michael IMPERIOLI (1966, USA) acts in film, TV and theatre productions. He is probably best known for his portrayal of Christopher Miltisanti on the acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos. He has acted in more than thirty films, e.g. by Martin Scorsese, Hal Hartley and Spike Lee. He also writes and produces. Together with his wife he launched Studio Dante in New York, a theatre focused on presenting and mounting new works. The Hungry Ghosts is his film direction début. Films: The Hungry Ghosts (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:11

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Iran, 2008 colour, video, 89 min, Farsi Pro: Ramtin Lavafipour Pro Comp: Aftab e honar afarin Sc: Ramtin Lavafipour Cam: Reza Teymouri Ed: Ramtin Lavafipour Ad: Ramtin Lavafipour Sound: Taher Pishvai,

Arash Ghasemi Mu: Daroush Namdar Zangeneh With: Hedayat Hashemi, Omid Abdollahi, Mahnaz Talandeh

Aram bash va ta haft beshmar Be Calm and Count to Seven Ramtin Lavafipour ‘The colour of the sea when you stand by it is sometimes blue, sometimes green, but there is another colour too: the one that can be seen only by those who are lost at sea. But they never return to say what colour the raging sea is.’ These opening words set the atmosphere of this lyrical first feature film by Ramtin Lavafipour. Motu (Omid Abdollahi) is a teenage boy living in a remote fishing village somewhere in southern Iran. As there are no more fish in the sea, the whole village lives from smuggling goods - and sometimes people too. Every now and again, big mysterious packages jump out of the sea and are hidden by the locals before being smuggled further. Motu’s father left the village a few days ago but there is no message from him yet. Motu earns money and takes care of his mother and sister in anticipation of his father’s return. He spends a lot of time playing football and dreams of becoming as rich and as famous as Ronaldhino. He also becomes friendly with the smugglers’ middleman (Heydayat Hashemi), to whom he proposes doing serious business when his father has still not come back... The film is in the style of documentary realism, with dynamic camera work and beautiful atmospheres. It is a sensitive reflection of the changes in a small fishing village as it moves from a traditional way of life towards today’s fast consumer society.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Sales: Aftab e honar afarin Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Ramtin LAVAFIPOUR (1973, Iran) started his artistic career with an interest in photography during high school. Afterwards he studied film making at the IRIB University in Tehran. He has made several documentaries and short films. Be Calm and Count to Seven is his feature début. Films: Wind Does Not Blow Only in the Sky (2001), Road (2002), One, Two, Three, Four (2003), Hederse (2003), Wind in the Silence of Dust (2005), Behind That Snowy Hill (2007), Be Calm and Count to Seven (2008)

12-01-2009 01:48:12

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Japan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 101 min, Japanese Pro: Amano Mayumi Pro Comp: PFF Partners Sc: Naito Takatsugu Cam: Hashimoto Kiyoaki Ed: Fushima Shinichi Ad: Inoue Shimpei Sound: Kato Hirokazu Mu: Matsumoto Akira With: Kote Shinya, Miyamoto

Yuko, Hirooka Kazuki, Maro Akaji Print/Sales: PIA Film Festival

NAITO Takatsugu (1981, Japan) graduated in mathematics from the Tokyo Metropolitan University in 2005. During his studies he took a year off to travel through approximately thirty countries. His feature début Midnight Pigskin Wolf (2005) was awarded a prestigious prize in Pusan. The Dark H arbour is his second feature.

Futoko The Dark Harbour Naito Takatsugu

Films: Midnight Pigskin Wolf (2005), Futoko/The Dark Harbour (2008)

The film has an idiosyncratic style all of its own. A grey realism (the darkness of the derelict harbour) and an occasionally colourful nostalgia (in the bar or the living room) are linked together in a natural way. Naturalness is in general a characteristic in this comedy that occasionally seems too real for a comedy and too comic to be true. The protagonist is the fisherman Manzo Ishiguro. He’s a fisherman because his father was too. A big mouth and a small heart. He’s going on 40, but still doesn’t have a wife or girlfriend. Maybe he’s never had a girlfriend. When the administrators of the small and chill fishing village organise a dating evening in the local bar, he decides to try his luck. With little conviction, however, and doomed to failure. Painful and comic in his clumsiness. Suddenly he has a complete family. Mitsuko and Masao, a single mother and her little boy, have just crawled into his house. They want to stay. First he throws them out in the street, but he soon realises this is an unexpected opportunity for love and homey happiness. The humour of the film - and it is undoubtedly humorous - is to be found in details, in these minor deviations from everyday patterns. The director laughs with his characters, but not at them. It’s a film about love, and the maker obviously loves his clumsy characters. (GjZ)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:12

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

China, 2009 colour, video, 107 min, Mandarin Pro: Zeng Wenwen Pro Comp: New Youth

Independent Film Studio Sc: Peng Tao, Zeng Wenwen Cam: Zhou Wencao Ed: Lang Jingchao Sound: Wu Zheng With: Pan Xingxing, Huo Shiyu Sales: New Youth

Independent Film Studio

Liu li

Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Floating in Memory Peng Tao

In recent decades, young people in China have flocked to the city in their millions. As a comparison: it’s as if the whole population of Europe moved to the cities in a period of 20 years, and so it’s not surprising - no, its inevitable - that this uprooting has caused a flood of stories, studies, artistic reactions and of course films, and these will continue for many years. An emotionally gripping example of such a story was told by the talented Peng Tao in his widely praised début film Little Moth. In his second film, Floating in Memory, the tone is grim and inevitable. The story, as in so many films, is based on a small newspaper report. Peng points the restless, seeking camera at Xiu, a shop girl who lives with her female boss and spends her evenings in the local dance hall. That spot also turns out to be the hunting ground of the pimp Qiang, also a country boy. Briefly, some kind of love seems possible in this emotional no man’s land, but in no time they have lost each other and their future. In the apparent simplicity of the concentration with which Peng Tao portrays his young lovers, they are reminiscent of the tragic protagonists of the Dardenne Brothers. Peng’s film shows a barely cloaked urgency and is made partly with the aid of a digital production grant from the Hubert Bals Fund. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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PENG Tao (1974, China) graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 2004. His first feature film Little Moth (2007), on which he worked as producer, scriptwriter and director, has been screened and awarded at numerous international film festivals. For his second feature film Floating in Memory, Peng worked as scriptwriter and director. Films: Xue chan/Little Moth (2007), Liu li/Floating in Memory (2009)

12-01-2009 01:48:13

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

Austria, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 123 min, German Pro: Peter Roehsler Pro Comp: Nanook Film Sc: Caspar Pfaundler Cam: Peter Roehsler Ed: Caspar Pfaundler Ad: Michael Drexler With: Gerti Drassl, Claudia

Kottal, Michael Masula, David Oberkogler, Hannes Thanheiser, Markus Westphal Print/Sales: Nanook Film

Caspar PFAUNDLER (1959, Austria) graduated in art history and film science from the university in Vienna. He has made several short films and entered the ranks of feature film directors in 2001 with Lost and Found. Pfaundler and his wife, Chinese actress Wu Su-jen, live and work in Taiwan.

Schottentor Caspar Pfaundler

Through the Schotten Passage, an underground train and tram station in Vienna that is only linked to the outside world by a large oval opening, thousands of people travel every day. Pfaundler, a Viennese director who now lives in Taiwan, chose this place as the arena for his film, original in its form and substance, about people’s deeper motivations. He allows several people, in no hurry on their way to a familiar destination, to stop time briefly with daydreams about possible encounters and attempts to make more authentic contact with their true selves. The director begins this film with a striking upbeat as he says that he really wanted to travel to the coast with his cast and crew, but that the budget didn’t allow it. The wide horizon to be found there remains an unrealised dream hanging above the characters, among them a flower seller, a teacher and an old man. As an antidote, Pfaundler portrays some of their fantasies and allows their monologue intérieur to betray the extremely personal grounds for their desires. While seventy percent of Schottentor is set in a public space, these reflections, combined with the liberated exchange between reality and imagination, provide a striking intimacy. At the same time, his leaps in formal style create a reflective, mild distance.

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Films: Ciacona - Ein Frühstück (1984, short), Das chinesische Wien (1994, TV), Kino zum Überleben (1995, TV), Lost and Found (2001), Schottentor (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:13

Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

WORLD PREMIERE

Chile, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 104 min, Spanish Pro: Macarena Lopez Pro Comp: La Ventura Ltda.,

Paraíso Production Diffusion Sc: Alicia Scherson Cam: Ricardo de Angelis Ed: Soledad Salfate Sound: Miguel Hormazabal Mu: Phillipe Boisier With: Aline Kuppenheim, Diego Noguera, Marcelo Alonso Sales: La Ventura Ltda. Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Turistas Tourists Alicia Scherson

The second film by Scherson investigates the tension between nature and society in a playful way. On her way to their holiday destination, it becomes clear to thirty-something Carla that her marriage to Joel brings her more sorrow than is good for both of them. As she recovers from their quarrel outside the car, Joel drives off. Rebellious and sad, Carla continues her journey on foot. At the Siete Tazas nature reserve, she meets the Norwegian backpacker Ulrik, who invites her to camp in the beautiful Chilean reserve with its seven waterfalls. Hopefully, calm and inexorable nature will bring her peace. But the park turns out to offer more than trees, water and beetles: there are also the unscrupulous nieces Susana and Susana and the park warden Orlando, a former top 40 star. In the mini society in the woods people fight, make love, party and badminton, while Carla concludes that the natural laws of Siete Tazas are not that much different from city life in Santiago. In Tourists, Scherson combines her background as an observant biologist with her great cinematographic talent for details and furtive emotions. Scherson previously visited Rotterdam with her successful début Play. She is one of a striking group of young Chilean film makers and teaches film at the Universidad de Chile. Tourists, like Play, was made with help from the Hubert Bals Fund. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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After graduating as a biologist, Alicia SCHERSON (1974, Chile) studied film making at EICTV, the film academy in Cuba. She made several short films and videos and obtained a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Her feature début Play (2005) received some 17 international awards. Films: No me mires (1994, short), Gallo de Pelea (1997, short), La ultima aceituna/ The Last Olive (1998, short), 4 Postcards (2001, short), Deep Throat, Human Vocal Chords (2001, short), Little Moral Games (2002), Heavenly Bodies (2001, short), Crying Underwater (2002, short), Baño de mujeres/ Ladies Restroom (2005, short), Play (2005), Turistas/Tourists (2009)

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Bright Future: VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

South Korea, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 130 min, Korean Pro: Yang Ik-June Pro Comp: Mole Film Sc: Yang Ik-June Cam: Yun Jong-Ho Ed: Lee Yuen-Jung Ad: Hon Zi Sound: Hyen Cheol Mu: The Invisible Cheol With: Yang Ik-June, Kim Kkobbi Print/Sales: Showbox/

Mediaplex, Inc

YANG Ik-June (South Korea) graduated from the Department of Entertainment & Acting at the Kongju Communication Arts College. As an actor, he has appeared in various films such as M aundy Thursday (2006, Song Hae-Sung), Les formidables (2006, Cho Min-Ho), and No M anners (2002, Cho Keun-Sik). He began his directing career with his short film Always Behind You (2005). He is still both acting and directing.

Ddongpari Breathless Yang Ik-June

Breathless is the impressive feature début by director, scriptwriter and producer Yang Ik-June. He was not first an assistant director, as is common in Korea, but learnt the trade as an actor. He also plays the lead in this raw and occasionally violent story based on the autobiographical experiences of a gangster and extortionist who enjoys pointing out in a violent way their place in the local pecking order to anyone who crosses his path. Even the sidekicks who do his dirty work suffer at his hands. A flashback reveals the cause of this problematic personality. Having grown up with a violent father whom he held responsible for the death of his mother and the stabbing of his sister, Song-Hoon knows no better than that hard action has to precede emotion. That changes when he meets the cheeky schoolgirl Han Yeon-Heui. Herself the daily victim of the brutality of her mentally-ill father and insensitive brother, she is also battered by dysfunctional families and not very impressed by Song-Hoon’s hard exterior. Slowly but surely, an alternative family bond develops between the two of them, with the nephew of Song-Hoon as the untarnished centrepiece. Then Yeon-Heui’s brother joins the gang without his sister knowing and the cards are shuffled again. (GT)

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Films: Always Behind You (2005, short), Ddongpari/Breathless (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 01:48:14

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Bright Future tiger AwArds Competition short Films

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

La vie lointaine Life at a Distance Sébastien Betbeder

France, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 56 min, French/Japanese Pro: Sylvie Pialat Pro Comp: Les Films du Worso Sc: Sébastien Betbeder Cam: Sébastien Buchmann Ed: Julie Dupré Ad: Lionel Acat Sound: Xavier Griette Mu: Sylvain Chauveau With: Manuel Vallade, Nathalie Boutefeu, Gen Shimaoka, Aurore Clement, Masaki Iwana Print/Sales: Les Films du Worso

Martin goes to live in an isolated house in the French countryside. One night a man appears at the edge of the forest in front of the house. He invites Martin to lose himself ‘to meet a stranger’. Martin follows his advice and meets a director who is writing a film based on an unfinished novel by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. But the man in the forest was the ghost of Haruki and Martin is going to become the protagonist of his ‘life at a distance’. Sébastien BETBEDER (1975, France) attended art school in Bordeaux and in Fresnoy, France. Besides films, he makes video installations, writes dramas for the radio and is a teacher in cinema at the University of Art and Design in Geneva.

Bernadette Duncan Campbell United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 38 min, English Pro: Duncan Campbell, Karen Vaughan Sound: Mark Vernon Mu: Seamus Harahan With: Cara Kelly Print/Sales: Duncan Campbell

Bernadette presents an unravelling, yet accumulatively open-ended portrayal of the female Irish dissident and political activist, Bernadette Devlin. Cutting between archival material, animation, and scripted voiceover, Jarman Award nominee Duncan Campbell’s film is interested in fusing documentary and fiction in order to assess both the subject matter and the mode of communicating it, striving for what Samuel Beckett terms, ‘a form that accommodates the mess’. Duncan CAMPBELL (1972, Ireland) lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. His preoccupation with human truth and his refusal to adhere to formal or narrative conventions resonate, e.g. in Bernadette (2008).

Block B Chris Chong Chan Fui EUROPEAN PREMIERE Malaysia/Canada, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 20 min, Tamil Pro: Chris Chong Chan Fui Pro Comp: Tanjung Aru Pictures Sc: Toni Kasim Cam: Y.H. Cheong Ed: Lee Chatametikool Ad: Yee I-Lann Sound: Yasuhiro Morinaga With: P.S. Bama, Shanthini Venugopal, Lalitha Katragadda Print/Sales: The Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre www.tanjungarupictures.com

What we see is a static shot from an apartment block. We gradually find out that it’s an apartment block in Kuala Lumpur with only Indian inhabitants. Then the picture starts to wake up; as in a moving painting, all kinds of minor stories surrounding the immigrant inhabitants start to develop at various levels on screen, but also on the meticulously constructed and often contrary soundtrack. For one day and one night we are witnesses to events on the galleries. Block B is the result of a close cooperation between film maker Chris Chong Chan Fui and the Japanese sound artist Yasuhiro Morinaga Chris CHONG Chan Fui is a Malaysian-born maker of short and feature films and documentaries. Block B won the Best Canadian Short film prize at the 2008 film festival of Toronto.

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 02:10:14

Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

Sphinx on the Seine Paul Clipson INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA/Russia, 2008, colour/b&w, 1:1.37, 9 min, no dialogue Pro: Paul Clipson Cam: Paul Clipson Ed: Paul Clipson Mu: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma Print/Sales: Paul Clipson

Fragmentary Super-8 images follow one after the other, but geographically span thousands of miles and large passages of time between each cut. Notions of time, space, and memory collide within a visual fabric of abstractions, landscapes, textures, superimpositions and graphic forms, to suggest the first enigmatic moments of dream-sleep. The hypnotic, minimalist drone soundtrack is by Tarentel band member Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Paul CLIPSON (1966, UK) works in Super-8, 16mm and video, often in collaboration with experimental musicians and sound artists, exhibiting his work in live performances, screenings and installations.

Myth Labs Martha Colburn WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Pro: Martha Colburn Sc: Martha Colburn Cam: Martha Colburn Ed: Martha Colburn Ad: Martha Colburn Sound: Matt Marinelli Mu: Laura Ortman, Mike Evans, Ryan Sawyer, Matt Marinelli Sales: Filmbank Distr. NL: Filmbank www.marthacolburn.com

The associative roller coaster ride is this time about the consequences of addiction to cyrstal meth (a kind of turbo speed), especially among young people in the American countryside. Martha Colburn also draws a parallel with the life of the Puritans in the 17th century in what was then the land of hell and damnation. What the God-fearing and addicts have in common is that they can change from living beings into supermen and then degenerate into zombies. Martha COLBURN (1971, USA) is an autodidact film maker who teaches animation film. Her films have been screened at various international film festivals. She lives and works in Amsterdam, New York and Los Angeles.

zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom) Phil Collins United Kingdom/Kosovo, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 35 min, Serbian Pro: Phil Collins, Sinisa Mitrovic Pro Comp: Shady Lane Productions, DD Films Ltd Cam: Mumin Jashari Ed: David Mowbray, Mike Curd Sound: Nick Powell Mu: Nick Powell Print/Sales: Shady Lane Productions zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom) is set amidst the political turmoil in Kosovo and its struggle for independence. Using the community’s complicated relationship with the Serbo-Croat language as a reflection of its ambivalence toward its history and identity, Collins records testimonies by a number of contributors - from politicians, intellectuals and public figures to ordinary people - recounting in Serbo-Croat the reasons why they no longer speak the language. Phil COLLINS (1970, UK) works as a director, photographer, interviewer and producer. In 2006 he was nominated for the Turner Prize, a prestigious prize presented to a British visual artist every year.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

Más se perdió We Lost More Stephen Connolly

WORLD PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2009, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 14 min, English/Spanish Pro: Stephen Connolly, Adam Clitheroe Pro Comp: Bubblefilm, Film London Cam: Stephen Connolly Ed: Stephen Connolly Sound: Stephen Connolly Print/Sales: Bubblefilm www.bubblefilm.net

We Lost More structurally unites a series of historical and cultural references including footage of Havana’s derelict National School of Ballet, young athletes at an outdoor stadium and street scenes of Cuban construction workers - the latter in reference to Chris Marker’s film Letter from Siberia (1957). Stephen CONNOLLY (1964, Canada) studied film and video at the Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design. He is a freelance editor and film maker.

Les ruissellements du diable The Devil’s Streams Keren Cytter

Germany, 2008, colour, video, 10 min, French Pro: Keren Cytter Sc: Keren Cytter, based on a story by Julio Cortázar Cam: Keren Cytter Ed: Keren Cytter Ad: Keren Cytter Sound: Keren Cytter Mu: Gai Sherf With: Susie Meyer, Christophe Chemin Print/Sales: Keren Cytter

The Devil’s Streams is based on a story by Julio Cortázar. A man takes a photo in a park and finds out why the image intrigues him so much: the photo is more intense than his own life. After this, a refined philosophical story develops about a man and a woman in a house, a kitchen and the park we saw previously on the photograph, in which fiction and fact repeatedly swap positions until the distinction between the two of them no longer seems important. Keren CYTTER (1977, Israel) followed several art courses, including De Ateliers Stichting 63 in Amsterdam. Her films and drawings have been shown worldwide. In 2009 Rotterdam screens both Der Spiegel (2007) and The Devil’s Streams (2008).

Oracle Sebastian Diaz Morales Netherlands/Argentina, 2007, colour, video, 11 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: Hermès International Expositions Sales: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Distr. NL: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst

A motionless man filmed from behind gazing at the sea. Two goldfish swim in a pond in which banknotes also float. A plastic bag floats across the street and lands in the gutter. Clouds, the result of explosions, and regularly an image of an eclipse of the sun returns. ‘We will learn to live thinking that everything happens at the same time. That is to say “No Future”.’ (J.G. Ballard) Sebastian DIAZ MORALES (1975, Argentina) attended e.g. the National Academy of the Fine Arts in Amsterdam. His videos and installations have been shown all over the world.

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 02:10:15

Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

Purgatorio Lav Diaz INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Philippines, 2008, b&w, video, 16 min, Tagalog Pro: Lav Diaz Pro Comp: Sine Olivia Pilipinas Print/Sales: Sine Olivia Pilipinas

Not his first or only short film, but a short film by the master of the extremely long film is something special. The tempo remains slow, yet this silent black-and-white film inevitably culminates in a climax. A man and a woman follow a river. Each on their own. Members of the Aeta tribe dance in an eternal circle around two motionless men. In a forest, human bones are found. As so often in the case of Diaz, the poetry here is political. Lav DIAZ (1958, Philippines) attended the Mowelfund Film Institute in Quezon City. His breakthrough came with the five-hour feature Batang West Side (2002). Both his short Purgatorio (2008) and his 480-minute feature Melancholia (2008) has been selected for the IFFR in 2009.

A Necessary Music Beatrice Gibson EUROPEAN PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 20 min, English Pro: Beatrice Gibson Sc: Beatrice Gibson Ed: Beatrice Gibson Sound: Alex Waterman Mu: Alex Waterman Print/Sales: Argos Centre for Art and Media www.anecessarymusic.org

The takes long, languid and beautifully pictorial - in a narration shared between Robert Ashley (perhaps one of the most distinguished voices in contemporary music) and dwellers of Roosevelt Island (a small sliver of land situated between NYC burroughs Manhattan and Queens) - A Necessary Music is a musically conceived science fiction film, exploring the social imaginary of a utopian landscape through directed attention to the voices that inhabit it. Beatrice GIBSON (1978, UK) is an artist based in London and New York who combines architecture and art in her projects. For A Necessary Music (2008) she worked with composer Alex Waterman.

Coagulate Mihai Grecu INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE France, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Natalia Trebik Pro Comp: Le Fresnoy Sc: Mihai Grecu Cam: Patrick Dehalu Ed: Mihai Grecu, Catherine Aladenise, Seto Momoko Ad: Mihai Grecu Sound: Frederic Marquilly Mu: Frederic Marquilly, Thibault Gleize With: Kang Hyun Wook Print/Sales: Le Fresnoy

Coagulate tells an odd and unusual story using the element of water as its main protagonist, creating the paradoxical concept of ‘liquid sculpture’. The artist treats the theme of a universe in mutation by showing different forms of matter behaving in ways that completely distort the perceptions of the viewer. Mihai GRECU (1981, Romania) studied design and fine arts in Romania and France. He works in the field of video, contemporary art, cinematography and graphic design.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

The City of Production Laurent Gutierrez, Valérie Portefaix WORLD PREMIERE Hong Kong, 2009, colour, video, 52 min, English Pro: Laurent Gutierrez Pro Comp: Map Office Sc: Laurent Gutierrez, Valérie Portefaix Cam: Laurent Gutierrez, Valérie Portefaix Ed: Nicolas Sauret Ad: Laurent Gutierrez, Valérie Portefaix Sound: Nicolas Sauret Print/Sales: Map Office

In 2002, Map Office started surveying one of the thousands of factories in the Pearl River Delta region. Under its aegis, this factory evolved into a fabulous laboratory that poses the challenge of positive capitalism through environmental engineering and social benefits for the 5000 workers. The City of Production is about balancing life and work. A fantastic opportunity to experiment with positive capitalism. Map Office is an interdisciplinary design and research platform founded by Laurent GUTIERREZ (1966, Morocco) and Valérie PORTEFAIX (1969, France). The platform has been based in Hong Kong since 1996 and its projects have participated in major international art and architecture events.

Rakugaki iromachi Red-light District Graffiti Kasumi Hiraoka

Japan, 2008, colour, video, 28 min, Japanese Pro: Kasumi Hiraoka Pro Comp: Mybrassierefilm Sc: Kasumi Hiraoka Cam: Moriro Miyamoto Ed: Kasumi Hiraoka Ad: Kasumi Hiraoka Sound: Kasumi Hiraoka Mu: Chie Hatari, Kasumi Hiraoka With: Mineko Higashi, Ikkou Taniuchi Print/ Sales: Mybrassierefilm www.mybrassierefilm.com

Vibrantly aesthetic, anarchically choreographed, drummer-director Kasumi Hiraoka’s R ed -light District Graffiti is a gorgeously outlandish feast of raucous theatricality. Enfants du Paradis, the film’s naively iconoclastic enclave of prostitutes, slowly turn their gleeful attentions away from their customers and towards ever greater colour, performance and obtuse poetry that would do even Terayama proud. A cathartically unconventional trip! KASUMI Hiraoka (1981, Japan) graduated in literature from Doshisya Univerity in 2003. She is a director, musician, editor and playwright.

Optical Vacuum Dariusz Kowalski Austria, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 55 min, English Pro: Dariusz Kowalski Sc: Dariusz Kowalski Ed: Dariusz Kowalski Sound: Stefan Németh Mu: Stefan Németh Print/Sales: Sixpack Film www.filmvideo.at

In earlier works like Elements and Luukkaakkangas, we saw how Kowalski stole his shots from security cameras, back then purely for aesthetic aims. This time he has dared to make a beautiful cinematographic essay with images from security cameras that exposes the nerve of the modern optical era, in which the reality is that we are watched everywhere. Optical Vacuum is a detached visual analysis with the intimate audio diary of the artist Stephen Mathewson as soundtrack. Dariusz KOWALSKI (1971, Poland) has lived and worked in Austria since 1991. He studied Visual Media Arts at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna. He makes videos, installations and internet projects.

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 02:10:16

Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

Otchajanie

Despair Galina Myznikova, Sergey Provorov WORLD PREMIERE Russia, 2009, b&w, video, 30 min, no dialogue Pro: Galina Myznikova Pro Comp: Provmyza Sc: Galina Myznikova, Sergey Provorov Cam: Vsevolod Skuchayev Ed: Sergey Provorov Ad: Galina Myznikova Sound: Sergey Provorov Mu: Sergey Provorov With: Alexander Kuritsin, Andrey Nosov, Ivan Yaroschovets Print/Sales: Galina Myznikova www.provmyza.ru

When an organism is no longer able to resist the aggressive influences of its surroundings, it finally turns to assimilation and disappears into the background. So too in this choreographic essay by the Russian duo Myznikova and Provorov, in which humanity is surrendered to the whims of nature. Despair is an exciting and yet dark visual spectacle in a desolate landscape in which ravens seem to rule. Since 1996 Galina MYZNIKOVA (1968, Russia) and Sergey PROVOROV (1970, Russia) have created a large number of projects which demonstrate their focus upon creative experiments. Their films have taken part in numerous Russian and foreign festivals.

Die Möbel der Proportionen Furniture of Proportions Yves Netzhammer

Switzerland, 2008, colour, video, 28 min, no dialogue Pro: Yves Netzhammer, Anita Beckers Sc: Yves Netzhammer Ed: Yves Netzhammer Ad: Yves Netzhammer Sound: Bernd Schurer Mu: Bernd Schurer Print/ Sales: Galerie Anita Beckers

Yves Netzhammer creates his world entirely on the computer. In Furniture of P roportions he takes his viewers along for a story that is not easy to describe. He shows us how the hierarchy on which we have based our world view, where the human race has imposed its superiority on other plants and animals, is based on chance. Things could be different. He shows us how. Yves NETZHAMMER (1970, Switzerland) lives and works in Zurich. The IFFR 2009 selected both his short films The Subjectivisation of R epetition, Project A (2007) and Furniture of Proportions (2008) and his installation Young Branches Imitate Old Antlers and Old Antlers Young Branches (1999).

Man and Gravity Jakrawal Nilthamrong WORLD PREMIERE Thailand, 2009, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Jakrawal Nilthamrong Pro Comp: Mit Out Sound Films Sc: Jakrawal Nilthamrong Cam: Likkhasit Prachkul Ed: Jakrawal Nilthamrong Sound: Shubhajog Jumsai Na Ayuhaya With: Sommhai Angkew Print/Sales: Mit Out Sound Films

Just like gravity, karma works everywhere, even though you don’t see it. You only see the result. All over Asia you see people with impossible loads on their bicycles, scooters or small vehicles. Here a man tries to lift a truly impossible freight in an impossible and hostile environment. The unusual landscape emphasises the metaphorical quality of his toils. Serious as evidence and yet unmistakably funny. Jakrawal NILTHAMRONG (1977, Thailand) holds a MFA in art and technology studies. In 2007 he was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2009 the IFFR screens both his short Orchestra (2008) and Man and Gravity (2009).

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

A Film Far Beyond a God Waël Noureddine INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE France, 2008, colour, video, 40 min, French Pro: Catherine Jacques Pro Comp: Mandrake Films Sc: Waël Noureddine Cam: Waël Noureddine Ed: Waël Noureddine Print/Sales: Lowave

Mecca was already a major pilgrim destination before the birth of Islam, as 360 statues, representing various idols, were gathered in the sanctuary of the Kaaba. The most important one was Hubal, one of the main pre-islamic gods. A Film Far Beyond a God traces the origins of the conflicts that continue to afflict us today. It draws up three main motifs: the angst, the travel, and the desert. With this experimental documentary, Waël Noureddine films a knowingly hidden past in order to help us decipher the present. Waël NOUREDDINE (1978, Lebanon) is mainly a writer, journalist and poet. His short films depict, in a literary and critical way, real situations concerning Middle Eastern conflicts.

Entre chiens et loups Between Dogs and Wolves Jean-Gabriel Périot

France, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 29 min, French Pro: Frédéric Dubreuil Pro Comp: Envie de Tempête Productions Sc: Jean-Gabriel Périot Cam: Denis Gravouil Ed: Jean-Gabriel Périot Ad: Ludovic Lecouteux Sound: Raphaël Naquet Mu: Boogers With: Simon Morant, Serpentine Thessier, Adèle Linard, Laurianne Baudoin Print/Sales: Envie de Tempête Productions http:// jgperiot.free.fr

A young man works as a pizza delivery boy. In the meantime, he desperately looks for better work in an office, without any result. After his umpteenth job application, he’s had enough. Oppressive fiction about exclusion by the experimental film maker and artist Périot. Jean-Gabriel PÉRIOT (1974, France) directed several short films that can be indicated as a mix between documentary, animation and experimental. Most of his works deal with violence and history.

Brises

Breezes Enrique Ramirez INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE France/Chile, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 13 min, Spanish Pro: Emilie Wartel Pro Comp: Le Fresnoy Sc: Enrique Ramirez Cam: Sergio Armstrong Ed: Enrique Ramirez Ad: Enrique Ramirez Sound: Sébastien Cabour Mu: Andreas Bodenhofer, Enrique Ramirez With: Jorge Becker, Estela Figueroa Print/Sales: Le Fresnoy www.panorama9-10.net

How can one look back at history and retrace one’s steps? Film maker Enrique Ramirez was born in Chile in 1979, six years after the military coup: ‘I am a piece of this history, full of contradictions.’ He now walks back towards the reopened Presidential Palace. Brises is a film in a single sequence shot which effortlessly strikes a balance between memory and politics. Enrique RAMIREZ (1979, Chile) studied music and audio-visual communication and film in Chile. He now attends art courses at the Studio National des arts contemporains at Le Fresnoy in France. Besides being a film maker, Ramirez often works as an editor.

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 02:10:17

Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

#37 Joost Rekveld WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 29 min, no dialogue Pro: Gerard Holthuis Pro Comp: Filmstad producties bv Sc: Joost Rekveld Cam: Joost Rekveld Ed: Joost Rekveld Mu: Yannis Kyriakidis Print/Sales: Filmstad producties bv www.lumen.nu/rekveld

Andronicos says that in a certain place in Spain one finds small, scattered stones which are polygonal and grow spontaneously. [...] I kept one to verify this myself and it gave birth at my place, so the story is not a lie. (Paradoxographus Palatinus, anonymous, 3rd century) #37 is part of Rekveld’s ongoing exploration of the propagation and diffraction of light through holes and grids. Joost REKVELD (1970, Netherlands) makes abstract films and kinetic installations, designs projections and light for various dance and theatre productions and works as a curator and teacher. His work is based on the idea of visual music for the eye.

Six Apartments Reynold Reynolds INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Germany, 2007, colour/b&w, video, 12 min, English Pro: Reynold Reynolds Cam: Kenzo Guzman Ad: Daniele Fermani Sound: Claudia Neri With: Cornelia Brelowski, Norbert Decker Print/Sales: Reynold Reynolds www. reynold-reynolds.com

Six isolated occupants of six different apartments live their lives unaware of each other. Without drama they eat food, wander between rooms, bathe, watch television, and sleep. For them, this is life. Yet whilst it may appear that nothing is happening here, the apartment building and its inhabitants’ bodies are aging, giving way to bacteria, larva, and finally transformation. Televisions and radios tell them about the destruction of the whole planet but it does not effect their lives. Everything is in a state of resolute conversion. (RR) Reynold REYNOLDS works with 16mm, Super-8 film and found footage. His installations and films have been shown in many international film festivals and have won numerous awards.

Origin of the Species Ben Rivers United Kingdom, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 16 min, English Pro: Pinky Ghundale Pro Comp: Film London Print/Sales: LUX

Far from everything and everyone, a man lives alone in the wilderness. His obsession with Darwin and his way of life come together in this existentialist portrait. Both the choice of the subject and the sharp camera work as well as the excellent composition bear the signature of the one-time Tiger Short winner Ben Rivers. The modest Origin of the Species is again a great work. Ben RIVERS (1972, UK) has been a film maker since 1999 and was co-founder of the Brighton Cinematheque (1996-2005). His short film Ah, Liberty! won a Tiger Award at the IFFR in 2008.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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12-01-2009 02:10:18

Bright Future: Tiger Awards Competition Short Films

Ghosts and Gravel Roads Mike Rollo Canada, 2008, colour, video, 16 min, no dialogue Pro: Mike Rollo Sc: Mike Rollo Cam: Terryll Loffler Ed: Mike Rollo Sound: Stephane Calce Mu: Rachelle Mantha Print/Sales: Mike Rollo

Documenting the ghost towns on the prairies, we get panoramic shots of dilapidated farm houses in remote locations, tracking shots of dirt roads, rusted out jalopies and barnyard animals. The ‘ghosts’ are old black-andwhite portrait photographs of folks from decades past, tacked on the walls of the abandoned structures. Mike ROLLO (1977, Canada) studied at the Concordia University where he now teaches film production. Besides that, he is a film maker and photographer. Ghosts and Gravel Roads (2008) is part of an ongoing study of the Canadian prairie landscape.

O’er the Land Deborah Stratman INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 52 min, English Pro: Deborah Stratman Pro Comp: Pythagoras Cam: Deborah Stratman Ed: Deborah Stratman Sound: Deborah Stratman Mu: Maryanne Amacher, Kevin Drumm, Steve Rowell, Lustmord Print/Sales: Pythagoras

This is America! Stratman meanders in O’er the Land (a phrase from the national anthem) around various exponents of the national identity. Interwoven in the film is the incredible story of a jet pilot who left his plane in an ejector seat at stratospheric heights and took 45 minutes with minor detours to reach the earth. He survived and experienced the ultimate dream of all Americans. Deborah STRATMAN is a film maker based in Chicago. Her films blur the lines between experimental and documentary genres. She also works in other media, including photography and sound.

The Presentation Theme Jim Trainor EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 14 min, English Pro: Jim Trainor Print/Sales: Jim Trainor

The preferred technique of animator Jim Trainor is black magic marker on typing paper. Trainor’s lines and shapes don’t simply waver, they pulsate. Heads and bodies change shape as if they were ready to burst in some kind of growth spurt. Even a momentary change in the thickness of a line seems to signal a possible moment of growth, movement, or collapse. The story in The Presentation Theme is that of a Peruvian prisoner who encounters a blood-sucking priestess. Artist Jim TRAINOR creates films, videos, comic strips and performances. He is best known for his animation films. Besides his artistic work, he is a teacher and bartender.

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 02:10:19

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Bright Future

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Bright Future

Russia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 100 min, Russian Pro: Sergey Seliyanov Pro Comp: CTB Film Company Sc: Bakur Bakuradze Cam: Marina Gornostaeve,

Nikolai Vavilov Ed: Bakur Bakuradze Ad: Kirill Shuvalov Sound: Arseny Troitsky With: Gela Chitava, Ruslan Grebenkin, Cecile Plaige, Lyubov Firsova Print/Sales: Intercinema Ltd. www.shultes.ru

Shultes Bakur Bakuradze

Bakur Bakuradze, one of the most promising young Russian film makers, is preoccupied with the subject of ‘a small man in a contemporary metropolis’. After his short film Moscow (made with D. Mamulia), the story of Tajik guest workers struggling to survive in the Russian capital, comes Shultes - an existential drama whose stylistic minimalism conceals a powerful philosophical message. Lesha Shultes (Gela Chitava worked for the production team as a driver and was cast in the lead role after the shooting had already begun) seems to lead a very ordinary life in a very ordinary Moscow district. He watches TV a lot, cares for his elderly mother and goes jogging in the park. He is a professional pickpocket, and he is good at what he does. The only extraordinary thing about Shultes is that he carries a little notebook with him and notes down everything - names, facts, date. There’s something strangely disturbing about this quiet man, and the director skillfully keeps his protagonist’s secret until the final episodes… In spite of contextual parallels to Bresson’s Pickpocket, Shultes has a very contemporary feel to it. Bakuradze’s competent directing creates a sharp and universally recognizable image of an amnesiac urban creature. Yet, this drama has a strong Russian flavour to it. (LC)

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After high school, Bakur BAKURADZE (1969, Georgia) enrolled at the Moscow Automobile and Highway Institute and served in the Soviet Army. When he finished his service, he enrolled in the directors’ department at the VGIK, the film school in Moscow. In 2005, his documentary The Diamond Way was among the winners. His short film Moscow (2007) was shown in Cannes, Oberhausen, Turin and Paris. Films: Penniless (1998, short), At the Cost of One’s Life (2001, doc), The Age of Minfin (2002, doc), Vyacheslav Pilipenko (2002, doc), The Circular Motions of Vladimir Olegovich and Olga Egorova (2003, short), The Diamond Way (2005, doc), Moscow (2007, short), Road of Dreams (2008, doc), The Age of Minfin. 205 Years of Service to the Fatherland (2008, doc), Shultes (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:40

Bright Future

Bosnia and Herzegovina/ France/Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 99 min, Bosnian Pro: Elma Tataragic, Benny

Drechsel, Karsten Stöter, Francois d’Artemare Pro Comp: Mamafilm, Rohfilm GmbH, Les Films de l’Après-midi Sc: Aida Begic, Elma Tataragic Cam: Erol Zubcevic Ed: Miralem S. Zubcevic Ad: Vedran Hrustanovic Sound: Frank Bubenzer, Branko Neskov Mu: Igor Camo With: Jana Marjanovic, Jasna Ornela Bery, Sadzida Setic, Vesna Masic, Emir Hadzihafizbegovic

Snijeg Snow Aida Begic

Sales: Pyramide International Distr. NL: Cinema Delicatessen

Aida Begics’ first feature portrays one of the darkest chapters from the history of her homeland: the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croatians by their Bosnian Serbian neighbours at the time of the war in Yugoslavia. Begic did not film the war itself, but the equally difficult period that followed for the many mothers, widows and orphans. They have lost their children, husbands and fathers and often don’t know if or where they died. They are strong, however, in their decision to carry on with life, even though they feel the scars every day. Snow tells the story of a small mountain village where the women have to depend on each other more than ever. They are forced to accept mutual differences in order to start working towards a new future. When project developers want to buy their land, they decide to resist. Begic confronts powerful characters with each other in a serene yet relentless landscape. The director lifts the actors’ natural acting to a metaphysical level by adding a subtle magic realism to the harsh everyday battle of the characters. Begic researched among many war widows and saw an awareness of higher powers as a general phenomenon that keeps the women going. The snow is the most pure example of this. (LC)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Aida BEGIC (1976, Bosnia and Herzegovina) graduated in film and theatre directing from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo in 2000. Her graduation film First Death Experience (2001) won several awards at European film festivals. Together with Elma Tataragic, she founded the production company Mamafilm in 2004. Snow is her début feature. Films: Autobiography (1995, short doc), Triumph of the Will (1997, short doc), First Death Experience (2001, short), North Went Mad (2003, short), Snijeg/ Snow (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:40

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Indonesia/Netherlands/ Germany/Switzerland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 90 min, Indonesian Pro: Orlow Seunke, Rudy Tjio Pro Comp: ECCO Films

Indonesia, Motel Films BV Sc: Rayya Makarim Cam: Claire Pijman Ed: Orlow Seunke Ad: Budi Riyanto Sound: Handi Ilfat Mu: Thoersi Argeswara With: Didi Petet, Iqbal S. Manurung

Jermal

Print/Sales: ECCO

Films Indonesia

Ravi L. Bharwani, Rayya Makarim

A jermal is a wooden fishing platform that is built in the sea. In this case, some way off the coast. That is important to know, because the whole film is set on the jermal. It’s like a world in itself, but also like a ship on a long journey, or maybe even a prison. Events on the platform are told from the perspective of the 12-yearold boy Jaya. His father is the large and ungainly Johar, the boss of the platform, who wants nothing to do with him, not even in fact recognising him as his son. Jaya has to carry on doing the same slave labour as the other boys on the platform. The boys are a hardened group with a pecking order based on violence, in which Jaya is initially not tolerated. The boy is however cleverer and better educated than the rest and, when he discovers there is a need for his writing, he wins a place for himself. The true prisoner in the end turns out to be the boss Johar, who can no longer go ashore because of his shady past. When it finally gets through to him that he really has a child, he wants to go ashore anyway. The film is soundly made with a fairly large Dutch contribution behind the camera. That is not immediately visible in front of the camera, because the film looks more Indonesian than most Indonesian films do. (GjZ)

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Ravi L. BHARWANI graduated from the Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ) in 1990. He was later involved in a number of commercials, documentaries, short films and television productions, some of them in cooperation with the well-known producer Garin Nugroho. His début feature The R ainmaker travelled to numerous film festivals and received the Asia New Talent Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2005. Jermal is his second feature. Rayya MAKARIM (1974, USA) has been a script writer since 1998. Her script for Jermal was awarded the Locarno International Film Festival’s top award, a production grant, in 2006. Makarim has worked as a film curator and organised discussions and screenings of world cinema and banned films. Films: (Ravi L. Bharwani) Impian kemarau/The Rainmaker (2004), Jermal (2008, co-dir) Films: (Rayya Makarim) Jermal (2008, co-dir)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:41

Bright Future

Mexico, 2008 colour, video, 66 min, Spanish Pro: Miguel Calderón,

Agustina Chiarino Pro Comp: El alma de la fiesta Sc: Miguel Calderón Cam: Miguel Calderón,

Mauricio Katz Ed: Miguel Calderón, Agustina Chiarino, Fernando Epstein, Adrián Pauluk Ad: María José Secco Sound: Pedro González With: Emma Bardor Print: Control Z Films Sales: El alma de la fiesta

La discipula del velocimetro The Disciple of Speed Miguel Calderón

Miguel CALDERÓN (1971, Mexico) is based in Mexico City. He has made installations, paintings - which can be seen in the film The Royal Tenenbaums - films and soaps. He exhibits worldwide. The Disciple of Speed is his feature début. Films: La discipula del velocimetro/The Disciple of Speed (2008)

Video and installation artist Miguel Calderón shows in this biographical documentary about the 50-year-old Mexican multimillionaire Emma Bardor how reality can far surpass fiction in improbability - and that time and again. Basically his film is made up of the video research for a full-length film. The way Emma garnered her fortune remains unclear and unimportant. However the way in which that money makes it possible for her to go to the limit in her extreme hobbies and activities becomes overwhelmingly clear. The eccentric millionaire, mother of a strange adolescent son, has a black belt in karate, is a stuntwoman and artiste and claims to have paranormal gifts. Calderón follows her during races, film recordings, paragnostic performances and dinners with friends, but is - rightly - just as interested in the thoughts of the 25 bodyguards and her son’s gun collection. The woman is entirely convinced of herself and has no trouble linking together different worlds. But Calderón, who wields the camera, increasingly becomes the frustrated protagonist in his own failed project. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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12-01-2009 10:09:41

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Greece, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 116 min, Russian/Greek/English Pro: Anastas Charalampidis Pro Comp: Africa Films Sc: Anastas Charalampidis Cam: Anastas Charalampidis Ed: Anastas Charalampidis Ad: Anastas Charalampidis Sound: Panos Tzelekis Mu: Anastas Charalampidis Print: The Greek Film Centre Sales: Africa Films

Ecce Momo! Anastas Charalampidis

Anastas CHARALAMPIDIS (1975, USSR) attended film courses at the VGIK, the Film School in Moscow. He directed three short films in Russia and in Greece. He was invited for the Résidence-program of the Cannes Film Festival in 2002. Ecce Momo! is his feature début. Films: N City Resident (1995, short), Don’t Miss the Killer (1999, short), Strawberry Fields and Beyond (2002, short), Ecce Momo! (2008)

After a failed attempt at suicide, Morris Moshe (Momo) was clinically dead for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. When he suddenly regained consciousness his first words were: ‘Why Africa? Because it’s neither South nor West. Nor North nor East... It’s above the Earth.’ What did Momo mean? And where was he all that time? Anastas Charalampidis’s first feature-length film was shot in St. Petersburg, Athens, Vienna, Prague, and so forth. One of his biggest influences was James Joyce’s Ulysses, which inspired him to think in nonformal images. ‘Lomotion’ (Lomography + motion), or taking pictures in non-organised conditions and spontaneously improvising along with whatever happens in reality, was the inspiration for his visual approach. Other sources of inspiration were the Impressionists. Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer was the final trigger for the film. With its strong editing, a voice-over with a carefully written literary text and inventive use of music, the film is an original work that is hard to classify in any particular genre. It is definitely experimental and innovative and most importantly - a fascinating testimony that keeps its audiences hypnotized until the very end. (LC)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:41

Bright Future

France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 85 min, French Pro: Gregoire Debailly,

Michel Reihlac Pro Comp: Lazennec Production

Associés, Arte France Cinéma Sc: Samuel Collardey, Catherine Paille Cam: Samuel Collardey, Charles Wilhelem Ed: Julien Lacheray Sound: Vincent Verdoux, Julien Roig Mu: Vincent Girault With: Mathieu Bulle, Paul Barbier Print/Sales: Lazennec

Production Associés www.lapprenti-lefilm.com

L’apprenti The Apprentice Samuel Collardey

Just as in his short film Du soleil en hiver (2005), director and farmer’s son Samuel Collardey returns to his roots in his feature début L’apprenti. He sketches a sympathetic picture of the farmer Paul, who helps his daughter with her homework and also has a work placement student he tries to help and guide in a relaxed way. According to the director, the film was partly inspired by Le vieil homme et l’enfant (Claude Berri, 1967), in which a father-son relationship develops between a boy in hiding and a farmer who’s a collaborator. A similar relationship also develops in L’apprenti between the pupil and the unconventional farmer. A farming life is harsh, as is proven by the slaughter of a pig in the first five minutes of the film. When Mathieu, a student from agricultural college, rummages in the sow’s intestines with his hands, he comments that it’s nice and warm. The things that Mathieu learnt at school do not apply on Paul’s farm. He does not regard his animals as products and thinks he shouldn’t have to work all day. Slowly Mathieu loosens up and learns to enjoy the rhythm of the seasons. The gap between him and his divorced parents, who don’t understand his choice of study, continues to exist, however.

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After training at an audiovisual institute, Samuel COLLARDEY (1975, France) started working at a regional TV station. In 2001 he was accepted at the film school La Fémis in Paris. His graduation film Du soleil en hiver (2005) was awarded at several festivals. With his feature début The A pprentice he was among the winners in Venice in 2008. Films: Du soleil en hiver (2005, short), L’apprenti/The Apprentice (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:42

Bright Future

Italy, 2008 colour, 35mm, 75 min, Italian Pro: Matteo Garrone Pro Comp: Archimede s.r.l. Sc: Gianni Di Gregorio,

Simone Riccardini Cam: Gian Enrico Bianchi Ed: Marco Spoletini Ad: Daniele Cascella Sound: Filippo Porcari Mu: Ratchev & Carratello With: Gianni Di Gregorio,

Valeria De Franciscis, Marina Cacciotto, Maria Calì Sales: Fandango

Portobello Sales Distr. NL: Cinemien

Pranzo di Ferragosto Mid-August Lunch Gianni Di Gregorio

Gianni DI GREGORIO (1949, Italy) works mainly as scriptwriter. He has written, for example, the script of Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008) and of his own film Mid -August Lunch, which also marks his directorial début. Films: Pranzo di Ferragosto/ Mid-August Lunch (2008)

Giovanni is fifty and the only child of his mother, a widow with whom he lives in an apartment in Rome. It’s mid-August and hot in the city. His mother has a fairly demanding nature and so Giovanni spends as much time in the local bar as in his apartment, where he does a lot of the household chores. Ferragosto, the traditional free weekend in Italy (Assumption) is coming up and Giovanni receives a visit from his landlord: Can he look after the landlord’s mother for two days? In view of Giovanni’s rent arrears, it’s a request he cannot refuse. A little later he receives a visit from his family doctor with virtually the same question. It’s then up to Giovanni to organise a good lunch on a holiday... Gianni di Gregorio, partly responsible for the screenplay of Gomorra (see elsewhere in the programme), wrote and directed with verve this appealing, heart warming feature début, Mid -August Lunch, in which he also plays the leading role of Giovanni. The construction of the story, the interaction of the old ladies, the refinements of language use and eating habits, yet also all kinds of other small details together yield a minor masterpiece that was a kind of surprise hit at the recent Venice film Festival. The peculiarities and charms of the old ladies are especially beautifully portrayed. (EH)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:42

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 93 min, English/French/Spanish Pro: Soledad Gatti-

Pascual, Peter Ettedgui Pro Comp: The Bureau

Unmade Beds Alexis Dos Santos

After Glue, his feature début set in Patagonia (selected in 2006 for the Tiger Award Competition), the Argentine Alexis Dos Santos again presents an energetic, offbeat film, situated this time in the lively squatting and band scene of London’s East End. Just how well Dos Santos knows this subculture is partly apparent from the small cameo he himself plays. The story meanders around two foreigners in their twenties who are in search of themselves and the future. At first they are just looking for a comforting safe haven - in the form of a squat, a sofa in a bed-sit, a large bed. The Belgian Vera (rising star Deborah François) tries to heal her broken heart by entering a relationship - under very strict conditions - with a foreigner, played by the Dutch actor Michiel Huisman. The Spanish Axl (the talented Fernando Tielve), a kid from Madrid, still naive in a sexual sense, hangs round in London looking for his father, whom he hasn’t seen for years. He thinks he recognises him as an estate agent he approaches for a rented flat. Unmade Beds is shot with the typically poetic realism and the dreamy visual flair that already characterised the award-winning Glue. Dos Santos’ charming second film is more complex and mature, but just as beautifully contrary. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Film Company Sc: Alexis Dos Santos Cam: Jakob Ihre Ed: Olivier Bugge Coutte Ad: Kristian Milsted Sound: Tim Barker With: Deborah Francois, Fernando Tielve, Michiel Huisman, Iddo Goldberg, Richard Lintern Print/Sales: Protagonist Pictures

Alexis DOS SANTOS (1974, Argentina) is a director, scriptwriter, editor and producer. He studied in Buenos Aires and Barcelona before relocating to London in 1998, where he attended the National Film and Television School. His first film Glue was showered with awards, including the MovieSquad Award at the IFFR in 2007. Unmade Beds is his second feature. Films: Meteoritos (1997, short), Watching Planes (short), Axolotll (short), Snapshots (short), Sand (short), Glue (2006), Unmade Beds (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:42

Bright Future

France/Brazil, 2008 colour, 35mm, 90 min, Portuguese Pro: Muriel Meynard Pro Comp: Ex Nihilo/ Agat Films Cam: Jean-Pierre Duret,

Andréa Santana Ed: Catherine Rascon Sound: Roman Dymny Mu: Martin Wheeler With: Cocada Joselito da Silva, Nego Jailson Ferreira, Zé Cocada Aristides da Silva, Mineiro Ismael Ferreira Castro Sales: UMedia Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

Puisque nous sommes nés Because We Were Born Jean-Pierre Duret, Andréa Santana

In this cross between feature and documentary (rather similar to Entre les murs) we follow two very poor kids: Cocada (13) who sleeps in an old truck after his father was murdered and Nego (14) who lives in a slum district with his (half-) brothers and sisters. They hang around a large filling station on a major road and earn a little extra with odd jobs. They hustle and profit from the goodness or carelessness of those passing. Both have dreams about a world elsewhere, dreams that may one day come true thanks to a good-hearted trucker and a religious fanatic. The two boys philosophise about their future at the filling station, which for both of them is a symbol for ‘elsewhere’. Jean-Pierre Duret and Andréa Santana previously made Dreaming of São Paulo, a film that was also about dreams. This time it’s not about adults, but about the dreams of two children on the brink of puberty and adolescence. The directors got as close as they could to the children. In this way, they tell a universal story with characters who stay close, and without them judging. That is left to the viewer.

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Jean-Pierre DURET (1953, France) works mainly as a sound engineer for films by famous French directors. He has directed one short film on his own and three feature-length documentaries with Andréa SANTANA. Films: (Jean-Pierre Duret)Les jours de la lune (1991, short), Romances de terre et d’eau (2002, doc, co-dir), Le rêve de São Paulo/Dreaming of São Paulo (2005, doc, co-dir), Puisque nous sommes nés/ Because We Were Born (2008, doc, co-dir) Films: (Andréa Santana) Romances de terre et d’eau (2002, doc, co-dir), Le rêve de São Paulo/Dreaming of São Paulo (2005, doc, co-dir), Puisque nous sommes nés/ Because We Were Born (2008, doc, co-dir)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:43

Bright Future

France/Luxembourg/ Belgium, 2008 colour, 35mm, 93 min, French Pro: Marc Fiszman, Jani

Thiltges, Patrick Quinet, Arlette Zylberberg Pro Comp: Gaumont, Samsa Film, Artemis Productions, RTBF Sc: Frédéric Bénudis, Mabrouk El Mechri, Christophe Turpin Cam: Pierre-Yves Bastard Ed: Kako Kelber Ad: André Fonsny Sound: Philippe Kohn Mu: Gast Waltzing With: Jean-Claude Van Damme, François Damiens, Zinedine Soualem, Karim Belkhadra, JeanFrançois Wolff, Anne Paulicevich Sales: Gaumont Distr. NL: Dutch FilmWorks http://www.jcvd-lefilm.com

J.C.V.D. JCVD Mabrouk El Mechri

Mabrouk EL MECHRI (1976, France) is a writer, director and actor of Algerian origin. He wrote and directed several short films, after which his feature début Virgil (2005) was released. With J.C.V.D. he garnered international acclaim.

The most popular Belgian actor of all time plays himself - or at least someone who looks suspiciously like him - in this fiction film about the troubled personal life of a public hero. Jean-Claude Van Damme, aka The Muscles from Brussels, has just returned to his city of birth and wants to transfer money at a local post office when he is kidnapped during a bank raid. In no time the police and media make him the main suspect and the result is an international media hype. Fans who hope for a visual resumé of Van Damme’s work are served in the opening scene. But El Mechri succeeds in transforming the mixture of action film, satire, psychological drama and pastiche in a gripping way into an existential reflection on the vulnerability of stardom. The wonderful monologue with which Van Damme turns to the viewer is almost too beautiful to be true and J.C.V.D. proves himself to be an excellent actor on the spot. Alongside the often humorous asides and plot inventions, El Mechri manages to create a surprising emotional undertone in his second feature - a worldwide surprise hit. Painful private issues are also tackled, such as losing custody of his daughter, an empty bank account and his competition with Steven Seagal. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Films: Mounir et Anita (1998, short), Génération cutter (2000, short), Concours de circonstance (2003, short), Virgil (2005), Stand Up (2006), J.C.V.D./JCVD (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:43

Bright Future

France/Morocco, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 84 min, French/Arabic Pro: Jacques Kirsner,

Jean-David Lefebvre Pro Comp: Jem Productions,

Irene Productions Sc: Souad El-Bouhati Cam: Florian Bouchet, Olivier Chambon Ed: Josiane Zardoya, Caroline Dulac Ad: Jimmy Vansteenkiste Sound: Eric Rophé, Frédéric Bobilier Mu: Patrice Gomis With: Hafsia Herzi, Farida Khelfa, Maher Kamoun, Aymen Saidi Print/Sales: Wide Management

Française

Souad EL-BOUHATI (1962, Morocco) started her career as a social worker. She started working in film as a script assistant. She graduated in film directing from the Sorbonne in Paris and worked for the production company Movimento. Her début short was Salam (1999). Française is her first feature film.

Souad El-Bouhati

Souad El-Bouhati (1962) started her career as a social worker. She graduated in film directing at the Sorbonne in Paris and made her début in 1999 with the short film Salam. In Française, her first feature, El-Bouhati sketches a beautiful picture of a girl who is torn between two worlds. In the first minutes, we see a girl of Moroccan origins in France. Then the film moves to Morocco, eight years later. El-Bouhati avoids all the clichés of uprooted characters by showing Morocco as a wealthy country where the protagonists have a good and comfortable life. That makes the conflict for Sophia, a role by the prize-winning actress Hafsia Herzi (La graine et le mulet) even more understandable. The rebellious teenager Sophia feels like a Française, not a Moroccan girl. When her father loses his job, the family moves from one day to the next to Morocco. Eight years later, Sophia is a young woman who dreams of returning to her country, France. She works in her father’s olive orchard. At school she’s a fanatical student. In Morocco, however, its traditional for women to marry after graduation. Sophia is still rebellious and fights the rigid Moroccan social rules and customs. The conflict gets out of hand, especially with her mother (a beautiful role by the former photo model Farida Khelfa).

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Films: Salam (1999, short), Française (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:43

Bright Future

Mexico/France/USA, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 90 min, Spanish/English Pro: Jaime Romandía, Amat

Escalante, Carlos Reygadas Pro Comp: Mantarraya

Los bastardos The Bastards Amat Escalante

After Sangre (2005), supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, The Bastards is the second feature by Amat Escalante. The young Spanish-Mexican director has remained faithful to his stylistic principles. He has again engaged an amateur cast, as well as his Mexican colleague Carlos Reygadas, with whom he worked on Battle in Heaven (2005). Escalante now aims his securely observing camera at two Mexican brothers, Fausto and Jesus, who live in Los Angeles as illegal day labourers. The Bastards describes 24 hours in their lives. A day that starts like all others: finding work - whatever work - is the most important issue. Forcefully and in matter-of-fact way, but also with humour, The Bastards shows the vulnerability of their existence. Alongside the continuous threat of deportation, we see unreliable employers who want to haggle about everything and drunken racists in the park where they seek rest. In the evening, the brothers break into an American woman’s house whose husband has hired them to kill her. Some similarities with Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997) then emerge. What are the brothers going to do with the defenceless woman, who herself has several surprising problems? It’s not primarily about the role of the viewer, but about the confusion, the ambivalence and the banality of life and the violence that eventually - you have been warned still comes as a surprise. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Producciones, Tres Tunas, NoDream Cinema Sc: Amat Escalante, Martín Escalante Cam: Matt Uhry Ed: Ayhan Ergürsel, Amat Escalante Ad: Gabriel Abraham Sound: Raúl Locatelli With: Jesús Moisés Rodríguez, Rubén Sosa, Nina Zavarin, Kenny Johnston Print/Sales: Le Pacte

Amat ESCALANTE (1979, Spain) has lived much of his life in Guanajuato, Mexico. He studied editing and sound in Barcelona and documentary directing in Cuba. His shorts were honoured with several awards. Escalante was assistant director to Carlos Reygadas during the shooting of Battle in Heaven (2005). The Bastards is his second feature film. Films: Modesta (2001, short), Alone at Last (2001, short), Amarrados (2002, short), Sangre (2005), Los bastardos/The Bastards (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:44

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Denmark, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 75 min, Danish Pro: Meta Foldager, Peter

Aalbaek Jensen Pro Comp: Zentropa

Entertainments Sc: Heidi Maria Faisst Cam: Manuel Alberto Claro Ed: Cathrine Ambus Ad: Charlotte Bech Sound: Jonas Langkilde, Morten Wille, Morten Groth Mu: Flemming Nordkrog With: Lærke Winther, Solbjørg Højfeldt, Mads Riisom Print/Sales: TrustNordisk

Velsignelsen The Blessing Heidi Maria Faisst

The Danish debutant Heidi Maria Faisst makes her film looks so simple with the aid of the amazing leading lady Lærke Winther, but it is anything but. She tackles a bone fide medical problem, and turns it into a universal human drama. More important: she turns it into film. Subtly using all the means at her disposal, from the colour palette to the convincing details in the young mother’s life, the viewer is sucked into the dangerous mental state of the protagonist. The title refers to the general idea that young motherhood should be one of the most beautiful things in a woman’s life. That is how Katrine’s family think about it, but what if she thinks differently? Katrine fails to get an emotional bond with her baby, her body hurts and she feels strange. When her boyfriend Andreas has to go to Amsterdam for his work, she finds out that her new role as mother does not suit her, almost at the cost of her baby. When her mother, with whom she has a difficult relationship, comes to her and the baby’s aid, it turns out to be difficult for both of them. The Blessing is the first feature by Faisst, who previously impressed with her short films. Based on her own screenplay, she shows psychological decline during postnatal depression and the impossibility of two people getting closer together even if, or precisely because, they are also mother and daughter. (GT)

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Heidi Maria FAISST (1972, Denmark) attended courses in direction at the National Film School of Denmark. Her graduation film The Pact was selected for Cinéfondation in Cannes. After that she directed two shorts Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Frederikke, for which she also wrote the scripts. The Blessing is her feature début. Films: The Pact (2003, short), Liv/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (2006, short), Frederikke (2008, short), Velsignelsen/The Blessing (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:44

Bright Future

France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 85 min, French Pro: Virginie Bonneau,

Benoit Saison Pro Comp: Ostinato Production Sc: Philippe Fernandez Cam: Fred Mousson Ed: Philippe Fernandez Sound: Régis Ramadou Mu: Philippe Fernandez With: Bernard Blancan, Michel

Théboeuf, Anatole Vialard, Corentin Chapa, Chantal Quillec, Pierre Coudeneau, Roger-Pierre Bonneau, Carine Bouquillon Print/Sales: Ostinato Production

Léger tremblement du paysage A Faint Trembling of the Landscape Philippe Fernandez A village, somewhere in France in the 1960s, on the eve of the space age. An artist paints cloudy skies. A gym teacher tests the influence of tyre pressure on the performance of his rally car. Two children build a rocket. A lab technician investigates something. A mechanic is looking for extraterrestrial life. In the meantime, they think about the heavens. And then the earth shakes slightly. The gym teacher discovers the cause in his Ford Anglia, in a hilarious way. Life goes on, but nothing is the same. A Faint Trembling of the Landscape is an eccentric film that, in its tone, meshes well with the short film Discovering the World (2002) by the same maker. In this film, that can be summarised in a few words, Philippe Fernandez confirms the idiosyncrasy of his work. With laid-back humour, he shows his universe as a confusing fable, with a profundity that gives the viewer no handhold at all. At the same time, he stimulates with his eye for décors and dress and takes time to work out details and philosophise about the evolution of man, his destiny and his place in the universe.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Philippe FERNANDEZ (1958, France) has lived and worked in Paris and Bordeaux. Since 1990 he teaches video art and contemporary art history at Bordeaux University. He is not only occupied with film, but also with other art disciplines. A Faint Trembling of the Landscape premièred in Cannes in 2008. Films: Conte philosophique - La Caverne/Philosophical Tale - The Tavern (1998), Réflexion/Reflection (1999), Connaissance du monde - Drame psychologique/Discovering the World - A Psychological Drama (2002), Perspectives atmosphériques/Atmospheric Perspectives (2008), Léger tremblement du paysage/A Faint Trembling of the Landscape (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:44

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Portugal, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 90 min, Portuguese Pro: Maria Joao Mayer Pro Comp: Filmes Do Tejo Sc: Ivo M. Ferreira Cam: Susana Gomes Ed: Sandro Aguilar Ad: Nuno Melo Sound: Pedro Melo Mu: António Pedro Vasques With: Gonçalo Waddington,

Joana Seixas Print/Sales: Filmes Do Tejo

Ivo M. FERREIRA (1975, Portugal) has acted in theatrical, cinematic and television productions since the age of five. He enrolled at a young age in the London International Film School and the University of Budapest. He has worked as a director since 1997.

Águas mil April Showers Ivo M. Ferreira

Just before the commemoration of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, the young theatre maker Pedro - whose play about events just won’t get off the ground - makes an interesting discovery. While clearing his grandmother’s house after she’s moved to a home, he discovers something that could serve throw some light on his father’s disappearance soon after the revolution. That would explain why some former revolutionaries curse his grandmother. In the caravan in which the family used to go on holiday to Spain, Pedro finds two revolvers. He runs out on his pregnant girlfriend and other obligations and hitches the caravan up to his car. The journey takes him to Spain, via a man who probably knows more. He tells him that Pedro’s father and a certain Chico stayed in Spain. One of the two was killed by the other. Pedro’s idiosyncratic family travels after him knowing that they will have to face up to the past . ‘Em Abril, aguas mil,’ is the Portuguese proverb. On 25 April 1974, it poured with rain during the Carnation Revolution. Pouring rain also starts the directing début by Ivo Ferreira, that perversely questions an idealised heroic Portuguese past. Shot inventively and painstakingly edited, A pril Showers unravels an event that emerged from ideals that ran riot - and are universal. (GT)

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Films: O homem da bicicleta (1997, short), O que foi? (1999, short), Angola em cena (2002, doc), Contadores do príncipe (2002, doc), Em volta (2002), À procura de Sabino (2003, doc), Salto em barreira (2004, short), Águas mil/April Showers (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:44

Bright Future

France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 190 min, French/German Pro: Jean-Charles Fitoussi,

Emmanuel Chaumet Pro Comp: Aura été

production, Ecce Films Sc: Jean-Charles Fitoussi Cam: Sébastien Buchmann Ed: Catherine Krassovsky, Jean-Charles Fitoussi, Junko Watanabe Ad: Jean-Charles Fitoussi, Emmanuel Chaumet Sound: Benjamin Bober & Erwan Kerzanet Mu: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart With: Alix Derouin, Frédéric Bonpart, Hélène Boons, Laurent Talon

Je ne suis pas morte I Did Not Die Jean-Charles Fitoussi

Alix is a woman of 27 looking for the only thing she is incapable of: love. After a series of boyfriends who pass her on to each other, she finds herself in the hands of the pimp Raphaël, who works in Rome and Saint-Ouen. He sells her to a Pole. This man rapes her and leaves her for dead. She’s found by Frédéric, whose love has been repeatedly rejected after the breakup with his wife, and Hélène, a young woman who is taking care of her comatose mother. Alix and Frédéric have a sort of relationship and form two opposite poles in the concept of love, about which the film philosophises at length. Despite this charged subject, the film also maintains a light tone. I Did Not Die, a three-hour film, is made up of three parts: Par les beaux soirs d’été, followed by Le chant des séparés and ending with Par des chemins étranges. There is a surfeit of anecdotes and stories within stories are repeatedly told in an unconventional way. The imagination is unbounded, and that can occasionally seem too ambitious and repetitive but in any case it’s always surprising. You could say that JeanCharles Fitousse has shaped his ars poetica.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Print: Ecce Films Sales: Aura été production

Jean-Charles FITOUSSI (1970, France) is educated in architecture, science and philosophy. He worked as an assistant to French film makers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. His first feature Les jours où je n’existe pas (2002) won various prizes at the Entrevues Festival in Belfort and at the Torino Film Festival. I Did Not Die (2008) is the second feature film he directed, wrote and produced. Films: Aura été (1994, short), D’ici lá (1997, short), Un de quatorze (1998, short doc), Sicilia! Si gira (2001, doc), Les jours où je n’ existe pas (2003), Le dieu Saturne (2004, short), Nocturnes pour le roi de Rome/ Nocturnes for the King of Rome (2005), Bienvenue dans l’ éternité (2007), Je ne suis pas morte/I Did Not Die (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:45

Bright Future

Russia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 85 min, Russian Pro: Igor Tolstunov Pro Comp: Igor Tolstunov’s

Film Production Company Sc: Alexander Rodionov, Yuri Klavdiev Cam: Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev Ed: Julia Batalova, Ivan Lebedev Ad: Denis Shibanov Sound: Sergey Ovcharenko With: Polina Philonenko, Agnia Kuznetsova, Olga Shuvalova Print/Sales: Rezo

Vse umrut a ja ostanus Everybody Dies but Me Valeria Gaïa Germanica

By the age of 24, Valeria Gaïa Germanica, a prodigy film maker, had already directed five documentaries and one feature film, and had been invited to Cannes twice - in 2006 she represented Russia with her documentary short Girls, and in 2008 she participated in the Critics’ Weeks with her début feature Everybody Dies but Me. The film is a ‘coming of age’ story based on her earlier documentary work. Gaïa Germanica uses direct language and reportage imagery of cinema verité to tell the story of three teenage girls preparing for their first school disco. We observe the 15-year-olds as they go through all the necessary debutante’s traumas: first kiss, first bottle of wine, first sexual encounter, first betrayal…. The director tells her story with such passion that we find ourselves drawn into the world of the three Muscovite beauties and experience their drama ‘here and now’. ‘I have very little imagination, so I film what I experience in real life,’ says Valeria Gaïa Germanica. The script is autobiographical in part, and each of the three young actresses re-enacts episodes from their teenage past. This candid and direct strategy seems to do the trick. The voice of Gaïa Germanica is distinctly fresh and powerful, and her directorial future promises to be bright. (MB)

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Valeria GAÏA GERMANICA (1984, Russia) graduated from the film and television school Internews in 2005. She has directed one feature-length and several short documentaries. Everybody Dies but Me is her feature début. Films: Sestri/Sisters (2005, short doc), Devochki/Girls (2005, short doc), Malchiki/Boys (2006, short doc), Den rozhdenia Infanti/Infanta’s Birthday (2007, doc), Vse umrut a ja ostanus/ Everybody Dies but Me (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:45

Bright Future

Portugal/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 150 min, Portuguese/French Pro: Luis Urbano,

Thomas Ordonneau Pro Comp: O Som e a

Fúria, Shellac Sud Sc: Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo, Telmo Churro Cam: Rui Poças Ed: Telmo Churro, Miguel Gomes Ad: Bruno Duarte Sound: Vasco Pimentel With: Sónia Bandeira, Fábio Oliveira, Joaquim Carvalho Print/Sales: O Som e a Fúria

Aquele querido mês de agosto Our Beloved Month of August Miguel Gomes If you could say of Miguel Gomes’ inimitable feature début The Face You Deserve (2004) that it seemed to come from a distant planet, then Our Beloved Month of August - one of the real discoveries of the last year in film - is a UFO that landed in the Portuguese countryside. There, August is the time of holidays and village feasts. Emigrants and city dwellers return to their birthplace. Our Beloved Month of August at first looks like a documentary about a film that doesn’t get made. The shots of a loafing crew taking part in the summer festivals, however, slowly changes to something else: the filming of the thick script about which the director Miguel Gomes is continually quarrelling with his producer. In that script, we follow 15-year-old Tania, the singer in her father’s band, and her amorous vicissitudes with her cousin. Against the background of Portuguese rural life with its Portuguese tear-jerkers, the relationship between Tania and her father turns out to be less than pure. Miguel Gomes, of whom the festival has shown both his feature début and several short films, realised an idiosyncratic, often humorous film with documentary scenes, interviews and pure fiction. Gomes plays with the question of where fiction starts and lies stop, and in doing so makes use of the real difficulties faced in shooting his film. Or was that also all made up? (GT)

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Miguel GOMES (1972, Portugal) studied at the Portuguese Film School, worked as film critic and made several award-winning short films. His début feature The Face You Deserve (2004) has been shown in Rotterdam, just as some of his shorts. Our Beloved Month of August is his second feature. Films: Entretanto/Meanwhile (1999, short), Inventário de Natal/A Christmas Inventory (2001, short), 31/Thirty-one Means Trouble (2002, short), Kalkitos (2002, short), A Pro Evolution Soccer’s One-minute Dance After a Golden Goal in the Master League (2003, short), A cara que mereces/The Face You Deserve (2004), Cântico das criaturas/Canticle of all Creatures (2006), Aquele querido mês de agosto/Our Beloved Month of August (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:45

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

China, 2008 colour, video, 74 min, Mandarin Pro: Yu Wang Pro Comp: Ray Production LTD Sc: He Jia Cam: He Jia Ed: He Jia Ad: Wang Yu Sound: Yin Fei Long With: Wang Xiang-Jie Print/Sales: Ray Production LTD

none

HE Jia (China), A.K.A. WANG Haolin, graduated from the Journalism Department of University of Sunderland. In England he made several short student films and documentaries. After he came back to China, he worked for Chinese Television. He formed his own studio Da Di with his friends in 2006. The Land is the first film made by his studio.

Dadi The Land He Jia

Films: Dadi/The Land (2008)

In this observing début by the young Chinese photographer and director He Jia (his original, ethnic name; he is also known under the name Wang Haolin ), an elderly man from the city is followed as he goes to a Catholic mountain village in a remote area of the country. He goes there to show the local people photographs. The photographs were taken three years before by his son. We find out next to nothing about the motives of the photographer. With a steady hand, the director films how the man goes round the houses, accompanied by one or other of the villagers in turn, to confront people with their recorded past, and hence also with change. Their reactions are as modest as they are charming and animated and The Land grows, as long as the viewer abandons expectations about dramatic plot developments, into a beautiful portrait of country life. The expression ‘less is more’ certainly applies to this mature and uncompromisingly humanist document, a personal study of small-scale emotion in an economically backward area. Only after a village feast sketches a pleasant overall picture of this apparently uncomplicated community at the end of the film, we get to see the photos he has shown. Photos that without the prior images would probably have led to clichéd reactions, but now no longer offer that opportunity. Profundity went on ahead. (GT)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:46

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Netherlands, 2009 colour, 35mm, 80 min, Dutch Pro: Rob Vermeulen Pro Comp: Holland

Harbour Productions Sc: Noud Heerkens, Jacqueline Epskamp Cam: Richard van Oosterhout Ed: Merel Notten Ad: Diana van de Vossenberg Sound: Steven van Dijk Mu: Boris Debackere With: Johanna ter Steege Sales: Holland Harbour

Productions Distr. NL: Filmmuseum www.hollandharbour.nl

Het laatste gesprek Last Conversation Noud Heerkens

Noud Heerkens (1954) has for years played an important role in the Dutch film world - as a teacher at several art academies, as a producer and compiler of film programmes and festivals, but above all as a maker of videos, installations, dance films and short experimental films, such as Erasmus Spitzen/Crossing a Bridge on Points, which can be seen as an ode to Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge. In 2008, he shot his first full-length feature, Last Conversation. Heerkens posed an enormous challenge for his protagonist Johanna ter Steege and his crew: the whole film was shot in one long take. Cameraman Richard Oosterhout mounted 25 fixed cameras on the car from which the career woman Anna makes one last phone call to her lover. He had ended their extramarital affair a few days before. Anna, a self-assured woman with a good job, is not used to being a victim of other people’s decisions. During the long, dramatic car ride she fiercely resists her feelings of humiliation, loss and sorrow.Unlike previous one-take feature films that have been realised since the advert of digital video, from Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2003) to the Brazilian Still Orangutans (2007), Heerkens concentrates on one person and one character. As a result, the emphasis is on concentration. This makes the achievement of all those involved even more impressive. (GT)

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Noud HEERKENS (1954, Netherlands) teaches at several art academies and universities in The Netherlands. He has made a large number of videos, installations and short experimental films, but also dance films and a documentary as part of the dance show Sub Rosa. Films: Reaction in A (1979, short), Limited Blue (1984, short), Birth (1994, short), Man in Motion (1995, short), Four Seasons (1996, short), Erasmus Spitzen/Crossing a Bridge on Points (1998, short), Privé Story (2000, short), Huis Sonneveld/ House of Sonneveld (2001, short doc), Sub Rosa (2003, doc), Run Motherfucker Run (2004, instal), Het laatste gesprek/Last Conversation (2009)

12-01-2009 10:09:46

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Iran, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 83 min, Farsi Pro Comp: Fadak Film,

Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) Sc: Mohammad Reza Gohari Cam: Farshad Mohammadi Ed: Sepideh Abdolvahab Mu: Ali Samadpour With: Elnaz Shakerdoost, Younes Ghazali, Reza Mokhtari, Malek Seraj Print/Sales: Documentary

and Experimental Film Center (DEFC)

Dar miane abrha Among the Clouds Rouhollah Hejazi

Rouhollah HEJAZI (1979, Iran) directed and produced a number of short films. His short film The Moon Faced was honoured at the Minsk International Film Festival in Belarus in 2006. A mong the Clouds (2008) is his début feature. Films: The Moon Faced (2006, short), Dar miane abrha/Among the Clouds (2008)

Among the Clouds is a first feature film by the Iranian director Rouhollah Hejazi that was shown and awarded at the Fajr Film Festival in Teheran in 2008. The story takes place at an Iranian-Iraqi border and presents an unforgettable picture of this far-away world. Malek is a teenage boy who earns extra money carrying luggage for tourists and religious pilgrims at the Iran-Iraq check-point. One day he spots the beautiful young Iraqi woman Noura, who earns her living helping Arab pilgrims from Iraq cross the border and find their way around in the nearest Iranian city. Malek cannot keep his eyes off Noura and regularly looks for ways of catching a glimpse of this beauty. He does this while he is working, trying to keep his feelings private. Noura takes advantage of Malek’s naivety and his emotions and asks him for help: Can he carry some bags for her clients? Malek does not hesitate. But this is only the beginning of Noura’s plans. The boy embarks upon the dangerous activity of smuggling things (and people), which could get him into big trouble. When Noura disappears, he decides to go search for her in Iraq, in the town closest to the border. Dangerous situations and sobering discoveries follow. (LC)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:46

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 104 min, English Pro: David Hughes Pro Comp: Red Union Films Sc: Kevin Sampson,

based on his novel Cam: Curtes Lee Mitchell Ed: Mark Elliott Ad: Mark Tanner Sound: Richard Davey Mu: David A. Hughes With: Liam Boyle, Nicky

Bell, Stephen Graham Print: Optimum Releasing Sales: Red Union Films www.awaydaysthemovie.com

Awaydays Pat Holden

Paul Carty (Nicky Bell) is 19, good-looking, funny, clever - and bored out of his mind; he spends all his wages on clubs, records, football and gigs. It’s at a Bunnymen gig that he meets Elvis (Liam Boyle), who belongs to a notorious gang called The Pack, who dress stylishly, have androgynous wedge haircuts worn with designer clothes. Elvis is a council estate romantic, a dreamer with big plans about escaping to Berlin, New York, anywhere… And he wants Paul to come with him. He’s smitten with his new mate and plans the big journeys they’ll make together. But Paul soon also gets to know the ‘other’ Elvis - moody, fatalistic and possessive. Their individual paths start to diverge and head towards a crisis in their own lives and those of others. With Thatcher’s early premiership as a backdrop, Awaydays paints a shrill, dark-romantic portrait of a young generation which does what every young generation does, only more desperately, more fiercely so: fight, drink, listen to music, bond, watch the games, use drugs, fashion themselves. Kevin Sampson wrote the script, based on his own cult novel, and the film is a triumphant portrayal of youth culture, with much emphasis on the clothes, the language, the bonding and insecurities, great acting, and a superb post-punk soundtrack, including Echo & The Bunnymen, Magazine, Joy Division and Ultravox. (EH)

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Pat HOLDEN (1965, UK) attended Wakefield Art College. He started as a writer at London ad agencies, which earned him many awards. This led to directing commercials. He has made several short films. Ted Was Easy to Beat Up and The Golders Green Formation Leaning Team were selected for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase. In 2003 he won a Bafta Award for DIY H ard. Films: Ted Was Easy to Beat Up (short doc), The Golders Green Formation Leaning Team (1997, short), Agent 007 (1998), Lip Up Fatty (2000), DIY Hard (2002, short), The Long Weekend (2005), Awaydays (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:46

Bright Future

United Kingdom/Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 93 min, English Pro: Samm Haillay, Rachel

Robey, Helge Albers Pro Comp: Third Films Ltd.,

Better Things Duane Hopkins

After two prize-winning short films, Duane Hopkins made his début as a feature director with Better Things (previously a CineMart project in Rotterdam), with which he pursued a long British tradition of cinematographic social realism. At the same time, he gives his very own take on it. Hopkins shows three relationships of inconspicuous lovers who are all in a crisis. There’s a schoolgirl who is pestered by her jealous exboyfriend. There’s the older married couple who are still tormented by an event from the past they cannot discuss, living in a permanent state of cold war with each other. And there are the two young lovers who are in danger of succumbing to their inability to resist the seduction of hard drugs. Hopkins avoids melodramatic or politically charged class consciousness. He does not tell a story from A to Z, but zooms in on the moments that are decisive in life. With determined precision, he seeks in each of his characters the emotional price that is paid for deeds of which they have not estimated the impact in advance. The observations do not seek a classical climax, but form more of an unprejudiced ‘close study’ of mutual dependence and the lack of an individual course. And is it farfetched to compare the heroin intoxication of some of the protagonists with the languid, subtle, warmly photographed style of the film? (EH)

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Flying Moon, Wellington Films Ltd., Brocken Spectre Sc: Duane Hopkins Cam: Lol Crawley Ed: Chris Barwell Ad: Jamie Leonard Sound: Douglas MacDougall Mu: Dan Berridge With: Rachel McIntyre, Emma Cooper, Liam McIlfatrick, Betty Bunch, Frank Bench Print/Sales: Celluloid Dreams

Duane HOPKINS (1973, UK) studied painting and photography at art school. His short films have been well received in the festival circuit and won several awards. Hopkins coowns Third Films with producing partner Samm Haillay. He is currently also developing photographic and installation projects. Films: Field (2001, short), Love Me or Leave Me Alone (2003, short), Better Things (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:47

Bright Future

USA, 2008 colour, 35mm, 97 min, English Pro: Heather Rae, Chip

Hourihan, Molly Conners Pro Comp: Cohen Media

Group, Frozen River Pictures, Harwood Hunt Productions, Off Hollywood Pictures Sc: Courtney Hunt Cam: Reed Morano Ed: Kate Williams Ad: Inbal Weinberg Sound: Micah Bloomberg Mu: Peter Golub, Shahad Ismaily With: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Mark Boone Junior, Michael O’Keefe, Jay Klaitz, Bernie Littlewolf, Dylan Carusona, Michael Sky

Frozen River Courtney Hunt

When she gets up one morning just before Christmas, Ray discovers that she is a single mother. Her husband, a gambling addict and Mohican Indian, has run off with the down-payment on their new mobile home. Ray sends the children to school and says that she is not even going to go and look for her husband. But she does anyway. In the Mohican reservation, she finds his car just as it’s being stolen by the Mohican Lila Littlewolf, but she doesn’t find her husband. Ray is all on her own and a new mobile home seems impossibly distant. A strange twist of fate is that Lila, the car thief, offers a solution. Ray and Lila can smuggle illegal immigrants over the river between Canada and the United States. The loopholes in the law of the reservation are big enough for that, even though it’s not without risk. Frozen R iver is effective thanks to its grim social realism, but the power of the film is in the casting of the actress Melissa Leo, who plays a stubborn woman branded by life. When she shoots a hole in Littlewolf’s mobile home, she’s just as convincing as when she serves popcorn for breakfast. The film won the prestigious Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. (GjZ)

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Sales: Rezo Distr. NL: A-Film Distribution www.frozenriverthemovie.com

Courtney HUNT (1964, Memphis) studied film at Columbia University in New York. Her thesis film, Althea Faught (1996), was shown at international festivals and awarded several times. The screening of her second short, Frozen R iver, (2004) inspired her to develop it as a feature. Films: Althea Faught (1996, short), Frozen River (2004, short), Frozen River (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:47

Bright Future

Japan, 2008 b&w, video, 104 min, Japanese Pro: Syukichi Koizumi, Iwana

Masaki, Hiroyuki Kawaida Pro Comp: La Maison

du Butoh Blanc Sc: Iwana Masaka Cam: Pascale Marin Ed: Cedric Defert Ad: Julien Pessel Sound: Julian Ngo Trong Mu: Hirokazu Hiraishi, Bill Fairhall, Rob Whitehead, Matt Grey, Le Quan Ninh, Lionel Marchetti, Alain Guisan, Tucker Marin With: Hiroshi Sawa, Mohamed Aroussi, Valentina Miraglia, Yuri Nagaoka, Moeno Wakamatsu Print/Sales: La Maison

Shureitachi

du Butoh Blanc

Vermilion Souls Iwana Masaki

An imaginative and occasionally bad-natured clash between old and new, between Butoh theatre and sexually charged surrealism. Shot in powerful black-and-white images that evoke the mood of silent films. Designed and acted as theatre, yet still unmistakably film. Occasionally with fairground bustle, and often a beautifully arranged tranquillity. Iwana Masaki is a famous Butoh dancer and he imbues the film with his artistic vision. This very Japanese film was not shot in Japan, but in France, in Bretagne, in and around Iwana’s house. This location emphasises the kinship with the early days of surrealism. The film had a long gestation. Filming was completed in 2004, but it was only recently edited. The main thread of the film is the acceptation of death in life, an idea that is one of the foundations of Butoh theatre. The story is set in Tokyo, seven years after the end of World War Two. The world is seen through the eyes of a schoolboy. And more than that; his dreams also shape the film. The adults in the film suffer from a mysterious disease that means they can’t bear daylight. The schoolboy plays the role of voyeur. He sees things, pornographic things, that were not intended for children’s eyes. But even the pornography is theatrical and artistic. (GjZ)

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IWANA Masaki (1945, Japan) is one of the most acclaimed Butoh performers in Japan today, and one of the few in the world who still maintain the original Butoh spirit. Iwana started dancing in 1975, and in 1985 he founded the Institute of Butoh Dance in Tokyo. During the years he has written many essays and has given workshops on the topic worldwide. Films: Shureitachi/Vermilion Souls (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:47

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Sweden, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 78 min, Swedish/English Pro: Rebecka Lafrenz,

Mimmi Spång Pro Comp: Garagefilm AB Sc: Johan Jonason Cam: Simon Pramsten Ed: Helena Fredriksson,

Johan Jonason Ad: Gilles Balabaud Sound: Per Nyström Mu: Axel Bohman, Fredrik Fahlman With: Björn Andersson, Eva Fritjofson, Emil Johnsen Print/Sales: Garagefilm AB

Guidance Johan Jonason

Guidance is one of the first results of the Rookie project, intended to support young Swedish debutant film makers in realising their film plans. The charm of the film is in the detailed portrait of the lost souls who offer help and seek help in a 21st-century welfare state. Guidance is a cat and mouse game between an overweight man in his fifties and the young Carl Arendsen, who wants to establish himself as a therapist. In the opening scene, we see Carl be inspired by a confrontational workshop. The man in his fifties is Roy Blomberg, who was wrestling with a plethora of psychosomatic complaints and has been home for 18 months. The locum who replaces his general practitioner one day is convinced that Roy’s problems are between his ears. Roy’s wife happens to meet a self-assured Carl, who adopts an unconventional methodology. After a little pressure, the husband gives in to his wife and withdraws with Carl to his spartan hut in the Swedish countryside. A regime of physical exertion starts, interspersed with spiritual challenges and a strict diet. Slowly Roy becomes convinced that it’s a pointless undertaking, while his wife at home realises that her husband may have fallen into the hands of a charlatan. (GT)

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Johan JONASON (1970, Sweden) started making films during his art studies in London and Stockholm. In 2003 his short film Terrible Boy was awarded with the prestigious price ‘1 km film’ at Stockholm International Film Festival and was also nominated to the annual National Film Award Guldbagge. In 2005 the Swedish distributor Folkets Bio released a collection called Terrible, with three of Jonason’s most noticed shorts. The films have been screened worldwide, both in the art and film context. Guidance (2009) is Jonason’s feature début. Films: Cocaine (2002, short), Le Kurde (2002, short), That’s Low (2002, short), Never Leave Me (2004, short), Audition in an American Garage (2004, short), Between Curl and Snout (2004, short), News in the Archipelago (2006, short), Guidance (2009)

12-01-2009 10:09:48

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

South Korea, 2008 colour, video, 128 min, Korean Pro: Kim Gok, Kim Sun Pro Comp: Goksa Sc: Kim Gok Cam: Kwon Sang-Joon Ed: Kim Gok, Kim Sun Sound: Kwak Young-Sik Mu: Hong Chul-Ki With: Jang Liu, Park Ji-

Hwan, Oh Keun-Young Print/Sales: Goksa

KIM Gok (1978, South Korea) has made many short and several feature length films. Besides Exhausted, there is another film of Kim Gok in Rotterdam in 2009, Suicidal Variations, which he co-directed with his brother Sun.

Gogal Exhausted Kim Gok

‘Der Mensch liegt in größter Not! Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!’ The misery serenaded in the Second Symphony by Mahler, which can be heard on the digital soundtrack at the beginning of Exhausted, acquires an inevitable and uncompromising visualisation on grainy Super8 by the Korean film maker Kim Gok. A degenerate and completely marginalised man and woman, pimp and whore, culprit and victim, have to censor themselves in an almost post-apocalyptic no-man’s-land on the muddy, industrialised coast. Pile drivers and huge factory pipes destroy the earth, and people destroy themselves. Kim Gok (1978), who previously always collaborated with his twin brother Kim Sun, made radical political work that tended towards the absurd, such as the feature Geolobotomy (2006). In his first solo project, he goes far beyond political fury. The first hour focuses on the everyday activities of the man and woman. They consume cheap food, watch TV and nasty porno, they receive customers and combat each other with psychological power games. Despite emotional numbness, the woman tries to escape. She makes friends with another woman, but then decides that returning to the man is the easiest option. The return of the other woman heralds the very shocking finale. Not for the squeamish. See also Suicidal Variations (2007). (GT)

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Films: Anti-Dialectic (2001, short), Time Consciousness (2002, short), Capitalist Manifesto: Working Men of All Countries, Accumulate! (2003), Principle of Party Politics (2003, short), Light and Class (2003, short), Geolobotomy (2006), Party Politics Strikes Back (2006, short), Bomb, Bomb, Bomb (2006, short), Critical Density (2007), Suicidal Variations (2007, short, co-dir), Self-Referential Traverse (2008, short), Digression/Degression (2008, short), Gogal/Exhausted (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:48

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

South Korea, 2008 colour, video, 62 min, Korean Pro: Kim Kyung-Mook Pro Comp: Nowhere Production Sc: Kim Kyung-Mook Cam: Yu Il-Seung Ed: Kim Kyung-Mook Ad: Kim Hee-Kyung Sound: Lee Min-Hee Mu: Lee Min-Hee With: Park Ji-Hwan Print/Sales: Nowhere Production

Cheonggyecheonui gae A Cheonggyecheon Dog Kim Kyung-Mook

Sex changes, hysterical pursuits and talking dogs; nothing is too crazy in A Cheonggyecheon Dog, the latest film by the young director Kim Kyung-Mook, whose controversial Faceless Things could be seen in Rotterdam in 2007. The Cheonggyecheon River is the natural dividing line between the northern and southern parts of Seoul. Ever since the Japanese occupation of Korea in the early 20th century, much of the River has been used as a sewer. Lee Myung-Bak (now president of South Korea) in his time as mayor of Seoul artificially polished up the River, making it one of the city’s major tourist attractions now. Here we immediately reach the underlying socially critical message of the film; Seoul is a city that is changing at high speed and is increasingly becoming artificial. Old parts of the city are being demolished and new buildings put up. When the protagonist meets a talking dog, that is the starting point of a surrealist pursuit through the whole of Seoul. In the scenes with the man and the dog, we see parts of Seoul that are about to disappear, in the scenes with the woman, the parts that already have been replaced. Kim Kyung-Mook uses all conceivable film styles mixed up in A Cheonggyecheon Dog, a major contrast with his formal and stern first film. It’s a fresh, campy film that was visibly made with pleasure. (IdL)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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KIM Kyung-Mook (1985, South Korea) dropped out of school at the age of sixteen and went to Seoul. He made his directing début in 2004 with the autobiographical short Me and Doll-Playing (2004). Faceless Things received a special mention in the competition for the Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema in Vancouver in 2006. Besides film maker, Kim is also journalist, critic and columnist. Films: Me and Doll-Playing (2004, short), Peace In Me (2005, short), Female Cats (2005, short doc), Memory of a Hair (2005, short), Eolgul eopnun geotdul/Faceless Things (2005), Cheonggyecheonui gae/A Cheonggyecheon Dog (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:48

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Japan, 2008 colour, video, 81 min, Japanese Pro: Hirotaka Kuwahara Pro Comp: team JUDAS Sc: Kimura Bunyo Cam: Takahashi Kazuhiro Ed: Kuwahara Hirotaka,

Kimura Bunyo Sound: Kondo Takao Mu: Kitamura Sakiko With: Nishiyama Maki, Hasegawa Hitoshi, Yoshioka Mutsuo Print/Sales: team JUDAS

KIMURA Bunyo o (1979, Japan) started to make films while he was in university. He has worked as a producer and assistant director. His short K anako Loves Three Days a Day (2008) was screened at the Mito short film festival. Goodbye is his first feature-length work.

Hebano Goodbye Kimura Bunyo

Films: Kanako Loves Three Days a Day (2008, short), Hebano/ Goodbye (2008)

Goodbye is set in the village of Rokkasho in Aomori Province in northern Japan. The film is fictional, but the place and its problems are real. There is a large nuclear reactor (for the controversial re-processing of nuclear fuel) and massive protests against it. The film is very realistic, but is set in the near future. The girl Kimi lives with her lover Osamu and his father in the cold and disconsolate Rokkasho. Both Osamu and his father work at the nuclear reactor. Kimi and Osamu are thinking of getting married, but when Osamu is exposed to plutonium at work, they fear that this will have an effect on any possible offspring. Kimi wants to get married anyway, but Osamu leaves the village. Kimi stays behind with the father. The power of the film is in the acting by Nishiyama Maki, who plays Kimi, and in the image of the location. The film tells a sensitive story in a beautiful way and evokes questions about the future. Goodbye was made by a crew of young and committed people. They also made the special film series Lazarus, the project by Kishu Izuchi that can also be seen at this festival. Lazarus also tackles political issues using fiction, without degenerating into the sloganising of political film making. (GjZ)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:48

Bright Future

Germany, 2008 colour, video, 104 min, German Pro: Martin Lischke,

Barbara Häbe Pro Comp: HFF Konrad

Wolf, Arte G.E.I.E / Arte Television Company Sc: Christian Klandt Cam: René Gorski Ed: Jörg Schreyer Ad: Tanja Baumgartner Sound: Marko Weichler Mu: Paul Rischer With: Florian Bartholomäi, Gerdy Zint, Karoline Schuch, Hendrik Arnst, Justus Carrière, Jürgen A. Verch, Henrike Von Kuick, Veit Lowack, Franziska Krumwiede Print/Sales: HFF Konrad Wolf

Weltstadt Christian Klandt

Weltstadt is the ironical title of a film that is set in an anonymous town in former East Germany. Here the often unemployed and badly educated youth wrestle with themselves and with the limitations of a society that has not experienced the changes that were so hoped for after the fall of the Wall. The film is based on a true story. Several years ago, two kids set fire to a homeless man for reasons that have never been clarified. They were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Film student Christian Klandt investigated the background to the gruesome act, but did not reach any clear conclusions. That does not make the grey and hopeless story of Karsten and Till any less intriguing. There is boredom. The pecking order among the kids, the necessary sacrifices. The lack of control. And the underlying frustration of being stuck in a sad town for lack of personal opportunities and social chances. Klandt allows the young actors to introduce lifelike characters who, despite their individual traits, seem interchangeable with countless kids elsewhere. This realisation gives Weltstadt its universal message and reveals important social themes such as education and youth guidance. Klandt presents several adults who have either lost grip on the kids or have themselves been their victims and that that makes the future look even more bleak for their children.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Christian KLANDT (1978, Germany) studied direction at the Konrad Wolf Film and Television Academy. Before that he worked as assistant director, camera assistant and production assistant for various cinema and TV productions. In 2001 he founded the production company nttcfilm Prod. and realised several independent and commissioned films. Weltstadt was awarded the Silver Zenith in Montréal in the category feature débuts. Films: Weltstadt (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:49

Bright Future

Belgium/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 85 min, French Pro: Jacques-Henri

Bronckart, Jerome Vidal Pro Comp: Versus Production,

Lazennec Production Associés Sc: Bouli Lanners Cam: Jean-Paul de Zaetijd Ed: Ewin Ryckaert Ad: Paul Rouschop Sound: Marc Bastien Mu: Koen Gisen, Renaud Mayeur, An Pierlé With: Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde, Philippe Nahon, Didier Toupy, Françoise Chichéry

Eldorado

Sales: Films Distribution Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Bouli Lanners

Bouli LANNERS (1965, Belgium) studied painting at the art academy in Liège and worked as decorator, actor and producer.

There is no country in the world where absurdity and humour, tragedy and sympathy, faith and surrealism go hand-in-hand as much as in Belgium. Right from the first scene in which Yvan catches the burglar Elie, life seems to be an impossible stalemate. Elie hides under the bed and says she has a knife. Yvan, who trades in huge American gas guzzlers, cannot bring himself to take the naive Elie to the police. We try just as hard as Yvan to believe that Elie is a junkie who kicked the habit. But what are Yvan’s motives for helping this stranger? What follows is a journey through French-speaking Belgium, shot in beautiful CinemaScope, that is a kind of deserted no-man’s-land evoking American road movies. On their way to the French border, to Elie’s parents, the protagonists bump into all kinds of weird and wonderful people. These bizarre and comic encounters are among the high points of the film year. Yet Lanners’ interest in the two gold seekers goes a lot deeper. In this Belgian Oscar submission, that had already been lauded at Cannes, the robust Lanners himself plays the lead. He can also be admired in the stunning Louise-Michel by Delépine & Kervern. (GT)

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Films: Travellinckx (1999, short), Muni (2001, short), Ultranova (2005), Eldorado (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:49

Bright Future

Chile/Brazil, 2008 colour, 35mm, 98 min, Spanish Pro: Juan de Dios Larraín Pro Comp: Fabula

Tony Manero

Print/Sales: Funny Balloons

Pablo LARRAÍN (1976, Chile) studied audio-visual communication at UNIACC University. He’s a founding member of Fabula. In 2006 he made his début Fuga. His second feature Tony M anero premièred in Cannes in 2008.

Pablo Larraín

Pablo Larraín (1976) was the Chilean surprise of last year. After the little-screened Fuga, his second feature, Tony M anero, supported by the HBF, has been an enormous success since its première in Cannes. The beautiful and gritty film takes its title from John Travolta’s character in the worldwide hit Saturday Night Fever (1977), and is a critical, occasionally gruesome, yet also very funny film. Santiago, 1978. A Chilean TV show organises a contest for a local Tony Manero, while anyone who reveals a contrary opinion is arrested, tortured or murdered by the Pinochet regime. The poor Raúl (beautifully played by Alfredo Castro) is convinced that he’ll win this contest as the only real Tony Manero. Certainly if he can have a dance floor with flashing lights under the tiles. Armed with this obsession and the aggrieved tunnel vision of the putdown loser, the immoral opportunist Raúl wants to realise his dream in front of the whole Chilean people . Tony M anero shows that Chile, about 20 years after the end of the dictatorship, is still coming to terms with its past. Larraín’s film does not focus on the dictatorship, but with its idolisation of Tony Manero provides a parallel with today’s Chilean society. According to Larraín, the country has forgotten its original culture and traditions, and Chile now functions entirely in America’s wake. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Producciones, Prodigital Sc: Pablo Larraín, Alfredo Castro, Mateo Iribarren Cam: Sergio Armstrong Ed: Andrea Chignoli Ad: Polin Garbisú Sound: Miguel Hormazábal With: Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Héctor Morales, Paola Lattus, Elsa Poblete

Films: Fuga (2006), Tony Manero (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:50

Bright Future

Slovakia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 77 min, Slovak Pro: Marko Skop, Ján Melis,

Franti ek Krähenbiel Pro Comp: Artileria Sc: Juraj Lehotsky, Marek Lescák Cam: Juraj Chlpík Ed: Frantisek Krähenbiel Ad: Romana Vargová,

Lukás Bonk Sound: Marián Gregorovic With: Peter Kolesár, Iveta

Koprdová, Zuzana Pohánková Sales: AUTLOOK Film Sales Distr. NL: Cinema Delicatessen

Juraj LEHOTSKY (1975, Slovakia) studied documentary film directing at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava. He has directed a number of music videos and short documentaries. Blind Loves (2008) is his first fulllength documentary feature.

Slepe lásky Blind Loves Juraj Lehotsky

Documentary film making in present-day Slovakia is represented by a new generation of talented film makers; fiction will probably need more time for new talents to develop. The charming, warm and honest small film Blind Loves was a pleasant surprise for the country itself as well as for international audiences at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The film drew enthusiastic praise from various international film critics as well as various awards. What was it exactly that addressed and moved viewers all over the world? When director Juraj Lehotsky, who previously had made a few short documentaries, started working on his feature-length début three years ago, it became a challenge for him to try to experience the world from the point of view and through the emotions of blind people. He worked on the script together with the excellent script writer Marek Lescák (e.g. The Garden by Martin Sulík), with life itself very often influencing the writing. The film consists of several stories about blind people; the connecting thread is their search for and experience of love. The blind non-actors are excellent natural performers and the poetics of the film are enriched with an animation sequence that recalls the books of Jules Verne. The result is an amusing and empathetic pearl of a film. (LC)

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Films: (all doc) Tichy svet Jozka Baláza/Silent World of Jozka Baláza (1997, short), Budeme mat vykony, budeme mat diplomy/With Enough Effort We’ll Have Diplomas (1998, short), Pohreb je vlastne premiéra/A Funeral Is Actually a Premiere (1999, short), Dvojicky/Twins (2000, short), Ked uz som raz dostal zivot (2000, short), Nevedel som, ze ta budem mat tak rád/I Wouldn’t Tell I Would Love You So Much (2001, short), Nechcené deti/ Unwanted Children (2001, short), Rozhovor/Interview (2002, short), Pozri sa do tmy (2007, short), Slepe lásky/Blind Loves (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:50

Bright Future

Argentina, 2008 colour, video, 245 min, Spanish Pro: Laura Citarella Pro Comp: El Pampero

Cine, Turner Sc: Mariano Llinás Cam: Agustin Mendilaharzu Ed: Alejo Moguillasnky Ad: Laura Caligiuri Sound: Rodrigo S. Mariño Mu: Gabriel Chwojnik With: Mariano Llinás, Walter Jakob, Agustin Mendilaharzu Print/Sales: Turner

Historias extraordinarias Extraordinary Stories Mariano Llinás

Mariano LLINÁS (1975, Argentina) is a young Argentine documentary maker. He made a remarkable video diary of the film festival of Buenos Aires. Films: Balnearios (2002, doc), La más bella niña (2004, short), Historias extraordinarias/ Extraordinary Stories (2008)

The secret tip of the last film year is Mariano Llinás’ Extraordinary Stories. It’s impossible to do justice to this film in 200 words. That’s not only because the film cannot be compared with anything - and certainly not with what is known as the New Argentine Cinema. As the title indicates, this 245-minute epic, situated on the pampas outside Buenos Aires, is about extraordinary stories. No tranquillity, but the voice-over that pushes the story on. No minimalism, but flamboyant pleasure in film making. Ideas, anecdotes, characters, references and imagination tumble over each other, but everything is under control, even the satirical lapse. The example for Llinás and the rest is not Bresson, Cassavetes or Antonioni, but rather Louis Feuillade, Borges, or Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. A brief synopsis of the three interwoven stories: X. (played by Llinás himself) is the only chance witness of murder and goes into hiding for fear that the murderers have seen him. Z. takes a job in a small rural town and from boredom starts digging into the increasingly mysterious past of his predecessor. He gets a strange task; he has to sail down the Salado River in a small boat, looking for the monolithic remains of an old, abandoned water project. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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12-01-2009 10:09:50

Bright Future

Switzerland/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 87 min, Spanish Pro: Marc Irmer Pro Comp: Intermezzo films,

Dolce Vita Films, Television Suisse Romande Cam: Sergio Mejia Ed: Ana Acosta Sound: Carlos Ibañez Diaz Mu: Vincent Hänni, Gabriel Scotti Print/Sales: Cinephil www.temoinindesirable-

lefilm.com

Juan José LOZANO (1971, Colombia) works as an independent producer and director. He has made several television documentaries for the Colombian Ministry of Culture. In 1998 he moved to Geneva, where he made several politically committed films. Lozano is also pursuing a literary career, with his first novel Aquí no pasa nada soon to be published.

Sin tregua Unwanted Witness Juan José Lozano

Colombian director Juan José Lozano lives in Geneva and travelled back to his country of birth for his first long documentary to cover the never-ending battle of one of the most courageous journalists in Latin America. Hollman Morris produces and directs the current-affairs programme Contravía, which shows the consequences of the armed struggle that has gripped Colombia for 40 years. The poor peasant population suffers and the government washes its hands of the affair. Despite death threats, Morris doesn’t stop. He reveals that not only the gorillas are guilty of violence, but also the government supported para-militaries, who destroy the farmers’ land without offering any compensation. Morris speaks to victims, witnesses and experts who estimate the number of peasants who have disappeared at about 20,000. Four million have already been forced to leave their land. Morris traces mass graves and indicts those responsible on television. But the television world is dominated by amusement and Contravía has been shifted to a latenight slot. The many prizes that Morris wins in other countries are not reported in the Colombian media and even his wife occasionally has her doubts about whether international recognition will be enough for him to maintain his lonely struggle. Morris’ family lives under continuous guard and their personal sacrifices are enormous.

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Films: Le bal de la vie et de la mort (2001), Un train qui arrive est aussi un train qui part (2003), Hasta la última piedra (2006, doc), Sin tregua/Unwanted Witness (2008, doc)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:50

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

India, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 99 min, Marathi Pro: Prashant Pethe Pro Comp: Pacific Entertainment Sc: Satish Manwar Cam: Sudheer Palsane Ed: Suchitra Sathe Ad: Prashant Pethe Sound: Anmol Bhave Mu: Dattaprasad Ranade,

Mangesh Dhakade With: Sonali Kulkarni, Girish Kulkarni, Jyoti Subhash, Veena Jamkar Print/Sales: Pacific

Entertainment

Gabhricha paus The Damned Rain Satish Manwar

Globalisation hits hard in many places in India. In the 1990s, the country was shocked by numerous cases of farmers’ suicides. The first state where suicides were reported was Maharashtra, whose capital is Mumbai. Three years ago, 1044 suicides were reported just in Vidarbha, where the story of this Maharastrian director’s début takes place. Statistically, one suicide occurs every eight hours. The extreme weather conditions in this particular region and the government’s inability to help cotton growers drives desperate farmers to commit suicide in order to save their families. The government compensates the family financially, thus providing food for the children for at least some time. However, the main character of The Damned R ain is an optimist who tries all alternatives to continue farming under unfavourable conditions. Concerned about the father’s mental state, the family keeps a constant eye on him. Ending mysteriously, the film poses many questions and keeps this hot issue on the agenda. The main roles, performed by Bollywood celebrity Sonali Kulkarni and the acknowledged Marathi cinema actor Girish Kulkarni (actor, co-scriptwriter and co-producer of The Bull, which premièred last year at IFFR) add a special flavour of intimate psychological drama. (RS)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Satish MANWAR (India) grew up in a rural area but moved to the city to attend courses in dramatics at Pune University, Center for Performing Arts. After his graduation he moved to Mumbai to work as an assistant editor and assistant director. He also founded a theatre group called Lalit Mumbai. The differences between rural and urban areas form an important source of inspiration for his work. Films: Gabhricha paus/The Damned Rain (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:51

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Japan, 2008 colour, video, 117 min, Japanese Pro: Akira Takayama Pro Comp: Tokyo OnlyPic

Filmpartners(Fanworks Inc.) Sc: Mashima Riichiro Cam: Mashima Riichiro Ed: Mashima Riichiro Ad: Jinnis Animation Studios Sound: Yota Tsuruoka Mu: Masamichi Amano With: Junwich Mogy Print/Sales: Dentsu Inc.

Tokyo OnlyPic Mashima Riichiro

Imaginative and stunning parody on the media insanity surrounding the Olympic Games. This project used all the variations and techniques which animation art has on offer. For all this variation, Mashima asked a dozen other animators, among them three from outside Japan, to make contributions. The structure of the film is that of a news show and the news flashes and reports have been made by various artists: Takanobu Mizuno, Bill Plympton, Keiko Sootome, Toru Hosokawa, Takashi Taniguchi, Richard Fenwick, Tetsuro Kodama, AC-bu, Ignacio Ferreras, Yutaro Sawada and Hiroyuki Nakao. The makers do not restrict themselves to existing sports or existing beings - sometimes it looks as if they come from another planet. Mashima is also the maker of Ski Jumping Pairs: Road to Torino 2006, a worldwide hit (500,000 DVDs sold), and his latest film is already being eagerly announced on Amazon.com. Should Mashima make another Olympic sport satire after Ski Jumping Pairs and this film, then he will certainly go down in history as the founder of a unique genre: the hilarious sport-report caricature. The incomplete film was already shown during a guerrilla screening in Sapporo, Japan, and the Holland Animation Film Festival also screened a special edition, but here the film is at last being shown for the first time in its final form. Welcome to the OnlyPic Games. (GjZ)

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After graduating from Chiba University’s Industrial Design department, MASHIMA Riichiro (1972, Japan) worked as an environmental designer. In 2001 he left his company to study 3D computer graphics at Tokyo’s visual arts school Digital Hollywood. His graduation short comedy Ski Jumping Pairs was screened at several international festivals, including the Annecy International Animation Festival. Films: Ski Jumping Pairs (2002, short), Ski Jumping Pairs - Road to Torino 2006 (2006), Tokyo OnlyPic (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:51

Bright Future

USA, 2008 colour, video, 85 min, English Pro: Peter Phok Pro Comp: Glass Eye Pix, Inc Sc: Glenn McQuaid Cam: Richard Lopez Ed: Glenn McQuaid Ad: David Bell Sound: Graham Reznick Mu: Jeff Grace With: Ron Perlman, Dominic

Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, Angus Scrimm, John Speredakos, Brenda Cooney, Eileen Colgan, Daniel Manche, Joel Garland Print/Sales: Glass Eye Pix, Inc www.isellthedead.com

I Sell the Dead Glenn McQuaid

Glenn McQuaid was fascinated as a child by British horror costume films made by Amicus Films and Hammer Films, in which genre stars such as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were gloriously sanguine. This début can also be regarded as a homage to these production houses. I Sell the Dead is a genuine buddy movie, but then about grave robbers, body snatchers and living dead. The story is situated on the misty and grimy 19th-century British Isles. Thanks to McQuaid’s background in post-production and special effects, the fact that this low-budget film was shot on location around New York cannot be seen. Partly because of the comic-strip adaptation of his story (made by Brahm Revel) McQuaid attracted a star cast. Ron Perlman (The Name of the Rose, H ellboy) is on fine form as a very unconventional priest and Dominic Monaghan, well known as Charlie from the TV series Lost, plays the sympathetic body snatcher Arthur. When Arthur waits in a dark dungeon for the execution of his sentence, he receives a visit from Father Duffy. Arthur’s buddy Willie ended on the scaffold and he awaits the same fate. So it’s high time to confess to Father Duffy. While enjoying a bottle of whisky, Arthur describes with delight how the business of grave robbing works. Father Duffy is extremely interested, especially in the part about bringing the dead back to life... (EH)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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The writer and director Glenn McQUAID (1973, Ireland) grew up in Dublin. He wrote his first script when he was 13. Since 1999 he mainly worked in the post production field, as visual effects artist and title designer. His first short film The R esurrection A pprentice (2005) was selected for the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. I Sell the Dead is his début feature. Films: The Resurrection Apprentice (2005, short), I Sell the Dead (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:51

Bright Future

Macedonia/Denmark, 2007 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 102 min, Macedonian Pro: Labina Mitevska, Setareh

Jas sum od Titov Veles I Am from Titov Veles Teona Mitevska

Sales: Insomnia World Sales Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Teona Mitevska is a familiar face in Rotterdam. In 2004 her intriguing feature début How I K illed a Saint took part in the Tiger Award Competition. Like that film, I Am from Titov Veles is a family production by the Mitevska sisters and brother, who largely represent the talented new generation of Macedonian film makers. Sister Labina produced the film and plays the role of the younger sister Afrodita while brother Vuk was the production designer responsible for the beautiful mood and colourful set design. Mitevska’s magic-realistic narrative follows three sisters in the village of Titov Veles (named after the dictator Tito and now only known as ‘Veles’) in Macedonia. The adult sisters live in a ramshackle cottage on a green hill. The city and its inhabitants have been damaged by the past and by the heavily polluting steel factory that blows deadly lead particles straight into the houses. Mitevska’s camera follows the sisters at a beautifully slow tempo as they wrestle with their lives, with their futures and with each other. With all their mutual differences, the sisters represent turbulent Macedonian society pulling itself together after years of disunity. People flee desperately into chemically or naturally induced hallucinations and into love for one night. This atmospheric Mitevska production was supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. (LC)

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Farsi, Behrooz Hashemian, Diana Elbaum, Sébastien Delloye, Danijel Hocevar, Olivier Rausin Pro Comp: Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production, Silkroad Production, Entre Chien et Loup, Vertigo / Emotionfilm, Climax Films Sc: Teona Strugar Mitevska Cam: Virginie Saint Martin Ed: Jacques Witta Ad: Vuk Mitevski, Olivier Meidinger Sound: Fred Meert Mu: Olivier Samouillan With: Labina Mitevska, Nikolina Kujaca, Ana Kostovska

Teona MITEVSKA (1974, Macedonia) was a child actor for televison and theatre. She was educated as a painter and graphic designer. She was art director for companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1998, she started the M.F.A. film programme at the Tisch School of Arts. Together with her brother and sister she founded a production company. Their first feature How I K illed a Saint was nominated for a VPRO Tiger Award in Rotterdam 2004. I A m from Titov Veles (2007) was awarded at several festivals and is the Macedonian entry for the Oscar 2009. Films: Veta (2000, short), Amer in America (2001, doc), Kako ubiv svetec/How I Killed a Saint (2004), Jas sum od Titov Veles/I Am from Titov Veles (2007)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:52

Bright Future

United Kingdom/Ireland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 79 min, English Pro: Joe Lawlor Pro Comp: Desperate Optimists Sc: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor Cam: Ole Birkeland Ed: Christine Molloy Sound: Fonic Mu: Dennis McNulty With: Annie Townsend,

Sandie Mahlia, Dennis Jobling, Danny Groenland Print: Joe Lawlor Sales: Desperate Optimists www.desperateoptimists.com/helen

Helen Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor

An 18-year-old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl, Helen, is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to ‘play’ Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joy’s last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parentless, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself in the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl’s life. But is Helen trying to find out what happened to Joy that day, or is she searching for her own identity? Thus reads the synopsis of this intriguing feature film debut of writer/ director/producer couple Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, who, under their alias Desperate Optimists, have been working since 2004 on an oeuvre of short films called Civic Life, featuring local community groups shot in long takes. Their last short film, Joy, a kind of precursor to Helen, won the Prix UIP here in Rotterdam in 2008. Helen was screened in various major film festivals as a new voice in cinema. Edinburgh called it the UK discovery of the year: a subtle, sophisticated psychological drama, with an atmosphere quite distinct from any British work of the moment. Hopefully it proves to be a taste of things to come. (EH)

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Joe Lawlor (1963) and Christine MOLLOY (1965) form together the Desperate Optimists. They won the Prix UIP at Rotterdam 2008 for the short film Joy. The film is part of their Civic Life series of one takes, involving local community groups. Helen is the culmination of this series and their feature film début. Films: (Christine Molloy)(all co-dir) Blipvert (1997, short), Bull (1998, short), Shot 7 (1999, short), Apt#801 (2000, short), No Motive (2000, short), London Framed (2002, short), Domestic (2002, short), Night Bus (2002, short), Device (2002, short), Catalogue (2003, short), Wirecrossing (2003, short), Civic Life (9 shorts): Who Killed Brown Owl (2004), Moore Street (2004), Revolution (2004), Twilight (2005), Town Hall (2005), Now We Are Grown Up (2005), Leisure Centre (2006), Daydream (2006), Joy (2008), Helen (2008) Films: (Joe Lawlor) (all co-dir) Blipvert (1997, short), Bull (1998, short), Shot 7 (1999, short), Apt#801 (2000, short), No Motive (2000, short), London Framed (2002, short), Domestic (2002, short), Night Bus (2002, short), Device (2002, short), Catalogue (2003, short), Wirecrossing (2003, short), Civic Life (9 shorts): Who Killed Brown Owl (2004), Moore Street (2004), Revolution (2004), Twilight (2005), Town Hall (2005), Now We Are Grown Up (2005), Leisure Centre (2006), Daydream (2006), Joy (2008), Helen (2008)

12-01-2009 10:09:52

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2009 colour, video, 70 min, Mandarin/Spanish/English Pro: Nicholas Monsour,

Jason Ritter Pro Comp: The Center for

Decorporative Research Sc: Nicholas Monsour Cam: Nicholas Monsour Ed: Nicholas Monsour Ad: Nicholas Monsour Sound: Nicholas Monsour Mu: Tinariwen With: Catiah Li, Gonzalo Escobar, Jane Hu, Angelie Oo Print/Sales: The Center for

Decorporative Research www.ohmysoulmovie.com

Oh My Soul Nicholas Monsour

A beautifully shot, very detailed film that is filled with unreality and symbols. The protagonist is Abigail (convincingly played by the artist Catiah Li), an Asian woman who lives temporarily with her aunt in Chicago. The other roles are played by non-professional actors. It gives the film an authenticity and mood all of its own; its own relationship to film as an art form. Abigail suffers from insomnia. Since her aunt died, she has increasing difficulty in distinguishing dream from reality. Very few people can follow or understand her. The very ill Hector from Colombia, whom she chances upon and who initially only needed a place to sleep, is one of them. The mood and setting of Oh My Soul are extremely realistic. The same mood also continues to maintain the dreaminess of Abigail’s and perceptions. In this way the film provides an unusual portrait of the multi-ethnic character of a society in downtown Chicago, without ever becoming directly documentary. The crew was largely made up of people who are themselves artists or film makers, while the actors often play themselves in their own neighbourhood. Maybe the unusual mood of the film can be explained because the maker based it on a dream he once had. (GjZ)

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Nicholas MONSOUR (1980, USA) is a film maker, theatre maker, writer, musician and artist currently living in Chicago. He studied set design at Otis Art School in Los Angeles, contemporary art theory and practice at Santa Monica City College, and has a BFA in performance and film from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been a production assistant on many commercials and student films, and an editor and videographer on numerous documentary projects. Oh My Soul is his feature début. Films: Oh My Soul (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:52

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 114 min, English Pro: David Groves, Simon

Jordan, David Reid Pro Comp: Aspiration Films Sc: Nick Moran, James Hicks Cam: Peter Wignall Ed: Alex Marsh Ad: Russell de Rozario Mu: Ilan Eshkeri With: Con O’Neill, Pam Ferris,

JJ Feild, James Corden, Tom Burke, Kevin Spacey, Ralf Little, Sid Mitchell Print/Sales: Fortissimo Films

Nick MORAN (1968, UK) first hit the big screen in 1990 with Buddy’s Song. After that he acted in more and more films alongside big names. Eventually he made a name for himself with his role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Telstar is his directorial début.

Telstar Nick Moran

Films: Telstar (2008)

Nick Moran (1968) is a British actor, writer and producer. He first hit the big screen in 1990, and is probably best known for his role in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Moran co-wrote the play Telstar with James Hicks, which was staged in 2005. Three years on, he has adapted it for the screen, resulting in this wonderfully engaging, fascinating and moving cinematic experience by the same name, and also with the charismatic Con O’Neill starring as Joe Meek. The film is essentially a biopic about eccentric music producer Joe Meek, who, by developing new techniques in recording, made a number of groundbreaking hit singles and became the premier independent pop producer in Britain during the late 50s and early 60s. His biggest successes were Johnny Remember Me, Have I The Right, Just Like Eddie and of course the classic Telstar, all titles which are played out in the film with great enthusiasm, pathos and impact (the sound design is impeccable). Telstar covers the early beginnings of his career, when he did his recordings from a ramshackle flat on Holloway Road, London, right through the years of fame, and ends with the tragic last years of his life, when his paranoia and lack of success got the better of him. The film excels in gifted performances, true-to-life dialogue and an incredible feel for the period and all its details. (EH)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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12-01-2009 10:09:53

Bright Future

Romania, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 98 min, Romanian Pro: Dragos Vilcu Pro Comp: Multimedia

Est, Antena 1 Sc: Alexandru Baciu, Razvan Radulescu, Radu Muntean Cam: Tudor Lucaciu Ed: Alexandru Radu Mu: Electric Brother With: Dragos Bucur, Anamaria Marinca, Mimi Branescu, Adrian Vancica Print/Sales: Maximum

Boogie

Films International www.boogiemovie.com

Radu Muntean

Radu Muntean became internationally known thanks to the success of his second feature film The Paper Will Be Blue (2006), a reflection upon the night of the Romanian revolution in December 1989. Boogie presents a picture of his own generation of 30-year-olds in present-day Romania. Hard-working businessman Bogdan (Dragos Bucur) spends 1 May in Constanta on the Black Sea coast with his young family. His wife Smarande (Anamaria Marinca, known for her role in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu) nags at him because he doesn’t take his task as father seriously enough. Bogdan (alias Boogie) bumps into Sorin and Iordache, two old friends of his here on the coast. After a quarrel with Smarande, Boogie goes to his friends and the three men hit the town and chase the girls just like they used to... Radu Muntean wrote the script together with Razvan Radulescu, a writer known for several outstanding Romanian New Wave films, and Alex Baciu. The excellent, raw cinematography reflecting a variety of moods was done by Tudor Lucaciu. A strong ‘generation film’ that shows how totally different are the issues that today’s young people deal with compared to those of their parents. (LC)

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Radu MUNTEAN (1971, Romania) graduated in 1994 from the theatre and film academy in Bucharest with a major in directing. Since 1996, he has directed over 300 commercials, winning national and international awards at various advertising festivals. His feature début The Fury was awarded in Toronto and his second, The Paper Will Be Blue, in Sarajevo. Films: Si ei sunt ai nostri (1992, doc), Ea (1994), Lindenfeld (1994, doc), Viata e in alta parte (1996, doc) Tragica poveste de dragoste a celor doi (1996), Furia/The Fury (2002), Hirtia va fi albastra /The Paper Will Be Blue (2006), Boogie (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:53

Bright Future

Argentina, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 110 min, Spanish Pro: Carolina Konstantinovsky Pro Comp: Tresmilmundos Cine Sc: Celina Murga, Juan Villegas Cam: Marcelo Lavintman Ed: Eliane Katz Ad: Julieta Wagner Sound: Federico Billordo Mu: Inés Gamarci, Marcelo

Una semana solos A Week Alone Celina Murga

Sales: Primer Plano

Film Group SA Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund www.unasemanasolos.

blogspot.com

All over the world, but above all in poor countries, the rich lock themselves up in ‘gated communities’ behind high fences and barriers put up by private security companies. Last year, the Mexican director Rodriga Pla used this as the basis for his dramatic thriller La zona. The second film by Celina Murga, who previously made Ana and the Others (2004), is of a very different order. A Week Alone is almost entirely set in such an isolated compound in the outer suburbs of Buenos Aires. The manicured grass of the lawns evokes American melodramas. With an observing and distant gaze, Murga sketches the adventures of several rich young children and teenagers while their parents are away for a week. The only supervision is by a cook and the guards. The children do not seem impressed by their situation and entertain themselves with games, and hanging around and breaking into houses where the owners are away. A Week Alone is, however stylised, in many respects almost documentary. Not only the locations took little production design, the children are also authentic compound inhabitants. The absence of major conflicts paradoxically gives the film a suppressed suspense. When the little brother of the housekeeper comes to visit, class differences come to the surface. (GT)

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Pérex, Martín Salas With: Magdalena Capobianco, Elonora Capobianco, Ignacio Giménez

Celina MURGA (1973, Argentina) studied at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, where she now also teaches film directing. She has made three short films and was assistant director on several film and video productions. Ana and the O thers, her first feature, was awarded at festivals all over the world. A Week Alone is her second feature. Films: Frío afuera (1996, short), Interior-noce (1998, short), Una tarde feliz (2002, short), Ana y los otros/Ana and the Others (2003) Una semana solos/ A Week Alone (2008)

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Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Switzerland/Austria/ Netherlands/Kurdistan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 85 min, Kurdish/German/Turkish Pro: Gabriele Kranzelbinder,

Jos van der Pal, Ilker Abay Pro Comp: KGP - Kranzelbinder

Gabriele Production, Pal AV - motion pictures, MA Sc: Ayten Mutlu Saray Cam: Felix von Muralt Ed: Daniel Gibel, Frédéric Fichefet, Ilse Buchelt Ad: Esther Viersen Sound: Eric Spitzer-Marlyn Mu: Marcel Vaid With: Serpil Öcal, Barbara Sotelsek, Alisan Önlü, Newroz Baz

Zara

Sales: KGP - Kranzelbinder

Ayten Mutlu Saray

Gabriele Production Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

In an expanse of stony Turkish landscape, two women roam around looking for the village of Zara. The Kurdish Mirka is returning to her birthplace after 12 years, accompanied by her ignorant Germanspeaking blonde girlfriend. On the way, reality, memory and fantasy increasingly become entangled as they are confronted with people and nightmares from the past. Zara - literally ‘birth of the road’ - portrays Mirka’s quest to find the right way back to a wild past she hasn’t come to terms with, and, she seems to hope, to a bearable present. Her Western companion wants to mirror her own traumas in those of Mirka and that’s why she came with her. This début by Ayten Mutlu Saray is a poetic meditation about the deep grievances of exile and the history of the Kurdish community that was forced to give up its own language and roots. Not only does the landscape seem to be filled with metaphors, the director shows important rituals and myths that underline the bond between the Kurds and their homeland and express his historic convictions. The gap between East and West turns out to be irreconcilable. Mirka’s companion dies, and burying her Western girlfriend turns out to be the first step on the way to the catharsis Mirka was hoping for. This serves to break through part of the isolation.

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Ayten MUTLU SARAY (1972, Kurdistan) is director and scriptwriter. Her short film La mort en exil was selected for several film festivals and nominated for the Prix Europa in Berlin. Zara is her feature début. Films: Alima, Life Is Like an Egg on a Rock (2000, short), La mort en exil (2002, short), In Northern Tibet (2005, short), Zara (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:54

Bright Future

South Korea, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 123 min, Korean Pro: Kim Su-Jin, Yoon In-Beom Pro Comp: Bidangil Pictures Sc: Na Hong-Jin Cam: Lee Sung-Je Ed: Kim Sun-Min Ad: Lee Min-Bog Sound: Choi Tae-Young Mu: Kim Jun-Seok,

Choi Yong Rock With: Kim Yun-Seok, Ha Jung-Woo, Seo Yeong-Hie Sales: Fine Cut Co. Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

Chugyeogja The Chaser Na Hong-Jin

With this début, Na Hong-Jin established in one fell swoop his name worldwide as a super-hard thriller filmer. The ambiance is absolutely Korean, with as most important trump cards the stubborn yet engaging characters, plenty of physical violence and a sweltering slum in Seoul in summer. Former police detective Jun-Ho, sacked years ago for corruption, runs a small and failing escort service. When he encourages a fluridden prostitute to replace a colleague and she disappears just like her predecessors, he is forced to take up his old detective work again. He thinks that someone is stealing his women and goes looking for a competitor. When a culprit is found but there is no trace of the victims, a race against the clock starts. The woman who disappeared must be found before the psychopath’s 12-hour custody ends. Na tells a meandering story filled with whimsical suspense. Most tension comes from the corrupt, indifferent and harsh police force, all too well known to Jun-Ho. The motives and behaviour of the ex-cop himself are anything but spotless. This realism inevitably introduces social commentary to The Chaser. The film also is different in construction from the classic thriller, in which the culprit remains unknown until the very end and there is an obvious difference between good and evil. A confident high point in the grim policier genre. (GT)

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NA Hong-Jin (1974, South Korea) studied at the Hangyang University at the Department of Metal Design. He also graduated from the Korean National Academy of Arts. His first shorts brought him international acknowledgement. His feature film début The Chaser premièred in Cannes in 2008. Warner Brothers has picked up remake rights in English. Films: 5 Minutes (2003, short), A Perfect Red Snapper Dish (2005, short), Sweat (2007, short), Chugyeogja/The Chaser (2008)

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12-01-2009 10:09:55

Bright Future

Brazil, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 115 min, Portuguese Pro: Vânia Catani Pro Comp: Bananeira Filmes Sc: Matheus Nachtergaele,

Hilton Lacerda Cam: Lula Carvalho Ed: Karen Harley,

A festa da menina morta The Dead Girl’s Feast Matheus Nachtergaele

The equally poor and exotic hinterland of Brazil has for several years formed a rich source of new feature films. One of the regular elements in these films was Matheus Nachtergaele, who could be seen as an actor in great productions such as City of God (2002) and the Oscar-nominated Central Station (1998), but also in the controversial Tiger-Award winner Bog of Beasts by Claudio de Assis. The Dead Girl’s Feast is Nachtergaele’s exuberant directing début and is set in a remote village near the source of the Amazon River. In the damp heat, people’s capacity to believe in something and to give meaning to the gruesome experience of death seems endless. The homosexual Santinho (played by the Brazilian star Daniel de Oliveira) has been worshipped as a saintly mystic ever since he performed a ‘miracle’ as a boy twenty years ago, following the suicide of his mother and the disappearance of the girl Cecilia. But nobody really knows what the miracle involved. Santinho says he receives messages from the girl, which brings him into conflict with Cecilia’s brother. The villages decides to allow the festive commemoration of the miracle to be sponsored by a brewer, including a performance by the Space Triplets. In the meantime, the motives of the holy Santinho’s father are primarily economic. (GT)

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Cao Guimaraes Ad: Renata Pinheiro Sound: Paulo Ricardo Mu: Matheus Nachtergaele With: Daniel de Oliveira, Jackson Antunes, Cássia Kiss, Dira Paes, Juliano Cazarré Sales: Spier Films Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund www.spierfilms.com

Matheus NACHTERGAELE (1969, Brazil) is a successful Brazilian actor who attracted attention for his role in City of God (2002). He also acted in Oscar nominated Central do Brasil (1998). The Dead Girl’s Feast is his directing début. The film was selected for Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2008. Films: A festa da menina morta/ The Dead Girl’s Feast (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:55

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Palestine/France/Germany/ United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 95 min, Arabic/English/Hebrew Pro: Hani Kort, Meinolf

Zurhorst, Robin Gutch Pro Comp: Ustura

Films, ZDF / ARTE Sc: Najwa Najjar Cam: Valentina Canalgia Ed: Bettina Bohler, Sotira Kyriacou Ad: Khalid Horani Sound: Thorsten Bolze Mu: Mychael Danna With: Hiam Abbass, Yasmine Al Massri, Ali Suleiman, Ashraf Farah

Al mor wa al rumman Pomegranates and Myrrh Najwa Najjar

Pomegranates and Myrrh is a multiply layered love story depicted against the background of everyday issues in today’s Ramallah. It is quite unique to see footage of Palestinian reality being used not for a TV news report but for a creative drama (the wall, checkpoints, the confiscation of an olive farm, heavily armed Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets, etc.). A strong and mature début by a promising film maker. Zaid (Ashraf Farah) and Kamar (Yasmine Al Massri) are Christian Arabs; the film begins with their marriage in East Jerusalem. Their happiness as newly weds does not last long though, for soon after the wedding a conflict about the confiscation of Zaid’s olive farm ends up with him being put in prison for an indefinite period of time. Kamar is a strong and modern woman, and to survive this difficult period, she decides to pick up her love for dancing again and joins a group of traditional Palestinian folk dancers despite her new family’s disapproval. A new choreographer, the Palestinian returnee Kais (Ali Suleiman) joins the dance group and brings a fresh breeze to the group and to Kamar. Her life is thrown into turmoil as she becomes increasingly attached to Kais and is caught between her desire to dance and not breaking family and social taboos about the role of a prisoner’s wife, while life under occupation rages on… (LC)

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Print/Sales: Ustura Films

Najwa NAJJAR is a writer and director and has worked in both documentary and fiction genres. Her script for her first feature film, Pomegranates and Myrrh, won the Amiens Scriptwriting Award and was included in Sundance’s Middle East Screenwriters Lab and the Mediterranean Films Crossing Borders workshop in Cannes. Films: Naim and Wadee’a (2000, short doc), Yasmine’s Song (2005, short), Al mor wa al rumman/Pomegranates and Myrrh (2008)

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12-01-2009 10:09:56

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Lithuania/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 86 min, Lithuanian Pro: Uljana Kim, Philippe

Avril, Galina Kim Pro Comp: Studio Uljana

Kim, Unlimited Sc: Valdas Navasaitis Cam: Vladas Naudzius Ed: Danielius Kokanauskis, Valdas Navasaitis Ad: Agne Rimkute Sound: Vladimir Golovnicki Mu: Arturas Anusauskas With: Dainius Gavenonis, Julija Goyd, Ramunas Cicenas, Viktorija Kuodyte, Jonas Vaitkus Print/Sales: Studio Uljana Kim

Perpetuum mobile Valdas Navasaitis

Valdas Navasaitis worked in Siberia with director Sharunas Bartas on one of his films and studied at the Moscow Film Institute, where he was seen as one of the most promising directors from Lithuania, evoking surprise with his poetic documentaries. In Perpetuum mobile, his second feature after The Courtyard (1999), he reveals himself to be a master of restrained acting and barely revealed narrative lines. In this, he created paradoxically enough a very outspoken film about the midlife crisis of several friends. It focuses on Ron, a divorced man with a small son he doesn’t see very often who wastes his time with drinking and playing cards in the bar run by his childhood friend Adi. Here he meets Dina, an intriguingly beautiful woman who seems to have her own bond with Adi. When Ron is thrown out of the bar for being drunk and in debt, Adi steals the takings and they set off on an impetuous adventure, she more determined than he. Navasaitis does not film with grand gestures but allows his characters to play out sharp dialogues in the constellation of old friendships within which fidelity but also misty dependencies shape the course of events. When Ron and Dina have holed up for a long time and are able to take the great step overseas, young love gets bogged down. In Perpetuum mobile, male comradeship triumphs over romantic love. (LC)

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Valdas NAVASAITIS (1960, Lithuania) completed the Moscow film school VGIK in 1993. He has made three short films, one with Sharunas Bartas: Tofalaria (1985). Perpetuum mobile is his second feature film. Films: Tofalaria (1985, short doc), Rudens sniegas/Autumn Snow (1992, short doc), Pavasaris/Spring (1997, short doc), Kiemas/The Courtyard (1999), Perpetuum mobile (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:56

Bright Future

South Korea, 2008 colour, video, 116 min, Korean Pro: Noh Young-Seok Pro Comp: StONEwork Sc: Noh Young-Seok Cam: Noh Young-Seok Ed: Noh Young-Seok Ad: Noh Young-Seok Sound: Noh Young-Seok Mu: Noh Young-Seok With: Song Sam-Dong,

Yuk Sang-Yeop Print/Sales: Fine Cut Co. www.finecut.co.kr

NOH Young-Seok (1976, South Korea) graduated from Seoul National University with a major in ceramic art. His feature début Daytime Drinking has been hailed and enjoyed by audiences at numerous domestic and international festivals.

Natsul Daytime Drinking Noh Young-Seok

Films: Natsul/Daytime Drinking (2008)

One of the most charming and successful low-budget films of the last year is the Korean Daytime Drinking. Apparently the director had less than 10,000 euros available to shoot his début, which meant he had to work with a very small crew, authentic locations and natural lighting. As many have remarked, the tone of the story is reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch. A young man, Hyuk-Jin, has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He goes out to get drunk with his friends. Enormous amounts of soju are consumed. In order to cheer him up, his friends persuade him to go with them next day to a hotel on the coast run by a relative. But when Hyuk-Jin arrives, there’s no one there and the place is closed. Everyone has forgotten him. This is the beginning of a journey filled with misunderstandings and obstacles and goals that keep changing. The shy Hyuk-Jin meets lots of new people to drink with, although not all of them are equally reliable. He staggers between the comfort of drunkenness in company and the inevitable hangover. In the end he will have to come to terms with the facts of his own life, his naivety and his friendships. Winner of the prize for the best film at the Jeonju Festival. (GT)

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Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Japan, 2009 colour, video, 64 min, Japanese Pro: Kai Naoki Pro Comp: StyleJam Inc. Sc: Joe Odagiri Cam: Tsukinaga Yuta Ed: Joe Odagiri Ad: Joe Odagiri Sound: Joe Odagiri Mu: Joe Odagiri With: Komoto Junichi,

Kawahara Sabu Print/Sales: StyleJam Inc. www.stylejam.co.jp

Sakura na hito tachi Looking for Cherry Blossoms Joe Odagiri

Joe ODAGIRI (1976, Japan) is a well-known Japanese actor. He applied to the California State University in Fresno to study Film Directing, but enrolled as a student of the Theater and Arts Department by mistake. He has also experimented in music. Looking for Cherry Blossoms is his directorial début. Films: Sakura na hito tachi/ Looking for Cherry Blossoms (2009)

Joe Odagiri was until now only an actor, and a very popular actor in Japan to boot. This is the first film in which he directs as well as acts. And to say that the humour in the film is absurd is also not enough. The absurd humour here is taken beyond the point which can be described in the usual terms. Let’s say: too absurd for words. Protagonist Tsuyoshi visits his grandfather in hospital. The old man turns out to receive mysterious cards every day with cherry blossoms on them. The sender is not known. The film is largely a road movie; crazy men in a taxi looking for the cherry blossoms that can be seen on grandfather’s mysterious postcards. The quest is soon a name in itself. The other aim seems to be the reinvention of humour, which does not want to be funny and that of course ensures it is. Looking for Cherry Blossoms is a small, inventively made film. An old taxi and some absurd jokes are apparently all you need to rediscover the wheel. Even though this wheel looks like no other wheel. The film was produced by StyleJam, a strikingly creative production house that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. They make films that transcend the traditional Japanese genre labels. Like this. (GjZ)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:56

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2009 colour, video, 84 min, Dari/ English/Pushto Pro: Nancy Roth Pro Comp: G Films, LLC Cam: Ian Olds Ed: Ian Olds Sound: Jim Dawson Print/Sales: G Films, LLC

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi

Ian OLDS is a director of both fiction and documentary films. Together with Garrett Scott he directed the documentary Occupation: Dreamland (2005), which was short-listed for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Films: Two Men (2004, short), Occupation: Dreamland (2005, doc, co-dir), Bomb (2006, short), Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (2009, doc)

Ian Olds A reporter who comes to a foreign country, seldom speaks the language and is often unfamiliar with the culture. Even for an experienced journalist, it is difficult to understand the finer points of local morals. For that, one has the so-called fixers. Often they are also journalists who literally and figuratively know their way around and know when something is wrong. Ian Olds (1972) followed the American journalist Christian Parenti and his fixer, the Afghani journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, for the documentary Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi. The film is openhearted and intimate, but also tragic and moving, because from the very first scenes, it’s clear that 24-year-old Naqshbandi is no longer alive. In 2005 Olds directed with Garrett Scott the film Occupation: Dreamland, about a group of very young American soldiers in Iraq. After Scott died suddenly, Olds made Fixer. The film was intended as a glimpse behind the scenes of the approach of a news reporter, but during shooting, a nightmare scenario emerged. During his work, Naqshbandi ended up in an ambush. He was kidnapped alongside the Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. The Italian was freed, Naqshbandi was not. Olds’ both intelligent and committed film sketches a depressing picture of the future of Afghanistan, but is at the same time a homage to the ‘best fixer in Afghanistan’. (GT)

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Bright Future

Kazakhstan/Russia/France/ Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 87 min, Kazakh/Russian Pro: Sergei Bodrov, Sergey

Selyanov, Natacha Devillers, Sergey Azimov, Malik Esenbaev, Almat Akhmetov Pro Comp: CTB Film Company, Kazakhfilm National Company, Les Petites Lumières, Kinofabrika GmbH Sc: Guka Omarova, Sergei Bodrov Cam: Rafik Galeev Ed: Darya Danilova Ad: Menlibaeva Almagul Sound: Olivier Dandre Mu: SIG With: Nesipkul Omarbekova, Farkhat Amankulov, Tolepbergen Baisakalov, Almat Ayanov, Asel Abutova

Baksy Native Dancer Guka Omarova

Print/Sales: Fortissimo Films

Native Dancer starts as a fairy tale. A fairy tale about the natural healer (‘baksy’) Aidai, who uses incantations and mysterious actions to make the lame walk and to give infertile couples children. Guka Omarova previously came to Rotterdam with Schizo and based her second film on a real baksy who lives 70 km outside the capital Almaty and receives people from all over the country. She regards Native Dancer as a sequel to her first film: the illegal fights have made way for the equally grey trade in petrol and casinos. For her second film, she again works with the famous Russian director Sergei Bodrov Sr. In Native Dancer, the film makers pose the question of whether there is still room for the supernatural in today’s modern world. In Kazakhstan, a hostile and empty country bordering on China and Russia, the rules are determined by those with the most land, the largest car or the best connections. No one has their doubts about Aidai’s special powers, but she seems to lose out in the battle between age-old traditions and modern crooks. Omarova shows that there is more than money and power and packages the battle between good and evil in a delightful Kazakh mood with neon-coloured table ornaments, Kazakh pop music, gangsters with guns, ghosts in the night and incantations. Native Dancer is supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. (LC)

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Guka OMAROVA (1968, Kazachstan) worked as an actress before she studied journalism and documentary film directing. In the late 1990s she directed several documentaries and shorts. She also wrote the script for Sisters together with Sergei Bodrov. Since 2001 she has been living in Rotterdam. Her first feature Schizo (2004) was released in more than a dozen countries. Native Dancer is her second feature. Films: That Heart of Mine (1998, short doc), The Landscape of the Bodies. The Clay Project (1999, short doc), Kaptain Kat (1999, doc), Schizo (2004), Baksy/Native Dancer (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:57

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Japan/Malaysia/Singapore, 2008 colour, video, 111 min, Japanese Pro: Sherman Ong, Matsuura Jin Pro Comp: Studio Shermano,

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Sc: Sherman Ong Cam: Ming An Ed: Aki Yasu Sound: Matsuura Jin, Uchimaru Kohei, Kamachi Masae Mu: Bernard Ng Jin Choon, Hideki Yamamoto With: Shinohara Keiko, Kato Naoko, Nakao Yoko, Nagatome Kanako, Uemura Naoko, Mogata Miku, Hirano Seiko Print/Sales: Studio Shermano http://hashithefilm.blogspot.com

Hashi Sherman Ong

Hashi looks like a Japanese film, but strictly speaking it isn’t. Sherman Ong is a Malaysian film maker who lives and works in Singapore. Ong made the film during a period as artist in residence in the Museum for Asian Art in Fukuoka. His Japanese is limited, so he had to develop an approach in order to communicate with his actors - and in this film, largely actresses. The financial and technical facilities at his disposal were also limited. And he couldn’t work with professional actors. However, he regarded it as a challenge to make something special despite these limitations. In the film, three stories are told about three women who represent three different generations. The stories are interwoven, and Ong was obviously not afraid of creating confusion with the spectator. The youngest woman (Momo) is a ‘bento’ (lunchbox) courier who tells her dreams to the older women. The stories get even more complex because the female roles are played by different actresses. Ong confronts the dramatic complexity with a very minimal visual style. According to the film maker, ‘Hashi’ was one of the first words he learnt in Japan. Depending on the kanji (characters) with which you write it, it means a bridge, chopsticks or the edge of something. So the title of the film has all these meanings at the same time. (GjZ)

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Sherman ONG (1971, Malaysia) graduated cum laude from the National University of Singapore. He works as a film maker and photographer and conducts workshops and lectures about film and photography. His work has been shown at festivals and in museums around the world. He developed his début feature H ashi during his artist residency at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Films: 60s Now (2002), State of Things (2003, short), The Ground I Stand (2002), Exodus - Wanita yang berlari (2003, short), The Circle (2005), El pollo de quijote/Ok Now I Hit You! (2005, short), Thit, rau cu & che/Meat, Vegetables & Dessert (2005, short), Is It Easy To Kill/ Pray? (2005, short), Hashi (2008)

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Sweden, 2008 colour, 35mm, 98 min, Swedish Pro: Erik Hemmendorff Pro Comp: Plattform

De ofrivilliga Involuntary Ruben Östlund

What is the influence of a group on the individual? How can we avoid group pressure? In Involuntary, the second feature by Ruben Östlund, we see five separate, familiar stories all taking these questions as their point of departure. For instance, Olle becomes unwillingly involved in the sexually tinted games of his old mates. Villmar is injured at his own party, but doesn’t want to ruin the mood and so he carries on bravely as if nothing is wrong. And the girlfriends Linnea and Sara go out wearing sexy clothes but are not able to predict the effect in advance. This successful Swedish mosaic film is fortunately occasionally very funny, but the camera continues to run soberly and relentlessly, when even the voyeuristic viewer doesn’t really want to know what happens next. Östlund chooses his subjects with an eye for the sharp sides of Western freedom and attainments. Licentiousness (awoken by alcohol and lust), power abuse and bourgeois dissatisfaction put the characters into difficult situations . Is in their own fault or are they the innocent victims of circumstances? That’s only the start of the question. Because there’s only one person who decides what we see and what we don’t, or how long a scene lasts, and that is the director. A conclusion that often seems a cliché, but is here essential for the power of the film. (GT)

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Produktion, Film i Väst Sc: Ruben Östlund, Erik Hemmendorff Cam: Marius Dybwad Brandrud Ed: Ruben Östlund Ad: Pia Aleborg Sound: Jens De Place Björn Mu: Benny Andersson With: Maria Lundkvist, Cecilia Milocco, Villmar Bjorkman, Linnea Cart-Lamy, Leif Edlund, Sara Eriksson Sales: Coproduction Office Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Before entering the school of film and photography at the University of Gothenburg, Ruben ÖSTLUND (1974, Sweden) made the films Free R adicals 1-3 about downhill skiing. In 2002 Östlund founded the production company Plattform Produktion with Erik Hemmendorff. Östlunds’ first feature film The Guitar Mongoloid was awarded the Fipresci prize at the Moscow Film Festival (2005). Involuntary was in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Films: Free Radicals 1-3 (1995-1998), Gitarrmongot/ The Guitar Mongoloid (2004), Autobiographical Scene Number 6882 (2005, short), De ofrivilliga/Involuntary (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:58

Bright Future

Philippines, 2008 colour, video, 96 min, Tagalog Pro: Francis Xavier Pasion Pro Comp: Pasion Para

Pelikula Productions Sc: Francis Xavier Pasion Cam: Carlo Mendoza Ed: Francis Xavier Pasion, Kats Serraon, Chuck Gutierrez Ad: Joy Puntawe Sound: Mark Locsin, Joey Santos Mu: Gian Gianan With: Baron Geisler, Coco Martin, Flor Salanga, Angelica Rivera, Carlo Mendoza, JC Santos Print/Sales: Ignatius

Films Canada

Jay Francis Xavier Pasion

Jay was a young schoolmaster. He was brutally murdered during what seems to be a sexual crime, making it clear he was gay. A TV crew sees a story in it and starts a manipulative reconstruction of his life and death. The film follows the TV crew so closely that it acquires the character of a fake documentary. The most important part of the film is set in the small rural community where Jay comes from. Jay is packed with fierce and occasionally consciously exaggerated emotions. The TV crew encourages people to cry exuberantly. This is also partly authentic and characteristic of the local culture of mourning; real and unreal are permanently juxtaposed. The small community is persuaded to act out the dramatic experience one more time, but during the reconstruction the original emotions re-emerge. Even the TV reporter, who initially only came for a good item, becomes really involved. It’s no coincidence that the reporter’s name is also Jay. Jay has more style and visual charm than the shameless TV genre it parodies. The director is obviously very committed and makes effective use of his own experience with television. For instance, the gay theme is not only part of the TV reporters’ sensationalism, but also part of the occasionally campy and sultry form of the film itself. (GjZ)

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Francis Xavier PASION (1978, Philippines) graduated in communication at the Ateneo de Manila University. He founded the first film organization in the university: the Loyola Film Circle, which supports film production and education in his country. Francis Pasion’s début feature Jay took Best Film and Best Actor prizes at the 2008 Cinemalaya Festival in the Philippines. Films: Jay (2008)

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Mexico, 2008 colour, video, 90 min, Spanish Pro: Eugenio Polgovsky Pro Comp: Tecolote Films Sc: Eugenio Polgovsky Cam: Eugenio Polgovsky Ed: Eugenio Polgovsky Ad: Camille Tauss Sound: Camille Tauss,

Cristian Manzutto Mu: Banda Mixe de Oaxaca

Los herederos The Inheritors Eugenio Polgovsky

In 2005, the festival screened the documentary Tropic of Cancer, in which Eugenio Polgovsky peered over the shoulders of poverty stricken Mexican desert inhabitants and with his dynamic camera almost literally allowed the viewer to feel what it is to survive there. With his first full-length feature The Inheritors, Polgovsky follows the same procedure. Without commentary, the camera hovers hypnotically above the poor hinterland of Mexico. A gleaming piece of silver foil amuses a baby while his mother works on doggedly. Cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans. Picking, weighing, packing. In the shadow of a fully loaded truck, the smallest children play with the discarded vegetables. They don’t go to school, but already know the benchmarks of their future: ‘This is still green!’ Infants without shoes walk endless distances with a heavy load on their back and do the same work as their parents and ancestors always did. They are the inheritors of harsh rural life. Supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, Polgovsky filmed for months in the rough, inaccessible countryside. He wanted to share his fury and admiration. Why rage? Because he had observed their lives trapped in misery inherited over generations. Why tenderness? Because these children are talented and they express pride at being able to do something for themselves and contribute to the family income. (GT)

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Sales: Tecolote Films Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Eugenio POLGOVSKY (1977, Mexico) studied film, photography and directing at the CCC in Mexico and won the Special Prize in a Unesco photography contest. He works as director and cinematographer. His first feature-length documentary Tropic of Cancer (2004) was awarded several times at festivals. Films: Goodbye Marina (2001, short), El color de su sombra/ The Colour of his Shade (2003, short), Tropico de cancer/Tropic of Cancer (2004, doc), Los herederos/The Inheritors (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:59

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Thailand, 2009 colour, video, 122 min, Thai Pro: Pimpaka Towira Pro Comp: Extra Virgin Sc: Uruphong Raksasad Cam: Uruphong Raksasad Ed: Uruphong Raksasad Sound: Kriangsak Wittaya-aniwat With: Prayad Jumma,

Somnuek Mongmeung Sales: Extra Virgin Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Agrarian Utopia Uruphong Raksasad

At first sight, Agrarian Utopia is a pure documentary, but the underlying aims of the film slowly unfold underneath that - almost like a trap, even though it was not the aim to lead the viewer astray. Thanks to the way in which the film maker tells his story about the countryside and the disappearance of traditional working methods, it looks as if what you see always was and always will be. That is what he would like, but he knows better. In order to show how a muddy rice paddy is tilled throughout the seasons, he even rented a piece of land. He offered local farmers the yield if they would work it in the traditional way. Without machines, without electricity. It looks so ordinary, yet it is fiction. The farmer’s neighbour isn’t a farmer. He’s called ‘the professor’ and he has his very own ideas. His philosophical way of growing rice evokes amazement everywhere. The film was shot in the north of Thailand in the region where the film maker grew up. In this regard it is also an autobiographical film. Certainly not a political pamphlet, although it is a plea for a respectful attitude to nature. Yes, that sounds utopian and growing rice in a utopian way looks wonderful. (GjZ)

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Uruphong RAKSASAD (1977, Thailand) studied film and photography at Thammasat University. After his graduation in 2004 he worked as an editor and post production supervisor for several Thai feature films. Since 2004, he has focussed on his own career, by going back to the region where he was born and by shooting his feature début Stories from the North (2006). Agrarian Utopia (2009) is his second feature. Films: March of Time (1999, short), The Way (2005, short), The Longest Day (2005, short), The Harvest (2005, short), Reanglo jak meangnue/Stories from the North (2006), The Planet (2007, short), The Rocket (2007, short doc), Agrarian Utopia (2009)

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Canada, 2008 colour, video, 82 min, English Pro: Alison Mary Reid, Paul Zimic Pro Comp: Free Spirit

Films, Grindstone Media Sc: Richard Beattie Cam: Brian Harper Ed: Mark Arcieri Ad: Bob Sher Sound: Mike Welker Mu: Robert Carli With: Angela Vint, Megan Fahlenbock, Rosemary Dunsmore Print/Sales: Free Spirit Films www.thebabyformulamovie.com

The Baby Formula Alison Mary Reid

Alison Reid’s low-budget mockumentary-comedy is a sequel to her short film Succubus. Here, a lesbian couple (played by Megan Fahlenbock and Angela Vint, just as in The Baby Formula) tries to get pregnant. However, in this film Reid takes a look into the future and has both partners become pregnant - and even from each other. Anticipating medical science that has already succeeded in mutating the stem cells of female mice into sperm, Athena and Lillith have made each other pregnant. The director chose a light tone and allows the pregnant actresses to portray all the discomforts and mood swings of pregnancy to the full. Occasionally this puts pressure on their relationship. To heighten the tension even more, Reid then adds a contingent of colourful and exuberant stereotype supporting roles. These include a villainous brother, a very Christian mother and a gay couple who together give The Baby Formula a hilarious and socially relevant contrast and a humorous twist. The real pregnancy of both actresses meant there was no time for a lengthy preproduction and shooting started while the script was still being written. Whether the audience supports the morality of the story that emerged, The Baby Formula ends with two babies who will leave few unmoved. (EH)

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Alison Mary REID (Canada) is recognized as a veteran stunt coordinator with over 200 credits including features such as Blindness and Saw II, III & IV. After second unit directing on several television shows, she made her short film directorial début with Succubus which she also co-wrote and produced. The Baby Formula is her feature film début. Films: Succubus (2006, short), The Baby Formula (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:09:59

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Netherlands, 2009 colour, video, 71 min, Hindi Pro: Wink de Putter Pro Comp: Dieptescherpte BV Sc: Jiska Rickels Cam: Martijn van Broekhuizen Ed: Michiel Reichwein Ad: Wink de Putter Sound: Rik Meier Mu: Horst Rickels Print/Sales: Dieptescherpte BV

Babaji, an Indian Love Story Jiska Rickels Jiska Rickels tells in Babaji an unlikely love story. Babaji Basant is a miracle doctor who heals people from far and wide of pain and disease. But people also come from far away to see him for other reasons. Entirely against Hindu custom, he has buried his wife in his yard. His own grave is already standing ready beside it and every morning he lies down beside his wife, waiting for death. Legend has it that Babaji is already 107 years old. ‘Death walks away from him,’ says a villager who thinks that Babaji is looking younger and younger. Babaji, an Indian Love Story is a warm blooded cinematographic documentary about love. Rickels, who previously made Untertage (2003) and the internationally prize-winning 4 Elements (2006), made a portrait based on conversations with villagers, relatives and with Babaji himself. Without a trace of irony or ethnic scorn, she shows Babaji in his everyday life as a healer. Rickels shows as much respect as the villagers who talk about his wisdom, even though some pictures in her film are hilarious. A singer of traditional Indian love songs provides in her lyrics indirect commentary on life, death and the love that elevates all of us. (GT)

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Jiska RICKELS (1977, Netherlands) performed in music theatre productions before commencing her studies at the Dutch Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. With her graduation project Untertage she instantly received international acclaim. Her first feature length documentary 4 Elements opened the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam in 2006. In 2007 she was named Best Director of the Year by the Dutch Directors Guild. Films: Untertage (2003, short doc), Himmelfilm (2004, short doc), Electriek (2004, short), 26.000 Faces (segment Sevko, 2005, short doc), 4 Elements (2006, doc), Babaji, an Indian Love Story (2009, doc)

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Mexico, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 86 min, Spanish Pro: Paola Herrera Pro Comp: Una Comunion Sc: Enrique Rivero Cam: Arnau Valls Colomer Ed: Javier Ruiz Caldera,

Enrique Rivero Ad: Nohemi González Sound: Alejandro de Icaza Mu: Raúl Locatelli With: Nolberto Coria, Nancy Orozco, Tesalia Huerta Print/Sales: Fortissimo Films www.parquevia.com

Enrique RIVERO HUERTA (1976, Mexico) studied industrial engineering in Mexico. After finishing his studies he started working in the banking industry and then moved to the United States to work for Citibank. There he decided to switch course and study cinema. He has worked in various areas related to film and directed two short films. Parque vía is his feature début.

Parque vía Enrique Rivero Huerta

The Golden-Leopard-winning Parque vía is intriguing from start to finish. In his modest, impressive début, Enrique Rivero stays close to reality. The protagonist Beto is acted by - and modelled on - Nolberto Coria, who works in the household of a rich family. The other roles are also played by non-professional actors. The beautiful camera work by Arnau Valls Colomer sharply reveals the relationship between the rooms in the house and its eternal inhabitant, but also between the different social classes. The fiction element in the film focuses on the relationship with the chaotic, violent world outdoors: Mexico City. Old Beto lives in one small room in the large house where he has worked for 30 years. The owner moved out 10 years ago with the rest of her staff and Beto has looked after the building awaiting sale. He takes care of the garden, cleans the windows, polishes the kitchen as if life could start up again at any moment. The old lady comes to visit him occasionally and, while not a word too many is spoken during those visits, it’s clear that they respect each other. Beto spends his free evenings in front of the television or with his only friend, the lady companion Lupe. Beto appreciates his loneliness and the noisy outside world makes him nervous. Suddenly the house is sold. Beto has to decide how he can maintain his isolated existence. (GT)

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Films: Nidra (2004, short), Schhht (2005, short), Parque vía (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:00

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Brazil/Angola/Portugal, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 88 min, Portuguese Pro: Diana Gebrim,

Glaura Cardoso Pro Comp: TEIA Filmes Sc: Clarissa Campolina,

Marília Rocha Cam: Clarissa Campolina,

Marília Rocha Ed: Clarissa Campolina Sound: Pedro Aspahan With: Acácio Videira, Maria da Conceiçao Videira, Gambôa Muatximbau Print/Sales: TEIA Filmes

Marília ROCHA (1978, Brazil) holds a master degree in Social Communication. She is a founder of the collective Teia and has made a lot of short films and videos. Cattle Callers (2005), her first feature documentary, was awarded at the International Documentary Film Festival in Brazil. Acácio (2008) is her third feature-length film.

Acácio Marília Rocha

Between 1918 and 2008, the visual artists Acácio Videira and Maria da Conceiçao lived on three continents. After a childhood in Vila Real in Portugal, they emigrated to Angola. After the Angolan war of independence in 1975, they no longer felt welcome there and left for Brazil. Marília Rocha records the history of the couple from their marriage until the death of Videira in 2008. She used the work and the photos and films that Videira made in his life. At the start of the period of more than two years she worked on the film, Videira was groggy and forgetful, but he gradually picked up steam and and provided several anecdotes. Acácio is a cinematographic patchwork quilt of the past of Videira and his wife. Rocha, who previously made an experimental documentary about Brazilian ‘cowboys’, was never planning to make a biography. She was interested in making a link between the three countries and their inhabitants and reflecting on colonial relations, life as an expat, the war of independence and memory. The fact that Videira is no longer completely lucid makes the film occasionally painful to watch. Hence it is even more moving when he recognises an Angolan who felt treated as a son by him. Acácio was produced by the Brazilian film collective Teia, of which Rocha is one of the founders. (GT)

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Films: Aflitos (2000, short), Duralex Sedlex (2001, short), Mind the Gap (2001, short), Jardim fechado (2002, short), Bainema (2003, short), Tonos (2004, short), Aboio/Cattle Callers (2005), Descaminhos (2007), Acácio (2008)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Netherlands, 2009 colour, 35mm, 85 min, Dutch/ English/Hindi Pro: Anton Smit, Hanneke Niens Pro Comp: IdtV Film B.V. Sc: Diederik van Rooijen Cam: Lennert Hillege Ed: Moek de Groot Ad: Yunnus Pathan Sound: Jan Schermer Mu: Bart Westerlaken,

Gerard et Jerome With: Egbert-Jan Weeber, Ishwari Bose-Bhattacharya, Akhilesh Kumar Sales: IdtV Film B.V. Distr. NL: A-Film Distribution

Bollywood Hero Diederik van Rooijen

‘I want you to be proud of me,’ the young Dutch actor says to his 8mm camera. During his stay in a hotel in Mumbai, he keeps a video diary for his father is going senile in Holland. In India, he’s been given a role as a colonial in a nostalgic Bollywood musical. The taxi driver doesn’t have to explain to him that the most productive film industry of the world is to be found in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. Encouraged by a girl who approaches him in the street, wide-eyed, begging for a better future, the guilt-plagued Nick undergoes a metamorphosis that bears a slight resemblance to that of Travis Bickle, the protagonist in Taxi Driver. Finally, he cuts his hair short and offers himself as a Christ figure in Hindu-land in order to right a few social wrongs such as arranged marriages, a shortage of medical care and child labour. In doing so, Nick reveals himself to be both a naive and arrogant Westerner who has little understanding of the culture he’s trying to elevate. Despite all his good intentions, he is greeted only by incredulity.

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Diederik van ROOIJEN (1975, Netherlands) graduated in 2001 from the Dutch Film and Television Academy. After that he directed about thirty episodes of several Dutch television series. BabyPhoned won him the 2002 NPS Award for Short Film. Bollywood Hero is his début feature. Films: A Funeral for Mr. Smithee (2002, short), BabyPhoned (2002, short), Zulaika (2003), De bode (2004, kort), Mass (2005, short), Dummy (2006, short), Genji (2006, short), Het boze oog (2007, short), Een trui voor kip Saar (2001, short), Stella (2008, TV), Bollywood Hero (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:01

Bright Future

Kazakhstan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 80 min, Kazakh Pro: Murat Omarov Pro Comp: National Film

Company of Kazakhstan Sc: Daniyar Salamat Cam: Boris Troshev Ed: Khadisha Urmurzina Ad: Nurbolat Zhapakov Sound: Askar Ahmettegi Mu: Yeskendir Khasangaliyev With: Bakhytzhan Alpeisov, Nurmakhambet Aitenov, Gulshat Tutova Print/Sales: National Film

Company of Kazakhstan

Together with My Father Daniyar Salamat Daniyar Salamat’s second film is a small family drama that brings us to contemporary Almaty and reflects on a dysfunctional family and its impact on a child. The director is a great observer of small details and the psyche of his characters. Although the subject is universal, the situation of a father bringing up his son is quite modern, and not only for Kazakh cinema. The father-son relationship between 8-year-old Baisal (Nurmakhambet Aitenov) and his father Karim (Bakhytzhan Alpeisov) is very moving. The two spend a lot of time together, sharing the cooking and even a bed, as well as a complicated relationship with the boy’s mother. Their everyday routine shows how intimate their relationship is, even though it’s not smooth all the time. Baisal is subjected to the turbulent lives of the adults, not only when his father enjoys alcohol and the company of a strange woman, but especially when he visits his mother, whose new, drinking man shows his aggression. The boy’s emotional life is influenced by it all. The film is a true-to-life story shot in the realistic style so typical of Kazakh cinema, and is certainly a promising new voice from Central Asia. (LC)

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Daniyar SALAMAT (1970, Kazakhstan) graduated from the Film and Theatre Institute in 1998. His first film was the short Chasing the Death (1998). In 2005, Salamat directed his first full-length feature, Zhoshe, which was awarded with a Grand Prix at the Film Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and with the Best Director prize at the Festival in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Films: Chasing the Death (1998, short), Zhoshe (2005), Together with My Father (2008)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

USA, 2008 colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 77 min, English Pro: Lee Anne Schmitt Pro Comp: Company

Town Productions Cam: Lee Anne Schmitt Sound: Ryan Philippi Print/Sales: Company

Town Productions

California Company Town Lee Anne Schmitt

Lee Anne SCHMITT is a writer and director of films and performances. The IFFR 2009 screens both her short film The Wash (2005) and her first long docmentary California Company Town (2008). Films: Rise and Shine (2000, short), Jumping Portrait (2000, short), Las Vegas (2000, short), Nightingale (2002, short), Awake and Sing (2003, short), The Wash (2005, short, co-dir), California Company Town (2008, doc), The Last Buffalo Hunt (2008, doc, co-dir)

California Company Town casts a probing gaze at California towns abandoned by the industries that created them - onetime boomtowns now haunted by the twilight of the American promise. In the early 1960s, the founder of California Institute of the Arts, Walt Disney, envisioned an American version of the German Bauhaus. Today, in a world even he may not have imagined, CalArts’ vision is distinct and pervasive, with a faculty that includes James Benning, Thom Andersen, Rebecca Baron, Monte Hellman, Nina Menkes and Lee Anne Schmitt. A versatile multidisciplinary artist whose practice extends from film and performance to photography and writing, Schmitt creates evocative, deeply felt works that consider everyday elements of American life as cultural ritual. An effortless melancholy, marked by an aesthetic Puritanism, begins with the landscape. History marks the land, a process made remarkable in California, whose very geography has been re-charted to serve specific uses. Sold as open space, a limitless expanse with free opportunity, California was actually, from its beginning, fissured by the interwoven needs of private and state interests. The experience of living in a particular place at a particular time, the phenomena of time and space, and the space between ideology and the reality of the spaces we inhabit are central to Schmitt’s essay. (RM)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:01

Bright Future

Spain, 2008 b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 98 min, Spanish/Hebrew Pro: Montse Triola, Lluis Minarro Pro Comp: Andergraun

Films, Eddie Saeta Sc: Albert Serra Cam: Neus Ollé, Jimmy Gimferrer Ed: Àngel Martín, Albert Serra Ad: Jimmy Gimferrer Sound: Joan Pons, Jordi Ribas Mu: Paul Casals With: Lluís Carbó, Lluís Serrat Batlle, Lluís Serrat Masanellas, Montse Triola, Mark Peranson, Victoria Aragonès Print/Sales: Capricci Films

El cant dels ocells Birdsong Albert Serra

Albert Serra surprised two years ago with his exceptional feature Honour of the Knights, a minimalist Catalonian portrayal of Cervantes’ Don Quixote de la Mancha. In it, Quixote and Sancho travel largely silently through the Catalan landscape. With Birdsong, Serra again films a classic story, the biblical epic of the Three Kings. The wise men trudge in devastated surroundings to the stone hut where Jesus was born while discussing the right direction. Alongside the sublime amateur actors from Honour of the Knights, this time the father of one of them also plays a role. In addition, Serra gave small roles to his producer and the resident Rotterdam staffer Mark Peranson, who also made the ‘making of’: Waiting for Sancho. They improvise the often wordless and modest actions in static shots. Serra sometimes shows them as prophetic silhouettes, then as absurd archetypes contrasting with the overwhelming landscape filmed in black-and-white. The director, who studied Spanish literature, art history and comparative literature, says he does not like the modern era. In reaction to what he regards as the very dramaturgically responsible Honour of the K nights, he says that here he aimed to avoid any sentiment and to strip the story of any unnecessary suspense. This results in a dryly comic and impressive version of a mythical quest. (GT)

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Albert SERRA (1975, Spain) graduated in Spanish literature and comparative literature at the University of Barcelona, where he also studied art history. Besides writing, directing and producing films Albert Serra writes and produces plays. In 2001 he founded Andergraun Films. Films: Crespià (2003), Honor de cavalleria/Honour of the Knights (2006), El cant dels ocells/ Birdsong (2008)

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Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Spain/Mexico, 2009 colour, video, 70 min, Spanish Pro: Carlos Serrano Azcona,

Jaime Rosales, Carlos Reygadas Pro Comp: Estar Ahí

Cinema, Fresdeval Films, Mantarraya Producciones Sc: Carlos Serrano Azcona Cam: David Valdeperez Ed: Manuel Muñoz, Carlos Serrano Azcona, Carlos Reygadas Ad: Barbara Díez Sound: Carlos García Flores Mu: Ginferno With: Bosco Sodi, Ana Casado Bosc, Sara Montgomery Campbell, Mayte Cedeño, Rodolfo Gilmartin, Tito Ezeizabarrena, Mº Dolores Nadal

El árbol

Print/Sales: Estar Ahí Cinema

The Tree Carlos Serrano Azcona

Somewhere in a Spanish city, Santiago (in his 30s and played by the Mexican painter Bosco Sodi) roams aimlessly and lonely through the streets. His wife has thrown him out and the judge has decided that he cannot see his children for now. Santiago tries to put his life back together again from this unfortunate situation. He has a job in a friend’s bar, but is given the sack. Little by little, his life falls apart. The camera (impressive work by David Valdeperez) follows him roaming the streets looking for work and for an aim in life. His only way out seems to be the highest bridge in the city... Scriptwriter and novice director Carlos Serrano Azcona (1969) previously worked on Japón by Carlos Reygadas, who is co-producer this time, as is the Spaniard Jaime Rosales, director of e.g. Bullet in the Head. The form and style of The Tree were partly inspired by the work of the Dardenne Brothers, but Serrano Azcona was also influenced by the possibilities of modern video cameras, as previously revealed by Albert Serra (Honour of the Knights) and Rafá Cortes (Yo). The result is a dynamic yet restrained and contemplative film. The Tree opens the eyes of the viewer to everyday despair and existential hope, culminating in a climax that has to be seen to be ‘believed’. (ID/GT)

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Carlos SERRANO AZCONA (1969, Spain) studied philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid and direction at the London Film School. He has directed several shorts, but has also worked on short films as assistant director, editor and sound recording engineer. For Japón (Carlos Reygadas, 2003), he worked as editor and coproducer. The Tree is his feature début. Films: El árbol/The Tree (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:02

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Chile, 2009 colour, video, 117 min, Spanish Pro: Gregorio Gonzalez Pro Comp: Forastero Sc: Sebastian Silva,

Pedro Peirano Cam: Sergio Armstrong Ed: Danielle Fillios Ad: Pablo Gonzalez Sound: Ernesto Trujillo

and Roberto Espinoza Mu: Pedro Soubercaseaux With: Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón, Alejandro Goic, Andrea GarcíaHuidobro, Mariana Loyola, Agustín Silva, Anita Reeves Print/Sales: Forastero

La Nana

Sebastian SILVA (1979, Chile) attended film courses in Chile and animation in Montréal. Besides film maker he is also a musician and has recorded several albums. His first feature La vida me mata (2007) was awarded several prestigious awards in Chile. The M aid (2008) is his second feature.

The Maid Sebastian Silva

The young and versatile film maker Sebastian Silva (1979) seems to have found his feet. After studying film (in Chile) and animation (in Montréal) and having made several records as a musician, his first feature La vida me mata (2007) was regarded by Chilean film critics as the best of the year. One year later we already have The M aid, a tragicomic study of a Chilean servant. After 23 years of faithful service, she cannot accept the fact that the family for whom she’s always been the only employee now takes on an extra servant. Raquel is shy, surly and stubborn, but also loyal, precise and calm. She has become so entrenched in the household of her affluent bosses and their four spoilt children that she has acquired special rights. Whenever she falls ill and a second servant is brought into the house, Raquel usually manages to make life so difficult for her that she leaves again quickly . Silva films with a great sense of understatement the stubborn resistance of a woman whose work has become her personality. Even Raquel, whose only intimate contacts are brief telephone conversations with her mother, is unable to combat the uncomplicated charm offensive of the new colleague Lucy. But even blossoming friendship brings dangers with it. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Films: La vida me mata (2007), La Nana/The Maid (2009)

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Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Slovenia, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 100 min, Slovene Pro: Petra Vidmar Pro Comp: Gustav Film Sc: Vlado Skafar Cam: Ales Belak Ed: Vlado Skafar Sound: Vlado Skafar Print: Slovenian Film Fund Sales: Gustav Film

Vlado SKAFAR (1969, Slovenia) was co-founder of Slovenian Cinematheque. In 2004 he started Isola Cinema Film Festival. He collaborated as scriptconsultant with Igor Sterk and Hanna A. W. Slak. In 1998 he made his first short film The Old Bridge. Letter to a Child is his second feature.

Otroci Letter to a Child Vlado Skafar

Film can be simple. Just a document. It can just record what you see and what you hear. It can be pure. Why not? At least that seems to be what the maker here is striving for. Letter to a Child looks simple, but it’s about all major issues such as happiness, love and death. The Slovenian director Vlado Skafar interviewed ordinary people. Or maybe interview is the wrong word; he got them talking. It’s a mistake to think that ordinary people say ordinary things. About happiness, for instance. About love. Or about death. Issues about which few people speak easily, but the people in Skafar’s film do. Occasionally it looks as if he is only focusing on the sunlight falling on their face, and his question seems to be a sideline and without any importance. His partners in conversation remain amazingly calm and peaceful, even as they are saying the strangest things. As if the director really isn’t listening. As if they are standing dreaming in front of the camera. But the maker is not naive. He’s a dedicated cinephile and knows what film can and can’t do. He also knows what has been made before and realises that only absolute modesty and simplicity can make people forget all those masters who preceded him. (GjZ)

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Films: Stari most/The Old Bridge (1998, short), Peterka: leto odlocitve/Peterka: Year of decision (2003), Pod njihovo kozo/Under their S.K.I.N. (2006, short), Otroci/Letter to a Child (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:02

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Brazil, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 81 min, Portuguese Pro: Julia Ramil Pro Comp: Atitude Produções

e Empreendimentos Sc: Matheus Souza Cam: Julio Secchin Ed: Julio Secchin Mu: Pedro Carneiro, Matheus Souza With: Érika Mader, Gregório Duviver, Nathalia Dill, Álamo Facó, Julia Gorman, Marcelo Adnet, Anna Sophia Folch Print/Sales: Atitude Produções

e Empreendimentos

Apenas o fim That’s It Matheus Souza

That’s It, the first work by 21-year-old Brazilian film student Matheus Souza, is a refreshing and sympathetic film. The title refers to the end of the relationship between two twenty-somethings. She tells him she wants to end it in an hour and to leave (but she doesn’t say where to). In that last hour, the camera follows their every moment, as in realtime. With entertainingly fluent dialogues, partly improvised texts and plenty of humour, the two try to round off their relationship as well as possible in businesslike negotiations. Above all for themselves. It largely comes down to talking, with occasionally some warmth and often irony, because real romance is still too serious. Bit by bit, the characters reveal themselves and we get to know them better and better. In between the lines, the director provides a critical caricature of the sitcom, of the typical roles of him and her, consumer society and pop culture. Only at the end do the emotions emerge, cautiously yet convincingly. A very charming, lively, playful and daring film début, entirely made, shot, produced and acted by students at the University of Rio de Janeiro. It’s also the very first feature project by this university. The film had its world première at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival in October 2008, where it won the audience prize. (ID)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Matheus SOUZA (1987, Brazil) moved to Rio de Janeiro at the age of seven. It was in weekend movie marathons with his dad that he realized his passion for the ‘seventh art’. The cast and crew of his début feature That’s It are Souza’s friends from the PUC-Rio Film Course and people from the theatre group O Tablado. The film is also the first feature produced by his university. Films: Apenas o fim/That’s It (2008)

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Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

Malaysia, 2009 colour, video, 66 min, English Pro: Jasminatha Teo Pro Comp: Da Huang

Pictures Sdn. Bhd. Sc: Tan Chui Mui Cam: Von Felix, James Lee, Woo Ming Jin Ed: Selvan Ramsay, Tan Chui Mui, Liew Seng Tat Sound: Chan Yen Yen, Michael Leow, Hardesh Singh Mu: Chor Guan Ng With: Gavin Yap, Loh Bok Lai, Chua Thien See, Berg Lee Print/Sales: Da Huang

Pictures Sdn. Bhd.

All My Failed Attempts Tan Chui Mui

The director gave at least two reasons why she made a series of short films in a brief period. She moved her office in Kuala Lumpur from a busy Indian area to a tranquil middle-class suburb. A new base and also a new approach, she thought, and she decided to make a short film every month. According to her, it didn’t matter whether the films were good or bad; making them was the main thing. The second reason was to have a ready answer to the question posed most often to the maker of a successful first film (in this case the Tiger Award winner Love Conquers All, 2006). Namely: ‘When is your second film coming?’ That second film takes time, so the answer for now is: ‘ I make short films. I make one every month.’ The seven short films in this series are very different. It occasionally appears as if the maker is dissatisfied with her training and is reinventing film history for herself. There is a very pure documentary (Chicken), there are dramatic dialogue-driven films (The Need of R itual, Everyday, Everyday), dramatic actions (To Say Goodbye) and even burlesque science-fiction films (Dream #1, #2 and #3). They are not just finger exercises, because several of them are small masterpieces. Within all these variations in form, the maker remain true to her theme. Her characters still do not allow themselves to be led by reason. Certainly not in love. (GjZ)

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TAN Chui Mui (1978, Malaysia) has worked as a columnist for local newspapers and magazines. She directed some short films before making her feature début Love Conquers All in 2006. This film won the VPRO Tiger Award. Films: There Is Treasure Everywhere (1999, short), Living Elsewhere (2002, short), Hometown (2003, short), 3R (2004, short), A Tree in Tanjung Malim (2004, short), South of South (2005, short), Company of Mushrooms (2006, short), Ai qing zhang sheng yi qie/Love Conquers All (2006), Nobody’s Girlfriend (2007, short), All My Failed Attempts (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:03

Bright Future

Hong Kong, 2008 colour, video, 97 min, Mandarin/Cantonese Pro: Chow Keung, Jia

Zhang-ke, Li Xiudong Pro Comp: Xstream Pictures Sc: Emily Tang Cam: Lai Yiu Fai Ed: Chow Keung Ad: Lam Ching Sound: Zhang Yang, Gary Sze With: Yao Qianyu, Chen

Taisheng, Jenny Tse, Yu Zhilong

Wanmei shenghuo Perfect Life Emily Tang

Perfect Life, the second feature by Emily Tang (Tang Xiaobai), at first revolves around Li Yueying, a young woman in the cold northeast of China. In a world where no one is waiting for an untrained, inexperienced woman, she knows that in order to fulfil her dreams she will have to resort to her own stubbornness and selfishness. Her father deserted her mother and the money saved by the family is destined for her younger brother’s studies. When she stops working for a shop making artificial limbs in order to take a job as a chambermaid, she attracts the attention of a mysterious criminal, Mongol. Then in the editing, the documentary story of Jenny from Hong Kong starts to emerge. She thought she had her life perfectly worked out, but when her marriage breaks down, she also finds herself in financial problems and has to fight for the custody of her children. The beautifully constructed film uses various styles (the grainy, dark film material of the fiction confronting the high-contrast HD documentary part ) in order to show the irreversible impact of industrialisation and capitalism in China on individual lives. We see Li Yueying one more time when the women meet briefly in a rapidlygrowing town in the south of China, facing Hong Kong. A city filled with young women who, like Li Yueying, wonder every day whether their efforts will lead anywhere. (GT)

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Sales: United Star Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Emily TANG, born TANG Xiaobai (1970, China), studied Western literature and language at Beijing University. In 1997, she directed and produced a documentary series for Chinese television. After that she attended the directing programme at the Central Academy of Drama. In 2001, she made her first appearance with the feature Conjugation and emigrated to Hong Kong. Films: Dong ci bian wei/ Conjugation (2001), Wanmei shenghuo/Perfect Life (2008)

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Bright Future

Algeria/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 138 min, Arabic Pro: Yacine Teguia,

Phillipe Carcassonne Pro Comp: Neffa Films,

Ciné-@, Le Fresnoy Sc: Tariq Teguia, Yacine Teguia Cam: Nasser Medjkane, Hacène Aït Kaci Ed: Rodolphe Molla, Andrée Davanture Sound: Matthieu Perrot, Kamel, Fergani Mu: Ina Djakou, Terry Riley With: Abdelkader Affak, Ines Rose Djakou, Ahmed Benaïssa, Fethi Ghares

Gabbla

Sales: Neffa Films Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Inland Tariq Teguia

With his second feature, after Rome R ather Than You (2006), Tariq Teguia proves himself to be the most important new director in Algeria. The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival while still in digital form. In Inland, he links two important causes of alienation: the influence of terror on local populations and the migration of men without prospects. The intriguing protagonist is the topographer Malek, who takes on a surveying job in a remote region of Algeria. He moves into a sober base camp in the desert and is viewed suspiciously by the local population and the authorities. His isolated position improves slightly when he finds a friend among the farmers, who have returned to their village after being chased away by Islamic fundamentalists. Yet his position is vulnerable and the surroundings are dangerous thanks to the many minefields. Teguia creates a sharp contrast between Malek’s former urban intellectual surroundings and the barren, unpredictable Sahara, where silence predominates. When explosions are suddenly heard at night, Malek discovers he is not the only stranger. An African woman flees to his hut. Malek decides to help her, but she chooses an unusual route. Teguia films sparsely, hard and yet not heartlessly, with a firm hand. He strips human adventures of romance. Reduced to the core, they become grand, lonely odysseys. (GT)

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Tariq TEGUIA (1966, Algeria) studied visual arts and philosophy in Paris, where he worked as a freelance photographer. Back in Algeria he taught art history at an art academy. Inland is his second feature. Films: Kech’ mouvement (1992, short), Le chien/The Dog (1996, short), Ferailles d’attente (1998, short), Haçla/The Fence (2002, doc), Roma wa la n’touma/ Rome Rather Than You (2006), Gabbla/Inland (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:04

Bright Future

Japan, 2008 b&w, video, 110 min, Japanese Pro: Takao Saiki Pro Comp: SIZE, inc. Sc: Laurence Thrush Cam: Gary Young Ed: Laurence Thrush Ad: Diane J Kami Sound: Kazuyuki Tokita Mu: Pan American With: Kenta Negishi,

Masako Innami, Takeshi Furusawa, Kento Oguri Print/Sales: Growth Films www.tobiranomuko.com

Tobira no muko Left Handed Laurence Thrush

A British debutant director shoots a film in Japan with a cast of amateurs. And the film is shot in black-and-white. On paper that looks like a risky and obscure experiment, but the result is wonderfully controlled and balanced, like the work of an experienced Japanese director from a past generation. The protagonist is the schoolboy Hiroshi, although he’s not on screen much. He suffers from the typically Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori, which primarily affects boys. It stands for a total withdrawal from social life. The family takes care of the victim, but shame makes them keep silent about the situation, that can last few years. In Japan, 1 million kids suffer from this mysterious psychological condition. The film maker meticulously reveals the effect of the illness on Hiroshi’s surroundings, but wisely does not enter his room, so that the boy’s behaviour remains a puzzle. You could say that the real protagonist of the film is Yoshiko, the boy’s mother. It’s also her life that is completely destroyed, even though she continues to pretend to the outside world that everything is normal. It seems an obvious conclusion that Takao Saiki, a Japanese producer with a company in Los Angeles, conceived the East-West construction of the film. It worked out well. The foreign film maker tackled the sensitive Japanese problem cautiously but without shame. (GjZ)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Laurence THRUSH (UK) founded Growth Films immediately after high school and began to independently produce and direct music videos. In 2000 he produced and directed his first documentary film Fidel’s Fight, which was selected for several festivals. After that he made a name for himself with directing commercials. Left H anded is his first fictional film. Films: Fidel’s Fight (2000, doc), Tobira no muko/Left Handed (2008)

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Bright Future

Belgium, 2008 colour, 35mm, 97 min, French Pro: Antonino Lombardo, Jeroen

Beker, Frans van Gestel Pro Comp: BVBA Prime

Time, Versus Production, Motel Films BV Sc: Fien Troch Cam: Frank Van den Eeden Ed: Ludo Troch Sound: Frank Struys Mu: Peter Van Laerhoven With: Emmanuelle Devos, Bruno Todeschini Sales: The Works Media Group Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

Unspoken Fien Troch

Unspoken is a character study of few words - or better, of a lot of unspoken words - about the inability to communicate of the parents of a daughter who disappeared without trace five years before. The mother, played by Emmanuelle Devos, who is nearly bursting out of her seams from pent-up emotion, regularly sees a girl in the underground who looks a little like her daughter. And the father (played by Bruno Todeschini), who is wasting away from self-torment, receives mysterious telephone calls that may point towards the girl. Until the father/husband disappears without trace too. From that day on, the mother/wife is all on her own twice over, which may seem less lonely in some ways. Fien Troch made her feature début in 2005 with the prize-winning Someone Else’s Happiness. Her second feature is about coming to terms with a loss that can’t really be coped with, because there is no certainty about the nature of the loss. It’s not about unravelling the fate of the daughter, but the question of what the loss does to those left behind, who after a time are confronted with people in their surroundings who expect them to have come to terms with the loss. This hidden tension cuts through the soul like a scalpel, not lastly through the delightful play with depth of focus by cameraman Frank Van den Eeden. (GT)

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Fien TROCH (1978, Belgium) graduated from the film department of the Sint Lukas Academy in Ghent in 2000, where’s she teaching now. She acted in the French feature Saint-Cyr by Patricia Mazuy, made several short films that have been screened at various festivals and a number of television commercials. Someone Else’s H appiness, her first full-length feature, won the Golden Alexander for best film, best script and best actress (Ina Geerts) in Thessaloniki. Films: Verbrande aarde (1998, short), Wooww (1999, short), Maria (2000, short), Cool Sam and Sweet Suzie (2001, short), Een ander zijn geluk/Someone Else’s Happiness (2005), Unspoken (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:05

Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Chile/Spain, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 96 min, Spanish Pro: Cristian Jimenez Pro Comp: Retaguardia Films Sc: Marcelo Leonart, Nona

Fernández, Cristián Jiménez, Andrés Waissbluth Cam: Inti Briones Ed: Marcos Hervera Ad: Sebastian Muñoz Sound: Cristián Freund Mu: Pebre With: Pablo Macaya, Tamara Garea, Andrea García Huidobro Print/Sales: Retaguardia Films

199 recetas para ser feliz 199 Tips to Be Happy Andrés Waissbluth During an exorbitantly sweltering summer in Barcelona, a Chilean couple, Tomás en Helena, receive an unexpected visit. The visitor is Sandra, the girlfriend of Helena’s younger brother. He had just disappeared without trace after he dived off a rock into the water right in front of Sandra. Sandra isn’t in a hurry and seems to want to extend her stay. While the hostess falls ill and Tomás has the unenviable task of trying to sell the umpteenth self-help book for his publisher, the young Sandra slowly but surely manages to wind both adults around her little finger. She’s soon leading her own life outside the house, but lies about it. Back home, in the small apartment, she evokes as much sympathy as lust and what was once a stable relationship slowly but surely becomes unsettled. In his second feature, Waissbluth displays a sharp psychological insight and plays a refined game with naiveté, guilt, manipulation and suppressed desires. Second-rate tips for fortune hunters pop up in the form of modern title cards - as minor ironic intermezzos and the film maker occasionally portrays the fantasy world of the characters. The film is beautifully shot by the versatile cameraman Inti Briones, responsible last year for The Sky, the Earth and the R ain by José Luis Torres Leiva and this festival also for the photography of Raùl Ruiz’ Nucingen Haus. (GT)

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Andrés WAISSBLUTH (1973, USA) attended a technical course in Chile and the EICTV film school in San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba, where he graduated in 1996 in film directing. He has worked as a radio announcer, financial consultant, university professor and television director. His feature début Los debutantes was the Chilean Film selection for the Oscars in 2004. Films: Amen (1994, short), Suburbios (1996, short), El Príncipe Carlos (1995, doc), 18 en el Parque (1999, doc), Los debutantes (2003), 199 recetas para ser feliz/199 Tips to Be Happy (2008)

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Bright Future

United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 114 min, English Pro: Lene Bausager,

Damon Bryant Pro Comp: Left Turn Films Ltd Sc: Baillie Walsh Cam: John Mathieson Ed: Struan Clay Ad: Laurence Dorman Sound: Mark Auguste Mu: Richard Hartley With: Daniel Craig, Eve, Harry

Eden, Jodhi May, Helen McCrory, Olivia Williams Print: Disney Sales: Arclight Films

International Pty.Ltd. http://www.thefilmfactory.

Flashbacks of a Fool Baillie Walsh

The story starts as the mess is cleared from the luxury beach mansion of Hollywood actor Joe Scott, in whom we recognise the present James Bond actor Daniel Craig. But this is a different kettle of fish. Scott is on the bottle, squabbles with his housemate about a mutt she’s picked up and that he regards as too much of a pansy and during lunch he’s dumped by his arrogant agent. Then he walks into the sea and the story goes back in time to the 1970s, to the East Coast of the USA. A girlfriend introduces the young Scott (Harry Eden) to the world of David Bowie and Bryan Ferry. But the energetic seductive art of the mother of his best friend throw a shadow over this tender love. Baillie Walsh has made music videos for Massive Attack and INXS, commercials for Levi’s and the full-length documentary Mirror, Mirror (1996) about a transvestite/prostitute with AIDS. With Flashbacks of a Fool he has made an accessible drama with a melancholy undertone. The greatest attractions are the patient buildup of suspense, the convincing acting and not lastly the design. That is almost inevitable for a story that goes back to the glamrock era by a director with a record of service like Walsh’s. The dance to If There Is Something by Roxy Music, in which the line ‘When we were young’ acquires a wry sound is irresistible super-kitsch. (EH)

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co.uk/flashbacks/

Baillie WALSH (UK) works since 1990 as director of films, commercials and videos. He has made various music videos, e.g. for Massive Attack, Boy George, INXS and New Order, and some documentaries about different subcultures. Currently he lives and works in New York. Flashbacks of a Fool is his fiction début. Films: Mirror, Mirror Limitation of Life (1996, doc), Oasis: Lord Don’t Show Me Down (2007, doc), Flashbacks of a Fool (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:05

Bright Future

WORLD PREMIERE

China, 2009 colour, video, 100 min, Mandarin Pro: Helen Cui Pro Comp: TianlinFilm

Productions Sc: Wang Liren Cam: Li Xiaofu Ed: Wang Liren Ad: Ningru Print/Sales: TianlinFilm

Productions

Ci qing Tattoo Wang Liren

Tattoo is like a film noir situated on a different planet. The story is about a group of petty criminals, basically kids hanging around on streetcorners, in a sleepy Chinese coastal town. Leizi is a member of the local militia, but bored stiff. With tough friends like Hei-di, his girlfriend Ahhua who prostitutes herself, and Qingmao who has just returned from prison, Leizi spends his time drinking and keeping the neighbourhood awake. They extort money from Ah-hua’s clients and sell things for the local gangster, Mr. Lian. When Leizi meets the righteous daughter of the Christian foreman, he starts having his doubts about his lifestyle. But the chain of violence, starting with extortion and kidnapping and ending in murder, has already started and no one can escape it. The story is based on the life of a school friend of the maker who has now been executed, and is set in the harsh and often cruel reality of today’s China where petty drug dealers can expect the death penalty. Just as in his first film feature Weed (2007), Wang Liren reveals his special eye for expressionist, poetic compositions. Both in the way in which he presents actors and in his use of often oppressive and authentic sets, he reveals himself to be an outsider in the present generation of film makers. Wang still films using his intuition, and that remains fascinating. (GT)

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WANG Liren (1970, China) studied at the Beijing Film Institute. Since 1997 he has worked as a director for TV commercials. Next to that he is active in Chinese independent film making. In 2001 Wang organized the ‘October film group’ with directors Ding Jiancheng and Zhangmeng, with whom he produces films. Tattoo is his second feature. Films: Spirit Wander in City (1998, short), Weed (2007), Tattoo (2009)

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Bright Future

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 93 min, German Pro: Peter Schwartzkopff Pro Comp: Reverse Angle

Der Architekt The Architect Ina Weisse

When architect Georg Winter accepts a prize, he explains that an architect has the good fortune of measuring every realised building against the rightness of his original idea. Which also reveals the theoretical framework of Ina Weisse’s feature début about a middle-age man who is forced to take stock of the achievements and mistakes he has made in his personal life. Der Architekt is an intense drama in which the four members of the family travel to a mountain village to bury Georg Winter’s mother. They get stranded in bad weather. In this unexpected isolation, several proverbial skeletons emerge from the cupboard to throw new light on the past but also on the present life of the parents and the two almostadult children. Weisse’s first feature has many classic aspects but also allows the actors to leave the beaten path. The smooth surface of the model family hides sexual intrigues and unhealthy dependencies. Weisse plays these beautifully against each other in charged scenes in which the characters do not as much reveal factual details as psychological characteristics. Against the background of the virgin white winter landscape of the Tirol, the director repeatedly adds new accents to bring to the surface unfulfilled desires, falsely agreed compromises and profound insecurities. Choices must be made. The only question is: who’s going to make them?

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Production, Reverse Angle International, NDR Norddeutscher Rundfunk Sc: Ina Weisse & Daphne Charizani Cam: Carl-Friedrich Koschnik Ed: Andreas Wodratschke Ad: Susann Bieling Sound: Max Meindl,Felix Roggel,Richard Borowski Mu: Annette Focks With: Josef Bierbichler, Hilde Van Mieghem, Matthias Schweighöfer, Sandra Hüller, Sophie Rois, Lucas Zolgar Print/Sales: Reverse

Angle Production www.derarchitektderfilm.de

Ina WEISSE (1968, Germany) grew up in Berlin. She acted in several plays and films for television and studied philosophy in Heidelberg. After that she started studying film direction at the film academy in Hamburg. Her short film Alles Anders (2002) won several awards at German film festivals. Films: Lünow (1999, short), Sonntags (2000, short), Klara (2001, short), Alles Anders (2002, short), Der Architekt/The Architect (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:06

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

China, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 150 min, Mandarin Pro: Cui Zi’en Pro Comp: HI Film Sc: Yang Jin Cam: Situ Zhixia Ed: Yang Jin, Ma Sai Ad: Zhang Jun Sound: Feng Zhe, Zhang Xiao With: Bai Lijun, Yang Mingjuan,

Guan Caolan, Guan Xiaoke Sales: HI Film Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Er Dong Yang Jin

The young Chinese film maker Yang Jin (1982), trained as a photographer and director, made his début in 2004 with the prizewinning The Black and White Milk Cow. In this sober story about a teacher in a poor district of China, Yang’s commitment to those who seem have missed out on economic progress is clearly visible. His second feature, named after the protagonist Er Dong (‘winter child’), looks like a documentary. Yet the story about several years from the life of a simple country boy looking for his roots adopts almost epic forms. Er Dong lives alone with his mother in a small village and will come to no good. At the end of his tether, his mother takes him to a Christian school in the hope that here Er Dong will find rules, order and God and will also hopefully learn a trade. But he only finds a girlfriend, Chang’e. They are sent down from school and start an uncertain life together. It turns out to be difficult to earn your living. Then the past also starts playing up: who was Er Dong’s father? The film Er Dong, is supported by the Hubert Bals Fund is regarded by some as the best narrative ‘indie’ of the year. The film shows how independent directors with little money, simple means and an amateur cast but with a maximum of carefully chosen everyday details and sets can examine life in today’s China. (GT)

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YANG Jin (1982, China) studied photography at the Shanxi Film School and directing at the Beijing University, College of Art and Communication. He won several awards with his feature début The Black and White Milk Cow. He also worked as director of photography, for example on Ciu Zi’ens film Only Child, Upward, Downward, Forward, Backward, R ightward and Leftward. Films: The Black and White Milk Cow (2004), Er Dong (2008)

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Bright Future

Japan, 2007 colour, video, 71 min, Japanese Pro: Hashizume Kazuyuki Pro Comp: Yokohama Pro,

Ad Connect Zone Sc: Yokohama Satoko Cam: Hirano Shingo, Kamakari Yoichi Ed: Okusada Seisho Ad: Okusada Seisho Sound: Shingaki Ippei With: Nozaki Yoshimi, Fujioka Suzune, Hisauchi Michio Print/Sales: Little More Co., Ltd. www.german-ame.net

German + Ame German + Rain Yokohama Satoko

Small-scale, realistic looking but actually fairly absurd and supercool comedy. The protagonist is 16-year-old Yoshiko. She is no beauty. She is also not particularly elegant. Not without reason, she’s known as Gorilla Man, named after a figure from a manga comic strip. Yoshiko no longer goes to school and lives on her own in a derelict cottage. She works for a mean and bossy gardener because he has a nice German kid working for him as an assistant. She wants to be a singer and writes her own songs, but her career is not making much progress. In order to do something professional with music, Yoshiko gives recorder lessons to three little boys. One of the boys really wants to become a girl. When it becomes apparent that two of her pupils are being abused by a paedophile, Yoshiko decides to take the law into her own hands, but things don’t work out as they should. The film is shot loosely in a relaxed way and every scene has a cool and clever element. The maker tackles serious subjects such as social alienation and child abuse, but she does so in a crazy and humorous way. The young German speaks good Japanese, as Gorilla Man also has to agree, and so basically everything figures in this film which in a deceptive way doesn’t look as if much makes sense. That is the magic of talent. The talent of Yokohama Satoko, in this case. (GjZ)

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YOKOHAMA Satoko (1978, Japan) graduated from university in Yokohama. After about a year of working as an office worker, she entered the film school in Tokyo. With her short film Chiemi and Kokkunpatcho (2004) she won Best Film Award at a film festival in Osaka in 2006. With the grant from the festival, she made German + R ain, which won the Grand Prix at the same festival. Films: Chiemi and Kokkunpatcho (2004, short), German + Ame/German + Rain (2007)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:10:07

Bright Future

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

China, 2008 colour, video, 90 min, Mandarin Pro: Yu Guangyi Pro Comp: Fanhall Films Cam: Yu Guangyi Ed: Yu Guangyi, Wang

Guosheng Sound: Yu Guangyi Print/Sales: Fanhall Films www.fanhall.com

YU Guangyi (1961, China) studied at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. In 2004 he started making independent documentaries. His début Timber Gang (2007) was awarded ex aequo the Director’s Award at the Asian Festival of 1st Films in 2007 with its other English title The Last Lumberjacks.

Xiao li zi Survival Song Yu Guangyi

Films: Mu bang/Timber Gang (2007), Xiao li zi/Survival Song (2008)

This unpolished documentary about a hunting couple in the cold, snowy north east of China, is the second from a trilogy by Yu Guangyi about disappearing cultures. After the disconcerting report of the rapidly disappearing lumberjack tradition in Timber Gang (2007), Yu documents with painful yet beautiful precision in Survival Song how an unemployed forest ranger maintains his family by illegally hunting wild boar and other small game. Together with his wife, the ranger lives in a rickety wooden hut in the wilderness. There is no electricity or mains water. Their little daughter is at school in the town. Han has to work hard, but is not dissatisfied. When his jack of all trades, the uncivilised Xiao Li, leaves him in the lurch without giving a reason, Han decides to take him on again anyway. Then the unstoppable industrialisation of China also reaches this backwater and a large water reservoir is built close to Han’s home to supply drinking water to nearby Harbin. In vain, the couple resist their enforced departure. The corrupt government plays an unexpected trump card and the family is forced to fall apart. Yu films emphatically, intuitively and with great poetic feeling for human drama. Survival Song pays homage to the vulnerable, hardworking underclass of China who, while loyal to those less fortunate than themselves, are marginalised by progress. (GT)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

China, 2008 colour, video, 92 min, Mandarin Pro: Helen Cui Pro Comp: TianlinFilm

Productions Sc: Zhao Ye Cam: Zhang Yi Ed: Zhao Ye Ad: Li Jiang, Chen Houquan Sound: Chen Ting Mu: Lin Chaoyang With: Liu Yuansheng, Li Zhizhong Print/Sales: TianlinFilm

Productions

ZHAO Ye (1979, China) graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2004. He directed his first short, the animation Cai Wei, in 2004. His début feature M a Wu Jia (2007) screened at numerous international film festivals and won the Best Picture Award at the China Independent Film Festival.

Jalainur Zhao Ye

Films: Cai Wei (2004, short), Ma Wu Jia (2007), Jalainur (2008)

The coal mines of Jalainur, in Inner Mongolia, are among the last places in the world where steam trains are still used on a large scale. It provides spectacular pictures of monumental socialist industry: the long plumes of steam left by a locomotive toiling across snow-covered steppes; the fumes spraying across the ground as the train stops; the clouds rising up from a dozen trains in the distance. In the meantime there’s bitter cold - during shooting, it was regularly 40° below. At the start of Jalainur, two train workers in a locomotive share one glass against the rules. The elder one is soon retiring; the younger man is very fond of him. In a drama that develops calmly and inexorably, he continues to follow in the footsteps of his old colleague who keeps sending him away without much conviction. Zhao Ye, who previously displayed his poetic visual talent in Ma Wu Jia (2007), shot it on HD. The camera occasionally dives in among the people, for instance when an escaped pig is chased, and sometimes glides past majestically, as in an enormous repair workshop for locomotives. In the meantime, we see fragments of life for Communist workers. The train workers are addressed sternly because of their surreptitious drinking and a traditional music performance attracts hardly any audience - despite the singer’s bold enthusiasm: ‘Come on, let’s go!’ (GT)

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spectruM

spectrum

Gertjan Zuilhof

T m D a a t D l M c a a

The whole spectrum? Everything? Wasn’t old Newton talking about all the colours of the rainbow? Why should a festival want to show everything? Is the metaphor well chosen? But in a festival that focuses on the special and unusual – for which the Signals programme offers room – space is also needed for undisputed individual quality. Powerful and independent titles that do not need a context. Masterful films that are the natural backbone of a festival like Rotterdam. A festival within which the Bright Future programme gives a podium to talents making their début obviously also needs a place for talents who have proved their value. A festival with only young talents would make all efforts to kick-start their careers pointless. Once they have blossomed, they should also be able to return to the festival that saw their birth. So Spectrum is for everything, but not everyone. It is for cinema in all its forms and genres, but only for those films that are among the best of their kind, colour, land, scent or noise. Versatility is the aim, and from all sides, Spectrum presents the best. For instance, it offers a place to

the Chinese director we have followed with the most interest in recent years, namely Jia Zhang-ke with his 24 city; to the lady we have dubbed a maestra, Claire Denis, with 35 r hUms, to the Singapore prince of glitter and sadness, Royston Tan, with 12 lotUs and to a collective political memory by ten directors from Indonesia in the prime of their lives and work with the omnibus film 9808. And that, to mention but a few films with numerals in their titles. The programme is hot off the presses, because it primarily wants to provide a topical picture of film making today. That’s why short films are also included in this annual survey; the short film is after all the ideal nursery for new and future film making. Yes, the whole Spectrum. Meticulously chosen from all conceivable colours in the rainbow. A collection of dissimilar, yet masterful films. Because only the best is good enough. Because only the best can present itself everywhere. The net was spread widely, but not everything was taken aboard. From the very first titles with numerals to the last with a ‘Y’ (no ‘Z’ this year, by chance), yUri’s DAy by the Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, we are responsible for the quality. We guarantee it.

P E

J s t C I S

3 C

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M S

A a i p a c w A o h d m h C a

Yuri’s Day

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Spectrum

Meet the Maestro: Meet Claire Denis The Meet the Maestro project organised by the Province of South Holland takes a look every year at the oeuvre and motives of a high-profile film maker. This fourth edition of Meet the Maestro looks at the work of the Française Claire Denis. Having been born in Paris in 1948, she grew up in Africa where her father worked as a diplomat. She studied at the Paris Film Academy and was assistant director to Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders. With her successful, semiautobiographical début ChoColat (1988), about colonialism in Africa, she immediately attracted attention. Since then she has worked on a large and important oeuvre comprising about 20 features, short films and documentaries. Denis’ cinema is physical, sensual and lyrical and shows the harder side of (French) society. During the IFFR, her latest film 35 Rhums is having its première. Meet the Maestro is a cooperative venture between the IFFR, film theatres in South Holland and Kunstgebouw, commissioned by the Province of South Holland. Besides a tour of NeNette et BoNi in the province, local schools are taking part in the educational project, and Sun Koh (Singapore) made a short film commissioned by the IFFR and inspired by the work of Claire Denis. (JJ)

Dirty Bitch Sun Koh

WORLD PREMIERE Singapore, 2009, colour, video, 9 min, Mandarin Pro: Fran Borgia Pro Comp: Lucky 7 Film Company Sc: Sun Koh Cam: Roszali Samad Ed: Sun Koh Sound: Mathew Koh Mu: Felix Huang With: Serene Chen, Kevin Tan, Loretta Chen, Kenneth Paul Tan, Fanny Kee, Ken Sun Sales: Lucky 7 Film Company Distr. NL: International Film Festival Rotterdam

Jen is on the verge of entry into university law school. But there’s one problem - she’s very pregnant. Determined to be a success in life, Jen goes on a violent spree to silence anyone who threatens to reveal her dirty secrets, only to realize that everyone else in power is a dirty bitch. Inspired by a badly censored VHS of Claire Denis’ NeNette et BoNi found in a Singapore library. In 2002, Sun KOH made her award winning début short film The SecreT heaven. She was the initiator of Lucky 7, which premièred at the IFFR in 2008.

35 Rhums

35 Shots of Rum Claire Denis France/Germany, 2007, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 100 min, French Pro: Bruno Pésery, Christoph Friedel Pro Comp: Soudaine Compagnie, Pandora Film Produktion GmbH Sc: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau Cam: Agnès Godard Ed: Guy Lecorne Ad: Arnaud de Moléron Sound: Martin Boisseau, Dominique Hennequin Mu: Tindersticks With: Mati Diop, Alex Descas, Grégoire Colin, Nicole Dogué Sales: Elle Driver Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

A father and daughter live lovingly together in a grey apartment building in a suburb of Paris with a view of the train tracks. Director Claire Denis steps into their lives halfway as they move forward like passing trains. Riding along a predictable track, occasionally passing switch points, stopping from time to time, always going on. Denis films the reassuring waves of everyday life in which a rice cooker is bought or the washing is done, all supported by the flowing camera work of Denis’ regular camera woman Agnes Godard and melancholy music by her regular composer Stuart A. Staples. At this tempo, their life stories unfold along with those of two other flatmates. Denis works with a largely black cast of African origin. A house friend who loves travelling and lives alone has taken a fancy to the daughter; the woman next door - a taxi driver has a history with the father. It becomes apparent that the contact between the four inhabitants cannot continue without problems during an evening when the four of them are in the bar. People dance, kiss, give jealous looks. It augments the feeling that the moment has come for everyone to let go of something. The father realises he is getting older and it’s time for his daughter to find her own way in life. A journey to Germany offers the father and daughter an opportunity to round off the past together. Claire DENIS (1948, Paris) grew up in Africa. She studied at the IDHEC (now La Femis) and was assistant director to Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders. She is regarded as one of France’s most important film auteurs, for films such as no Fear, no Die (1990), J’ai paS SommeiL (1993), Beau TravaiL (1999) and The inTruDer (2005).

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Philippines, 2008 colour, video, 90 min, Filipino Pro: Arleen Cuevas Pro Comp: Bicycle Pictures Sc: Adolfo Alix Jr., Nick Olanka Cam: Albert Banzon Ed: Aleks Castañeda Ad: Adolfo Alix Jr.,

Jerome Zamora Sound: Ditoy Aguila With: Anita Linda, Joem Bascon,

Jason Abalos, Angeli Bayani, Arnold Reyes, Perla Bautista Print/Sales: Visit Films

Adolfo B. ALIX Jr. (Philippines) is a prolific young director who finishes several features per year. His first feature, Donsol, was honoured with special jury prizes at film festivals in Japan and the United States, and is the Philippines’ official entry to the 2007 Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film category. He works as a screenwriter for film and television as well.

Adela Adolfo B. Alix Jr.

It’s almost a genre in itself: a sensitive ageing woman tries to maintain her dignity in a Filipino slum district. The power of every genre film is dependent on the question of whether the story is worked out with craft and creativity. And that is certainly the case here. Of course, Adela is not really a genre film. It’s a film with a personal and sensitive story the story of an old disappointed woman, but also the story of a special and fragile actress. The film revolves around the actress Anita Linda and the character she plays, the Adela from the title. Adela was once a well-known radio personality, but now she’s turning 80, lives in poverty and her children tend to forget about her. Anita Linda herself has been a famous actress in Filipino cinema since the 1940s, and famous actresses can also be forgotten when they approach eighty. In reality she has passed eighty but who would want to underline that? Adela may live in poverty and anonymity, but she has maintained great dignity and with her wisdom and self-sufficiency has an important role within her social surroundings. The film follows her with suppleness and determination, in the knowledge that this fragile and charismatic woman can carry the film. She does so with ease, I should point out. (GjZ)

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Films: Donsol (2006), Kadin/ The Goat (2007), Nars (2007), Tambolista/Drumbeat (2007), Batanes (2007), Manila (2008), Daybreak (2008), Imoral (2008), Adela (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:02

Spectrum

Argentina/France/ Netherlands/Spain/ Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 84 min, Spanish Pro: Lisandro Alonso, Ilse

Hughan, Marianne Slot, Luis Miñarro, Christoph Hahnheiser Pro Comp: 4L, Fortuna Films, Slot Machine, Eddie Saeta, Black Forest Films GmbH Sc: Lisandro Alonso, Salvador Roselli Cam: Lucio Bonelli Ed: Lisandro Alonso, Fernando Epstein, Martin Mainoli, Sergi Dies Ad: Gonzalo Delgado Sound: Catriel Vildosola Mu: Flormaleva With: Juan Fernandez, Giselle Irrazabal, Nieves Cabrera

Liverpool Lisandro Alonso

Sales: The Match Factory GmbH Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Liverpool starts on board a large ship on its way to the Argentine Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. One of the sailors is Farrel, who tells the captain that he wants to take some leave there in order to visit his mother, whom he hasn’t seen for 20 years. He disembarks and, like earlier heroes in Alonso’s films, sets off on his journey. On foot or in the back of a truck, he treks deep into the freezing mountains of Tierra del Fuego. The alcoholic Farrel keeps himself warm with booze - lots of booze - and falls asleep occasionally in strange places. Once he arrives in the hamlet at the end of the world, he finds his mother needy and dying, and he turns out to have a daughter too. Liverpool has a rather more complex narrative structure than Alonso’s earlier films. The film doesn’t end when Farrel reaches his destination. Nor does it end when the protagonist leaves again. And the sketch of the microcosm of the remote village is very hectic in Alonso’s terms. It is apt that in the case of the apparently minimal narratives of directors like Lisandro Alonso, an endless amount can be written, said and, even better, thought, about issues that are not answered or shown - or not explicitly at least. Where is the daughter’s mother? What does the title mean? Where does Farrel end up? What will the next film by Alonso be? (GT)

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Lisandro ALONSO (1975, Argentina) was born and raised in Buenos Aires and studied for three years at the local Universidad del Ciné. In 1995 he wrote and directed the short film Dos en la vereda with Catriel Vildosola. His feature début Freedom received two honorary mentions from international film critics at the 2002 Rotterdam Festival. In 2003 he founded his own production company, 4L. His second feature Los muertos (2004) was financially supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Liverpool premièred in Cannes. Films: Dos en la vereda (1995, short, co-dir), La libertad/ Freedom (2001), Los muertos (2004), Fantasma (2006), Liverpool (2008)

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Switzerland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 89 min, French Pro: Robert Boner Pro Comp: SAGA Production Sc: Lionel Baier Cam: Lionel Baier Ed: Pauline Gaillard Sound: Thibault de Chateauvieux Mu: Karol Szymanowski,

Igor Stravinsky With: Robin Harsch, Natacha Koutchoumov, Elodie Weber Sales: Wide Management Distr. NL: BrunBro Films

Un autre homme Another Man Lionel Baier

The third feature by Lionel Baier is an intellectual satire on the profession of film critic through the entertaining adventures of an aimless young man. François moves with his respectable girlfriend to Vallée de Joux, where she teaches at a secondary school. He finds a job as film critic with the local paper, where he thinks he can raise the level of reporting by writing film reviews with a high level of analysis. In reality, he copies them from a highbrow Paris magazine and is guilty of plagiarism. Then he meets Rosa, a celebrated film reviewer with a respected newspaper who is out to get the newcomer. An erotic game starts in which Rosa is the manipulative spider spinning a merciless web for him. Baier, who says that this film is his most personal, resorts to film noir, but gives his own turn to this game of desire and deception. Inspired by a book by the Swiss painter Félix Vallotton about an art critic annex murderer, he is primarily interested in the harsh, insensitive sides of desire, which are expressed in the film in sharp contrasts between city and countryside, truth and lies, lust and love. In the end, he has the young man travel to Paris in order to meet as apotheosis Bulle Ogier, the queen of French cinema.

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Lionel BAIER (1975, Switzerland) studied art at UNIL, the Lausanne University. Since 2002 he has been in charge of the cinema section at this university. His first two features Stupid Boy (2004) and Stealth (2006) were internationally distributed and shown at many festivals around the world. Both films were enthusiastically acclaimed by the critics and the public. Another M an (2008) is Baier’s third feature. Films: Mignon à croquer (1999, short), Celui au pasteur (ma vision personnelle des choses)/ The Pastor’s (My Personal Vision of Things) (2000, doc), Mon père, c’est un lion (2002, short doc), La Parade (notre histoire)/ The Parade (Our Story) (2001, doc), Garçon stupide/Stupid Boy (2004), Comme des voleurs/ Stealth (2006), Continuité nationale (2007, short), Un autre homme/Another Man (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:03

Spectrum

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Russia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 102 min, Russian Pro: Sergey Selyanov Pro Comp: CTB Film Company Sc: Sergey Bodrov Jr. Cam: Alexander Simonov Ed: Tatyana Kuzmicheva Ad: Pavel Parkhomento,

Anastasia Kariulina Sound: Mikhail Nikolaev With: Leonid Bichevin,

Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Andrey Panin, Sergey Garmash Print/Sales: Intercinema Ltd. www.morfiyfilm.ru

Morfiy Morphia Alexei Balabanov

Morphia is based on a script by Sergei Bodrov jr. - a cult figure for Russian youth and famous as an excellent actor, director and writer, who tragically passed away a few years ago. He adapted Michail Bulgakov’s autobiographical stories, A Country Doctor’s Notebook, in the 1990s. In late autumn of 1917, a young doctor arrives in the Russian countryside in the middle of nowhere. Doctor Polyakov (Leonid Bichevin) comes here from the capital during a very turbulent period (the 1917 revolution). The very first night, he is submitted to the first real test of his professionalism but fails to save a man’s life. To get over this first real-life experience and to protect his own health, the doctor prescribes himself a dose of morphine. More soon follow, as he performs his first amputation, trachometry etc. What was meant as first-aid relief for difficult situations soon becomes an addiction, and the pharmacy assistant, his lover and even a companion-in-crime (Ingeborga Dapkunaite) help him all along the way. As in Cargo 200, the decay of the body, the personality, social relations and the country are motifs running through the story. The re-creation of the past, and the film’s unforgettable art direction, together with its division into chapters, reminds us of Of Freaks and Men and make the film as a whole yet another masterpiece by one of Russia’s most important contemporary film makers. (LC)

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Alexei BALABANOV (1959, Russia) studied at the Institute for Foreign Languages in Gorky and then attended a course in scriptwriting and directing in Moscow. He worked from 1983 to 1987 as assistant director at the Sverdlovsk film studios. Prior to his feature début, H appy Days (1991), he made two documentaries. Brother (1996) was his international breakthrough. The Rotterdam Festival has presented most of his films. Films: Yegor and Nastya (1989, doc), From the History of Aerostatics in Russia (1990, doc), Schastlivije dny/Happy Days (1991), Zamok/The Castle (1994), Trofim (1995, short), Brat/Brother (1996), Pro ourodov i lioudiei/Of Freaks and Men (1998), Brother 2 (2000), Reka/The River (2002), The War (2002), Zhmurki/Dead Man’s Bluff (2005), Mne ne bolno/ It Doesn’t Hurt (2006), Gruz 200/Cargo 200 (2007), Morfi/ Morphia (2008)

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Spectrum

USA, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 110 min, English Pro: Craig Baldwin Pro Comp: Other Cinema Sc: Craig Baldwin Cam: Bill Daniel Ed: Sylvia Schedelbauer Ad: Lars Auvinen Sound: Sylvia Schedelbauer Mu: Trip Tech With: Damon Packard,

Michelle Silva, Kallman Spelletich, Stoney Burke Print/Sales: Other Cinema

Mock up on Mu Craig Baldwin

Years after the masterful films Spectres of the Spectrum and Sonic Outlaws, there’s another new found-footage spectacle film by the master of the narrative collage, Craig Baldwin. For those not familiar with his approach, he constructs his films using an extensive collection of found film material from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s from various scientific, informative and obscure Hollywood films. Scenes and fragments that reflect the paranoia of that age are combined with fiction shot in a matching style in order to create a hybrid film universe of science fiction, pulp and underground culture. In Mock up on Mu, several real figures from the American West Coast subculture play the leading roles: Jack Parsons, prototype crazy scientist and inventor of rocket fuel, L. Ron Hubbard, SF writer and later founder of Scientology, and Marjorie Cameron, beatnik artist and mother of the new-age movement, with in the background their shared relationship with the occultism of Aleister Crowley. Baldwin forges all these mainly true stories into a hyperbolic allegory about increasing militarism in space and the commercial sell-out of the personal yearning for interpretation and leisure. (EvtH)

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Craig BALDWIN (1952, California) attended lectures by the experimental film maker Bruce Connor during his studies at San Francisco State University. He studied the work of Dziga Vertov, John Heartfield, Robert Nelson, Paul Sharits and other artists who used found footage. Baldwin is also active in performance, mail art, copy art and other alternative expressions. Films: Flicksin (1974, short), Stolen Movie (1975, short), Wild Gunman (1978, short), RocketKitKongoKit (1986, short), Tribulation 99 (1991), O No Coronado! (1992, short), Sonic Outlaws (1995), Spectres of the Spectrum (1999), Mock up on Mu (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:03

Spectrum

Italy/Brazil, 2008 colour, 35mm, 108 min, Guarani/Portuguese Pro: Amedeo Pagani,

Marco Bechis, Fabiano Gullane, Caio Gullane Pro Comp: Classic Srl, Karta Film, Gullane Filmes, Rai Cinema Sc: Marco Bechis, Luiz Bolognesi Cam: Hélcio Alemão Nagamine Ed: Jacopo Quadri Ad: Clóvis Bueno, Caterina Giargia Sound: Gaspar Scheuer Mu: Andrea Guerra With: Abrísio Da Silva Pedro, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Ademilson Concianza Verga, Ambrósio Vilhalva

La terra degli uomini rossi Birdwatchers Marco Bechis A story about and with Guarani Indians, to be precise from the Kaiowá tribe, who decide to leave their restricted reservation in Brazil and return to the land of their forefathers. Bechis worked for more than five years on producing and finally shooting the film. As you can imagine, it was a complex and difficult project - after all, who would want to spend money on a film with unknown Indians who are also not trained as actors - but you can’t see that in the film. The film looks supple and convincing, almost nonchalant in its construction. It’s a film with a very natural rhythm and an equally natural authenticity. The Guarinis take possession of their original land, more or less, which brings them into conflict with the present owners. After minor clashes and expressions of incomprehension, the mood becomes grimmer. Blood will flow. One of the nicest scenes is at the beginning. A boat with tourists is sailing up the river through the jungle when they suddenly come faceto-face with authentic Indians, naked apart from their paint, with selfmade weapons at the ready. The tourists sail on excitedly. The Indians put on their jeans and collect their daily wages. It sets the tone of a film which is about deep incomprehension between local and original inhabitants, but which nowhere becomes bitter. Sensitive, yes. (GjZ)

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Sales: Celluloid Dreams Distr. NL: Cinemien www.birdwatchersfilm.com

Marco BECHIS (1955, Chile) grew up in São Paulo and Buenos Aires with his Chilean mother and Italian father. In 1977 he was expelled from Argentina for political reasons and landed in Milan. He wrote and directed several short films and series for television, before debuting with Alambrado (1991). In 2004 he founded Karta Film. Films: Barbed Wire (1991), Luca’s Film (1997, doc), Garage Olimpo (1999), Sons and Daughters (2001), La terra degli uomini rossi/Birdwatchers (2008)

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Spectrum

United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 110 min, English/Hindi Pro: Christian Colson Pro Comp: Celador Films,

Warner Bros International, Film4 Sc: Simon Beaufoy Cam: Anthony Dod Mantle Ed: Chris Dickens Ad: Mark Digby Sound: Glenn Freemantle Mu: A.R. Rahman With: Dev Patel, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan Sales: Pathé Pictures

International (UK) Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle

The director of Trainspotting (1996) is right back on form with this smoothly designed film about Jamal Malik, an uneducated Indian from the slums who becomes a national hero by winning millions of rupees in a TV quiz. ‘From rags to raja,’ according to the quizmaster with a superior grin. How did he do it? The film offers four options: he cheated, he was lucky, he’s a genius, it’s fate. The police are suspicious, and in between the two days in which the live broadcast takes place, Ja is subjected to a hard handed interrogation. In order to explain the right answers to the quiz questions, he describes to the officer his childhood, which we see passing in flashbacks. As a child, Jamal was inseparable from his brother Salim in a huge violent slum district. Gradually the two brothers start to vie for attention as they grow up, fed by a shared and continual interest in beautiful Latika. Boyle edited the two periods together beautifully and plays with tilted frames, depth of focus, close-ups and moving camera, thanks to cameraman Anthony Dod Mantle (Festen, 1998). The scenario refers regularly to Oliver Twist and is by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty, 1997), based on Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A. The soundtrack is an encounter between East and West with songs by the English-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A. (Paper Planes) and a soundtrack by Bollywood master A.R. Rahman.

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Danny BOYLE (1956, UK) started his career in theatre, first with the Joint Stock Theatre Company and later with the Royal Court Theatre. His feature film début came with his small scale Shallow Grave, only to achieve greater impact with his second film Trainspotting, that is often been seen as the most iconic and influential of British films. Boyle was nominated for a Golden Globe for best directing on his eighth film, Slumdog Millionaire. Films: Shallow Grave (1995), Trainspotting (1996), A Life Less Ordinary (1997), The Beach (2000), Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001, TV), Strumpet (2001, TV), Alien Love, Triangle (2002, short), 28 Days Later (2002), Millions (2004), Sunshine (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:04

Spectrum

Brazil, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 80 min, Portuguese Pro: Bruno Safadi, Marcello Maia Pro Comp: TB Produções,

República Pureza Filmes Sc: Rosa Dias, Júlio Bressane Cam: Walter Carvalho Ed: Rodrigo Lima Ad: Moa Batsow Sound: Virginia Flores Mu: Guilherme Vaz With: Alessandra Negrini, Selton Mello Print: República Pureza Filmes Sales: TB Produções

A erva do rato The Rat Herb Júlio Bressane

Júlio Bressane is a very unusual director. He may live in a different time and in a different world from most people. More than ten years ago (in 1998) the festival dedicated a retrospective to his fascinating work, which is occasionally very difficult to fathom. Bressane has continued ever since on the road he had taken and this latest absurd, pornographic and surrealist film fits in perfectly in his unusual oeuvre. Bressane tells a story in this film that meshes with two stories by his famous compatriot Machado de Assis: A Causa Secreta and Um Esqueleto. The story A erva do rato (The Rat Herb) is not by Machado de Assis, but it is conceived in his spirit and style. Rat herb is a poison acquired from plants. The male protagonist (only referred to as He) makes tea from it for the female protagonist (She, indeed). They chanced upon each other in a churchyard. He takes her home with him and doesn’t let her go again. Increasingly under the influence of poison, She notes down his stories in booklets that slowly start to fill the walls. She allows him to take nude photos of her - of details of her (it’s probably unnecessary to mention that this is a film for adults). When he finds out that rats are nibbling the photos, he becomes furious. Yes, cinema still has dark secrets. (GjZ)

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Júlio BRESSANE (1946, Brazil) started his film career as assistant director to Walter Lima Jr on the film Meninho de engenho (1965). Bressane’s films are among the most exemplary of Brazilian experimental film, concentrating especially on the relationship between picture and soundtrack. Films: (since 1980) Cinema inocente (1981), Tabu (1982), Brás Cubas (1985), Os sermoes do padre Vieira (1989), Galaxia Albina (1991), Quem seria o feliz conviva de Isadora Duncan? (1992), O cinema do cinema (1992), Infernalario: Logodedalo (1992), Antonioni Hitchcock: a imagem em fuga (1993), O mandarim (1995), Miramar (1997), Sao Jerônimo/Saint Jerome (1999), Dias de Nietzsche em Turin/Nietzsche’s Days in Turin (2001), Filme de amor/A Love Movie (2003), Cléopatra (2007), A erva do rato/The Rat Herb (2008)

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France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 102 min, French Pro: Frédéric Niedermayer Pro Comp: Moby Dick Films Sc: Jean-Claude Brisseau Cam: Wilfrid Sempé Ed: Maria Louisa Garcia Sound: Georges Prat With: Carole Brana, Arnaud

Binard, Nadia Chibani, Lise Bellynck, Etienne Chicot, Jocelyn Quivrin Print/Sales: Films Distribution

Jean-Claude BRISSEAU (1944, Paris) taught French before he started making films on an amateur basis. He went on to work for INA (Institut Nationale de l’Audiovisuel) which also produced his début film. The oeuvre that followed concentrated on themes such as violence, morality, Catholicism, mysticism and the irrational. In France his films are alternately denounced and applauded. In 2003, Rotterdam honoured him as Film Maker in Focus.

À l’aventure Jean-Claude Brisseau

Once again Brisseau, Rotterdam’s Film Maker in Focus in 2003, looks at the sexual voyage of discovery of young women. Brisseau shows people who leave the established order and confront dominant morality looking for personal liberation, especially in the field of sex. This is portrayed fairly explicitly by Brisseau. In À l’aventure, the slender beauty Sandrine feels locked up in the everyday conventions of her life, despite social success. As a result of several conversations in the park with her philosophically inclined taxi driver - and partly thanks to an inheritance - she decides to take a radical sabbatical. Her new and unashamed honesty immediately costs her relationship: her boyfriend is stunned when she confesses to having a vibrator. She strikes up a conversation with a psychiatrist at a bar and asks about the psychoanalysis he’s reading about in his book. It is the start of a boundless and increasingly dangerous experiment in which she, the man and two other women use hypnosis and regression to search for the ultimate orgasm. Sandrine watches a sadomasochistic game and sees a woman in mystical erotic ecstasy make contact with a previous life as a fourteenth-century nun. It’s the man who puts their own attitude and that of the film into words: ‘My love for truth is stronger than any morality.’

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Films: La croisée des chemins (1975, short), La vie comme ça (1978-1981), Les ombres (1981, TV), L’échangeur (1981, short), Un jeu brutal/A Brutal Game (1983), De bruit et de fureur/ The Sound and the Fury (1987), Noce blanche/White Wedding (1989), Lettre de cinéaste (1990, short), Céline (1991), L’ange noir/The Black Angel (1994), Les savates du bon Dieu/ Workers for the Good Lord (2000), Choses secrètes (2002), Les anges exterminateurs/The Exterminating Angels (2006), À l’aventure (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:05

Spectrum

United Kingdom, 2008 b&w, video, 72 min, English Pro: Roy Boulter, Solon

Papadopoulos Pro Comp: Hurricane

Films Production Sc: Terence Davies Cam: Tim Pollard Ed: Liza Ryan-Carter Sound: David Coyle, Steven Guy Mu: Ian Neil Print/Sales: HanWay Films

Of Time and the City Terence Davies

Of Time and the City is Davies’ first film in eight years. In the 1980s, he made Children, M adonna and Child and Death and Transfiguration. Together, these later became known as the Terence Davies Trilogy, in which he describes his disconsolate life in Liverpool through his alter ego Robert Tucker. Of Time and the City is a documentary addition, largely in black & white, to this trilogy. The film was commissioned by the City of Liverpool to mark the fact that the city was Cultural Capital in 2008. Davies was an obvious choice because all his films (Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes) are set there. He turned this one into a very personal film. Of Time and the City is a sentimental journey. At first sight the film is made up of a series of black-and-white images of people with oldfashioned glasses and old-fashioned habits. The venom is in Terence Davies’ commentary. With his very idiosyncratic voice, he transcends melancholy griping. He regards the deprived situation of workers in endless damp slums with sympathy, and pictures of Queen Elizabeth with straightforward sarcasm. Davies makes it abundantly clear that not everything was better in the old days. Homosexuality, class society, Protestants versus Catholics, post-war aftermath: they are all examined. Very personal yet with a universal value. (GT)

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Terence DAVIES (1945, UK) is a film director, novelist and actor. He played various roles in TV programmes during the 1970s, such as Coronation Street. Davies produced works for radio and has written a novel, Hallelulja Now. Davies’ films - of which he is the sole screen writer - have been honoured by awards from around the world. Of Time and the City (2008) premièred at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Films: Children (1976, short), Madonna and Child (1980, short), Death and Transfiguration (1983, short), Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992), The Neon Bible (1996), The House of Mirth (2000), Of Time and the City (2008)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Italy, 2009 colour, video, 97 min, Italian/ Japanese Pro: Tonino De Bernardi,

Mariella Navale Pro Comp: Lontane Province Film Sc: Tonino De Bernardi Cam: Tonino De Bernardi Ed: Silvia Palermo Ad: Mariella Navale Sound: Gianluca Stazi Mu: Véronique Bouteille (songs),

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart With: Chiara Pauluzzi, Fulvio Baglivi, Grazia and Carlo Cocolini, Véronique Bouteille, Cristina Brugnano, Giulietta Debernardi, Pia de Silvestris

Pane/Piazza delle Camelie Bread/Camellia’s Square Tonino De Bernardi

Husband and wife Carlo and Grazia make bread in their wood-burning oven and also distribute it to the sellers. They work all night long, every day of the week, as their families used to do. They live in Gorgiti, a village in Tuscany, on the mountains near Arezzo. On the other hand, in Rome, some young people live near Camellia’s Square at Centocelle, in the suburbs. We see them at different moments in their lives. Their existences seem to belong to distant and very different universes. There seems to be an irreconcilable generation conflict. The film makes use of documentary and fiction, but tries to amalgamate them while simultaneously using them as opposites. Tonino De Bernardi: ‘It’s a film on the primary labour which is being handed over from father to son, but it’s also a film on some things that are new (especially in the behaviour) and don’t stem from the past. So I have chosen bread making in the countryside, as done as in ancient times, chronicling this job with its real protagonists. On the other hand there are the city and young people with their own stories and the actors acting; where this film moves towards the novel. I reckon the distinction between documentary and fiction as too conventional and restrictive. I am trying to go more and more beyond the boundaries in investigating the ways of being and thinking.’ (EH)

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Print/Sales: Lontane

Province Film

Tonino DE BERNARDI (1937, Italy) made his first work at the end of the 1960s. His underground films were often projected in museums and art galleries. In his films De Bernardi mixes life with his interest in literature, music and art. In 1987 he made his first official feature, Elettra written by Sophocles. De Bernardi’s films have participated in international film festival all over the world. They are frequently screened in Rotterdam. Films: (since 2000) Rosatigre (2000), La strada nel bosco (2001), Farelavita (2001), Lei (2002), Serva e padrona (2003), Marlene De Sousa (2004), Passato Presente/Angeli laici cadono (2005), Accoltellati (2006), Médée miracle/Medea Miracle (2007), Un bel di’ vedremo/One Beautiful Day We’ll See (2008, short), Pane/ Piazza delle Camelie/Bread/ Camellia’s Square (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:05

Spectrum

USA, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 114 min, English Pro: Ilona Herzberg, Carol

Cuddy, Neda Armian, Marc Platt Pro Comp: Sony

Pictures Classics Sc: Jenny Lumet Cam: Declan Quinn Ed: Tim Squyres Ad: Ford Wheeler Sound: Jeff Pullman Mu: Suzana Peri With: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe, Mather Zickel, Anna Deavere Smith Sales: Sony Pictures Classics Distr. NL: Sony Pictures

Rachel Getting Married Jonathan Demme

Apparently Jonathan Demme is a director who can do anything. He made Stop M aking Sense (1984), a legendary music film, while The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was one of the most tense serial-killer films ever, and with The Agronomist (2003) he made an outspoken political documentary. And now he presents a huis-clos family drama, and that’s great too. The scenario was written by Jenny Lumet, daughter of Sidney. Father Lumet interested the versatile director, who in turn collected a large company of the best possible actors. The film is not about Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). Rachel is the sister of Kym (Anne Hathaway) and Kym is the true centre of the film, and the acting achievement by Hathaway is also what gives the film its weight. For the wedding in the title, Kym is let out of a detox centre for a day. She’s obviously not healed and her rash and selfish behaviour soon drags her whole family down into hysterical unrest. Rachel’s future husband is a black man. His whole family does their best in the spoiled and irritable white environment. The real tragedy is not formed by a junkie sister, but by what is hidden away under thin ice in the family. Much remains unsaid, yet still emerges indirectly. The film is entirely in the hands of the actors. The camera follows subtly and subserviently and as such is stunning. A lesson in film acting. (GjZ)

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Releasing Netherlands

Jonathan DEMME (1944, US) began his career as film critic. In 1970 he started working for New World Pictures, where he directed his first film Caged Heat in 1974. Demme directed music videos for bands like New Order and The Fine Young Cannibals. He is mainly known to the public through Stop M aking Sense, his registration of a concert by Talking Heads and of films such as The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and Something Wild. Later on in his career Demme has focussed mainly on documentaries. Films: (selection) Melvin and Howard (1980), Stop Making Sense (1984, doc), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1993), Neil Young & Crazy Horse: The Complex Sessions (1994, short doc), Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006, doc), Rachel Getting Married (2008)

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France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 88 min, French/Occitan (Provençal) Pro: Claudine Nougaret Pro Comp: Palmeraie et Désert Cam: Raymond Depardon Ed: Simon Jacquet Sound: Claudine Nougaret Sales: Films Distribution Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

La vie moderne Modern Life Raymond Depardon

City dwellers often have a romantic desire for the countryside, and many people in the countryside feel attracted to the city for financial reasons. And financial beats romantic; the countryside is losing its population at a steady rate, while urban areas are bursting. In his documentary series Profils paysans, Raymond Depardon registers the disappearing French rural culture. After L’approche (2001) and Le quotidien (2005), the third part opens with a camera moving forward on a country lane in the Cevennes and ends with a camera moving backwards in the same picturesque, deserted landscape. In between are several portraits of people who (still) live there, largely made up of conversations at the kitchen table. The tempo matches the surroundings: slow, yet not boring. The inhabitants are parsimonious with words, not exuberant storytellers interested in how they look to others. The abrupt, dour, focused answer predominates. The battle to survive is hard and is not always successful. There are problems with the cattle: illness, death or their voluntary or forced sale. The inhabitants are ravaged by old age, loneliness, the growing generation gap and inadequate income. This emphasises the feeling that we are witnessing something that is disappearing for good, ground down by the modern era. La vie moderne makes one melancholy without resorting to clichés.

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Raymond DEPARDON (1942, France) is one of the most famous French news photographers. His first feature documentary 1974, Une partie de campagne about the presidential elections, was blocked for over 28 years. In four decades, Depardon has made several award-winning documentaries, including R eporters and Délits flagrants, which both received a César. Films: (since 1994) Délits flagrants (1994), Lumière et compagnie (short, 1995), Usine (1995, short), Paroles d’appelés (1995, short), Montage (short, 1995), A propos de Nice, la suite (1995, segment La prom), Malraux (1995, short), Afriques: Çomment ca va avec le douleur? (1996), Amours (1997, short), Bolivia (1998, short), Paris/ Lumière de Paris (1998), Muriel Leferle (1999), Déserts (2000, short), Profils paysans: l’approche (2001), Un homme sans l’occident (2002), Chasseurs et chamans (2003, short), 10e Chambre: instants d’audiences (2004), Profils paysans: le quotidien (2005), Chacun son cinéma (segment, 2007), La vie moderne/Modern Life (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:06

Spectrum

France, 2001 colour, 35mm, 90 min, French Pro: Claudine Nougaret Pro Comp: Palmeraie

et Désert, Canal + Cam: Raymond Depardon Ed: Roger Ikhlef Sound: Claudine Nougaret, Dominique Dalmasso Mu: Gabriel Fauré Sales: Palmeraie et Désert Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Profils paysans: L’approche Raymond Depardon Documentary maker Raymond Depardon (1942) himself grew up in the French countryside. In his series Profils paysans he records the farming culture that is under great pressure in this modern era and is largely in danger of disappearing. French districts such as the Cevennes, Lozère, Ardèche and Haute-Loire have for centuries been used for agriculture and animals. The tradition, however, has to move aside for modernism, guided by the European Union. The old farms are converted into luxury mansions and agriculture has been taken over by large, streamlined enterprises. Young, small-scale farmers see their plans scuppered by EU rules and financial obstacles. Depardon looks at the men and women who persevere in a traditional farming life in spite of this. The film evokes a vague desire for simplicity and pure beauty. But what a city dweller at first regards as a sober and calm rhythm of life turns out in practice to be often fundamental poverty and unavoidable isolation. The conversations with rural dwellers take place at the kitchen table, juxtaposed with shots of everyday life, with a commentary by Depardon. The beautiful landscapes bring the urban dweller to consider whether the living environment created by humans can ever compete with God-given natural beauty. But one wonders if there’s any way back.

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France, 2005 colour, 35mm, 81 min, French Pro: Claudine Nougaret Pro Comp: Palmeraie

et Désert, Canal + Cam: Raymond Depardon Ed: Simon Jaquet Sound: Claudine Nougaret Sales: Palmeraie et Désert Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Profils paysans: Le quotidien Raymond Depardon In the sequel to Profils paysans: L’approche, viewers renew their acquaintance several years later with the inhabitants of the countryside from part one. It is also a confrontation the inhabitants have with themselves, with the time that drives them inevitably in a certain direction. Young people move to urban areas, the countryside population gets older and succession within traditional farming operations turns out to be a major problem. Depardon does not judge, he only observes and shows what is going on in the countryside without a raised finger. Life far from the oppressive yet protecting arms of the big city is too rudimentary for that. One of the farmers remarks that it’s not possible to keep up the hard fight every season without the necessary passion. It is clear that most of those portrayed would never fit into urban surroundings with all the complicated etiquette that determines the pecking order there. Before he started filming his Profils paysans trilogy, Depardon spent a long time searching the French countryside for suitable characters. They are not the smooth interview candidates with which most TV viewers are familiar. They are real, with all the rough edges that involves. In a world where people are becoming increasingly similar and authenticity is served up parboiled in the media, that is a pleasant discovery.

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:06

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WORLD PREMIERE

Austria, 2009 colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.37, 93 min, German/English Pro: Manfred Neuwirth Pro Comp: Loop Media Sc: Gustav Deutsch Ed: Gustav Deutsch Mu: Christian Fennesz, Martin

Siewert, Burkhard Stangl Sales: Sixpack Film Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

FILM IST. a girl & a gun FILM IS. a girl & a gun Gustav Deutsch

The film is built up entirely from what is usually known as found footage: fragments from older films that have partly been lost. In this case, very old films. Found footage is not really the right term here, though. While Gustav Deutsch has developed into a master in the genre - and clearly reveals that this film is a masterpiece - he didn’t just find his material. He searched through dozens of archives meticulously and at length (including the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam) and only stopped searching when he had seen what he probably already had in mind. The title is borrowed from the film maker who has made the most quotable statements of all: Jean-Luc Godard. ‘All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.’ He was of course also referring to a commercial cinema that indeed had nothing more to offer than girls and guns. As always in the case of Godard, he was being both serious and ironic. That’s why he’s so good to quote. Deutsch shows that the girl & gun mechanism was already active in the very earliest days of cinema. And by embedding the images in many older, mythical stories and statements: the Godards of ancient Greece, such as Plato and Sappho. But the film is primarily a musical and visual feast of amazing and beautiful images. (GjZ)

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Gustav DEUTSCH (1952, Austria) studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna. Besides being an architect, he is also an artist, musician, photographer, film and video maker and a regular guest at the Rotterdam festival. In his films, he investigates the phenomenology of the medium film. Films: (since 1995) Taschenkino/ Pocketcinema (1995), Film spricht viele Sprachen/Film Speaks Many Languages (1995, short), No Comment minimundus AUSTRIA (1996, short, co-dir), Film ist mehr als Film/Film Is More Than Film (1996, short), Mariage blanc/ White Marriage (1996, short, codir), Film ist. 1-6 (1998, co-dir), Tradition ist die Weitergabe des Feuers und nicht die Anbetung der Asche/Tradition Is the Handing On of Fire and Not the Worship of Ashes (1999, short, co-dir), K&K&K (1999, short), Film ist. 7-12 (2002, co-dir), Welt Spiegel Kino/World Mirror Cinema (2005), The Mozart Minute (2006, short, co-dir), Film IST. a girl & a gun/Film IS. a girl & a gun (2009)

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Philippines, 2008 b&w, video, 480 min, Filipino/English Pro: Lav Diaz Pro Comp: Sine Olivia Pilipinas Sc: Lav Diaz Cam: Lav Diaz Ed: Lav Diaz Mu: The Brockas, Lav Diaz With: Raul Arellano, Angeli

Bayani, Soliman Cruz, Perry Dizon, Dante Perez, Roeder Camanag Print/Sales: Sine Olivia Pilipinas

Lav DIAZ (1958, Philippines) attended the Mowelfund Film Institute in Quezon City. His breakthrough came with the five-hour feature Batang West Side (2002). Both his short Purgatorio (2008) and his 480-minute feature Melancholia (2008) has been selected for the IFFR in 2009.

Melancholia Lav Diaz

It’s not the first time that Lav Diaz brings an extremely long film to Rotterdam. We have to watch out that we don’t start taking it for granted. That we don’t forget how radical a step it is to make infinitely slow, infinitely long films in black-and-white. Films about sensitive subjects, ones that the sad Republic of the Philippines is full of, as far as he is concerned. Films that are also made primarily in a sad way. Or better: that are themselves just plain sad. That’s why he’s the only filmmaker who has the right to claim the beautiful old word Melancholia as title. Not every long Lav Diaz film is told in the same way. In Heremias, we followed step-by-step the demise of the protagonists, slowly but surely like the passage of an ox cart. All his films are meditations, and this one is a meditation about love, life and suffering. It is shot in various locations inside and outside Manila. Of his films, this undoubtedly has the most complex story. The three protagonists, Julian (Perry Dizon), Alberta (Angeli Bayani) and Rina (Malaya Cruz), also adopt different identities, despite knowing better, to combat the melancholy. The good news is that with his wilful and demanding films, Diaz is slowly penetrating to the most important platforms. For instance, at the most recent Venice Festival, he won the Orizzonti Prize for best feature. (GjZ)

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Films: Serafin Geronimo, kriminal ng baryo concepcion/ The Criminal of Barrio Concepcion (1998), Burger Boys (1999), Hubad sa ilalim ng buwan/Naked Under the Moon (1999), Hesus rebolusyonaryo/ Hesus the Revolutionary (2002), Batang West Side (2002), Ebolusyon ng isang pamilyang Pilipino/Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004), When the Rain Ended (2006, short), Heremias (2006), Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto/Death in the Land of Encantos (2007), Melancholia (2008), Purgatorio (2008, short), Manila’s Dark Room (2009, instal)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:07

Spectrum

Kazakhstan/Russia/ Germany/Switzerland/ Poland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 100 min, English/Kazakh/ Russian Pro: Karl Baumgartner, Valerie

Fischer, Gulnara Sarsenova, Sergey Melkumov Pro Comp: Pandora Film, Cobra Film, Eurasia Film, Film Company Slovo, CTB Film Company, Filmcontract, Pallas Film GmbH Sc: Sergey Dvortsevoy, Gennady Ostrovskiy Cam: Jola Dylewska Ed: Isabel Meier, Petar Markovic Ad: Roger Martin With: Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Samal Yeslyamova, Ondasyn Besikbasov, Tulepbergen Baisakalov, Bereke Turganbayev, Nurzhigit Zhapabayev, Mahabbat Turganbayeva

Tulpan

Sales: The Match Factory GmbH Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Sergey Dvortsevoy

The documentary master Sergey Dvortsevoy is known for his unforgettable film In the Dark (2004), but his whole oeuvre of documentaries is most certainly recognisable in his first feature, a natural next step in his career. Dvortsevoy combines actors with amateur performers, uses understated humour and gives leading roles to local domestic animals. He tackles major themes based on small, apparently chance stories. In Tulpan, this is the dream of a better life for the former sailor Asa, who lives with his sister and brother-in-law as an assistant shepherd. Eager for an adult life with his own herd, he shall first have to find himself a bride. Life doesn’t get any easier when Tulpan, the only nubile woman anywhere near, says his ears are too big and rejects him. He doesn’t even get to see her. Dvortsevoy unfolds a warm-hearted comedy with a rough undertone. Natural laws predominate in the endless bare steppes, where people do not easily rule over the idiosyncratic nature of their herds. Dvortsevoy does not need any grand gestures. His sharp, ethnographic observations are not larded with pompous symbolism, but with liberating humour and powerful minor plot lines. All the actors are convincing with their own small worlds - worlds which come together again every evening under the yurt roof. (LC)

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Sergey DVORTSEVOY (1962, Kazakhstan) studied aeronautics before learning film directing and scriptwriting in Moscow in 1993. Since then, he has worked as freelance director. He has won more than 50 international film prizes. Tulpan is his début feature. Films: Schastye/Paradise (1995, short), Chlebnyy den/Bread Day (1998, short), Highway (1999, short), V temnote/In the Dark (2004, short), Tulpan (2008)

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France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 94 min, French/German/Kurdish Pro: Laëtitia Gonzalez, Michel

Zana, Isabelle Laclau Pro Comp: Les Films du Poisson,

SD Productions, Sylicone Sc: Emmanuel Finkiel Cam: Hans Meier, Nicolas Guicheteau Ed: Anne Weil, Saskia Berthod Sound: François Waledisch, Pascal Armant With: Elsa Amiel, Nicolas Wanczycki, Haci Aslan, Haci Yusuf Aslan Print/Sales: Roissy Films

Nulle part terre promise Nowhere Promised Land Emmanuel Finkiel

Three journeys by Europeans who don’t know each other are interwoven by Finkiel in his Nowhere Promised Land. Without them realising, their lives intersect briefly. A group of Kurdish refugees, including a father and son, who hope to continue their journey through Hungary to the United Kingdom, but whose truck gets stranded in Budapest. A young female student travelling alone to various cities, trying without success to contact a friend, and on her way, filming homeless people with her camera. A young manager who is coordinating the move of a refrigerator factory from France to Hungary and who occasionally has his doubts about the social legitimacy of his work. Finkiel doesn’t explain much and there’s hardly any dialogue. The travel fragments unfold en passant, as if we zoom in by chance on the vicissitudes of a random selection of Europeans looking for more happiness. But in his half documentary, half fictional epic, Finkiel introduces subtle shifts in the experiences of his migrants. While their social economic points of departure are very different, one wonders for whom the journey will work out best in the end. Nowhere Promised Land looks as if it is made from a distance, but paradoxically enough this apparent objectivity focuses on personal isolation in Europe today.

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Emmanuel FINKIEL (1961, France) was for years an assistant director, for instance on Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Blue, White and R ed. He has been writing and directing films himself since 1995. His feature début Voyages (1999) was awarded at several film festivals in France, including Cannes. Films: Mme Jacques sur la Croisette/Madame Jacques on the Croisette (1996, short), Mélanie (1996, TV), Voyages (1999), Dimanche (2000, short), Samedi à dimanche (2000, short), Samedi (2000, short), Mardi ou mercredi (2000, short), Du lundi au venredi (2000), Casting (2001, doc), En marge des jours (2006, TV), Nulle part terre promise/Nowhere Promised Land (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:07

Spectrum

WORLD PREMIERE

Netherlands, 2009 colour, video, 85 min, English Pro: Cyrus Frisch Pro Comp: Stichting Filmkracht Sc: Cyrus Frisch Cam: Cyrus Frisch Ed: Cyrus Frisch Mu: Jan Kooper With: Rutger Hauer,

Georgina Verbaan Sales: Stichting Filmkracht Distr. NL: Filmfreak Distribution

Oogverblindend Dazzle Cyrus Frisch

The film has a daring minimal point of departure: a woman on the phone. That’s it. You don’t see who she’s talking to. It takes a lot to maintain interest throughout the length of a film with that. Cyrus Frisch has a solid reputation when it comes to taking risks. So maybe it’s not so unusual for him to take the challenge. More striking is that he entrusted this tour de force for an actress to Georgina Verbaan, who made her name in Holland through popular soap series and a lifestyle that is primarily of interest to the tabloids. But Frisch’s faith in Verbaan is paid back in a moving and fragile presentation. These self-imposed limitations of the film forced the film maker to visual virtuosity. The unity of place and action demanded a very creative translation into film. At the other end of the phone is an Argentine doctor, voiced by the famous Rutger Hauer. A voice that is not only convincing, but also introduces decades-old Dutch and American film history into the film. It is, by the way, certainly no lighthearted chat on the phone. The great suffering of humanity and the world is tackled. The woman can no longer face all that suffering and tries to talk her way out of it in a conversation with a stranger. And these great actors even succeed in making it bearable. (GjZ)

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Cyrus FRISCH (1969, Netherlands) graduated in 1992 from the Dutch Film and Television Academy. He works as a scriptwriter and director of films, documentaries and theatre. His work is surrounded by controversy. Critics call him an agent provocateur and a narcissist. In his work, Frisch provokes questions about the morality of the film maker and the viewer, who is thrown back and forth between disgust and fascination, but still keeps on looking. Many of his films have been screened in Rotterdam. Films: De kut van Maria/Maria’s Cunt (1990, short), Welcome 1 (1991, short), Screentest (1992, short), Welcome 2 (1992, short), Zelfbeklag/Selfpity (1993, doc), Live experimenteren/Live Experiments (1995, short doc), Ik zal je leven eren.../I Shall Honour Your Life... (1997, short doc), Geen titel/No Title (1998, short doc), Vergeef me/Forgive Me (2001), Waarom heeft niemand mij verteld dat het zo erg zou worden in Afghanistan/ Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan (2007), Blackwater Fever (2008), Oogverblindend/ Dazzle (2009)

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France, 2008 b&w, 35mm, 105 min, French Pro: Edouard Weil Pro Comp: Rectangle

Productions Sc: Marc Cholodenko, Arlette Langmann, Philippe Garrel Cam: William Lubtchansky Ed: Yann Dedet Sound: Alexandre Abrard Mu: Jean Claude Vannier With: Louis Garrel, Laura Smet, Clémentine Poidatz, Emmanuel Broche, Olivier Massart, Juliette Delègue Print/Sales: Films Distribution

La frontière de l’aube Frontier of Dawn Philippe Garrel

‘On the day that the last concentration camp survivor dies, World War III will start,’ says a young photographer in bed to the blonde actress with whom he is having an affair. Anyone choosing such reflections as pillow talk will not be satisfied with anything less than burning passion in the most fatal romantic tradition. That’s also what happens. His lover asks whether he will still love her when their sex is no longer good, if she’s ill or crazy. In the end their love proves able to break through death itself. Philippe Garrel directs his son Louis in the male lead, with Laura Smet and Clémentine Poidatz as counterpoints in love. The drama, while set in the present, displays an anachronistic mood: people communicate with handwritten notes, in the psychiatric clinic men in white coats give electroshock therapy and the photographer has to use a darkroom. The form is also refreshingly old-fashioned: clean black-and-white photography, unhurried scenes that flow calmly into each other and sparse piano and violin sounds . But in the end, it’s all about love. At the party someone explains ‘the law of the windscreen wipers’, which means that one lover runs away when the other approaches and the other way around. His partner in conversation suggests an alternative pair of windscreen wipers that move towards each other. ‘That’s friendship,’ the first concludes.

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In the early 1970s, Philippe GARREL (1948, France) made his name with films like The Inner Scar and Les hautes solitudes. Since then, he has worked on a large and consistent oeuvre, including the prizewinning I Don’t Hear the Guitar Anymore (1990). For a long time his films were shown without opening or closing credits. From 1972 to 1984, he worked with the German singer Nico. Garrel is the son of actor Maurice Garrel and his own son is the actor Louis Garrel. Films: (selection) La cicatrice intérieure/The Inner Scar (1970), Les hautes solitudes (1974), L’enfant secret (1979), J’entends plus la guitare/I Don’t Hear the Guitar Anymore (1990), Sauvage innocence/Wild Innocence (2001), Les amants réguliers/Regular Lovers (2004), La frontière de l’aube/Frontier of Dawn (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:08

Spectrum

Italy, 2008 colour, 35mm, 135 min, Italian Pro: Domenico Procacci Pro Comp: Fandango Sc: Roberto Saviano, Matteo

Garrone, Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Massimo Gaudioso, based on a novel by Roberto Saviano Cam: Marco Onorato Ed: Marco Spoletini Ad: Paolo Bonfini Sound: Leslie Shatz With: Salvatore Abruzzese, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Toni Servillo, Carmine Paternoster, Salvatore Cantalupo, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone Sales: Fandango

Gomorra

Portobello Sales Distr. NL: Cinemien

Gomorrah Matteo Garrone

Matteo Garrone has added a classic to the Mafia genre with his widely praised Gomorrah. He based his film on the non-fiction bestseller by Roberto Saviano (whose portrait of Mafia leaders necessitates him leading an underground existence) and primarily sketches the rough, unglamorous side of the Mafia. Gomorrah is not a star vehicle with a polished storyline, but a complex whole of crossing plot lines in which many relatively unknown actors and amateurs portray a very charged reality in Neapolitan dialect. The images are overwhelming in their authenticity and misleading beauty. The more these lines come together, the more we see that virtually the whole of social and political life in and around Naples is infiltrated by the Camorra. Corruption, settling up accounts and extortion are commonplace, and the families of imprisoned Mafiosi are maintained by colleagues. The most revealing and convincing thing about this hard-boiled film is the way in which young Neapolitans are recruited and how easily they fall for a Mafia life with its very uncertain future. Garrone allows two of them to get reckless and pay a heavy price. He focuses primarily on the broad foundation of an immense army of ‘foot soldiers’, filming their home base as one huge unpredictable pigeon coop, or rather a beehive divided rigidly into ranks filled with changing alliances. (EH)

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Matteo GARRONE (1968, Italy) started working as camera assistant and painter after art school. In 1996 his short film Silhouette won a prize at the Sacher Festival (organised by Nanni Moretti). His feature début Terra di mezzo (1997) won the prize for best film at the Turin festival Cinema Giovani. His features have been awarded at several festivals through the years. The most successful was L’imbalsamatore (2002), which was shown in Cannes and won in Italy a prize for just about every cinematographic aspect. Films: Silhouette (1996, short), Terra di mezzo (1997), Bienvenido Espirito Santo (1997, doc), Un caso di forza maggiore (1998, short), Oreste Pipolo, fotografo di matrimoni (1998, doc), Ospiti/Guests (1998), Estate Romana/Roman Summer (2000), L’imbalsamatore/ The Embalmer (2002), Primo Amore/First Love (2004), Gomorra/Gomorrah (2008)

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Ethiopia/Germany/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 140 min, Amharic/German/ English Pro: Haile Gerima, Karl

Baumgartner, Marie-Michèle Cattelain, Philippe Avril Pro Comp: Negod-Gwad Production, Pandora Film Produktion GmbH, Unlimited, WDR Sc: Haile Gerima Cam: Mario Masini Ed: Haile Gerima, Loren Hankin Ad: Patrick Dechesne, AlainPascal Housiaux, Seyum Ayana Sound: Umbe Adan, Martin Langenbach Mu: Vijay Iyer, Jorga Mesfin With: Aron Arefe, Abiye Tedla, Takelech Beyene, Teje Tesfahun, Nebiyu Baye, Mengistu Zelalem, Wuhib Bayu, Zenahbezu Tsega, Asrate Abrham, Araba Evelyn JohnstonArthur, Veronika Avraham

Teza Haile Gerima

It starts with the return of the prodigal son, when a certain Anberber returns to his old mother in a village on the Ethiopian Plateau in the latter days of the Marxist reign of terror of dictator Mengistu. He has lost a leg and his memory, and shows little respect for local religious traditions. When people use consecrated water to drive out his demons, his memory returns. Then Anberber describes in flashbacks, supported by his narrative voice, his period as a medical student in Germany. He talks about the utopian revolutionary expectations that seemed to come true after the overthrow of the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1977 in his homeland. However when he goes to Ethiopia to help his old school friend in hospital, Marxism in practice turns out to be a cruel and oppressive ideology. Anberber cannot be anything more than a plaything for the military junta, but on his return to Germany he finds that he is above all black, and only after that a person. The question remains: what can he mean to his country and his compatriots? Teza is an epic about the turbulent history of Ethiopia seen from the perspective of a moderate intellectual who tries to maintain his integrity in barbaric circumstances. The tone is not too bombastic and, despite so much misery, a dripping tap is the greatest torment. The Ethiopian landscape forms a beautiful backdrop.

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Sales: The Match Factory GmbH Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Haile GERIMA (1946, Ethiopia) studied in the USA at the Goodman School of Drama in Los Angeles and at the film academy in Los Angeles (UCLA) where he made two films on 8 and 16mm before going back to Ethiopia and making H arvest 3000 years (1976). Gerima is perhaps best known through Sankofa (1993), the film that scored high points at several international film festivals. Films: Hour Glass (1972, short), Child of Resistance (1972, short), Bush Mama (1976), Wilmington (1978, doc), Ashes and Embers (1982), After Winter: Sterling Brown (1985, doc), Sankofa (1993), Imperfect Journey (1994, doc), Adwa - An African Victory (1999, doc), Teza (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:09

Spectrum

Russia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 120 min, Russian Pro: Artem Vassiliev,

Sergei Shumakov Pro Comp: Phenomen Films,

Buma nyj soldat Paper Soldier Alexey German Jr.

For the Soviet intelligentsia of the 1960s, Bulat Okudzhava’s song Paper Soldier became a kind of anthem, proclaiming the values of individual responsibility and freedom of choice. Those were the days of great expectations, the beginning of Khrushchev’s liberalization and the climax of the grand Communist Utopia, fuelled by the first successful space flights. Set in the early 60s and featuring an emotionally vulnerable doctor (Merab Ninidze) working with the first team of Soviet cosmonauts, the film presents a very daring artistic effort from the heir to the German dynasty, Alexey Jr. Though deeply rooted in the classic oeuvre of his famous father, and with heavy references to the Soviet cinema of that era, the film is not a ‘retro movie’. As German Jr. himself puts it, ‘I made an essay about my impressions of that time, the time when my parents were young’. In depicting Gagarin’s time and the Soviet liberal renaissance, German Jr. goes beyond documentary authenticity and factual accuracy. In his cinematographic ‘search of lost time’ the director constructs a complex labyrinth of psychological profiles and creates a collage of cultural references. With its meticulous directing, superb acting and brilliant cinematography, Paper Soldier triumphed in Venice and was applauded by critics at home. The film was supported by the IFFR Hubert Bals Fund. (MB)

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RTR / Russian State TV & Radio Broadcasting Co. & Kultura Sc: Alexey German Jr. Ed: Sergey Ivanov Sound: Tariel Gasan Zade Mu: Fedor Sofronov With: Merab Ninidze, Chulpan Khamatova, Anastasya Sheveleva Print/Sales: Elle Driver

Alexey GERMAN Jr. (1976, Russia) grew up in St. Petersburg. He studied at the VGIK film school in Moscow from 1996 to 2001. Afterwards he worked for the Lenfilm Studios. He directed three shorts that gained him national as well as international acclaim. With Paper Soldier, his third feature, he won the Silver Lion Award at the festival in Venice in 2008. Films: Standard (1998, short), Bolshoye osenneye pole/Big Autumn Field (1999, short), Durachki/Fools (2001, short), Posledniy poezd/The Last Train (2003), Garpastum (2005), Bumaznyj soldat/ Paper Soldier (2008)

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Brazil, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 80 min, Portuguese Pro: Roberto Tibirica, Paulo

Roberto de Carvalho, Jurandir Müller Pro Comp: Plateau Produções, Autentika Films, PaleoTV Sc: Hilton Lacerda, Kiko Goifman Cam: Aloysio Raulino Ed: Vânia Debs Ad: Cris Bierrenbach Sound: Livio Tragtenberg Mu: Livio Tragtenberg With: Jean-Claude Bernardet, Cris Bierrenbach, Hilton Lacerda, Livio Tragtenberg, Ravel Cabral

FilmeFobia

Print/Sales: PaleoTV www.filmefobia.com.br

FilmPhobia Kiko Goifman

FilmPhobia is the ‘making-of’ an incomplete Brazilian film and is largely comprised of pictures behind the scenes and of ethical discussions between the director and his crew. The director wants to record the ‘truth’ on the face of someone confronted with his phobia under laboratory conditions. To achieve this, complex equipment is built in the bleak space reminiscent of a torture chamber. Several crew members feel ill at ease during shooting, although the guinea pigs did volunteer. Phobias vary from well-known (snakes, needles) to very unusual (dwarfs, butterflies). For these, the crew create far reaching set-ups. For instance, someone with a fear of pigeons is put among pigeons with bread hanging off his body. While we see the preparations and the shooting, we hear the participants describe their phobias in voice-overs. With an expert, the director debates the essence of a phobia and the moral questions surrounding the shooting. Coffin Joe, the famous Brazilian cult hero of horror films such as At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1963), provides a commentary on the cinematographic impact of several shots. The director himself has AIDS and slowly loses his sight. Perhaps his interest in the subject stems from his illness. He is, however, not a therapist. ‘My hope is ... that the person loses control.’ And: ‘This is all about the picture.’

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Kiko GOIFMAN (1970, Brazil) was trained as an artist and anthropologist. The combination of these disciplines can be seen in his oeuvre, which includes documentaries, installations and new media. FilmPhobia is his first feature film. Films: Tereza (1992, short doc), Fábulas da Vó de Arturo (1993, short), Linguach Ula (1994, short), Clones bárbaros replicantes (1994, doc), Na velocidade dos Morcegos (1995, short), Valetes em/Slow Motion (1998), Olhos pasmados (2000, short), ‘33’ (2003, doc), Morte densa/Dense Death (2003, short), Território vermelho/Red Territory (2005, short), Sex and Cloister (2005, short doc), Acts of Men (2006, doc), Handerson e as horas/Handerson and the Hours (2007, short doc), FilmeFobia/FilmPhobia (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:10

Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

India, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 115 min, Malayalam Pro: Adoor Gopalakrishnan,

Benzy Martin Pro Comp: Adoor

Oru pennum randaanum A Climate for Crime Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Deeply rooted in the soil and soul of the director’s native Kerala, four stories echo the time of WWII in British India when severe economic crises, unemployment and a lack of necessities occurred. Although each story depicts a different criminal act, from petty theft by the very poor to severe crime by richer, official employees to the questioning and betrayal of human values, the director focuses on the journey one takes towards making the decision to commit a crime rather than on the results of the criminal action. Each of the main characters is caught up in peculiar life circumstances. Some risk everything to achieve something beneficial they think they are entitled to; others face problems in making the right choices. Starting with A Thief, a story about a boy disappointed by his father’s deeds, the film moves to The Police, about corrupt and merciless law executives, and then heads towards more complex issues of loyalty and serious dilemmas in Two men and a woman, closing with a murder story and a search for love in One woman, two men. Although this neverending search for a better life, human dignity and love is seriously rendered, it still radiates the romantic idea of human endurance, hope, guilt and a sense of justice. That makes this rather calm and lyrical film, which is obviously deeply culturally rooted, universal. (RS)

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Gopalakrishnan Productions, Emil & Eric Film Pvt.Ltd Sc: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, based on the stories by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai Cam: M.J. Radhakrishnan Ed: Ajith Ad: Rajasekharan Sound: Krishnanunni, N. Harikumar Mu: Isaac Thomas With: M.R.Gopakumar, Seema Nair, Nedumudi Venu, Praveena Lalithabai, Ravi Vallathol Print: Directorate of Film Festivals Sales: Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Productions www.adoorgopalakrishnan.in

Adoor GOPALAKRISHNAN (1941, India) started his career in amateur theatre at the age of eight, and by the time he completed his study, he had already produced more than twenty plays. In 1962 he started working at the Film and Television Institute of India, where he also attended a course in script writing and directing. For his feature films, he won the top directing award in India four times. Most of his films draw upon the history and culture of his native Kerala. Films: (selection) Swayamvaram/ One’s Own Choice (1972), Elippathayam/Rat-Trap (1981), Mathilukal/The Walls (1990), Vidheyan/The Servile (1994), Kathapurushan/Man of the Story (1996), Nizhalkkuthu/ Shadow Kill (2002), Naalu pennungal/Four Women (2007), Oru pennum randaanum/A Climate for Crime (2008)

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Lebanon/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 76 min, French/Arabic Pro: Edouard Mauriat, Georges

Schoucair, Tony Arnoux Pro Comp: Mille et Une Productions,

Abbout Productions Sc: Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige Cam: Julien Hirsch Ed: Enrica Gattolini Sound: Guillaume Le Braz, Sylvain Malbrant, Emmanuel Croset Mu: Scrambled Eggs With: Catherine Deneuve, Rabih Mroué

Je veux voir

Print/Sales: Films Boutique

I Want to See Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige

Can you put a famous actress who is in Lebanon for a gala into a car and drive around southern Lebanon through the destruction of a civil war? In the first scenes of I Want to See, the crew has its doubts about this undertaking, but Catherine Deneuve, who plays herself, simply says: ‘Je veux voir.’ After which the well-known Lebanese actor Rabih Mroue (‘My name means “Spring”’) drives her past ruins, shot-up villages and endless plains of rubble. In the meantime, he confesses to her that he knows whole passages of her dialogues by heart. Slowly, a bond emerges between the two. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige previously made A Perfect Day (2005). I Want to See is, just like Our Beloved Month of August, a film within a film. It looks as if Deneuve has agreed to take part in the film and the makers basically don’t yet know what they’re going to do. In the meantime, the directors play a subtle game with the viewer. An official bans them from filming beside a destroyed building, the crew jumps into view when Mroue drives the car into a suspected minefield, we sometimes see the world from the car and sometimes we look into the car. The change in perspective increases the distance between the characters and reality and leaves the viewer with the question: Is there room for art in such a devastated world?

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Joana HADJITHOMAS (1969, Beirut) and Khalil JOREIGE (1969, Beirut) are Lebanese film makers and artists. In 1999, they directed their first feature film, A round the Pink House. In 2000, they made the first documentary K hiam. They have also created various video and photographic exhibitions, as well as a photo book about Beirut. Both are teachers at the Institute for Scenic and Audiovisual Studies (IESAV) of St. Joseph University in Beirut. I Want to See is their third feature film. Films: (Joana Hadjithomas)The Agony of the Feet (1994, short), 333 Sycamore (1994, short), Fautes d’identité (1997, short), Al bayt al zahr/Around the Pink House (1999), Khiam (2000, doc), The Lost Film (2003, doc), Ashes (2003, short), Naoussé/A Perfect Day (2003), Open the Door Please (2007, short), Khiam 2000-2007 (2008), Je veux voir/I Want to See (2008) Films: (Khalil Joreige)The Agony of the Feet (1994, short), 333 Sycamore (1994, short), Fautes d’identité (1997, short), Al bayt al zahr/Around the Pink House (1999), Khiam (2000, doc), The Lost Film (2003, doc), Ashes (2003, short), Naoussé/A Perfect Day (2003), Open the Door Please (2007, short), Khiam 2000-2007 (2008), Je veux voir/I Want to See (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:11

Spectrum

Lebanon, 2008 colour, video, 105 min, Arabic Pro: Joana Hadjithomas,

Khalil Joreige Pro Comp: Abbout Productions Sc: Joana Hadjithomas,

Khalil Joreige Cam: Joana Hadjithomas,

Khalil Joreige Ed: Michèle Tyan, Tina Baz Legal Sound: Rana Eid, Sylvain Malbrant With: Rajaé Abou Hamain, Kifah Afifé, Sonia Baydoun, Soha Béchara, Afif Hammoud, Neeman Nasrallah Print/Sales: Abbout Productions

Khiam 2000-2007 Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige

It looks as if everything that was ever filmed in the hotbeds of the Middle East somehow remains topical in one way or another. Or at a certain point becomes topical again. On the evening when this catalogue page was written, Israeli tanks moved into the Gaza Strip. History repeating itself. Time and again, one has to say. That’s why the undertaking by the untiring Lebanon chroniclers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige to make their film twice, by returning after history repeated itself, is extremely valuable and of course also extremely tragic. The first K hiam film was screened in Rotterdam in 2002, just as virtually all films by the duo have been (this year another one can also be seen: I Want to See). Khiam was a detention camp in southern Lebanon and the film is about the period when the Israeli army used it during the occupation of Southern Lebanon, which lasted from 1982 to 2000. The makers wanted to make a film about the camp in 1999 (during the occupation), but that was impossible. It was not possible to shoot film in the camp. So they chose a radically different form. They asked six ex-prisoners (three men and three women) to describe the camp and life in the camp with as much detail as possible in order to evoke an inner image of the camp. Eight years later, they had the same people evoke an image again. History at work. (GjZ)

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Iran/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 95 min, Hindi Pro: Chapour C. Haghighat,

Anne Ferron Pro Comp: C. Haghighat

The Firm Land

Print/Sales: Perspectives

Chapour C. Haghighat

Nomades

A remote village by the Indian Ocean is struck by a deadly disease. A man comes from the sea, seeking the firm land... While death lurks, the villagers decide to turn to the government for help. But as they feel unable to present their demand by themselves, some men are sent to the capital with the mission of hiring mediators, ‘learned men’, who could plead their cause. Lost in the big city, the countrymen cannot find any help and get into trouble. They are rescued by some street-boys who introduce them to a disillusioned former professor. He pushes the villagers to go and besiege the ministry themselves until their complaints are listened to. But they are turned down roughly by the administration. When a ruined and melancholy aristocrat organizes a great feast, they sing, dance, talk about happiness and life. This is a fable about the passing of time, the hopes of men haunted by loneliness and death. Central to it are the corruption and bureaucracy of governments, but also a humane portrait of a large, vibrant Indian city. A bittersweet, romantic allegory, which aims to show the universality of the suffering of the poor all over the world, and the strength of the human spirit to transcend social and material circumstances. Chapoor Haghighat: ‘I wanted to give this film both a realistic and mythical approach, using a mixture of dream and reality’. (EH)

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Production, Perspectives Nomades Sc: Chapour Haghighat Cam: Mrinal Desai Ed: Catherine Quesemand, Chapour Haghighat Sound: Mikael Barre Mu: Chandrakant Liamye, Atulchandra Tade, Sangeet Mishra With: Mansoor Seth, Prem Datta, Ravi Rekh Rai, Jindar Walia, Change Ji a.o.

Chapour C. HAGHIGHAT (1947, Iran) has lived and worked for several years in France. Haghighat is not only a film maker, but also playwright and author of short stories and novels. The Nightly Song of the Travellers (2005) is based on his own novel, written in French. The film was made with support from the Hubert Bals Fund. The Firm Land (2008) is Haghighat’s second feature. Films: Brésil, à la rencontre des sans-terre (2003, short doc), Yolcularin gece sarkisi/The Nightly Song of the Travellers (2005), The Firm Land (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:11

Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

China, 2008 colour, video, 88 min, Mandarin Pro: Shan Dongbing Pro Comp: Beijing Jingle

Shui shang ren jia River People He Jianjun

He Jianjun, who made an impression in Rotterdam in the early 1990s as one of the leaders of the ‘sixth generation’ with films like R ed Beads and Postman, follows fishermen on the banks of the Yellow River in the Shanxi Province. His love for his subject is, as always, visible in every scene. Partly in documentary form, partly as fiction, River People shows traditional life as it passes the generations, calm and irreversible as the river itself, apparently unaffected by economic changes in the city. People live without medical care, social provisions, without tax. It’s about the cousins and best friends Baowa and Laba (who sometimes tell the story). An old uncle, who taught everyone the craft, is afraid of the outside world because so many relatives have been so unfortunate there. He doesn’t want to think about leaving and has forbidden Baowa, the only one to go to school, ever to mention it. But for the young man, a boat looks like a coffin. In the evening, the boats moor, the generators are started and everyone watches a DVD. In the winter, the boats are laid up on the riverbank. When Laba’s parents buy a bigger boat, the brothers are faced with an inevitable choice. R iver People is the story of people who are happy with their lives, but slowly see the modern era creep in. He Jianjun records it majestically. (GT)

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Culture Development Co.,Ltd. Sc: He Jianjun Cam: Guo Zhirong Ed: Qi Ziyi Ad: Ma Ke Sound: Liu Shenshen, Tao Junjie Mu: Zhang Yi With: Shan Jingtao, Shan Jingqin, Shan Haoshan Sales: Beijing Jingle Culture

Development Co.,Ltd. Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

HE Jianjun (1960, China) worked on three films by Chen Kaige before, in 1998, he embarked on a directing course at the film academy in Beijing. He graduated in 1990 and was then assistant director to Zhang Yimou and Tian Zhuangzhuang. He is now one of the most important representatives of the so-called Sixth Generation. Films: A Certain Experience (1990, short), China, China (1992, short), Summer in Dalian (1992, TV doc), Self-Portrait (1993, short doc), Xuan lian/Red Beads (1993), Youchai/Postman (1994), Jade Rubber (1996, TV doc), Dalian International Fashion Show (1998, TV doc), Feng jing/Scenery (1999), Hu die de wei xiao/Butterfly Smile (2001), Man yan/Pirated Copy (2004), Shui shang ren jia/River People (2008)

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Spectrum

Germany/United Kingdom/ Turkey/Kazakhstan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 94 min, Turkish Pro: Roshanak Behesht

The Market – A Tale of Trade Ben Hopkins In this dry-comic road movie, we see the appealing villain and black market trader Mihram (an incredibly powerful role by Tayanc Ayaydin), who does his very best to change. He wants to stop drinking and gambling and become a respectable husband in the eyes of his wife. He is always trying to dream up how he can make the most possible money in the least possible time; comparisons with the rich West are never far away. When a doctor asks him if he can buy medicine for her abroad in order to heal children, Mihram seizes his opportunity. With the aid of his uncle, he sets off on a journey that could make him a fortune. But things don’t work out as planned... The M arket - A Tale of Trade does justice to its name. It’s a beautiful, light-hearted and intelligent analysis of how markets work, black and white, and how small players can be helped and crushed by the essentially simple yet treacherous mechanism of supply and demand. It becomes apparent that there is a very thin line between entrepreneurship and illegality. The British writer Ben Hopkins wrote the screenplay himself and directed the story in Turkey. He struck a universal chord, as is apparent from the fact that the film has triumphed at film festivals and won many prizes (including that for best film, scenario and leading role in Antalya, best film in Ghent and best actor in Locarno). (EH)

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Nedjad, Gulnara Sarsenova, Hans Geissendörfer, Nikki Parrott, Ceyda Tufan Pro Comp: Flying Moon, Film- und Fernsehproduktion Geissendörfer, Eurasia Film, Tigerlily Films, Pi Film Production Sc: Ben Hopkins Cam: Konstantin Kröning Ed: Alan Levy Ad: Attila Yilmaz Sound: Lars Ginzel Mu: Cihan Sezer With: Tayanç Ayaydin, Genco Erkal, Senay Aydin, Hakan Sahin, Rojin Ulker Sales: The Works Media Group Distr. NL: BrunBro Films

British film maker Ben HOPKINS (1969, Hong Kong) studied film at the Royal College of Art in London. He started his career in student theatre and later on he directed seven short films. His début feature Simon M agus (1999) premièred at the Berlin Film Festival, as did his documentary 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep (2006). The M arket - A Tale of Trade has received several awards at festivals. Films: National Achievement Day (1995, short), Simon Magus (1999), The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000), 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep (2006), The Market A Tale of Trade (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:12

Spectrum

WORLD PREMIERE

Japan, 2009 colour, video, 99 min, Japanese/English/French/ Czech Pro: Iwai Chikara Sc: Iwai Chikara Cam: Iwai Chikara Ed: Iwai Chikara Ad: Iwai Chikara Sound: Otomo Yoshihide Mu: Otomo Yoshihide With: Otomo Yoshihide Print/Sales: Iwai Chikara

IWAI Chikara (1977, Japan) was educated at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Iwai has made several conceptual art projects in which he combines visual aspects with sound. The documentary K ikoe (2008), about the Japanese musician Otomo Yoshihide, is Iwai’s first feature-length film.

Kikoe Iwai Chikara

K ikoe is a creative documentary with the Japanese avant-garde musician and composer Otomo Yoshihide in the centre. His particular, improvisatory style and way of thinking and playing are echoed in the style of this free-spirited documentary, which includes interviews and performances by DJ Spooky, Jan Svankmajer, Jonas Mekas, Adachi Masao, Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Fred Frith, and many others. Film maker Iwai Chikara: ‘This is a document of a system observed from a fixed point, and the point is the musician Otomo Yoshihide. It is a gesture, arbitrary yet perfect, as though connecting stars with lines and giving a name to the constellation.’ Otomo Yoshihide (1959, Yokohama) was already making electrical devices such as a radio and an electronic oscillator before high school. After high school he started playing rock and jazz on guitar. It wasn’t long, however, before he became a free jazz aficionado, listening to artists like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and Derek Bailey and various Japanese free jazz artists, notably the alto sax player Abe Kaoru and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi. From 1990 on, Otomo collaborated extensively with other musicians in a wide range of styles. That year, he also started his own band, Ground-O (later Ground Zero), which underwent several changes in style and membership in years to come.

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Films: The Day Out of Time (1999, short doc), Qomolangma (1999, instal), Once (2000, short doc), Face (Make or Fake) (2001, short), 4326 Dub (2002, short), Kikoe (2009, doc)

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China, 2008 colour, 35mm, 107 min, Mandarin Pro: Jia Zhang-ke, Ichiyama

Shozo, Wang Hong Pro Comp: Xstream Pictures,

China Resources, Shanghai Film Group Corporation Sc: Jia Zhang-ke, Zhai Yongming Cam: Yu Likwai, Wang Yu Ed: Lin Xudong, Kong Jinlai Ad: Liu Qiang Sound: Zhang Yang Mu: Lim Giong With: Joan Chen, Zhao Tao, Lv Liping, Chen Jianbin Sales: MK2 Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

Er shi si cheng ji 24 City Jia Zhang-ke

24 City shows the influence the rapid transition of China has on the individual. Based on a state factory due for demolition, Jia Zhang-ke reconstructs 50 years of Chinese social and economic history. Unlike his previous work focusing on contemporary China and making widespread use of long, meditate shots, 24 City primarily emphasises the collective past and the spoken word. When narrating history, the boundary between fact and fiction can easily fade. Jia Zhang-ke emphasises this by allowing us, in five authentic and four fictional interviews, to become acquainted with the protagonists, who describe in long monologues their memories of the factory. Thanks to the fictional interviews, the film acquires a greater aesthetic and emotional element. The choice was made to use famous Chinese actresses, including Lu Liping, Zhao Tao and Joan Chen. The interviews are juxtaposed with the beautifully-shot demolition of the factory: the Chengdu Engine Corporation. The factory was founded in 1958 for the production of aircraft engines and is best known under the military codename Factory 420. The site changed into a small community, including a school and cinema. Now luxury apartments and a theme park are being built, using the name 24 City. (IdL)

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JIA Zhang-ke (1970, China) graduated from the film academy in Beijing in 1997. His first feature Pickpocket won him the Wolfgang Staudte Prize at the Berlin festival. Dong and Still Life received awards in Venice. All his films have been shown in Rotterdam. Films: Xiao wu/Pickpocket (1998), Zhantai/Platform (2000), Ren xiao yao/Unknown Pleasures (2002), Shije/The World (2004), Dong (2006), Sanxia haoren/Still Life (2006), Ten Years (2007, short), Wu yong/Useless (2007, doc), Er shi si cheng ji/24 City (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:13

Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Iceland/USA, 2008 colour, video, 80 min, Icelandic/English Pro: Olaf de Fleur

Stora planid The Higher Force Olaf de Fleur Johannesson

After having made quite an impression in 2008 with The Amazing Truth About Queen R aquela, the story of a Filipino transsexual, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson situates his next film in his own country, Iceland. Here the small, amateur good fellow and wannabe poet David wrestles with life. A car accident that killed his little brother, who shared his love of kung fu, continues to haunt him. He earns his living collecting debt for an amateurish Mafia gang in which he is the fall guy. The only solace in his grey life comes unexpectedly from his landlord Harald. David thinks he recognises him as the driver who killed his brother. As revenge, he suggests to the gang members that this lonely man is a mysterious crook who disappeared in Mexico. Olaf de Fleur does little to make the characters credible. On the contrary, he allows David to rise in the pecking order of the bizarre group of Mafiosi in a series of events. Combined with stubborn faith in their own escapist fantasies, that turns The Higher Force into an unashamedly offbeat comedy filled with droll fake pretence, miscommunication and plot developments that can’t be taken seriously. The addition of producer Stefan Schaefer as a talkative German crook and Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) as Mafia boss heighten the implausibility of this crazy story in which the pleasure of film making transcends all. (GT)

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Johannesson, Stefan Schaefer, Helgi Sverrisson Pro Comp: Poppoli pictures, Cicala Filmworks Sc: Olaf de Fleur, Stefan Schaefer, partly based on a book by Thor Thorsteinsson Cam: Rune Kippervik Ed: Gudni Pall Saemundsson, Olaf de Fleur Ad: Linda Stefansdottir Sound: Gunnar Arnason Mu: Pavel E Smid With: Petur Johann Sigfusson, Eggert Thorleifsson, Stefan Schaefer, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Ilmur Kristjansdottir Print: Icelandic Film Centre Sales: Visit Films www.higherforcethemovie.com

Olaf de Fleur JOHANNESSON (1975, Iceland), a.k.a. Olaf de Fleur, studied physics in Reykjavik. After graduating in 1995, he participated in several film and television projects. Continuing his career, he founded the independent production company Poppoli Pictures in 2003. Olaf de Fleur’s feature début The A mazing Truth A bout Queen R aquela was awarded all around the world. The Higher Force is his second feature-length film. Films: Blindsker: Saga Bubba Morthens/Shining Star (2004, doc), Africa United (2005, doc), Act Normal (2006, doc), The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (2008), Stora Planid/ The Higher Force (2008)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

South Korea, 2008 colour, video, 90 min, Korean Pro: Jon Jost Pro Comp: Yonsei University Sc: Moon Si-Hyun Cam: Seo Jong-Uk, Jon Jost Ed: Lee Sang-Woo,

Marcella Di Palo-Jost Ad: Lee Hyung-Seok Sound: Jung Hyun-Soo Mu: Cho Sung-Hyun With: Lee Sang-Woo, Han Hae-Kyug, Mira Hyun, Arum Park-Kang Print/Sales: Jon Jost

Misteri bulkehan gurimja Love in the Shadows Jon Jost, Moon Si-Hyun, Lee Sang-Woo

An omnibus film in three parts. The American independent film maker Jon Jost is at present teaching in Seoul, South Korea. Two of his students, Moon Si-Hyun and Lee Sang-Woo, both made one part and the master himself was responsible for the last part. Lee Sang-Woo, who last year saw his début film Tropical M anila have its world première in Rotterdam, made the first part, Karma. Lee Sang-Woo himself played the leading role: a lonely man who falls in love with a shop dummy that’s been thrown away. He drags his lover everywhere, until she gets stolen. The second part is by Moon Si-Hyun and is called The Silence. Here, too, Lee Sang-Woo plays an important role: the loving and caring husband of a woman who does nothing and says nothing. She only appears lively in flashbacks. The two parts are beautifully photographed and classically told, and are closely linked. Mentor Jon Jost took a different approach in his part, entitled Mr Right. In stark contrast, he chose a hyper-realistic approach, but here, too, there’s a role for Lee Sang-Woo, who keeps everything together. The three parts have more coherence thematically than stylistically; all are about difficult love relations and the struggle to leave a lover. The Korean parts are consciously strange and perverted, and Jost allows his sober observation to clash with that in a fascinating way. (GjZ)

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Jon JOST (1943, USA) grew up in Georgia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Virginia. After being kicked out of university, he started making 16mm films. In 1965, Jost was imprisoned for two years as a draft dodger. After his release, he became politically active and helped to set up New Left Film. For a considerable time, Jost has also focused on making DV films. MOON Si-Hyun (Korea) is educated at the Ohio State University, School of Journalism. He has his BA in journalism broadcasting. Next to this, he is attending the Graduate School of Communication and Arts of Yonsei University. LEE Sang-Woo (1971, South Korea) was educated at U.C. Berkeley, USA, majoring in film studies. He began his cinema work as a screen writer in high school and his first screenplay was awarded third prize at KOFIC (Korean film council) in 1994. Later, he moved on to make short films and documentaries while studying at Berkeley.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:13

Spectrum

Russia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 104 min, Russian Pro: Mikhail Kalatozov, Andrey

Bondarenko, Sergey Snezkin Pro Comp: The Mikhail Kalatozov

Fund, Barmaley Studio Sc: Pyotr Lutzik, Alexey Samoryadov Cam: Pyotr Dukhovskoy Ad: Sergey Avstrievskikh Sound: Igor Terekhov Mu: Alexey Aigi With: Oleg Dolin, Roman Madyanov, Daniela Stoyanovich, Yuri Stepanov, Irina Butanayeva, Alexander Korshunov Print/Sales: Intercinema Ltd. www.dikoepole.ru

Dikoe pole Wild Field Mikhail Kalatozishvili

Based on a script written in the 90s by the cult Russian duo Lutzik and Samoriadov, this drama offers a remarkable insight into the evasive concept of the ‘Russian psyche’. Kalatozishvili employs the vast wilderness of the Steppe as a stage: in a place where time stands still, against the backdrop of a stunning landscape, humble characters lead a life which seems bizarre, grotesque and yet tragic. Raw emotions and animal instincts run wild here, resisting laws and defying ethics. Mitya (film debut for stage actor Oleg Dolin), a young charismatic doctor, practices medicine in a dilapidated hut in the middle of nowhere. His patients flock to his outpost from far afield, each bringing an offering and a story to tell. Mitya’s drama unfolds in a series of superbly acted sketches, as tension mounts with each new patient - a hopeless alcoholic, a love-stricken girl or an accident-prone simpleton. Mitya’s reclusive solitude is interrupted by a brief and long-awaited visit from the city, but the love of a beautiful woman cannot deliver the young doctor from his fate… Kalatozishvili resorted to understated, conventional directing matched with brilliant cinematography and an outstanding cast of actors to create this oeuvre which has been duly acknowledged as one of the most significant Russian films of the year. (MB)

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Mikhail KALATOZISHVILI (1959, Georgia) graduated from the Directing Department of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography in 1981. He works mainly as an art director, screen writer and producer. Since 1973 he has been living in Moscow and since 2000, he has been the president of the Mikhail Kalatozov Fund, a non-profit fund for the support and development of national cinematography. Films: Mekhanik/Mechanic (1981), Rcheuli/The Beloved (1992), Misterii/ Mysteries (2000), Mne Tiflis Gorbatyy Snitsya/I Dream of Hunchbacked Tiflis (2001), Dva Atoma/Two Atoms (2001), Dikoe pole/Wild Field (2008)

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India, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 122 min, Kannada Pro: Basant Kumar Patil Pro Comp: Basant Productions Sc: Girish Kasaravalli, based

on the story by Vaidehi Cam: S. Ramachandra Aithal Ed: M.N. Swamy, S. Manohar Ad: K.S. Prasanna Kumar Sound: Mahendran Mu: Isaac Thomas Kottukapally With: Umashree, K.G.

Krishnamurthy, Ashok Sandip Print: Directorate of Film Festivals Sales: Basant Productions

Gulabi Talkies Girish Kasaravalli

Gulabi is a Muslim village midwife who works in an area that is mainly Hindu. In between jobs, she is a passionate lover of movies and a regular at the town cinema. One day, her help during the delivery of a child is so valuable that the rich family rewards her with a TV set and satellite dish. This dramatically changes Gulabi’s life, as well as her position in the poor village that has ignored her so far. Her husband, who lives with a younger second wife who bore him a child, starts visiting Gulabi’s hut. He eats her food and becomes affectionate again. Issues of consumerism, social discrimination, communal violence and political tensions between India and Pakistan are subtly interwoven with the intimate drama of Gulabi. A dynamic tool for the drama is the metaphysical notion of ‘window’ - from our own home to that of our neighbours, as well as television as a ‘window on the world’, evoking desires, self-reflection and imposing political views. All characters (performed by non-professional and local actors except for the famous Umashree as Gulabi) are amazingly strong and convincing. Former IFFR Film maker in Focus (2003) Girish Kasaravalli often deals with women’s issues, having his protagonists stand out as rebels against society. (RS)

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Girish KASARAVALLI (1949, India) is one of the main figures of the New Kannada Cinema of the seventies and eighties. In 2003 he was honoured in Rotterdam as Film Maker in Focus. Many of his films explore individual traumas and tragedies against the background of collective aberrations. He has won several prizes in India. Gulabi Talkies has been named best Indian film at Osian Cinefan Festival 2008. Films: Avasesh (1975), Anya (1975), Ghatashradda/The Ritual (1977), Akramana/ The Conquest (1979), Mooru darigalu/Three Path Ways (1981), Tabarana kathe/The Story of Tabara (1987), Bannada vesha/The Mask (1989, TV), Mane/The Dwelling (1990), Ek ghar (1991), Kraurya/The Tale of a Story Teller (1996), Thayi Saheba (1997), Dweepa/The Island (2002), Haseena (2004), Naayi neralu/In the Shadow of the Dog (2006), Gulabi Talkies (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:14

Spectrum

WORLD PREMIERE

Senegal/France, 2009 colour, video, 84 min, French Pro: Mama Keïta Pro Comp: Kinterfin Sc: Mama Keïta Cam: Remi Mazet Ed: Miriame Chamekh Sound: Bertrand Faure Mu: Mathieu Normant With: William Nadylam, Ibrahim

Mbaye, Jackie Tavernier, Mame Ndoumbe, Mouss Diouf, Ismaël Thiam Print/Sales: Kinterfin

Mama KEÏTA (1956, Senegal) is the child of a Vietnamese mother and a Guinean father. He studied law in Paris, after which he started working as script writer. His feature Le fleuve (2002) was originally conceived by his friend David Achkar, but after Achkar died in 1998 from leukaemia, he decided to finish the project. The film won a Press Award at the Film Festival in Paris.

L’absence The Absence Mama Keïta

Adama, a successful scientist, returns after 15 years to his birthplace in Senegal, to his only family: his grandma and his deaf and dumb little sister. They are amazed to find out within two days that he wants to return to France, despite his earlier promises. Adama is shocked that his sister has resorted to prostitution. He meets his old teacher and his best friend, who both think he shouldn’t shut his eyes to the situation and should shoulder his responsibility. The situation for his sister gets increasingly urgent and Adama is soon going to have to make important decisions. The Absence is an atmospheric, contemporary situation sketch of a country in change: Senegal. Mama Keïta himself has a complex family history (he’s the child of a Vietnamese mother and a father from Guinea) and he tells this story with a great feeling of urgency: the brain drain of African youth to the opulent West is also responsible for maintaining dictatorship and corruption and keeping the population poor and stupid in African countries. The story - in which drugs, prostitution and corruption are the most important ingredients - builds up beautifully to an exciting ending and is not characterised by all kinds of mythical and magic elements that are so characteristic of many African features. (EH)

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Films: Le cafard (1981, short), L’oriental (1982, short), Opus 1 (1985, short), Waps (1988, short), Ragazzi (1991), Nuit blanche (1993, short), Le 11ème commandement (1997), David Achkar, une étoile filante (1998, short), Le fleuve (2002), Sur la route du fleuve (2004, doc), Le transfert (2004, short), Le sourire du serpent (2007), L’absence/ The Absence (2009)

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France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 94 min, French Pro: Mathieu Kassovitz,

Benoït Jaubert Pro Comp: MNP Entreprise,

No Money Productions, Arte France Cinéma Sc: Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern Cam: Hugues Poulain Ed: Stéphane Elmadjian Ad: Paul Chapelle Sound: Grégoire Kouzinier Mu: Gaëtan Roussel With: Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Robert Dehoux, Sylvie Van Hiel, Jacqueline Knuysen Print/Sales: Funny Balloons

Louise-Michel Gustave Kervern, Benoît Delépine

Louise-Michel is the third feature film by Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine. They have had 15 years’ experience with French television in music, comedy and satirical programmes, of which Groland is still running. Their début A altra (2004) was a road movie about two handicapped people who give the word ‘handicapped’ a bad name. ‘Shameless’ and ‘politically incorrect’ are also two terms that could be applied to this film. Someone who works for a crematorium and asks the relatives for a light to ignite the oven. A woman who catches pigeons on her balcony and eats them. The satirical background of the two makers ensures an unexpected turn in the bizarre story, which even has a dash of social criticism. Louise, a coarsely built and illiterate woman with a criminal record, works in a textile factory. After a company party, her boss gives her a new apron with the name Jean-Pierre on it. The next morning, the company turns out to have moved to a low-income country; the union pays out paltry severance pay. When Louise proposes pooling their resources and hiring a hitman to kill the boss, her colleagues are enthusiastic. The hitman they hire, Michel, turns out to have unorthodox methods. Before the task has been completed, a series of crazy events takes place. After which it becomes clear why Jean-Pierre was on that apron.

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Gustave KERVERN and Benoît DELÉPINE worked together on the comedy series Toc Toc Toc and on the road movie Don Quichotte de La R evolucion. With A altra (2004) they made their début as writersdirectors. Their second film, the comedy Avida, has been selected for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Louise-Michel (2008) is their third feature film. Films: (Gustave Kervern) Aaltra (2004), Avida (2006), Louise-Michel (2008) Films: (Benoît Delépine) Aaltra (2004, co-dir), Avida (2006, co-dir), Louise-Michel (2008, co-dir)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:14

Spectrum

WORLD PREMIERE

Armenia/Netherlands, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 82 min, no dialogue Pro: Harutyun Khachatryan,

Hasmik Hovhannisyan Pro Comp: Golden Apricot

Fund for Cinema Development, Hayfilm Studio, Volya Films Sc: Harutyun Khachatryan Cam: Vrezh Petrosyan Ed: Harutyun Khachatryan Ad: Ararat Sargsyan Mu: Avet Terteryan Print/Sales: Golden Apricot

Sahman

Fund for Cinema Development

Border Harutyun Khachatryan

There is a saying that the world’s great writers actually write about the same subject all the time but with different approaches. If that were applied to cinema, Harutyun Khachatryan would certainly be one of the greats. Khachatryan always returns to the things he admires: the people of his country, Armenia, and their way of life, the beautiful landscapes and the magic of nature. In Border, which was inspired by a real life story he himself witnessed, Khachatryan reflects on the tragedy that befell his people during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the 1990s after the Soviet Union fell apart. He does so without words or indeed human protagonists, through the story of a buffalo who is found stuck in a ditch in the countryside. He is brought to a nearby farm where animals, farmers and refugees are gathered to hide and recover from the conflict. All regard him with great suspicion. We follow life on the farm and in the surrounding villages through the eyes of the buffalo over the course of a year, with the changing of the seasons and the slow rhythm of the place. Khachatryan has established himself firmly in the forefront of the fascinating cinema tradition of Armenia, and indeed the whole region. With its original story and harmony of image and sound, Border shows the craft and art of this great contemporary Armenian cinema author. (LC)

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Harutyun KHACHATRYAN (1955, Armenia) completed his film studies in 1981. He worked as director and directing assistant and was head of the documentary department of the Hayfilm/Armenfilm Studio until 2005. Khachatryan is co-founder and director of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia. Films: Mer taghi dzaynere/The Voices from our Neighbourhood (1981, short doc), Mi eghelutyan khronika/Chronicles of an Event (1985, short doc), A Visit with the Commander (1985, short doc), Erek raund engibaryani kyankic/Three Rounds in Yengibarian’s Life (1986, short), Kond (1987, short doc), Spitak kaghak/White Town (1989, short doc), Kamin unaynutyan/ Wind of Oblivion (1990), Veradardz avetyats yerkir/Return to the Promised Land (1992, doc), Verjin kayaran/The Last Station (1994), Vaveragrogh/ Documentarist (2003, doc), Poeti veradrdze/Return of the Poet (2005, doc), Sahman/Border (2009)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Philippines, 2009 colour, video, 70 min, Tagalog Pro: Khavn De La Cruz Pro Comp: Filmless Films Sc: Khavn De La Cruz Cam: Albert Banzon Ed: Lawrence S. Ang Ad: Kristine Kintana, Ma.

Krissna Isabelle Cruz, Michelle Ann Frazier, Gladys Melgarejo, Jet Leyco Sound: Lawrence S. Ang Mu: Tomasa Bacud, Charlita Cagat, Emy Buduan With: Macoy Duran, Mary Tamayo, Kat Sandoval Print/Sales: Filmless Films www.khavndelacruz.com

Day tingnga ti misteryo ti Kristo Negro The Middle Mystery of Kristo Negro Khavn Not everyone can cope with it, but the film opens with what should be an age-old ritual. Several men slaughter and skin an animal in the open field. It’s a young water buffalo that continues to breathe when it hardly has any skin left. The landscape has a biblical appeal and the people are dressed in timeless garb. Less timeless are the Roman legionaries who appear and disappear. A Christ-like figure is left on his own in the empty landscape and starts dragging the carcass of the water buffalo as if it were his cross. He seems to carry all his sins through a hellish landscape that looks as if it were designed in a feverish dream. Without the Catholic Church, there probably wouldn’t be any such thing as a cult film. The old, theatrical and mystical rituals of the church are a never-ending source of inspiration for film makers who are sensitive to a similarly hysterical rapture or who want to mock the conservative institution. Although you could expect it from an outspokenly underground film maker like Khavn, in this case one cannot really talk about direct mockery of religion. Is it’s more that he takes the element of self chastising that is part of certain rituals (such as the acted Way of the Cross) one step further and makes the ritual more real than was maybe intended. The Hungry Ghosts programme also includes the director’s Three Days of Darkness. (GjZ)

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KHAVN (screen name of Khavn De La Cruz, 1973, Manila) is a very outspoken, experimental film maker with an unstoppable desire to explore and cross boundaries. He is the most productive film maker in the Philippines and probably also far beyond. His no-budget films are produced by his production company Filmless Films. Since 2002 he has been director of the .MOV Digital Film Festival. Apart from being a film maker, Khavn is also an acclaimed composer, songwriter, pianist and lead singer of The Brockas. He has made several albums, rock operas and film sound tracks. Films: (selection) The Family That Eats Soil (2004), G-string Kings (2006), Old East Side (2006, short), An Open Letter to all the Terrorists of the World (2006, short), Squatterpunk (2007, doc), Philippine Bliss (2008), Three Days of Darkness (2008), The Middle Mystery of Kristo Negro (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:15

Spectrum

Singapore, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 75 min, Tamil Pro: Tan Fong Cheng, James Toh Pro Comp: 27 Productions,

Zhao Wei Films Pte. Ltd. Sc: Eric Khoo, Kim Hoh Wong Ed: Lionel Chok Print/Sales: Wild Bunch

Eric KHOO (1965, Singapore) studied film at the City Art Institute in Sydney. In 1990, five of his short films were shown at the third Singapore International Film Festival. His short film Pain (1994) was screened in 1995 in Rotterdam. My M agic received a Palme d’Or nomination in Cannes in 2008.

My Magic

Films: Barbie Digs Joe (1990, short), August (1991), New School Rock (1991), The Punk Rocker And... (1992), Symphony 92.4 FM (1993), The Watchman (1993), Pain (1994). Carcass (1992), Mee Pok Man (1995), 12 Storeys/Shier lou (1997), My Magic (2008)

Eric Khoo

Everything is real in this film. Also the magic. Or, precisely the magic. The central figure is of course the magician. It is Bosco Francis, who is also the real Bosco Francis and hence also a magician in real life. All the characters in this film are real in this way. The son of the magician is his son and not a child star, and maybe we shouldn’t ask what the gangsters are in real life. Especially the tricks by the conjurer are stunning and also occasionally painful to see. The master magician is a Tamil and the stories about sword swallowing and beds of nails are also real, it’s now apparent. But there’s also a story, and we have to assume it’s fictional. A true melodrama, even. We find the magician at the end of his tether. His wife has left him and he has to look after his 10-year-old son on his own, but basically the boy looks after him, because the father has succumbed to King Alcohol from despair. Ultimately, he literally ends up in the gutter, but then he decides to take control of his own life. However, he offers his art to the wrong bosses and after a brief revival things go from bad to worse. Not everyone can appreciate the combination of authenticity and pure magic, which is a pity because the film convincingly exploits the primeval source of cinema. (GjZ)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Russia, 2009 colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 130 min, Russian Pro: Andrey Khrzhanovsky,

Artem Vassiliev Pro Comp: School -

Studio “SHAR” Sc: Yuri Arabov, Andrey Khrzhanovsky Cam: Vladimir Brylyakov Ed: Igor Malachov, Vladimir Grigorenko Ad: Marina Azizyan Sound: Pyotr Malafeev, Ekaterina Evans-Popova With: Alisa Freindlich, Sergei Yurskiy, Grigoriy Dityatkovskiy Print/Sales: School -

Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshestvie na rodinu Room and a Half Andrey Khrzhanovsky The great Russian film maker Andrey Khrzhanovsky, who has always been interested in Russian and world cultural history, makes an artistic treatment of the greatest Russian poet, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky and his life in the USSR. Asked once in an interview if he were ever planning to come back to see his fatherland, Joseph Brodsky said that if he did so, it would be anonymously. For Khrzhanovsky and script writer Yuri Arabov, who presumed that Brodsky actually made the trip, this was the inspiration to make Room and a Half, an ironical fairy tale: the poet travels by ship to the country of his youth, taking the audience along as he crosses not only geographical barriers but barriers of time as well. We are transported back to the 50s and 60s in the USSR and the atmosphere of the country’s cultural capital, St. Petersburg. Stylistically, the film is a perfect blend of fiction, historical footage and animation, smoothly intertwined with one another in a highly original manner. The basic facts are all connected with the life of Joseph Brodsky and his milieu. It is a fantastic, unique voyage to the country’s past and its genius delicate, intimate, revealing. (LC)

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Studio “SHAR”

Andrey KHRZHANOVSKY (1939, Russia) graduated in 1962 from the VGIK, the Film School in Moscow. In 1966 Khrzhanovsky made his debut film Once Upon a Time There Lived Kozyavin. His work is characterized by an interest in the history of Russian culture. For example, Room and a H alf (2009) is inspired by the work of the Russian poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky. Films: (selection) Once Upon a Time There Lived Kozyavin (1966, short), The Butterfly (1972, short), No Less Than a Miracle (1976), The King’s Sandwich (1985, short), My Favourite Time (1987), School of Fine Arts (1987-1990), Meetings with Pushkin (1999, doc), One and a Half Cat (2002, short), Room and a Half (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:16

Spectrum

Iran, 2008 colour, video, 92 min, Farsi/ Persian Pro: Abbas Kiarostami With: Golshifteh Farahani,

Hedieh Tehrani, Niki Karimi, Leila Hatami, Juliette Binoche Print/Sales: MK2

Abbas KIAROSTAMI (1940, Iran) trained as a painter at the University of Teheran. He made dozens of commercials before joining the staff of the Centre for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents in 1968, where he set up the Film Department. Ever since Where Is My Friend’s Home? (1989) Kiarostami has been regarded as one of today’s most important Iranian film makers.

Shirin Abbas Kiarostami

The latest film by the great Iranian film maker Abbas Kiarostami is a fascinating ninety-two-minute, intimate view of the emotions of 112 Iranian women along with the French Juliette Binoche, who are in a theatre and (seemingly) following a Persian love story. The faces of the Iranian actresses watching the story of Shirin (such as Hedieh Tehrani, Niki Karimi, or Leila Hatami) are carefully framed in static images. This is an unprecedented experiment, in that the director does not let his audience see what the women actually see - the audience watches the women and never gets a glimpse of what they are looking at. The film that the women are following in the theatre is present only through its rich soundtrack. Shirin is actually a prolonged concept of Abbas Kiarostami’s three minute film Where Is My Romeo that was a part of the anthology To Each His Cinema (2007). The director was so inspired by this idea that he decided to expand it into a long feature film. The story of Shirin is based on a 12th century Persian poem by Farrideh Golbou, ‘Khosrow e Shirin’, which involves a love triangle between an Iranian king, an Armenian queen and an Iranian sculptor. A challenging work by the Iranian master that one has to follow like a classical piece of music - with one’s emotions. (LC)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Films: (selection) Nan va koutcheh/The Bread and Alley (1970, short), Mossafer/The Traveler (1974), Dow rahe hal baraye yek massaleh/Two Solutions for One Problem (1975, short), Kaneh-ye doust kojast?/Where Is My Friend’s Home? (1988), Tam’ e guilass/ Taste of Cherry (1997), ABC Africa (2001, doc), Ten on 10 (2004), Five (2004), Roads of Kiarostami (2005), Shirin (2008)

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Japan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 119 min, Japanese Pro: Mori Masayuki,

Yoshida Takio Pro Comp: Office Kitano Inc. Sc: Kitano Takeshi Cam: Yanagijima Katsumi Ed: Ota Yoshinori Ad: Isoda Norihiro Sound: Horiuchi Senji Mu: Kajiura Yuki With: Beat Takeshi, Higuchi

Kanako, Yanagi Yurei, Aso Kumiko, Nakao Akira Print/Sales: Celluloid Dreams

Akires to kame Achilles and the Tortoise Kitano Takeshi

‘Beat’ Takeshi, as the famous Japanese film maker is known in his own country, has long been more than the maker of supple, hard gangster films. In Japan he is primarily a comic TV personality, and the comic element has also become increasingly important in his films. Kitano, to call him by his internationally familiar family name, has developed a very idiosyncratic and absurd kind of humour that occasionally has little to do with comedy as a genre. Kitano’s humour is crazier, more absurd and also more ambitious. In his latest films, he is basically involved in a grand autobiographical project in which he has become the centre of an absurdist philosophy. Achilles and the Tortoise focuses on painting. Kitano himself does not seem present much at first, but as the life portrait of a painter unfolds, he finally plays the artist when he’s an old man. And all the paintings in the film he made himself. This is often ambiguous, because he ridicules his own serious art. The film follows the young Machisu in his desire to be a painter. From adulthood to old age, artistry and finding a personal style remain a problem for him. That sounds like a classic story, but count on strange turns. The title was taken from the classical logical paradox that ‘proves’ that a hare cannot beat a tortoise at running. (GjZ)

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KITANO Takeshi (1947, Japan) is a public figure in Japan: television personality, novelist, writer of short stories and poetry, cartoonist, painter, script writer, actor and film maker. Kitano entered show business in 1972 as ‘Beat’ Takeshi, a nom de plume he still uses today. In 1989 he made his début as a director. Since then he has been involved in a film almost every year, whether as script writer, editor, actor or director. Films: (since 1993) Sonachine/ Sonatine (1993), Minnâyatteruka/Getting Any? (1995), Kidzu ritan/Kids Return (1996), Hana-bi (Fireworks) (1997), Kikujiro no natsu/ Kikujiro (1999), Brother (2000), Dooruzu/Dolls (2002), Zatôichi/ Zatoichi (2003), Takeshis’ (2005), Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s’éteint et que le film commence/To Each His Cinema (segment One Fine Day) (short, 2007), Kantoku - Banzai!/ Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), Akires to kame/Achilles and the Tortoise (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:16

Spectrum

Japan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 114 min, Japanese Pro: Yoshihiro Kato, Hijiri Taguchi Pro Comp: Cine Qua Non Sc: Kore-Eda Hirokazu Cam: Yamazaki Yutaka Ad: Isomi Toshihiro,

Mitsumatsu Keiko Sound: Tsurumaki

Yutakaa, Ohtake Shuji Mu: Gontiti With: Abe Hiroshi, Natsukawa Yui, You, Takahashi Kazuya, Tanaka Shohei, Nomoto Hotaru, Hayashi Ryoga, Taguchi Tomoya Sales: Celluloid Dreams Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Aruitemo aruitemo Still Walking Kore-Eda Hirokazu

Kore-Eda turns out to be a versatile film maker. After films such as the very original drama After Life and the idiosyncratic and realistic Nobody Knows, he now shows he also has a command of classic handiwork. Still Walking is set in one location, on one day and within one family. Every year, the Yokohama family withdraws to a house on the coast in order to commemorate the death of the eldest and most beloved son. For the other son, these encounters are a trial. He’ll never be able to live up to his idealised brother. His parents regard his profession as an art restorer as being unworthy of a Yokohama and don’t accept his new wife, who has a child from a previous marriage. The eldest son was drowned when he saved a child, and that child is also obliged to come every year to pay a visit. These are the painful moments that are casually interwoven into the narrative. Yet it’s not a sombre or dramatic film it’s too summery for that. Kore-Eeda tries to capture the drama in its everyday nature, and his light touch is often humorous. There’s an obvious comparison to be made with the family films of Ozu Yasujiru, but the light tone sought by Kore-Eda is different. He’s not looking to be a new Ozu, but a new Kore-Eda. The lovers of his earlier work will just have to live with that. (GjZ)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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KORE-EDA Hirokazu (1962, Japan) studied at Waseda University and made many prize-winning television documentaries, for which he also was awarded two nominations for ‘most promising début’ by the Japanese Film Directors Association. Ever since his first feature, M aborosi, all his work has been presented in Rotterdam. Kore-Eda is also the author of the novel But ... A Welfare Bureaucrat: A Trace to Death. Films: Shikashi... fukushi kirisute no jidaini/However... (1991), Mo hitotsu no kyoku - Ina shogakko haru gumi no kiroku/ Lessons from a Calf (1991), Nihonjin ni naritakatta (1992), Shinshu sukechi - Sorezono Miyazawa Kenji (1993), Yottsu no shibu jikoku (1993), Eiga ga jidai o utsusutoki - Hou Hsiao-Hsien to Edward Yang (1993), Kareno inai hachigatsu ga/August Without Him (1994), Maborosi no hikari/Maborosi (1995), Kioku-ga ushenawaretatoki/Without Memory (1997, doc), Wandafuru raifu/After Life (1998), Distance (2001), Dare mo shiranai/Nobody Knows (2004), Hana yori mo naho/Hana (2006), Aruitemo aruitemo/Still Walking (2008)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Japan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 105 min, Japanese Pro: Kobayashi Tomohiro,

Sato Gen, Kusakabe Keiko, Kimura Toshiki Pro Comp: Nippon shuppan hanbai, Inc., Toei Video Co., Ltd., There’s Enterprise Inc, Stairway Sc: Ujita Takashi Cam: Kondo Ryuto Ed: Hori Zensuke Ad: Kozumi Koji Sound: Yoshida Noriyoshi Mu: Akainu With: Sakai Maki, Hoshino Gen, Tsuda Kanji, Sato Hitomi, Nitta Eri, Utsunomiya Masayo, Saiki Shigeru, Tsurumi Shingo

Nonko 36sai kajitetsudai Non-ko Kumakiri Kazuyoshi

Kumakiri Kazuyoshi is the maker of such varied films as Green Mind, Metal Bats and Volatile Woman that were both screened in Rotterdam in 2006 . Kumakiri can make robust films, but in this case he takes a different approach. Non-ko is a fairly gentle comedy. Not to guffaw at, but a smile shouldn’t be difficult. It’s a light hearted and masterfully made drama. Non-ko is the name of the woman it’s all about. Basically it’s a pseudonym; in reality her name is Nobuko Bando. From the Japanese title of this film, Nonko 36 sai: kajitetsudai, it is also possible without any knowledge of Japanese to conclude she is 36 years old, an age at which actresses don’t find it easy to find work any more. In addition, she has just got divorced. Her role is played by Sakai Maki, who carries the film. This is her third film with the same director and the role was written specially for her. Without work, Non-ko returns from Tokyo to her birthplace. At the same time, the filmmaker returns to a more modest way of working, as he did at the beginning of his career. He also worked with his old team for this film. Non-ko’s family run a Shinto shrine, a non-Buddhist holy place, of which there are many in Japan. She helps with the work and then meets a strange man. He is Masaru. Naive yet appealing. (GjZ)

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Print/Sales: There’s

Enterprise Inc http://nonko36.jp

KUMAKIRI Kazuyoshi (1974, Japan) started making films in secondary school and won his first film prize at the age of seventeen. He studied film at Osaka Art Academy, where he graduated with the film K ichiku (1998), which took the second prize at the Pia Film Festival in 1997 and was distributed in Japan with great success. With his film Antenna (2002), he was invited to the film festivals of Venice and Toronto. Films: Kichiku dai enkai/ Kichiku (1998), Sora no ana/ Hole in the Sky (2001), Antenna (2002), Imoutu no teryori (2004), Asagao (2004), Kihatsu sei no onna/The Volatile Woman (2004), Seishun kinzoku batto/ Green Mind, Metal Bats (2006), Freesia - Bullet over Tears (2007), Nonko 36sai kajitetsudai/Nonko (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:17

Spectrum

Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong, 2008 colour, 35mm, 119 min, Japanese Pro: Yukie Kito, Wouter

Barendrecht Pro Comp: Entertainment

Farm, Fortissimo Films Sc: Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Max Mannix, Tanaka Sachiko Cam: Ashizawa Akiko Ed: Takahashi Koichi Ad: Maruo Tomoyuki, Matsumoto Tomoe Sound: Iwakura Masayuki Mu: Hashimoto Kazumasa With: Kagawa Teruyuki, Koizumi Kyoko, Igawa Haruka, Koyanagi Yu, Inowaki Kai, Tsuda Kanji, Yakusho Koji

Tokyo Sonata Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Kurosawa Kiyoshi is the cult master of unusual and even terrifying films. This time, however, he wants to be the teller of an ordinary story. Dark powers are left out. The film focuses on a family who want to look as ordinary as possible. Any minor deviation is meticulously hidden. When the father of the family, Sasaki Ryuhei (a beautiful role by a perfectly tired-looking Kagawa Teruyuki), is suddenly sacked because of globalisation effects, he keeps this secret. Everyday he pretends to go to work and hopes for a miracle. And he is not the only one to be unlucky. He even makes new friends who also hide their shame. The power of the film is in the perfect telling of this fateful story. And in the occasionally phenomenal acting achievements. The actress Koizumi Kyoko is very impressive as the housewife Megumi, who organises her family with an iron discipline. Megami also maintains the façade intact when she happens to see her husband at a soup kitchen. The chain of mutual lies leads to a dramatic time bomb in the family. The two adolescent sons go their own way completely oblivious, eventually causing the domestic drama to get out of hand. And Kurosawa could not maintain the façade of being just plain ordinary. Off-screen, a greater threat is tangible. Like approaching thunder. (GjZ)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Sales: Fortissimo Films Distr. NL: A-Film Distribution

KUROSAWA Kiyoshi (1955, Japan) started directing 8mm independent films while studying sociology at Rikkyo University. In 1983 he made his debut with the feature K andagawa Wars. His international breakthrough came with Cure (1997), which was also shown in Rotterdam. Tokyo Sonata (2008) won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard programme at Cannes 2008. Kurosawa also works as an actor, editor and script writer. Films: (selection) Cure (1997), Serpent’s Path (1997), Eyes of the Spider (1997), License to Live (1999), Charisma (1999), Barren Illusion (1999), Ko-rei (2000), Kaïro/Pulse (2001), Akarui mirai/Bright Future (2003), Dopperugengâ/Doppelgänger (2003), Umezu Kazuo: Kyôfu gekijô - Mushi-tachi no ie/Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater: Bug’s House (2005), Rofuto/Loft (2005), Sakebi/Retrieval (2006), Tokyo Sonata (2008)

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Belgium/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 105 min, French Pro: Jacques-Henri Bronckart Pro Comp: Versus Production,

MACT Productions Sc: Joachim Lafosse, François Pirot Cam: Hichame Alaouié Ed: Sophie Vercruysse Ad: Anna Falguères Sound: Benoît Biral With: Jonas Bloquet, Jonathan Zaccaï, Yannick Reniet, Clair Bodson, Pauline Etienne, Anne Coesens, Johan Leysen Sales: Films Distribution Distr. NL: Cinéart Netherlands

Élève libre Private Lessons Joachim Lafosse

An élève libre is someone who receives private lessons. But the title has layers, because what is ‘freedom’ for Jonas? He is kicked out of school after failing his exams. Game stress puts an end to his hope of professional tennis. His parents are divorced and have largely disappeared from sight (Flemish actor Johan Leysen has a bit part as the father); Jonas is staying with friends of his mother. A friend of theirs offers to give him free private lessons for an exam which will help Jonas to catch up three years. He has to spend some time with the man, and they talk about algebra and literature, but also about sex and relationships. Like the couple with whom Jonas lives, the man is outspokenly direct. When Jonas talks about his first time, they ask him all the details. ‘Did she suck you ?’ ‘Is she vaginal or clitoral?’ ‘And inside, is she tight?’ At first their 70s openness and his blushing butchness are funny, but the sexual candidness gradually shifts to uneasy territory. The lady of the house wouldn’t mind demonstrating a blow job - and otherwise he can watch her and her boyfriend? Jonas is especially confused by his private teacher. Lafosse adopts a modest approach. With little music and a registering camera, he avoids imposing judgement. His film asks: where is the boundary between teaching and forcing something on someone, in word and deed?

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Joachim LAFOSSE (1975, Belgium) graduated from the Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IDA) in Louvain-La-Neuve with his short Tribu (2001), which has been screened at many festivals and has won several awards. He has written screenplays and theatre pieces and has worked as assistant director on Le miroir d’Ostende (Paul Willems), A (Eric Durney) and L’annonce faite à Benoît (Jean Louvet). Films: Égoïste nature (2000, short), Tribu (2001, short), Scarface (2001, doc), Folie privée/Private Madness (2004), Nue-propriété/Private Property (2006), Élève libre/Private Lessons (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:17

Spectrum

Taiwan, 2008 colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 98 min, Mandarin Pro: Chien Li-Fen Pro Comp: Chi & Company Sc: Lee Chi-Yuarn, Hsu Fu-Hsing Cam: Leonard Retel Helmrich Ed: Lee Chi-Yuarn, Lai Meng-Jie Ad: Tang Wei-Xuan Sound: Frank Cheng Mu: Hanno Yoshihiro Print/Sales: Chi & Company

Luan qing chun Beautiful Crazy Lee Chi-Yuarn

LEE Chi-Yuarn (Taiwan) received his Master’s Degree in Psychology from the UCLA in Los Angeles and attended a film course at the art academy in Pasadena. He is an acclaimed writer and poet in Taiwan. Some of his screen plays were awarded in his home country, as well as outside of Taiwan. Films: Hurricane Festival (1997), Chocolate Rap (2005), Luan qing chun/Beautiful Crazy (2008)

The film has a spectacular visual form. Both the editing and camera work are virtuoso. The more than mobile camera was entrusted to Dutch film maker Leonard Retel Helmrich, who often works in Indonesia. He has developed a style of shooting in which tempo and suppleness come together - the opposite of handheld. The film is about youth and all of the accompanying doubts and exuberance. It focuses on three pretty girls: Angel (Yao Angel), Xiao Bu (Lee Amiya) and Amy (Liao Chien-Hui). They flutter through the film, making the story also seem to flutter every which way. It is as if the teller of the tale is intoxicated. Only when one submits to this do pieces of the puzzle fall into place here and there. The film maker chose what he calls a poetic order and not a chronological one. For him, the film is about time, memories and love. And if that’s experienced in fragments, then that’s how his film should be, too. Not all of the dramas experienced by the girls are of the same order. Having an alcoholic father who only stares out the window does seem to be worse than having a cigarette taken away or finding pigeon shit on your clothes before you go out. In the life of a 17-year-old, though, everything can be a major drama. And that’s what the film shows exuberantly. (GjZ)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Spectrum

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Russia, 2008 colour, video, 72 min, Russian/English Pro: Alexey Kucherenko,

Vitaly Mansky Pro Comp: Vertov. Realnoe kino Sc: Vitaly Mansky Cam: Irina Shatalova Ed: Vitaly Mansky Sound: Evgeny Goryainov Print/Sales: Vertov. Realnoe kino www.dalailama-film.com

Rassvet/zakat Sunrise/Sunset Vitaly Mansky

The influential Russian film maker Vitaly Mansky has created a series of documentary portraits of famous politicians such as Putin, Eltsin and Gorbachev. However, the director confessed that working on a film about the Dalai Lama presented a very special challenge both professionally and personally. Mansky set out on a journey to Dharamsala, residence of the exiled leader, knowing very little about Buddhism. This was a true journey of discovery, and the film is a ‘travel log’ rather than a ‘portrait’. Mansky combines unique footage of his informal conversations with the Dalai Lama and the chronicles of His Holiness’s public audiences with scenes of daily life in Dharamsala. The director is fascinated with his subject but manages to keep enough distance to avoid dogmatism. The person we see in Mansky’s film is a charismatic philosopher who preaches peace by challenging conventional truth. Mansky embraces the challenge and invites us to follow suit. Sunrise/Sunset is not just a record of an ordinary day in the life of an extraordinary thinker who believes that his ‘rebirth is limitless’. It is a documentary essay on the plight of Eurasia, and as the director’s train crosses the border from overcrowded China back into the depopulated wilderness of eastern Russia, we are presented with an unsettling image of the state of modern civilisation. (MB)

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Vitaly MANSKY (1963, Russia) attended the VGIK academy in Moscow and is now one of the most famous documentary makers from Eastern Europe. He has made numerous successful documentaries, for example a trilogy about the three Russian presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin. Films: (all doc) Yevreyskoe Schaste (1991), Srezki Ocherednoy Voyny (1993), Etyudy O Lyubvi (1994), Chastnye kroniki. Monolog (1999), Broadway. Black Sea (2002), Anatomiya t.A.T.u./ The Anatomy of t.A.T.u. (2003), Gagarin’s Pioneers/Our Motherland (2006), Tender’s Heat: Wild Wild Beach (2006), Rassvet/zakat/Sunrise/Sunset (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:18

Spectrum

Argentina/Spain/France/ Italy, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 87 min, Spanish Pro: Lucrecia Martel, Enrique

Piñeyro, Veronica Cura Pro Comp: Airecine/Aquafilms Sc: Lucrecia Martel Cam: Barbara Alvarez Ed: Miguel Schverdfinger Ad: Maria Eugenia Sueiro Sound: Guido Beremblum Mu: Roberta Ainstein With: Natalia Smirnoff Print: Airecine/Aquafilms Sales: Focus Features UK Office

La mujer sin cabeza The Headless Woman Lucrecia Martel

A middle-aged woman is driving on the highway. She becomes distracted and runs over something. It could have been anything. A dog, a child or something else. Shocked, she drives on, but on the days following this incident, she fails to recognise the feelings that bond her to things and people. She just lets herself be taken by the events of her social life. One night she tells her husband that she killed someone on the highway. They go back to the road only to find a dead dog. Friends close to the police confirm that there were no accident reports. Everything returns to normal and the bad moment seems to be over until the news of a gruesome discovery again worries everyone. With her unusual talent in dissecting suppressed emotions and their social context, Martel focuses on an event that makes a crack in the existing world, in a manner of speaking. With a frighteningly intimate, formal approach and above all through the stunning soundtrack, the viewer is slowly but surely introduced to a life in which something goes gruesomely wrong. In the beautiful details of the world around the protagonist, hence in the out-of-focus background, the worrying social message of the film can be read. Because somewhere, someone has to pay the price for denial, silence and repression. (GT)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Lucrecia MARTEL (1966, Argentina) studied communications in Buenos Aires and has made several short films, a children’s television programme and documentaries. Her first full-length film The Swamp (2000) won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2001 Berlinale. The Headless Woman (2008) is Martel’s third feature. Films: El 56 (1988, short), Piso 24 (1989, short), Besos rojos (1991, short), Rey muerto/Dead King (1995, short), Encarnación ezcurra (1998, TV doc), Silvina Ocampo (1998, TV, doc), La ciénaga/The Swamp (2000), La niña santa/The Holy Girl (2004), La mujer sin cabeza/The Headless Woman (2008)

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Philippines/France, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 280 min, Filipino Pro: Arleen Cuevas,

Antoine Segovia Pro Comp: Cinematografica

Now Showing Raya Martin

When a film is four hours long, you’ll always find someone who says it’s too long. In this case you could also wonder why the film isn’t longer. It provides the impression of showing fragments from the life of a girl. They look like home movies, with the style, sloppiness, technical imperfection that makes home movies so charming. And especially if you know the people, you can keep watching. Towards the end of the film, we have got to know the girl named after Rita Hayworth and wouldn’t mind watching for longer. Because what is going to happen to Rita, whom we first saw as a child and later as an adolescent beauty, played by Ness Roque? Who wouldn’t want to see the young woman Rita? Might she still be dancing on her bed in her bedroom? However all the so-called film fragments were acted and a lot of work was done to make sure they looked like old, bad videos. As Rita gets older, the film material gets better. The two halves of the film with the two Ritas at different ages are separated by shots of an old Filipino melodrama in which Rita’s grandmother acted. An opulent film with a lot of real life by a film maker we want to follow further, just like Rita. In 2005, the film was given a Hubert Bals Fund Award during the Cinemanila Boracay Workshop. (GjZ)

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Films, Atopic Sc: Raya Martin Cam: Raya Martin Ed: Lawrence S. Ang Ad: Digo Ricio Sound: Ditoy Aguila Mu: Spazzkid With: Ness Roque, Adriana Agcaoili, Meila Romero, Daisy Carino Print/Sales: Atopic

Raya MARTIN (1984, Philippines) studied film at the University of Diliman. After working as a writer and researcher for a variety of media, he started making short films. He was selected for the 11th edition of the Cinéfondation in Cannes. Now Showing (2008) and Next Attraction (2008) are his fourth and fifth feature films. Films: A Conscientious Object - or: The Reality of Olaf (1999, short), Bulaklak (2003, short), Millenarian Dreams (2004, short), Bakayson/The Visit (2004, short), Ang isla sa dulo ng mundo/The Island at the End of the World (2004), Infancia en las islas de Filipinas, sin fecha (2005, short), Indio Nacional (2006), Life Projections (2006, short), Long Live Philippine Cinema (2007, short), Autohystoria (2007), Now Showing (2008), Next Attraction (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:18

Spectrum

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Philippines, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 90 min, Filipino Pro: Arleen Cuevas Pro Comp: Cinematografica Films Sc: Raya Martin Cam: Albert Banzon, Maisa

Demetillo, Hermann Claravall Ed: Lawrence S. Ang Ad: Digo Ricio Sound: Ditoy Aguila With: JK Anicoche, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, Paolo Rivero Print/Sales: Cinematografica

Films

Next Attraction Raya Martin

Second part (although they can certainly be seen separately) of what is intended to be a box-office trilogy - Raya Martin’s treatises on cinematography itself. The first part, Now Showing, that is primarily about film as diary, is also being screened at this festival. Now Showing is made up of fake home movies and Next Attraction is a making-of, which poses the question of whether the film is really being made behind the scenes. Even though this short film can be seen towards the end, the product does not seem to be important. In the end it seems to be more about the process of film making than the making itself. Not the result is important, but the way you get there. Coco Martin and Paolo Rivero are celebrated young actors in today’s Filipino film scene. They appear on the set to make a short film. In the story in the short film, a boy runs away from home after a quarrel with his mother. The film follows him through the centre of Manila. In a neglected area of the city, he meets a man and has his first sexual experience. When he gets back home, his mother tries to settle the quarrel. He ignores her and decides under the shower what he’ll do next. The third part of the trilogy is to be called Coming Soon. If director Martin continues to work in this tempo, then that will indeed be the case. (GjZ)

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Philippines/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 94 min, Tagalog Pro: Ferdinand Lapuz,

Didier Costet Pro Comp: Centerstage

Productions, SWIFT Productions Sc: Armando Lao, Boots Agbayani Pasto Cam: Odyssey Flores Ed: Claire Villa-Real Ad: Harley Alcasid, Deans Habal Sound: Emmanuel Nolet Clemente Mu: Gian Gianan With: Gina Pareño Dan Alvaro, Mercedes Cabral, Julio Diaz, Bobby Jerome Go, Roxanne Jordan, Jacklyn Jose, Kristoffer King, Coco Martin Sales: Fortissimo Films Distr. NL: Paradiso

Serbis

Filmed Entertainment

Service Brillante Mendoza

The old cinema in the centre of Manila is called Family. It becomes clear soon after the beginning of this film just how ironic that is. Maybe the cinema was once a beautiful entertainment centre for the whole family, but that must have been a long time ago. Now the building is in decay in every respect and most visitors don’t come primarily for the films. Even if they venture into the auditorium, they don’t look at the screen. The auditorium is the domain of male prostitutes and they openly serbis (service) their customers there. The real story of the film is, however, set in the lobbies and offices offices that have really been turned into living rooms. It’s the story of the Pineda family, which really is a family, that bravely tries to keep things going. It focuses on the divorced mother Nayda, a beautiful role by Jaclyn Jose. It’s a characteristic of new Filipino cinema that major roles are being written for the great actresses of the former generation. Together with her sons, daughter, nephews and other relatives, Nayda runs the cinema. The film follows the secret and less secret activities of the relatives in a lively and authentic way, while in the background the big city is permanently audible. Alongside Jaclyn Jose is another major player and that is the building itself, of which the director exploited all possible nooks and crannies. (GjZ)

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Brillante MENDOZA (1960, Philippines) graduated in advertising at the university of Santo Tomas in Manila. Mendoza started his career as a production designer in films, television, theatre and in television advertising. Service (2008) was nominated for Palm d’ Or. It was the first Filipino film in the Cannes competition in 24 years. Films: The Masseur (2005), Summer Heat (2006), The Professor (2006, doc), Pantasya (2007), Foster Child (2007), Slingshot (2007), Serbis/Service (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:19

Spectrum

Hungary/Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 92 min, Hungarian Pro: Viktória Petrányi, Philippe

Bober, Susanne Marian Pro Comp: Proton Cinema Ltd.,

Essential Filmproduktion Sc: Kornél Mundruczó, Yvette Biro Cam: Mátyás Erdély Ed: Dávid Jancsó Ad: Márton Ágh Mu: Félix Lajkó With: Félix Lajkó, Orsolya Tóth, Lili Monori, Sándor Gáspár Sales: Coproduction Office Distr. NL: Filmmuseum

Kornél MUNDRUCZÓ (1975, Hungary) is an actor and director. He studied at the Hungarian Academy for Film and Drama. He has won fourteen international awards with his graduate film A fta. His first feature, Pleasant Days, won the Silver Leopard at Locarno in 2002. Also Joan (2005) and Delta (2008) were well received at several European film festivals.

Delta Kornél Mundruczó

Halfway through the first shooting cycle of Delta, the lead actor Lajos Bertok, to whom the film is dedicated, died. It was then the violinist Félix Lajkó, responsible for the gripping music in Delta, who managed to carry the film convincingly, despite having no prior acting experience. Delta is set in the overwhelming, un-manicured nature of a Danube Delta. Here, after many years away, Mihai, the son of the local landlady, returns planning to stay for good. On the bank of the River Danube he builds his own house. His half-sister Fauna, played by Orsi Toth and well-known from earlier work by Mundruczó, meets in her half-brother the only fellow spirit in this settlement deserted by God and all men. When she decides to live with him, her stepfather takes it out on her, but this doesn’t stop her. With Delta, Mundruczó builds a scintillating and extremely charged story with sparse dialogue in which the truth is only slowly revealed. Freely derived from Hamlet and Elektra, Delta tells the story of two lovers who maintain their own sexual freedom, convinced of their integrity. In the isolated peasant communities surrounded by water, there is no room for this. There is a continual threat of a tragic ending, one that is only revealed by the director as a cruel turn of fate after the initial, misleading overture between the lovers and the community. (LC)

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Films: Minöségét megörzi (1998, short doc), Haribó-haribá! (1999, short), Vörös hold (1999, short), Izzad a tenyerem (2000, doc), Nincsen nekem vágyam semmi/ This I Wish And Nothing More (2000), Afta/Day After Day (2001, short), El robador (2002, short), Szép Napok/Pleasant Days (2002), Kis apokrif no. 1/ Little Apocrypha No.1 (2002, short), Joan of Arc on the Night Bus (2003, short), Kis apokrif no. 2/Little Apocrypha No.2 (2004, short), Lost and Found (segment Shortlasting Silence, 2005), Johanna/Joan (2005), Delta (2008)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Czech Republic, 2009 colour, video, 68 min, Czech Pro: Iva Ruszeláková Pro Comp: Jan Nemec Film, i/o

post, Mouse & Cut, Mini Max Films, The Czech Republic State Fund for Support and Development of Cinematography Sc: Jan Nemec Cam: Jirí Maxa Ed: Michal Lánsky Ad: Judith Voboril Sound: Ivo Spalj Mu: Jan Nemec With: Karel Roden, Jan Budar, Tammy Sundquist Print/Sales: Jan Nemec Film

Holka Ferrari Dino The Ferrari Dino Girl Jan Nemec

Jan Nemec´s new film is the third of loosely connected autobiographical stories (Late Night Talks With Mother, 2001 and Landscape Of My Heart, 2004) that are distinguished by their idiosyncratic style, combining autobiographical elements with dramatised reality. It´s nighttime in Prague, 21 August 1968. Soviet troops and tanks are occupying the city - random attacks, soldiers shooting, bodies lying dead on the sidewalk. With an impromptu crew, the director (Karel Roden) captures some unique evidence - material which is, however, worthless in occupied Prague; it has to be shown to the rest of the world. So, while the Soviets are concocting false reports of heartfelt receptions without military resistance for propaganda purposes, the director sets off on a risky trip across the closed Czech-Austrian border to Vienna. He is accompanied on this journey by the Italian Enrico and his Czech lover, Jana, the most beautiful girl in Prague, a Czech version of Brigitte Bardot: the Ferrari Dino Girl. The film consists of two parts: the reconstructed past, and the unique document of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 that later on became known worldwide as Oratorio For Prague. A personal flashback to the Prague Spring, the incident that changed the destiny of the country for a long twenty-one years after. (LC)

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In the early 1960s, Jan NEMEC (1936, Czech Republic) had already made several remarkable films, but he became a legend with his shots of the Soviet invasion in Prague that were then screened worldwide. He was denied work and in 1974 went into exile in Germany and the USA, where he also worked on the script of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He returned to Prague in 1989 and has made several films and documentaries since. Films: (selection) Sousto/A Loaf of Bread (1960, short), Démanti noci/Diamonds of the Night (1964), O slavnosti a hostech/A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966), Mucedníci lásky/Martyrs of Love (1966), Mutter und Sohn (1967, short), Oratorio for Prague/Seven Days to Remember (1968, short doc), Nocní hovory s matkou/Late Night Talks With Mother (2001), Krajina mého srdce/Landscape of My Heart (2004), Toyen (2005), Holka Ferrari Dino/The Ferrari Dino Girl (2009)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:19

Spectrum

WORLD PREMIERE

Thailand, 2009 colour, video, 80 min, Thai Pro: Thunska Pansittivorakul Pro Comp: Thai Indie Cam: Thunska Pansittivorakul Ed: Thunska Pansittivorakul Ad: Thunska Pansittivorakul Sound: Thunska Pansittivorakul Mu: Yokee Playboy, Photo

Sticker Machine With: Sathit Sobree, Pradit Pradinan Print/Sales: Thai Indie

Boriven nee yu pai tai karn kuk kun This Area Is Under Quarantine Thunska Pansittivorakul Europeans on sex holidays to Thailand and transvestites who work in tourist areas may give a different impression, but this country is far from liberal in regard to homosexuality. A candid film maker like Thunska Pansittivorakul is therefore sure to come into contact with censorship sooner or later. So anyone who wonders why the two kids in this film keep their pants on right up to the end now knows the answer. That doesn’t mean that Pansittivorakul is prudish or cautious. You can only call him courageous and maybe even a little obsessed. Sex, gay sex, is his major theme and he has talked plenty of boys out of their clothes for his films. And he has a very outspoken opinion about other things. The film pointedly tackles several Thai political incidents. These subjects may not be hot off the press, because it took the maker three years to complete the film after it was shot. The documentary film shows two boys in a hotel room. First they are questioned individually. The first is a Moslem boy from the South. He is asked about politically and personally sensitive issues. He is then followed by a Buddhist boy from the North. Then they are observed chatting together and finally making love. Pansittivorakul’s short film film ‘Action!’ is also being screened at this festival. (GjZ)

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Thunska PANSITTIVORAKUL (1973, Thailand) graduated in art education from Bangkok University. His second feature length documentary H appy Berry won the Grand Prize Award at the 4th Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2004. Films: (selection) Private Life (2000, short), Voodoo Girls (2002), Sawan sud uam/Happy Berry (2004, doc), Happy Berry: Oops! I Did It Again (2005, short), Vous vous souviens de moi? (2005, short), Middle-earth (2007, short), ‘Action!’ (2008, short), Soak (2008, short), This Area Is Under Quarantine (2009)

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Italy/Germany/Sri Lanka, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 109 min, Sinhalese (Sinhala) Pro: Prasanna Vithanage,

Conchita Airoldi, Uberto Pasolini Pro Comp: Studio Urania,

Babelsberg Film GmbH, Shakthi Films Sc: Ruwanthie de Chickera, Uberto Pasolini Ed: Masahiro Hirakubo Sound: Anandar Chandrahasan Mu: Stephen Warbeck, Lakshman Joseph de Saram With: Dharmapriya Dias, Gihan de Chickera, Dharshan Dharmaraj, Mahendra Perera Print/Sales: Beta Cinema

Machan Uberto Pasolini

The producer of the international hit The Full Monty provides his directing début with M achan. This story about 23 poor wretches from a slum district of Colombo, Sri Lanka, is about unemployment as well as the loss of male standing. The Sri Lankans’ adventure is crazy and incredible, yet inspired by a true story. In order to escape their terrible poverty, 23 men apply as a fictional handball team to an international tournament in Bavaria. Despite the fact that handball is unknown in Sri Lanka, which certainly doesn’t have a national team, they finally manage to get the necessary visas thanks to forged letters of recommendation. Pasolini creates a sensitive balance between realistic drama and unadorned absurdity and convincingly plays off universal themes of poverty, deceit, love and comradeship against each other through a large cast of fully-fledged team players. They are underdogs with fleshed-out characters who sketch a subtle picture, contrasting with their individual backgrounds, of what poverty means. This is partly thanks to the script-writing duo formed by Pasolini with Ruwathie de Chikera, daughter of a Sri Lankan bishop in one of the poorest slums of Colombo. Together they interviewed local inhabitants and combined their stories with those of the ‘real’ handball players, who would never be found again after disappearing in Germany. (EH)

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Uberto PASOLINI (Italy) has worked in the film industry since 1983. He started as a unit runner and eventually became an independent producer when he founded his own production company, Redwave Films. Pasolini has produced several films, including The Full Monty (1997), which won many international awards. M achan is Pasolini’s début feature as a director. Films: Machan (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:20

Spectrum

Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 93 min, German Pro: Michael Weber, Florian

Koerner von Gustorf Pro Comp: SCHRAMM

FILM Koerner & Weber, Bayerischer Rundfunk, ARTE Sc: Christian Petzold Cam: Hans Fromm Ed: Bettina Böhler Ad: Kade Gruber, Bettina Böhler Sound: Dirk Jacob Mu: Stefan Will With: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer Print/Sales: The Match

Factory GmbH

Jerichow Christian Petzold

In this contemporary version of The Postman Always R ings Twice, Christian Petzold allows the dishonourably discharged Afghanistan veteran Thomas to return to his home village of Jerichow. His mother has died and he decides to live in her house. Petzold immediately plays it hard with a creditor coming for his pound of flesh. Then by chance the Turkish-German owner of 45 snack bars turns up in Thomas’ life and takes him on as a driver. The businessman, hard and suspicious, reveals himself to be a jealous husband who abuses his beautiful young German wife. Thomas immediately falls for her. A classic drama is born. Petzold sketches less direct action and suspense in this dramatic thriller. Minimal information about the characters’ backgrounds makes them initially as unpredictable as Petzold’s unexpected plot turns. The film is situated in an economically backward area on the north coast of former East Germany, as a result of which the surroundings themselves evoke the necessary unease. As the viewer spends a lot of time guessing the real motives of the three protagonists, the result is a cunning catand-mouse game that has to culminate in a dramatic finale. Petzold, one of the most talented of today’s German directors, has in fact made with Jerichow a reprise of his Wolfsburg (2004), in which Nina Höss and Benno Fürmann also play leading roles.

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Christian PETZOLD (1960, Germany) moved to Berlin in 1981, where he studied German and theatre. From 1989 to 1994 he studied at the German film and television academy in Berlin and worked as an assistant director under Harun Farocki and Hartmut Bitomsky. With The State I A m in (2000) he proved himself to be one of the most talented film makers of his generation. His films Ghosts (2005) and Yella (2007) have been screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Films: Mission (1987, short), Weiber (1989, short), Süden (1990, short), Glanz und Elend der Hochbegabten (1990, short), Ostwärts (1991), Das warme Geld (1993), Abzüge (1994, short), Pilottinen (1995, TV), Cuba Libre (1996, TV), Die Beischlafdiebin (1998, TV), Die innere Sicherheit/The State I Am in (2000), Toter Mann/ Something to Remind Me (2001, TV), Wolfsburg (2004), Gespenster/Ghosts (2005), Yella (2007), Jerichow (2008)

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Canada, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 97 min, French Pro: Lyse Lafontaine Pro Comp: Equinoxe Films Sc: Isabelle Hébert Cam: Daniel Jobin Mu: Laurent Eyquem With: Marianne Fortier, Laurent

Lucas, Céline Bonnier Print/Sales: E1 Films

International

Maman est chez le coiffeur Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s Léa Pool Summer 1966. It’s time to enjoy the summer holiday, total freedom, running free through the meadows and giggling with friends. But while she becomes increasingly aware of the dreams, worries and lies of people around her, Élise discovers that the sudden departure of her mother completely disrupts the family. In the meantime, her brother Coco waywardly seeks solace building a super racing car and her youngest brother Benoît throws himself into his own inner world. The father seems absolutely knocked out by the situation. Élise decides to take control of her adrift family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing, blossoming nature around her and the silent cheer offered to her by Monsieur Mouche, Élise is standing on the threshold of an incomparable summer. Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s is characterised by a wonderfully nostalgic tone in which the situations and the family members especially the teenager Élise - are sketched humanely and filled with compassion, with a great feeling for scents, colours and all kinds of historic details. The contrast between the tensions and changes on the one hand and the sweltering summer holidays on the other is held in perfect balance by a subtle mise-en-scène, partly thanks to the fantastic acting on all sides and the excellent production design, with great feeling for detail. (EH)

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In 1975 Léa POOL (1950, Switzerland) immigrated from Switzerland to Canada to complete a bachelor’s degree in communications at the University of Québec, Montréal. Since then, she has directed numerous videos, short films, features and television programmes. In 1984, she wrote and directed her first feature film, La femme de l’hôtel, which was enthusiastically acclaimed by the public and the critics. Mommy Is at the H airdresser’s (2008) is her latest film. Films: Laurent Lamerre, portier (1978, doc), Strass Café (1981), La femme de l’hôtel (1984), Anne Trister (1986), A corps perdu/ Straight for the Heart (1988), Hotel Chronicles (1989, doc), Le demoiselle sauvage/The Savage Woman (1991), Montréal vu par (segment Rispondetemi, 1992), Mouvements du désir/Desire in Motion (1993), Gabrielle Roy (1998, doc), Emporte-moi/ Set Me Free (1999), Lost and Delirious (2000), Le papillon bleu/The Blue Butterfly (2002), Maman est chez le coiffeur/ Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:21

Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Norway/Sweden, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 90 min, Norwegian Pro: Finn Gjerdrum, Stein

B. Kvae, Erik Poppe Pro Comp: Paradox Rettigheter

De usynlige Troubled Water Erik Poppe

Troubled Water (the Norwegian title means something like ‘the invisible ones’) is the third part of a series that started with Schpaaa and the film Hawaii Oslo screened in the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition. With this film, that is even more intense, inevitable and cleverly constructed, Poppe shows himself to be a film maker who can look major themes on crime and punishment straight in the eye. This impressive film will not leave anyone unmoved and at its première at the American Film Festival in The Hamptons it won the main prize as well as the audience award. Poppe creates a nerve wracking psychological drama in which we see how two characters try to come to terms with the past. Jan Thomas has just been released from prison, where he served eight years for murdering a child. He finds a job as an organist in the church, where he becomes involved in a relationship with the pastor Anna. She is the single mother of Jens, an eight-year-old boy who has a stunning likeness to the boy whom Jan Thomas is supposed to have killed eight years ago. The chance of making up with a loving father role is jeopardised when Jan Thomas is recognised by the mother of the victim. Then Poppe shows the viewpoint of the mother still dogged by grief (a fantastic Dyrholm), who has now adopted two girls with her husband. She starts stalking Jan Thomas. (GT)

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AS, Casa Nova Film Company AB, Scanbox Sweden, Bavaria Film International Sc: Harald Rosenløw Eeg Cam: John Christian Rosenlund Ed: Einar Egeland Sound: Hugo Ekornes Mu: Johan Söderqvist With: Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Trine Dyrholm, Trond Espen Seim, Terje Strømdahl, Frank Kjosås, Anneke von der Lippe, Stig Henrik Hoff Print/Sales: Bavaria

Film International

Erik POPPE (1960, Norway) grew up in Norway and Portugal and was educated at the Dramatic Institute in Stockholm. Poppe started his carrier as a photographer. Between 1991 and 2003 he directed commercials, music videos, television series, shorts and documentary films. His feature début Schpaaa (1998) won a Grand Prize in Berlin in 1999. Troubled Water (2008) is Poppe’s third feature. The film won the prize for best feature at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2008. Films: Det vakre i det brutale/ Beauty and the Brutal (1991, short), Aftenlandet (1994, short), Schpaaa (1998), Bratts (1997, short), Hawaii, Oslo (2004), De usynlige/Troubled Water (2008)

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Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, video, 115 min, Indonesian Pro Comp: Proyek Payung

9808 Antologi 10 tahun Reformasi Indonesia

9808 An Anthology of 10th Year Indonesian Reform

(Umbrella Project) Sc: Anggun Priambodo, Ucu Agustin, Ifa Isfansyah, Otty Widasari, Ariani Darmawan, Hafiz, Lucky Kuswandi, Edwin, Wisnu Suryapratama, Steve Pillar Setiabudi Cam: Tran Hoai Nam, Joedith Tjhristianto, Sidi Saleh Ed: Kim Jae Rim, Astu Prasidya, Herman Kumala Panca Ad: Prilla Tania Sound: Hae Kyong, Jung Woan, Ariani Darmawan, Iponxonik Mu: Windra Benyamin With: Nadia, Hengky Hidayat, Ladya Cherryl Print/Sales: Proyek Payung

(Umbrella Project) http://9808films.

wordpress.com/

Anggun Priambodo, Ucu Agustin, Ifa Isfansyah, Otty Widasari, Ariani Darmawan, Hafiz, Lucky Kuswandi, Edwin, Wisnu Suryapratama, Steve Pillar Setiabudi

In May 1998 something happened in Indonesia that no one had thought possible. After persistent demonstrations, primarily by students, the repressive era of President Suharto came to an end. Many film makers from the present generation were closely involved in this revolution at the time. In this omnibus film, ten film makers look back on events. In Where Was I, Anggun Priambodo returns to the memorable month of May using ten photographs. Ariani Darmawan makes fun of her name in Sugihart halim, but that has a political significance. Trip to the Wound by Edwin was screened in Rotterdam last year and again now in order to complete the ten. In Meet Jen, Hafiz made a portrait of a certain Jen, the man who didn’t change. In Happiness Morning Light Ifa Isfansyah followed his subject as far as Beijing in order to look back on a trauma in Jakarta. Lucky Kuswandi experienced the Festival of the Chinese New Year that once had to be celebrated underground in A Letter of Unprotected Memories. Otty Widasari provides an autobiographical review of the past decade with Yesterday. Steve Pillar Setiabudi presents several secondary school pupils who tackle corruption at their school in Our School, Our Lives. The title of Wisnu Suryapratama’s The Cat 9808 Chronicles of a Former Demonstrator says it all. (GjZ)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:21

Spectrum

United Kingdom, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 92 min, English Pro: Rupert Preston,

Daniel Hansford Pro Comp: Vertigo Films Sc: Brock Norman Brock,

Nicolas Winding Refn Cam: Larry Smith Ed: Matthew Newman With: Tom Hardy, Amanda

Burton, Matt King Print/Sales: Protagonist Pictures www.bronsonthemovie.com

Bronson Nicolas Winding Refn

Michael Gordon Peterson has published 11 books, writes poetry, is an idiosyncratic and talented painter and does 2,500 push-ups each day - in prison, where the most violent prisoners of England are held for life, even though he has never killed or fatally wounded anyone. He was sentenced in 1974 to 7 years at the age of 19 for a raid on a post office and has become the longest serving prisoner in the United Kingdom. With a history of hostage-taking and violence against prison personnel, the incredibly strong ‘Bronson’ - a nickname he earned during his short career as a free fighter in the very brief periods he was a free man spends most of his time in isolation. Nicolas Winding Refn, who has displayed his talent in the simultaneously frightening and cabaretesque presentation of violence in for instance Pusher Trilogie, for the first time uses someone else’s screenplay in Bronson: in this case by Brock Norman Brock, known from Dogging, a Love Story. He allows Bronson to tell his life story, dressed as a variety artist. But it isn’t a literal biography: Refn, who as a Dane was unfamiliar with Bronson’s status, is more interested in his personality. The actor Tom Hardy, responsible for the spectacularly intense leading role, had been fascinated by Bronson for years. He also provides an amazing performance: as an actor and as a trained sportsmen. (GT)

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Nicolas Winding REFN (1970, Denmark) lived in New York between the ages of ten and eighteen. Following his return to Denmark and a few shorts and commercials, he decided to direct his first feature rather than accepting an invitation to enter the National Film School. The Pusher trilogy became a huge critical and popular success. Films: Pusher (1996), Bleeder (1999), The Chosen 7 (2001, tv), Fear X (2003), With Blood on My Hands - Pusher II (2004), I am the Angel of Death - Pusher III (2005), Bronson (2008)

207

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Spectrum

USA, 2008 colour, 35mm, 80 min, English Pro: Anish Savjani, Neil

Kopp, Larry Fessenden Pro Comp: Filmscience, Field

Guide Films, Glass Eye Pix, Inc Sc: Kelly Reichardt, Jon Raymond Cam: Sam Levy, Greg Schmitt Ed: Kelly Reichardt With: Michelle Williams, Will Oldham, Will Patton, John Robinson, Walter Dalton Print/Sales: Memento Films

Wendy and Lucy Kelly Reichardt

Kelly REICHARDT (1964, USA) has made several Super-8 films. Her feature début R iver of Grass (1995) was acknowledged at many international festivals. In 2007 she won a Tiger Award with her feature Old Joy. Wendy and Lucy (2008) had its première in Cannes during Un Certain Regard. Films: River of Grass (1995), Ode (1999, short), Then a Year (2002, short), Travis (2004, short), Old Joy (2005), Wendy and Lucy (2008)

The title character Wendy is on her way to Alaska with her dog Lucy in the hope of finding work there, when her car breaks down in the small town in Oregon. She’s broke and steals dog food for Lucy during the delay. Then it goes wrong: Wendy is arrested and when she is released later that day, Lucy has disappeared. In her attempts to find her dog, Wendy has to depend on the helpfulness of strangers. The quest for Lucy ends with a phone call, which is when Wendy’s journey begins. Michelle Williams shines in her restrained leading role. While everything around her goes wrong, she doggedly tries to keep her head above water. The other title heroin is Lucy, played by Reichardt’s own dog, rightful winner of the traditional Palm Dog at the Cannes festival. In 2006, Reichardt won the VPRO Tiger Award with the road movie Old Joy. Wendy and Lucy is a variation on the road movie genre: the film is set during a forced break in the journey. In a calm tempo, well-suited to the idea of a break, Wendy and Lucy grows from a simple fact into a complex meditation about American insecurity and loneliness. The film without music is, just like Old Joy, based on a short story by Jon Raymond and was shot around Portland. Todd Haynes and Wil Oldham also contributed again. (GT)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:22

Spectrum

Spain/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 84 min, Catalan Pro: Jaime Rosales, José Maria

Morales, Jérôme Dopffer Pro Comp: Fresdeval Films,

Wanda Vision S.A., Les productions Balthazar Sc: Jaime Rosales Cam: Oscar Durán Ed: Nino Martínez Sosa Ad: Ion Arretxe Sound: David Machado With: Ion Arretxe, Inigo Royo, Jaione Otxoa, Ana Vila, Asun Arretxe, Nerea Cobreros, Jose Angel Lopetegi, Ivan Moreno, Diego Gutierrez, Stephanie Pecastaing

Tiro en la cabeza Bullet in the Head Jaime Rosales

A shooting incident on 1 December 2007 in France, in which two Spanish plainclothes policeman were killed in a ‘chance’ confrontation with suspected members of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA, formed the starting point of Jaime Rosales’ latest film. The director chose to film the days preceding the killing in such a way that the viewer becomes one of a surveillance team without listening equipment. Actions remain obscure and a sequence of encounters without dialogue evokes compelling suspense. Rosales films the main suspect being watched during everyday events - he works in an office, meets relatives, has a drink with friends - but never from close by. The camera peers through the windows of houses and shops, through displays and bar doors and allows the viewer to watch, observe, wait. The static observations are thwarted by people crossing the shot and traffic that briefly gets in the way of the observation team. Rosales emphatically plays with expectations and confusion that test the observer because of the lack of easy clues. Thanks to his rigorous formal choices, he seems to want to give the cliché of terrorist master planning an unexpected twist and he demythologises the personal lives of the suspects. So don’t expect an action thriller, but much more a deconstructional experiment in which time and the sense of time play a leading role.

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Print/Sales: The Match

Factory GmbH

After studying economics and writing several film and television scripts, Jaime ROSALES (1970, Spain) was given a grant to study at the EICTV film school in Havana. He also studied at the Australian film school, the AFTVRS in Sydney. He founded his production company Fresdeval Films in 2001. Films: Virginia no dice mentiras (1997, short), Palabras de una revolución (1998, short), Episodio (1998, short), Yo tuve un cerdo llamado Rubiel (1998, short), La pecera (1999, short), Las horas del día/The Hours of the Day (2003), La soledad/ Solitary Fragments (2007), Tiro en la cabeza/Bullet in the Head (2008)

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12-01-2009 10:11:22

Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Philippines, 2008 colour, video, 61 min, Tagalog Pro: Roxlee Pro Comp: Baybayin Productions Sc: Roxlee Cam: Jim Lumbera,

Juan Baybayin Green Rocking Chair Roxlee

Roxlee is a film maker with a special sense of humour. He draws and writes comic strip stories that are absurd and surreal. Just as strange, creative and original are the animation films he makes. And his paintings. And his musical performances. Yes, Roxlee is a versatile guy. Here, he is the protagonist in a fiction film that has the form of a documentary. He undertakes a quest into the use of Baybayin, an old form of writing that was developed before the Spanish colonists set foot in the Philippines in 1521. Does Baybayin still exist as an actively written language? That’s what Roxlee wonders at the start of the quest. But gradually it becomes apparent that the film maker is interested in more than just pre-colonial writing. With his eye for the absurd within everyday events, he makes an unusual portrait of his country and of his compatriots. An unpolished portrait that has been made with modest means, but that is rich in crazy insights and strange humour. In this sense, Roxlee is himself like one of the characters in his surrealist comic-strip stories. And seen through his eyes and his camera, the everyday reality of the Philippines is also a kind of comic strip. The film also comprises real animation about the fable of the monkey and the tortoise. (GjZ)

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Albert Banzon, Bulan Ed: Lot Arboleda, Jim Lumbera, JP Papa, Mark Mirabuenos Ad: Lot Arboleda Mu: Roxlee, Kadangyan, Mangyan Hanunuo Tribe With: Zeroxlee, Ronnie Lazaro, Quebry, Ramon Bautista, Carmela Cruz, Pusongbughaw Sales: Baybayin Productions Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

Roque Federizon LEE (1950, Philippines), better known as Roxlee, studied architecture at the National University in Manila. He started as a cartoonist and began making films in 1983, for example animations and collage films. With his cynical humour and unconventional ideas, he became an icon of the Philippine underground cinema. His cartoons and short stories are recently published in the book Planet of the Noses. Films: Prayle (1988, short), Juan Gapang/Johnnie Crawl (1987, short), Tito’s Wedding (1994, short), Bruce (2002, short), Batumbuhay/Live Rock (2003, short doc), Romeo Must Rock (2004, doc), Imahe nasyon (segment La Pula, 2006), Juan Baybayin/Green Rocking Chair (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:23

Spectrum

France, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 94 min, French Pro: François Margolin, Antoine

de Clermont-Tonnerre, Martine de Clermont-Tonnerre Pro Comp: Margo Films, MACT Productions Sc: Raúl Ruiz Cam: Inti Briones, Jacques Bouquin Ed: Béatrice Clericco Ad: Veronica Astudillo, Raúl Ruiz Sound: Claire-Anne Largeron Mu: Jorge Arriagada With: Elsa Zylberstein, Audrey Marnay, Jean-Marc Barr, Laurent Malet, Laure de ClermontTonnerre, Thomas Durand, Luis Mora, Miriam Heard

Nucingen Haus Raúl Ruiz

In the world of Raúl Ruiz, it isn’t strange if a house in Chile has a sign hanging up stating ‘only French spoken’. People shouldn’t be surprised by ghostly apparitions, a confusing sense of time and camera movements leading nowhere. The only one repeatedly surprised is William Henry James III (JeanMarc Barr) who, with his wife (Elsa Zylberstein), is the new French owner of the house. The servants receive him with suspicion and idiosyncrasy. One laughs exaggeratedly at the most unexpected moments, another runs past through the classically decorated corridors. ‘As my father said,’ a voice-over narrates in a reference to a famous film quote, ‘if you have to choose between legend and history, always choose legend.’ And that’s what Ruiz does with Nucingen Haus, freely based on a story by Balzac. There are vampires, clocks that stop, doors that suddenly slam, screaming women in nightdresses and lavish décors. Those meticulous sets, alongside the costumes and the studied behaviour of most characters, evoke a theatrical mood. This is amplified by alienating absurdism, such as the group of peasants standing quietly in a corner and the repeated zooming of invisible flies. The camera floats almost autonomously through it all: it comes closer, withdraws or turns away slowly at the end of a scene. It creates a world between waking and dreaming - or nightmare.

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Print/Sales: UMedia

Raúl RUIZ (1941, Chile) studied theology and law in Argentina. He wrote many scripts for Mexican television, taught in New York, led the Maison de la Culture du Havre and wrote more than a hundred plays before dedicating himself to film. He has made more than eighty feature films, many of them in France, which for a long time was his home in exile after Pinochet’s coup in 1973. In 2004, the IFFR screened a large retrospective of his many-sided oeuvre. Films: (since 1995) Trois vies et une seule mort (1996), Généalogies d’un crime (1997), Shattered Images (1998), Le temps retrouvé (1999), Moitte vu par Ruiz (2001), Cofralandes, rapsodia chilena/Chilean Rhapsody (2002), Médée (2003), Ce jour-là/That Day (2003), Une place parmi les vivants (2003), La vertige de la page blanche (2003), Dias de campo/Journées à la campagne (2004), Responso (2005), La domaine perdu (2005), Klimt (2006), Nucingen Haus (2008)

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12-01-2009 10:11:23

Spectrum

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Chile/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 89 min, Spanish Pro: Christian Aspee,

François Margolin Pro Comp: Suricato

Eirl, Margo Films Sc: Raúl Ruiz Cam: Acacio De Almeida Ed: Béatrice Clerico Ad: Leticia Kausel Sound: Felipe Zabala Mu: Jorge Arriagada With: Claudia Di Girolamo, Sergio Hernandez Print/Sales: Suricato Eirl

Valéria SARMIENTO (1948, Chile) studied film and philosophy at the University of Valparaiso. In 1972 she made her first documentary, Un sueño como de dolores. Since 1974 she is based in Paris, where she has worked as director and editor of films by e.g. Raúl Ruiz, Luc Moullet and Robert Kramer.

Secretos Secrets Valéria Sarmiento

Rotterdam veteran Raúl Ruiz wrote the screenplay for this film, based on an idea by his wife Valeria Sarmiento, who was in turn responsible for directing. The result has the same deceptive simplicity as the work of Ruiz himself, and allows itself to be typified as professional amateurism. Secretos is a light-footed comedy with a dark edge, about several former Chilean revolutionaries who - as the title betrays - all have their own secrets. A man nicknamed El Traitor returns from exile in Paris to his home country and tries to pick up and rediscover his old life, revealed in flashbacks. It soon becomes clear that intimate personal contact is more important than all kinds of lofty ideals; in other words: it’s not the battle for a just world that makes you a better person, but a radical love for your nearest and dearest. This solidarity is demonstrated in the opening scene, when a young Chilean crook in a Paris lift abandons his robbery when he realises his victim is a compatriot. The compact scenes are linked together by the sounds of a barrel organ that provide a continual undertone putting things in perspective. At a certain moment it comes into view like a Hitchcock apparition.

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Films: Un sueño como de dolores (1972, doc), La femme au foyer (1976), Le mal du pays (1979, doc), El hombre, cuando es hombre/A Man, When He Is a Man (1982, doc), Mi boda contigo/Notre mariage (1984), Musique pour film et orchestra (1987, doc), 90 secondes, une oeuvre (1989), Amélia Lopes O’Neil (1990), El planeta de los niños (1992), Latin Women (1992, doc), El derecho de soñar (1993, doc), Elle (1995), Voyage dans le temps (1998, doc), L’inconnu de Strasbourg (1998), Mon premier french can-can (1999, doc), Rosa la China (2002), Au louvre avec barcelo (2004, doc), Secretos/Secrets (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:23

Spectrum

Kazakhstan/Germany/ Russia/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 82 min, Russian Pro: Sain Gabdullin, Karsten

Stöter, Benny Drechsel, Yuri Obukhov, Guillaume de Seille Pro Comp: Production Company KINO, Rohfilm GmbH, KinoProba, Arizona Films Sc: Marat Sarulu Cam: Giorgi Beridze Ed: Karl Riedl Ad: Erwin Prib, Sergej Bulavin Sound: Jörg Theil Mu: Andrey Sigle With: Vladimir Yavorsky, Dzhaidarbek Kunguzhinov, Irina Ageikina, Aizhan Aitenova

Pesn’ yuzhnih morei Song from the Southern Seas Marat Sarulu

Kyrgyz-born film maker Marat Sarulu draws inspiration from the ancient folklore of his native land and his work is deeply rooted in the troubled history of Central Asia. Sarulu’s films explore the meaning of traditional values, the bonds of brotherhood and the issues of ethnic identity. An animator by education (he studied under the famous Russian animator F. Khitruk), Sarulu employs a variety of visual techniques, including work in black-and-white (My Brother Silk Road, 2001) and animation (episodes in Songs from the Southern Seas). Sarulu’s latest film is the story of two neighbours, Ivan and Assan, living in a remote Kazakh village. Ivan is Russian, Assan is Kazakh, and when Ivan’s wife gives birth to a dark-haired baby, the jealous husband casts suspicion on his best friend. The village vendetta lasts for 15 years, and as Ivan’s son grows into a disobedient teenager and runs away from home, Ivan’s humiliation seems to be too much for him to bear. In the land where Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Russians and Germans have had to live side by side for at least one hundred years, the quest for one’s ethnic identity turns into a pursuit of happiness. Sarulu decorates his contemporary tale with dream-like mountain landscapes, animated interludes and folk music. (MB)

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Print/Sales: Rohfilm GmbH

Marat SARULU (1957, Kyrgyzstan) graduated in philology from the Kyrgyz National University in Bishkek. Afterwards he studied at the Moscow Film Academy. Sarulu works as a director and writer; among others he wrote the script for the successful film The A dopted Son (Aktan Abdykalykov, 1998). His short film The Fly Up (2002) has been screened at several international film festivals. Films: Molenie o Prechistoj ptitse/Praying for the Virgin Bird (1989, short), In Spe (1993), Mandala (1998, short doc), Ergy/The Fly Up (2001, short), Altyn Kyrghol/My Brother Silk Road (2001), Burnaja reka, bezmiateznoje more/The Rough River, the Placid Sea (2004), Pesn’ yuzhnih morei/Song from the Southern Seas (2008)

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12-01-2009 10:11:23

Spectrum

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Germany/France, 2008 colour, video, 85 min, English Pro: Uli M. Schüppel Pro Comp: schueppel-

films, ZDF / ARTE Sc: Uli M. Schüppel Cam: Cornelius Plache Ed: Ernst Carias Sound: Martin Fruehmorgen Mu: FM Einheit Print/Sales: schueppel-films www.schueppel-films.de

Uli M. SCHÜPPEL (1958, Odenwald) studied from 1984 to 1990 at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. As well as short films and features, he has made several music videos and trailers for the Berlinale, among others.

Der Tag The Day Uli M. Schüppel

The films of Uli Schüppel do not belong to a fixed discipline. You can’t say that he makes a musical documentary one time and an experimental feature the next. He makes films that repeatedly touch on different domains, and this poetic and essayist film, The Day, is an outspoken example of that. To start with, you can call the film visual. You could also say the film is built on an off-screen spoken text. And you could argue that the music entirely determines the structure and mood of the film. It’s all correct. It’s a textual, visual and musical experiment. The day in the title is the day that someone dies. Eyewitnesses are asked to describe in detail how this special day passed for them. The day that is ingrained in the memory through the loss of a loved one. The camera follows the story through the places they describe. Empty and poetically photographed places. Places with a story. A story that has now been partly revealed. There are more than 10 stories like this in the film, linked together by the unusual sound and music. Death was the motivation for the various chapters, yet the film does not seem to be about death. It’s not about life either, but more about something in between. (GjZ)

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Films: Nihil oder alle Zeit der Welt (1987), The Road to God Knows Where (1990, doc), A Priori (1990, short), Vaterland/ Fatherland (1992), Jahre der Kälte/Frozen Stories (1994), Sid&Nancy; Ex&Pop (1996, doc), Der Platz (1996), Planet Alex (2000), Santos - Heldentaten, die keiner braucht/Santos - Heroic Deeds, No One Needs (2004), The Song (2004, short doc), BerlinSong (2006, doc), Der Tag/ The Day (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:24

Spectrum

Russia/Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 130 min, Russian Pro: Mila Rozanova, Benny

Drechsel, Karsten Stöter, Natalya Mokrizkaya, Ulyana Savelyeva Pro Comp: New People, Rohfilm Sc: Yuri Arabov Cam: Oleg Lukichyov Ed: Olga Grinshpun Ad: Jurij Grigorovic Mu: Sergei Nevsky With: Ksenia Rappaport Print/Sales: m-appeal

Kirill SEREBRENNIKOV (1969, Soviet Union) studied physics and maths at Rostov University. During his studies he directed theatre performances in a small local theatre. Afterwards he worked as a stage and film director for Rostov-on-Don theatres and TV and directed many theatre shows in Moscow, e.g. Jeanne d ’Arc with Fanny Ardant. He has also made more than a hundred trailers and dozens of commercials.

Yuriev den Yuri’s Day Kirill Serebrennikov

Cult theatre maestro famous for modernizing the Moscow Art Theatre with unconventional adaptations of the classics, Serebrennikov has been experimenting with film since 2004. IFFR followed his progress from the start, screening Bed Scenes in 2005. Yuri’s Day is the third film invited to Rotterdam. Based on a script by prominent script writer and Sokurov collaborator Youri Arabov, Yuri’s Day is an important milestone. Here Serebrennikov breaks free from his theatrical roots (previous films were based on stage plays) and ventures into metaphysical cinema. The action takes place in the quiet town of Yuriev in Central Russia, with its archetypal Orthodox churches, shabby houses and drunken inhabitants. Luybov (Xenia Rappoport), an opera diva from Moscow, brings to here her son, a twenty-something nerd who does not share his mother’s love for the oddly mysterious provincial charm. During an excursion in a medieval fortress, the young man vanishes… The grief-stricken mother turns to the townsfolk for help and, as her despair grows, she experiences a bizarre physical and spiritual transformation. ‘Every year in Russia around thirty thousand people vanish without a trace,’ claims Serebrennikov. Based on such horrific statistics, this is a detective story with a difference. The director attempts to depict a drama of spiritual quest and moral redemption. (MB)

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Films: Naked (1998), Secrets of Thunderstorm (1998, doc), Rostov Papa (2001), Sweet Bird of Youth (2001), Dnevnik ubiijzy/Diary of a Murderer (2002), Ragin (2004), Postelnie sceny/Bed Stories (2005, short), Izobrajaya zhertvu/Playing the Victim (2006), Yuriev den/Yuri’s Day (2008)

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12-01-2009 10:11:24

Spectrum

Czech Republic, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 68 min, Armenian/Russian Pro: Jana Sevcíková Pro Comp: i/o post Sc: Jana Sevcíková Cam: Jaromír Kacer, Stano Slusn Ed: Anna Ryndlova Sound: Jaroslav Jehlicka,

Katerina Pavlovská Mu: Gija Kantchelli, Divan Gasparyan, The Cascade Folk Trio-Dance Ensemble of Armenia Print/Sales: Jana Sevcíková

Jana Sevcíková (1953, Czech Republic) attended the FAMU film school in Prague and is a documentary film maker. Her graduation film was Piemule (1984), a documentary about the Ceaucescu regime.

Gyumri

Films: (all doc) Piemule (1984, short), Tulakona (1986), Jakub (1992, short), Staroverci/The Old Believers (2001, short), Svecení jara/The Rite of Spring (2002, short), Gyumri (2008)

Jana Sevcíková

The Czech independent filmmaker Jana Sevcíková is one of those DIY artists who for years diligently work on a film, devote all their time and energy to it. Sevcíková always chooses unique people and situations for her creative documentaries, spending a lot of time with her subjects. Her two previous documentaries were Old Believers from the Danube Delta and Min Tanaka’s Theater from Japan. The strength of her work lies in its authenticity and her ability to go deep below the surface. About 25,000 inhabitants of the Armenian town of Gyumri perished in a powerfully destructive earthquake on December 7, 1988. More than one-third of the victims were children. For nearly 20 years, the affected families have been linked in their attempt to come to terms with the loss of their children and the birth of new children. Most of the children born after the disaster bear the names of their deceased brothers and sisters, whom they themselves have never known. For some parents, their new children have become a sort of substitute for those who died. The frequent comparisons with their deceased siblings can evoke an uncomfortable feeling in some of the children. Nevertheless, they continue to believe that the souls of their siblings live on with them, beside them, or directly inside them. (LC)

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:24

Spectrum

WORLD PREMIERE

Netherlands, 2009 b&w, video, 70 min, no dialogue Pro: Maartje Seyferth,

Victor Nieuwenhuijs Pro Comp: Moskito Film Sc: Maartje Seyferth,

Victor Nieuwenhuijs Cam: Victor Nieuwenhuijs Ed: Vima Kara Sound: Federico Bonelli Mu: Pierre Bastien,

Hansko Visser With: Nellie Benner, Titus Muizelaar Print/Sales: Moskito Film

Crepuscule Maartje Seyferth, Victor Nieuwenhuijs

Crepuscule is a nice old word for twilight. Or perhaps even a little more than twilight; the time when dusk fades into night. This would be why the film is in black-and-white, because only black-and-white seems to have access to that which precedes darkness. In the film, darkness descends on a young woman. Or better put: a girl. A silent, limber and beautiful girl. We are allowed to see her. All of her, while she explores her body in a mirror. Bravely played by Nellie Benner in a ground-breaking performance. She enters the city and the film closed and introverted. The film captures the girl from up close. Alone with the camera, the girl has no shame. She exposes herself. She dances. Strips, really. She has a job at a gas station and none of her colleagues seem to consider her special. She keeps silent. All the same, an older man, whom cities just seem to be full of, does notice her. Effortlessly, actor Titus Muizelaar puts across this man’s sinister traits. He does not need words, either. The twilight eventually turns darker, the appealing jazzy music more ominous and the city more disquieting. The girl plays with a gun and then we have obviously ended up with Godard, but that is where the film had wanted to be from the start. To be cinema, primarily. (GjZ)

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Maartje SEYFERTH (1945, The Netherlands) attended theatre schools in Antwerp and Amsterdam. She worked as a freelance actress and also attended the Rietveld Academy in painting and the Amsterdam Art Academy in directing. Victor NIEUWENHUIJS (1944, The Netherlands) studied politics at the University of Amsterdam, attended Painting and Photography at the Academy Ateliers ‘63 in Haarlem and Film at the Free Academy in Amsterdam. Since 1984 they are both active as film makers. In 1986 Nieuwenhuijs and Seyferth founded the production company Moskito Film. Their films are now in the collection of the Dutch Film Museum in Amsterdam. Films: (Maartje Seyferth) (selection, all co-dir) Een dag als 1000 jaren/A Day Lasting a Thousand Years (1989, short), Armando (1990, short), Venus in Furs (1995), Lulu (2005), Crepuscule (2009) Films: (Victor Nieuwenhuijs) (selection, all co-dir) Een dag als 1000 jaren/A Day Lasting a Thousand Years (1989, short), Armando (1990, short), Venus in Furs (1995), Lulu (2005), Crepuscule (2009)

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Spectrum

Czech Republic/Germany/ France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 120 min, Czech Pro: Petr Oukropec, Pavel

Venkovsky ucitel A Country Teacher Bohdan Sláma

Print/Sales: Wild Bunch

With his third feature film, the Czech director Bohdan Slama (Tiger Award for Wild Bees, 2002) manifests his artistic and creative maturity. A Country Teacher is not only the best Czech film of the year but also confirms the director’s status as a representative of the modern Czech cinema auteur. Like all of his previous films, A Country Teacher is based on the director’s original script, telling the story of a teacher from Prague (Slama’s much-favoured actor Pavel Liska) who decides to leave the capital and work in a southern Czech Nowheresville. In search of a peaceful life and his own (sexual) identity, the teacher leaves not only the city life but also his ex-lover behind. Gradually, he settles down in the place and gets to know his fellow-villagers, the most significant of whom is the peculiar farm woman Marie (Zuzana Bydzovska) and her teenage son Lada. The meeting of the three is significant for all of them, as each of them is searching and hopes for love and attention, but further developments turn in an unexpected direction. Next to superb acting, the film excels from the formal point of view, with impressive long takes and varying camera angles of Slama’s devoted collaborator, the photography director Divis Marek, as well as a sensitive use of music. (LC)

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Strnad, Karl Baumgartner, Thanassis Karathanos Pro Comp: Negativ s.r.o., Pallas Film GmbH, Why Not Productions Sc: Bohdan Sláma Cam: Divis Marek Ed: Jan Danhel Ad: Václav Novák, Petr Pistek, Martin Micka Sound: Jan Cenek Mu: Vladimír Godár With: Pavel Liska, Zuzana Bydzovska, Ladislav Sedivy, Marek Daniel

Bohdan SLÁMA (1967, Czechoslovakia) graduated in 1997 from the Prague film school FAMU. While still at school, he already achieved international success with The Garden of Eden (1994). Wild Bees, his feature début, won a VPRO Tiger Award in 2002 in Rotterdam. Films: Stvanice (1992, short), Zahrádka ráje/Garden of Eden (1994, short), Akáty bílé/White Acacias (1997, short), Divoké vcely/Wild Bees (2001), Stestí/ Something Like Happiness (2005), Venkovsky ucitel/A Country Teacher (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:25

Spectrum

Italy/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 110 min, Italian Pro: Nicola Giuliano, Francesca

Cima, Andrea Occhipinti Pro Comp: Indigo Film,

Lucky Red, Parco Film Cam: Luca Bigazzi Ed: Cristiano Travaglioli Ad: Lino Fiorito Mu: Teho Teardo With: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci, Carlo Buccirosso Sales: Beta Cinema Distr. NL: Cinemien

Paolo SORRENTINO (1970, Italy) has written for both film and TV. In 1998, he directed his film début L’amore non ha confini. A year later his screenplay for what was to become his first feature One M an Up won the RAI International award. The Consequences of Love, his second feature, brought him several awards, e.g. five David de Donatello’s. Il divo was awarded the Prix du Jury in Cannes 2008.

Il divo Paolo Sorrentino

Sorrentino last year made a second Italian film about the close connections between politics and Mafia practices, one that just like Gomorrah was highly regarded. Il divo is a daring above-average stylised biographical film about the former (seven-times) Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti. After his last term in office, this born politician, who had for more than sixty years left his impression on Italian politics, became involved in a court case about his alleged links to the Mafia and the murder of an investigative journalist. Andreotti has been a member of Parliament since 1945, saw 33 governments pass, and was appointed a senator for life in 1991, as a result of which he has enjoyed political immunity ever since. The court case was followed by acquittal on appeal because the alleged criminal connections had lapsed. Sorrentino allows the leader of the Democristiani, like a spider in the complex web of Italian political norms, to lay his path with apparent commitment but basically utter coldness. With an urgent soundtrack and very masterful camerawork, Sorrentino leaves no doubt about how many strings Andreotti could pull. Il divo links Andreotti to countless other accused politicians and businessmen and also provides a revealing picture of 60 years of Italian ‘democracy’. (EH)

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Films: L’amore non ha confini (1998, short), L’uomo in più/One Man up (2001), Le conseguenze dell’amore/The Consequences of Love (2004), L’amico di famiglia (2006), Il divo (2008)

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Spectrum

Germany/Poland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 95 min, Polish Pro: Raimond Goebel,

Teresa Dvorzecka Pro Comp: Pandora Film

Produktion GmbH, STI Studio Filmowe Sc: Malgoska Szumowska Cam: Michal Englert Ed: Jacek Drosio Ad: Anna Niemira Sound: Michal Dominowski Mu: Pawel Mykietyn With: Julia Jentsch, Peter Gantzler, Maciej Stuhr, Malgorzata Hajewska, Andrzej Hudziak, Iza Kuna, Rafal Mackowiak

33 Sceny z zycia 33 Scenes from Life Malgoska Szumowska

Julia has everything one could dream of: a great and warm home, a loving husband, good parents and a successful career as an artistphotographer. But all of a sudden her world collapses when her mother becomes sick with cancer. In the following months she struggles with her mother’s illness, the continuity of her career and the absence of her husband, who is also successful. The sickness and death of Julia’s mother are very different and more absurd from a close perspective than one would expect. As if all of this weren’t hard enough, her father can’t deal with his wife’s death and drowns himself in alcohol. Julia looks for comfort in the arms of an unexpected person... A valuable film with high artistic quality, this is about the ridiculous turns that life can unexpectedly take, about loosing the people dearest to you and becoming a part of the adult world. Malgoska Szumowska has excelled in presenting not a tear-jerking drama but a true mirror of the vulnerability of life. Human, intensive, realistic. Tragic and sometimes funny, with a lot of cigarettes and booze. A film that will stay with you forever and make a place for itself in international film history. (LC)

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Print: Pandora Film

Produktion GmbH Sales: TrustNordisk

Malgoska SZUMOWSKA (1973, Poland) studied at the Polish Film School in Lódz. Her student films have regularly won prizes. Her first feature H appy M an (2000), also shown in Rotterdam, was nominated for the Felix, the European Award for Best Début Feature. The film was also selected for Variety’s list of 10 Best Films of 2001. Her other features have been screened at festivals all over the world. Films: Zanim znikniesz/Before You Disappear (1996, short), Women Are Like Flowers (1996, doc), The Soul has Left the Body (1997, doc), One Day in the Life of Tomek Karat (1997, doc) Method for Moravia (1997, doc), Seven Lessons of Love (1998, doc), Silence (1998, doc) Kalesoner (1998, short), Happy Man (2000), The Ascension (2000, short), Dokument (2001, short), Ono/Stranger (2004), Visions of Europe (segment Crossroad, 2005), Slodarnosc Solidarnosc (segment Father, 2005), There Is Nothing To Be Sacred of (2007, doc), 33 Szeny z zycia/33 Scenes from Life (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 10:11:26

Spectrum

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Singapore, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 121 min, Mandarin Pro: Mabelyn Ow, Hui Hui Ong Pro Comp: Studio

10-TwentyEight Production, MediaCorp Raintree Pictures Sc: Royston Tan, Liam Yeo Cam: Alan Yap Ed: Low Hwee-Ling Ad: Tommy Chan Sound: Yellowbox, James Choong Mu: Ricky Ho, Funkie Monkies With: Qi Yu Wu, Liu Ling Ling, Mindee Ong Print/Sales: Studio

10-TwentyEight Production www.12lotusthemovie.com

12 Lotus

Royston TAN (1976, Singapore) has sometimes been called ‘the cult icon of Singapore’ and has received numerous awards for his music videos and short films. His features, all of them with numbers in their titles, are welcomed at festivals worldwide. 12 Lotus is his fourth.

Royston Tan

Lian Hua (Mindee Ong) is an immeasurably popular singer. She sings what are known as Ge-tai songs as we came to know them in Royston Tan’s previous film, 881. The songs are sung in Hokkien, the South Chinese dialect that is spoken widely on Taiwan but is marginal in Singapore. They are nostalgic songs and their fans form a small, yet fanatic minority. They worship Lian Hua. Despite her fame, Lian Hua is most attached to her loved ones around her. And that’s where the drama will be set - a drama that is basically already foreseen in the Ge-tai song 12 Lotus, about a woman who has to put up with all kinds of setbacks in life. As a result of the drama of deception and an irreparably broken heart, Lian Hua withdraws from the world into the isolation of her living room. She maintains her isolation for years, until the inevitable comeback ensues. The film has been made with much love and feeling for popular entertainment. The music is skilfully modernised and the costumes are above all both witty and dazzling. The film is not just a sequel to 881. The scale is kept smaller and in the mixture of entertainment, humour and melodrama, the latter is given more weight. Despite the glitter and craziness, it’s a sensitive and even sad film. (GjZ)

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Films: Remain (1995, short), Erase (1996, short), Adam. Eve. Steve. (1997, short), Kisses (1998, short), Jesses (1999, short), Sons (2000, short), Hock hiap leong (2001, short ), 15 (2002, short doc), 48 on Aids (2002, short), 24hrs (2002, short), Mother (2002, short), The Old Man and the River (2003, short), 177155 (2003, short), 15 (2003), Cut (2004, short), Blind (2004, short), Capitol Cinema (2004, short), Old Parliament House (2004, short), The Absentee (2004, short), Careless Whisperer (2005, short), New York Girl (2005, short), Monkey Love (2005, short), DIY (2005, short), 4:30 (2006), Sin sai hong (2006, short), 881 (2007), 12 Lotus (2008)

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Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 91 min, German Pro: Clementina Hegewisch Pro Comp: Next Film

Filmproduktion, GAMBIT Film und Fernsehproduktion Sc: Uli Herrmann, Peter-Jürgen Boock, Connie Walther Cam: Birgit Gudjonsdottir Ed: Karen Lönneker Ad: Agi Dawaachu Sound: Bernhard Joest-Däberitz Mu: Rainer Oleak With: Franziska Petri, Ulrich Noethen, Tatja Seibt, Uwe Kockisch, Christoph Bach, Mehdi Nebbou, Rino Zepf, Eva Mattes Print/Sales: Sola Media GmbH

Schattenwelt Long Shadows Connie Walther

Long Shadows starts with the early release of the RAF terrorist Widmer, who has to find his way in a changed German society after 22 years in jail. Sentenced for the murder of a businessman and his gardener, he bears the burden of a heavy political heritage. He gets an apartment beside another client of his lawyer, the young Valerie, whose son has been taken into care because of a single case of abuse by his mother. The two do not seem to be more than average neighbours, but their first encounters quickly make one suspect a different scenario. Long Shadows is not another classic RAF drama, but focuses without idealisation or sentimentality on the scars left by the deeds of the RAF on the second and third-generation victims. The composed rhythm of the film hides the complex psychology of a young woman who wants to avenge the death of her father and the desire of a terrorist to see his son, with whom he has never had contact since his detention. The director increasingly allows their worlds and those of the lawyer and an investigator to become entangled, until there’s a new and violent climax with another innocent victim. Guilt, revenge and liberation acquire an under-cooled layer in Long Shadows that, told chronologically, keeps adopting new, unpredictable dimensions right up to the end.

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Connie WALTHER (1962, Germany) studied sociology and Spanish at the University of Marburg. She started out in the media biz as assistant to an advertising photographer. After that she studied at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. Her first featurelength TV movie The First Time (1996) was awarded best work from a German film school graduate. Since then, she has demonstrated her talents with various award-winning films and documentaries. Films: Sprechstunde (1986, short), La mémoire (1989, short), Börsday Blues (1992, short), Das erste Mal/The First Time (1996, TV), Hauptsache Leben/ Life Is the Main Thing (1998, TV), Tic Tac Toe und raus bist du (1999, short TV doc), Wie Feuer und Flamme/Never Mind the Wall (2001), Und Tschüss, Ihr Lieben (2003, TV), 12 heißt: Ich liebe dich/12 Means: I Love You (2007, TV), Mord in aller Unschuld (2008), Schattenwelt/ Long Schadows (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Spectrum

New Zealand, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 101 min, English/Maori Pro: Vincent Ward, Marg

Slater, Tainui Stephens Pro Comp: Forward Films Sc: Vincent Ward Cam: Leon Narbey, Adam Clark Ed: Chris Plummer Ad: Shayne Radford Mu: John Gibson, Jack Body With: Miriama Rangi, Rena

Owen, Temuera Morrison, Taungaroa Emile Print/Sales: New Zealand

Film Commission

Rain of the Children Vincent Ward

At the age of 21, the naive Vincent Ward met Maori Puhi (almost 80) who led a secluded life with her schizophrenic son Nikki in the outback of New Zealand. He stayed with them for nearly 2 years and used it as the subject for his award-winning observational documentary In Spring One Plants Alone. Thirty years later, he returns to get answers to all the questions still open about the woman who allowed him into her life, but remained silent about her painful past. Ward’s expedition quickly grows into a penetrating film version of the greater story of a Maori tribe that surrendered itself to the Tuhu prophet Rua Kenana, who compared their fate with that of the Jews. A turbulent and often violent story was to follow. Rua chose Puhi as the wife for one of his sons and at the age of 14 she had the first of her 14 children. Apart from the youngest, they all died or were taken away from her. Ward combines archive material from his first film with eyewitness accounts from relatives and tribal members still alive and detailed fictional scenes in which several dramatic moments from Puhi’s life are performed by professional actors. With R ain of Children, he is making up Puhi’s last will and testament. He comes to understand why Puhi and her tribe thought that a curse rested on her and he is finally able to let her go. (EH)

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Vincent WARD (1956, New Zealand) started writing and directing films at the age of eighteen. His were the first New Zealand films to be screened at Cannes Film Festival. What Dreams M ay Come (1998) was nominated for two Oscars and awarded the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Ward wrote the script of Alien 3 (1992) and produced The Last Samurai (2003). Films: A State of Siege (1978), In Spring One Plants Alone (1981, doc), Vigil (1984), The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey (1988), Map of the Human Heart (1993), What Dreams May Come (1998), River Queen (2005), Rain of the Children (2008, doc)

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China, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 103 min, Chinese Pro: Peng Shan Pro Comp: 90 Minutes

Film Studio Sc: Ying Liang, Peng Shan Cam: Li Rongsheng, Ying Liang Ed: Ying Liang Ad: Du Qingchun Sound: Ying Liang, Wang Long Mu: Lamb’s Funeral With: Luo Liang, Liu Xiaopei, Wang Qiang, Zhu Jing, Chen Xigui Print/Sales: TianlinFilm

Productions

Good Cats Ying Liang

YING Liang (1977, China) graduated from the Department of Directing at the Chongqing Film Academy and Beijing Normal University. He made several successful short films before making his first feature, Taking Father Home (2005). In 2006, he made The Other H alf, which is supported by the Hubert Bals Fund from the film festival Rotterdam. Good Cats (2008) is his third feature.

‘Look,’ said the always practical Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, ‘it’s a good cat as long as he catches mice; the colour of the cat is not important.’ That famous dictum explains the title of Good Cats. It also explains why half of China is convinced that the only task in life is to become as rich as possible. In his third film after the committed Taking Father Home and The Other Half, Ying Liang and his co-writer and producer Peng Shan use the form of black comedy and cheerful satire in order to show the consequences of Deng’s limited philosophy, such as corruption and fraud. The film is situated in their home province of Sichuan. There they present the young Luo Liang, who also does his best to get a place on the fast train to wealth: he has a job as a driver for a gangster annex project developer. His boss wants to confiscate a peasant village with the aid of corrupt politicians. Like a real Greek choir, the Chinese metal-gothic band Lamb’s Funeral puts in an unannounced visit with songs about hell and damnation. The unconventional juxtaposition of unparalleled self-enrichment and this unusual sung commentary gives Good Cats a hilarious, light-hearted undertone. Again made for a pittance, but the result is sublime.

Films: Bu shi gu shi/Something is Nothing (1999, short), Qie pian/Section (1999, short doc), Di tie/Subway (1999, short doc), Cong qian you zuo shan/ Asceticism (2000, short), Shuang chong sha shou/Double Sided Killer (2000, short), 3 fen 59 miau 24 zheng (2001, short), Tian tang de jing bi/The Golden Coin of Heaven (2001, short), Shan cheng ji shi/Stories in the Mountain City (2001, short), Zai jia de ri zi/The Days at Home (2001, short doc), Ying zi/Shadow (2002, short), Hui jia kan kan/The Missing House (2003, short), Bei ya zi de nan hai/Taking Father Home (2005), Ling yi ban/The Other Half (2006), Hao mao/Good Cats (2008)

Hao mao

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Spectrum

Czech Republic/Poland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 100 min, Czech/Polish Pro: Cestmír Kopecky, Kasia

Adamik, Roman Wikiel Pro Comp: Prvni verejnopravni,

Warsaw Pact Sc: Petr Zelenka Cam: Alexandr Surkala Ed: Vladimir Barak Ad: Barbara Ostapowitz Sound: Michael Holubec Mu: Jan A.P. Kaczmarek With: Ivan Trojan, David Novotny, Igor Chmela, Martin Mysicka, Radek Holub, Andrzej Mastalerz, Lenka Krobotova, Michaela Badinkova

Karamazovi The Karamazovs Petr Zelenka

The K aramazovs is a film experiment by the Czech screenplay writer and director Petr Zelenka (Tiger Award for Knoflíkari, 1997) based on the adaptation for the stage of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov by the leading figure of Czechoslovak Nouvelle Vague, Evald Schorm, and excellently performed by Czech actors from the Dejvicke Theatre in Prague. The story takes place in an industrial part of Poland. A group of people walk through a run-down steel mill; actors from a theatre in Prague, they have come here to take part in an alternative theatre festival. They are about to rehearse for a performance to be held in this space the next day. There are a few workers still on the job at the mill, the only living creatures left. They pay the actors little attention at first, pre-occupied with a personal tragedy: the day before, the son of a maintenance man fell from a catwalk and seriously injured his spine. Their interest is in his fate. Amid remnants of old machinery and old junk, the rehearsal begins... According to the director himself, he wanted to do the impossible: to capture the elusive character of theatre in film. The result is a unique and unusual adaptation the like of which has never been seen before. (LC)

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Print/Sales: John Riley www.karamazovi.cz

Petr ZELENKA (1967, Czechoslovakia) studied at the Prague film school FAMU and worked as scriptwriter and assistant director. He has written scripts for television comedies and made several documentaries. In 1998 his second feature, K noflíkari, won a Tiger Award in Rotterdam and four Czech Lions. Year of the Devil (2002) was very successful at Karlovy Vary Festival 2002. The K aramazovs premièred at the same festival in 2008, and took home the Jury Special Mention and FIPRESCI award. Films: Vsací zámek/Dangling Padlock (1993, TV), Collector of Votes (1995, doc), GENUS: Miroslav Plzák (1995, short), Mnága/Happy End (1996), Knoflíkari/Buttoners (1997), Powers (2000, TV short), Rok dabla/Year of the Devil (2002), Priheby obycejného sílenství/Wrong Side Up (2005), Karamazovi/The Karamazovs (2008)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

China, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 92 min, Mandarin Pro: Zhang Yuan Pro Comp: Beijing Good-Tiding

Cultural Development Co., Ltd. Sc: Li Xinyun, Jia Lisha, Li Xiaofeng Cam: Zhang Jian Ed: Wu Yixiang, Jacopo Quadri Ad: Pang Chao Sound: Shi Baofeng Mu: Andrea Guerra With: Li Xinyun, Li Xiaofeng Print/Sales: Beijing Good-Tiding

Cultural Development Co., Ltd.

ZHANG Yuan (China, 1963) graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Cinematography from the Beijing Film Academy. Zhang produced and directed his feature début M ama in 1990. He was selected by Time Magazine in 1994 as one of the hundred young world leaders for the next century. A year later he made Sons, which won the Tiger Award in Rotterdam.

Dada Dada’s Dance Zhang Yuan

Zhang Yuan, once a leader of the Chinese sixth generation with Beijing Bastards, here provides a sultry and dynamic portrait of the quest of a girl (the stunning Li Xinyun) for her biological mother. The young, idiosyncratic Dada is not happy with her mother’s new friend. He lives with them and what initially seems to be a temporary arrangement starts to acquire more permanent forms. When Dada talks to the man about this, he tells her that her mother is not her real mother. Upset and confused, Dada runs away, with the infatuated boy next door in her wake. Searching for the biological mother of an adolescent yearning for her own identity, the two increasingly have to look after each other. The journey becomes a series of attraction and rejection in which Dada does not have the time and patience for the emotions of her young admirer. When their odyssey turns out to be without success after a few humiliating encounters, she wants to go home again. The question is what she’ll find there. Dada’s Dance is the crazy story of an obstreperous young woman, but the director also portrays her through the eyes of the boy next door as a desirable, sensual promise, as a result of which the film has a surprising tenderness. Guerra’s music also gives her rite de passage a melancholy undertone with the prospect of unavoidable adulthood. (GT)

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Films: Mama/Mother (1991), Beijing zazhong/Beijing Bastards (1992), Guangchang/The Square (1994), Erzi/Sons (1995), Dong Gong Xi Gong/East Palace West Palace (1996), Ding Zi Hu/Demolition and Relocation (1998, short doc), Fengkuan yingyu/Crazy English (1999), Guonian hujia/Seventeen Years (1999), Jin Xing Xiaojie/Miss Jin Xing (2000, short doc), Hainan Hainan (2002), Wo ai ni/I Love You (2002), Lü cha/Green Tea (2002), Jiangjie/Jiang Jie (2002), Kan shang qu hen mei/Little Red Flowers (2006), Dada/Dada’s Dance (2008)

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speCtrum shorts

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Spectrum: Shorts

Address Unknown Where from and where to? The final destination is not as important as everything that happens in between.

Rendering Rome Sefer Memisoglu

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Sefer Memisoglu Pro Comp: Rijksakademie voor Beeld. Kunst Sc: Sefer Memisoglu Cam: Sefer Memisoglu Ed: Sefer Memisoglu Ad: Sefer Memisoglu Sound: Baris Erdogan, Volkan Memisoglu, Sefer Memisoglu With: Lilly Print/ Sales: Sefer Memisoglu

Like a monster spitting fire, he leaves sparks in a dreamy urban landscape by night. The maker manages to forge everything into one, in a subtle way with a minimum of aesthetic actions. We follow his trail. Sefer MEMISOGLU (1977, Turkey) studied at Marmara University in Istanbul and attended the art academy in painting. Since 1995, he has regularly taken part in group exhibitions and since 2001 he makes an installation once a year.

Von Gegenüber

From the Opposite Side Clemens Von Wedemeyer WORLD PREMIERE Germany, 2009, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 38 min, German Pro: Clemens Von Wedemeyer Cam: Frank Meyer Sound: Thomas Wallmann Print/ Sales: Clemens Von Wedemeyer

From the Opposite Side was shown to critical acclaim at Sculpture Projects Muenster as an installation. Shot with a hidden camera, from the perspective of someone wandering the streets, the 40-minute film loop tracks 24 hours in the life of the area around the railway station. Actors play passers-by, and passers-by thus become actors. Clemens VON WEDEMEYER (1974, Germany) studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Visual Arts of Leipzig. Many of his films are accompanied by a corresponding ‘making of’, explaining the conditions and the background of the production.

Realms Pin

Sebastian Buerkner United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Sebastian Buerkner Print/Sales: Sebastian Buerkner

Parallel universes… banal household objects and everyday scenes are rendered alien: bizarrely colourful and abstract, looking like moving 80s airbrush art. The worlds flux in and out of phase via shifting animated planes, revealing the full story. Sebastian BUERKNER (1975, Germany) was educated in fine art at the university of Halle (Saale) in Germany. Since 1997 he has participated in several international group and solo shows.

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Spectrum: Shorts

Domenica, 6 Aprile, ore 11:42 Sunday, 6th April, 11:42 a.m. Flatform

Italy, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, Italian Pro: Flatform Pro Comp: Flatform Sc: Flatform Cam: Andrea Gorla Ed: Maurizio Barcella Ad: Flatform Sound: Flatform With: Elisa Alfieri, Michele Argentati, Enrico Bartocci, Cristiano Ceriano, Giulia Cingolani Print/Sales: Flatform

There are many ways to look at a landscape. Sunday, 6 A pril, 11:42 a.m. consists of a single shot of the landscape in which links appear along virtual lines between the barely visible characters who inhabit the landscape. A narrative structure unfolds before our eyes. FLATFORM is a group of artists based in Milan, Italy. The collective was founded in 2006. The short film Sunday, 6th April , 11:42 a.m. (2008) was awarded a 2nd Best Video Award at the Oslo Screen Festival.

Fall

Paddy Jolley Ireland, 2008, b&w, video, 11 min, no dialogue Pro: Edwina Forkin Pro Comp: Zanzibar Films Sc: Paddy Jolley Cam: Denise Woods Ed: Bobby Good Sound: Brian Crosby Mu: Nick Seymour Print/Sales: Zanzibar Films

Tedium breeds its own reverie. Here becomes like there becomes like could be anywhere. This forms a coincidence with the generic: Repetitions erode sense of place and make buildings seem less substantial. The logic of these displacements causes things to come adrift and cause events of small destruction. Paddy JOLLEY (1964, Ireland) attended the National College of Art and Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York. His films have been screened and awarded at many film festivals.

Altered Space An ode to the immensity of overwhelming landscapes and also to a few huge artificial spaces.

Aanaatt Max Hattler

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE United Kingdom/Germany/Japan, 2008, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Max Hattler Sc: Max Hattler Cam: Max Hattler Ed: Max Hattler Ad: Max Hattler Mu: Jemapur Print/Sales: Max Hattler www.maxhattler.com

Deftly shifting shapes, colours and unrecognizable household objects glide across an ever-changing, multi-layered surface, lending A anaatt a curiously hypnotic warmth and flair. Hattler’s film is a stop-motion, fixed camera animation film commissioned for Japanese music producer Jemapur. Max HATTLER (1976, Germany) attended the Royal College of Art in London. He is a film maker and media artist based in London and Germany. His experimental short films and music videos have been shown and awarded worldwide.

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Cobra Mist

Emily Richardson INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Emily Richardson Cam: John Adderley Ed: Emily Richardson Sound: Chris Watson Mu: Benedict Drew Print/Sales: LUX www.emilyrichardson.org.uk

Cobra Mist explores the enigmatic relationship between the landscape of Orford Ness and traces of its unusual military history. It’s the location of the UK’s Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. The place has a sinister atmosphere, accentuated through Chris Watson and Benedict Drew’s superb soundtrack. Emily RICHARDSON (1971, UK) received an MFA in film making from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her films have been shown in galleries and at festivals internationally. Richrdson lives and works in London.

Night Sweat

Siegfried A. Fruhauf Austria, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Siegfried A. Fruhauf Cam: Siegfried A. Fruhauf Ed: Siegfried A. Fruhauf Sound: Jürgen Gruber, Christoph Ruschak Print/Sales: Sixpack Film www.filmvideo. at

A precarious sky at night, split by stroboscopic flashes of light and accompanied by snarling Wolf Eyes like stabs of noise. The elevated view of the moon colliding in a consciously brutal way with an arsenal of motifs usually more recognisable in horror and splatter movies. Salty! Siegfried A. FRUHAUF (1976, Austria) studied at the Art University of Linz. He experiments with video and film since 1993. The IFFR 2009 screens both his short film Mountain Trip (1999) and Night Sweat (2008).

Väylä

Oil Blue Elli Rintala Finland, 2008, colour, video, 25 min, no dialogue Pro: Arttu Nurmi Pro Comp: University Art & Design Helsinki Sc: Elli Rintala Cam: Mika Vartiainen Ed: Maria Palavamäki Sound: Tuomas Skopa Mu: Matti Strahlendorff Print/Sales: University Art & Design Helsinki

In Oil Blue, Elli Rintala shows the sea - not in the purest form, but in a tranquil harmony with the technology that surrounds, sails on and pollutes it. It is not people but the sea that brings giant oil tankers to the harbours and dictates the immense scale of the industry. This grandeur is portrayed magnificently. Elli RINTALA (1978, Finland) was educated in film and television studies in Turku and now studies documentary directing in Helsinki. Oil Blue (2008) is her second short documentary.

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Spectrum: Shorts

Matter in Motion Semiconductor

EUROPEAN PREMIERE United Kingdom/Italy, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Semiconductor Pro Comp: Semiconductor Films Cam: Semiconductor Ed: Semiconductor Ad: Semiconductor Sound: Semiconductor Mu: Semiconductor Print: LUX Sales: Semiconductor Films www.semiconductorfilms.com

The universe is at once in a constant state of integration and disintegration. In searching for an understanding of the material world around us, Semiconductor have restructured the city of Milan. Displaying attributes more familiar to the molecular world, its cityscapes have started to take on natural properties that reveal a city in pieces. Since 1999, UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, alias SEMICONDUCTOR, have worked with digital animation. Central to their work is the role of sound.

A Thousand Scapes Martijn van Boven

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, b&w, video, 14 min, no dialogue Pro: Martijn van Boven Sc: Martijn van Boven Cam: Martijn van Boven Ed: Martijn van Boven Sound: Martijn van Boven Mu: Martijn van Boven Print/Sales: Martijn van Boven www.474746.org

A trilogy investigating and shaping the fundamental rules of film: 1. The presence of time and space is put into motion. 2. It forms the space in picture and sound and investigates their relationship. 3. Editing. Deconstruction of time and space and the elements within it of picture and sound. Martijn van BOVEN (1977, Netherlands) attended the art academy in The Hague. He makes experimental films and computer art. His work is influenced by the abstract films of Stan Brakhage.

Cracking the Surface The reconstruction of a mysterious past.

Spectrology Kerry Laitala

EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, no dialogue Pro: Kerry Laitala Pro Comp: Mercurial Productions Sc: Kerry Laitala Cam: Kerry Laitala Ed: Kerry Laitala Ad: Kerry Laitala Sound: Kerry Laitala Mu: Kerry Laitala With: Kerry Laitala Print/Sales: Mercurial Productions

Laitala has worked for years on the series Muse of Cinema, which shows the magic that characterised the earliest years of the (proto)cinema. In Spectrology, ghosts are brought back to life in a colourful play with film emulsion. Kerry LAITALA (1969, USA) attended art school in Massachusetts and San Francisco. She makes installations, performances with live projection and short films. Her work has been screened and awarded internationally.

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Scope

Volker Schreiner Germany, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Volker Schreiner Ed: Volker Schreiner Sound: Volker Schreiner Print/ Sales: Volker Schreiner www.volkerschreiner.de

The main theme of Scope is the loudspeaker - on masts, in halls, on roofs, in cars, living rooms, in headphones and handsets, in stereo installations. Sound is heard through the speakers, as unclear parts of communication and dialogues, distorted music and announcements, transitional sounds and ultimately: noise. Volker SCHREINER (1957, Germany) studied art in Braunschweig. He makes objects and sculptures and since 1988 has made videos and installations as well.

The Undercover Man Rossella Biscotti

Italy/Switzerland, 2008, b&w, 16mm, 1:1.85, 30 min, English Pro: Rossella Biscotti Sc: Rossella Biscotti Cam: Antonello Emidi Ed: Toon de Zoeten Ad: Kevin van Braak, Rossella Biscotti Mu: Frame With: Joseph Pistone Print/Sales: Rossella Biscotti

This innovative form of storytelling in 16mm about shooting a film about recording an interrogation on tape. A man is interrogated about his experiences with the Mafia as an undercover cop. Abstract, conceptual and fragmentary reconstruction of his relationship with Sunny Black, in a story that comes about in the head of the viewer who primarily has to listen. Video artist Rossella BISCOTTI (1978, Italy) lives and works in Rotterdam. She attended the Academy of Fine Art in Naples. She has participated in several solo and group exhibitions across the world. Her short film The Sun Shines in Kiev (2006) won the Golden Cow, the first Prize at Gstaadfilm 2008.

The Diptherians Episode Two: The Rhythm That Forgets Itself Lewis Klahr

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, English Pro: Lewis Klahr Mu: Tom Recchion With: Kate Valk, Michael Stumm, Kevin O’Brien, Daniel Zippi, Henry Stram, Johann Carlo, Willem Dafoe Print/Sales: LUX

A decade ago, Klahr and several Wooster Group all-stars improvised their way ‘through a series of photo shoots trying to determine exactly what a “Diptherian” is. Here’s the first definition - an elliptical narrative of what could become an ongoing serial of feature length duration.’ (LK) Lewis KLAHR has been making films since 1977. He is known for his unique, idiosyncratic experimental films and cutout animations that have been shown widely in the United States and Europe. Besides that, since 1999, Klahr works as a scriptwriter.

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Spectrum: Shorts

Destination Finale Philip Widmann

Germany, 2008, colour, video, 9 min, no dialogue Pro: Gerd Roscher, Philip Widmann Pro Comp: HfbK Hamburg, Works Cited Ed: Philip Widmann Sound: Philip Widmann Print/Sales: Philip Widmann

An Asian man is most emphatically on screen, moving with obvious unease in unfamiliar surroundings. He looks like an anachronism, strolling around the décors of Europe in the 1960s. Destination Finale is an original 8mm amateur film, shot in 1964, found in Saigon in 2005 and edited by Widmann with a sense of drama. Philip WIDMANN was born in Berlin and now lives in Hamburg. He works on various film and theatre projects.

Second and Lee Kevin Jerome Everson

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, b&w, video, 3 min, English Pro: Kevin Jerome Everson, Madeleine Molyneaux Pro Comp: Trich Arts, Picture Palace Pictures Sc: Kevin Jerome Everson Ed: Kevin Jerome Everson Sound: Kevin Jerome Everson With: James Williams Print: Trich Arts Sales: Picture Palace Pictures

Kevin Jerome Everson’s films deal with the working class culture of Black Americans and other people of African descent. Second and Lee is a cautionary tale about when not to run. Kevin Jerome EVERSON (1965, USA) studied Fine Arts at the Universities of Ohio and Akron. In 2006, Everson was voted by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 most important new faces in independent cinema.

Disappearing Worlds Poetic visions of worlds that cease to exist or worlds that could come about.

Pole, klouny, yabloko... A Field, Clowns, Apple... Shota Gamisonia

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Russia, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, no dialogue Pro: Ivan Lopatin Pro Comp: Leevandia-entertainment Sc: Shota Gamisonia Cam: Andrey Debabov Ed: Sergey Gaziev Ad: Dmitry Malich, Daria Sintsova Sound: Eugeny Goryainov With: Vadim Utenkov, Alexander Gorelov, Yulia Makarova Print/Sales: Shota Gamisonia

This is a story of little Georgi, who lived by the sea and dreamed of becoming a sailor. The author ponders about the places where dreams take us and about the path little Georgi has to take. Shota GAMISONIA (1980, Georgia) grew up in Moscow, and graduated from the Theatre College. He is also educated at the School of Scriptwriters and Film Directors in Moscow. A Field, Clowns, Apple... (2008) is his first short film.

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Robinsons of Mantsinsaari Victor Asliuk

WORLD PREMIERE Germany/Belarus/Finland/Poland, 2009, colour, video, 57 min, Belarusian Pro: Heino Deckert, Kaarle Aho Pro Comp: MA.JA.DE. Filmproduction, Making Movies, Belsat TV Sc: Victor Asliuk, Volha Dashuk Cam: Ivan Gancharuk, Anatol Kazazaeu Ed: Victor Asliuk Sound: Uladimir Mirashnichenka, Uladzimir Kuchynski Print/Sales: Deckert Distribution

The film tells a story of two elderly men who are the last residents of what is now a Russian-controlled island in Lake Lagoda. Although they are the island’s sole inhabitants, they do not speak to each other. One is of Belarussian origin, the other of Finnish origin. And between the two, there is a long history. Occasionally, though, the younger of the two men climbs up on a hill during the evening to see whether the light is still burning at his neighbour’s house. With the wonderfully pristine nature and irreplaceable animals who fulfil the function of friends, the film is almost nostalgic for what will presently cease to exist. Victor ASLIUK is a director and scriptwriter. He graduated from the State University and the Academy of Arts in Belarus and directed more than 20 documentaries. He has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2003.

Gjakova 726

Blerta Basholli, Artan Korenica WORLD PREMIERE Albania, 2009, colour, video, 35 min, Albanian Pro: Armond Morina, Petrit Domi Pro Comp: Morina Films, Puntor’t Social Sc: Artan Korenica, Blerta Basholli, Armond Morina Cam: Artan Korenica Ed: Liridon Kabashi Ad: Petrit Bakalli Sound: Patrik Domi Mu: Trimor Dhomi With: Dielli Rizvanolli Print/ Sales: Morina Films

Composed and gripping narrative about the fall of a family in Kosovo. Told from the perspective of an adult man looking back on his youth, in which ethnic tensions emerged with increasing clarity. Commemorating a war crime in Kosovo in 1999, when many Kosovans and Albanians were killed by Serbians. Blerta BASHOLLI (1983, Kosovo) was educated in film directing in Kosovo. At this moment he studies film and television at NYU. He co-directed the short film Gjakova 726 (2009), which is based on true stories. Artan KORENICA (1978, Kosovo) studied camera and photography in Kosovo and New York. Gjakova 729 is his first film as director and scriptwriter.

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Dreaming Reality Three stories about childhood memories, lost innocence and a dreamed reality.

Murche (persisch: Ameisen) Murche (Persian: Ants) Behrooz Karamizade

Germany, 2008, colour, video, 20 min, German Pro: Manuel Challal Sc: Behrooz Karamizade Cam: Jacub Bejnarowicz Ed: Nari Kim Ad: Christine Prinzig Sound: Mahan Mobashery, Robin Porta Mu: Philipp Noll With: Narges Rashidi Print/Sales: Behrooz Karamizade

Reza and Laila, two immigrants in Germany, remember the time when they had to flee with their family as children. The harsh circumstances soon ensured they lost their innocence. Now they try to hold onto the beautiful things they also experienced, like the games they played. Dreamy, poetic fiction about memories of childhood. Behrooz KARAMIZADE (1978, Iran) has lived in Germany since 1985 and studied film directing. He is part of Filmgruppe NUR, a group of film makers from all over the world. The IFFR 2009 will screen his two short films Murche (Persian: Ants) (2008) and Packing (2009).

Now Wait for Last Year Rachel Reupke

United Kingdom/China, 2008, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: LUX

Fantastic architecture is booming in Beijing. Reupke plays with this fact by arranging an encounter between futurist and traditional styles in urban architecture. A possible perspective for the future or an imagined reality? Rachel REUPKE (1971, UK) uses TV commercials, film scenes, postcards, webcams and the paintings of Bruegel, Friedrich and Turner as a source of inspiration for her films, webcam films, film stills and photo series about landscape panoramas.

The Garden Ryan Philippi

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, colour, video, 40 min, English Pro: Ryan Philippi With: Brian Flavin, Theresa & Ralph Bernardi Print/Sales: Ryan Philippi

In California, I found myself living in the vast inland wasteland surrounding Los Angeles, precisely at a point where the accelerating expanse of suburban sprawl meets the Mojave Desert - a line of demarcation between the historical present and time immemorial. Here The Garden observes the inner life of an unnamed man working as menial labourer in tract housing developments, a cipher wrapped in profane temporal duration and yet dimly through this encasement, we can see the frail emergence of a struggle to manifest the full flower of human consciousness in a society which has, until now, found it much easier providing for our material needs than for our spiritual ones. (RP) Ryan PHILIPPI (1980, USA) is a film maker and sound artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film/Video from the art academy in California.

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Ghost Ship in a Storm Only when the dust cloud, the mist, the smoke has risen, does it become apparent where we are; and then we slowly get taken along by the flow.

This Is Not an Anchor, This Boat Is Not an Anchor Marianna Milhorat

Canada, 2007, colour/b&w, video, 11 min, no dialogue Pro: Marianna Milhorat Pro Comp: Concordia University Cam: Tara Arnst, Marianna Milhorat Ed: Marianna Milhorat Sound: Marianna Milhorat, Tim Horlor Print/ Sales: Marianna Milhorat

An internal journey through a magical and mysterious landscape, where romanticism is continuously disrupted by an unnatural and anxious treatment of the subject matter, and nothing can be anticipated. (MM) Marianna MILHORAT (1983, Canada) was educated in film at the Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. She is a Montréal and Vermont-based film maker.

Pinhole Flames Amy Schwartz

Canada, 2007, colour, video, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: Amy Schwartz Cam: Amy Schwartz Mu: Graham Latham, Keith Scott Print/ Sales: Amy Schwartz

Pure light captured with pinhole photography on the celluloid of a roll of Super-8 film. Amy SCHWARTZ is a film maker based in Montréal, Canada.

Our Voices Are Mute S.J. Ramir

New Zealand, 2008, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: S.J. Ramir Sc: S.J. Ramir Cam: S.J. Ramir Ed: S.J. Ramir Mu: S.J. Ramir Print/ Sales: S.J. Ramir www.ramirfilms.co.nz

Anonymous silhouettes move slowly through visually distorted landscapes, confronting symbolic images that challenge the viewer’s idea of ‘journeys’; what they are, and how they affect us. S.J. RAMIR (1971, New Zealand) is a video artist based in Melbourne, Australia.

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Departure S.J. Ramir

New Zealand, 2007, colour, video, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: S.J. Ramir Sc: S.J. Ramir Cam: S.J. Ramir Ed: S.J. Ramir Mu: S.J. Ramir Print/ Sales: S.J. Ramir www.ramirfilms.co.nz

In Departure, S.J. Ramir explores both emotional and geographical landscapes of isolation. Using visual distortion as a tool, and accompanied by uneasy sound tracks, he creates a world where emptiness and mystery permeate from each frame. S.J. RAMIR (1971, New Zealand) is a video artist based in Melbourne, Australia.

Buoy

Cho Seoungho WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Kim Namsik Pro Comp: Studio 90125 Mu: Stephen Vitiello Sales: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Distr. NL: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst

While vertically, time accumulates as strata, horizontally, space condenses in layers of images on their own axis. Through the hot desert air, one visually conjures the floating ‘drilled cores’ which not only represent the depth of the strata but also follow the movement of the video camera through the perpendicular axis. CHO Seoungho (1959, Korea) lives and works in New York City. He studied Graphic Arts and Video Art. Cho’s work has been included in numerous international festivals and exhibitions.

Dust

Chae Hun Jeong INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE South Korea, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Chae Hun Jeong Cam: Chae Hun Jeong Ed: Chae Hun Jeong Ad: Chae Hun Jeong Sound: Chae Hun Jeong Mu: Chae Hun Jeong Print/Sales: Chae Hun Jeong

Dust and vulnerable film material are not usually friends. In Dust, the photographed images of dusty spots and the actual surface of the film become one layered image. A film that becomes richer in structure every time it is run through the film projector. CHAE Hun Jeong is one of the film makers who work at Space cell, a lab for handmade film in Seoul, South Korea. She is interested in image and sound in themselves.

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The Seasons Makino Takashi

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Japan, 2008, colour, video, 30 min, no dialogue Pro: Makino Takashi Sc: Makino Takashi Cam: Makino Takashi Ed: Makino Takashi Ad: Makino Takashi Sound: Jim O’Rourke Mu: Jim O’Rourke Print/Sales: Makino Takashi

The Seasons can be regarded as the third part of the series which also includes No is E and Elements of Nothing (both screened at the IFFR 2008). Makino Takashi works in an almost abstract visual idiom that continually engages in dialogue with the noise-oriented music of Jim O’Rourke. A film like a permanent flux more reminiscent of a swelling river more than a film. MAKINO Takashi (1978, Tokyo) studied at the Nippon University. He belongs to the new generation of Japanese experimental film makers. In 2008 he was honoured at the Rotterdam film festival in the section Short Profile.

Hidden Futures The magic world on the border of true stories and science fiction.

Kempinski Neil Beloufa

France, 2007, colour, video, 14 min, French Pro: Neil Beloufa Cam: Neil Beloufa, Balthazar Auxietre Ed: Neil Beloufa Sound: Gregoire Bourdeil, Maya Palma Mu: Gregoire Bourdeil With: Tiecoura N’Daou, Sedou Cisse, Ibrahim Konate, Amadou Diarra Sales: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Distr. NL: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst

K empinski is a mystical and animist place. People emerge from the dark, holding fluorescent lamps; they speak about a magical world. Their testimonies spark confusion and contradiction: a second viewing is necessary to fully understand what´s going on in this unique blend of fiction (science fiction) and ‘real’ documentary. Algerian and French Neil BELOUFA (1965, France) attended art school in Paris, New York and Valencia. He works with video and makes art performances and sculptures. Kempinski (2007) is his first short film.

Ottica Zero Maja Borg

United Kingdom/Sweden, 2007, colour/b&w, video, 13 min, English Pro: Jason Hall, Noe Mendelle Sc: Maja Borg Cam: Maja Borg Ed: Maja Borg Ad: Maja Borg Sound: Martin Johnson Mu: Mario Adamson With: N.E.M., Jacque Fresco Print/Sales: Filmform www.majaborg.com

After her breakthrough, Italian actress Nadya Cazan disappeared. With TV and film offers flooding in, she refused to accept the competitive and superficial values of the society they represent. Ottica Zero follows Nadya on her quest to find an alternative way of living; 91-year-old social innovator and futurist Jacques Fresco proposes a solution. Maja BORG (1982, Sweden) attended film school in Edinburgh. She makes documentary, fictional and experimental films that challenge both social and cinematic conventions.

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Proposal, for an Unmade Film (Set in the Future) Graham Ellard, Stephen Johnstone

United Kingdom, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 21 min, English Sound: Charles Hugall Mu: Tim Howle Print/Sales: LUX www.ellardjohnstone.com

This film seems assembled from pre-production footage for a low-budget sf-film/architectural documentary, developed this far, abandoned, and only later discovered again. The suggested narrative is that of a visitor attempting to create a paradise on earth in which volcanic bubbles become time capsules and buildings become space ships. Graham ELLARD (1960, UK) has worked in collaboration with Stephen JOHNSTONE (1958, UK) since 1993. Their work, including film, large scale video installation, architectural light-works and drawings, has been shown worldwide in galleries and museums.

Alpha

Miguel Fonseca Portugal, 2008, colour, 35mm, 28 min, Portuguese/Japanese Pro: Sandro Aguilar, Luis Urbano Pro Comp: O Som e a Fúria Sc: Miguel Fonseca Cam: Mário Castanheira Ed: Sandro Aguilar Ad: Bruno Duarte Sound: António Pedro Figueiredo With: João Nicolau, Sara Carinhas, Manuel Mesquita Print/ Sales: Agencia - Portuguese Short Film Agency

Before shipping the product to the customer, a manufacturer of androids develops a final quality control test, supervised by a technician, where skills such as learning the customer’s language are improved. This part of the process invariably occurs in a closed environment, usually a house whose key characteristics are similar to those of the customer’s home. Alpha and Beta are an android couple only a few weeks away from being shipped to their future owners in Japan. A prize-winner at Portugal’s Festival de Cinema Luso-Brasileiro de Santa Maria da Feira, Alpha is a disarmingly beautiful, intriguing first film from director Miguel Fonseca. Miguel FONSECA (1973, Portugal) studied philosophy at the University of Lisbon. Since 2001 he has worked at the production company O Som e a Fúria. With the short film Alpha (2008) he makes his début as a director.

Hidden Japanese Couples Japan is supposedly a society where much remains hidden in intimate life. See here just how wrong that image is. These films hide nothing.

Watashi no sukina sougen My Favourite Grassy Plain Oguchi Yoko

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Japan, 2008, colour, video, 20 min, Japanese Pro: Oguchi Yoko Print/Sales: Image Forum

Oguchi Yoko belongs to that special category of film makers for whom life, work, documentary and fiction are basically one and the same thing. She is her film, her films are her. There is one significant theme that keeps returning, her masochistic tendencies. Here she returns to a relationship with someone who deceived her. A true story, of course. OGUCHI Yoko (Japan, 1964) was filming on 8mm film from the age of nineteen. In the beginning, her work was about the denial of the female body and the feeling of femininity. Later she focused on themes like love, desire and miscommunication.

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Shiawase

Married Couple Tokumoto Naoyuk INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Japan, 2008, colour, video, 21 min, Japanese Print/Sales: Image Forum

There is a narrator. A me. When his elder brother disappears, the me moves in with his sister-in-law. She is partially blind and needs help. He takes over the role of his brother in every respect. He puts on his ring. He takes his wife. The film won the Terayama Prize of the Japanese experimental Image Forum Festival 2008.

The Hiding Fukui Shozin

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Japan, 2008, colour, video, 40 min, Japanese Pro: Fukui Shozin Pro Comp: Honekoubou Sc: Fukui Shozin Cam: Kageyama Shu Ed: Fukui Shozin Ad: Honekoubou Sound: Fukui Shozin Mu: Fukui Shozin With: Mizote Makiko, Akitsu Neo, Tomori Eitarou Print: Fukui Shozin Sales: Honekoubou www.honekoubou.jp

Fukui Shozin was in Rotterdam long ago, with the instant cult classic Pinocchio –964. Almost 20 years later, it’s apparent he hasn’t lost any of his strange vitality. A woman pursued by her ex-boyfriend hides in a new apartment. There she is found by a mistress with telepathic gifts. A nightmare - and so is the form. Like a feverish dream. The maker points out the importance of psychedelic colours in order to portray the mood of the woman, and also of the noise-like sound. And keep an eye on the woman’s breathing. A film that certainly doesn’t want to comfort. And in that it is successful. Worrying. FUKUI Shozin is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was educated at the Tokyo Polytechnic University at the Faculty of Engineering. His first full-length film Pinocchio –964 (1991) is considered important by many because of its Japanese Cyberpunk genre.

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Hungarian Encounters Two strong and unusual experiments from Hungary, a pre-eminent film nation.

Átváltozás Metamorphosis Sándor Kardos

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Hungary, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 42 min, Hungarian Pro: Andras Muhi Pro Comp: Inforg Studio Sc: Sándor Kardos Cam: Sándor Kardos Ed: Péter Politzer Sound: Rudolf Várhegyi With: György Balogh, Éva Bata, Attila Jánosi, Petra Körösi Print: Magyar Filmunio Sales: Inforg Studio

A special technical solution prompted the idea to make a film out of Franz Kafka’s short story Metamorphosis. This device consists of a camera comprised of 6 objectives with CCD chips arranged behind them which map the space in 360 degrees; the 6 separate images are then formed into a cohesive sphere with the help of a computer program. Taking into account the fact that the workings of this device resemble the eyes of an insect in many ways, the authors attempted to adapt Kafka’s story from an insect’s - Gregor’s - subjective point of view from beginning to end. Sándor KARDOS (1944, Hungary) has been working as a film maker since 1979. He graduated in Hungarian Literature/Linguistics and Cultural Management and later in Cinematography. His short Slitfilm (2005) was awarded Best Experimental Short at the 36th Hungarian Film Week.

Csillogas

Sparkle Benedek Fliegauf INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Hungary, 2008, colour, video, 59 min, Hungarian Pro: Andras Muhi, Monika Mecs, Erno Mesterhazi Pro Comp: Inforg Studio, Dialog Filmstudio Sc: Benedek Fliegauf Cam: Zoltán Lovasi Ed: Ágnes Mógor Ad: Linda Mester Sound: Tamás Beke Mu: Raptors’ Kollektíva With: Péter Nádas, László Dobronai, Judit Gesztelyi Nagy Print: Magyar Filmunio Sales: Magyar Filmunio, Inforg Studio

Three conversations about death and rebirth, about the chance of enlightenment, and about the final reality: Péter Nádas, László Dobronai and Judit Gesztelyi Nagy. The Hungarian director Benedek Fliegauf, known mainly for his highly stylised film Dealer and his latest film Milky Way - an avant-garde poetic movie in nine sketches - brings another creative surprise to his fans with his latest film Sparkle, where three people talk straight into the camera with honesty and detail about things that fascinate us all. Even though Benedek FLIEGAUF (1974, Hungary) never attended film school, he is a leading figure of the new generation of Hungarian film makers. Fliegauf’s first feature Forest (2003) was his international breakthrough. Sparkle (2008) is his third short documentary.

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Identify Yourself Four films about singularity; in looking for the national Japanese identity or in the confrontation between being Jewish in the United States and in the Promised Land.

Telethon

Kevin Jerome Everson WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, colour/b&w, video, 5 min, English Pro: Kevin Jerome Everson, Madeleine Molyneaux Pro Comp: Trich Arts, Picture Palace Pictures Sc: Kevin Jerome Everson Cam: Kevin Jerome Everson Ed: Kevin Jerome Everson Ad: Kevin Jerome Everson Sound: Kevin Jerome Everson Mu: Julie Christansen, Esosa Edosomwan With: Esosa Edosomwan, Ayo Coleman Print: Trich Arts Sales: Picture Palace Pictures

Kevin Jerome Everson’s films and artwork are about responding to daily materials, conditions, tasks and gestures of people of African descent. Telethon is about two talented acts waiting to perform in Sammy Davis Jr.’s ill-fated 1973 telethon for highway safety. Kevin Jerome EVERSON (1965, USA) studied Fine Arts at the Universities of Ohio and Akron. In 2006, Everson was voted by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 most important new faces in independent cinema.

SMS

Yahya Alabdallah EUROPEAN PREMIERE Jordan/France, 2008, colour, video, 18 min, no dialogue Pro: Yahya Alabdallah Pro Comp: ME Films Sc: Yahya Alabdallah Cam: Abulsalam Akkad Ed: Iyad Hamam Ad: Jean-Nicolas Risler Sound: Jean-Nicolas Risler With: Mouusa Satary Print/Sales: ME Films

A silent film about a young man who tries to come into contact with women in several scenes, in vain. An unusual, sober fiction from Jordan about loneliness in which a lot is told with very few means. Yahya ALABDALLAH (1978, Libya) holds a master’s degree from Paris in film directing and producing. He is based in Amman, Jordan, and works as a writer, director and producer.

Blond Ambition Nitadori Miki

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA/Japan/France, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 4 min, English/Japanese/French Pro: Catherine Aflalo Pro Comp: Onciale Cam: Nitadori Miki Ed: Nitadori Miki Sound: Nitadori Miki Mu: Nood With: Seki Satomi, Doi Miwa, Nitadori Miki Print/ Sales: Onciale

How can we define Japan? My national identity was formed amongst nonJapanese people who told me that I was Japanese. Laughter is what I identify as being Japanese. We laugh not because it is funny but as a physical outlet, a process of mentally accepting what has happened and what is happening now. (NM) Japanese artist NITADORI Miki (1971, Japan) moved during her childhood to Thailand, Hawaii and Europe. She now lives in Paris. With the short documentary Blond Ambition (2008) she makes her début as a film maker.

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Skim Milk & Soft Wax Dani Leventhal

WORLD PREMIERE Israel/Palestine/USA, 2009, colour/b&w, video, 44 min, English/Hebrew Pro: Dani Leventhal Cam: Dani Leventhal Ed: Dani Leventhal Print/Sales: Video Data Bank

The work explores Jewish identity from the point of view of the American film maker, who was raised to believe that Israel is the land of milk and honey. However, the reality of her personal experiences collides with that Edenic image. Instead, the state of Israel is complex, shape-shifting and often disappointing. Therefore: skim milk, a substance of reduced nutritional value, but which still lives in the name of milk. And wax, the stuff of religious offerings, which is always ready to change its shape. (DL) Dani LEVENTHAL (1972, USA) studied sculpture in Chicago and is now studying film and video at Bard College.

Indonesian Looks at Girls, Pigs and Madmen Indonesia has many prohibitions and taboos. Indonesia also has many courageous film makers who ignore them. And they have humour.

Julieland Tintin Wulia

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Australia, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, English Pro: Tintin Wulia Pro Comp: Trax Sc: Julie Le, Tintin Wulia Cam: Stuart Liddell, Tintin Wulia Ed: Tintin Wulia Ad: Tintin Wulia Sound: Tintin Wulia With: Julie Le Print/ Sales: Tintin Wulia

An impression of Preston Market in Melbourne, Australia. Not just an impression, but one seen through the eyes of Julie, a precocious, talkative, imaginative girl aged eight who grew up on the market. And it’s not just any portrait, but one seen through the eyes of a playful Indonesian film maker who may recognise herself in Julie. Tintin WULIA (1972, Indonesia) is educated in music and worked as an architect, film composer and music teacher. She is a film and documentary maker and works for media-art related events. Wulia is also the programmer of the Minikino Short Film Festival.

Heaven for Insanity Dria Soetomo

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Indonesia, 2008, colour, video, 32 min, Indonesian Pro: Orlow Seunke Pro Comp: ECCO Films Indonesia Cam: Ismail Fahmi Lubis Ed: Puck Goossen Sound: Decky Nelwan Print/Sales: ECCO Films Indonesia

A short and powerful documentary, made in a workshop for young film makers. That is not obvious. The form is self-assured, the substance is more than mature. A heart-rending portrait of a madhouse (you really can’t call it a psychiatric institution) that makes you wonder if it isn’t fiction. Dria SOETOMO studied industrial design at the Institute of Technology in Surabaya. After her graduation she worked for several TV stations. Broadcast journalism subsequently led to her interest in documentary film making.

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Langkah kecil pagi Small Step of Morning Kusuma Widjaja Putu

WORLD PREMIERE Indonesia, 2009, colour, video, 45 min, Indonesian/ Bahasa Pro: Chandra Berata Made Pro Comp: Sang Karsa Production Sc: Kusuma Widjaja Putu Cam: Kusuma Widjaja Putu Ed: Kusuma Widjaja Putu Ad: Seger Sunyoto, Kusuma Widjaja Putu Sound: Mustaquim Mu: Rumah Kita band With: I Ketut Norsy, Komang Fitri, I Ngurah Banten Print: Kusuma Widjaja Putu Sales: Sang Karsa Production

The Indonesian film maker trained in Holland returned after many years of living and working in Jakarta to the village of his birth, Celuk Buluh in northern Bali. A rural spot with its own customs. There he portrayed the woman Norsy and her daughter Fitry. Norsy has a male pig she takes round to customers who want to impregnate their female pigs. The dedication and dexterity with which Norsy helps the animals copulate ensure that all viewers feel some vicarious sense of shame. For Islamic Indonesians (sex is unclean and so are pigs, so what should one think about pigs having sex), it must be a strange sight. After graduating from the Dutch Film School in Amsterdam in 1994, Kusuma Widjaja PUTU worked at a TV station in Jakarta until 2006. He has been an assistant of big names in Indonesian cinema such as Garin Nogroho and Erros Djarot.

Inescapable Inevitability In the relative peace of the domestic environment, everything seems to point to the completion of the inevitable.

Fences José Vonk

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Astrid Wortelboer, José Vonk Pro Comp: H & W Company, De Dames Sc: José Vonk Cam: José Vonk Ed: José Vonk Ad: José Vonk Sound: Hans Muller, José Vonk Mu: Hans Muller Sales: Filmbank Distr. NL: Filmbank

Fences is a short abstract handmade film referring to the ‘fence phenomenon’, which was first observed in 1821 by the Scottish publisher John Murray: the spokes of a wheel which are viewed in motion through a series of vertical bars assume the optical illusion of a curvature of the spokes. José VONK (1949) attended art academy in Amsterdam and attended various workshops in animation in the Netherlands, the UK and Japan. In 1977 she founded an animation studio together with Helga Kos.

Garden/ing Eriko Sonoda

Japan, 2007, b&w, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Eriko Sonoda Sc: Eriko Sonoda Cam: Eriko Sonoda Ed: Eriko Sonoda Sound: Eriko Sonoda Print/Sales: Eriko Sonoda

An examination of the cinematographic space from within and without and its representation. A continuously repeating camera movement like a mantra, leading to new observations and insights. Eriko SONODA (1981, Japan) studied at the private Tama Art University in Tokyo. He makes films, videos, photographs, installations and music. His work has been shown at several festivals worldwide.

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You Have to Wait, Anyway Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2007, colour, video, 22 min, Thai Pro: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit Sc: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit Cam: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit Ed: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit Sound: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit With: Thitimon Mongkolsawas, Yanin Pongsuwan Print/ Sales: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit http://nawee4.exteen.com

Waiting. We are more often confronted with that outside the film auditorium than within. When time in the film runs parallel to real time, as in this film, the result is an intensifying field of tension. Watching and listening, the spectator becomes one with the situation that evokes a powerful identification with one of the two characters. Nawapol THAMRONGRATTANARIT (1984, Thailand) attended art school in Thailand. He is a director of short films and a freelance writer, film journalist, critic and screenwriter. He is co-founder of Third Class Citizen, a Thai film and video activist group.

Dropping Furniture Harald Hund, Paul Horn

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Austria, 2008, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Harald Hund, Paul Horn Pro Comp: Hund & Horn Cam: Ludwig Löckinger, Oliver Schneider Ad: Paul Horn, Moritz Muhrhofer Sound: Andreas Hamza Print/ Sales: Sixpack Film www.filmvideo.at

The camera is focused on two fairly dark and empty rooms. A serene silence predominates. This is suddenly disrupted by two pieces of furniture that descend from off-screen in slow motion in the rear room and fall apart on the floor. It turns out to be the starting shot for a destructive choreography. Harald HUND (1967, Austria) studied art and new media in Vienna. He makes music videos and short animation films. Paul HORN (1966, Austria) studied painting and scenography in Vienna and works as a video artist. Since 2002, he has been collaborating often with Harald Hund.

Running Sushi

Mara Mattuschka, Chris Haring Austria, 2008, colour, video, 28 min, German/English Pro: Mara Mattuschka, Chris Haring Sc: Chris Haring Cam: Sepp Nermuth Ed: Mara Mattuschka Sound: Andreas Berger (Glim) With: Stephanie Cumming, Johnny Schoofs Print/Sales: Sixpack Film www.filmvideo.at

We enter a constructed setting, against the background of a video wall that suggests we are in a restaurant. A Japanese restaurant, as can be concluded from the conveyor belt which forms part of the fittings. Running Sushi consists of a casual conversation between Steffi and Johnny in a sushi restaurant, while the parallel world of thoughts and sensations of both characters takes the stage. Each new dish has major consequences in the grotesque dream reality. Mara MATTUSCHKA (1959, Bulgaria) received a Golden Circle for Higher Mathematics in 1975. She studied ethnology, linguistics, painting and animation film. Chris HARING (1970, Austria) studied psychology and attended music and dance courses in New York and Cunningham. He teaches dance in Austria and Germany.

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Lasting Encounters That one encounter that will change the rest of life.

Roma

Elisa Miller Encinas INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Mexico, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 26 min, Spanish Pro: Ángeles Castro Pro Comp: Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica Sc: Elisa Miller Cam: Christian Riviera, María Jose Secco Ed: Ares Botanch Ad: Nicolas Celis Sound: Federico Schmucler With: Jailme Estrada, Marcela Cuevas Print/ Sales: Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica

A young woman takes an illegal ride on a train that stops at the factory, where she arrives tired, dirty and hungry and creeps inside. A worker sees her and helps her. Don’t expect any major dramatic twists in this mid-length short. The motive of the man is only: a smile. Moving, restrained fiction about humanity. Elisa MILLER ENCINAS was born, lives and works in Mexico City. She studied English literature and film directing. In 2007 she won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival for her student film Watching it R ain (2006).

Almost

Michal Kaphra INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Israel, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 59 min, Hebrew Pro: Deva Melman Pro Comp: Independent Sc: Michal Kaphra Cam: Michal Kaphra Ed: Uval Orr Sound: Alex Claude Print/Sales: Michal Kaphra

An intimate and poetic portrait of the film maker. During shooting in Uganda, she meets a man and stays in touch by e-mail after a night of love. She falls in love and visits him again. The film portrays both the romance of a distant love and the banal issues of arrival and departure. In fragments that are also visually very independent, the story unfolds, casually leaning towards an almost tragic ending. Michal KAPHRA graduated from Tel Aviv University in film and television and in 1990 she was given a grant at NYU in communication and television. She is a director of documentaries. All of her films have been screened on Israeli TV.

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Latin Shorts An unusual mix of moving folk tales from Mexico and Chile, but also from the lesser-known film nations Paraguay and Bolivia.

El hombre muerto

The Dead Man Julián Goyoaga, Germán Tejeira WORLD PREMIERE Uruguay, 2009, b&w, video, 10 min, Spanish Pro: Julián Goyoaga, Germán Tejeira Pro Comp: Rain Dogs Cine Sc: Julián Goyoaga, bases on the short story by Horacio Quiroga Cam: Pedro Luque Ed: Germán Tejeira, Julián Goyoaga Ad: Alfredo Soderguit Sound: Nandy Cabrera Mu: Bruno Boselli, Nandy Cabrera With: Roberto Suárez Print/Sales: Rain Dogs Cine www.raindogscine.com

A beautiful atmospheric black-and-white film version of a story by Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937, Uruguay) about a labourer who, as every day, works on his banana plantation but falls on his own machete. As he dies, he observes his surroundings with supernatural precision. Julián GOYOAGA (1970, Uruguay) and Germán TEJEIRA (1982, Uruguay) were both educated in film direction at the film school in Uruguay. They have written and directed several short films. In 2004 they founded the independent film production company Rain Dogs together.

Corredores de verano Summer Runners Ana Guevara, Leticia Jorge

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Uruguay, 2008, colour, video, 13 min, no dialogue Pro: Agustina Chiarino Pro Comp: Control Z Films Sc: Ana Guevara, Leticia Jorge Cam: Arauco Hernendez Ed: Ana Guevara, Leticia Jorge Ad: Mariana Urriza Sound: Daniel Yafalian Mu: Daniel Yafalian, Dante Inferno With: Felipe Gil, Victoria Verdie, Rodrigo Arcos Print/Sales: Control Z Films

Summer Runners is a beautifully shot short film about the friendship between a girl and two boys who spend their evenings roaming the streets. They circle around each other and the changing tension between them is tangible. They do not speak. When she finally seems to choose one of the boys, the inevitable question ensues: how far does the ‘innocent’ friendship go? Ana GUEVARA and Leticia JORGE were educated in Media Studies at the Catholic University in Uruguay. They started creating films together in 2004. Summer Runners (2008) is their second short film.

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Entrevista con la tierra Interview with the Earth Nicolás Pereda

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Mexico, 2008, colour, video, 18 min, Spanish/Nahuatl Pro: Nicolás Pereda Pro Comp: En Chinga Films Sc: Nicolás Pereda Cam: Sebastián Hiriart Ed: Nicolás Pereda Ad: Nicolás Pereda Sound: Nicolás Pereda Mu: Marcela Rodríguez With: Amalio Miranda, Nico Miranda Print/Sales: En Chinga Films

A little boy died climbing a mountain with his friend. This short gripping documentary shows how differently his mother and his friend cope with his death. About superstition, guilt and atonement in an Indian village somewhere deep in Mexico. Nicolás PEREDA’s (1982, Mexico) début Where Are Their Stories? (2007) immediately placed him in the rank of the Mexican film makers Carlos Reygadas and Alejandro González Iñárritu. The film was screened at the LA Film Festival 2008. Interview with the Earth (2008) is the first short film Pereda wrote and directed.

Ahendu nde sapukai I Hear Your Scream Pablo Lamar

Argentina/Paraguay, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 15 min, no dialogue Pro: Maria Marta Antin Pro Comp: Universidad del Cine Sc: Pablo Lamar Cam: Andrés Jordan Ed: Pablo Paniagua Ad: Pablo Lamar Sound: Ana Prieto Mu: Daniela Jahari, Guillermo Sequera With: Virgilio Rolón Print/Sales: Universidad del Cine

For thirty years, not a single film emerged from Paraguay, until the last three years. And then with quality. Such as this fiction film with partly realistic and partly abstract observations of a procession, filmed in the light of evening. The spectator is present to witness this event. The film provides the viewer with space to creatively interpret the world. Pablo LAMAR (1984, Paraguay) studied film directing at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. I Hear Your Scream (2008) is the first short film he wrote and directed.

Chi si ferma é perduto The One Who Stops Is Lost Giacomo Cesari

WORLD PREMIERE Bolivia/Italy, 2009, colour, video, 25 min, Spanish Pro: Giacomo Cesari, Donald Ranvaud Pro Comp: Bee Dust Sc: Giacomo Cesari Cam: John Fitzgerald Ed: Giacomo Cesari Ad: Judy Rojas Sound: Marco Fagotti Mu: Marco Fagotti, Alejandra Lanza With: Diego Ortiz, Daniel Larrazabal Print/ Sales: Bee Dust www.giacomocesari.com

An unusual short film from Bolivia about a shoeshine boy who has no left foot. Impressed by the words of a mysterious man, he goes looking for his chopped off left foot in the mountains of Bolivia. With stunningly beautiful shots from a country virtually without a film industry. Giacomo CESARI has been making short films since his school years in Italy. He attended film school in Rome and graduated with a specialisation in circus rituals and shows. He is a director, editor, cinematographer and reporter and has been involved in graphic, music and theatre productions.

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Love Lost Memories of the bond that seemed so strong that it would last for ever. All that’s left is the yearning.

Magnetic Sleep (Episode #1) Janie Geiser

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, b&w, video, 7 min, English Pro: Janie Geiser Sound: Janie Geiser, Leon Rothenberg Mu: Tom Recchion With: Salley May, John Kelly Print/Sales: Janie Geiser

‘Magnetic sleep’ is a term used in the 19th century for hypnosis. For this spherical story about the vicissitudes of a female hypnotist, Janie Geiser uses a whole series of techniques. Alongside collage animations with integrated actors and re-photographed scenes, she painted the film material in order to create her stunning and dreamy visual idiom. Janie GEISER (1957, USA) is an internationally recognized filmmaker and visual/theater artist. Geiser is one of the pioneers of American avant-garde puppet theatre. She integrates puppets and other objects with live performers and film.

West Point

Laurence Rebouillon WORLD PREMIERE France, 2009, colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.37, 57 min, French Pro: Philippe Lebret Pro Comp: Les Productions Aléatoires Sc: Laurence Rebouillon Cam: Laurence Rebouillon, Michel Dunan Ed: Agathe Dreyfus, Laurence Rebouillon Sound: Pierre Armand Mu: Patrice de Benedetti With: Isabelle Ronayette, Bernard Cerf, Agnès Pontier, Johan Leysen, Tom Benracassa Print/Sales: Les Productions Aléatoires

West Point is the most Western point of the continent of Europe in Portugal, the Cabo da rocha. Brother and sister look back on their childhood as they narrate in voice-over. After the violent death of their parents, they were split up and grew up in different places. Their mother turns out to have been a Portuguese political refugee and a thriller story develops (with a small role for the Flemish actor Johan Leysen). Elegant, layered narrative essay shot in Super-8 and 16mm in which childhood, loss, love and melancholy pass by. A family drama, emigration story and detective all in one . Laurence REBOUILLON (1966, France) works e.g. as a director, producer, scriptwriter, editor and cinematographer.

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Malaysian Escapes Women and children first. They look as if they want to escape. Just why remains below the surface. But it’s all about a cinema of nuances.

Eyefinger

Margaret Bong EUROPEAN PREMIERE Malaysia, 2008, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Margaret Bong, Gatsby Cheah Pro Comp: Joonloo Studio Sdn Bhd, Commercial Hub, Malaysian National Film Development Corporation Sc: Margaret Bong Cam: Nick Lee Pak Leong Ed: Jack Ng Ad: Rajendra Sound: Tatan Mu: Epip Nagro With: Joshephine Koo Lee Imm, Walter Chai, Chu Yee Chern Print/ Sales: Joonloo Studio Sdn Bhd

Occasionally, fiction is more convincing and real than documentary. And sometimes short is more effective than long. A married couple with a large and unspoken loss. Even if they did have words for it, they still couldn’t have spoken. They speak with their hands and fingers. Even in difficult conversations. Because it’s all they can do. Margaret BONG (1981, Malaysia) studied cinematography at Sarawak University. She has directed several short films, most of which have been screened at the IFFR.

K-Hole

Zahir Omar INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Malaysia, 2008, colour, video, 15 min, English/Malay/Cantonese Pro: Nisha Khirudin Sc: Zahir Omar Cam: Pete Abdullah Ed: Keith Ngiau Ad: MHZ Sdn Bhd Sound: Mad Sonic Gorillas Sdn Bhd Mu: Mad Sonic Gorillas Sdn Bhd Print/Sales: Nisha Khirudin

A small self-produced film with which the maker won a prize from the sponsor BMW in order to make a less small film. That became Teddy & I and it’s also being screened in this programme. The theme of the contest was mobility and Zahir shows that you don’t always have to think about cars in this context. He thought of immobility and allowed himself to be buried alive. Zahir OMAR’s (1982, Malaysia) first experience in film making was as a first assistant director for five years. He directs indie movies and also TV commercials on the side.

Teddy & I Zahir Omar

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Malaysia, 2008, colour, video, 11 min, Cantonese Pro: Nisha Khirudin Sc: Zahir Omar Cam: Pete Abdullah Ed: F Design Sdn Bhd Ad: MHZ Sdn Bhd Sound: Mad Sonic Gorillas Sdn Bhd Mu: Mad Sonic Gorillas Sdn Bhd Print/Sales: Nisha Khirudin

With the short film K-Hole (also in this programme) Zahir won a major prize offered by a German car company. For a young Malaysian film maker it was a lot of money and he had to spend it all on that one film. So he made it exactly as he saw it in his dream. The dream of a little boy with a teddy bear.

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For the Love of Drowning Nazim Esa

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Malaysia, 2008, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Nazim Esa Cam: Nazim Esa Ed: Nazim Esa Ad: Simon Loke Sound: Andy Alias Mu: Michelle Lai With: Juliana Yasin, James Lim Print/Sales: Nazim Esa

All that water comes from a contest. A manufacturer of expensive and desirable cars offered a prize for the best and most innovative film with water in the theme. Hence the water. Hence the inventiveness. The makers say that it’s about the complexity of communication, but they don’t seem to have any problem with it themselves. They communicate well and humorously. Nazim ESA is a freelance artist, director and editor living and working in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He studied film and fine arts in the UK and has been making films and paintings since 1999.

Xiao jiang

Escape Charlotte Lay Kuen Lim EUROPEAN PREMIERE Malaysia, 2008, colour, video, 26 min, Mandarin/ Cantonese Pro: Charlotte Lay Kuen Lim Sc: Charlotte Lim Lay Kuen Cam: Khoo Eng Yow Ed: Kok Kai Foong Ad: Charlotte Lim Lay Kuen Sound: Khoo Eng Yow Mu: Daphne Chua With: Wong Zi Jiang Print/Sales: Charlotte Lay Kuen Lim

It’s all about those who stay behind. A little boy lives with his grandfather in the countryside. There’s just the two of them, so they do have to find a way to communicate with each other. Occasionally an older sister drops by. She promises all kinds of things, but soon disappears again. The maker captured the mood of her childhood. Restrained tenderness. Charlotte Lay Kuen LIM (1981, Malaysia) worked for numerous TV commercials after completing her studies in broadcasting and was an assistant director for various films. Escape (2008) is her second short film as a director.

More Genius Loci A programme in which several international distributors have selected a film from their stock that says something about the country of origin.

Der Spiegel Keren Cytter

Germany, 2007, colour, video, 4 min, German With: Assaf Hochman, Peter Priegann, Susanne Sachße, Rut Rosenfeld, Stefanie Frauwallner, Cathrin Romeis Print/Sales: Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art e.V. www.arsenal-berlin.de

The confrontational chamber play Der Spiegel shows in one lengthy shot a 42-year-old woman wrestling with her body. She feels 16, but is harshly confronted with the facts by the choir - the crowd. Keren CYTTER (1977, Israel) followed several art courses, including De Ateliers Stichting 63 in Amsterdam. Her films and drawings have been shown worldwide. In 2009 Rotterdam screens both Der Spiegel (2007) and The Devil’s Streams (2008).

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Pauillac, Margaux Jacques Perconte

France, 2008, colour, video, 11 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: Collectif Jeune Cinéma

In the poetic Pauillac, M argaux, Jacques Perconte travels from the island of Patiras in south-west France to Bordeaux. Beautiful landscapes flash by, illuminated by the subtle rays of the dawning sun. An enchanting train journey. Jacques PERCONTE (1974, France) lives and works in Paris. He started his career in painting and drawing, but had his breakthrough when he began to work with internet and video in 1995.

Goude Revolution Andrea Kirsch

France, 1997, colour, 16mm, 9 min, no dialogue Cam: Andrea Kirsch Ed: Andrea Kirsch Sound: Andrea Kirsch Print/Sales: Light Cone Distribution www.lightcone.org

The famous parade by Jean-Paul Goude on the Champs-Elysées, 200 years after the French Revolution, has been converted in Goude R evolution into a dreamy spectacle . Andrea KIRSCH has completed her education in experimental cinema in 1976 at the University of New York. Her short films and documentaries have been shown at several festivals, museums and on television.

Golden Shield Actop

Spain, 2006, colour, video, 2 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: HAMACA www.hamacaonline.net

The experimental Golden Shield shows a point where many roads and viaducts cross each other. Brightly coloured flashes shoot past and slowly a red liquid flows into the image. Apocalyptic, graphic transformation of audio, video and photo material collected in China. ACTOP is a studio based in Barcelona and London. It makes music videos, installations, commercials, experimental short films and graphics. Work by the studio has been shown at several international festivals.

Marcel Broodthaers °1924 Jef Cornelis

France, 1972, b&w, video, 6 min, French Sc: Jef Cornelis Cam: Guido van Rooy Ed: Gust Malfliet Print/Sales: Argos Centre for Art and Media

The prominent conceptual artist Marcel Broodthaers at first sight turns grotesque objects into art. The sober documentary M arcel Broodthaers °1924 shows, maybe even more importantly, the ideas on which they are based. Jef CORNELIS (1941, Belgium) directed films for Belgian television between 1964 and 1998. He has made over a hundred films, mainly on modern art, architecture and literature.

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Afghanimation Allyson Mitchell

Canada, 2008, colour, 35mm, 6 min, English Pro Comp: The Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre Ed: Aleesa Cohene Mu: Jason Stanford Print/Sales: The Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre www.cfmdc.org

An Afghan refugee weaves a colourful rug while at the same time she covers various images of war with a blanket of cheerful colours. Critical stop motion animation about the way in which the Canadians manage to camouflage the real war stories from Afghanistan. Allyson MITCHELL creates visual art and installations with e.g. fun fur and found objects. She is co-founder of the fat activist/ performance group Pretty Pork and Pissed Off and frequently works with Christina Zeidler as the film collective Freeshow Seymour.

Hopp

Hope Marius Dybwad Brandrud Sweden, 2004, colour, video, 6 min, Swedish Ed: Marius Dybwad Brandrud Print/Sales: Filmform

It took them seven years to make the perfect action photo. A series of still images shows a result of the long, cold sessions in the snow undertaken by a mother and son in order to record the boy on his snowboard as beautifully as possible. Beautiful, calm film about the relationship between the mother and her son. Marius DYBWAD BRANDRUD (1976, Sweden) attended art schools in Gothenburg and Stockholm. He is working as a film director and cinematographer.

Five-Minute Romp Through the IP Dan Sandin

USA, 1973, colour/b&w, video, 7 min, English Print/Sales: Video Data Bank

In 1973, Dan Sandin designed and built the Image Processor, an analogue video instrument for artists. In the sober instruction film Five-Minute Romp Through the IP, Sandin demonstrates the operation of his invention; each cable causes an immediate change in the image. Dan SANDIN (1942, USA) is an internationally recognized pioneer in computer graphics, electronic art and visualization. He invented the Image Processor (IP). Sandin’s computer and video art has been exhibited at conferences and museums worldwide.

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Earth of Delightful Gardening Francien van Everdingen

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, 16mm, 6 min, no dialogue Cam: Francien van Everdingen Ed: Francien van Everdingen Ad: Francien van Everdingen Sound: Carolien Slegers Print/Sales: Filmbank

In the style we have got to know as her own, Francien van Everdingen allows the viewer to stroll through an imaginary, fragmented garden, in which time and space are no longer consistent. Independently moving flowers, plants and skies move over each other and form a sparkling spectacle. Francien van EVERDINGEN (1969, Netherlands) is a visual artist. She attended several art academies in Groningen, Tilburg (Netherlands) and Chicago and has gradually switched focus from film installations to short films.

Mapping Journey Bouchra Khalili

France, 2008, colour, video, 8 min, Arabic Print/Sales: Heure Exquise!

While he describes his personal experiences, an emigrant draws on a map of the world the route he has followed. In this way, the sober M apping Journey creates a bridge between the feelings of an emigrant being tossed back and forth and the superficiality of a geographical map. French-Moroccan video-artist Bouchra KHALILI (1975, Morocco) experiments with the visual and conceptual limits of the media. Recurrent themes in her work are nomadism and displacement.

A Glass of Fish Stuart Sherman

USA, 1993, colour, video, 2 min, English Cam: John McGheehan Ed: John McGheehan Print/Sales: Electronic Arts Intermix

And he swamn and he swamn all over the damn! (SS) Stuart SHERMAN (1946-2001, USA) was celebrated as an avant-garde performer, but also worked in film, video and other visual arts, in addition to writing plays and poems.

4_Wheel WarPony Dustinn Craig

Canada, 2008, video, 9 min, English Sc: Dustinn Craig Cam: Dustinn Craig, Nephi Craig, Sam Henry, Bill Hess Ed: Dustinn Craig Ad: Dustinn Craig Sound: Dustinn Craig Mu: Garrett Brennan Stewart Print/Sales: V Tape

4 –Wheel War Pony is a short film utilizing skateboarding footage captured by core members of the White Mountain Apache in an effort to document culture in motion. As a teenager, Dustinn CRAIG (USA) began making skateboarding videos of himself and his friends. In 2003 he made his first official short I Belong to This. Craig has worked on film projects for the John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health in Baltimore and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

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Flash in the Metropolitan Rosalind Nashashibi, Lucy Skaer

United Kingdom, 2006, 16mm, 3 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: LUX

A flashy guided tour through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York shrouded in darkness. Rapid flashes of light offer a glimpse of statues and historic artefacts from the Near East, Africa and Oceania collections and hence encourage a new way of looking. Lucy SKAER (1975, UK) graduated from the Environmental Art Department of Glasgow School of Art in 1997. She has had several solo and group exhibitions all over the world. Skaer won the John Kobal New Work Award in 2008. Rosalind NASHASHIBI (1973, UK) is educated in Fine Arts in Glasgow. She makes experimental shorts. She was awarded the prestigious Beck’s Futures Award in 2003 for her short film The State of Things (2002).

Höhenrausch Mountain Trip Siegfried A. Fruhauf

Austria, 1999, 16mm, 4 min, no dialogue Cam: Siegfried A. Fruhauf Ed: Siegfried A. Fruhauf Mu: Rainer Gamsjäger Print/ Sales: Sixpack Film

Mountain Trip is a cinematic myriorama constructed of hundreds of Austrian postcards, which reflect a country’s hackneyed trappings as no other medium can. (SAF) Siegfried A. FRUHAUF (1976, Austria) studied at the Art University of Linz. He experiments with video and film since 1993. The IFFR 2009 screens both his short film Mountain Trip (1999) and Night Sweat (2008).

Pas de deux eddie d

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 2 min, Dutch Sales: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Distr. NL: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst www.eddied.nu

A dual in the Dutch parliament between two right-wing politicians changes, thanks to the rhythmic montage of eddie d, into a harmonic duet. Many meaningless words have been turned into a dance of word, sound and gesture; a painful yet comic spectacle. eddie d (1963, Netherlands) studied at the AKI in Enschede. He works with photos, video tapes and video and computer installations. Themes in his work are forms of language, rhythm and the interaction between sound and vision. eddie d organises workshops in making short videos.

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Fata morgana Jeroen Kooijmans

Netherlands, 2006, video, 2 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Sales: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Distr. NL: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst

Heavenly light that falls through a hole in the clouds makes a classic Dutch landscape, with a windmill and the church, slowly change form. Is it an illusion? A shift in culture? Or only a fata morgana? Jeroen KOOIJMANS (1967, Netherlands) attended the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam. His work, in which reality, fantasy and poetry fuse together, is characterized by the influence of paintings.

New Arrivals Who will be the winner of the New Arrivals? New Arrivals, an initiative of NPS Korte Film Online in cooperation with the IFFR, has shown online short films submitted since January 2006. Submissions come from all over the world. Every month, the editors make a selection and a jury chooses the monthly winner. Seven monthly winners get a screening at the Internaional Film Festival Rotterdam.

L’imprudence Imprudence Katell Quillévéré

France, 2007, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 14 min, French Pro: Justin Taurand Pro Comp: Les Films du Bélier Sc: Katell Quillévéré Cam: Céline Bozon Ed: Thomas Marchand Ad: Elisabeth Depardieu Sound: Emmanuel Bonnat Mu: Rémi Alexandre With: Pénélope Lévèque, Laurent Delbecque Print/Sales: Les Films du Bélier

A boy and a girl meet on holiday. What starts as an uneasy conversation and a stroll in the woods ends in a power game in which the girl soon takes the lead. The silences and the unpleasant mood in L’imprudence say more than the words with which the 15-year-olds try to attract each other’s attention. Katell QUILLÉVÉRÉ (1980, Ivory Coast) studied film and philosophy in France. Her first short film With All My Might (2005) was screened and awarded at festivals worldwide. The film has been bought for TV in Japan, France and Belgium.

The Wash

Lee Lynch, Lee Anne Schmitt USA, 2006, colour, video, 20 min, English Pro: Lee Anne Schmitt Sc: Lee Anne Schmitt Cam: Lee Lynch, Lee Anne Schmitt Ed: Lee Lynch, Lee Anne Schmitt Mu: Aaron Hemphill Print/Sales: Lee Anne Schmitt www.leelynch.net

The film makers return to the long-lost landscape of their childhood: a small river bed that functioned as their playground. A lyrical document shot entirely on Super-8 shows a changing America. Lee LYNCH (1980) has been making films from the age of 13. He attended the California Institute of the Arts. Lee Anne SCHMITT is a writer and director of films and performances. The IFFR 2009 screens both her short film The Wash (2005) which she co-directed with Lee Lynch and her first long docmentary California Company Town (2008).

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Betty Banned Sweets Michelle Savill

New Zealand, 2008, colour, video, 14 min, English Pro: Michelle Savill Sc: Michelle Savill Cam: Chris Tan Ed: Tracey Egerton Ad: Heather Diprose Sound: Isaac Dean Mu: Mike Crook, Mild America, Tilly and the Wall With: Matt Scheurich, Lee Hutson Print/Sales: New Zealand Film Commission

Surrounded by many self-made dioramas and posters of countries all over the world, Benjamin (23) dreams of the distant voyages he wants to make. His dreams are in sharp contrast, however, with his stuck-in-the-mud life; he lives with his dependent mother. An original independent in which the dioramas by Benjamin play a major role . Michelle SAVILL completed a postgraduate year in film studies in 2007. It was during this year that she wrote her first short film, Betty Banned Sweets (2008).

Seeking You Jean-Julien Pous

Canada/France, 2008, colour, video, 3 min, French Pro: Larry Bafia Pro Comp: Vancouver Film School Sc: Jean-Julien Pous Cam: Jean-Julien Pous Ed: Jean-Julien Pous Ad: Jean-Julien Pous Sound: Jean-Julien Pous Mu: GeLan (Grace Chang) Print/Sales: Premium Films www.seekingyou-themovie.com

In the stylised and poetic Seeking You, a man goes looking for his long lost love. He roams the animated, picturesque streets of Hong Kong to find out that it is the city itself he so loves. An ode to sensuality and seduction, but above all a love letter addressed to Hong Kong. Jean-Julien POUS (China) created Seeking You (2008) while he was studying at the Vancouver Film School and his previous short film Switch (2007) while he attended the Supinfocom in France. Pous currently lives in Hong Kong.

Attached to Omar’s Life for 7 Minutes Robbert-Jan Vos

Netherlands, 2006, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Robbert-Jan Vos Pro Comp: Dwarv Sc: Robbert-Jan Vos Cam: Mark Huisman, Jelle Mulder Ed: Marcel Wijninga Sound: Victor Horstink Mu: Bastiaan Egeberts With: Jan van Frankenhuysen Print/Sales: Dwarv http://dwarv.com/

People like prying, but what if this is compulsory and almost embarrassing? Attached to Omar’s Life for 7 Minutes peers over the shoulder of the lonely Omar, who is in a rut. Tragically enough, the seven minutes are more than enough to show how Omar’s life is going to look in the coming decades. Robbert-Jan VOS, alias ‘dwarv’, makes e.g. commercials and short films. Cry & Laugh (2007) was screened in Dutch cinemas as a prelude to the film Cargo 200 (2007, Alexei Balabanov).

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Jansoree - The Unbearable Heaviness of Mama’s Nagging Jung Yol Choi

South Korea, 2008, colour, video, 10 min, Korean Pro: Jung Yol Choi Sc: Jung Yol Choi Cam: Hyoung Bin Lee Ed: Yeon Jeong Lee Ad: Jung Yol Choi Sound: Soo Duk Song Mu: So Yeong Lee With: Hae Yeon Gil, Yeong Heon Jeong Print/Sales: Jung Yol Choi

In a tirade lasting almost 10 minutes, an angry but worried mother expresses her frustrations to her lazy son. She feels embarrassed about her continual griping but doesn’t realise that her son is actually trying to seek contact with her. A cutting film in which unconditional maternal love hides behind complaining. JUNG Yol Choi (1979, South Korea) studied film directing at the Korean Independent Film Institute. He débuted as a film maker in 2004 with the short film Paper Airplane.

Fernweh

Marieke van der Sloot, Christian Paulussen Netherlands, 2008, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Marieke van der Sloot Pro Comp: Olamapola Images Sc: Marieke van der Sloot Cam: Christian Paulussen Ed: Marieke van der Sloot, Christian Paulussen Print/ Sales: Marieke van der Sloot

Creative documentary in which something very ordinary is looked at in a special way: making sleeping bags. The floating feathers, beautiful light and meticulous hands of the craftsman Peter ensure a pleasant tranquillity. Marieke van der SLOOT (1979, Netherlands) studied human geography at the University of Amsterdam and attended film school, also in Amsterdam. She works as a freelance film maker. Christian PAULUSSEN (1987, Belgium) is a photographer and cinematographer. He attended art school in Gent and film school in Amsterdam. Fernweh (2008) is his début as a film director.

No Guarantees Once awake, the dark nightmare turned out to be true.

Miting

Rally Umut Sakallioglu Turkey, 2007, colour, video, 3 min, Turkish Pro: Umut Sakallioglu Cam: Nitü Poyzö Ed: Umut Sakallioglu Print/Sales: Umut Sakallioglu

Demonstrating is a right. R ally is made up of nine consecutive demonstrations in Istanbul, during which very different opinions are defended by just as many groups in society. Sakallioglu questions the authenticity of this form of group behaviour. Like a baby cuckoo, he walks along in the front lines to stress the individual. Umut SAKALLIOGLU (1986, Turkey) works and lives in Istanbul. He attended Marmara University, Fine Arts Faculty, Cinema and TV Department and works in and on video, (short) film and performance art.

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RGB XYZ David O’Reilly

Germany/Ireland, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, English Pro: David O’Reilly Sc: David OReilly Cam: David OReilly Print/Sales: David O’Reilly www.davidoreilly.com

Discovered in late 2007 when a gardener accidentally dug up a hard drive buried somewhere in central Europe, RGB XYZ found its way to David OReilly, who compiled its five incomprehensible episodes into what became perhaps the most enigmatic piece of animation ever to leave a computer. David OREILLY (1985, Ireland) has worked as an independent film maker since 2005. He disregards conventions and his animated films are known for their dark sense of humour and psychological suspense.

leeds.talk.trailer Tony Cokes

USA, 2008, colour, video, 4 min, English Pro: Tony Cokes Sc: Andrew Perchuk Ed: Scott Pagano Print/Sales: ShrinkMedia

In his own characteristic way, Tony Cokes throws his animated text (white on black) in the face of the viewer to the urgent rhythm of the bass. The subject this time is the contorted relationship between the art world and art critics during the 1960s and 1970s in the United States and the United Kingdom and their consequences for relations today. Tony COKES (1956, USA) was educated at Goddard College in Vermont and has studied at the University of Richmond in Virginia. He makes videos and multimedia installations which have been included in exhibitions all over the world.

Altogether

Herman Asselberghs INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Belgium, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 15 min, no dialogue Pro: Marie Logie Pro Comp: Auguste Orts Sc: Herman Asselberghs Cam: Fairuz Sound: Boris Debackere Mu: David Shea Print/Sales: Auguste Orts www. augusteorts.be

The hypothesis at the start of the film is: the future is dark and that is basically the best you can say about it. We find ourselves in an ideological no-man’s-land in the latter days of the 1968 era. While the sombre images of the future are underlined by the camera, portraying in atmospheric black-and-white images the symbols of the transitory nature of power on a tour of Brussels, the conclusion slowly becomes unavoidable. Herman ASSELBERGHS (1962, Belgium) is an artist, cultural philosopher and media critic. His installations and films have been shown worldwide.

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Die Subjektivierung der Wiederholung, Projekt A

The Subjectivisation of Repetition, Project A Yves Netzhammer Switzerland, 2007, colour, video, 42 min, no dialogue Pro: Yves Netzhammer, Anita Beckers Sc: Yves Netzhammer Ed: Yves Netzhammer Ad: Yves Netzhammer Sound: Bernd Schurer Mu: Bernd Schurer Print/ Sales: Galerie Anita Beckers

Anyone who has not previously seen the work of Netzhammer will have to get used to the unusual combination of extremely meticulous animations that show several political and social situations in a subtle way using sketchy, expressionless characters. It soon becomes apparent that Yves Netzhammer is very passionate in the structure, construction and rhythm of his stories that show the dark side of human life, ensuring an unusual balance in his work. A world in which the normal laws of the individual no longer apply, the world of a totality. Yves NETZHAMMER (1970, Switzerland) lives and works in Zurich. The IFFR 2009 selected both his short films The Subjectivisation of R epetition, Project A (2007) and Furniture of Proportions (2008) and his installation Young Branches Imitate Old Antlers and Old Antlers Young Branches (1999).

No Vengo The penetrating portrait of the far-from-romantic life of two nomadic peoples. One in Central Romania and the other in the sertão in Brazil.

Tarabatara Julia Zakia

Brazil, 2007, colour, 35mm, 23 min, Portuguese Pro: Patrick Leblanc Pro Comp: Superfilmes Sc: Julia Zakia Cam: Julia Zakia Ed: Hélio Villela, Julia Zakia Sound: Guile Martins Print/Sales: Superfilmes

Loosely shot, atmospheric documentary about a group of gypsies somewhere in the sertão in Brazil. They have been filmed in a pause between their peregrinations; we see the oldest man with his memories, the women and children of the group, their customs and habits. An unusual glimpse of gypsy culture. Julia ZAKIA studied at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her specializations were direction and cinematography and Fig Tree’s Story (2007) was her thesis film. She has worked for several professional film makers.

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The Source - One Day in a Roma Settlement in Romania Jaap de Ruig

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 40 min, no dialogue Pro: Jaap de Ruig Sc: Jaap de Ruig Cam: Jaap de Ruig Ed: Jaap de Ruig Ad: Jaap de Ruig Sound: Jaap de Ruig Mu: Jaap de Ruig Print/Sales: Jaap de Ruig

Hetea is an isolated settlement in Central Romania. Around 350 people live in handmade huts. In The Source - One Day in a Roma Settlement in Romania we experience a day in Hetea. The day starts out pastorally enough: guiding cows and horses, building a new wooden house, etc. In the afternoon, suddenly the fat is in the fire. People scream and threaten each other. Little by little the serene atmosphere returns, but the aftereffects of the quarrel are still audible. Photographer/filmmaker Jaap de Ruig prepared the film for seventeen years and recorded it in one day. He chose not to subtitle because then: ‘I would have given too much meaning to words, which divert from the universal character of the images.’ (JdR) Jaap de RUIG (1957, Netherlands) is originally a photographer, but started to work with video in the late 1990s. He makes films and installations. He prepared his short documentary The Source (2009) for seventeen years, but it was recorded in only one day.

Not Just a Pretty Picture Natural beauty, not purely as an innocent backdrop, but as a source of rapture and ecstasy in which unknown paths are trodden.

Sakura

Esther Harris United Kingdom/Japan, 2007, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Esther Harris Cam: Esther Harris Ed: Esther Harris Ad: Esther Harris Sound: Anton Estéban Mu: Jonathan Perl Print/Sales: Esther Harris www. estherharris.com

Sakura focuses on the integration of man-made technologies with people’s appreciation of a natural phenomenon already manipulated by human intervention. As a subjective take on the blossom viewers’ ad hoc cameraphone digital editing in action, the work alternates between recording this behaviour and participating in it. Esther HARRIS (1976, UK) is a graduate of the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. Her drawings, photographs and video works have been shown at solo and group exhibitions internationally.

The Beautiful Garden Jonathan Franco

Portugal, 2007, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Jonathan Franco Sc: Jonathan Franco Cam: Jonathan Franco Ed: Jonathan Franco Sound: Jonathan Franco Mu: Jonathan Franco Print/Sales: Jonathan Franco

Black-and-white photos with a history form the basis for this poetic video work. The figures portrayed find themselves in the garden in the distant past. The spot chosen for them by Portuguese Jonathan Franco in the present provides the figures with a renewed vitality, a new breath: the garden comes back to life. Jonathan FRANCO (1976, Zimbabwe) attended art school in Lisbon, Portugal and in Milan, Italy. His work has been screened in several festivals and art galleries. Franco has the Portuguese nationality and lives and works in Lisbon.

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The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly Charlotte Pryce

USA, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 4 min, English Pro: Charlotte Pryce Print/Sales: Charlotte Pryce

An intoxicating flower; a metaphorical insect; a longing reach across the centuries. The film is a philosophical search drenched in luminous colours and sparking light. (CP) Charlotte PRYCE (1961, UK) has been making experimental films, photographs and optical objects since 1986. In addition, she has been a teacher at several art academies.

The Garden of Earthly Delights Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof

Canada, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 8 min, silent Pro: Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof Cam: Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof Ed: Izabella PruskaOldenhof Print: Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof Sales: CFMDC Canadian Filmmakers’ Dist. Centr

A visual duet consisting of a 16mm film and a 16mm photogram selfportrait collage. It is inspired by the earthly pleasures and wonders as revealed in the vibrant marvels of Stan Brakhage’s cinema, and in the central panel of the 1504 triptych by Hieronymus Bosch titled The Garden of Earthly Delights. Izabella PRUSKA-OLDENHOF (Poland) is a Toronto-based film maker. Her films and videos have been screened at numerous international film festivals, cinematheques, galleries and art centres.

The National Parks Project: Gros Morne Ryan J. Noth

WORLD PREMIERE Canada, 2009, colour, video, 43 min, no dialogue Pro: Ryan J. Noth, Geoff Morrison, JR McConvey Pro Comp: FilmCAN Cam: Peter Mettler Ed: Ryan J. Noth Ad: Clayton Hanmer Sound: Daniel Pellerin, Elma Bellow, Geoff Morrison Mu: Andrew Whiteman, Dale Morningstar Print/Sales: FilmCAN www.nationalparksproject.ca

On paper it looks like a project that could be made by David Attenborough (no offence). Canada is sending a select company of renowned film makers and musicians to all national parks in the country to make a short film together. The aim is to increase the consciousness of Canadians about the incalculable value of the country’s natural beauty. A noble aim, but also pretty boring. Until it turns out that the first film has been made by Ryan J. Noth in cooperation with cameraman Peter Mettler. They managed to portray the mystical landscape of the Gros Morne Park in an inimitable way. The improvised soundtrack by Andrew Whiteman (of the band Apostle of Hustle) and Dale Morningstar sets the right tone. Ryan J. NOTH is an editor, film maker and critic based in Toronto. He studied film at the University of Ontario and is founder of FilmCAN.org, an online resource for the discussion and promotion of Canadian film culture.

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Preludes An extensive selection of short films that will precede full-length films in the festival screenings.

Asitha Ameresekere United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 9 min, English Pro: Asitha Ameresekere Pro Comp: Punchi Films Sc: Asitha Ameresekere Cam: Line Nikita Blom Ed: Abraham Teweldebrhan Ad: Michaela Wardrop Sound: Rob Thomas With: Sarah Ridgeway, Tony Wadham, Susan Cummins Print: Punchi Films Sales: Short Film Agency Hamburg www.punchifilms.com

Wonderful off-camera work portrays the 14th birthday of a girl in her home surroundings. Three people try to get in touch with each other; however, there is a lot of threat in the background. Asitha AMERESEKERE (1971, UK) is a film maker and screenwriter. His short films have been screened and awarded internationally. In 2008 the IFFR included his short film Do Not Erase (2006) in its selection.

Smáfuglar

2 Birds Rúnar Rúnarsson Iceland, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 15 min, Icelandic Pro: Thor S. Sigurjonsson, Caroline Schlüter Pro Comp: Zik Zak Filmworks Sc: Rúnar Rúnarsson Cam: Sophia Olsson Ed: Jacob Schulsinger Ad: Haukur Karlsson Sound: Sylvester Holm Mu: Kjartan Sveinsson With: Atli Óskar Fjalarsson , Hera Hilmarsdóttir , Sigurdur Jakob Helgason , Thórunn Jakobsdóttir Print: Icelandic Film Centre Sales: Zik Zak Filmworks http://smafuglar.blogspot.com

Two adolescents turn in circles around each other, both nervous and cautious, while their friends are already going a lot further. At a rough party, things get completely out of hand, but he is nevertheless able to save her, in a manner of speaking. Tender, heartrending fiction about growing up and intimacy. Rúnar RÚNARSSON (1977, Iceland) has been an active member of the local film industry in Iceland since secondary school. 2 Birds (2008) is the second short film of Runarsson’s Crossroad Trilogy. The first one, The Last Farm (2004), was nominated for an Oscar in 2005.

29 Febbraio February 29th Stefano Pari

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Italy, 2008, colour, video, 13 min, Italian Pro: Stefano Pari Pro Comp: Evol Films Sc: Stefano Pari Cam: Stefano Pari Ed: Daniele Quadrelli Mu: Luca Parma With: Luca Parma Print/Sales: Evol Films

A day in the life of a lonely factory worker. When he gets home, he eats up a can of beans, zaps through the TV channels, has a smoke and a drink and feels very lonely. Then he sees his guitar hanging there and plays and sings a song by Hank Williams. A beautiful, well-acted study of loneliness that ends hopefully. Stefano PARI (1978, Italy) works as an electrician for theatres and plays the bass in a local indie-rock band. He has dedicated his first short film February 29th (2008) to the music.

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Around the Park William Wegman

USA, 2007, colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Pro: William Wegman Cam: Andrea Beeman Ed: Andrea Beeman Print/ Sales: Electronic Arts Intermix www.eai.org

Day in the park with the dogs by the famous photographer/film maker William Wegman. His Weimaraners often posed for him, but now they go even further. Commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy in New York. William WEGMAN (1943, USA) is a photographer and film maker. He was educated at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and at the University of Illinois. Within his work, his Weimaraner dogs play an important role.

Arayeshgar e Bagh Dad Bagh Dad Bar Ber Massoud Bakhshi

Iran, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 12 min, Arabic Pro: Massoud Bakhshi, Bon Gah Pro Comp: Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) Sc: Massoud Bakhshi, Peyman Maadi Cam: Alimohammad Ghasemi Ed: Azad Jafarian Ad: Mahmoud Bakhshi Sound: Frashid Faraji With: Adnan Shahtalaee, Danesh Eghbashavi, Majed Neisi, Jamal Nanavar, Maysam Bakhshi Print/Sales: Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) www.bakhshim. com

A barber in Baghdad wants nothing more than to leave for the United States. In order to get a visa, he has to put his profession to gruesome use. Yet apparently in vain. Dark and ominous short about war in which people easily cross their limits, that much is again clear. Massoud BAKHSHI (1972, Iran) studied film making in Italy. He is a film maker, screenwriter, producer and film critic. His short film Bagh Dad Bar Ber premièred at the Locarno Film Festival in 2008.

Barbee Butcher Sophie Laguës

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands/Czech Republic/France, 2009, colour, video, 1 min, no dialogue Pro: Sophie Laguës Sc: Sophie Laguës Cam: Sophie Laguës, Bas Van Huizen Ed: Sophie Laguës, Bas Van Huizen, Ales Suk Ad: Sophie Laguës, Bas Van Huizen Sound: Sophie Laguës, Bas Van Huizen Print/Sales: Sophie Laguës

A greenish clay creature merrily cuts a barbie doll into pieces with the aim of turning itself into a femme fatale...with unexpected results! (SL) Sophie LAGUËS (1973, France) first studied philosophy and German literature and later attended the FAMU in Prague, Czech Republic and the art academy in Utrecht in the Netherlands. She is a director of short films, mostly animations.

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Bekhawy

Insomnia Dawood Hilmandi WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour/b&w, video, 8 min, no dialogue Pro: Dawood Hilmandi Sc: Dawood Hilmandi Cam: Dawood Hilmandi Ed: Dawood Hilmandi Ad: Dawood Hilmandi Sound: Dawood Hilmandi Mu: Dawood Hilmandi With: Dawood Hilmandi Print/Sales: Dawood Hilmandi

A man is imprisoned between two worlds; he has to go through something to redefine his identity. War and fear play in the background in his quest that links the present and the past. Which path should you follow in order to find rest, peace and security? Probing portrayal in both black-and-white and colour of a mental state affected by violence. Dawood HILMANDI was born in Afghanistan. Forced by circumstances, he came to the Netherlands in 2001. He attended the art academy in Enschede and now is a studSent at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Art in Amsterdam, specializing in film.

Chasing Cats and Cars Liew Seng Tat

WORLD PREMIERE Malaysia, 2009, colour, video, 12 min, Cantonese/ Bahasa Pro: Tan Chui Mui Pro Comp: Da Huang Pictures Sdn. Bhd. Sc: Liew Seng Tat Cam: Khoo Eng Yow Ed: Liew Seng Tat Sound: Michael Leow Mu: Apan With: Tham Wei Fu Print/Sales: Da Huang Pictures Sdn. Bhd.

Exercise in its own form of absurdism. Jokes are good if you tell them well. Strange jokes have to be told even better. The maker likes really strange jokes and that’s why he practices telling them well. Man takes his injured friend to the hospital. There it becomes apparent that a leg is missing. LIEW Seng Tat (1979, Malaysia) graduated from the Multimedia University in Cyberjaya, the Silicon Valley of Malaysia. He majored in 3D animation, but after a few short animations, he started focusing on live action. His feature début Flower in the Pocket won a Tiger Award in 2008.

The Dirty Ones Brent Stewart

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA/France, 2008, colour, video, 11 min, English Pro: Agnes B., Charles-Marie Anthonioz, Harmony Korine Pro Comp: O’Salvation Cine Ltd. Sc: Brent Stewart Cam: Roger Pistole Ed: Michael Carter, Brent Stewart Ad: Garland Gallaspy Sound: Jim Reed, Drew Douthit Mu: Grouper With: Rachel Korine, Raven Dunn Print/Sales: O’Salvation Cine Ltd.

The car of two Mennonite nuns breaks down somewhere in southern USA. They find shelter in a fairly creepy motel and call their parents. But where did they leave grandma? Alienating, stylish fiction produced by Harmony Korine. His wife Rachel plays one of the nuns. Brent STEWART (1974, USA) attended Goldsmiths College in London. It was during this time that he met Harmony Korine, who was then in London filming. Back in Tennessee, the two started a working relationship. Korine produced Stewart’s latest short The Dirty Ones.

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Dreznica

Anna Azevedo Brazil, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 14 min, Portuguese Pro: Anna Azevedo Pro Comp: Hy Brazil Filmes Sc: Anna Azevedo Ed: Eva Randolph Ad: Anna Azevedo Sound: Rodrigo Maia, Eva Randolph Mu: Lucas Marcier, Rodrigo Marçal Print/Sales: Hy Brazil Filmes www.hybrazilfilmes.com

‘Dreznica’ is the place where the snow meets the sea. Days are full of stars and nights filled with the sun. But not seeing is the only way to perceive it. A short documentary film with amateur Super-8 footages from the 1970s. A lyric journey through the images and sensations revealed by the memories and dreams of blind people. Anna AZEVEDO (1963, Brazil) is a journalist and film maker, specialized in making documentaries. In 2006 she won the Berlin Today Award with the film BerlinBall . Dreznica (2008) is her sixth short documentary.

Eintritt zum Paradies um 3€20 Enter Paradise for € 3.20 Edith Stauber

Austria, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, German Pro: Edith Stauber Sc: Edith Stauber Ed: Edith Stauber Sound: Edith Stauber Print/ Sales: Sixpack Film www.filmvideo.at

Paradise is accessible for a pittance these days. You do have to submit yourself to ringing mobiles, offensive graffiti and lecherous looks. Edith Stauber’s animation is filled with sharp observations of everyday rituals in and around the open-air swimming pool. Here paradise really has come down to earth. Edith STAUBER (1968, Austria) studied film and video at the University of Arts in Linz. She has been making films since 1994. She lives and works in Linz.

Zatiki votqits brnvats Grasping at the Ladybird’s Leg Areg Azatyan

WORLD PREMIERE Armenia, 2009, colour, video, 19 min, Armenian Pro: Nariné Mkrtchyan Pro Comp: Aysor-Plus Film Productions Sc: Areg Azatyan Cam: Artavazd Khachaturyan Ed: Areg Azatyan Ad: Areg Azatyan Sound: Armen Sahakyan Mu: Saint Sans With: Narek Nersisyan, Armen Abelyan, Vanik Mkrthchyan, Arthur Khudoyan Print/Sales: Aysor-Plus Film Productions

A writer falls in a hole in the woods. Despite assurances, not a single passerby helped him out. A narrative made in the absurdist tradition of for instance Kafka and Charms about impotence and human selfishness. Writer and film maker Areg AZATYAN (1986, Armenia) graduated in film directing in 2008. In 2005 he received an important Armenian prize for literature. He finished his third book Grasping at the Ladybird’s Leg in 2006.

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Jerrycan Julius Avery

Australia, 2008, colour, video, 14 min, English Pro: Stuart Parkyn Pro Comp: Park Films Sc: Julius Avery Cam: Adam Arkapaw Ed: Jack Hutchings Ad: Joseph Keily Sound: Emma Bortignon Mu: Andrew Callaghan With: Tristan Burke, Walter Currie, Kyle Taylor, Nick Thomas, Dylan Pretty-Riley, Mark Fraser Print/Sales: Park Films www.juliusavery.com

A group of kids is led and needled by the toughest, who decides it’s time for a fire. He gets involved in a quarrel with Nathan, who takes a big risk. Exciting and raw observation of group behaviour shot with amateurs from the town where the film was made. Julius AVERY (1977, Australia) is a writer and director. In 2005 he graduated from the Victoria College of the Arts Film & TV School. He won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his short film Jerrycan in 2008.

KERMIS - Ode aan de ongedwongenheid van het bestaan FUNFAIR - Tribute to Life Annette Otto

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, b&w, video, 11 min, no dialogue Pro: Annette Otto Cam: Maasja Ooms Ed: Annette Otto Sound: Paul Bijpost Mu: Herautronique (Hans Leeuw, Jorrit Tamminga) Print/Sales: Annette Otto

Poetic film about the funfair that focuses on the emotions of its visitors. The unconstrained behaviour of children, the tense expectation of adolescence. Blissful smiles, surrendering to the moment, and also melancholy and vulnerability. The funfair as a metaphor for life itself. Annette OTTO (1961, Germany) studied film and theatre, German literature and philosophy at the University of Cologne and documentary film making and editing at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam.

Megatron Marian Crisan

Romania, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 14 min, Romanian Pro: Anamaria Puiu Pro Comp: Mandragora Sc: Marian Crisan Cam: Tudor Mircea Ed: Tudor Pojoni Ad: Cristina Barbu With: Gabriela Crisa, Maxim Strinu, Damian Oancea, Erwin Simshenson Print/Sales: Mandragora

A divorced mother takes her little boy on his birthday to McDonald’s in the big city. There they wait for the father who promised to come. Convincing family drama that won the Golden Palm in Cannes 2008. Marian CRISAN was born in Salonta, Romania in 1976. He was educated in film and TV directing at the Academy of Theatre and Film in Bucharest. He makes short fiction films and documentaries.

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Metamorphosis

Geir Hansteen Jorgensen Norway, 2007, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Therese Jacobsen Sc: Geir Hansteen Jörgensen Cam: Johan Fredrik Bødker Ed: Geir Hansteen Jörgensen Sound: Geir Hansteen Jörgensen With: Maylen Rusti, John Andre Storebø Print/Sales: Norwegian Film Institute www.balodan.com

A girl and a boy lie in the grass together in an Edenic landscape. What a nightmare when the beautiful girl temporarily seems to disappear before the boy’s very eyes before fortunately returning. The boy only sheds a tear. Beautifully macabre and humorous fiction about the other side of happiness. Geir HANSTEEN JÖRGENSEN N (1968, Sweden) studied film and directing in Stockholm. He makes fiction for cinema, TV and commercials. In his own country he is probably best known for his mini series.

Monsieur Sélavy

Monsieur Sélavy - The Way It Is Peter Volkart Switzerland, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 10 min, Russian Pro: Franziska Reck Pro Comp: Reck Filmproduktion Sc: Peter Volkart Cam: Hans Ulrich Schenkel Ed: Harald & Herbert Ad: Markus Schmid, Michael Seger Sound: Guido Keller Mu: Paul Avondet With: Heinz-Jürgen Steinauer, Ruth Schwegler, Peter Beeck Print/Sales: Reck Filmproduktion

We follow Monsieur Sélavy in his battle with the viscissitudes of modern life that he tries to face as worthily as possible. On his journey, the coordinates of time and space get rather jumbled up. Beautifully made, imaginative tragicomedy about the capriciousness of life. Peter VOLKART (1957, Switzerland) studied art and film in New York. Since 1990, he has worked as a freelance designer and film maker.

Next Floor

Denis Villeneuve Canada, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 12 min, English Pro: Phoebe Greenberg Pro Comp: Phi Group Inc Sc: Jacques Davidts Cam: Nicolas Bolduc Ed: Sophie Leblond Ad: Jean-Marc Renaud Sound: Sylvain Bellemare, Bernard Gariépy Strobl Mu: Warren Slim Williams With: Jean Marchand, Charles Papasoff Print/Sales: Phi Group Inc www.nextfloor-film.com

A group of rich, spoiled upper-class guests eat as if their life depends on it during an opulent banquet, complete with servants. In this grotesque, decadent mood, something unexpected suddenly happens. And not just once. Absurd fiction with beautiful production design, reminiscent of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Best short film at the Semaine de la Critique, Cannes 2008. Denis VILLENEUVE (1967, Canada) wrote and directed several short films and features. His first two feature films 32nd Day of August on Earth (1998) and Maelström (2000) were screened at numerous international film festivals.

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Nous

Us Olivier Hems France, 2007, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 11 min, French Pro: Gilles Padovani Pro Comp: Mille et Une Films Sc: Olivier Hems Cam: Olivier Hems Ed: Gisèle Rapp-Meichler Sound: Frédéric Hamelin With: Hervé Mahieux, Valérie Bral Print/Sales: Mille et Une Films

A detective finds the corpse of a 45-year-old man who’s been dead for months. He speaks into his dictaphone his verdict on the life the man led. We see home-movie images of a family in happier times; are they known to the man? Probing and moving fiction about how life can go totally wrong. Olivier HEMS (1967, France) is a scriptwriter, cinematographer and director. Shock R esistant (2007) is the only French short film that has been screened at the Cannes Film Festival so far.

One Ricardo Mehedff INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Brazil/USA, 2008, colour, video, 13 min, no dialogue Pro: Ricardo Mehedff Pro Comp: VFilmes Sc: Ricardo Mehedff Cam: David Barkan Ed: Ricardo Mehedff Ad: Francisca Caporali, Laura Chipley Sound: Alessandro Laroca Mu: Rodrigo Marçal, Lucas Marcier With: Thomas Andren, Sarah Hansel Print/Sales: Ricardo Mehedff

A couple wake up at the same time. They live in parallel worlds, side by side, but with each other too? Original, fresh fiction in split screen about morning rituals, grind and relationships within which the viewer is repeatedly wrong footed. Ricardo MEHEDFF worked in Hollywood for six years before he returned to Brazil in 1998, where he has written, produced and directed several short films. He is an important trailer maker for the Brazilian film industry.

Our Wonderful Nature Tomer Eshed

Germany, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 5 min, English Pro: Cristina Marx Pro Comp: HFF Konrad Wolf Sc: Tomer Eshed Ad: Jan Schneider Sound: David Ziegler Mu: Stefan Maria Schneider Print: DETAiLFILM Gasmia & Kamm GbR Sales: HFF Konrad Wolf

An amazing animation about shrews fighting as if they’re playing in The M atrix. And all that to impress a woman. A refined parody of the nature documentary. Tomer ESHED (1977, Israel) attended art school in Israel. Our Wonderful Nature (2008) is Eshed‘s first short animation. It was made during his studies at Konrad Wolf, the academy of film and television in Potsdam, Germany.

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Packing

Behrooz Karamizade WORLD PREMIERE Iran/Germany, 2009, colour, video, 4 min, Arabic Pro: Behrooz Karamizade Sc: Behrooz Karamizade Cam: Behrooz Karamizade, Kave Karamizade Ed: Miriam Steen Print/Sales: Behrooz Karamizade

The trilogy Kindsein im Iran is about children who set their first steps in an adult world filled with commandments. Thanks to their inventiveness and fantasy, they find answers and and discover the New World. In part one, Packing, two boys are at the market looking for a box to transport a watermelon. Honest and authentic fiction, moving in its simplicity. Behrooz KARAMIZADE (1978, Iran) has lived in Germany since 1985 and studied film directing. He is part of Filmgruppe NUR, a group of film makers from all over the world. The IFFR 2009 will screen his two short films Murche (Persian: Ants) (2008) and Packing (2009).

Peidhleacán solais (Butterfly Light) Dónal ó Céilleachair

Ireland, 2008, colour, 35mm, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Dónal ó Céilleachair Pro Comp: i.m.i Pictures Sound: Dónal Ó’Céilleachair Print/Sales: i.m.i Pictures

Inspired by Mothlight by Stan Brakhage, children made this unusual poetic short. Flower petals and plants, butterflies and 35mm film, that’s all they needed. About how beautiful film is, and of course nature. Dónal Ó CÉILLEACHAIR is an Irish film maker, producer, editor, and film programmer who has lived in New York since 1990. He is founder of Ocularis, a legendary screening venue for independent cinema in Brooklyn, New York since 1996.

Pomeranie

Maria Murashova WORLD PREMIERE Russia, 2009, colour, video, 12 min, no dialogue Pro: Maria Murashova Sc: Maria Murashova Cam: Marina Levashova Ed: Maria Murashova Sound: Alexander Dudarev Print/Sales: Maria Murashova

Places where time flows slowly and silently, where the hectic modern world does not enter, do still exist. Such a place is the majolica factory in the little village of Pomeranie. Maria MURASHOVA (1984, Russia) studied Journalism. Currently she is a student at the University of Film and Television in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pomeranie (2009) is her début as a film maker.

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Pusong gala Stray Hearts Mario Cornejo

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Philippines, 2008, colour, video, 2 min, Filipino Pro: Monster Jimenez Pro Comp: Arkeofilms Sc: Mario Cornejo Cam: Ike Avellana Ed: Mario Cornejo Ad: Christina Dy Sound: Mario Cornejo Mu: Mario Cornejo With: Richard Somes, Lena Cobangbang, Mikey Amistoso Print/Sales: Arkeofilms

Cheeky, infectious and very smoothly made. Very funny. You can imagine they had a great time behind the camera as well as in front of it. A film crew working without a budget. Someone has an idea for a very cheap effect. Made for the Cinemalaya Film Festival in Manila - that didn’t pay for it, by the way. Mario CORNEJO works as a director for films, television and advertising. In 2005 he wrote and directed his first full-length film Big Time. Stray Hearts (2008) is his first short.

Summer Afternoon Wi Ding Ho

Taiwan, 2008, b&w, 35mm, 1:2.35, 16 min, Mandarin Pro: Wi Ding Ho Sc: Wi Ding Ho Cam: Jake Pollock Ed: Wei-Yao Hsu Sound: YuanFeng Tsao Mu: Yao-Jen Tsai With: Yu-Tan Wang, Huan-Ru Ke, Ying-Hsuan Kao Print/Sales: Wi Ding Ho

A masterful minor exercise in telling a story with a twist and an equally masterful exercise in the dramatic use of what’s known as a Steadycam, a camera with flowing motion. The car journey with one lover too many gets completely out of hand. And after the twist, another one follows. Cleverly filmed. WI Ding Ho (1971, Malaysia) graduated from the New York University film school and works as a director of TV commercials in Taiwan. His short film Summer Afternoon (2008) had its world première in Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2008.

Tarrafal

Pedro Costa Portugal, 2007, colour, video, 16 min, Portuguese Pro: Pedro Costa Pro Comp: LX Filmes Ed: Patricia Saramago Sound: Olivier Blanc, Vasco Pedroso Mu: Branko Neskov With: José Alberto Silva, Lucinda Tavares, Ventura, Alfredo Mendes Print/Sales: Pedro Costa

Filmed as part of the collective film State of the World. Costa returns to the Cape Verde island of Fogo where he set Casa de lava and which is also where Ventura from Colossal Youth was born. Costa now looks at the Tarrafal prison, built in 1936, where for nearly 40 years opponents of Salazar’s dictatorial regime were tortured and killed. Pedro COSTA (1959, Portugal) studied History at Lisbon University. He worked as assistant to João Botelho before making his feauture début with The Blood (1989). Many of Costa’s films have been shown in Rotterdam.

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Tiny Riot Project Kris Lefcoe

WORLD PREMIERE Canada, 2009, colour, video, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: Craig Fleming Pro Comp: Digger Films Sc: Kris Lefcoe Cam: Monica Guddat Ed: Kris Lefcoe Ad: Rick Gilbert Sound: Scott Harding Mu: Ryder Graham Print/ Sales: Kris Lefcoe

Crazy puppet animation in which mascots from commercials attack handsome anarchists. With shooting teddy-bears! Kris LEFCOE is a writer and film maker based in New York and Toronto. Besides films, she has made numerous music videos and has written several episodes for the Canadian television series Straight Up and Drop the Beat.

The Woman Who is Beating the Earth Tsuki Inoue

Japan, 2008, colour, video, 21 min, Japanese Pro: Tsuki Inoue Sc: Tsuki Inoue Cam: Yousuke Omori Ed: Tsuki Inoue Sound: Shingo Ishikawa With: Sohokoh Wada Print/Sales: Yubari Int. Fantastic Film Festival

The Yubari Festival in Japan is a small festival with a great eye for the really strange. And Yubari is precisely is where this eccentric film won the grand prix. A woman who tenderizes meat as a butcher gets beaten at home and dreams of beating the drum. Yes, with humour. A film maker to watch. TSUKI Inoue (1974, Japan) studied painting at the Musashino Art University, Japan. Furthermore she joined a theatrical company where she has written scripts, directed and acted.

Recent Anthropologies Featuring four 16mm films shot primarily in the Maroon villages of Suriname, South America, this programme will focus on a major strain of Russell’s work that complicates traditions of ethnographic and documentary film. In a special live double-projector performance closing out the evening, Russell will challenge the spectre of representation in its entirety, shuttling the image to the point of total annihilation. WARNING: This show contains visuals that may be harmful to those with epilepsy.

Daumë

Ben Russell USA/Suriname, 2008, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Ben Russell Sc: Ben Russel Cam: Ben Russel Ed: Ben Russel With: Kotie Amoida, Sharon Ambielli, Joanne Day, Benjen Pansa, Ben Russel Print/Sales: Ben Russell www.dimeshow.com

‘One of the strangest films I have ever seen; its characters come and go as if they’re primitives posing for the camera, either obeying or fighting an ethnographer’s controlling eye.’ (Fred Camper) Shot on four Super-8 rolls while working as a development-aid worker in Surinam. Ben RUSSELL (1976) makes shorts and installations. His work has already been rewarded with various grants and prizes. He prefers to screen his work in unconventional places, like monasteries, police station basements and Japanese cinematheques.

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Tjüba tën

The Wet Season Ben Russell, Brigid McCaffrey USA/Suriname, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 47 min, English Pro: Ben Russell Cam: Ben Russell, Brigid McCaffrey Ed: Ben Russell, Brigid McCaffrey Sound: Ben Russell, Brigid McCaffrey Print/Sales: Ben Russell www. dimeshow.com

The Wet Season is an experimental ethnography recorded in the jungle village of Bendekondre, Suriname at the start of 2007. Composed of community-generated performances, re-enactments and extemporaneous recordings, this film functions doubly as an examination of a rapidly changing culture in the present and as a historical document for the future. Whether the resultant record is directed towards its subjects, its temporary residents (film makers), or its Western viewers is a question proposed via the combination of long takes, materialist approaches, selective subtitling, and a focus on various forms of cultural labour. (BR) Brigid McCAFFREY was educated at the CalArts filmschool in Southern California. She is a film maker and also pursues photographic projects, from large format portraits of public landscapes to local current event photography.

Trypps #5 (Dubai) Ben Russell

EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA/United Arab Emirates, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: Ben Russell Cam: Ben Russell Ed: Ben Russell Print/Sales: Ben Russell www. dimeshow.com

‘APP APPAP APP APAPPAP APP APP APP APAPPAPAPPAP APPAP APP’ A short treatise on the semiotics of capital, happiness, and phenomenology under the flickering neon of global capitalism. (BR)

Trypps #6 (Malobi) Ben Russell

WORLD PREMIERE USA/Suriname, 2009, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 12 min, no dialogue Pro: Ben Russell Cam: Chris Fawcett Ed: Ben Russell Sound: Brigid McCaffrey With: Benjen Pansa Print/Sales: Ben Russell www.dimeshow.com

From the Maroon village of Malobi in Suriname, South America, this single-take film offers a strikingly contemporary take on a Jean Rouch classic. It’s Halloween at the Equator, lightning bolts for the jungle set... (BR)

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The Black and the White Gods Ben Russell

EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, b&w, 1:1.37, 20 min, no dialogue Pro: Ben Russell Print/Sales: Ben Russell www.dimeshow.com

Using a short segment of Russell’s early ethnographic film Daumë as its foundation, this double-projection performance employs a variety of 16mm film loops, hand-built electronics, prismatic lenses, and analogue components to create an audiovisual feedback loop that edges steadily towards the phenomenological. (BR)

Retro As well as joyous and moving memories, there are also extremely alienating ones of times long gone.

False Aging Lewis Klahr

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 14 min, no dialogue Pro: Lewis Klahr Print/Sales: Lewis Klahr

Klahr injects False Aging with such a restless, melancholy oddness (ice cubes memorably circling around a telephone) that by the time his film concludes with Warhol’s last doubts and ponderings (as sung by John Cale), we’re sure there’s something very special going on. Lewis KLAHR has been making films since 1977. He is known for his unique, idiosyncratic experimental films and cutout animations that have been shown widely in the United States and Europe. Besides that, since 1999, Klahr works as a scriptwriter.

Rucak

Lunch Ana Husman Croatia, 2008, colour, video, 18 min, English Pro: Maja Juric Pro Comp: Studio Pangolin Sc: Ana Husman Cam: Ivan Slipcevic Ed: Iva Kraljevic Sound: Tomislav Domes, Ana Husman Mu: Zvukbroda With: Dragutin Husman, Jelena Husman, Nicole Hewitt, Igor Pavlica, Lala Rascic, Emina Visnic Print: Hrvatski Filmski Savez Sales: Bonobostudio www.anahusman. net

Frumpy façades and the etiquette of Western social eating and drinking culture are examined at length in Rucak. Husman let herself go in the labour-intensive pixillation animation technique in order to bring life to the stiffness that belongs to the subject. There’s more dynamism in the interiors than in the people who inhabit them. Ana HUSMAN (1977, Croatia) attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She represents an important new generation of Croatian film makers. For her short films The Market (2006) and Lunch (2008) she received several international awards.

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Work, Rest & Play People like us

United Kingdom, 2008, 14 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: LUX

Work, R est & Play uses film footage from 1940-1975 to follow the endless chug of the conveyer belt of life. Images of production lines, factories, and educational and creative industries are sandwiched between those of the winding up and down processes of the day, the hours of leisure and relaxation, in a symphony of movement and metamorphosis. DJ and multimedia artist Vicki Bennett has been making CDs, radio and audio-visual multimedia under the name PEOPLE LIKE US since 1992. She animates found footage collages with an equally witty and dark view of popular culture with a surrealistic edge.

2 Horas

2 Hours Alberto Fuguet EUROPEAN PREMIERE Chile, 2008, colour, video, 25 min, Spanish Pro: Alberto Fuguet Pro Comp: Cinepata Sc: Alberto Fuguet Cam: Jorge González Ed: Javier Ugarte Toledo Ad: Alberto Fuguet Sound: Cristián Heyne Mu: Cristián Heyne With: Pablo Cerda, José Pablo Gómez Print/Sales: Cinepata www. albertofuguet.cl

The bachelor Alvaro meets his son Santiago at the airport. Santiago has two hours before his plane leaves for Germany, where he is going to study. Both are nervous and their conversation is awkward, because they haven’t seen each other for five years. They seem to grow slowly closer together. Moving, sober fiction about family bonds and intimacy. Alberto FUGUET (1964, Chile) has been working as a film critic, crime reporter and radio host. He is a novelist and film maker. Among his books translated into English are Bad Vibes; The Movies of My Life and Shorts.

Splendid Isolation East, west, home’s best. At the end there’s a bang and all lights go out.

Letunt világ Lost World Gyula Nemes

Hungary/Finland, 2008, colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.66, 20 min, no dialogue Pro: Gyula Nemes, Sari Volanen Pro Comp: Absolut Film Studio, YLE Cam: Balázs Dobóczi Ed: Martin Blazícek Sound: Gyula Nemes, Rudolf Várhegyi Mu: Dunakeszi Railway Band Print: Magyar Filmunio Sales: Absolut Film Studio http://absolutfilm. hu

For ten years, Nemes filmed the inhabitants of a forgotten area in the centre of Budapest. They live in wooden houses and on houseboats, defying their fate and battling floods, snow and project developers. Melancholy, atmospheric documentary about the right to a place and lifestyle of one’s own. Gyula NEMES (1974, Czech Republic) attended the FAMU, the academy of film and television in Prague. His first feature My One and Onlies (2006) was in competition in Venice. His short film Lost World (2008) won an award for best documentary at the film festival of Karlovy Vary.

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Zeewier

Sea Grass Edward Luyken WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, 16mm, 14 min, no dialogue Pro: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Pro Comp: Stichting Celvast Sc: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Cam: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Ed: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Ad: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Sound: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Mu: Edward Luyken With: Thomas Luyken, Lucas Luyken Print/ Sales: Stichting Celvast

‘The summer holiday has passed. I just kept working all the time, especially also on the new film Seaweed that, like previous annual short films, will also not be longer than 14 minutes.’ (Fragment from Aanzet 334, 5-9-2008, oplage 16. From now on open to a mass audience on: http://edward.luyken.org.) Edward LUYKEN (1950) attended art school in Rotterdam. He is a sculptor and film maker. In the late 1970s he bought his first camera and started making films as an autodidact. His body of work consists of more than forty films.

Going going gone Carole O’Brien

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Canada, 2008, colour, video, 3 min, English Pro: Carole O’Brien Pro Comp: Oh! Brilliant Films Sc: Carole O’Brien, Cara SaneCalder Cam: Carole O’Brien Ed: Carole O’Brien Ad: Allison Bile Sound: Michel Germain Mu: Michel Germain Print/Sales: Winnipeg Film Group

A young girl’s dispute with her mother… and its unexpected poetic unravelling. She waves to us, and as her turmoil disappears so does she. Carole O’BRIEN N made her first film in 1992. She has since authored several short dramas and experimental films. All have played to national and international audiences and were sold for broadcast.

Other Thoughts 4 Henri Plaat

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Henri Plaat Sc: Henri Plaat Cam: Henri Plaat Ed: Henri Plaat, Jan Holleman Ad: Henri Plaat Sound: Henri Plaat Mu: Henri Plaat With: Henri Plaat Print/ Sales: Filmbank

Other Thoughts 4 is a series of portraits linked by tranquil images. A surrealist world that is not strange, but consists of fragments of dreams and also worries. The editing was determined by image and atmosphere. A melancholic film composed from material that Henri Plaat collected over the course of his various journeys. Henri Plaat (1936, Netherlands) attended the Rietveld Academy in the mid-fifties. He works as a visual artist and a film maker (since 1968). Frequently his films are a distillation of his journeys. Plaat lives and works in Amsterdam.

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Barricata

Barricated Emmanuelle Antille Switzerland, 2007, colour, video, 19 min, Italian Pro: Emmanuelle Antille Pro Comp: Rubis Film Sc: Emmanuelle Antille Cam: Emmanuelle Antille Ed: Emmanuelle Antille Sound: Alexander Miesch With: Emilie Gutknecht Print/Sales: Rubis Film www.emmanuelleantille.com

Barricata is centered around four female characters: a grandmother, her two daughters and her granddaughter. They seem to be locked up in the kitchen and are waiting anxiously. On the theme of retreat and neglect (of oneself, others, one’s body or memory) this film presents the intimate relationships and rituals between the members of one family. Emmanuelle ANTILLE (1972, Switzerland) attended the art academy in Geneva and Amsterdam. She makes films, photographs and installations and also work as a writer, singer and musician.

Y’a plus d’os

There Ain’t No Bones Jean-Charles Hue France, 2008, colour, video, 5 min, French Pro: Axel Guyot Pro Comp: Les films d’Avalon Sc: Jean-Charles Hue Cam: JeanCharles Hue Ed: Benjamin Boudot Sound: Jean-Charles Hue With: Maurice Dorkel Print/Sales: Les films d’Avalon

Jean-Charles Hue has gypsy blood and in his often hard and violent videos he sketches stories and situations from his own environment as seen from the inside. He stays close to the protagonists, closer than you would really want as viewer. This rawness inevitably leads in the case of There Ain’t No Bones to a confrontational finale. Jean-Charles HUE (1968, France) attended the Ecole Nationale d’Arts of Cergy Pontoise in France. He has participated in several solo and group exhibitions. Hue lives and works in Paris and is preparing his first feature film in Tijuana, Mexico.

Still Waters Run Deep Three films, all imbued with breathtaking beauty, invite viewers to sharpen their gaze in silence.

Sidewalk Karl Kels

Germany, 2008, b&w, 35mm, 1:1.37, 30 min, silent Pro: Karl Kels Sc: Karl Kels Cam: Karl Kels Ed: Karl Kels Print/Sales: Karl Kels

For four months of winter, Kels aimed his camera at a stretch of sidewalk in New York City and within this clear-cut frame, he recorded what happened on film. Sidewalk is made from this material, comprising 49 shots that have been liberated from the chronological burden of observation. In silence, the fixed frame comes to life in thirty minutes. The many fleeting protagonists who walk in and out of the frame, the cars crossing, the snow flurries: all these elements seem to fit into place. Sidewalk is a beautiful cinematographic painting, portrayed in realistic black & white. Karl KELS (1960, Germany) attended several film courses, among which the film class of experimental film maker Peter Kubelka. He works in the areas of photography, experimental film and installation.

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Winter

Nathaniel Dorsky USA, 2007, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 22 min, silent Pro: Nathaniel Dorsky Cam: Nathaniel Dorsky Ed: Nathaniel Dorsky Print: Light Cone Distribution Sales: Nathaniel Dorsky

The winter solstice in San Francisco, cold, with low winter sunlight. Dorsky is able to translate this winter into film in such a way that as we watch, it doesn’t disappear into the background, into our memories, our collective idea of winter. Dorsky’s films don’t disappear; they appear. Nathaniel DORSKY (1943, USA) is an experimental San Francisco film maker and author of Devotional Cinema (2003). He is often described as a Buddhist film maker.

Sarabande

Nathaniel Dorsky USA, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 15 min, silent Pro: Nathaniel Dorsky Cam: Nathaniel Dorsky Ed: Nathaniel Dorsky Print: Light Cone Distribution Sales: Nathaniel Dorsky

With his very precise, sensitive form of cinema, Dorsky manages to strike a deep chord using only everyday iconography. It is not just a question of pure beauty and the right rhythm in the editing. They are films that in form and in perception are about our being truly alone. Nathaniel DORSKY (1943, USA) is an experimental San Francisco film maker and author of Devotional Cinema (2003). He is often described as a Buddhist film maker.

Super Pop Taipei The serious Taiwan also has a popular, even vulgar side. Exuberant satires on everything that can be satirized. With pleasure.

Viva Taiwan Moooooovie Zero Chou

WORLD PREMIERE Taiwan, 2009, video, 12 min, Taiwanese Pro: Liu Hoho Sc: Zero Chou Cam: Liu HoHo With: Pang Yung-Chih, Serena Fang Print/Sales: Liu Hoho

A dark alleyway. Dim lighting. A classic gangster is waiting for a group of men. ‘Do you maybe want an autograph,’ they ask nervously. No, he doesn’t. The gangster is worried about Taiwanese film. It’s not the way he used to know it. He locks the director up in a cage. He wants him to make him a film. CHOU Zero o (1969, Taiwan) earned a B.A. in Philosophy at the National Chengchi University in 1992. She worked as a journalist before becoming an indie film director. She is one of the leading ladies of Taiwanese documentary film makers.

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Herstory

Angelika Wang Ken-Yu Taiwan, 2008, colour, video, 8 min, Mandarin Pro: Angelika Wang Ken-Yu Cam: Chang Dalong, Angelika Wang Ken Yu, Leo Orange, Ni Wohong Ed: Jumbo Te Ad: Grace Yeh Mu: Elisa Lin With: Tini Ma, Ho Szu-Ying, Elisa Lin, Zheng Pinti Print/Sales: Angelika Wang Ken-Yu

Made with a great deal of female pleasure. With plenty of giggling, one could imagine. Almost teasingly. Three women of different ages talk openly about sex. They also visibly enjoy it. Hidden between all kinds of nice and visually erotic finds, something serious and documentary may be hidden. It seems to have been laughed away on the way.

Yan jing de fong si Passing Eyes Chang Heng-Ju

WORLD PREMIERE Taiwan, 2009, colour, video, 17 min, Taiwanese Pro: Pan Hsin-Ju Pro Comp: National Taiwan University of Arts Sc: Chang Heng-Ju Cam: Liao Ching-Yao Ed: Liao Ching-Sung Ad: Pan Hsin-Ju Sound: Chen Yi-Wei Mu: Tsai Yu-Hsun With: Yen Kuo-Liang Print/Sales: National Taiwan University of Arts

Pheiphei comes from the countryside. She’s quite good looking, but apparently she didn’t think so herself. She went to the big city of Taipei for plastic surgery on her eyes, as many Asian women do. After the operation, she roams through the urban jungle. With those huge sunglasses on, you could think all kinds of things about her. CHANG Heng-Ju (1980, Taiwan) attended the Graduate Program of Motion Picture at the National Taiwan University of Arts. His second short Days on the Crosswalk (2006) won the prize of the Best Short Film and the Formosa Film Award of the 43rd Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.

Intoxicant John Hsu

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Taiwan, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 25 min, Taiwanese Pro: Chiu Yun Sc: John Hsu Cam: Chin Din-Chang Ed: Gou Tzu-Fong Sound: Du Chun-Tung Print/Sales: Chiu Yun

Humorous and metaphorical vision of the future in a style reminiscent of a stricter past. Data system is in danger of being attacked and the defence is made up of school organised boys and girls and lots of paper cards. And screaming megaphones. The horrific image of the future is like a return to the past. John HSU (Taiwan, 1981) was educated at the department of radio, television and film at the Shih Hsin University. His first full length film R eal Online (2006) was awarded Best Fiction Film at the 2006 South Taiwan Film & Video Festival. Intoxicant (2008) is his fourth fiction short.

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My Superpower Girl DJ CHen Yin-Jung

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Taiwan, 2007, colour, video, 35 min, Mandarin Pro: Aileen Li Pro Comp: Filmagic Pictures Co. Sc: DJ Chen Yin-Jung Cam: Gary Chen Ed: Manson Chen Ad: Martha Huang Mu: Barbie Chang With: Adriene Lin, Vince Kao Print/Sales: Filmagic Pictures Co.

Infectiously made collage of music, dance and what was once fashion. Pop ages quickly, and some pop has a tendency to get even nicer as it ages. The maker of this energetic film has a good feeling for this. Jolie is a nice and clever girl with a strange handicap: she has supernatural powers. Her parents want her to keep this strange gift secret. That may be very wise of them, but supernatural powers do not allow themselves to be reined in. As a child, her exceptional power already got her into trouble and that never really stopped. Apparently she lives the life that any attractive woman would want to live, until a certain event changes everything. DJ CHEN Yin-Jung (1980, Taiwan) is a representative of the new generation of Taiwanese film makers. In 2002 she directed a short film entitled Sorry Spy, which earned her general recognition. The comedy Formula 17 (2004) is her full-length début.

Suspended Time It comes down to waiting for what’s about to happen.

Gewichtig wachten

Weight Floris Schönfeld, Michaël Sewandono WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 10 min, English Pro: Floris Schönfeld, Michaël Sewandono Pro Comp: FLMI Film Cam: Martijn van Broekhuizen Sound: Tom Bijnen Mu: Eef van Breen, Wolfert Brederode With: Turan Furat, Qiu Yang, Kim Kilde Print/Sales: FLMI Film www.flmi.nl

Weight is a series of four short films. Each is based on an excerpt from literary fiction. They demonstrate the subtle tension that precedes a key moment in the plot, an essence without function. The IFFR 2009 is screening two films from this series: Oracle Night (based on a book by Paul Auster) and Hard -Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World (based on a book by Haruki Murakami). Floris SCHÖNFELD (1982, USA) is a visual artist and film maker who lives and works in the Netherlands. He attended art school in Amsterdam and The Hague. In his film and performance work he is primarily concerned with the awesome power of fiction and its effects on humanity. Michaël SEWANDONO (1979, Netherlands) attended art school in Amsterdam and the Escuela Internacional de Cine Y Television de Cuba in Havana. He works as a music video and commercial director for Comrad, part of Czar Film.

Action: Study Richard Kerr

WORLD PREMIERE Canada, 2009, b&w, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Richard Kerr Cam: Richard Kerr Ed: Zoe Mapp Print/Sales: Collectif Jeune Cinéma

In the foreground of the shot, in the background and on the soundtrack, the title Action: Study can be found. The maker has a history in reworking film material and that can be seen in the controlled movements that make the background light up and sparkle. An introspective and dynamic work. Richard KERR has played an important role in Canadian cinema for decades, making poetic documentaries, political films and experimental films.

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Tabiaah samitah Nature Morte Akram Zaatari

Lebanon, 2008, colour, video, 11 min, no dialogue Pro: Akram Zaatari Ed: Khalil Hajjar Sound: Nadim Mishlawi With: Mohamad Abu Hammane, Ghayth el Amine Print/Sales: Heure Exquise!

In a dark space we see two men who are preparing by the light of a gas lamp for military action. One is engrossed in a package with some wires connected to it, the other is mending his clothes with needle and thread. Despite the serious nature of their actions, there’s also an element of tenderness. When day breaks, it’s time for one of them to go. Akram ZAATARI (1966, Lebanon) is an artist who lives and works in Beirut and has worked on numerous films on issues about postwar Lebanon. He is also co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation.

Suspended Kimi Takesue

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2009, colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Pro: Kimi Takesue Pro Comp: Kimikat Productions Cam: Kimi Takesue Ed: Kimi Takesue Sound: Kimi Takesue Print/Sales: Kimikat Productions

Suspended both documents and re-contextualises the experience and perception of suspended time amongst a diverse cross-section of people. The piece captures a range of evocative moments that reveal states of emotional and physical suspension: moments of heightened anticipation, focused intensity and blissful surrender. Kimi TAKESUE (1968, USA) was raised in both Hawaii and Massachusetts. She has made films since the early 1990s. Her work has been screened worldwide at museums and festivals. Takesue is currently developing a feature film project.

Nezrimoe

The Unseen Pavel Medvedev Russia, 2007, colour, video, 30 min, Russian/English Pro: Pavel Medvedev Pro Comp: PM Sc: Pavel Medvedev Cam: Artem Ignatov Ed: Svetlana Pechennykch Sound: Alexander Dudarev Print/Sales: PM

The film is set during the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in July 2006. We see the effects for the local population. The sirens, military patrols, blocked streets, low-flying helicopters and armed escorts. City under siege. Even the largest cemetery in the city turned into a strategically sensitive location at the time. Pavel MEDVEDEV (1963, Russia) attended several courses on film and television. He has worked as a television and radio producer and since 2000 works as a film director at the St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio in Russia.

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System Overdrive How a fragile balance - once abandoned - can cause the necessary commotion.

The Black Dog’s Progress Stephen Irwin

United Kingdom, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: Jacqui Davies, Gary Thomas Pro Comp: Animate Projects Sc: Stephen Irwin Mu: Sorenious Bonk Print: Stephen Irwin Sales: LUX www.animateprojects.org

Unwanted, ‘the black dog’ is thrown into an unwelcoming neighbourhood. Corrupted by acts of violence but yearning to live happily ever, his story ends in tragedy! The film is told within a single shot using over fifty flipbook animations, growing ever denser as the looped scenes accumulate and the plot steadily thickens. Stephen IRWIN is a freelance animator living and working in London who graduated from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. His work has been screened throughout the UK and abroad.

Lögner

Lies Jonas Odell Sweden, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 13 min, Swedish Pro: Linda Hämback Pro Comp: Filmtecknarna Animation Cam: Per Helin Ed: Jonas Odell Ad: Jonas Odell Sound: Anders Larsson Mu: Martin Landquist Print: The Swedish Film Institute Sales: Village Srl

Extraordinary animated documentary. In three episodes based on documentary interviews we meet the burglar who, when found out, claims to be a moonlighting accountant; the boy who finds himself lying and confessing to a crime he didn’t commit; and the woman whose whole life has been a chain of lies. Jonas ODELL (1962, Sweden) is one of the founders of the production company Filmtecknarna. His portfolio includes short films, TV series, music videos and television commercials.

Those Crazy Insides Ben Wheele

United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Ben Wheele Ed: Ben Wheele Sound: Ben Wheele Mu: Ben Wheele Print/ Sales: Ben Wheele

Deep in the recesses of an exotic netherworld, mischievous events take place. Submerged into the depths of imagination itself, things slip out of their systems and typologies altogether to co-inhabit a new digestible reality. Cronenberg-esque squelch ahoy! Ben WHEELE is an artist and animator based in Nottingham. He is studying art at Nottingham Trent University.

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Top Girl

Rebecca Johnson EUROPEAN PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 19 min, English Pro: Rebecca Johnson Pro Comp: Fierce Productions Ltd. Sc: Rebecca Johnson Cam: David Raedeker Ed: Mags Arnold Ad: Andy Farago Sound: Byron Blake Mu: Skwilla Gee With: Rumbi Mautsi, Naomi J. Lewis, Alexis Rodney, Jay Brown, Kerron Darby Print/Sales: Fierce Productions Ltd. http://audience.withoutabox.com

Cogent Brixton grime portraying exuberantly bling girls and the teenaged world of macho boys living with their mums in a rawly truthful coming of age tale. Rebecca JOHNSON is a writer, film maker and co-founder of the production company Fierce Productions. Recurring themes in her work are outsiders, underdogs and girls negotiating their way in a man’s world.

The Foxhole Manifesto Nick Fox-Gieg

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Canada, 2007, colour, video, 4 min, English Pro: Nick Fox-Gieg Sc: Jeffrey McDaniel Ed: Nick Fox-Gieg Sound: Nick Fox-Gieg With: Jeffrey McDaniel Print/Sales: V Tape http://fox-gieg.com

A sharp-witted, slam-dunking adaptation of a Jeffrey McDaniel poem on modernly totemic Gods, where McDaniel’s performance comes across like a meeting between Steve Reinke and deceased firebrand comedian Bill Hicks. Animated with evangelical zeal and gusto by Fox-Gieg, it’s a small joy. Nick FOX-GIEG (1978, Canada) is an animator and video artist based in Toronto. His short films have been shown e.g. at the Rotterdam and Ottawa film festivals, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and on CBC TV, Canada.

Freude

Delight Thomas Draschan WORLD PREMIERE Austria, 2009, colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 3 min, English Pro: Thomas Draschan Print/Sales: Thomas Draschan

Hyperactive pop collage film that preaches peace on a subliminal level. Thomas DRASCHAN (1967, Austria) studied theatre and film in Vienna, Frankfurt and New York. His experimental films have been screened internationally.

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Suicidal Variations Kim Sun, Kim Gok

EUROPEAN PREMIERE South Korea, 2007, b&w, video, 15 min, Korean Pro: Kim Sun, Kim Gok Pro Comp: Goksa Sc: Kim Sun, Kim Gok Cam: Ji Yune-Jung Ed: Kim Sun, Kim Gok Ad: Kim Sun, Kim Gok Mu: Hong Chul-Ki With: Jang Sun-Jin Print/Sales: Goksa

An almost unbearably black mood characterises the work of the twins Kim Sun and Kim Gok. Suicidal Variations shows a woman in a state of total despair after she kills a man. His decapitated head follows her and she is decides to escape by committing suicide. Death is manifested in violent flickering effects. KIM Sun (1978, Korea) studied literature. Since 2001 he has written and directed many short and full-length films with his brother. KIM Gok (1978, Korea) has also made many short and several feature length films. Besides Suicidal Variations, which he co-directed with his brother Sun, there is another film of Kim Gok in Rotterdam in 2009, Exhausted (2008).

Taiwanese Family Magic In Taiwan, the family is the focus. That doesn’t mean that everything is going well with, or within, the family. That’s what makes the family a rewarding subject.

Séance familiale Family Viewing Kuo Cheng-Chui

France/Taiwan, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 28 min, Mandarin/English/French Pro: Pamela Varela Pro Comp: Ananda Productions Sc: Kuo Cheng-Chui Cam: Thomas Bataille Ed: Yannis Polinacci Ad: Jeng Jia-Wei Sound: Chou Chen With: Lu Yi-Ching, Kwai Lun-Mei, Mark Lee, Bryan Polach, Michelle Lin Print/ Sales: Ananda Productions http://seancefamiliale.blogspot.com

A kind of mockumentary within the mockumentary. Fake with a hidden meaning that is also fake. In this genre, the important thing is that it looks real - and it does. A Taiwanese family in Taipei is caught off-guard by a French TV crew. Would they like to allow themselves to be filmed for a whole weekend for a reality TV show? They object at first, but a possible reward tempts them. In addition, they have a son studying in France and would then have an opportunity to see him. The journalist Pierre becomes strikingly friendly and seems to know a lot about their son. The family soon forgets that the whole world is looking in. And at first they only reveal small secrets... KUO Cheng-Chui (Taiwan, 1971) studied in France and worked as a video technician in Paris and as an assistant director for TV commercials, short and feature films. Family Viewing (2008) is the fourth short film he wrote and directed.

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Jai hao yue yuan With or Without You Chou She-Wei

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Taiwan, 2008, colour, video, 33 min, Taiwanese Pro: Chou She-Wei Sc: Chou She-Wei, Li Yi-Ze, Shih Fang-Ting Cam: Peng Jia-Ru Ed: Kulong Sound: Wayne Wang Mu: Wayne Wang With: Alice Huang, Lawrence Lin Print/Sales: Ruby Chen http://mingyue2008.pixnet.net/blog

During a funeral ceremony, a not all that bright young man seems to fall asleep, but in fact he’s more involved than the rest. Through his body, a soul makes contact with life. The film maker provides an authentic and realistic impression of the funeral of a mother, but spiritual affairs play the leading role in the story. The youngest daughter is visited in her dream by the dead mother, who announces she does not want to buried beside her husband. It’s not immediately clear why, but on the seventh day of the ceremony, the secret is revealed. The maker wanted to focus attention on the position of women in her mother’s generation. CHOU She-Wei studied history in Taiwan and graduated in 1988 from the Film/TV department of New York University. She is a film critic, teacher and independent film maker.

Summer of Magic Wang Cheng-Yang

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Taiwan, 2008, colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 30 min, Taiwanese/Mandarin Pro: Wang Cheng-Yang, Peggy Chiao, Lee Daw-Ming Pro Comp: Taipei National University of the Arts Sc: Wang Cheng-Yang Cam: Liao Jing-Yao, Cheng HaoCyuan, Fan Sheng-Siang, Sye Fu-Siangg Ed: Cheng Hao-Cyuan, Wang ChengYang Ad: Wang Cheng-Yang, Ling Jin-Hao Sound: Guo Li-Ci, Li Yi-Ci Mu: Huang Wan-Ting With: Mei Fang, Chen Jhe-Hong Print/Sales: Wang Cheng-Yang

If you base the film entirely on a little boy, then you do have to find the right little boy. And if you decide to shoot your film in black-and-white, you have to measure up to the rest of film history. The maker found the right little boy. And the black-and-white? Just watch, you don’t often see them like this any more. The little boy is called A-Hon and this summer he is visiting his grandmother. He is crazy about her. Sometimes he hears piano playing and one day he goes to see where it’s coming from. He finds the piano and also the girl playing it. He’ll hear the mysterious girl playing on many more evenings. The film has a classic surrealist mood. As if the little boy is dreaming old films. WANG Cheng-Yang (Taiwan) studied film making at the Taipei National University of Arts. He also holds a bachelor’s degree of Communication Art from the Chao-Yang University. Summer of Magic (2007) is the fifth short film he wrote and directed.

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Territories Inside or outside. The eternal struggle for the frontier where opposing big shots meet.

Unconscious Yusuke Nakajima

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Japan, 2007, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Yusuke Nakajima Cam: Yusuke Nakajima Ed: Yusuke Nakajima Ad: Yusuke Nakajima Sound: Yusuke Nakajima Print: Yusuke Nakajima Sales: Image Forum

An abstract meditation with the fabulous structures of water and air caught in bubbles. Winner of the Grand Prix at the Image Forum Festival in Tokyo 2008. YUSUKE Nakajima (1984, Japan) is the maker of the short films Unconscious (2007) and Increase (2008). He studied media at Osaka University. Unconscious was awarded at the Image Formum Festival in Tokyo in 2008.

Tilt

Billy Roisz WORLD PREMIERE Austria, 2009, colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Pro: Billy Roisz Sc: Billy Roisz Sound: Sarah Washington, Knut Aufermann Print/Sales: Sixpack Film www.filmvideo.at

‘Tilt’ is an obsolete term from the analogue era that indicates the boundary of acceptable behaviour. A boundary that is still being sought up and transgressed in the electronic videos by Roisz. Her improvisations with various sound artists keep leading to a strenuous interweaving of picture and sound. Billy ROISZ (1967) lives and works in Vienna. She does video and sound experiments in the context of performance, installation and cinema.

When Worlds Collude Fred Worden

EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 13 min, English Pro: Fred Worden Cam: Fred Worden Ed: Fred Worden Sound: Fred Worden Print/Sales: Fred Worden

An experimental film structured as a kind of specialized playground in which highly representational images are freed from their duties. The images run free in their new lightness, making unforeseeable, promiscuous connections with each other and developing an inexplicable, non-parsable plot line that runs along with all the urgency of any good thriller. (FW) Fred WORDEN (USA) has been making experimental films since the mid 1970s. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the fine arts in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

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Monument

Donigan Cumming Canada, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, English Pro: Luis Correia Pro Comp: LX Filmes Sc: Donigan Cumming Cam: Donigan Cumming Ed: Donigan Cumming Ad: Donigan Cumming Sound: Donigan Cumming Mu: Donigan Cumming With: Donigan Cumming, Robert Smith, Raymond Beaudoin, James Carter Print/Sales: LX Filmes

Monument stages the violent death and ceremonial burial of a symbolic object. Three pall bearers are the ghosts in a cruel machine. Mangy parrots, they mourn the death of a man they never knew. Donigan CUMMING (1947, USA) is an artist who lives in Montréal, Canada. He is mainly involved with photography, sound, video and installations. His work has been shown internationally and is represented in many art collections and galleries.

Brasilia/Chandigarh Louidgi Beltrame

France, 2008, colour, video, 27 min, English Pro: Louidgi Beltrame Sc: Louidgi Beltrame Cam: Louidgi Beltrame, Megan Fraser Ed: Louidgi Beltrame, Julien Loustau Sound: Mikaël Barre Mu: Dennis McNulty With: Manisha Pande, Balpreet, Preety, Nicolas Neuenschwander Print/Sales: Louidgi Beltrame

Two dream cities by two world-famous architects: Oscar Niemeyer built Brasilia in the Brazilian savannah and Le Corbusier went to the foot of the Himalayas in India for his creation, Chandigarh. Both cities lie there in the landscape like concrete memorials to the ideals of their makers. The inhabitants are insignificant against this backdrop. The appearance of Brasilia and Chandigarh forms the dialogue in this film with guides providing accents. Louidgi BELTRAME’’s (1971, France) short film Brasilia/Chandigarh (2008) has been screened at several museums and festivals. The French artist had a solo show in the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg and the Galerie Jousse Entreprise in Paris.

Stroboscopic Noise Manuel Knapp

WORLD PREMIERE Austria, 2009, b&w, video, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Manuel Knapp Ed: Manuel Knapp Sound: Manuel Knapp Print/Sales: Sixpack Film

Knapp continues his investigation into the complexities of a graphic abstract language and structural cinema based upon formal precision and rigid discipline of visual and audible components. The artist is a cinematographic and painterly constructor and the composer of a singular straight line, choreographed with an uttermost perfection within a reduced environment of a simulated space. Animations by Manuel KNAPP (1978, Austria), or more precisely ‘simulations´, have been screened at film festivals all over the world. Knapp was educated in painting, graphic design, computer music and electro acoustic media in Vienna, Austria.

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Thailand Is Fine Thailand has one of the most flourishing and fascinating film movements in Asia. Rich in form and politics. The latter is an issue in one of the most chaotic political situations in the world.

I’m Fine Sa-bai-dee-lah I Am Fine Tanwarin Sukkhapisit

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, colour, video, 3 min, Thai Print/Sales: Thai Film Foundation

In Democracy Square (countries that have difficulty with democracy have a square for it) someone is sitting in a cage. He’s doing fine. Of course it’s a political protest - what else would it be? - but just like the person in the cage, the maker also acts as if everything is just fine. Everything is going well. Thailand is doing well. Tanwarin SUKKHAPISIT (Thailand) has fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming an actor as well as a writer and director of films. His short film I Am Fine (2008) won the R.D. Pestonji Award at the 12th Thai Short Film and Video Festival.

‘Action!’

Thunska Pansittivorakul INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Thunska Pansittivorakul Pro Comp: Thai Indie Cam: Chukiat Wongsuwan Ed: Thunska Pansittivorakul, Nontawat Numbenchapol With: Sittipong Prempree Print/Sales: Thai Indie www.thaiindie.com

Rushes of film scenes. The countryside. A father with two children. The same clapperboard on-screen over and over. Starting afresh again. The director focuses on the actor. There is only sound at the end. Someone calls ‘Action!’ Shot at Sittipong Prempree. Recordings from Godman by Zart Tanchareon. Thunska PANSITTIVORAKUL (1973, Thailand) graduated in art education from Bangkok University. His second feature length documentary Happy Berry won the Grand Prize Award at the 4th Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2004.

Fall

Visra Vichit-Vadakan EUROPEAN PREMIERE Thailand/USA, 2008, b&w, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Pornmanus S Pro Comp: Pawana Productions Sc: Visra Vichit-Vadakan Cam: Colen Wiley Ed: Visra Vichit-Vadakan Ad: Chloe Zhao Sound: Zach Katagiri With: Margaret Drake, Ramon Roullard Print/Sales: Pawana Productions

If you’re studying, you’re allowed to rediscover the wheel. The meticulous unspoken black-and-white language of a film that speaks desire. A young woman in New York has an erotic vision. Was she taken in waving grass? Maybe she wasn’t. Buddhism and love for those who want to see it. Visra VICHIT-VADAKAN (Thailand) is an emerging film director and screenwriter. She began her film career as an actor and later moved on to direct her own films. Her first short film R ise (2006) was screened at the Thai Short Film and Video Festival in 2006.

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My Image Observes Your Image if it Is Possible to Observe it Phuttiphong Aroonpheng

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, video, 6 min, Thai Print/Sales: Thai Film Foundation

Phuttiphong Aroonpheng made this work during an artist-in-residence programme at the Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin, Ireland. The Thai film maker gazed in amazement at his new northern home base. He floated like a cloud through his temporary city, literally and metaphorically. Phuttiphong AROONPHENG (Thailand, 1976) graduated in Fine Arts from Silpakorn University. His work is often supported by the Office of Contemporary Art and Ministry of Culture Thailand.

Burmese Man Dancing Nok Paksnavin

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, video, 8 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: Thai Film Foundation

An experimental and also socially committed film for those who recognise it. The film shows two pictures side-by-side. Series of small boats in blackand-white. Men are working on the boats. There is no dancing but hard work. The Burmese, the illegal immigrants from Myanmar, don’t have an easy time . The text under the images is in an invented language.

My Mother and Her Darkness Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2009, video, 7 min, Thai Print/Sales: Thai Film Foundation

One of two short films about an old mother. See also Loneliness Everywhere. We see the mother from behind. She is sitting on the ground looking up the street. There’s a television on. Insects dance around the lamp. A film maker who can capture light and loneliness.

Loneliness Is Everywhere Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, video, 10 min, Thai Print/Sales: Thai Film Foundation

One of two films about an old mother. See also My Mother and Her Darkness. It’s light here, but just as lonely. The film maker is a pharmacist in real life, but as film maker he knows what he’s doing. He has a feeling for his mother, but also for film.

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Orchestra

Jakrawal Nilthamrong INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, colour, video, 24 min, Thai Pro: Jakrawal Nilthamrong Pro Comp: Mit Out Sound Films Sc: Jakrawal Nilthamrong Cam: Tanon Sattarujawong Ed: Jakrawal Nilthamrong Ad: Chatchai Chaiyont Sound: Pakorn Musikboonlert Mu: Pakorn Musikboonlert With: Sompong Rakphrommaraj Print/Sales: Mit Out Sound Films

With a sensitive eye for detail, the film maker made a small group portrait of five employees in a silk factory in his country. He gazed in fascination at the production process, but also how people live and dream. He sees the factory as an orchestra in which the machines and the employees are the instruments. A visual symphony. Jakrawal NILTHAMRONG (1977, Thailand) holds a MFA in art and technology studies. In 2007 he was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2009 the IFFR screens both his short Orchestra (2008) and Man and Gravity (2009).

Roke rai nai rob neung roi phee Diseases and a Hundred Year Period Sompot Chidgasornpongse

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Thailand, 2008, colour, video, 20 min, Thai Print/Sales: Thai Film Foundation

Essay film about the censorship of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century. The censored scenes, which he blacked out and scratched in Thailand, are paraphrased here. A political statement in an original form. The form that is in itself political, because it’s also the form and not only the substance of the sex that was censored. Sompot CHIDGASORNPONGSE (1980, Thailand) wrote a critically acclaimed play before he graduated from Chulalongkorn University. He is a freelance film editor, designer and (assistant) director. Diseases and a Hundred Year Period (2008) is his second short film as a director.

The Ukrainian Time Machine The Ukrainian Time Machine Naomi Uman

WORLD PREMIERE Ukraine/USA, 2009, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 90 min, Ukrainian/English Pro: Naomi Uman Cam: Naomi Uman Ed: Naomi Uman Sound: Naomi Uman Print/ Sales: Naomi Uman none

When I made a film, several years ago, which critically portrayed immigrants in the United States, it was suggested to me that I had no idea of what the immigrant experience was, not having experienced it myself. So, I decided to recreate the journey of my great grandparents’ immigration to America one hundred years ago, in reverse. I moved to a small village near the Ukrainian city of Uman. This series of films reflects the elasticity of time that I found there, with villagers living much as they did when my family left. K alendar starts with the concept of language acquisition and illustrates the meaning of the months of the year in the Ukrainian calendar with images from the natural world. Clay draws a connection between the relationship of the Trypillian people (ca. 3000 BC) to the clay and soil and the relationship of present day brick factory workers to this same material. On This Day examines my personal relationship to the subject, and reveals a secret I had kept hidden during the making of the film. Unnamed Film, the central work of the cycle, frames and holds together the other films of the cycle, portraying the village, its inhabitants and their relationship to me as a filmmaker. (Naomi Uman) Naomi UMAN received an MFA in Film making from CalArts in 1998. Her experimental documentary films, with a very distinct, personal signature, have been exhibited widely at several international festivals and museums. Uman has also taught at the Fine Art Museum in Mexico City, leading workshops in handmade film making. She has lived in e.g. Los Angeles, Mexico City and the Ukraine.

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What Are We Looking at What can be seen if we pay a visit to the neighbours quite openly, or precisely under the cover of darkness?

Een rechtschapen mens heeft niets te verbergen An Honest Man Has Nothing to Hide BarBara Hanlo

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour/b&w, video, 23 min, Dutch Pro: BarBara Hanlo Pro Comp: Purple Earth Productions Sc: BarBara Hanlo Cam: BarBara Hanlo Ed: Jan Wouter van Reijen Sound: BarBara Hanlo Print/ Sales: Purple Earth Productions www.p-e-p.nl

Some may regard it as a voyeuristic violation of the privacy of inhabitants of Amsterdam’s canal district. Others suggest that the inhabitants moved into a regal dwelling with a large area of glass and then decided not to close the curtains and shouldn’t be surprised when people peer inside. BarBara Hanlo comes to take a look. Or is this more like being a Peeping Tom? BarBara HANLO (1957, Netherlands) is an artist and film maker. She writes and produces her own films. Much of her work has been screened in Rotterdam.

Over het naar gezichten in de wolken speuren On Looking for Faces in the Clouds Sander Blom

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 50 min, English/ French Pro: Denis Vaslin Pro Comp: Volya Films Sc: Sander Blom Cam: Vladas Naudzius Ed: Stella van Voorst van Beest Print/Sales: Volya Films

A film that pretends to be a semi-scientific investigation into an intangible phenomenon: the human capacity to see faces in the clouds of smoke from the WTC or on a faded photo of Mars. Blom maps out the boundary conditions of this phenomenon by starting from two epicentres of proven pareidolia. He poses associative questions to several unusual individuals who live around Lourdes and Loch Ness and also films a well-known psychological drawing experiment at the local schools. Are we any wiser? Not really, because you can’t let statistics loose on amazement. In its quest, On Looking for Faces in the Clouds itself becomes a pareidolia. Sander BLOM (1963, Netherlands) attended the Dutch Film and Television Academy and has made several short films in which he explores ‘the boundaries between real and not so real’.

Installations City Media Project DIY

Anna Abrahams, Jan Frederik Groot WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 9 min

The home movie colour film shows people building their own house. The concept of DIY is portrayed in a little way in this series of images. Installation at the Beurs metro station in a City Media project. Anna ABRAHAMS (Norway, 1963) works as a producer and director for the independent production company Rongwrong, which she founded with film maker Jan Frederik Groot in 1989.

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Junge Äste ahmen alte Geweihe nach und alte Geweihe junge Äste Young Branches Imitate Old Antlers and Old Antlers Young Branches Yves Netzhammer Switzerland, 1999, 25 min, no dialogue Courtesy Galerie Anita Beckers, Deutschland

Yves Netzhammers images tell about the mutual condition of nature and living creature in a constant metamorphosis of becoming and decline. He investigates in the being as well as in the pictural structures of his protagonists - deer and tree - searching for analogies and differences by making them experiencable in his virtual images worlds. Installation in window CBK in City Media project.

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tussenb

speCtrum live

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USA/United Kingdom/ Norway/Switzerland, 120 min

Worm Live: Aethenor + Brent Coughenour

To close the WORM music program, a special performance by a distinguished cast of musicians. Æthenor is based on the Treo O’Sullivan, De Roguin and O’Malley, who have distilled a new musical vision from a series of nocturnal improvisation sessions. Æthenor displays similarities with the work of Bernard Parmegiani, Nurse With Wound, Iancu Dumitrescu and Coil. Acousmatic drones undulate over you like crackling sonic clusters . Calm, sketchy piano themes and lamentations thrust into a musical darkness, while drums, guitar and electronics investigate new musical territory. American film maker and multi-media performer Brent Coughenour presents a live audio-visual performance for thumb piano, Guitar Hero video game controller and computer. The piece begins with gestural input in the form of acoustic sounds generated by a thumb piano and actions measured by the accelerometers in the Guitar Hero video game controller. A computer is used to analyze the incoming data and apply it to an array of strategies and techniques for algorithmic audio and video synthesis. Audio processes such as pitch, amplitude and harmonicity tracking, granular synthesis, filtration, and phase vocoding combine with stochastic algorithms and computer vision strategies applied to video material to generate an occasionally synchronous dynamic relationship between sounds and images!

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Argentina, 120 min www.geocities.com/a_courtis

Worm Live: Alan Courtis + Gangpol und Mit Compilation of Argentine Super-8 home movies from the 1970s and 1980s (selected by Sergio Subero and Sergio Brauer) shows daily city life and views of the countryside. This eye-cavalcade portrays the Argentinian collective memory and is presented with a live music performance based on drone/psychedelic/abstract-noise specialist Alan Courtis. Guitarist and improviser extraordinaire Alan Courtis (Buenos Aires, 1972) is not only a figurehead within the Argentinian underground scene, but also often appears in the international spotlights. His CV shows endless releases and collaborations with the likes of Lee Ranaldo, Damo Suzuki or Francisco Lopez. Courtis was the co-founder of the sadly defunct REYNOLS, maybe the finest example of true outsidermusic in recent years (see also Looking for R eynols, IFFR 2006) with which he brought out more than 100 releases. Featured afterwards are Gangpol und Mit, a duo from Bordeaux that provides the perfect mix of visual innovation and electronic music. They create a pleasantly crazy cartoon world with abstract apocalyptic narratives inhabited by colourful, geometric creatures. The exciting music employs fluent melodies that deconstruct a variety of styles and then put them together again: ‘coconut swing, boogaloo noise, tango massacre and imaginary folklore’ are not empty fabrications in the world of Gangpol und Mit. .

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USA/Brazil, 120 min www.shplargh.com

Worm Live: Blectum from Blechdom + Maga Bo & MC Bnegão Kristin Erickson (Kevin Blechdom) and Bevin Kelley (Blevin Blectum) formed in 1998 the electronic music act Blectum from Blechdom. After three years of fruitful cooperation, the duo decided in 2001 to end their joint activities. The two girls retained their noms de plume and decided to focus entirely on their solo ambitions. Kevin Blechdom was especially successful at that. Without answering the question of whether the band was ever officially disbanded, the duo is now joining up again. Blectum from Blechdom’s new live show is an infectious mix of computer music, songs, vocals and interactive video extravaganza in a colourful, cartoonesque performance. In the cross-border music of DJ/producer Maga Bo, a plethora of international music styles and sounds clash with unorthodox beats. Maga Bo’s innovative sound coals skilfully from hiphop, ragga, breakbeat and jungle to mash-ups of batucada, rai, capoeira and bhangra. He finds his sounds in the streets of Brazil, Morocco, Senegal, India and modifies these with his portable laptop studio into his own exciting dance music.

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United Kingdom, 120 min http://kinoblatz.com

Worm Live: Jeff Keen + Peter Rehberg aka Pita

Born in 1923 and a soldier in World War II, Jeff Keen began making films at the age of 37 - prompted by a deficit of screenings at the local film society. And so began over forty years of unique, imaginative, irrepressible film making that’s outlived the scenes in which it thrived: the sixties counter-culture, punk and beyond. Featuring a massive range of animated cut-outs and painting and populated by friends and family in a variety of guises, including The Cat Woman, Silverhead, Babyjelly and many more, these frenetic films reveal Keen’s genuine LOVE of comics, B movies and pulp novels while also making darker references to war. Progressing through various film stocks, though always preferring 8mm - more oppositional, more disposable, less of a sellout - this self-taught artist and pioneer of independent film impresses his highly individual stamp upon all his work. Peter Rehberg (1968, London) aka Pita is an author and performer of electronic audio works and one of the first to turn to mobile computing devices for live audio performances. David Keenan wrote that ‘Get Out, recorded by Peter Rehberg aka Pita and originally released by Mego in 1999, stands as the first major musical laptop statement in the same way that Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced album spoke for the most extended instrument-specific modes of the electric guitar three decades earlier.’

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Australia/Netherlands, 120 min www.orenambarchi.com

Worm Live: Oren Ambarchi + Faces

Oren Ambarchi is an Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, ‘re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation.’ (The Wire, UK) A collaborator with Sunn 0))) and Stephen O’Malley, Ambarchi’s work is a unique soundworld where fragile, hushed and pensive songwriting tenuously coexists with deep, wall-shaking bass tones - the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal. A live cinema composition by Faces, an ensemble comprising Huib Emmer (live electronics), Tiger Award winner Joost van Veen (visuals) and Lukas Simonis (guitar), with Nina Hitz (cello) and Kaoru Iwamura (clavichord and Farfisa organ). Tijdlus is a performance with archaic images, voices, dust, slow beats, melody, chemistry, strange organs, white noise and white horses. Composer and film maker tune the manipulated film images, live electronics and the sounds of the musical instruments meticulously, but also leave space for live adaptations, disruptions and improvisations. This flexibility allows the right dynamics, unpredictability and a certain amount of lunacy too.

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Hungry Ghosts* in a Haunted House Gertjan Zuilhof The house itself was not large, but it was walled-in and set back from the road. I picked it for its high wall and rented it cheap from a superstitious towkay: it was on Kampong Java Road and the rear opened on to the Lower Bukit Timah Road cemetery. Those several acres of tombstones and the fact of the house being associated with some Japanese atrocities accounted for the low rent, but gave me headaches when it came to getting girls to live in. Finding girls who didn’t believe in ghosts was very difficult – the house was haunted... (Paul Theroux, Saint Jack, 1973)

I admit it only got through to me very slowly just how important and widespread the belief in ghosts is in Asia. It is so much part of everyday life and the belief is so generally accepted that it is not particularly striking, strangely enough. But from the moment when it does strike you, it turns out to be ubiquitous. There was no first time. As I said, the realisation came slowly. It crept up on me. For instance, at the moment when someone walked into a film production office and asked en passant whether they knew there was a ghost in the office. Those present continued to work calmly while saying they already knew. Later, I heard the office had moved, but they didn’t say why. Or a moment during a conversation with serious film makers who had made an excursion into horror (money has to be earned, after all). The stories were always about events on the set. Strange events were said to have taken place

during shooting. Unexplainable and even dramatic accidents. No one doubted that making a horror film really did awaken dark powers. Another anecdote. It indicates that it’s very difficult to escape work and spirits. I was standing with my daughter on the beach at Pelabuhan Ratu (Western Java, on the Indian Ocean coast) when a worried woman called from a film production house in Jakarta. Whether we knew that we should not enter the water in green swimming costumes under any circumstances. So many people had already drowned this season. Legend has it that the vengeful sea goddess Nyai Loro Kidul is primarily interested in green. I looked at my daughter’s surfing trousers and didn’t say what I saw. And I didn’t ask why she phoned at that moment. Belief in ghosts is everywhere, so the programme is not just limited to horror films, which are of course the most obvious source of ghost stories. Even those who only take a fleeting interest in Asian cinema cannot avoid the fact that the horror film is the most productive and most vital genre. Within this genre, the disparateness and quality vary greatly. In Indonesia, no less than 50 horror films were made in 2008, but only a few of those can measure up to the almost consistently high quality of the Thai horror film.

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The aim of the programme is not to provide a general survey. The emphasis is, as befits a Rotterdam selection, on films that have an interesting narrative or have most to offer in their design. The programme includes outspoken genre films made for a mass audience such as Art of the Devil 3 by the Thai Team Ronin, but that’s also one of the best of its kind. Of course, horror films have also been included in the programme, such as the impressive NightmAre Detective 2 by Tsukamoto Shinya, the artistic quality of which merits a place at any festival. Tsukamoto reinvents the genre in an almost psychiatric way and not just anyone could do that. The theme of the programme means that films have also been chosen that operate far beyond the boundaries of genre cinema. The curious and very entertaining children’s film NAk by Nattapong Ratanachoksirikul, for instance, that can be read as a general introduction to all the different ghosts in Thai legend. A film that would normally be described as serious art-house, such as the thoughtfully told the mooN At the Bottom of the Well by the Vietnamese Nguyen Vinh Son, also fits in here, thanks to the important role played by a medium’s ritual with the world of the dead. That element from Nguyen’s film was the reason for asking him to participate in an exhibition as part of this programme. In order to emphasise how concretely people relate to ghosts in Asia and how important locations are (in the film and outside it), several film makers were invited to furnish a room in what was intended to be a kind of ghost

house, a Haunted House. The building of the former Fotomuseum, which was actually the former headquarters of a daily newspaper and where the old board room and the print shop are still clearly recognisable, is an ideal location for this undertaking. The building clearly has character and history has left its traces there. In fact, the building was one of the reasons for making the exhibition. Another reason, alongside the above anecdotes by film makers, was the film the UNseeABle by Wisit Sasanatieng, screened last year in Rotterdam. The film is an extremely elegant homage to the Gothic horror tradition and an outspoken narrative about a haunted house. It was also an obvious choice to ask Sasanatieng, as few words were needed in order to make the scheme clear to him. None of the film makers who have been asked to make a room are horror filmers pur sang, but they all have their experiences in this field – most of all, strikingly enough, Amir Muhammad who has recently not presented himself as a film maker at all, but as a writer and publisher. He’s the only one who (together with Naeim Ghalili) is also showing a commercial horror film, namely sUsUk, in this programme. In view of his recent development, it’s not surprising that Muhammad is presenting a book in his room, although it is a book about ghosts. Lav Diaz is the Filipino master best known for his long films. You could say his extremely long films. It’s less well known that his films in a melancholy way are always about the sad history and politics of his country. The ghosts he will evoke in his room are those

Moon at the Bottom of the Well

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Susuk

of the victims of the Marcos regime and possibly of the satanic couple themselves. In many respects, Indonesia is the archipelago of ghosts, which can be found in all sorts, sizes and enormous numbers and which can be evoked or exorcised in many ritual ways. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why two major Indonesian film makers have also been included in the House: Riri Riza and Garin Nugroho. Riza made a short film about a kris cleansing ritual that is part of the horror omnibus tAkUt: fAces of feAr, also being screened at the festival. His room will be prepared for precisely such a ritual, with all the necessary items and scents. Nugroho returned to the house where he grew up â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an old Javan house in Yogyakarta, a house filled with stories and ghosts. In that house, two written cultures came together in a natural way: Javan documents about ghosts and Islamic prayers against devils and demons. The programme has several conscious intentions, while also involving a few less conscious or emphasised intentions. Firstly, it aims to offer a context for a series of films emerging from a rich and occasionally centuries-old way of telling stories. By taking the genre films out of their usual nooks of nocturnal madness and programming them alongside non-genre

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films, it has to be clear that they are more than just a series of shock effects. An additional effect is that the programme will offer more insight into Asian cinema in general. Many Asian films comprise casual references to ghosts that are not always noticed. Another effect is that this programme makes clear why western remakes of Asian horror films are so different from their originals in essential ways. It apparently takes real ghosts and a real belief in ghosts to accept that a ghost will never be explained and never disappears. You can exorcise it and try to negotiate a way to live with it. This programme will contribute to this understanding. A sacrifice to a hungry ghost. *The belief held in China and far beyond that ghosts and/or dead ancestors return to the world of the living in order to feed themselves in some way or another. Virtually every viewer and maker of horror films in Asia believes in that.

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Philippines, 2009

Lav DIAZ (1958, Philippines) attended the Mowelfund Film Institute in Quezon City. His breakthrough came with the five-hour feature Batang West Side (2002). Both his short Purgatorio (2008) and his 450-minute feature Melancholia (2008) has been selected for the IFFR in 2009.

Manila’s Dark Room Lav Diaz

Lav Diaz is not only a maker of extremely long films. He also makes short ones (such as Purgatorio, this year in the short film competition) and is a passionate rock musician. Together with the film makers Khavn, Roxlee and John Torres, he forms a band known as The Brockas, named after the great Filipino film maker. In his proposal for a room in the Haunted House, he brings together his musical and visual backgrounds. The room will be as dark as possible and the specially recorded music is by The Brockas. The maker took the idea of scaring the visitors seriously. No greater fear than the fear that visitors have within themselves and that can be brought out by the darkness in an unknown space. Furthermore, tactile sensations will do their work and the far from comforting music of The Brockas, a Filipino variation on punk rock that tends towards noise, will also not put anyone at ease. The sound will sometimes be loud, sometimes soft, but can also be natural, such as the noise of whales. To judge by the theme of Diaz’s films and the lyrics of The Brockas, the ghosts in the room will not have had a pleasant life. They probably lived at the time of the state of siege, experienced the cruelties of the dictatorship. The effect depends on the visitors’ own impression of hell, according to the maker. (GjZ)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Malaysia, 2009 Mu: Hardesh Singh

Amir MUHAMMAD (1972, Malaysia) graduated in law but devotes himself entirely to other activities, such as writing and film making. Some of his films were banned in Malaysia.

Reading Room Amir Muhammad

Films: (Amir Muhammad) Lips to Lips (2000), 6horts: Lost, Friday, Mona, Checkpoint, Kamunting, Pangyau (2002, shorts), Digital Compassion 02 (segment Petrol-Parking, 2002), The Big Durian (2003), Wait (2004, short), Tokyo Magic Hour (2005), The Year of Living Vicariously (2005), Lelaki komunis terakhir/The Last Communist (2006), Village People Radio Show (2007), Susuk (2008, co-dir), Reading Room (2009, instal)

Amir Muhammad is a versatile film maker who does not primarily regard himself as a film maker. In this programme, he is also present as the co-director (together with Naeim Ghalili) of the horror film Susuk, which is popular and controversial in its country of origin, but in that country he mainly became famous (or notorious) through his political documentaries that were always banned. Muhammad now primarily sees himself as a writer, or maybe even a publisher. That’s why his room is very aptly a reading room, in which visitors can read a special IFFR edition of a book he published under the title The Malaysian Book of the Undead by Danny Lim. Since but a thin booklet can be read in the room, he compares the space with Borges’ idea of hell, and since the room is to be furnished with IKEA furniture, there will also be anti-bourgeois critics who regard this as a hell of bad taste. At least, that’s what the always satirical publisher suspects. The booklet is basically sceptical about its subject, while the functional Scandinavian furnishing will also not be directly spooky. Apart from 500 copies of the relevant book (that will be distributed free on the last day of the exhibition) there will also be marbles in the room. For the significance of these, one should look in the book under the keyword Toyol (a children’s spirit, popular among thieves ). (GjZ)

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Vietnam, 2009 Ad: Nguyen Trinh Hoan

Meeting Room for Life and After-life

Films: L’enfance violente (1990), Le dernier chevalier (1993), La terre de l’amour humain (1995), Trang noi day gieng/Moon at the Bottom of the Well (2008), Meeting Room for Life and Afterlife (2009, instal)

Nguyen Vinh Son The reason to ask Nguyen Vinh Son to furnish a room in the Haunted House was a scene towards the end of his beautifully narrated film Moon at the Bottom of the Well (included in this programme). His tormented female protagonist finally asks for advice from a medium in the temple. The medium puts her into contact with a spirit from the world after death. The film describes the contact with life after this life in a completely convincing way and provides a beautiful example of cinematographic ghost life outside the horror-film genre. In order to prepare his room, Nguyen went back to Hue, where he shot his film. Hue is the old imperial capital of Vietnam and, alongside the protected monuments, old buildings and rituals are honoured there. Nguyen wanted to build an alter as it can be seen in his film. He collected the necessary attributes on the spot and spoke to experts about details and customs. Baubles and real sacrifices complete the whole. On the monitor, he will show recordings of real rituals that are like theatrical and musical performances. You could say that Nguyen’s room is furnished so that nothing can stand in the way of a real performance of a ritual in order to encounter the life after this life. (GjZ)

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Indonesia, 2009 Ad: Nanang Rakhmad Hidayat

Transformation, Ghosts in Garin Nugroho’s House Garin Nugroho Anyone who has seen his overwhelming film Opera Jawa knows that there is a spatial and visual artist hiding in the great Indonesian film maker Nugroho. Nor is his room in the Haunted House his first spatial installation. He recently presented an installation version of Opera Jawa in Munich’s Haus der Kunst. Nugroho’s idea for the rooms emerges from his knowledge of Javan and Islamic calligraphy and the portrayals of ghosts in those cultural forms. His approach is personal, not scientific. He grew up with such texts, and with drawings, songs and tales in which ghosts play a role. Music was (and is), for example, a powerful way of exorcising ghosts. Nugroho’s presentation is divided over two rooms. One room is a cinema room. Especially for this project, Nugroho made three short films: The Ghost Seller, The Ghost Painter and Ghost Hunting. The gamelan music that can be heard was also specially recorded for this project. In an adjoining large space, mystical Javan and Islamic texts are projected on the floor. Both rooms are hung with photos and drawings of all kinds of customs and habits involved with ghosts. These focus on the old Javanese house in Yogyakarta where the artist grew up and that is apparently filled with ghosts. Nugroho’s most recent film, Under the Tree, about rituals and spirits on Bali, is also being screened in this programme. (GjZ)

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Garin NUGROHO (1961, Indonesia) completed his studies in 1985 at the film academy in Jakarta. Since then, he has built up an impressive body of work with features, documentaries and shorts. Nugroho is also a film critic for several Indonesian newspapers and a lecturer at the University of Indonesia. In 1999 the festival opened with his feature Leaf on a Pillow; his later films have been shown in Rotterdam as well. Films: (since 1994) A Letter to an Angel (1994), Kancil’s Tale of Freedom (1995, doc), And the Moon Dances (1995), Leaf on a Pillow (1998), My Family, My Films and My Nation (1998, doc), A Poet (2000), Jakarta (2001, short doc), Birdman Tale (2002), ICON sebuah Peta Budaya (2004), Political Trilogy (2004, short), Of Love and Eggs (2004), Serambi (2005), Opera Jawa (2006), Teak Leaves at the Temples (2008, doc), Under the Tree (2008),Transformation, Ghosts in Garin Nugroho’s House (2009, instal)

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Indonesia, 2009 Ad: Eros Eflin

A Purification Pod

Films: Ungu Violet (2005), D’Bijis (2007), Merah itu cinta (2007), Tri mas getir/Three Bitter Guys (2008), Oh, My God! (2008),Takut: Faces of Fear (segment Show Unit, 2008)

Riri Riza

The room by Riri Riza, who made the Indonesian national box office success of 2008, Laskar pelangi, is intended to give the impression that a cleansing ritual has just taken place or is about to. Riza also has a short film in this programme, part of the omnibus film Takut, and that also shows such a ritual. Titisan Naya (Incarnation of Naya) is about the cleansing ritual for a kris (an Indonesian dagger) that is important for a family. The film shows that even if you’re sceptical or unwilling in the face of such a ritual, it can still exert power over you. Enter the room alone, that’s what the film maker wants. This is so the scent, the light and the sound can have their effect on the visitor undisturbed. In fact, the film maker wants to evoke a feeling that he himself remembers from ceremonies like this - performed all over Java and beyond, and occasionally in a mixture of Indonesian cultures. The idea of the visitor being alone is of course that you don’t feel alone. That there is something else in the room. The incense, the kris, the can of chicken blood and the other sacrifices are not there without reason. The essence of the cleansing ritual is that people confess their guilt to the surrounding ghosts in order to wash off their sins. The film maker wants to share his experience with rituals through the medium of this room. (GjZ)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Thailand, 2009 Ad: Pallop Chomthaworn

Close Encounter of the Ghost Wisit Sasanatieng

Wisit SASANATIENG (1964, Thailand), after his training at Silpakorn University, Bangkok’s most important art school, worked as a director of commercials. He wrote scripts for his friend and colleague Nonzee Nimibutr, including Nang Nak (1999). Tears of the Black Tiger (2000), his directing début, was the first Thai film ever selected officially for the Cannes Film Festival. The film brought him several awards from different festivals. The Unseeable screened at the IFFR in 2008. Films: Fah talai jone/Tears of the Black Tiger (2000), Mah nakorn/Citizen Dog (2004), Pen choo kab pee/The Unseeable (2006), Close Encounter of the Ghost (2009, instal)

During the last festival, we showed the beautiful haunted-house film The Unseeable by Wisit Sasanatieng, a film that in many ways inspired the creation of this programme. Sasanatieng was also the obvious film maker to select for a room in the Haunted House. Just as The Unseeable in its mood and décor refers to older narratives and classic horror films, so too is his design for the exhibition closely linked to the techniques of classic cinema. It is built and furnished as a film set for a scene in a horror film and in fact is also used as a set, including extras who play the ghost. As a director should, Sasanatieng rehearses with the volunteer ghosts and prepares them for their role. He imagines it is night and has the visitor take a look in an old traditional Thai house. If the visitor has the experience of seeing a real ghost with his own eyes, it’ll take his breath away. Sasanatieng co-operated closely on his concept with the art director and set designer Saksiri Chantarangsri, who has a command of the old box of tricks used throughout the history of cinema. Thanks to this craftsman-like approach, this room in the house probably comes closest to the idea of ghosts that has been ingrained into our subconsciousness by film history. (GjZ)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, video, 72 min, Indonesian Pro: Yunita Candra Pro Comp: Houseofwaves

productions Sc: Dalih Sembiring Cam: Wahyu Wiryawan Ed: Lucky Kuswandi, James Graciano Ad: Edo Gimbal Sound: Edo Gimbal Mu: Elias Rose & The Furious Pink, Tika With: Rifnu Wikana, Kartika Jahja, Jeffrey Sirie Print/Sales: Houseofwaves

productions

Kado hari jadi The Anniversary Gift Paul Agusta

The film maker argues that this film does not involve any spirits. An Indonesian horror film without spirits is for that reason alone unique. According to the young maker, the human psyche can be more frightening than ghosts or demons. The Anniversary Gift is outspokenly experimental and therefore also fairly special in this part of the world. The images are consciously grubby and poor. Agusta used low resolution VHS video to make the images raw and authentic: the authenticity of security cameras, which goes well with the images of a man locked up and being tortured. In these images, the film is cruel and violent, even though a strange kind of sadistic pleasure also plays a role. Despite its intemperance in picture and sound, The Anniversary Gift is basically minimal. Visually it has a kind of primitive power, and dramatically it only has a few characters. The man who is tortured and the woman who tortures are the protagonists. Who the man is and why he’s being tortured are not revealed. The film also says nothing about the torturing woman in her colourful dress. In flashbacks, Agusta shows fragments from the past, but also in this case, little is revealed. The viewer has to share a certain uncertainty with the protagonists. But that is precisely the strong side of a film that was clearly made on a low budget. (GjZ)

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www.vengeanceispink.com

Paul AGUSTA (1980, Indonesia) studied film in the USA before returning to his homeland in 2003. His short videos (most of them realised with a limited budget) have been included in local and international film events and screenings. Prior to 2007, Agusta was mostly known as a film critic, festival manager and film curator, but nowadays he focuses on making films and videos. Films: Kado hari jadi/The Anniversary Gift (2008)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 115 min, Indonesian Pro: Sheila Timothy Pro Comp: PT LifeLike Pictures Sc: Joko Anwar Cam: Ipung Rachmat Syaiful Ed: Wawan I. Wibowo Ad: Wencislaus Sound: Khikmawan Santosa Mu: Aghi Narottama, Bemby

Gusti, Ramondo Gascaro With: Fachri Albar, Marsha Timothy, Ario Bayu, Otto Djauhari Print/Sales: PT LifeLike Pictures www.pintuterlarang.com

Pintu terlarang Forbidden Door Joko Anwar

This third film by Joko Anwar is a skilful mix of various genres. As a scriptwriter, he was responsible for waking up the Indonesian film world almost on his own. Anwar is a lover of genre films, but his own films are not quite that - or they do not abide by the rules of the genre. Forbidden Door is not an ordinary thriller, not an ordinary horror film and also not a combination of the two. We’ll just have to call it an Anwar film. The life of a successful sculptor who is famous thanks to his very literal way of bringing his statues to life, is turned upside down when he believes he discerns mysterious messages. He thinks they are from an imprisoned and abused child, but it’s a mystery to him why these messages crop up all over the place. When he joins a mysterious society that makes perverted television programmes, he finds himself face-toface with a little boy. It turns out he is in the hands of a sadistic couple. A quest for the imprisoned boy brings the sculptor closer and closer to himself, and finally he faces impossible choices. Forbidden Door is a psychological thriller, but it’s not entirely without spattering blood. Without being an outspoken horror or ghost movie, the divide between reality and the world of supernatural powers is extremely thin. Anwar plays a game with genres here and has a good command of the game. (GjZ)

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Joko ANWAR (1976, Indonesia) worked as a film critic for The Jakarta Post until he wrote the groundbreaking The Gathering (2003), Indonesia’s first gaythemed film. In 2005, he wrote and directed his directorial debut Joni’s Promise, an international festival favourite. Anwar not only writes his own scripts, he also writes for other successful Indonesian directors. Forbidden Door is his third feature. Films: Janji Joni/Joni’s Promise (2005), Kala/Dead Time (2007), Pintu terlarang/The Forbidden Door (2008)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Thailand, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 87 min, Thai Pro: Kiatkamon Iamphungporn Pro Comp: Five Star Productions Sc: Kongkiat Komesiri,

Yossapong Pholsup Cam: Jitti Uanorakarnkit Ed: Sunit Asavinikul Ad: Issara Nadee Sound: Vanilla Sky Mu: Origin Company With: Napakpapah Nakprasit,

Namo Tonggumnerd, Suppakorn Kitsuwan, Sommart Praihiran, Caroline Supalak Neemayothin, Paweena Sharifsakul, Teerayuth Prachyabamrung

Long khong 2 Art of the Devil 3 Pasit Buranachan, Aht Thamtragoon

As in the case of most sequels, you can follow this third film in the series without having seen the previous parts. The fans do not expect a continuation of the story as much as an intensification of the action and more virtuosity in the horror effects. In order to stress the relationship with the very successful previous episode for local viewers, the Thai title is Long khong 2 (the original first part of the series was called K hon len khong). And those Thai fans were not disappointed. In its own country, the box offices were overwhelmed and 40 other countries were persuaded to buy this uninhibited hard-core horror film. An American remake is in preparation, with part two being filmed first. The basis of the series is a firm faith in black magic and the insight that the genre demands exuberance and ingenuity. The Art of the Devil series is a team success. That’s why the director did not get the most important credit: the whole Ronin Team is responsible for the series. And there’s also a story underneath all that virtuosity. It’s about the attractive rural teacher Panor. She yearns for a simple life, while all the men yearn for her. Both her colleagues and her students call on magic powers to win her for themselves, after which this black magic can no longer be controlled. (GjZ)

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Sales: Five Star Productions Distr. NL: Paradiso

Filmed Entertainment www.longkhong2.com

Ronin Team is made up of 7 experienced film professionals. Collaborating closely, the seven members of the team work together in every step from screen writing to budgeting, and from casting to directing. Pasit BURANACHAN and Aht TRAMTRAGOON oversee the production and direction from start to finish. Kongkiat Komesiri is the screen-writing brain of the team, together with Yossapong Phonsup, who is also responsible for casting. Puttipong Saisrikaew is a skilled production manager and casting agent. In charge of production design is Issara Nadee. And lastly, Seree Phongnithi is post-production manager. Films: Bang rajan (2000), Kunpan: Legend of the Warlord (2002), Long khong/Art of the Devil 2 (2005), Long khong 2/ Art of the Devil 3 (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:52

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Philippines/USA, 2005 colour, video, 81 min, Filipino Pro: Jennifer Mammu Chua,

Roger Garcia, Rico Maria Ilarde Pro Comp: Modern Films

Production, DuduyPlus Company, Modern Films Production Sc: Rico Maria Ilarde, Mammu Chua Cam: Louie Quirino Ed: Ron Dale Ad: Fritz Silorio Sound: Eric Lava Mu: Malek Lopez With: Julia Clarete, Yul Servo, Dido dela Paz, Eugie Rodriguez, Ramon Bautista Print/Sales: DuduyPlus

Sa ilalim ng cogon Beneath the Cogon Rico Maria Ilarde

Rico Maria Ilarde can be found in the programme with two films; alongside this one, the more recent Altar can also be seen. Ilarde has given a new twist to the Filipino horror film, which is generally locked up in very worn genre rules, making extra attention sorely needed. One of his specialities is mixing elements from different film genres (here, the action and horror film) in such a way that a new form emerges. In doing so, he leaves no tracks. He’s not interested in references to existing films for the sake of genres, but in telling an entertaining story as effectively as possible. In this case, the story is about a former soldier who calls himself Sam (very effectively acted by Yul Servo). As a result of a stupid raid, he is forced to hide in an enormous mansion surrounded by a sea of cogon grass - a persistent weed feared by farmers. Ilarde skilfully uses the three elements of the lonely soldier, the ghostly mansion and the endless fields with overgrown grass. Aptly enough in films like this, the mansion turns out to be less deserted and the soldier less alone. A mysterious woman swims in the neglected swimming pool and trails of blood come to an end in the jungle of grass. The past comes to life from within the house, while from outside, people hunt the spoils from his raid. (GjZ)

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Company

Rico Maria ILARDE (Philippines) studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts. He started his career by directing action scenes for his father’s television show Just Yesterday. Later on he made several genre-twisting horror films that have been screened at many international film festivals. Films: Z-Man (1988), El Kapitan: Dugo ng birhen/El Kapitan: Blood of the Virgin (1999), Ang Babaeng Putik/ Woman of Mud (2000), Sa ilalim ng cogon/Beneath the Cogon (2005), Shake, Rattle and Roll 2K5 (2005), Altar (2007)

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Philippines, 2007 colour, video, 90 min, Filipino Pro: Ronald Arguelles,

Jennifer Mammu Chua Pro Comp: Creative Programs

Inc, DuduyPlus Company Sc: Rico Maria Ilarde, Mammu Chua Cam: Louie Quirino Ed: Maisa Demetillo, Rico Maria Ilarde Ad: Fritz Silorio Mu: Malek Lopez With: Zanjoe Marudo, Nor Domingo, Dido dela Paz, Dimples Romana, Kristalyn Engle Print: DuduyPlus Company Sales: Creative Programs Inc

Altar

Rico Maria Ilarde

In order to better evaluate the contribution by Rico Maria Ilarde to innovation within the Filipino horror film, we are also screening Beneath the Cogon in this programme. Ilarde juxtaposes a craftsmanlike approach - he partly learnt the ropes from his father, the TV maker Eddie Ilarde - with a free mix of genres. As a result his films are better made and especially less predictable than the usual genre films from his country. This film is set in a real haunted house. The protagonist is the former boxer Anton (Zanjoe Marudo) who is still reeling from the fact that his American boxing career ended when he killed his opponent in the ring. He’s less worried about ending his career than suffering from the fact that he took someone’s life. And in a certain sense this past really seems to pursue him. The haunted house is a lonely villa that he is renovating as an odd-job man with a friend. The house turns out to shelter strange and terrifying secrets. Anton is very serious, but his mate Lope takes life a lot easier and introduces a humorous note to the film. There’s also romance. Angie and Giselle are two maidservants who work near the house and make friends with the men. Anton especially falls for the more serious Angie, who is open to his spiritual distress. And then Anton starts seeing things… (GjZ)

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Films: Z-Man (1988), El Kapitan: Dugo ng birhen/El Kapitan: Blood of the Virgin (1999), Ang Babaeng Putik/ Woman of Mud (2000), Sa ilalim ng cogon/Beneath the Cogon (2005), Shake, Rattle and Roll 2K5 (2005), Altar (2007)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:52

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Japan, 2007 colour, video, 201 min, Japanese Pro: Bunpei Yoshioka,

Takekuni Nishimura Pro Comp: Spiritual Movies,

Lazarus Episode 1-2-0 Izuchi Kishu

Print/Sales: Spiritual Movies

A film in three parts. The first episode made (part 0) is shown as the last. So first episode 1 (The Pale Horse), then part 2 (The Replicated Ruin) and finally part 0 (The House of the Rising Sun). Only part 0 has ever been seen outside Japan. Parts 1 and 2 are also new for Japan and are being screened here for the first time. In Japan, the trilogy is presented under the title M ayumi, which is the name of the protagonist. Mayumi is a woman who tries to keep her head above water in a country community that is suffering economically from the arrival of a large concern. In part 0 of the series, Mayumi’s sister Naoko suddenly appears after years of absence. Mayumi receives her with mixed feelings. She recovers from her aversion, but sometime later, the fickle Naoko will be the cause of a dramatic turn in her life - if you could still call it a life. All possible means are used to combat the cause of the village’s economic demise. Mayumi is drowned, but returns as an avenging angel: she has returned from the dead as Lazarus (the international title). In many regards, the series tells a very Japanese story about a very Japanese situation. So it’s not strange that the film maker is quite curious about the reactions of a European audience to his special undertaking. (GjZ)

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ISE Cinema Club Sc: Izuchi Kishu, Itakura Kazunari, Morita Souta, Endoh Akira, Nishimura Takekuni, Yoshioka Bunpei Cam: Nabeshima Atsuhiro Ed: Izuchi Kishu, Yoshioka Bunpei Ad: Mikuni Nana, Higuchi Mai, Okafuji Mai, Ito Maiko Sound: Kobayashi Tetsuya, Suga Takeshi, Yamawaki Hiromichi, Kondoh Takao, Torii Shinji, Usui Masaru Mu: Hanasaki Masanosuke With: Higashi Mika, Narita Rina, Yumii Mana, Onuma Kouji, Ikebuchi Tomohiko, Onozawa Naruhiko, Hotta Kayoko, Oda Atsushi, Ito Kiyomi

IZUCHI Kishu (1968, Japan) made his start in film making by writing scenarios for pink films (Japanese erotic films). He is the founder of the movie production group Spiritual Movies, has made several independent films and wrote screen plays for e.g. Hysteric (Zeze Takahisa). This film was screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2000. Films: The House #1(1992), Hundred Years of Desperate Singing (1998), The Friend of Wim Wenders (2000), Left Alone 1 (2005, doc), Left Alone 2 (2005, doc), Lazarus: Episode 0 The House of The Rising Sun (2007), Lazarus: Episode 1 The Pale Horse (2007, short), Lazarus: Episode 2 The Replicated Ruin (2007)

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Malaysia, 2008 b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 110 min, Malay Pro: Gayatri Su-Lin Pillai Pro Comp: Tayangan

Unggul SDN BHD Sc: Mohamad Mohd Khalid Cam: Raja Mukhriz Ed: Raja Affandi Raja Jamaludin Ad: Nazrul Ashraff Mahzan Sound: Azman Abu Hassan Mu: Ahmad Kamal Baharudin With: Rosyam Nor, Umie Aida Print/Sales: Tayangan

Unggul SDN BHD

Kala malam bulan mengambang When the Full Moon Rises Mohamad Mohd Khalid It’s possible to suggest that many films have an incomparable design, but in this film, that’s almost an understatement. The design is virtuoso. The film is in black-and-white, yet the colours seem to splash from the screen. The story of the film is no less exuberant. The roving reporter Saleh is forced by a flat tyre to spend a night at full moon in a kampong (a tropical village). It soon becomes clear to him that strange and mysterious events take place in the kampong. Men disappear at each full moon. People whisper about a pontianak: the spirit of a woman who died in labour. In Southeast Asia, the pontianak is very feared. Just as quickly as Saleh becomes involved in mysterious matters, he also falls in love with the equally mysterious Cik Putih, the sister of the garage owner. The parents of the singer Cik Rogayah, however, have decided that Saleh may be a suitable marriage partner for their daughter. In view of the fact that men disappear at regular intervals, there are not many marriageable men left. The film is not only lavish and very cinematographic in its references to previous genre films, it’s also very funny. In addition, the film maker involves in a satirical way the hidden history of the Communist rebels in Malaysia in his already overloaded story. Inimitable. (GjZ)

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Mohamad Mohd KHALID (Malaysia), also known as Mamat Khalid, is a successful Malaysian film maker and script writer. At the Malaysian Film Festival he has been nominated several times over the past years, and with When the Full Moon R ises (2008) he won the prize for Best Director. Films: Lang Buana (2003), Rock (2005), Man Laksa (2006), Zombi kampung pisang/ Zombies from Banana Village (2007), Kala malam bulan mangambang/When the Full Moon Rises (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:53

Signals: Hungry Ghosts

Philippines, 2008 colour, video, 81 min, Filipino/Japanese/English/ Spanish/Cebuano Pro: Khavn De La Cruz Pro Comp: Filmless Films Sc: Aloy Adlawan,

Khavn De La Cruz Cam: Albert Banzon Ed: Lawrence S. Ang Ad: Jeck Cogama Sound: Corinne De San Jose,

Mark Locsin, Arvie Bartolome Mu: Khavn De La Cruz With: Katya Santos, Gwen Garci, Precious Adona, Bugz Daigo Print/Sales: Filmless Films www.khavndelacruz.com

Tatlong araw ng kadiliman Three Days of Darkness Khavn It was said of the most productive Dutch novelist Simon Vestdijk that he could write faster than God could read. You could say of Khavn that he makes films faster than God can watch. In his speed and productivity, Khavn made Three Days of Darkness twice: the first time with young actresses and afterwards (this film) with more experienced ones in all respects. So it’s a remake of his own film. And the remake is better - or maybe the remake is the original. The background for the film was borrowed from a text from the New Testament book of Revelations, the mystical and apocalyptic predictions by the apostle John. When the day of divine revenge comes, three days of darkness will fall over the earth. When three women are together in what is undoubtedly a haunted house, the lights fail during the divine storm. Demons emerge in all kinds of forms in the darkness. Fear, yet strikingly also enjoyment, overwhelms the women. This is the start of strange, bloodcurdling and erotic events. The film does not only borrow its inspiration from horror films, but also from porn. As the end approaches, apparently unbridled powers break free; the women surrender themselves entirely to their lusts. In the Philippines, the censor had no words to describe the alleged filth. However, supporters immediately hailed the film as a cult classic. (GjZ)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

South Korea, 2008 colour, video, 115 min, Korean Pro: Park Mu-seung Pro Comp: KM Culture Co., Ltd. Sc: Kim Tae-Gon Cam: Hong Sung-Jin Ed: Lee Sang-Min Ad: Kim So-Yoen Sound: Che Eun-Hae Mu: Park Sung-Hun With: Lim Hyung-Gook, Yang

Eun-Yong, Choi Jung-Woo, Gil Hae-Yoen, Ruy Hyun-Bin Print/Sales: Showbox/

Mediaplex, Inc

Dok The Pot Kim Tae-Gon

Young family moves from the countryside to the city. They move into an apartment that they inherited from the husband’s mother. They already have a girl and the woman is pregnant with a second child. The family seems destined for happiness, but that quickly changes. The Pot is an effective horror thriller focusing on the psychology of the protagonists. It soon becomes clear that there’s something fishy about their apartment building and that strange and scary things have happened that the building hasn’t forgotten. Entirely according to the rules of the genre, the building is a kind of haunted house, but the film introduces new elements into that genre. The little daughter seems the most sensitive to the strange things going on around her. She turns against her parents and seeks solace with an older woman who lives upstairs. That woman is of course not to be trusted. All the upstairs neighbours, who are fanatical Christians, interfere with the increasingly unhappy family and eventually have a suffocating effect on them. Kim has actually only recently graduated, but The Pot is far from being a student film: it has been made with the greatest technical control and self-assurance. Even more important is that the maker managed to give his characters feeling and depth, an essential difference from many other horror-like films. (GjZ)

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KIM Tae-Gon (1980, South Korea) studied film at ChungAng University. The shorts he made during his student days, among them the documentary Grandfather’s Outing about his own family, brought him national acclaim at the time. After graduating, he submitted a screenplay called The Pot to the national screenplay contest and won. The completed film premièred at Pusan International Film Festival in 2008. Films: Dok/The Pot (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:53

Signals: Hungry Ghosts

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

South Korea, 2008 colour, video, 113 min, Korean Pro: Park Jinweon Pro Comp: Strawberry Tree Sc: Ko Eun-Ki Cam: Yun Jjun Ed: Choi Sun-Hong Ad: Sin Jong-Han Sound: Kinopost Mu: Jung Yong-jin With: Kang Hee, Go Da-Mi Print/Sales: Strawberry Tree

Naesarang, Yurie My Love, Yurie Ko Eun-Ki

The shorts of KO Eun-Ki (1968, Korea) were shown at several international film festivals. He made his début in 2002 with his feature film Digging. My Love, Yurie is his second feature. Films: At the End of the Beginning (1996, short), Liquids (1999, short), Ciao (2001, short), Digging (2002), Naesarang, Yurie/My Love, Yurie (2008)

A colourful and imaginative love story. Almost a fairy tale, but a little more strange and also a little more adult. The filling station attendant Donga (19) is so eager to see his lover Yurie, an 18-year-old prostitute who lives opposite the filling station, that he is willing to sell his soul to the devil for her. In exchange for his soul, he acquires Yurie’s unconditional love, but only for a period of 10 years. When the 10 years have passed, the devil comes to claim Yurie again, and also his soul. Donga however doesn’t want to lose his lover and decides to kill the devil or at least to follow Yurie into death. But death belongs to the gods and Donga has sold his soul to the devil; so even death is now out of his reach. Donga is doomed to roam forever as a ghost. Even 100 years later, he still roams unchanged around his lover’s grave. He realises too late that nothing is eternal and unchanging, not even love. It’s his doomed immutability that makes love impossible. Forever, yes. In this way this occasionally cheerful looking film gives the viewer a sober moral message. The fantasy story has a very special design. It looks as if every trace of realism has been avoided through a colourful and very original decor. Occasionally it also looks like a loving film, but the undertone is one of eternal darkness. (GjZ)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Taiwan/Thailand, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 100 min, Thai/Mandarin Pro: Liang Hung-chih Pro Comp: Sky Films

Entertainment Co. Ltd Sc: Jian Shr Geng Cam: Tiwa Moeithaisong Ed: Shiau Ru Guan Ad: Luo Fu Shuen Sound: Du Duzhi Mu: Hou Jr Jian With: Wu Ke Qun, Pichanart Sakhakorn, Matt Wu Print/Sales: Sky Films

Entertainment Co. Ltd

Jue hun yin The Fatality Kuang Sheng, Lin Tzu-liang, Liang Hung-chih, Tiwa Moeithaisong

A genre film as a horror film should be. There is a pleasantly complex story that can only be followed if you accept that traffic is possible between the world of the living and the world of the dead. And that there are ghosts. Good and bad. The film is a co-production between Taiwan and Thailand and as a result it combines two visions of life after death, or better: life during death. The protagonist is Ho Shi-rong, a young Taiwanese man who tries to commit suicide with pills. When he recovers, he finds himself lying in a hospital in Thailand and they think he is a Thai man. Arsenni is his new name and when he has recovered from the shock, he investigates his new identity. The original Arsenni had a special position at city hall. He stamped the death certificates and as a result really did rule over life and death. Ho Shi-rong is obliged to take over this role. Here the film effectively mixes the claustrophobia of a Kafkaesque bureaucracy with the stoical Thai attitude to death and the sensation of Chinese ghost stories. Of course - it remains a genre film - there is a way out for Ho Shi-rong from his impossible position. He is someone else in a world that is no longer that of the living. A wealth of Chinese genre ghosts, told with the suppleness of Thai commercial film making. The best of both worlds. (GjZ)

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KUANG Sheng (Taiwan) is a very productive director of music videos and commercials. Since 1994 he has made over 700 works; many of them have been awarded. The Fatality is his first feature-length film. LIN Tzu-liang (Taiwan) works as director and producer. He has directed many commercials for well known companies such as McDonalds, Coca Cola and Motorola. The Fatality is his first feature-length film. LIANG Hung-chih (Taiwan) mainly works as a producer. In 2000 he founded the production company Home Green Films, in which director Tsai Ming-liang also operates. The Fatality is his directorial début. Tiwa MOEITHAISONG (Thailand) owns his own production company, Production of Penheads, and has directed four motion pictures. Films: (Kuang Sheng) Jue hun yin/The Fatality (2008, co-dir) Films: (Lin Tzu-liang) Jue hun yin/The Fatality (2008, co-dir) Films: (Liang Hung-chih) Jue hun yin/The Fatality (2008, co-dir) Films: (Tiwa Moeithaisong) Khon sang phee/Ghost Delivery (2003), Phee chong air/The Sisters (2004), Rong tiam/ Happy Inn (2005), Pha-Wa/Mass Hysteria (2006), Jue hun yin/The Fatality (2008, co-dir)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:54

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Hong Kong, 2007 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 92 min, Cantonese Pro: Albert Lee Pro Comp: Emperor Motion

Pictures (HK) Ltd. Sc: Frankie Tam, Kom Chun-yu, Philip Lui Cam: Ko Chiu-lam Ed: Azrael Chung Ad: Alex Mok Sound: Chin Wing-lai Mu: Lincoln Lo With: Steven Cheung, Mandy Chiang, Kathy Yuen, Kris Gu Print/Sales: Emperor Motion

Pictures (HK) Ltd.

Yes, I Can See Dead People David Lee Strikingly modern variation on the horror film in which a haunted house - such as also featured in an exhibition in this programme - plays an important role. It actually plays the lead. Nam seems at first to be a teenager like any other. He spends too much time at his computer and is crazy about a girl. Her name is Chee. Nam lives with his family in a simple apartment. In the rather old and run-down building, strange things happen. Some of his old friends suddenly commit suicide. A mother and her little boy also take their own lives. It’s only when his brother and his beloved Chee start to behave strangely that Nam wakes up and tries to solve the puzzle. It becomes clear to him that the building is filled with roaming and vengeful spirits, but he’s one of the few who can see them. It becomes apparent that he has inherited a special gift from his family. At first he doesn’t know whether he should be happy with this gift. In any case, he now has the difficult responsibility of saving his dearest from the demons. This is David Lee’s directing début, but it’s good to see, and to notice that he has learnt the craft from the greats of the Hong Kong cinema. (GjZ)

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David LEE, born LEE KwongYiu (China) studied at Cornell University in New York. He started his film career working behind the scenes for renowned director Tsui Hark before being assistant director to Andrew Lau Wai-keung on films such as Infernal A ffairs II, Infernal A ffairs III and Initial D. Yes, I Can See Dead People is his directorial début. Films: Yes, I Can See Dead People (2007)

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Thailand, 2007 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 97 min, Thai Pro: Pran Tadaveerawat Pro Comp: Five Star Productions Sc: Songsak Mongkolthong Cam: Jitti Uanorakarnkit Ed: Sunit Asavanikul Ad: Phairot Siriwath Sound: Vanilla Sky Mu: Origin Company With: Achita Pramoj Na

Ayudhya, Pakkaramai Potranan, Namo Tonggumnerd, Pimonwan Hoonthongkam Sales: Five Star Productions Distr. NL: Paradiso Filmed

Entertainment (NL) www.peechangnang.com

PeeChangNang The Screen at Kamchanod Songsak Mongkolthong

A film about a cinema theatre in which spirits live is ideal for this programme. It is a real genre film with all the horror effects and plot twists that involves, but it’s also a film with a cinematographic undertone. For instance, at one moment we see an open-air performance of Wisit Sasanatieng’s Unseeable. Sasanatieng has conceived a room in the Haunted House within this programme. The film is supposedly based on a true story. In 1987 in the rural area of Udon Thani, an open-air performance was organised in the Kamchanod nature reserve. There were not to be any real spectators, but several spirits from the forest emerged to see the film. A true story - if you believe that spirits love film. Yuth, a young doctor, hears about this story later and wants to investigate what really happened. Together with his wife, the nurse Orn, and several friends he manages to find the film that was screened at the time. They then show the film in an old cinema in Bangkok that promptly becomes haunted. Yuth and his friends become entangled in the world of dead and undead. The spirits turn out to have a striking access to the world of film. The doctor becomes entirely obsessed by the film spirits, while his wife becomes alienated from him and seeks warmth with the cinema odd-job man. (GjZ)

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Songsak MONGKOLTHONG (1976, Thailand) attended film courses at Rangsit University. He started his career as assistant director in various productions, including Metrosexual (2005, Yongyooth Thongkongtoon). The Screen at K amchanod is his first feature film. Films: PeeChangNang/The Screen at Kamchanod (2007)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:54

Signals: Hungry Ghosts

Malaysia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 113 min, Malay Pro: Puad Onah, Naeim Ghalili Pro Comp: Grand Brilliance Sdn

Bhd, Monsoon Pictures Sdn Bhd Sc: Rajesh Nair Cam: Daven R. Ed: Zalee Ad: Ting Lam Sound: Daniel Tang Mu: Hardesh Singh With: Ida Nerina, Adlin Aman Ramlie, Diana Rafar, Sofea Jane, Hairie Othman, Noorkhiriah Print/Sales: Primeworks

Studio Sdn Bhd www.susukmovie.com

Susuk Amir Muhammad, Naeim Ghalili

A genre film that is both a homage to and satire on its own genre. A film with many sides that occasionally consciously contradict each other. Firstly, it’s a horror film as they no longer are made. Susuk mirrors film making from a more classic era. In addition, the film holds up a mirror to a very modern world - fleeting fame in the media. The film also mixes various styles and genres and is both dark and light-hearted and humorous. ‘Susuk’ is a practice of magic in which small, valuable objects are inserted under someone’s skin. People with a special talent maintain and strengthen their talent in this way and beautiful people keep their beauty. But in this film, a high price has to be paid. For one person’s beauty, someone else literally has to bleed. The film is set in the world of television celebrities. They seek solace in the dangerous practice of susuk. Less famous people are sacrificed for this. Suzana (named after the queen of the Indonesian horror film) is a diva who is totally held in thrall by her susuk master. She shows what the young nurse and wannabe diva Soraya still has coming to her. Suzana even ventures to use ‘susuk keramat’, which demands human sacrifices. The film was a major topic of discussion in its own country. The involvement of the essayist Amir Muhammad even made some people regard the film as a political satire. (GjZ)

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Amir MUHAMMAD (1972, Malaysia) graduated in law but devotes himself entirely to other activities, such as writing and film making. Some of his films were banned in Malaysia. Apart from being a film maker, Naeim GHALILI, an IranianAmerican, is also an actor and cinematographer. He is co-founder of Monsoon Pictures. Ghalili and Muhammad have worked together since 2002. Films: (Amir Muhammad) Lips to Lips (2000), 6horts: Lost, Friday, Mona, Checkpoint, Kamunting, Pangyau (2002, shorts), Digital Compassion 02 (segment Petrol-Parking, 2002), The Big Durian (2003), Wait (2004, short), Tokyo Magic Hour (2005), The Year of Living Vicariously (2005), Lelaki komunis terakhir/The Last Communist (2006), Village People Radio Show (2007), Susuk (2008, co-dir), Reading Room (2009, instal) Films: (Naeim Ghalili) The Locked Room (2003, short), Susuk (2008, co-dir)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Vietnam/France, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 125 min, Vietnamese Pro: Nguyen Minh Hien,

Morteza Mohammadi Pro Comp: Giaï Phong Film

Trang noi day gieng Moon at the Bottom of the Well Nguyen Vinh Son

A poetic and beautifully photographed film that follows the fate of a young woman, Hanh. This charming teacher lives in a beautiful area in central Vietnam and is married to Phuong, the rather older headmaster of the school. She is a devoted wife and he is a demanding man. Apparently they form an ideal couple. Hanh sacrifices herself entirely and, when it becomes apparent she is infertile, she agrees that Phuong should father a child with another woman. This largely happens at the insistence of her mother-in-law, who adheres to the continuation of the family line. The secret solution to ensure offspring becomes a problem when the secret leaks out and the position of the headmaster is questioned. To prevent problems, Hanh divorces her husband and he marries the mother of the child. Hanh suffers her fate with increasing resignation and bonds with the child of her ex-husband. But even her resilience has its limits. Slowly she breaks down. She seems increasingly influenced by another world, one of spirits and the dead. The director tells his story with the patience of his protagonist. He watches respectfully as the fate of Hanh weighs upon her more and more, until she seems to be pushed out of the real world. Even then she carries on serving, only she doesn’t serve human potentates any more. (GjZ)

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Studio, Alliance Films Sc: Chau Tho, based on the novel by Tran Thuy Mai Cam: Trinh Hoan Ed: Phung Doc Lap Ad: Ma Phi Hai Sound: Le Quang Dao Mu: Quoc Bao With: Hong Anh, Hoang Cao De, Thanh Vy, Hieu Anh, Lan Phuong, Ha Thi Sales: Giaï Phong Film Studio Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund

NGUYEN Vinh Son (1953, Vietnam) studied psychology and worked as a French teacher. For several years he worked as an independent photographer. In 1992 he attended master classes at La Fémis in Paris. Films: L’enfance violente (1990), Le dernier chevalier (1993), La terre de l’amour humain (1995), Trang noi day gieng/Moon at the Bottom of the Well (2008), Meeting Room for Life and Afterlife (2009, instal)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:55

Signals: Hungry Ghosts

Indonesia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 104 min, Bahasa/Indonesian Pro: Garin Nugroho,

Dinna Jasanti Pro Comp: Oro-Oro Film

Arts, SET Film Workshop Sc: Armantono, Garin Nugroho Cam: Yadi Sugandi Ed: Andhy Pulung Ad: Budi Riyanto Sound: Adityawan Susanto Mu: Kadek Suardana, Wiwiex Soedarno With: Marcella Zalianty, Nadia Saphira, Ayu Laksmi Print/Sales: Credo Cine Arts www.oro-orofilmarts.

com/underthetree

Dibawah pohon Under the Tree Garin Nugroho

The film is set on the island of Bali - and ‘set ‘ should be taken here in the broadest sense of the word. Just as the grand work by Nugroho, Opera Jawa, was set on Java - the music, the stories and the magic of Java Under the Tree is made on and with and by Bali. The film follows three women, and hence three different stories about relationships with Bali. The stories have in common that all three touch on the magic realism of Bali, the supernatural powers that seem to be more closely interwoven with life here than anywhere else in the world. The women are Maharani (27), Dewi (40) and Nian (19). Maharani’s story and the ideas it expresses is about mother-daughter relationships. As fate would have it, she is accused of trafficking in children. The story of Dewi is the most dramatic. She is pregnant, but has heard that her child will die soon after birth. The teenager Nian has fled to Bali because of problems with her father. She meets the father-figure Darma and through him comes in contact with the famous Balinese Calon Arang death ritual. Against the background of an island community that is almost bursting apart from the spirits and their incantations, the film also touches on a tragic social phenomenon. Indonesian mothers unable to maintain their families increasingly often take their children with them in a desperate suicide. (GjZ)

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Thailand, 2007 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 121 min, Thai Pro: Yongyoot Thongkongtoon Pro Comp: Gmm Tai Hub

Company Limited Sc: Paween Purijitpanya, Vanridee Pongsittisak, Ekasit Thairaat, Chukait Sakveerakul Cam: Somboon Phopitakkul Ed: Paween Purijitpanya, Surawut Tungkarak Ad: Sutham Vilavandaj Sound: Apollo Lab (2001) Mu: Banana Team With: Pattarawarin Timkul, Krithera Inpornvijit, Arak Amornsupasiri Print/Sales: Gmm Tai

Body sob#19 Body Paween Purijitpanya

Body is loosely based on a true story about a doctor who murders his wife, also a doctor. With surgical skill, he cuts the body in pieces and deposits it in various toilets. In fact the film is about what happens afterwards. About the chopped-up deceased who seeks her way back from the world of the dead to take her revenge on the living doctor. A young man, Chon, becomes the chance vehicle of the vengeful spirit. Through his dreams and nightmares, the female spirit seeks a way out. Chon is staying with his sister, who rents a room in the house of a doctor. It takes a while before he realises that the spirit is really looking for someone else. Body is an obvious genre film with the tension of the thriller added to the horror theme. The setting in the world of medicine and hospitals makes it possible to add many medical and psychiatric elements to the story. In the end the logic of horror clearly defeats medical science. The film is among the better of its kind and is striking work by a young director. Paween Purijitpanya is one of the emerging names in the Thai horror industry. He also made one of the four parts in the successful 4BIA that is also included in this programme. (GjZ)

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Hub Company Limited www.bodythemovie.com

Paween PURIJITPANYA (1978, Thailand) has been fascinated by film and visual effects from a young age. He has made numerous music videos for well-known Thai bands. Films: Body sob#19/Body (2007), Seeprang/4BIA (segment Tit for Tat, 2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Thailand, 2008 colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 95 min, Thai Pro: Cheewin Kosiyapong Pro Comp: Sahamongkolfilms

International Co.,Ltd., Be Boyd CG Sc: Saenee Jitsuwanwattana Ed: Natthaphong Ratanachoksirikul Ad: Natthaphong Ratanachoksirikul Sound: Nantana Boonrhon Mu: Jirapong Srisukwongwatana, Boyd Kosiyapong With: Sasikarn Apichadvorasin, Petchtai Wongkomglaow, Supaab Chaivisuttikul, Nui Cheounyim Print/Sales: Sahamongkolfilms

Nak

International Co.,Ltd. www.nakmovie.com

Nattapong Ratanachoksirikul

The fact than an animation film for children is included in a programme with several hard-core horror films may need some explanation. Nak is not only enjoyable and entertaining as a film. It also depicts an old legend and introduces several figures and characters that are characteristic of the ghost and spirit stories from this part of Asia. On this occasion, the demonic sides of the characters have been omitted. For instance, the charming protagonist Nak is based on the very famous yet gruesome legend Mae Nak Phra Khanong, which everyone in Thailand knows. Keaw is a spirit without a head. In the film he does have a head, even though it falls off his body time and again. Ud is based on the myth of the Prade spirit who can extend his body to enormous lengths. And there are more spirits, such as the dog spirit Thong and the girl spirit Kaem. Together they form a kind of gang led by Nak that does good and fights evil. The film shows how much the ghost stories have become part of the viewers’ general knowledge. A film like this would be also conceivable in other Asian countries such as Thailand. Thanks to the instructive way in which the film introduces a whole family of ghosts, it serves a useful yet also enjoyable place in the programme. (GjZ)

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Nattapong RATANACHOKSIRIKUL studied at Silapakorn University and co-founded Beboyed CG, for which he has been making animations together with Boyd Kosiyapong for nine years. He started out with 3D-animation for television; his most famous work is Dracula-Tock. Nak is his first feature-length animation. Films: Nak (2008)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 91 min, Indonesian Pro: Brian Yuzna, San Fu Maltha Pro Comp: Komodo Films Sc: Riri Riza, Raditya Sidharta,

Takut: Faces of Fear

Rako Prijanto, The Mo Brothers, Robby Ertanto, Ray Nayoan Cam: Ipung Rachmat Syaiful, Sidi Saleh, Hani Pradigya, Roni Arnold, Padri Nadeak Ed: Yusep Permana Sound: Khikmawan Santosa, Wahyu Tri Purnomo, Satrio Budiono Mu: Aghi Narottama Gumay, Thoersi Argeswara, Handy Rizal With: Lukman Sardi, Dinna Olivia, Marcella Zalianty, Shanty, Fauzi Baadila Print: Komodo Films Sales: Halcyon

International Pictures www.takutthemovie.com

Riri Riza, Rako Prijanto, Raditya Sidharta, Robby Ertanto, Ray Nayoan, The Mo Brothers

Takut brings together the best of two worlds: the indestructible Indonesian horror genre, rich in stories of local magic, and the more modern production approach that makes the film able to measure up to international standards in this field. It’s an omnibus film within which six stories are told by a total of seven experienced directors and young talents. A beautiful and varied collection that points the way to the genre film of the future. The first part, Show Unit by Rako Prijanto, immediately sets the tone. The setting is opulent and modern, but the fatal story is timeless. The second part proves how special the project is. Incarnation of Naya was made by master director Riri Riza (who also provided a contribution to the Haunted House exhibition in this programme), a story within which the matter-of-fact presence of spirits is made tangible during a family ritual. Peeper, the third part, was shot by Ray A.J. Nayoan, who was inspired by Indonesian horror films from the 1980s. The List is the fourth part, made by the student Robby Ertanto. Revenge with black magic. The fifth part, the short apocalyptic thriller The Rescue, is by Raditya Sidharta, the maker of The Shaman that’s also being screened in this programme. The sixth and last part was made by The Mo Brothers, Kimo Stamboel & Timothy Tjahjanto, who present an awful female master chef. (GjZ)

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Riri RIZA (1970, Indonesia) made a name for himself in his home country as a director of television films and documentaries. He studied script writing in London. Riza also worked as a producer for several Indonesian box office successes. Rako PRIJANTO (1973, Indonesia) works as scriptwriter and director for television and the silver screen. His oeuvre contains every possible genre. Raditya SIDHARTA (Indonesia) has proved himself as a director of music videos. Both his feature début The Shaman and his segment in Takut: Faces of Fear will be screened at the 2009 IFFR. Robby ERTANTO (Indonesia) graduated from the Jakarta Institute of Arts and his segment in Takut: Faces of Fear is his directing début. After studying and working in Canada Ray NAYOAN (1978, Indonesia) went back to Jakarta to work for Boemboe, an organisation that supports Indonesian short films. Kimo STAMBOEL and Timothy TJAHJANTO together form THE MO BROTHERS. Both are graduated from Australian film schools. They met in 2002.

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 91 min, Indonesian Pro: Raditya Sidharta,

Wailan Menayang Pro Comp: Pendulum Filmworks,

Indika Entertainment Sc: Aria Bimasena, Raditya Sidharta, Khrisnikanandita Cam: Agung Abriasto - Iskander Ed: Robin Moran Ad: Raditya Sidharta, Wailan Menayang Mu: Aghi Narottama With: Oka Antara, Kamidia Radisti, Kemal Vivaveni, Farah Debby, Vicky Notonegoro

Pencabut nyawa The Shaman Raditya Sidharta

An unimaginable number of horror films are being produced in Indonesia at the moment. A new one comes out virtually every week and The Shaman is one of the better and most recent examples. The film also aims to pay homage to older Indonesian horror films, so it’s unmistakably and unashamedly a genre film. It opens at once with shrieks in a dark forest. A well-shaped young woman is running away from danger, screaming. She’s pursued by a huge masked man, a kind of executioner. When she trips, she doesn’t stand a chance. The executioner soon does his job. He disappears with a bucket containing something bloody, leaving the rest of the corpse behind. Then we look in an old ethnographic book and see photos of tattooed warriors. The relationship is clear. Old magic powers form the bloody motivation of the executioner. A horror film has to frighten in an entertaining way and this film does so with great self assurance. The film maintains its dark and effective narrative style to the very end. The outdoor shots were made around Bogor, a rainy Javan mountain town famous for its strange plants, active volcanoes and mysterious stories. Director Raditya Sidharta also made one part of the horror omnibus film Takut: Faces of Fear being screened in this programme. He made the fifth part, The Rescue, a short science-fiction-like film with modern cannibals. (GjZ)

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Print/Sales: Pendulum Filmworks www.theshamanmovie.com

Raditya SIDHARTA (Indonesia) has proved himself as a director of music videos. Both his feature début The Shaman and his segment in Takut: Faces of Fear will be screened at the 2009 IFFR. Films: Pencabut nyawa/The Shaman (2008), Takut: Faces of Fear (segment The Rescue, 2008)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Thailand, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 117 min, Thai Pro: Yongyoot Thongkongtoon Pro Comp: Gmm Tai Hub

Company Limited Sc: Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, Paween Purijitpanya, Ekasit Thairaat, Vanridee Pongsittisak, Amornthep Sukumanont, Parkpoom Wongpoom, Sophon Sakdaphisit Cam: Somboon Phopituckun, Niramon Ross Ed: Thammarat Sumetsupachok, Surawut Tungkarak, Paween Purijitpanya, Vijjapat Kojew Ad: Arkadech Kewkote, Wuttinan Sujaritpong Sound: Apollo Lab (2001), Nopawat Likitwong With: Maneerat Kamouan, Vittavat Singlumpong, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Nuttapong Chartpong, Chermarn Boonyasak

Seeprang 4BIA Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, Paween Purijitpanya, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom

A four-part horror film made up of more or less independent short films. Back home, this omnibus film became an unexpectedly large hit. That may be because of the participating directors. They were all young, but also successful directors who had earned their spurs and been involved in films such as Shutter, the classic among modern Thai horror films. The co-directors of Shutter, Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom, each made one part of the four. Wongpoom made the last part, the psychological thriller The Last Fright and Pisanthanakum made the gruesomely funny The Middle. But the other two parts are also by skilled and talented directors. The first part, Happiness by Youngyooth Thongkonthun, is an ingenious story that manages to evoke a very frightening atmosphere with just one actress and further only text messages. In terms of the narrative of the story, it’s one of the most virtuoso parts. Tit for Tat is the second part and was made by Paween Purikitpanya (also present at the IFFR with Body). The age-old theme of bullying by classmates that gets out of hand acquires an element of black magic here. All parts were written by the film makers themselves and they were given more freedom than usual in most commercial productions. Yet they all stuck to the laws of the genre, making 4BIA (pronounced as Phobia) a very entertaining film. (GjZ)

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Print/Sales: Gmm Tai

Hub Company Limited www.4biamovie.com

Yongyoot THONGKONGTOON’s (1967, Thailand) directing début The Iron Ladies (2000) was recognized worldwide. He works as director and producer for the successful Thai production company Gmm Thai Hub (GTH). Paween PURIJITPANYA (1978, Thailand) has been fascinated by film and visual effects from a young age. He has made numerous music videos for well-known Thai bands. Banjong PISANTHANAKUN (Thailand) studied film and photography at Chulalongkorn University. Parkpoom WONGPOOM (Thailand) attended a film and television course at Rangsit College, a private university in Thailand. He directed his features Shutter and Alone with his college friend Banjong Pisanthanakun.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Hong Kong/Singapore, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 93 min, Mandarin Pro: Leon Tong, Lim

Teck, Candy Leung Pro Comp: Boku Films

Pte Ltd, Fortune Star Entertaiment United, Scorpio East Pictures Pte Ltd Sc: Kelvin Tong Cam: Venus Keung Ed: Azrael Chung Ad: Horace Ma Sound: Ken Wong, David Wong Mu: Joe Ng, Alex Oh With: Shawn Yue, Ekin Cheng, Stephanie Che, Fiona Xie Print/Sales: Boku Films Pte Ltd

Daiyat gye

Kelvin TONG (Singapore) is writer, producer and director. Before this, he also worked as a film journalist for the Straits Times and founded the Playground Theatre Company. Together with Jasmine Ng Kin Kia he made Eating A ir. This first feature for both directors competed in 2000 in the IFFR Tiger Awards Competition.

Rule #1 Kelvin Tong

There are no ghosts in this world. That is rule number one. If you say that often enough, then maybe people will believe it, but within this film that’s very unlikely. More likely is that there are ghosts. Entirely in the style of the hard, fast crime film, it’s just as easy to hunt ghosts as to hunt gangsters. Lee Kwok-keung (played by Shawn Yue) is a cop in Hong Kong. One day he discovers the corpse of a girl in the boot of a car. The owner of the car is about to shoot him, but then the ghost of the girl rises from the dead and Lee manages to defend himself. His boss is not pleased with this supernatural explanation and transfers him to a department involved in a variety of vague and unsolved crimes. The vague ones turn out to involve ghosts and other supernatural apparitions, but the motto of the department remains: Ghosts don’t exist. Rule 1. Lee’s new boss is inspector Wong (Ekin Cheng). Wong teaches him how to deal with the actual tasks of the department while at the same time denying everything. The style of the film is fast and as visual as a music clip; the shock effects are worthy of a horror film. Entertaining, clever and fast; a very original variation on what is already a very varied genre. (GjZ)

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Films: Moveable Feast (1996, short), Zhi Feng/Eating Air (1999, co-dir), The Maid (2005), Love Story (2006), Men in White (2007), Daiyat gye/Rule #1 (2008)

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Japan, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 102 min, Japanese Pro: Tsukamoto Shinya,

Koide Takeshi Pro Comp: Kaijyu Theater,

Akumu tantei 2 Nightmare Detective 2 Tsukamoto Shinya

In tone and theme, this sequel to the alarming Nightmare Detective is more of a prequel. Maggie Lee (Hollywood Reporter) called it that and with good reason. Kagenuma Kyoichi, the Nightmare Detective, is played as an indifferent and moody pop star by Matsuda Ryuhei. Kagenuma is able to enter other people’s dreams and nightmares, but he himself is also plagued by nightmares. In those nightmares, he’s a little boy who has strange conflicts with his mother. At odd moments, she has a deep fear of her own child. She recognises in him the supernatural powers that will finally turn him into a Nightmare Detective, but which she cannot control. She commits suicide, but continues to haunt the dreams of her son. Kagenuma is approached by the secondary-school girl Yukie. With a bunch of girlfriends, she has so bullied their classmate Kikukawa that she has decided to take her deadly revenge through dreams. The tired and sleepless detective at first doesn’t feel like helping Yukie, but finally recognises his mother’s problem in her. Part one of the Nightmare Detective was harder and also bloodier. This part is more subdued and psychological. The fear that is evoked is not shocking, but slowly creeps into the spectator. And it is primarily classic cinematographic effects that evokes a powerful feeling of unease. (GjZ)

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Movie-Eye Entertainment Sc: Tsukamoto Shinya, Hisakatsu Kuroki Cam: Tsukamoto Shinya, Takayuki Shida Ed: Tsukamoto Shinya Ad: Tsukamoto Shinya Sound: Masaya Kitada Mu: Chu Ishikawa, Shinichi Kawahara With: Matsuda Ryuhei, Miura Yui, Kan Hanae, Matsushima Hatsune, Ando Wako, Uchida Shungicu, Kitami Toshiyuki, Ken Mitsuishi, Ichikawa Miwako Print/Sales: Movie-

Eye Entertainment www.akumu-tantei.com

TSUKAMOTO Shinya (1960, Japan) was given a Super-8 camera at the age of 14, and his interest in film making started immediately. He began acting, attended an arts course at university and directed commercials for several years. His first two shorts also screened at this year’s IFFR. Films: Futsu saizu no kaijin/ The Phantom of the Regular Size (1986, short), Denchu Kozo no boken/The Adventure of Denchu Kozo (1987, short), Tetsuo - The Iron Man (1989), Hiroku the Goblin (1990), Tetsuo II - Body Hammer (1992), Tokyo Fist (1995), Bullet Ballet (1998), Sôseiji/Gemini (1999), Rogatsu no hebi/A Snake of June (2002), Vital (2004), Haze (2005), Akumu tantei/Nightmare Detective (2006), Akumu tantei 2/Nightmare Detective 2 (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 17:37:57

Signals: Hungry Ghosts

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Thailand, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 110 min, Thai Pro: Pantham Thongsang Pro Comp: Tifa Co. Ltd Sc: Ekachai Uekrongtham Cam: Choochat Nantituntayada Ad: Ratchata Panpayak Sound: Nakorn Kositpaisal Mu: Bruno Brugnano With: Karen Mok, Ananda

Everingham, Andrew Lin, Napakpapha Nakprasitte, Aki Shibuya

The Coffin

Print/Sales: Easternlight Films www.thecoffin-movie.com

Ekachai Uekrongtham

Ekachai UEKRONGTHAM (1962, Thailand) is one of Thailand’s leading dramatists and also founder and artistic director of the Action Theatre in Singapore. He has directed more than 100 plays and musicals. Uekrongtham’s début feature Beautiful Boxer (2003) was selected for more than 100 festivals. The Coffin (2008) is his third feature-length film.

A horror film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund? That demands an explanation. When Ekachai Uekrongtham presented his intriguing project in 2005 in Hong Kong and was given a HBF Award, the plan had a different character. However, he found little other support for his story about living people who crawled into coffins and he almost gave up. It was only when the producer Pantham Thongsang suggested working out the story as a genre film, that things started to move, and finally the film even became a box-office hit in Asia. The core of the story, based on a real ritual, has been kept. Because people think that death can be misled, there is a custom of lying in a coffin while alive for a night or during a ritual. The protagonist is a young man (played by Ananda Everingham, who is popular in Thailand) who takes part in the ritual in the hope that it can heal his girlfriend. However, he receives a far from pleasant surprise from the world of the dead. A sick woman from Hong Kong (a role played by Karen Mok) comes to Thailand especially to take part in the ritual and also becomes involved in all kinds of events with a supernatural nature. The film has all the elements of a commercial horror film, but in its story and its details much of the original project has been retained, as a result of which it can hardly be called a run-of-the-mill genre film. (GjZ)

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Films: The Nose (1991, short), Beautiful Boxer (2003), Alnus naga khon siam muay aurea (2006, short), Pleasure Factory (2007), The Coffin (2008)

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The UK Film Council would like to introduce the following UK producers who will be participating in the Rotterdam Lab 2009: Tristan Goligher Sarada McDermott Helen Grace Al Morrow Ohna Falby Geraldine Patton

Glendale Picture Company Northern Soul Film Productions Little Dragon Films Met Film Production Sister Films Keel Films

www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

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12-01-2009 19:00:33

tussenb

signAls young turkish CinemA

Ambassade van Turkije Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic Turkey

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siGnals: younG turkisH cineMa

young turkish cinema Ludmila Cvikova

When is the right time to pay attention to a film industry in a specific region, and why would one actually do so? In September 2008, the IFFR had a first meeting in Holland with a number of young Turkish film critics, some of whom are affiliated with the prestigious film critic magazine Altyazi, to discuss recent developments occurring in the Turkish film industry. A few more meetings followed, among others during the Festival on Wheels in Kars and later on in Istanbul. Our discussions initially revolved around the generation of film makers who began their careers in the 1990s and have achieved worldwide acknowledgement with outstanding auteurs cinema, such as Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Yesim Ustaouglu, or Semih Kaplanoglu, but later on we also focused on the newest generation and names that have appeared recently. As the IFFR is known for its focus on young and upcoming talents, the outline for our special thematic programme started to take shape. The Altyazi film critics embraced this concept, as they

agreed that there is a lot of young talent within Turkish cinema worth paying special attention to. Another interesting phenomenon that should not go unnoticed is that a new generation of young film critics are closely following what is happening in film in their country – the ideal combination of a generation that is artistically and intellectually connected. (Although it was never a formally organised film movement, weren’t the film critics who came up with the blanket term of French new wave in the sixties in fact French?) The year 2008 was exceptionally dynamic and successful for Turkish cinema and directors. Let’s have a chronological look at their concrete successes: The film début my mArloN AND BrANDo (Gitmek) by Hüseyin Karabey, a semi-biographical love story about a young Turkish woman, Ayca, and her journey to Northern Iraq to meet her great love, Hama Ali, a Kurdish man. It was successfully presented during the IFFR in January and received many acclaims thereafter.

Kasaba

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siGnals: younG turkisH cineMa

Another rewarding presentation of a first film at a big festival followed very shortly after – this time it was the picturesque and moving story of a Turkish family in a provincial Mediterranean town – sUmmer Book made by Seyfi Teoman and presented at the Berlinale. The Best Director award at Cannes for Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s three moNkeys was a very much expected acknowledgement for this extraordinary visually depicted family drama with outstanding acting. AUtUmN (Sonbahar), a film that tackles the issues of forsaken young generations in Turkey and their struggle for social change, directed by Özcan Alper, who according to Variety is an ‘impressive new voice in Turkish cinema’, was selected for the International Film Competition at the 61st Locarno Film Festival and awarded the CICAE Prize. milk (SÜT), the second part in Semih Kaplanoglu’s Yusuf Trilogy, in which he sketches the progressive industrialisation of the countryside, was selected for the competition section of the 65th Venice International Film Festival, while the first part of the trilogy, egg (Yumurta), was included in Sight&Sound magazine’s list, ‘The Best of 2008 – 50 Critics 150 Films’. First-time director Selim Evci’s film tWo liNes (Iki Cizgi), in which he observes the young generation’s male-female relationships in modern Turkey, took part in the 23rd International Film Critics Week of the Venice IFF. Yesim Ustaouglu and her work have been supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund since 1999. Ustaoglu’s latest project, pANDorA’s Box (Pandora’nin kutusu), was successfully presented last September in San Sebastian and awarded two prizes: a Golden Seashell for Yesim Ustaoglu and a Silver Seashell for Tsilla Chelton as best actress. It is the story of a Turkish family in which the modern world meets the old, alienation and isolation occur and individuals go through universally understandable self-discovery. Also worth mentioning is the fact that this year for the first time the IDFA competition included a Turkish documentary, oN the WAy to school by Orhan Eskikoy and Özgür Dogan. Actually, the last decade and a half has been a good time for Turkish cinema, and that’s why we have selected for this special programme some older films that have played an important role. After the collapse of many production companies in the mid-1990s,

the actual number of films decreased but films with a new sort of funding increased – directors took over the production of their own films. The rising artistic quality of some of those films hasn’t remained unnoticed. No one knew who Dervis Zaim was when his low-budget cinema-verité style début sUmmersAUlts iN A coffiN (Tabutta Rövasata) came out in 1996, but he was soon to become a household name for young Turkish film enthusiasts, inspiring a few independent Turkish films produced in the next decade, among them Zeki Demirkubuz’s iNNoceNce (Masumiyet) from 1997. This important film, supported by a great cast, redefined the genre of melodrama, which has been inherent in the Turkish movie culture ever since the 1960s. the smAll toWN (Kasaba, 1997), the directorial début of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is a wonderful black-and-white intimate family portrait based on an autobiographical story, a film that still continues to maintain its irreplaceable position in Turkish cinema with its inspirational minimalism that, together with his following works, would make Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s name as a directorial genius. The first film by the social-realist film collective Yeni Sinemacilar, oN BoArD (Gemide, 1998) by Serdar Akar, began a new style of film making in Turkey: straightforward and thought-provoking. This film continues to exert its unique influence over independent Turkish cinema. Yesim Ustaoglu’s second feature JoUrNey to the sUN (Gunese Yolculuk, 1999) was an arresting portrait, with a pronounced documentary-style feel, of the oppression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. Semih Kaplanoglu’s unique narrative style in ANgel’s fAll (Melegin Dususu, 2004) and his use of end-tobeginning chronological flashbacks of his protagonist’s life in the provinces in his Yusuf Trilogy, would heighten his virtuosity through his contemplative reflection on the concept of ‘time’. Besides films you may have already seen throughout the year, we are proud to present you a few new titles that will have their premières during the IFF Rotterdam 2009: A dynamically shot story of two friends who get into deep trouble in Istanbul’s chaotic underground scene, BlAck Dogs BArkiNg (Kara köpekler havlarken ), a directorial début by Maryna Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er.

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Journey to the Sun

Two Lines

Kazım Öz’s second feature the storm (Bahoz) is a true-to-life epic of a group of Kurdish students at the Istanbul University in anticipation of social revolution. And last but not least, for the first time ever in the IFFR’s Tiger Award Competition, a Turkish film: WroNg rosAry by Mahmet Fazil Coskun, a story of sensuality, love and grief growing within the anonymity of a big city between the young muezzin Musa and the Catholic nurse Clara, in today’s Istanbul. This exceptional début by Mahmut Fazil Coskun is certainly a strong representative of up and coming young talent from Turkey. We are quite sure that new names and films will still be appearing as you read these words or are enjoying

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watching the films that we have selected for you from these two generations. Only time will tell us what the present dynamics of the Turkish film industry will mean for the history of Turkish cinema. Enjoy this wonderful, challenging visual trip to this modern and modernising culture! With special and enormous thanks to Emine Yildirim, and many special thanks to Gozde Onaran, Senem Aytac, Nadir Operli, Yamac Okur, Seyfi Teoman and Christine Dollhofer. During the IFFR 2009, a special Young Turkish Cinema booklet will be available. It is written, edited and published by the film critics of Altyazi film magazine in co-operation with the IFFR and Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz, Austria

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

WORLD PREMIERE

Turkey, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 88 min, Turkish Pro: Mehmet Bahadir Er Pro Comp: Kara Kirmizi Film Sc: Mehmet Bahadir Er Cam: Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi Ed: Maryna Gorbach,

Mehmet Bahadir Er Ad: Mehmet Bahadir Er Sound: Umut Senyol Mu: Alp Erkin Çakmak, Baris Diri With: Cemal Toktas, Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu, Erkan Can, Ayfer Dönmez, Taylan Ertugrul, Ergun Kuyucu, Mehmet Usta, Muhammed Cangören Print/Sales: Kara Kirmizi Film

Kara köpekler havlarken Black Dogs Barking Mehmet Bahadir Er, Maryna Gorbach

Restless and young, best buddies Selim and Çaça live a meagre existence on the outskirts of Istanbul. Their neighbourhood’s view of the city’s gigantic business towers accelerates their ambitions. By day they grow pigeons on the roof, by night they drive their pimped-up car, ‘My Orange Angel’, and roam the mean streets with their entourage. The two buddies want to open up their own parking-lot business near a gigantic mall, and they just might get lucky, since they’re supported by the local mafia boss. But everyone wants a slice of the cake and the mall’s dodgy security contractor, Sait, is not so willing to let his ‘turf’ slide to these up-and-coming lads. Plus, the cops are on the boys’ tail to gather evidence against the mafia’s now ‘legalized’ activities. It isn’t long before Selim and Çaça’s dreams will be shattered when they find themselves in water over their heads. This sizzling début feature from Mehmet Bahadir Er and Marina Gorbach, shot in a verité style, captures a verisimilitude representative of the many unemployed young Turkish men who just want to make a better life for themselves. Submerged in poverty and the prevailing macho culture, it is no surprise that they become victims of violence. Bustling with energy with its in-yer-face attitude, Black Dogs Barking proudly takes over On Board’s (1988) legacy of the working class anti-heroes. (EY)

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Mehmet Bahadir ER (1982, Turkey) is student at the film school in Istanbul. The Earthquake (2005), one of his short films, won an award for Best Short at the Istanbul Independent Film Festival. Maryna GORBACH (1981, Ukraine) graduated from Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and TV in 2006. Her first short film The Jar (2004) won awards at different international festivals. The Debt (2006) was her graduation film. Black Dogs Barking (2008) is their first feature. Films: (Mehmet Bahadir Er) Goygoy (2004, short), Zilzal/ The Earthquake (2005, short), Umut/Hope (2006, short), Araf/ The Heights (2007, short), Kara köpekler havlarken/Black Dogs Barking (2009, co-dir) Films: (Maryna Gorbach) The Jar (2004, short), The Debt (2006, short), Kara köpekler havlarken/Black Dogs Barking (2009, co-dir)

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey/Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 106 min, Georgian/Turkish Pro: Feyzullah Serkan

Acar, Kadir Sözen Pro Comp: Kuzey Film

Production, Filmfabrik Spiel-und Dokumentarfilmproduktion Sc: Özcan Alper Cam: Feza Çaldiran Ed: Adnan Elial Ad: Canan Çayir Sound: Muhammed Mokhtary With: Onur Saylak, Raife Yenigül, Megi Kobaladze, Serkan Keskin, Nino Lejava, Sibel Öz, Cihan Çamkerten, Serhan Pirpir, Yasar Güven Print/Sales: Media

Luna Entertainment

Sonbahar

www.sonbaharfilm.com

Autumn Özcan Alper

Autumn is an intricately woven inner journey covering the insuppressible past, the fleeting present and the lack of a promising future. But despite all, it is the hope for change, which once drove, and still drives, the characters to firmly grip their lives. Such is Yusuf: in 1997 he was a politically active left-wing student; in 2007, he is a disillusioned misfit. After a decade of imprisonment for his lost cause, he returns to his native village in the eastern Black Sea region. His widowed mother is more than happy to welcome him, but the overbearingly beautiful mountains of his homeland only deepen his self-doubt and isolation. One day, meandering in a tavern with his childhood friend Mikail, Yusuf encounters a similarly wounded soul. She is the ethereal Eka, a Georgian prostitute who yearns for the day she can reunite with her daughter across the border. These kindred spirits will help each other to confront their darkest fears. Autumn is one of those long-awaited, magical yet brutal films that acutely tackle the issues of forsaken young generations in Turkey whose struggle for social change has cost them dearly - physically and emotionally. Alper’s evocative and sublime images of the present, mixed with intense raw footages of the recent past, brings to life a riveting reflection of a man in search of his deepest core. (EY)

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Özcan ALPER (1975, Turkey) attended courses in physics and history of science at the University of Istanbul. Since 1997 he has been working as assistant director and production manager on a variety of productions. He directed a short fiction and two short documentaries. Autumn (2008) is his feature début. Films: Momi/Grandmother (2001, short), Voyage in the Time With a Scientist (2002, short doc), Rhapsody and Melancholy in Tokai City (2005, short doc), Sonbahar/Autumn (2008)

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12-01-2009 18:58:45

Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 97 min, Turkish Pro: Selim Evci Pro Comp: Evci Film

Production Company Sc: Selim Evci Cam: Meryem Yavuz Ed: Selim Evci Ad: Didem Türemen Sound: Ismail Karadas Mu: Samet Evci (Frapan) With: Gülçin Santircioglu, Kaan Keskin Print/Sales: Evci Film

Production Company www.ikicizgi.com

Selim EVCI (1975, Turkey) graduated from Maltepe University with a degree in cinema in 2003. He then enrolled in the master programme in cinema at Beykent University in Istanbul. He made several short films and documentaries which were screened at numerous national and international festivals. Two Lines is his feature début, premièring at the Venice Film Festival in 2008.

Iki çizgi Two Lines Selim Evci

Twenty-something couple Mert and Selin could be the poster-kids for young modern Turks. Well groomed, wealthy and educated, they live unmarried in a tastefully furnished Istanbul apartment. Selin is a business-woman and Mert a photographer. However, something is distinctly wrong; uncomfortable silences frequently emerge and despite her tolerant attitude, Selin is secretly getting tired of Mert’s ineptitude at performing daily practicalities. Plus, unbeknownst to his better half, Mert has formed a habit at peeping at the sexy young ladies across the street. When summer arrives, the couple decide to take a road-trip to the Aegean coast. The sun is shiny, the water crystal clear, the roads endless. Thanks to the holiday spirit, Selin starts loosening up but alas the tension between the couple escalates and their attempts at communication fail tragic-comically. A surprising detour entertains the possibility of saving this relationship: a rundown hotel, perfect strangers and the unburdening of the roles and identities imposed by their rigidly routine lives. Suddenly Mert and Selin are alive and talkative as never before, but at the cost of dire consequences. Selim Evci’s début is a suspenseful and harrowing tale of gender dynamics between two urbanites who are victims of Turkey’s age-old issue: being stuck between the values of tradition and modernity. (EY)

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Films: Sen ya da hayalin/ You or Your Illusion (2000, short), Duvarin arkasi/Behind the Wall (2001, short doc), Kirmiziyi arayan adam/Lost Red (2001, short doc), Iyi günler/ Have a Nice Day (2002, short), Fotografçilarin Kapadokyasi/ Cappadocia of Photographers (2003, short doc), Antandros (2005, short doc), Iki çizgi/Two Lines (2008)

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey/France/Germany, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 102 min, Turkish Pro: Semih Kaplanoglu,

Guillaume de Seille, Bettina Brokemper Pro Comp: Kaplan Film Production, Arizona Films, Heimat Film GmbH + Co KG Sc: Semih Kaplanoglu, Orçun Köksal Cam: Özgür Eken Ed: François Quiqueré Sound: Marc Nouyrigat With: Melih Selçuk, Basak Köklükaya, Riza Akin, Saadet Isil Aksoy, Tülin Özen, Alev Uçarer Print/Sales: The Match

Factory GmbH

Süt

www.kaplanfilm.com

Milk Semih Kaplanoglu

Milk is the second film of Semih Kaplanoglu’s trilogy Egg-Milk-Honey, in which the Turkish director sketches the progressive industrialisation of the countryside. In Egg, the middle-aged poet Yusuf returns to his village of birth to bury his mother. In Milk, Kaplanoglu also looks at changing economic and social structures in the mother-son relationship. In Milk, Yusuf is a young poet who dreams of seeing his work published, but for now earns a meagre income as a dairy man. He and his mother run a small dairy farm in the shadow of advancing apartment blocks. Yusuf, still wrestling with his attitude towards both girls and boys, is disappointed to see his mother start a relationship with the local station master. When his masculinity is put to shame because he is excluded from military service for medical reasons, their relationship is put under even more strain. Kaplanoglu portrays a vulnerable and sensitive young man who prefers everything to stay as it was, while his mother wants to free herself from the role imposed on her through tradition. Milk is not an explicit film, however. The director portrays their lonely world in long, tranquil tableaux, occasionally juxtaposed with local superstition and accentuated by a metaphorical ending. Despite the advancing modern era, the characters and the landscape are still closely and unfathomably linked.

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Semih KAPLANOGLU (1963, Turkey) studied at the film and television school at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir. He made several award-winning commercials and directed the 52-episode television series Sehnaz tango, of which he also wrote the screenplay. His feature début, Away From Home (2001) was screened worldwide and Angel’s Fall (2004) received several international awards. After that he started working on his so-called ‘Yusuf trilogy’, of which part one and two, Egg and Milk screened in Rotterdam. Films: Mobapp (1984, short), Old Houses, Old Masters (1987, short), Mimar sinan/The Architect (1988, short), Asansör/ Elevator (1993), Herkes kendi evinde/Away From Home (2001), Melegin düsüsü/Angel’s Fall (2004), Yumurta/Egg (2007), Süt/Milk (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 18:58:46

Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Turkey, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 156 min, Turkish/Kurdish Pro: Özkan Küçük Pro Comp: Mesopotamia Cinema

& Yapim 13 Film Production Sc: Kazim Öz Cam: Ercan Ozkan Ed: Kazim Öz Ad: Yuksel Budak Sound: Murat Senurkmez Mu: Vedat Yildirim, Ayhan Akkaya, Burak Korucu With: Cahit Gok, Havin Funda Sac, Asiye Dincsoy, Selim Akgul, Ali Gecimli

Bahoz

Print/Sales: Mesopotamia

The Storm Kazim Öz

Cinema & Yapim 13 Film Production www.firtinafilmi.com

For eighteen-year-old Cemal, being accepted to the University of Istanbul is more than just an opportunity to continue his studies, it is his big chance to leave his remote Kurdish village in Southeast Turkey once and for all. Getting off the bus, he is overwhelmed by the grandeur of the big city, but the historic campus is a whole different story. This is the early 90s; radical student activities are at their peak and cops patrol the grounds. Our naive protagonist quietly attends classes and keeps his head down, but soon, Queen Bee Helin will cajole him and two other Kurdish classmates, Orhan and Rojda, into joining her anti-system revolutionary group. This is a precious time for self-discovery. The three friends start questioning the status quo and embracing their cultural identities. They form new friendships, fall in love, read Marx, talk about their dreams and get carried away anticipating the revolution. But all isn’t rosy; conflicts rise within the group and the police encircle them like vultures. Kazim Öz, known for his captivating documentaries of Kurdish life, presents a masterful second feature in the form of an epic that realistically depicts the social uprising and urgency of Turkey’s student movement of the past decade. Hardcore and heart-wrenching, The Storm has already started to gain cult status among young audiences in Turkey. (EY)

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Kazim ÖZ (1973, Turkey) studied architecture as well as cinema and TV at Marmara University. He has worked as theatre director and actor and has made several short films and documentaries. Films: Destên me wê bibin bask emê bifirin herin... (1996, doc, co-dir), El yordamyyla renkler (1997, doc), Demek wenda/A Lost Time (1998, short, co-dir), Ax/Land (1999, short), Fotograf/ The Photograph (2001), Bahoz/ The Storm (2008)

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 92 min, Turkish Pro: Yamaç Okur Pro Comp: Bulut Film Sc: Seyfi Teoman Cam: Arnau Valls Colomer Ed: Çiçek Kahraman Sound: Ismail Karadas Mu: Rahman Altin With: Taner Birsel, Tayfun

Günay, Harun Özüag, Ayten Tökün, Osman Inan, Riza Akin Print/Sales: Wide Management www.bulutfilm.com

Tatil kitabi Summer Book Seyfi Teoman

Summer Book is the seemingly ordinary story of a Turkish family in a provincial Mediterranean town. It’s the end of the school year, and ten-year-old Ali and his classmates receive a study book for the summer. When Ali’s book is stolen by the class bully, his patriarchal father Mustafa, an ambitious merchant, gives Ali a different task: sell a boxful of chewing gum for profit. Meanwhile, Ali’s much older brother Veysel comes home for a break from the military academy and reveals his wish to switch to a civilian school in Istanbul. This infuriates the father. His wife does what she can to calm tempers and keep the family together. Easy-going Uncle Hasan is on Veysel’s side. But when the father suffers a stroke, all the dynamics of this family topple. Summer Book is not only a compelling coming-of-age story but a microcosm of a very distinct feeling in contemporary provincial Turkish life: the yearning for change in conflict with the suffocating comfort of the simple life. The director observes the daily routine of this family and portrays its dramatic potential in a subtle, minimalist way. Convincing acting by the protagonists (often non-actors) and the warm tones and natural lightning combined with meticulous camera work make this a wonderful début full of atmosphere that seduces you into following this meditative journey. (EY)

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Seyfi TEOMAN (1977, Kayseri, Turkey) studied economics at Bogazici University in Istanbul and film directing at the Polish National Film School. His graduation film A partment was screened at many international film festivals. His feature début Summer Book was awarded European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards 2008. Films: Apartman/Apartment (2004, short), Tatil kitabi/ Summer Book (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 18:58:47

Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey/France/Germany/ Belgium, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 112 min, Turkish Pro: Yesim Ustaoglu, Muhammet

Pandora’nin kutusu Pandora’s Box Yesim Ustaoglu

Nusret’s adult children - daughters Nesrin, Güzin and son Mehmet live separate lives in Istanbul and have all come to terms differently with the monotonous void in their urban existence. After hearing that their mother is not well, they trek to their hometown near the Black Sea. Finding Nusret unconscious yet physically fit, they take her back to Istanbul, the city that Ustaoglu regards as a ‘Pandora’s Box’. The burdensome situation reawakens old conflicts between the siblings. They quickly notice that Nusret is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Nesrin and Güzin first take care of their mother. But the task proves to be too difficult for the quarrelsome sisters: they not only can’t cope with their mother’s decline, they can’t deal with their own alienated lives. The headstrong Nusret abhors the concrete city with its insincere modern relationships and just wants to return home. But unexpectedly she forms a close bond with her rebellious pothead grandson Murat. The film is a profound study of loss, estrangement and familial tensions, but above all it is a critique of a contemporary society that has defamiliarized itself from its roots, its ‘Mother Nature’. Pandora’s Box won several prizes in 2008, including the San Sebastian Best Actress Award for protagonist Tsilla Chelton (1918). The film, like some previous ones, was supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. (EY)

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Çakiral, Serkan Çakarer, Behrooz Hashemian, Setareh Farsi, Natacha Devillers, Catherine Burniaux, Michael Weber, Tobias Pausinger Pro Comp: Ustaoglu Film Production, Silkroad Production, Les Petites Lumières, Stromboli Pictures, The Match Factory GmbH Sc: Yesim Ustaoglu, Sema Kaygusuz Cam: Jacques Besse Ed: Franck Nakache Ad: H.F. Farsi, Elif Tasçioglu, Serdar Yilmaz Sound: Bernd Von Bassevitz, Philippe Bluard, Bruno Tarrière Mu: Jean-Pierre Mas With: Tsilla Chelton, Derya Alabora, Onur Unsal, Övül Avkiran, Osamn Sonant, Tayfun Bademsoy, Nazmi Kirik Sales: The Match Factory GmbH Distr. NL: Hubert Bals Fund www.ustaoglufilm.com

After several successful shorts, Yesim USTAOGLU (1960, Turkey) directed her début feature The Trace (1994). She received international recognition with her 1999 film Journey to the Sun, which was awarded the Blue Angel in Berlin, the prize for Best European Film, and others. Pandora’s Box has already been awarded several international festival prizes. Films: To Catch a Moment (1984, short), Magnafantagna/Big Fantasy (1987, short), Duet (1990, short), Hotel (1992, short), Iz/The Trace (1994), Günese yolculuk/Journey to the Sun (1999), Sirtlarindaki hayat/ Life on Their Shoulders (2004, short doc), Bulutlari beklerken/ Waiting for the Clouds (2004), Pandora’nin kutusu/Pandora’s Box (2008) 345

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Tek notalik adam The One Note Man Daghan Celayir

Turkey, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 14 min, no dialogue Pro: Daghan Celayir Pro Comp: DC Sc: Öktem Basol, Daghan Celayir Cam: Hasan Gergin Ed: Erhan Acar Ad: Erhan Alabas, Dicle Sound: Ismail Karadas Mu: Bursa State Symphony Orchestra, With: Sehsuvar Aktas, Sanem Öge, Naci Özgüç, Hayal Sahin Print/ Sales: DC www.theonenoteman.com

Charming short film about the forgotten cymbal player in the symphony orchestra who sits right at the back; he only plays one note. He does, however, have a supporter in the audience, a young woman who’s always there. Tragicomedy about music and love. Daghan CELAYIR (1978, Turkey) works as a director and editor for film and TV. His short films, including his thesis project, have been screened and awarded worldwide. He is now working on his first feature film.

Films: (all short) Rebellion of the Machines (2003, doc), Those Who Forgot the City (2005), The Man Who Never Leaves the Island (2006, doc), The Children of the Other Lands (2007, co-dir), Tek notalik adam/The One Note Man (2008)

Yokus

The Slope Mehmet Can Mertoglu Turkey, 2008, b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 14 min, no dialogue Pro: Mehmet Can Mertoglu Pro Comp: MCM Film Sc: Mehmet Can Mertoglu Cam: Ersan Capan Ed: Orkan Bayram, Mehmet Can Mertoglu Sound: Ismail Karadas With: Feridun Koc Print/Sales: MCM Film www. mcmfilm.net

Sober and effective début in beautiful black-and-white by a very young maker about a man who works as a cleaner and administrator in the city hospital. We follow him for a day in his routine. Mehmet Can MERTOGLU (1988, Turkey) is studying Turkish literature at the Bosphorus University in Istanbul. The Slope (2008) is his first film. Besides making films Mertoglu works e.g. as an editor for Cinephile.

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Films: Yokus/The Slope (2008, short)

TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM 38 38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey, 1999 colour/b&w, 35mm, 113 min, Turkish Pro: Behrooz Hashemian Pro Comp: Istisnai

Filmler ve Reklamlar Cam: Jacek Petrycki Ed: Nicolas Gaster Ad: Natalie Yeres Sound: Frederic Helm, Christian Gotz Mu: Vlatko Stefanovski With: Nevruz Baz, Nazmi Kirik, Mizgin Kapazan, Ara Güler, Berceste Akgün, Kazim Ekinci Sales: Celluloid Dreams Distr. NL: Cinemien www.ustaoglufilm.com

Günese yolculuk Journey to the Sun Yesim Ustaoglu

Mehmet comes from a small town in Western Turkey; but his unusually dark skin gets him often mistaken for a Kurd. This is just one of the many misconceptions and prejudices fed by the complicated structure of Turkish society. Newly arrived in Istanbul, Mehmet shares a room with four men and makes a meagre living from spotting underground water leaks. He forms an unlikely friendship with Berzan, a street-savvy Kurd who sells bootleg cassettes. Berzan keeps his political involvement with the Kurdish underground a secret, until Mehmet is accidentally put in jail and almost beaten to death due to his dark skin. Events unfold, and the friends decide to take a journey to Berzan’s hometown near the Iraqi border. Yesim Ustaoglu’s second feature is an arresting portrait, with a pronounced documentary feel, of the oppression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. She first takes us through the streets of Istanbul, a metropolis with many contradictions, at times a celebration of East meets West, but mostly a chaotic jungle where class, cultural and economic conflicts are at peak. As the two travel to the East, we see a different Turkey, calmer and picturesque; but the destitution of the forgotten Anatolian villages, and of the Kurds, is ever more apparent. Feeling at home is never easy, but the duo’s friendship could be the only real home they will ever have. (EY)

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After several successful shorts, Yesim USTAOGLU (1960, Turkey) directed her début feature The Trace (1994). She received international recognition with her 1999 film Journey to the Sun, which was awarded the Blue Angel in Berlin, the prize for Best European Film, and others. Pandora’s Box has already been awarded several international festival prizes. Films: To Catch a Moment (1984, short), Magnafantagna/ Big Fantasy (1987, short), Duet (1990, short), Hotel (1992, short), Iz/The Trace (1994), Günese yolculuk/Journey to the Sun (1999), Sirtlarindaki hayat/ Life on Their Shoulders (2004, short doc), Bulutlari beklerken/ Waiting for the Clouds (2004), Pandora’nin kutusu/Pandora’s Box (2008)

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey, 1998 colour, 35mm, 102 min, Turkish Pro: Onder Cakar, Sevilay

Demirci Cakar Pro Comp: Yeni Sinemacilik,

Proto Film, Tara Film, Shark Film, A.A. Productions Sc: Serdar Akar, Onder Cakar Cam: Mehmet Aksin Ed: Nevzat Disiacik Ad: Yafuz Faz Mu: Ugur Yücel With: Erkan Can, Haldun Boysan, Yildiray Sahinler, Naci Tasdögen, Ella Manea Print/Sales: Yeni Sinemacilik

Serdar AKAR (1964, Turkey) graduated from Economic and Commercial Sciences Academy in Ankara in 1985 and from Cinema & TV department of Mimar Sinan University in 1994. He worked as assistant to several Turkish directors. He has directed several series for TV.

Gemide On Board Serdar Akar

When On Board came out in Turkish theatres in 1998, it immediately gained underground status, especially among zealous young male film makers-to-be who were inspired by its uncompromising, hardcore attitude. The first film produced by the social-issues-driven auteur cinema collective Yeni Sinemacilar (New Cineasts), who would later present the controversial and brilliant Takva, On Board follows the dark events unfolding in a claustrophobic ship docked at the Bosphorus shore. A pack of four sailors led by their Captain (Erkan Can, Yeni Sinemacilar’s favourite actor) stumble upon a Russian prostitute and rescue her without her consent while trying to get back their stolen money from a gang of pimp look-alikes. Back on the ship, the sailors smoke pot, get reelingly drunk, excel in profanities and listen to the Captain’s mouth-watering sexual fantasies. While the prostitute lies unconscious in a cabin, the men one by one secretly visit to have their way - only to discover that she is a virgin. The events culminate drastically and the camaraderie between the men is tested to its limits. This is the saga of your everyday Turkish ruffian, barely making ends meet and brought up in sexual oppression with a distinct prerequisite to constantly prove his masculinity. Provocative and gutsy, On Board continues to exert its unique influence over independent Turkish cinema. (EY)

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Films: Gemide/On Board (1998), Dar alanda kisa paslasmalar (2000), Maruf (2001), Valley of the Wolves: Iraq (2006), In Bar (2007)

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Turkey, 1997 b&w, 35mm, 1:1.66, 85 min, Turkish Sc: Nuri Bilge Ceylan based

on a story by Emine Ceylan Cam: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Ed: Ayhan Ergürsel,

Nuri Bilge Ceylan Sound: Mustafa Bolukbasi, Ergun Unal Mu: Ali Kayaci With: Mehmet Emin Toprak, Havva Saglam, Cihat Bütün. Mehmet Emin Ceylan, Fatma Ceylan Print/Sales: Pyramide

International www.nbcfilm.com/kasaba

Kasaba

Film maker and photographer Nuri Bilge CEYLAN (1959, Turkey) did technical studies at Bosphorus University and then studied film making at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. In 2009, Rotterdam will screen Ceylan’s first short film Cocoon (1995) and his first feature The Small Town (1997).

The Small Town Nuri Bilge Ceylan

The delicately subdued The Small Town was the herald of an astounding string of films that would prove Nuri Bilge Ceylan to be a directorial genius. Shot in black-and-white, it was made on a low budget, partly because the maker wanted to work with a small crew to create an intimate mood. The actors are mainly relatives and friends of the director; the script is based on an autobiographical story by his sister and was shot in a village in Anatolia where he spent his childhood. The perspective is that of two children, a girl of eleven and her younger brother. In four parts that run parallel with the seasons, they are witnesses to the mysteries of life, nature and human relationships around them. In the winter episode the girl has trouble adapting at school. In part two, spring, the children walk home through the maize fields and stop by the cemetery to play. The childhood cruelty of the spring scenes flows into a summer evening when the children with their parents and relatives are roasting maize by a fire. The adults’ conversation about war, death, poverty, hunger, work and reputation, reveal all kinds of things about the family. The dreamy last part, set indoors, gives a picture of the dreams of young people and their quest for a place in society. The Small Town continues to hold its irreplaceable position in Turkish cinema with its inspirational minimalism. (EY)

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Films: Koza/Cocoon (1995, short), Kasaba/The Small Town (1997), Mayis Sikintisi/Clouds of May (1999), Uzak/Distant (2003), Iklimer/Climates(2006), Üç maymun/Three Monkeys (2008)

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Turkey, 1997 colour, 35mm, 110 min, Turkish Sc: Zeki Demirkubuz Cam: Ali Utku Ed: Mevlüt Kocak Ad: Namik Eken Mu: Cengiz Onural With: Güven Kiraç, Derya

Alabora, Haluk Bilginer Print/Sales: Sanartfilm

Zeki DEMIRKUBUZ (1964, Turkey) studied communication at the University of Istanbul. He started his film career in 1986 as assistant director to Zeki Ökten. In 1994 he directed his first feature, Block C. Many of his films have been shown at international film festivals.

Masumiyet

Films: C Blok/Block C (1994), Bari Ekspres (1996), Masumiyet/ Innocence (1997), Üçüncü sayfa/The Third Page (1999), Yazgi/Fate (2001), Itiraf/ The Confession: Tales About Darkness II (2002), Bekleme odasi/The Waiting Room (2004), Kader/Destiny (2006)

Innocence Zeki Demirkubuz

There is one particular scene in Innocence that film-lovers can never forget: a heartfelt, lengthy monologue that middle-aged Bekir delivers to Yusuf, the young man sitting beside him. He talks about how he met the love of his life, Ugur, how she has always been in love with another man, and after 20 years, how he is still suffering for his unrequited love as he follows her from one town to another. This is the moment in Zeki Demirkubuz’s masterpiece that totally redefined the melodrama genre which has been inherent to Turkish movie culture ever since the 1960s. Set against the crumbling walls of rundown hotels, seedy bars and forgotten cities, this is the intense tale of three outcasts who are prisoners of their love. One is a prostitute, the second her pimp/ bodyguard and the other a naive young man who is caught in their circle of fire. The misery of their lives is only made more intense as they helplessly cling to things they never had. And of course, the TV never leaves them alone, as the old Turkish melodramas it broadcasts are only a reflection of their desperation and their quest for absolution. Nine years later, Demirkubuz made the film’s remarkable prequel Destiny, which portrayed the events enfolding during the youth of his protagonists - the destiny which Bekir warns Yusuf to turn away from in Innocence. (EY)

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Signals: Young Turkish Cinema

Turkey, 1996 colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 80 min, Turkish Pro: Dervis Zaim, Ezel Akay Pro Comp: Marathon

Films, IFR A.S. Sc: Dervis Zaim Cam: Mustafa Kuscu Ed: Ugur Ozyilmazel, Mustafa Presheva, Murat Senyuz Sound: Ender Akay Mu: Baba Zula With: Ahmet Ugurlu, Tuncel Kurtiz, Aysen Aydemir Print: IFR A.S. Sales: Young Turks Inc.

Tabutta rövasata Somersault in a Coffin Dervis Zaim

No one knew who Dervis Zaim was when his low-budget début Somersault in a Coffin came out in 1996, but he was soon to become a household name for young Turkish-film enthusiasts who liked the film’s cutting-edge verité style and idiosyncratic narrative. Its leading character Mahsun is the archetypal forsaken loser; he wanders adrift in a village on the Bosphorus, stealing automobiles to have a warm night’s sleep. Occasionally he gets caught by the police and receives a well-rounded beating. But Mahsun is a gentle soul, he is loyal to his fellow squatters, he even makes a sentimental tribute of drinking good wine to a departed outcast. And then there is the mysterious beautiful lady addicted to heroin, for whom he harbours genuine feelings. Hearing that the nearby historic castle will be exhibiting peacocks as an attraction, he decides to kidnap one of the birds; perhaps it symbolizes the bountiful life which he can never access. A compassionate portrayal of individuals that society deems to be the ‘other’, Somersault in a Coffin is at once absurd, down-to-earth, comical, sentimental, up-lifting and bleak. Supported by a boisterous soundtrack from ethnic-experimental Turkish band Baba Zula, this début not only confirmed Dervis Zaim’s talent as a film maker but also influenced a handful of independent Turkish films produced over the next decade. (EY)

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Dervis ZAIM (1964, Cyprus) studied economics in Istanbul and cultural studies in Warwick. He is a writer and director for radio, film and television and has written a novel, Ares in Wonderland (1995). At the Istanbul Film Festival, Elephants and Grass (2000) won the international critics’ prize. All of his following features have been screened at film festivals across the world. Films: Hang the Camera (1992, short), Rock Around the Mosque (1993, doc), Tabutta rövasata/ Somersault in a Coffin (1996), Filler ve Çimen/Elephants and Grass (2001), Çamur/Mud (2003), Cenneti beklerken/ Waiting for Heaven (2006), Nokta/Dot (2008)

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NAi • Rotterdamse Schouwburg • Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht

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siGnals: size Matters

size Matters: ipod versus iMaX Edwin Carels

Screens are here to stay. From gigantic multiplex screens to the one on your mobile phone, from widescreen home cinema to the built-in film viewer in the headrest of an aircraft seat, from the monitor in your pocket game computer to the whole façade (or even ‘skin’) of a building: screens are everywhere, in all possible shapes and forms. But what film maker or audio visual artist is really still intensively involved with the optimal use of the ‘aspect ratio’ of any specific technology or medium? The thematic programme Size Matters has been developed from this opening question. The concept of screen culture now commonly posed in film studies comprises the ‘quest’ of film images to many kinds of destinations. Urban screens and locative media are important trends in topical visual culture. While the last century was the era of the moving image, the 21st century will probably be characterised by the moving screen. This is the visible side, which is also symptomatic for several invisible tendencies. The cinema and the TV room are no longer the only place where people watch screens. Ever since the invention of radar, electronic monitors have increasingly formed a regular part of our everyday environment. One of the most important subsidiary effects of this explosive growth in screen images is the mixture of private and public, the communication urge and intimate experience, generic messages and personal perception. There are no longer any ‘unguarded moments’; flickering screens guide our gaze and dictate the rhythm of our strolls through the city.

latest technology: computer graphic 3D cinema. Such 3D effects have been the ambition of film makers for decades, but soon the exception may well become the rule, at least in animation films. At the same time, the ‘expanded-cinema’ tradition from the 1960s is being revived and experimental film makers are playing out all kinds of combinations of multiple projections. Size Matters is most emphatically a story about the power of the image, the urge to impress. Both advertisers and media activists are manipulating the force field between large and small scale with conscious strategies. In selecting the works on the following pages, both playfulness and a critical attitude were important criteria. Two questions emerged: how far does the concept of a ‘screen’ stretch? And how far can human comprehension stretch? The enormous explosion in formats and technological innovations, all typified by a focus on scale and dimensions, have an ambiguous effect. While a range of inspiring possibilities emerge, there are also a lot of confusing side effects as a result of these rapid developments. tHe iMperceptiBle visiBle

From nanotechnological close-ups to cosmic views, Size Matters investigates how the visual arts and sciences

lonGinG for entranceMent

The longing for entrancement or tele-transportation through images is much older than film itself; for instance, think of the Panorama Mesdag, a giant painted panorama where you can step ‘inside’ the image. Or the Lumières, who installed a gigantic screen at the world fair in 1900 and experimented with stereoscopic images. But also in the post-cinema era, we still strive continuously for entrancement. By now we have reached the point where IMAX screens can be animated by the

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enter into a dialogue on the main issue: people as the measure in an expanding technological universe. Attention for the big picture! But major revolutions often secrete themselves in a small corner. Miniaturisation, a consequence of microprocessors getting smaller and smaller, has a major impact. Not only screens, but also cameras keep shrinking in size continuously. For instance, the clumsy 35mm camera is getting competition from recording technology using equipment not much bigger than the head of a nail. In science, the photographic camera as a ‘window on the world’ has already been surpassed and replaced by other methods of visualisation. As a result, we now have nanotechnological images from electron or atomic microscopes and a light source is no longer necessary to make something visible. The hightechnology camera is an active agent that encodes reality for us into a visual picture instead of turn it into an analogue reproduction. The human eye is no longer the frame of reference to observe the world. And even the camera as a prosthesis for the human eye is now increasingly making way for equipment that might not even need rays of light to register things and show them graphically. Our powers of imagination are repeatedly being surpassed by a scientific depiction of the imperceptible. The shrinking of technology, which makes it so ubiquitous, does something with the way we relate to the world, even in a literal sense – for instance with a SatNav. But it also influences the way in which we see ourselves, how we situate ourselves in that grander, increasingly complex whole. Thanks to the cinema, the close-up came into being, enriching our cultural idiom in a fantastic way: photographic detail, extremely lively, magnified enormously on a huge screen. And technologies have

now come so far that we are no longer surprised that unborn life can be followed in 3D or that new DNA can be slotted together in front of our eyes. tired of our own eartH

It’s only very occasionally that a fundamentally new viewing experience is offered. Since ancient times, we have peered at the boundaries of the heavens, but it’s only since the first spaceflight that we have seen a photographic image of our own planet and can situate ourselves. Satellite technologies led to SatNav and Google Earth, which enable us to orient ourselves at any moment at any spot on earth. We can look at ourselves like God. It’s handy, but sometimes also worrying. Because what does Google Earth do to our image of the world, to our self-awareness and to visual culture? What do national borders mean? Who keeps track of the all-seeing eye? Where do the supercomputers hide that make all this possible? Will we soon tire of our own earth? What do artists and film makers do with the idea of physical intimacy now that the final frontier has been reached? Is there any way that artists can measure up to the impact of scientific iconography? And how ‘realistic’ are scientific images anyway? Which formal conventions are being complied with? And how can audiovisual artists exploit this in any significant way? Behind all this is the exponentially increasing capacity of computer memory and all kinds of processes that achieve the greatest possible acceleration on the smallest possible scale. How long will people remain the measure for all things? Size Matters invite you on a voyage of discovery from screens of different sizes in different film theatres to contemporary urban screens on apartment buildings. Through an exhibition, Size Matters leads to a series of live moments in the form of performances, lectures and interventions. In this way, everyone can select their own made-to-measure programme.

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WORLD PREMIERE

Netherlands, 2009 colour, video, 420 min Pro: Nanouk Leopold,

Daan Emmen, Simon Field, Keith Griffiths Pro Comp: Beeldcollectief Leopold Emmen, Illuminations Films, International Film Festival Rotterdam Sc: Nanouk Leopold, Daan Emmen Cam: Richard van Oosterhout Sound: Bram Meindersma With: Herman Lamers, William Veerbeek, Lenno Verhoog

Close-up Nanouk Leopold, Daan Emmen

When the Rotterdam director Nanouk Leopold made her début in 2001 at the IFFR with Îles flottantes, this was the start of a beautiful film career. The following features have been screened at major festivals such as Berlin and Cannes. It’s hardly possible to get any bigger, or is it? For the IFFR she is making a film that will be projected more than life size on a wall in our own city. For this Urban Screen project, Leopold cooperated with the visual artist Daan Emmen, with whom she has formed the Beeldcollectief Leopold Emmen. Leopold and Emmen here play with the conventions of film and image in the public space. They make a six-hour close-up, the most powerful image in a film. Their Close-up is however not the film in the classic sense of the word. They also don’t call it film but a film image. Most viewers of Close-up will be chance passers-by. People who have not consciously chosen to look at this image, where a cinema visitor has done. The passers-by glance and then carry on with what they were doing. As a result, they decide the rhythm of this film: that is dependent on where and when they look, for how long and how often. The image changes slowly, so that the viewer who comes past at different times repeatedly see something slightly different. A face looks at the viewer. But who is looking at whom?

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Nanouk LEOPOLD (1968, The Netherlands) studied Directing at the Dutch Film and Television Academy. She won the Tuschinski Award for her graduation film Weekend as well as the Kodak Prize from the Munich Film Festival. She wrote and directed several short films, she also worked as a freelance journalist for the film magazine Skrien and as a reviewer for the in VPRO TV programme Stardust. Îles flottantes is her feature début. Daan EMMEN (The Netherlands) works as a visual artist and teacher in the field of the digital media. He studied Interior Design, Sculpture and Monumental Arts. He graduated at the Rotterdam Art Academy in 1994. He start working in the field of the applied arts shortly after his graduation. On 7 januari 2008 he started with Nanouk Leopold a collaboration called ‘Beeldcollectief Leopold Emmen’. Together they made Close-up (2009). Films: (Nanouk Leopold)Fishy (1994, short), F 100,- (1995, short), Anna (1996, short), Marseille 1-2 (1998, short), Weekend (1998), Îles flottantes (2001), Close-up (2009, instal, co-dir) Films: (Daan Emmen)Close-up (2009, instal, co-dir)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Canada, 2009 video, 7 min Pro: Lindsay Hamel, Simon Field, Keith Griffiths Pro Comp: Cinema Atelier Tovar Ltd., Illuminations Films, International Film Festival Rotterdam Sc: George Toles, Guy Maddin Cam: W. James Meagher, Guy Maddin Ed: John Gurdebeke Ad: Ricardo Alms, Rick Gilbert, Andy Byers With: Isabella Rossellini

Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair Guy Maddin, Isabella Rossellini Anyone who saw the film installation by Guy Maddin at the IFFR in 2003 entitled Cowards Bend the Knee, knows you can leave the making of unusual films for screening in unusual spaces or in an unusual format to Maddin. This unusual and pleasantly crazy creative film maker does not allow himself to be restrained by what is usual in the film world. For his urban screen, Maddin again worked with the eternally elegant and mysterious Isabella Rossellini, who previously starred in his The Saddest Music in the World and My Dad Is 100 Years Old. This time, in a seven-minute loop we can see how the diva is tied into a wooden electric chair. The power is slowly increased, sparks fly playfully around, smoke curls upwards. As a result of the electrocution, the star actress becomes ecstatic. Appearing one after the other in her petite mort rêverie are excitingly strange images - from objects of desire to melancholy flashbacks. Until the dream goes up in smoke and the film starts again. Maddin: ‘I think I can make the dream stand up to many, many viewings. I’ll make it funny in ways no one can understand. I’ll make it pretty. And I’ll make it dark. And I’ll keep it clean, on the surface anyway. The name of your programme is Size Matters, after all! And of course Isabella will be endlessly watchable! Who hasn’t wanted to see a film beauty go to the chair?!’

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Guy MADDIN (1956, Canada) did not attend film school. He studied Economics at the University of Winnipeg and then earned his living as a house painter. But it was during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s that Maddin cultivated his interest in cinema. His first feature Tales from the Gimli Hospital appeared in 1988, and became a midnight-movie classic. In 1995 Maddin won (as the youngest ever) the Telluride Silver Medal for a Lifetime Achievement. Isabella ROSSELLINI (1952, Italy) is an Italian actress, film maker, author, philanthropist and a model. At the age of 19, she moved to New York, where she started to work for RAI-Italian Television. She is known for her years of work as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in a number of films such as Blue Velvet by David Lynch and Death Becomes Her by Robert Lee Zemeckis. Films: (Guy Maddin) (selection) Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), The Heart of the World (2000), DRACULA - Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002), The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), My Winnipeg (2007, doc), Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (2009 install, co-dir) Films: (Isabella Rossellini) Oh la la (2006, short), Green Porno (2008, short), Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (2009, install, co-dir) 357

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WORLD PREMIERE

Mexico, 2009 colour, video, 80 min Pro: Carlos Reygadas, Simon

Field, Keith Griffiths Pro Comp: Mantarraya Producciones, Illuminations Films, International Film Festival Rotterdam Sc: Carlos Reygadas Cam: Alexis Zabé, Dani Valdés, Carlos Reygadas, Diego Garcia, Lorena Rosendo, Michel Lipkes, Alexis Ezpeleta, Glauco Bermúdez, Pablo Nuñez, Alonso Mejía, Fernanda De La Peza Ed: Carlos Reygadas Sound: Natalia López

Serenghetti Carlos Reygadas

For the Urban-Screen project, the IFFR approached three filmmakers with whom the festival has close links. The Mexican director Carlos Reygadas is one of them. Since his ambitious and widely praised début film Japón was premièred in Rotterdam, his lyrical oeuvre has been seen at the festival. Reygadas (a great soccer fan) made a football film for his urban screen. The game between two women’s elevens takes place on a pitch in the middle of a surrealistic mountain landscape where corrosion has done its job. The game has all elements of a professional match as these are generally seen on TV: colourful club kits, camera recording from all possible angles, statistics, the score, slow motion repeats, a preview, interviews with the players etc. A greater contrast between the daunting mountain landscape and the clean urban façade on which this is screened is almost inconceivable. Add to that the mixture of two almost incompatible worlds - that of commercial football broadcasts on TV and the artistic cinema of Reygadas - and a special viewing experience is born.

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Carlos REYGADAS (1971, Mexico) started making short films in 1998, after studying International Law in Mexico and London. He made his feature début with Japón (IFFR 2002). His full-length films received several nominations and awards at international festivals. Battle in H eaven (2005) and Silent Light (2007) were nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes. Silent Light won the jury prize in Cannes 2007. Films: Adulte (1998, short), Prisoners (1999, short), Oiseaux (1999, short), Maxhumain (1999, short), Japón (2002), Batalla en el cielo/Battle in Heaven (2005), Stellet Licht/Silent Light (2007), Serenghetti (2009, instal)

A o c E o u T b p b t C t B d a

T G a a y R b

M s s t h s V a

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Aspect Ratio A psychedelic dance of graphic patterns, an endlessly expanding sea of humanity, a lonely photographic particle of silver expanded to cinema format, a panoramic view of an unearthly landscape, a series of mirrors with cinematographic frame format, a huge enlargement of a subatomic tube, an animated manipulation of Google Earth, a flashing parade of thousands of colourful JPGs, a series of close-ups of the de CERN particle accelerator, or precisely a deeply human melodrama, reduced to the screen of an iPod: all images that belong to the same universe always waiting to be fathomed further. The exhibition Aspect Ratio has as its starting point Powers of Ten (1977), the legendary and still very popular film by the designers duo Charles and Ray Eames. In this short film a simple photo of a picnicking couple is the starting point for journey through the cosmos and through the smallest molecules in the body. Based on the original idea by the Dutch educationalist Kees Boeke (Cosmic View, 1957), in this film version, the size of things is illustrated by the effect of adding or removing a zero on the end. Ten years ago the Eames film was selected for the Library of Congress because of its special cultural, historic and aesthetic meaning. The ‘decimal shift’ still remains a useful tool to help visualise the relativity of the cosmos; us in the universe and the universe in us. By now technology has advanced a long way and artists are also finding new ways to explore classic notions such as dimension and scale. From nano-technological close-ups to cosmic grandeur, Aspect Ratio researches how visual art and science enter into a dialogue with as central stake: man as a measure in an expanding technological universe.

The World as Will and Representation Roy Arden Canada

The World as Will and r epresenTaTion (the title of which is taken from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer) is a video movie of the artist’s archive of photographic images collected from the internet. It is a growing archive and for exhibition purposes the artist makes a video movie every year of the updated archive. Roy ARDEN (1957, Canada) has over the past two decades become one of Canada’s most respected photo-based artists. In 2000, Arden began producing video works, concerned with many of the same themes as his photographic work, ‘the landscape of the economy’.

Manifest Destiny

Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen Netherlands, 2009 Print/Sales: Broersen & Lukács

M anifesT desTiny is both a video and a series of works that combine silkscreen and photography. They represent an imaginary horizon, silkscreened over an existing photograph of a barren desert where some of the Mars mobiles have been tested. A study on close up and distance, of horizon and the frontier, in relationship to the American tradition of the sublime landscape. Visual artists BROERSEN (1974, Netherlands) and LUKÁCS (1973, Netherlands) make video art. Their work is shown in galleries and festivals worldwide.

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Yota

Belgium

D C

A temporary monument to be placed at high vibrational places. The structure is inspired on the buckytube, named after the practical philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller, who developed the geodesic dome principle based upon the idea of ‘doing more with less.’ This method created the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structures ever devised. Louis DE CORDIER (1978, Belgium) is an artist who works in the discipline of visual arts with the use of installation and sculpture, with cross-overs to archeology and design.

I t n ( ( M J

Aspect Ratio

USA, 2004 Courtesy: Greene Naftali Gallery, New York

Fisher’s works are directly concerned with the machinery of cinema. But he draws reference to art history rather than to his film-making colleagues, citing influences such as Sol LeWitt, Marcel Duchamp, Ad Reinhardt and Susan Sontag. His gallery shows have featured conceptual paintings, but this recent work consists of a series of mirrors cut to the proportions of various formats of film frames, ranging from silent cinema to Ultra Panavision. (Mark Webber) Morgan FISHER (1942, USA) began his career as an editor in the commercial film industry before exploring the avant-garde.

C l l c ‘ c S t

Louis De Cordier

Morgan Fisher

The Surging Sea of Humanity

Ken Jacobs

USA, 2007, colour, video, 11 min, silent Pro: Ken Jacobs

A stereograph of the crowd at the opening of the US Centennial Exposition of 1893 turns into a movie, into an enormous rugged and craggy 3D landscape. Many laws were broken in the making of this movie, beginning with laws of gravity. For the first time Jacobs presents this work as a looped video-installation. Ken JACOBS (1933, USA) has been making films and film performances since 1955. For years he also worked as a film lecturer. In 2004 he was Film Maker in Focus in Rotterdam.

geo goo

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Jodi

Netherlands

Jodi use the codes of internet and the codes inside the computers as their artistic material. Here they connect a long tradition of tracing geometry on the ground with the new geometries one can draw on the surface of the Earth as proposed by online tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth. The Royal Parc of Brussels is well known for its Masonic compass in the groundplan. Jodi, or jodi.org, is a collective of two artists: Joan HEEMSKERK and Dirk PAESMANS. Since the mid-1990s they create internet art, installations, game modifications etc, always conceptual jokes and anarchic sense of aesthetics.

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My Frontier is an endless Wall of Points Joachim Koester

Denmark, 2007 Courtesy: Galleri Nicolai Wallner.

In the 19th century exploration was geographic. But in the 20th century this notion of the ‘unknown’ changed, exploration turned inward. The new realms to be explored were the molecule (Niels Bohr), the unconscious (Sigmund Freud), language (Gertrud Stein) or the outskirts of the mind (Henri Michaux). This psychedelic documentary literally animates Michaux’ mescaline drawings and his idea of a ‘venture into foreign territory.’ Joachim KOESTER (1962, Denmark) often uses the filmic strategies of montage, archiving and storytelling to illuminate historical events.

The Spirit of enquiry Simon Norfolk United Kingdom

CERN is the largest gathering of knowledge in the history of mankind, larger even than the Apollo moon missions. Thousands of scientists are lowering hundreds of tonnes of equipment into a deep underground cavern in order to examine almost infinitely tiny fragments of atoms. ‘When I made the final prints of the Large Hadron Collider, they resembled, cupolas, crop circles or Tibetan mandalas.’ (SN) Simon NORFOLK (1963, Nigeria) gave up photojournalism in favour of landscape photography. His work focuses on modern technologies and the ruin left in the wake of wars and conflicts in such places as Bosnia, Liberia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

His Affair with Time Roman Ondák

Slovakia Courtesy: GB Agency, Paris and Martin Janda, Vienna

Like many parents before him, Ondák documented his young son’s growth over a number of years by making marks on a door frame. The two photos appear to be identical. By duplicating the image he emphasizes the passage of time: the intervals between the different marks, and simultaneously, the ephemerality of a moment in time. The work of Roman ONDÁK (1966), which might take the form of an installation, performance or a subtle intervention, often provokes a double-take in the viewer.

Particle Projection Simon Starling

United Kingdom Courtesy: Neugerriemschneider, Berlin

The image of a silver particle, produced by an electronic microscope, is derived from a negative of a photograph of the Atomium building (Brussels). Reconstituted in celluloid and enlarged, the spectral figure of the particle is projected as a black and white 35mm film loop. The film plays with the relation between the infinitesimal and the grand. Simon STARLING (1967, UK), winner of the 2005 Turner Prize, is best known for his site-specific projects and interventions.

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The Possible Ties Between illness and Success Carlo Zanni

Italy Sc: Carlo Zanni Cam: Aldo Di Marcantonio Ed: Luca Mandrile Sound: Bruno Ventura Mu: Gabriel Yared With: Ignazio Olivia, Stefania Orsola Garello (M)other: Narrator: John Haskell. Courtesy of Collection Angelo and Massimo Lauro, Naples www. thepossibleties.com

A short movie transformed by an internet data flux. The core idea is the relationship between manic-depressive illness forms and success at large, a theme it tracks through the filming of an ill man and his partner. The body of the man progressively fills with stains: quantity and position depend on the number of users (and country of origin) visiting the website of the project. The more users, the more stains, thus causing the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;illnessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to spread all over the body. Carlo ZANNI (1975, Italy) is an Italian born artist living between Milan and New York. Zanni keeps investigating what he calls Data Cinema: a new way to approach filmmaking and narrative forms at large based on live data feedback gathered from the Net.

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Netherlands, 2008 video

www.sub.urbanespressobar.nl

Influenza/Dancing Black Square Jeroen Jongeleen Jeroen Jongeleen’s sticker and graffiti actions counter the standardized and commercialized inner-city spaces with subtle interventions. Under the label ‘Influenza’ - referring to its potential effect as uninvited distortion of public space, creating an alias for the maker at the same time - Jongeleen continuously develops new signs, figures and texts. He often makes direct reference to the hegemony of architectural structures and public advertising displays, shifting or supplementing their visual codes. Jeroen Jongeleen grasps his work not only as an activist strategy, but also as an examination of the possibilities of artistic expression in public space. Influenza/Dancing Black Square is a hypnotizing moving/ standstill series of images, a sticker project finding itself translated into animation. (See also his Influenza/Composition II (Chrome Square), in the compilation programme R eady for my Close Up.) This work is shown in the Sub Urban Video Lounge, a small space for projected art concentrating on works appearing in the area of overlapping disciplines: visual arts, film/video, dance, poetry....

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Germany, 2007 colour, video, 30 min, silent

Pro: Susanne Wiegner Mu: Eppie E Hulshof

‘ f

Print/Sales: Susanne Wiegner www.susannewiegner.de

Susanne WIEGNER studied architecture in Munich and at Pratt Institute in New York City. She works as an architect and 3D artist in Munich, Germany. In addition to projects in real space, she creates 3D computer animations dealing with literature and with virtual space.

Expeditio

T w a fi h b S t i

T a f

Susanne Wiegner

A s b p m M e

30-minute animation film describing the virtual journey of a spaceship to the human mind in seven episodes as an expedition report. The spaceship is equipped with all kinds of appliances for observation such as various special cameras, microphones, sensors, x-ray units, etc. By these means the spaceship is not only able to perceive but also to analyze and archive its perception. It is thus able to describe abstract space adventures in a ‘scientific-poetic’ way. Today’s common method to represent and prove facts with the help of virtual models is therefore being raised into something fantastic. The language used is both scientific and poetic, like the former reports of expeditions. The end is very surprising and gives two short hints that the film is a reminiscence of Jules Verne and Adalbert Stifter. This pseudo sci-fi story is presented in the special context of the urban screen located in the Rotterdam subway station Blaak (in collaboration with City Media Corp.). English translation by Andrea Lutz.

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Fisher Films ‘One thing my films tend to do is examine a property or quality of a film in a radical way. Being radical is a modest form of being extreme. They each examine an axiom of cinema and say, “What if ?”’ (Morgan Fisher) The films of Morgan Fisher have existed under the radar for more than twenty years. This is partly because he works in that filmic Bermuda Triangle between the avant-garde, the commercial movie industry and contemporary art. Morgan Fisher mixes cinematic history, autobiography and art historical references in his exploration of film making. Being based in Los Angeles - where the only kind of cinematic culture is the blockbuster - can’t have helped. Away from New York, around whose creative inhabitants the foundations of serious film writing were built, Fisher avoided being anointed as one of the prime ‘structural’ film makers (who included Michael Snow, Paul Sharits and Hollis Frampton). However, this gave him the freedom to be as idiosyncratic as he wished. He became the most academically reductive practitioner of minimalist film making. The process of film making, its tools, and its jargon have been Fisher’s subjects for forty years. (Mark Webber)

The Director and His Actor look at Footage Showing Preparations for an Unmade Film (2) Morgan Fisher

USA, 1968, b&w, 16mm, 1:1.33, 15 min, English Pro: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

A film in two parts. In the first, we see a barren room with a young man sitting behind a tape recorder. Another man, played by Fisher himself, busily enters; he tests the recording machine and eventually goes into a back room, which, when illuminated, turns out to be a projection booth. The film he projects will be the whole second part of this work. Throughout we hear the comments of the two men as they watch the rushes of their film. Morgan FISHER (1942, USA) began his career as an editor in the commercial film industry before exploring the avant-garde. He examines and deconstructs the narrative of film and the industry itself with wry humour.

Production Stills Morgan Fisher

USA, 1970, colour, 16mm, 1:1.33, 11 min, English Pro: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

A perfectly enclosed narrative of its own production: the image is one long take of a wall on which a hand sequentially pins a number of Polaroids, one after the other. The Polaroids depict the crew making the film; the synchronous sound allows us to hear in ‘real time’, their chatter and the hum of the still camera, so that we can anticipate the photos and assign faces to the voices we hear.

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The Wilkinson Household Fire Alarm Morgan Fisher

USA, 1973, colour, 16mm, 1:1.33, 2 min, no dialogue Pro: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

Morgan Fisher has long explored the space that segregates art cinema from industrial movie making. The one-minute-thirty-second-long Wilkinson household fire alarM, an eye-blink homage to Marcel Duchamp, is more obviously engaged with conceptualism than with studio manufacturing. What you see is what you hear.

Cue Rolls Morgan Fisher

USA, 1974, colour, 16mm, 1:1.33, 6 min, English Pro: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

The majority of Fisher’s works are directly concerned with the machinery of cinema. He creates systems and rules that exploit the apparatus, physical material and production methods of the movies. Over the years he has analyzed nearly every aspect of the production and projection process.

Projection instructions Morgan Fisher

USA, 1976, b&w, 16mm, 1:1.33, 4 min, English Pro: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

An exploration of the process of film making from the moment of filming to the act of projection executed with wry humour and precise observation. Every film must be performed by the projectionist. This one requires extra attention, as all the textual instructions on the screen need to be read and respected.

Standard gauge Morgan Fisher

USA, 1984, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 35 min, English Pro: Morgan Fisher Ed: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

sTandard GauGe is a repository of abandoned footage. Defunct television episodes, ‘China girls’, glorious frames that resemble El Lissitzky and Mark Rothko paintings, Jean-Luc Godard, Roger Corman, Edgar G Ulmer and Leonard Kastle combine to illustrate a metaphorical biography of the history of film and a partial autobiography of Fisher himself.

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USA, 1969 colour/b&w, video, 115 min, silent Pro: Ken Jacobs Ed: Ken Jacobs Print/Sales: Ken Jacobs

Ken JACOBS (1933, USA) has been making films and film performances since 1955. For years he also worked as a film lecturer. In 2004 he was Film Maker in Focus in Rotterdam.

Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son Ken Jacobs Original 1905 film shot and probably directed by G.W. ‘Billy’ Bitzer, rescued via a paper print. Reverently examined here, a new movie almost incidentally comes into being. The staging and cutting is preGriffith. An inspired indication of a path of cinematic development whose value has only recently been rediscovered. My camera closes in only to better ascertain the infinite richness, searching out incongruities in the story-telling, delighting in the whole bizarre human phenomena of story-telling itself and this within the fantasy of reading any bygone time out of the visual crudities of film: dream within a dream! And then I wanted to show the actual present of film, just begin to indicate its energy. A train of images passes like enough and different enough to imply to the mind that its eyes are seeing an arm lift, or a door close; I wanted to ‘bring to the surface’ that multi-rhythmic collision-contesting of dark and light two-dimensional force-areas struggling edge to edge for identity of shape... to get into the amoebic grain pattern itself - a chemical dispersion pattern unique to each frame, each cold still... stirred to life by a successive 16-24 f.p.s. pattering on our retinas, the teeming energies elicited (the grains! the grains!). (KJ)

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Films: (since 2002) Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence (2002), Keeping an Eye on Stan (2003), Mountaineer Spinning (2004, short), New York Street - Trolleys 1900 (2004, short), Celestial Subway Lines/ Salvaging Noise (2004), Krypton Is Doomed (2005, short), Let There Be Whistleblowers (2005, short), Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye, Molly! (2005), Pushcarts of Eternity Street (2006, short), New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 (2006), Two Wrenching Departures (2006), Capitalism: Child Labor (2007, short), The Surging Sea of Humanity (2007, short), RAZZLE DAZZLE the Lost World (2007), Nymph (2008, short), Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) (2008), Return to the Scene of the Crime (2008)

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Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) Ken Jacobs

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 110 min, English Pro: Ken Jacobs Ed: Ken Jacobs Mu: Michael Schumacher, Nisi Jacobs, Malcolm Goldstein Print/Sales: Ken Jacobs

In AnAglyph Tom Ken Jacobs revisits the 1905 source of his 1969 structuralist film masterpiece, Tom, Tom, The piper’s son. In his earlier film, a landmark of cinematic deconstruction, Jacobs rephotographed and manipulated a film fragment from the dawn of cinema, penetrating the image to reach the sublime. In AnAglyph Tom, the artist applies the anaglyph 3D process to the original footage, engaging the experience of depth perception itself as the subject of his relentless experimentation. Reanimating the past through digital manipulation, Jacobs again summons the celluloid ghosts and lost worlds of an earlier age, subjecting them to his dizzying interventions and immersing the viewer. Throbbing and flickering, pulsing and stuttering, his work plunges the viewer into haunted scenes that come alive with illusory depth and movement. (3D glasses will be supplied.) Writes Jacobs: ‘The real subject of AnAglyph Tom (Tom wiTh puffy Cheeks) is depth-perception itself. Our beloved performers from the 1905 Tom, Tom, The piper’s son again encapsulate human absurdity for our amusement but this time in illusionary (and berserk) 3D. Clowns and harlots and slumming gentry freely step forward and back through the screen surface, often misplacing heads and limbs as they change location.’ (www.eai.org)

Return to the Scene of the Crime Ken Jacobs

USA, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 93 min, English Pro: Ken Jacobs Ed: Ken Jacobs Mu: Malcolm Goldstein Print/Sales: Ken Jacobs

Jacobs’s return to a single scene from the 1905 short Tom, Tom, The piper’s son - which he first disassembled in his 1969 masterpiece of the same name - could easily be titled ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Scene.’ An avant-gardist’s comedy, r eTurn roguishly riffs on thirteen distinct styles, revealing, distorting, interpreting, and even misinterpreting the hundreds of actions in a single scene - as painting, abstraction, allegory, and, ultimately, as ballet. It’s a wry, roving, and joyous ode to movies, an experimental enfAnTs du pArAdis. Even more than with AnAglyph Tom, this is archeological excavation from a very contemporary point of view. Just as the structural cinema from the late sixites could be read as a countermovement to mainstream cinema, Jacobs goes against the grain of America’s grand narrative and inserts political comments, such as the final confession of Alan Greenspan. Far from pure formalist obsessiveness, Jacobs’s radically unconventional visual essays are testimony of a radical, untamed spirit that is unrelentless in its quest for a pure, first degree visual experience. (www.theauteurs.com)

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WORLD PREMIERE

Japan, 2009 colour, video, 115 min, Japanese/French Pro: Ishibashi Kiyomi Sc: Ishibashi Kiyomi, based on

the story by Thierry Acot-Mirande Cam: Ishibashi Kiyomi Ed: Ishibashi Kiyomi Ad: Ishibashi Kiyomi Sound: Ishibashi Kiyomi,

Yasuhiro Morinaga With: Ishibashi Kiyomi, Yan Kassile, Matsuda Tokue, Koshida Noriko, Imai Michihide Print/Sales: Ishibashi Kiyomi

ISHIBASHI Kiyomi (1975, Hiroshima) obtained her master degree at the University of Tokyo and got her diploma of Ph D in Cinematographic and Audiovisual Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. She is currently working as researcher and assistant professor at the Tokyo University of Technology. She also is a film critic, among others for Cahiers du cinema and Marie Claire Japan.

)

Spyder Ishibashi Kiyomi

Spyder, - ‘Spy’ with a connotation of secret agent, not a suggestion of the homonymous insect-, is a young woman with a vagabond soul. She lives her life as if she is part of a flood pouring out from space. She experiences diverse levels of reality, between heaven and hell, ecstasy and horror, discovering the world of cinema and her first love. She strives to realize the dream to have her own house, an incarnation of the memories of her lost childhood. However, the distortion of reality is a part of her troubled personality, though it has nothing to do with drugs. But for her, the world that surrounds us all begins to become a sort of nightmare. The reasons for this are manifold, including the problems of modernity… In 2007, Ishibashi Kiyomi shot her first film with a mobile phone. Silent Scream was a mix of documentary and fiction, and was presented at Pocket Films Festival, organized by the Forum des Images in Paris. With Spyder Ishibashi joins the handful of film makers who realised an entire feature film with footage exclusively shot with the mobile phone.

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Films: Silent Scream (2007, short), Spyder (2009)

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WORLD PREMIERE

USA, 2009 colour, video, 286 min, English Pro: Jonas Mekas Cam: Jonas Mekas Ed: Elle Burchill Ad: Jonas Mekas Sound: Jonas Mekas Print/Sales: Jonas Mekas

Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR Jonas Mekas Forces of time, memory, change and human will collide in Jonas Mekas’s new film: a meditation on the time when the world watched as his home country of Lithuania fought for independence. Mekas continues to work with his video diaries, but differently, and may have delivered one of the most radical achievements of the year. Instead of his familiar wry, poetic commentary enveloping the past with distance, he’s chosen to present straight up the cathode glow of nightly TV news. Jonas is palpably present, occasionally making an exclamation; in the background his household is faintly heard. It is an immersion into the addictive grasp of the 24-hour news cycle (complete with repetitive refrains), into a moment of major social upheaval (with affinities to today’s news), and into one very personal fixation of an obsessive chronicler. (RM) ‘This video is hand-held footage I took from newscasts during the collapse of the USSR between 1989 and 1991. It can be viewed as a classic Greek drama in which the destinies of nations are changed drastically by the unbending will of a single man, one small nation determined to regain its freedom, backed by Olympus in its fight against the Might & Power, against the Impossible.’ (Jonas Mekas) Part one: 75 min. Part two: 69 min. Part three: 75 min. Part four: 67 min.

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Jonas MEKAS (1922, Lithuania) spent World War II in a concentration camp and emigrated to the US in 1949. Since then, he has been actively involved with American avant-garde film as editor, critic, film maker and theoretician. His best known film is The Brig (1964), a film version of a theatre production shot in one night with a shoulder camera. There have been exhibitions on Mekas and his extensive oeuvre all over the world. Films: (selection) Guns of the Trees (1961), The Brig (1964, doc), Walden (Diaries Notes and Sketches) (1969), Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), Lost, Lost, Lost (1976), Zefiro torna/Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (1992, short), As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000), Williamsburg, Brooklyn (19502003), Letter from Greenpoint (2004), Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (2009)

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Belgium 70 min Pro Comp: Kunst/Werk vzw Sc: C&H With: Christophe Meierhans,

Heike Langsdorf, Christoph Ragg, Ula Sickle. www.tsee-und-asch.ch

The Nickelodeon

Consisting of dancer Heike LANGSDORF, stage designer Christoph RAGG and composer Christophe MEIERHANS, C&H has been developing performative art pieces for the past 7 years. C&H’s work ranges from theatre-based performances and theatre-like pieces to interventions in the public domain and situation-based performances or installations

C&H

The Nickelodeon derives its title from the early type of motion picture theatre bearing the same name. Unlike its historical counterpart, C&H’s Nickelodeon does not offer its customers film screenings, but a selection of short live performances to choose from. The performances in The Nickelodeon are re-enactments on stage of the movements executed by cameras in movies. The very shots (travel shots, pans, zoom-ins, close-ups, etc.) making up the original footage are reproduced in an empty space by performers moving aluminium frames of different sizes and formats to the original soundtrack. Each one of these microperformances exactly reproduces the camera movements and editing cuts of specific excerpts taken from a broad selection of feature films, television series, documentaries, talk shows, video clips or live broadcasts. The only thing remaining of the film set is the prescribed movement in space of what was being held in focus by the cameras. In other words, the spatial limits of what is being filmed, the framing operated by the cameras, is made visible as such. C&H is: Christophe Meierhans, Heike Langsdorf, Christoph Ragg. With Ula Sickle. In co-production with de Rotterdamse Schouwburg.

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Canada, 2008 70 min Sc: Daniel Barrow Mu: Amy Linton

Since 1993, Daniel BARROW (1971, Canada) has used an overhead projector to create and adapt his drawings to a ‘manual’ form of animation.

Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry

Films: Black Heart’s Desire (1995), Party Killer (1995), Backwash (1995), Untitled (1997, co-dir), The Cell and the Castle (1998), The Wallflower (1998), Looking for Love in the Hall of Mirrors (2000), A Miracle (2003), Catalogue of the Original (2004), Artist Statement (2006), Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry (2008)

Daniel Barrow Winnipeg-based artist Daniel Barrow is best known for enchanting performances in which he manipulates his drawings - grotesque and mannered in a style that evokes children’s-book illustrations - with an overhead projector to create animated film-like sequences while narrating the story. His narration both lures us into the perverse, dreamlike stories, and draws attention to its own pretences and artifice. Barrow has developed his own cast of recognizable characters, chief among these an adolescent boy who radiates the anguish, fantasies and touching ambivalence of teenhood as he negotiates between childhood and an adult future. Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry traces and develops the interior dialogue of a bitter and jaded garbage man/failed artist as he wanders aimlessly through the city streets, collecting garbage in the early hours of the morning. ‘It’s a performance set in a community that stands at the gates of hell, which sounds very dark - and it is - but I’m still in the room to moderate the gloom and darkness.’ (DB)

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USA 70 min

Paul CLIPSON (1966, UK) works in Super-8, 16mm and video, often in collaboration with experimental musicians and sound artists, exhibiting his work in live performances, screenings and installations. Films: (all short, selection) Corridors (2007), Echo Park (2007), Passageways (2007), Tuolumne (2007), Bend Sinister (2008), Moth & Moon (2008), Within Mirrors (2008), The Phantom Harp (2008), Sphinx on the Seine (2008)

Half Light Mysterium

Paul Clipson

‘Maintaining a predominantly intuitive process in conceiving and creating films, where improvisation, utilizing mistakes, and ‘wrong’ images (for example images that are overexposed or out of focus) are part of my film making methodology, my films are a personal recording, like a diary or essay, rendering colour, light, focus and shadow in many forms, in the hope of allowing for un-thought, unexpected elements to reveal themselves. Along with the influence of experimental film makers such as Stan Brakhage, Marie Menkin, Bruce Conner, and Bruce Baillie, many of my recent discoveries and journeys as a film maker are the result of my work with musicians and bands. My stream of consciousness films are often screened at live musical performances. There’s no discussion or effort made by the musicians I collaborate with to synchronize or edit the films in a way that will better suit their being experienced by the audience.’ (PC) At the IFFR the Belgian band R.O.T. will accompany the screening of recent works Bend Sinister (2008), Moth & Moon (2008) and Within Mirrors (2008).

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USA 60 min

Bruce McCLURE (1959, USA) is a Brooklyn-based film maker and architect. He creates film performances using multiple 16mm projectors and other technology.

Reformed Lid After Lid in Tune Bruce McClure

Films: (all performances) The Southern Star Passes Without Pressure (1988), Indeterminate Focus (1999), Divorce American Style (1999), Quarter Draw (2001), Circle Jerks (2002), Synchro-Diachronic Gewgaws (2007), Film Lengths (2003) and Film Loops (2003), Crib and Sift (02-04), Presepe (2004), Chiodo (2004), New Work (2004), Christmas Tree Stand (2004), They Wakened Later, Simultaneously, Much Refreshed (06), Rack and Slide (2006), Projector Placements (2006), Nethergate (2006), Untitled Compliment (2007), Reformed Lid After Lid in Tune (2008)

McClure creates hypnotic, immersive film experiences from a minimal quantity of audio-visual information. The projector becomes, through certain adornments, the primary agent serving the brain. His multiprojector performances open up a heavy world of hallucinatory retinal pyrotechnics. He employs multiple bastardised 16mm projectors, screwed about with, the motors modified, brass grids retro-fitted askance between lens and gate. These personalised instruments are used to transform loops of (often pure black-and-white) frames into an immersive perceptual phenomenon. Strobing, abstract forms, pulsing on screen, slowly transform as additional, overlapping projectors create strange halos, odd 3D expansions and contractions. As more projectors are added, an intense sensory overload in light, noise and colour occurs. The title of this exclusive performance, for which McClure also will manipulate 35mm projectors, comes from the last page of Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake: ‘Lid After Lid - Reform In Mine Size His Deformation Till the Near Sight of the Mere Size of Him.’ A co-production with the WORM.filmwerkplaats.

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Russia 60 min

http://portablepalace.com

Evelina DOMNITCH (1972, Minsk) and Dmitry GELFAND (1974, St. Petersburg) merge physics, chemistry and computer science with philosophy. The artists have collaborated with numerous scientific research facilities around the world.

10000 Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid

Films: (Evelina Domnitch) (all instal) Wakening Shrouds (2000), Opening Coccyx (2001), Gas Chamber (2001 - present), Camera Lucida (2008) Films: (Dmitry Gelfand) (all instal) Wakening Shrouds (2000), Opening Coccyx (2001), Gas Chamber (2001 - present), Camera Lucida (2008)

Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand Research on the behaviour of soap films has led to a vast variety of optical, mathematical, thermodynamic and electrochemical discoveries since the time of the Renaissance. Domnitch and Gelfand use laser light to scan the surfaces of nucleating and dissipating soap bubble clusters. Unlike ordinary light, the laser’s focused beam is capable of crawling through the micro and nano structures within a bubble’s skin. When aimed at specific angles, this penetrating light generates a large-scale projection of molecular interactions as well as mindboggling phenomena of non-linear optics. In contrast to former soap film explorations by scientists, mathematicians, and artists (the likes of which have included Newton, Chardin, Plateau and Rayleigh), here, a warped, ‘impossible’ space-time is invented. The title stems from the Chinese expression, ‘the ten thousand things’, signifying the multiplicity of cosmic phenomena. Though it may become as thin as a single molecule, all ‘the ten thousand things’ are refracted through the sensitive skin of a soap bubble.

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USA/Japan 60 min, Macedonian Pro: Noël Akchoté Cam: Aki Onda Mu: Noël Akchoté http://akionda.net

Aki ONDA (1967, Japan) is a self-taught electronic musician, composer, and photographer. He currently lives in New York. He has collaborated with many pre-eminent artists including Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs, Alan Licht, Loren Connors, Oren Ambarchi, Jac Berrocal, Linda Sharrock and Shelley Hirsch. Films: (all instal) Cinemage (2005), Something Which Wasn’t Said (2005), Lost City (2007), After the Rain (2007)

Cinemage Aki Onda

Cinemage is an audio-visual performance project initiated by New York-based electronic musician and photographer Aki Onda in 2005. With a title which references ideas of both ‘images for cinema’ and ‘homage to cinema’, the performance comprises slide projections of still photographs set to live guitar improvisation. The visual images in Cinemage are snapshots taken from Onda’s daily life. The images of Lost City (black-and-white, partially colour, 40 minutes, 2007) were shot in New York between 2001 and 2002. Aki Onda: ‘It was during the time when we were still in shock from 9/11. Everybody was living under an undefinable fear - not knowing what would happen in the future.’ The ceaseless flow of the images - still moments within a movement against the ever-shifting, fluid guitar soundscape creates an experience not dissimilar to Chris Marker’s La jetée, but with another level of relevance related directly, of course, to Onda’s own life. For IFFR 09, Noël Akchoté plays guitar along with Onda’s visual images.

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Canada 70 min Cam: Pierre Hébert Sound: Bob Ostertag Mu: Bob Ostertag

Bob OSTERTAG (1957, USA) and Pierre HÉBERT(1944, Canada) are ‘The Living Cinema’. Ostertag is a composer, Hébert is animator. They bring immediacy and topical relevance to live cinema.

Special Forces Bob Ostertag, Pierre Hébert

Living Cinema, an internationally renowned collaboration between San Francisco composer Bob Ostertag and Quebecois animator Pierre Hébert, maximizes the performative aspects of live cinema events, bringing immediacy and topical relevance to astute and biting cultural commentary. Special Forces, a pointed and urgent view of the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, exemplifies this approach. Ostertag and Hébert presented its world premiere at the Irtijal ’07 Free Improvised Music Festival in Beirut, Lebanon in early April. The project is a meditation on, and critique of, the relationships between war, video games and technology. To that end, Ostertag and Hébert have customized standard game pads (like the ones that come with Nintendo) so that they will trigger sounds and images from a variety of sources, including video games, war footage and original images filmed during Living Cinema’s travels. Ostertag creates a score and soundscape comprised entirely of video game sound clips, while Hébert creates animations on the spot that will interact with original and altered images and sounds.

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enough Already

There exists no measure for the quantity of information we can digest, whereas often a single image already contains an inexhaustive amount of information. Or are we just looking for ourselves, an image of our brain when we view the world?

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10,000 Copyrighted images Richard Wright

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2007, colour/b&w, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Richard Wright Print/Sales: Richard Wright www.futurenatural.net

The film consists solely of random images collected from search engines and displayed one per frame. Despite the speed of 25 frames per second, its rhythmic pulsing is strangely hypnotic. This exercise in maximum velocity copyright infringement is poised between the logic of intellectual property and the limits of human perception. Richard WRIGHT is a visual artist whose work includes many early pioneering digital animated films and interactive pieces. He holds a PhD in the aesthetics of digital film making and has published nearly forty book chapters, essays and reviews.

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And the Sun Flowers

Mary Helena Clark

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 5 min, English Pro: Mary Helena Clark Cam: Mary Helena Clark Ed: Mary Helena Clark Print/ Sales: Mary Helena Clark

‘Henry James had his figure in the carpet, Da Vinci found faces on the wall. Within this Baltimore wallpaper: a floral forest of hidden depth and concealment, the hues and fragrance of another era. Surface decoration holds permeable planes, inner passages. There emerges a hypnotic empyrean flower, a solar fossil a speaking anemone, of paper, of human muscle, of unknown origin, delivering an unreasonable message of rare tranquility.’ (Mark McElhatten)

infection Transmission event / Cloudy november

Paul Abbott

A s a i t E s

United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Paul Abbott Cam: Paul Abbott Print/Sales: Paul Abbott www.paulabbott.net

Working in the vein of Wittgenstein’s and Burroughs’s investigations into the enigma of language, this bleak, laboratory experiment questions whether or where the omnipresent flow of data turns into information, or on the contrary affects our communication and perception skills like a virus. Paul ABBOTT won the Dick Arnall Award at the 2008 Aurora festival in Norwich.

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Two Times 4’33” Manon de Boer

Belgium/Germany, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Marie Logie Pro Comp: Auguste Orts Sc: Manon de Boer Cam: Sebastien Koeppel Ed: Julien Sigalas Ad: Manon de Boer Sound: Aline Blondiau Mu: Jean-Luc Fafchamps Print/Sales: Auguste Orts www.augusteorts.be

During the course of a film screening, the actual space of the viewer and the fictional space of the film are diffused by the viewer’s subjective mechanisms of perception. Based on John Cage’s composition 4’33” (1952), the artist filmed two performances of the same piece; the first performance was recorded with the sound of the audience and background noise, while the second performance is shown in complete silence. De Boer explores the impact of the different recordings on the viewer. Manon de BOER (1966, India) studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. She has made series of art videos and films based on the stories and memories of people in her immediate surroundings.

Without You Tal Rosner

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2008, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Tal Rosner Cam: Jack Clough Ed: Tal Rosner Sound: Tal Rosner Print/Sales: Tal Rosner

Inspired by a poem by Josef Albers, WiThouT you is a visual exploration of London’s industrial suburbia, focusing on an imaginary circle drawn at a 10 mile radius from Charing Cross. Where the natural and manmade environments lie side by side in harmonic indifference, the film follows a colour-coded and surface-determined path. Tal ROSNER is a film maker and graphic designer. He is known for his radical, visual interpretations of musical compositions from Stravinsky, Debussy, and others.

glacier 60000 Emma Wieslander

United Kingdom, 2007, colour, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Emma Wieslander Ed: Emma Wieslander Print/Sales: Emma Wieslander www. emmawieslander.com

A photographic image of a glacier is gradually broken down - ‘melted’ - via a series of transformations, into an entirely abstract composition. Every time a jpg file is opened and closed it is decompressed and compressed. Hence it loses some of its original information. The artist opened the file several thousand times, saving a new copy each time. Emma WIESLANDER (1979, Sweden) obtained her MA in photography at the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has been shown in several European art galleries.

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Pasajeros peregrinos pilotos Thomas Köner

WORLD PREMIERE Germany, 2008, colour, video, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: Thomas Köner Cam: Thomas Köner Ed: Thomas Köner Mu: Thomas Köner Print/Sales: Thomas Köner www.koener.de

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pasajeros peleGrinos piloTos shows commuters and pedestrians on their daily routes. An imaginary Doppelgänger, who accompanies each person, appears. According to the artist, the Doppelgänger represents an ideal self, who knows everything, never makes wrong decisions, and of course, is always too late. (TK) Thomas KÖNER (1965, Germany) is a media artist who works with sound design, video, web art, performances and installations.

Once

Barbara Sternberg USA, 2007, b&w, 16mm, 3 min, silent Pro: Barbara Sternberg Cam: Barbara Sternberg Print/Sales: Light Cone Distribution http://barbarasternberg.com/

Poetry, film, light, life. An excerpt from Rilke’s Ninth Elegy introduces this silent film which evokes the beauty and brevity of life. Images shimmer in an uncanny light. We catch glimpses only. (BS) Barbara STERNBERG lives in Toronto. She has been making films since the mid-seventies. Her films have been screened widely across Canada as well as internationally. She has written on film and art and has worked in other media, including performance and installation.

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Stom Sogo

Japan, 2006, colour, video, 23 min, no dialogue Pro: Stom Sogo Cam: Stom Sogo Ed: Stom Sogo Ad: Stom Sogo Sound: Stom Sogo Mu: William Basinski Print/Sales: Stom Sogo

‘The films of Stom Sogo are incantatory and self combustible. An erratic master of low tech do-it-yourself sortilege, he puts his works through seemingly perpetual remakes.’ (Mark McElhatten) ‘This is about the dreamlike images I saw while having epilepsy seizures, as they quite often happened in the past years.’ (SS) Stom SOGO (1975, Japan) moved in 1992 to the United States. He graduated with a BA in art and film from Hunter College, New York, in 2000. His videos have been screened at various festivals and in several group exhibitions.

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it’s a Small World A landscape, viewed in detail, often reveals particularly strange elements. And depending on the perspective, each view appears as nothing more than the close-up of something more expansive. A journey along, over and into strange parts of our universe.

Manifest Destiny

Margit Lukács, Persijn Broersen Netherlands, 2009 Print/Sales: Broersen & Lukács

On the logic of Dubious Historical Accounts, 1969-1972 Alexander Stewart, Peter Miller

EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA/Austria, 2007, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Peter Miller, Alexander Stewart Print: Peter Miller Sales: Alexander Stewart www.petermiller.info & www.alexanderstewart.org

This film recreates Hasselblad cameras falling through space and hitting the surface of the moon. On each of the Apollo moon missions, NASA astronauts brought along such cameras. They were left behind in order to cut down on weight for the return trip to earth. Supposedly, twelve Hasselblad cameras remain on the moon. Alexander STEWART (1981, USA) studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Art & Technology department. Peter MILLER (1978, USA) lives and works in Chicago. His own work he considers as ‘an investigation into the phenomenon and spectacle of the cinema and its constituent elements: lens, light, audience, projection, etc.’

The Scenic Route Ken Jacobs

USA, 2008, colour/b&w, video, 25 min, English Pro: Ken Jacobs Print/Sales: Ken Jacobs

A work of genuine hypnosis. Ken Jacobs tears open a scene from the film The Barbarian (1933). Like so many of his found-footage experiments, it is a movie about the shadows people leave behind - here, quite literally. Ken JACOBS (1933, USA) has been making films and film performances since 1955. For years he also worked as a film lecturer. In 2004 he was Film Maker in Focus in Rotterdam.

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Forest

Christine Ödlund

Sweden, 2006, colour/b&w, video, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Christine Ödlund Sound: Christine Ödlund Print: Filmform Sales: Christine Ödlund

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foresT is a microscopic landscape made of animated photo and videocollages inspired by scientific documentaries. By recording what we can observe, Ödlund evokes a world where everything is alive, whatever that may mean besides making movements and sounds. foresT is an exploration of hidden senses, dimensions or unknown laws of nature. Christine ÖDLUND is an artist and composer. After a degree in photography she studied video and electroacoustic music. She was a member of the now dissolved artist group SWE.DE.

Horizontal Boundaries Pat O’Neill

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USA, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 23 min, English Pro: Pat O’Neill Pro Comp: Lookout Mountain Films Ed: Pat O’Neill Print/ Sales: Lookout Mountain Films

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This shape-shifting portrait of Los Angeles was first screened in 2003. A different version now exists with a fresh soundtrack (by Carl Stone) in a newly struck 35mm print. The title, according to O’Neill, ‘refers to the divisions between individual frames arranged one above the other on motion-picture film.’ Artist and film maker Pat O’NEILL (1939, USA) lives and works in Pasadena, California. He has realized many short experimental films.

nanoland

Dimensions are relative, and very much depend on the observer’s point of view. Every now and then science and technology introduce new perspectives that have a major influence on how we see ourselves and the world.

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Kenneth Snelson, Jonathan Monaghan EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 1 min, no dialogue Pro: Kenneth Snelson Print/Sales: Kenneth Snelson www.kennethsnelson.net

This animation represents a hydrogen atom’s single electron undergoing energy transformations. In this sequence light (energy) enters the atom from outside and transfers the electron’s matter-wave orbit to a higher energy state, moving it from shell to shell. Kenneth SNELSON (1927, USA) studied at the Chicago Institute of Design. His art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional space.

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Bigger than Big Russell Scott

EUROPEAN PREMIERE Australia, 2008, colour, video, 8 min, English Pro: Elizabeth Stark Pro Comp: Swinburne University of Technology Sc: Russel Scott, Sam Moorfield, Lisa Germany Cam: animation: Russel Scott, Sam Moorfield, David Barnes Ed: Russel Scott, Sam Moorfield Sound: Sarah Burrell- Davis, Eddie Postma Mu: 300MPH With: narrator: Nick Stratford Print/Sales: Swinburne University of Technology http://vr.swin.edu.au/astrotour/

How big is big? This spectacular film (also made for 3D projection) takes us on a journey from the Moon’s surface to the far reaches of the visible universe. Combining cutting edge scientific astronomical data and simulations with stunning animation, it brings the Universe to life. Russell SCOTT works at the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology (Australia). He develops and is lead animator of public education activities such as virtual reality theatres and 3D movies, the Digital Stereoscopic Video Camera, and the MirrorDome fulldome projector.

Sinus Aestum Bret Battey

WORLD PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2009, colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Pro: Bret Battey Pro Comp: Bat Hat Media Sound: Bret Battey Print/Sales: Bat Hat Media www.bathatmedia.com

‘Sinus Aestum (Bay of Billows) is the name of a lunar sea. Accordingly, this piece is comprised of arcs, or waves, of activity, moving through unstable states between pitch and noise. It is the third in a series, exploring the potentials of editless sound and image composition.’ (BB) Bret BATTEY (1967) creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations.

Powers of Ten Charles & Ray Eames

USA, 1977, colour, video, 10 min, English Ad: Charles Eames, Ray Eames Mu: Elmer Bernstein Print: Mike Mashon Sales: Eames Office www.powersof10.com

Inspired by the essay Cosmic View by Kees Boeke and the book The Powers of Ten, written by Philip and Phyllis Morrison, this film depicts the relative scale of the universe in factors of ten. A camera reproduces in equal steps the picture of a couple during a picknick. By zooming in, or out, by the scale of ten, the camera explores both the cosmos and the human body. With their work, desesigners Charles (1907-1978, Saint Louis) and Ray (1912-1988, Sacramento) EAMES have contributed to the world of (furniture) design, architecture and film with numerous classics, such as the Eames lounge chair.

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Staubkaskade

The Cascade and its Dust Stefan Pautze

Germany, 2008, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Stefan Pautze Pro Comp: Visualien der Breitbandkatze Mu: Breitbandkatze Print/Sales: Visualien der Breitbandkatze

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Fractals provide the mathematical tool set to describe complex structures including clouds, stock-exchange prices or the distribution of matter in outer space. The easiest way towards understanding them is to start experimenting oneself. Stefan PAUTZE is a graphic artist and engineer. He lives and works in Germany.

The life Size zoetrope

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Mark Simon Hewis

T United Kingdom, 2007, colour, video, 7 min, English Pro: Katie Daniels Cam: Annemarie Lean-Vercoe Sound: Chris Barnett Mu: The Books Print/Sales: Mark Simon Hewis www.marksimonhewis.com

The celebratory life story of one man told via a one-take live action shot of a giant human zoetrope containing the film. We are taken through the cyclical journey the man has taken through animated loops on pages and body parts of 36 riders on the wheel. Mark Simon HEWIS graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in Animation. In his films he combines animation and live-action. He has lectured in Animation at the Bristol School of Animation since 2004.

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Flat earth

Jon Thomson, Alison Craighead

United Kingdom, 2007, colour, video, 7 min, English Pro Comp: Animate Projects Limited Sc: Steve Rushton Ed: Simon Fildes Sound: John Cobban (M)other: Narrator: Thane Bettany, 3D & Animatics: Cavan Convery Sales: LUX Distr. NL: LUX www.thomson-craighead.net

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Blog entries and flickr photos interact with satellite imagery to give a reshaped conception of what space and distances between people effectively means in a networked world. The result is not an unveiling of the ‘blue marble’ image of the earth as viewed from outer space, but an attempt to describe the ‘flat’ earth as viewed from the internet.

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land of Cockaigne Rachel Reupke

United Kingdom, 2007, colour, video, 14 min, no dialogue Pro: Rachel Reupke Print/Sales: Rachel Reupke

In one continuous camera movement, Reupke presents a god’s eye view of the Sussex Downs, punctuated with choreographed incidents of human activity. Taking early accounts of camera obscura entertainments as a starting point, Rachel Reupke stages fictional scenes as live and direct interventions within the landscape. Rachel REUPKE (1971, UK) uses TV commercials, film scenes, postcards, webcams and the paintings of Bruegel, Friedrich and Turner as a source of inspiration for her films, webcam films, film stills and photo series about landscape panoramas.

Three Blueprints (Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta) Thomas Mohr

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Thomas Mohr Sc: Thomas Mohr Cam: Thomas Mohr Ed: Thomas Mohr Ad: Thomas Mohr Sales: Thomas Mohr Distr. NL: Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst

266144 photos are extremely compressed in clusters again and again to almost unimaginable nano-dimensions; then filtered to their last essence. The pictures were taken from 06.05.2002 (the day Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was murdered) until 06.09.2006, and contain perceptions regarding various political, cultural and personal events. Thomas MOHR (1954, Germany) attended the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. His compositions are based on systematic research at the edges of common media and software. The base for his research is at the moment a photo archive containing more than 300000 pictures taken by the artist since 1985.

iris Out

Simon Payne WORLD PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2009, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Print/Sales: Simon Payne www.simonrpayne.co.uk

‘Composed of single frames from sequences of expanding or contracting irises, this video was reformatted for different aspect ratios. It is the relation between the edges of planes and the shape of the screen that I’m interested in. The way in which the colour fields are reproduced by the eye and brain, affects consciousness and perception.’ (SP) Simon PAYNE is a video artist. He recently completed a PhD at the Royal College of Art in London, which investigates aspects of digital aesthetics in the context of experimental film and video.

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electron Jumps

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Kenneth Snelson, Jonathan Monaghan

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 1 min, no dialogue Pro: Kenneth Snelson Print/Sales: Kenneth Snelson

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A second visualisation of a hydrogen atom’s single electron undergoing energy transformations. See also Kenneth Snelson’s enerGy shifTs. Kenneth SNELSON (1927, USA) studied at the Chicago Institute of Design. His art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional space.

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Optra Field iV T. Marie

EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, b&w, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: T. Marie Print/Sales: T. Marie www.tmarie.us

Tammy Marie’s Optra Field-works (at the moment six in total) are elegant, dichromatic time-based drawings from a series that explore the propinquity between space, time, movement, perception and opposites, somewhat reminiscent of the painted works Sol Lewitt and Agnes Martin, but purely conceived via electronic media. T. MARIE is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has screened at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Portland Art Center and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art.

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Ready for My Close-Up Insights or vistas? Film and science have this much in common: they invite close reading, and cultivate the close-up. Then again, the smallest details often reveal the most splendid landscapes.

27 Years

Raymond Hoepflinger

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Switzerland, 2008, colour, video, 2 min, no dialogue Pro: R Mond, ms. A Yuri Ed: Raymond Hoepflinger Print/Sales: Raymond Hoepflinger www.pusunko.com

A person’s portrait taken every month at public photo booths for 27 years, animated into two minutes of film. Raymond HOEPFLINGER lives in Zürich, Switzerland. He attended art school in Düsseldorf, Paris and Chicago. Since 1985 he has been an art teacher and film maker in Switzerland, Japan, Brazil and Canada.

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The Object Which Thinks Us: OBJeCT 1 Samantha Rebello

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE United Kingdom, 2007, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Samantha Rebello Print/Sales: Samantha Rebello

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Tight close ups, sometimes out of focus, offer a disorientating representation of everyday household objects (everyday hygiene, toothbrushes, blood in water) as refracted through distorted perception.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Mark Harwood) Samantha REBELLO is a London based artist working in sound and moving image. From a background in music and composition she moved to filmmaking with a view to exploring the relationship between the two. Recent screenings of her films have taken place at the Serpentine Gallery, London Film Festival, ICA and Evolution.

Spirit House Robert Todd

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 11 min, no dialogue Pro: Robert Todd Print: Emerson College Sales: Robert Todd www.roberttoddfilms. com

A tale of two passages within the Spirit House. This is the first in a series that looks at the places we find our spiritual presence augmented, inflamed, or simply acknowledged. The film is a quest for a source of inspiration - a longing for a union between the ephemera of ideas and fantasies with the raw physicality and contingencies of the tactile world. Robert TODD (1963) is a painter, film maker and teacher. His films have been screened nationally and internationally.

Autumnal Scott Nyerges

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Scott Nyerges Mu: Mike Vernusky Print/Sales: Scott Nyerges

A world in autumn; a requiem for lands not yet departed. This video was produced with hand-painted 35mm filmstrips, acrylic inks, paint and solvents, also comprising the image of chemical reactions taking place when combining salt and ink. Scott NYERGES is an independent film maker living and working in Austin, Texas. He has a BA in Journalism and an MA in Fine Arts: radio, television and film.

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i Deeply Regret

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Karoe Goldt

WORLD PREMIERE Austria/Germany, 2008, colour, video, 2 min, English Pro: Karoe Goldt Pro Comp: Goldt Print/Sales: Goldt www.alles-goldt.de

‘This film is basicly made from one selfportrait I did in 1998. The video is about a failed chance of revenge and satisfaction. It shows the attempt to liberate oneself from the victim’s role by a fantasy of self-empowerment. In other words: After a long, long time someone fights back, while humming the theme song from Rocky.’ (KG) Karoe GOLDT (1967, Austria) graduated from the School for Artistic Photography in Vienna in 1998. She received a fellowship for further studies in Paris (2000) and New York (2003), had several international exhibitions and lives and works in Berlin and Vienna.

i turn over the pictures of my voice in my head

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WORLD PREMIERE Austria, 2008, colour, video, 12 min, German Pro Comp: La Biennale di Venezia Settore Cinema - Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica Ed: Valie Export Print/Sales: Sixpack Film

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VALIE EXPORT

Performance film showing the vocal chords of the film maker. ‘The voice is my identity, it is not body or spirit, it is not language or image, it is sign, it is a sign of the images, it is a sign of sensuality. It is a sign of symbols, it is boundary…’ Austrian artist Valie EXPORT (1940, Austria) makes expanded cinema works, body art, laser installations, photography and drawings. Her work has been presented in many American and western European cities.

Planet A

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Seto Momoko

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France, 2008, colour, video, 7 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: Le Fresnoy, Studio National Sc: Seto Momoko Cam: Seto Momoko, Jean-René Lorand Ed: Seto Momoko Sound: Ronan Gicquel Mu: Yann Leguay Print/ Sales: Le Fresnoy, Studio National www.setomomoko.org/planetA.html

An animated vision of mutating environment. ‘The world has become a dried out planet, where the growing of cotton, overexploited for economical reasons is the main cause of desertification. A saline desert covers acres of dried out land where strange salt trees appear. This phenomenon echoes an ecological disaster, the desertification of the Aral Sea.’ (SM) SETO Momoko (1980, Japan) studied at the French school of Tokyo, then went to the Fine Arts school of Marseille, France. She also was a Fellowship student at Studio Le Fresnoy, while working for Asia Network as film maker (2007-2008). She works and lives between Paris and Tokyo.

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influenza/Composition ii (Chrome Square) Jeroen Jongeleen

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, video, 4 min, no dialogue Pro: Jeroen Jongeleen Print/Sales: Jeroen Jongeleen

A sticker project translated into animation. As miniature, abstract urban screens, shiny square stickers quietly reflect the city life on their blurry surface. In the mid-1990s the film maker discovered in stickers a simple and cheap means of functioning in public. See also influenza / dancinG Black square as an in-situ project in the SubUrban Video Lounge. Jeroen JONGELEEN (1970, Rotterdam) went to the AKI art academy in Enschede. Under the project name ‘Influenza’ he makes much of his art directly in public space.

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Morgan Fisher USA, 2003, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.33, 21 min, no dialogue Pro: Morgan Fisher Print/Sales: Morgan Fisher

‘Narrative films depend on inserts (it’s a very rare film that has none), but at the same time they are utterly marginal. I wanted to make a film out of nothing but inserts, as a way of making them visible, to free them from their servitude to story. By chance I learned that the root of ‘parenthesis’ is a Greek word that means the act of inserting. And so I was given the title of the film.’ (MF) Morgan FISHER (1942, USA) began his career as an editor in the commercial film industry before exploring the avant-garde. He examines and deconstructs the narrative of film and the industry itself with wry humour.

Ultra light No sight without a light source, as the human eye only catches a small range. Nevertheless we use ‘the speed of light’ as our main measure to map the universe. But how fast do our brain cells respond to the stimulus of light?

12 explosionen 12 explosions Johann Lurf

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Austria, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Johann Lurf Cam: Mark Gerstorfer, Andi Winter, Lorenzo Wasner Ed: Johann Lurf Sound: Christian Otto, Dominik Schlager Print/Sales: Sixpack Film www. filmvideo.at

Twelve times, Johann Lurf sets off fireworks in the nocturnal streets: cheerful images without words, a cinematic outline without beginning or end, entirely left to the passage of time and its fears, moments of happiness and outbursts - for the film to end up one day at a flea market and be discovered as anonymous found footage of an explosive time. Johann LURF (1982, Austria) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He is a film maker of shorts and part-time projectionist.

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Dawn

Dawn Björn Kämmerer

Austria/Germany, 2008, b&w, 35mm, 1:1.85, 3 min, no dialogue Pro: Björn Kämmerer Sc: Björn Kämmerer Cam: Björn Kämmerer Ed: Björn Kämmerer Sound: Florian Kindlinger Print/Sales: Björn Kämmerer www. bjoernkaemmerer.com

A face and a street lamp in the background, flashing on and off. ‘In twilight intervals our gaze searches for a motion that cannot be located within the image. Due to unpredictable shifts of the length of the image, we produce the motion in between the frames ourselves: with our thoughts we construct a fictional image of time that only exists in terms of an ephemeral lingering in-between.’ (BK) Björn KÄMMERER (1977, Germany) makes film and video art. Hij studied experimental media art in Linz and art and digital media in Vienna.

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They Shine

Rosa Barba

USA/Netherlands, 2007, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 4 min, English Pro: Rosa Barba Cam: Rosa Barba, Eric Scott Sound: Jan St Werner With: Voice: Matt Didemus Print/Sales: Gallerie Carlier/Gebauer www.rosabarba.com

‘The Mojave dessert. Endless rows of semi-circular mirrors slowly revolve, reflecting their surroundings. A man’s voice is heard, his tone that of a particular kind of American cinema; introspective and mythic, meandering and omniscient. But his words are not a generic narrative. Rather, they are a composite of stories told by local people projecting imagined truths onto the strange machines.’ (RB) Rosa BARBA (1972, Germany) makes films, installations and publications. She also makes music videos and occasionally performs with Microstoria and Mouse on Mars.

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easter Morning

Bruce Conner

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USA, 2008, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Henry S. Rosenthal Pro Comp: Complex Corporation Cam: Bruce Conner Mu: Terry Riley Print/Sales: The Conner Family Trust

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Conner’s freewheeling camera chases morning light in a hypnotic blur of colour and multiple exposures. This is his last completed film, derived from the 8mm footage of easTer MorninG r aGa (1966). Originally shown with a Beatles soundtrack, the film was never released. Conner reset the earlier material to a version of Terry Riley’s In C (1964) recorded by the Shanghai Film Orchestra in 1989. This shift in timbre beautifully matches the radiance of this optical poem. (Mark McElhatten) Bruce CONNER (1933-2008) was a sculptor, painter and graphic artist. He has made films since 1957 and, since the 1960s, he has been regarded as one of America’s most influential experimental film makers.

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1859

Fred Worden EUROPEAN PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 11 min, no dialogue Pro: Fred Worden Print/Sales: Fred Worden

In 1859, Darwin published The Origin of the Species. Birthdays in 1859 include Walt Disney’s father, Ferris the inventor of the ferris wheel, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Billy the Kid and Georges Seurat. 1859 was also the year that solar flares were first observed by R.C. Carrington. ‘Built out of a 30-frame clip of a lens flare. LSD is illegal, 1859 is not.’ (FW) Fred WORDEN (USA) has been making experimental films since the mid 1970s. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the fine arts in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Affection exonérante Yann Beauvais

France, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, no dialogue Pro: Yann Beauvais Cam: Yann Beauvais Print/Sales: Yann Beauvais

‘A heliocentric, obsessive mediation about our natural source of light. Affection, which can destroy, can also produce solace. The intense brightness (and implied heat) and flicker suggest a sexual intensity and yet a kind of ominous destructiveness. We live in a material and a luminous world. Shot with a cell phone.’ (YB) Yann BEAUVAIS (1953, France) has been making (short) films since 1976. He is co-founder of Light Cone, a distribution company for experimental films.

Quiero Ver Adele Horne

WORLD PREMIERE USA, 2008, colour, video, 6 min, Spanish/English Pro: Adele Horne Cam: Adele Horne Ed: Adele Horne Sound: Colleen Hennessey, Kenny Klimak Sales: Sun Circle Films Distr. NL: Sun Circle Films www.adelehorne. net

On the 13th of each month, hundreds of people gather at a site in the Mojave Desert to see visions of the Virgin Mary appear in the sun. As in her previous feature, Horne explores both the material and ideological means and meanings of these public rituals and spiritual transformations. Adele HORNE makes documentary, essayistic and experimental films and videos.

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SHU

Germany/USA, 2007, colour, video, 12 min, no dialogue Pro: Philipp Lachenmann Sc: Philipp Lachenmann Cam: Philipp Lachenmann, May Rigler Ed: Matthias Neuenhofer Ad: Matthias Neuenhofer Sound: Alexander Peterhaensel Mu: Wolfgang Voigt, Gerriet Sharma Print: Philipp Lachenmann Sales: Imai - inter media art institute

Philipp Lachenmann

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An isolated high-security prison in the Californian Mojave Desert at the time of the Blue Hour. While the searchlights are gradually being lit at the prison, we can see an increasing number of lights appearing in the evening skies. The treatment of collective memories in the SHU (Security Housing Unit) reminds us of the functional mechanisms of Disney and Hollywood. Philipp LACHENMANN (1963, Germany) has attended several courses on film, television, art and philosophy. He works e.g. as a experimental film maker.

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nPS Micromovies NPS TV asked several film makers to make a short film for the mobile phone. The theme: making mobile calls in public spaces. Visitors only have to turn on their Bluetooth and they will receive the films free on their phones. Or ask the makers present. Free admission.

Death Valley

Quirine Racké, Helena Muskens

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, 2 min Pro: Quirine Racké, Helena Muskens Print/Sales: Quirine Racké

deaTh Valley is about the impossibility of making calls in public space. People call everywhere: in the street, in the train, in museums. Yet there are still a few spots where that’s impossible. The most inhospitable (and most beautiful) spots in the world. Quirine RACKÉ (1965, Netherlands) and Helena MUSKENS (1963, Netherlands) live and work in Amsterdam. They have collaborated since 1997.

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Coupé

David Lammers

Netherlands, 2007, 3 min Pro: David Lammers Print/Sales: David Lammers

A film about a business kid on a mobile phone who completely loses sight of his surroundings. David LAMMERS (1972, Netherlands) graduated in 2001 from the NFTA. His short graduation film The LasT Day of aLfreD Maassen won a Golden Calf for best short film in 2001 at the Netherlands Film Festival. Of the short films he directed later, in 2005 Veere won the Tiger Award. norThern LighT, his first full-length film, was also shown at the IFFR.

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Ruis

noise Gerald van der Kaap WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, 2 min Pro: Gerald van der Kaap Print/Sales: Gerald van der Kaap

Your phone rings. Someone at the other end you don’t know... The line goes dead. White noise. Gerald van der KAAP (1959) is a visual artist who combines his photography with film, video, audio, mobile telephones and the internet.

Over en uit Colette Bothof

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, 2 min Pro: Colette Bothof Print/Sales: Colette Bothof

Thanks to the mobile phone, everyone is now accessible everywhere. Sometimes you get overtaken on the way by a phone call you don’t want. But now you have spectators. Colette BOTHOF (1962, Zimbabwe) made documentaries and studied psychology and communications before attending the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. Since 1994, she has worked as a screenwriter and director for film and television, recently also for interactive television.

Bellen in publieke ruimte Yael Assaf, Yafit Taranto

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, 2 min Pro: Yael Assaf, Yafit Taranto Print/Sales: Yael Assaf

An event brings about a mobile chain reaction. Yael ASSAF (Israel) and Yafit TARANTO (Israel) studied both at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Assaf’s graduation film eVeryone has To geT oVer his Biography won a first prize at the TENT. Academy Awards in 2008. Taranto is co-founder of the graphic design agency Bad-publicity. She often works as VJ for clubs and festivals.

Spannend verhaal Hesdy Lonwijk

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, 2 min Pro: Hesdy Lonwijk Print/Sales: Hesdy Lonwijk

Micro thriller recorded with a mobile phone. Voyeurism is at its height and is increasingly undermining civilian responsibility. The motto is: don’t help, but film. Hesdy LONWIJK (1976, Suriname) studied communication design and worked as a freelance journalist.

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Waar ben je? Carolien Euser

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2008, 2 min Pro: Carolien Euser Print/Sales: Carolien Euser

Short film about the tension between private and public, intimacy and relationships. Carolien EUSER (1965, Netherlands) initiates and produces art projects and is active in photography, film and text. As part of the duo Cut-n-Paste, she also worked on cross media projects that were based on mobile phones.

Windowcleaners Now that urban screens are multiplying in public spaces like train stations, shopping malls and public squares, how do we look at the content on these screens? Is it visual pollution or an innovative way of showing art videos to the public? windowcleaners is an indoor compilation of three international urban screen programmes, followed by a discussion with the curators.

Best of CASz ViDeO, 30 Min www.caszuidas.nl

CASZ (Contemporary Art Screen Zuidas) is a visual arts stage dedicated to presenting moving images in the public domain of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Zuidasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a newly developed urban district in Amsterdam. CASZ presents an international selection of film and video works from established and emerging artists from all over the world, eighteen hours a day from 6 a.m. to midnight. Works selected here include puBlic fiGures by Erik Olofsen, cuMulus by Katja Mater and WolkenfaBriek by Jeroen Kooijmans. Curated by Jan Schuijren.

Best of Transmedia ViDeO, 12 Min www.year01.com/transmedia2959/

This programme presents the highlights of the Transmedia series of projects by the art collective Year Zero One, who have been using urban screens in Toronto, Canada to display work by artists since 2000. The Transmedia project provides artists with the creative challenge of producing moving-image work that is very short (often a minute or less), and that will be sandwiched between advertisements. But as with most limitations, the condition of using urban screens as a platform fosters innovative work. Works include, amongst others: 15 second BloWjoB by Michael Alstad, Girl sMokinG by Shaan Syed and sTudiopace by Risa Horowitz. Curated by Michelle Kasprzak

Urban Screens Melbourne (Selection) ViDeO, 15 Min www.urbanscreens08.net

USM 08 is an international conference and exhibition exploring the possibilities of urban screens and various cultural content. The film programme includes specific night and morning artistic screenings, considering the issue of light and sound pollution, as well as self-reflective films about screens. This selection includes, amongst others: eden by Rob Kennedy & Jess Worrall and Mediaspree Versenken by Pappsatt. Programme input by Mirjam Struppek.

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60 min

Viewfinders various directors

Do viewers at the cinema or at home ever really see the image intended by the director, or what the cameraman saw through his viewfinder? Increasingly, not only the size of an image but also its relative dimensions are tampered with. An image’s aspect ratio is a comparison of its width to its height. The exact dimensions aren’t important, as long as the ratio remains the same. The term is most commonly used with reference to graphic images, cinema, computer displays, paper sizes, photo prints, business cards, pixel ratios etc. As there usually are multiple aspect ratios, this places burdens on film makers and consumers, and causes confusion amongst TV broadcasters. For many artists, however, aspect ratio should not be determined by the constraints of the technology or medium, but by the content of the story. From early 20th century directors such as D.W. Griffith to the Itchy and Scratchy sketch in The Simpsons Movie, playing with aspect ratio can convey important aesthetic meaning. Presenting a wide-ranging selection of trailers and stills from film archives, Ronald Simons and Mark-Paul Meyer question the extent to which the size of an image still matters. Film professionals will join the discussion, which will also comprise some special appearances and screenings from festival guests. This programme is a coproduction with the NFM (Dutch Film Archive).

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Durf te DOEN.

Stichting DOEN is het fonds van de Goede Doelen Loterijen: de Nationale Postcode Loterij, de Sponsor Bingo Loterij en de BankGiro Loterij. DOEN werkt aan een leefbare wereld waaraan iedereen kan meedoen door het ondersteunen van initiatieven op het gebied van

Duurzame Ontwikkeling, Cultuur, Welzijn en Sociale Cohesie. Met de bijdrage van Stichting DOEN ondersteunt het Hubert Bals Fonds de ďŹ lmindustrie in ontwikkelingslanden en zorgt zij er ook voor dat de gemaakte ďŹ lms vertoond worden.

Stichting DOEN durft. Kijk ook op www.doen.nl

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signAls First things First

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Signals: First Things First First things First

First things First Gerwin Tamsma

The basic idea for First Things First is very simple. It starts with the question, How does a film maker who has a recognizable body of work – for all practical purposes, a film maker whom we call an auteur – start his or her career? This question obviously has no simple, universally valid answer, and that is not the aim of this programme. Instead, it triggers many other questions. Where does auteur-ship begin? In hindsight, can we recognize such directors by their first works? What lessons can young film makers draw from this?

Manoel De Oliveira, who continues to be both amazingly prolific and interesting. Seventy-seven years have passed since De Oliveira made DOurO, Faina Fluvial, a lyrical documentary on life on the banks of the Douro River. So it is only understandable that it would take a very discerning film viewer to ascertain that this is the same auteur who made JE rEntrE à la maisOn or naO, Ou a vâ glória DE manDar. Nevertheless, De Oliveira was recognized as a special talent on the basis of this film.

The wish to look at these first steps started during a public interview with the Austrian film maker Ulrich Seidl in Ghent. I asked him if a viewer would recognize his very first short films within a few minutes as unquestionably being Seidlian, as one can with his recent films, whether they are features or documentaries. He answered, if I remember correctly, ‘Maybe not the first one but the second, for sure.’ Which is why we are showing both his first, EinsviErzig (OnE FOurty) and his second, DEr Ball (thE P rOm) – which was the reason why he was no longer welcome at the Film Academy in Vienna. The films – both of them – are very easily recognizable as being made by Ulrich Seidl.

To recognize film makers by their films is probably far more difficult than recognizing singers by their songs, or writers by their books. But the comparison can be unfair. When we are young, we spend an endless amount of time and energy in learning to talk and recognize faces and voices. By contrast, only a few really learn how to make films. Fewer still develop an important and recognizable voice as a film maker. So on the receiving end, the craft of watching films is also only gradually developing, despite the omnipresence of images and screens, or despite some efforts to include film education in high school curricula. Humanity may well live in prehistoric times as far as film-making is concerned. (It is also quite possible, of course, that people will loose interest in the art of film in the future.) Anyway, although it would take a quiz of some kind to find out, I think almost all of the film makers in this selection are recognizable by their specific voice in their first film.

This selection of film makers may seem arbitrary, and to a certain extent, it is. The first criterion was that these film makers had to be alive and active: they still (could) produce feature length work that might be of interest for inclusion in the Rotterdam festival. This criterion ruled out the overwhelming majority. But that’s not the point. It is of course more interesting to see a film maker’s first work together with a new film. From a festival programmer’s point of view, this was an especially important exercise, because in some cases it gave us an opportunity to look back and reevaluate rejected first films by film makers who went onto great acclaim. It also led to the inclusion of the oldest film in this programme, by the world’s oldest living film maker,

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It is no coincidence, for example, that De Oliveira started out with a documentary (albeit one with a staged accident to add some drama). Many great directors started this way, and many continue to work both with fiction and documentary, from Marker to Olmi (now in his eighties, and back to making only documentary films), and from Seidl to Kore-Eda. Most directors started by making short films – and it is probably also no coincidence that so many first films up until the 1960s are somewhere between 18 and 22 minutes long. Indeed, most first films are short.

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Signals:First Firstthings ThingsFirst First

In the digital age, this is becoming less evident. For example, Albert Serra, in an interview accompanying the production notes for his first effort, CrEsPià: thE Film nOt thE villagE, answers the question: ‘Have you ever shot a short film?’ with a simple: ‘No. I don’t see why I would.’ Another criterion was that the programme could not include film makers who have been the subject of

a full retrospective in Rotterdam: so, no Rivette or Roy Andersson. Also ignored were film makers who immediately gained recognition for their first feature, as did Claire Denis with ChOCOlat, for example – or had he been alive, Orson Welles. In general, few auteurs have started their careers with feature-length films. Hou Hsiao-hsien did, with a film made as part of a commercial film industry, a vehicle for a popular teen star. These days, it is an increasingly unlikely route

Douro, faina fluvial

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Crespià: The Film Not the Village

Der Ball (The Prom)

to take for an auteur, even if the origins of the auteur theory lie exactly with the film makers who worked within a system. Some early works by film makers whom we would have liked to include seemed to be lost altogether (master tapes by master film makers go missing at an alarming rate) or were unavailable because directors don’t want their early work to be seen. On the plus side, much work has become available in the last years as bonuses for DVD releases.

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As part of First Things First, there will be a series of interviews with film makers about their early years and how they became what they are today. These will be made available through the festival’s website. Thanks to Robert de Rek for his patient assistance and to Pauline Kleijer and Erwin Houtenbrink for suggesting the title.

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Douro, faina fluvial Manoel De Oliveira

Portugal, 1931, b&w, 35mm, 18 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: M O Films, Lda Sc: Manoel De Oliveira Cam: Antonio Mendes Ed: Manoel De Oliveira Mu: Luís de Freitas Branco Print: Cinemateca Portuguesa Sales: M O Films, Lda

In December, Manoel De Oliveira (1908, Portugal) had his hundredth birthday, while he was shooting his 46th feature. De Oliveira is the only filmmaker still alive who worked in the period of the silent film. In the first 40 years of his career, he largely filmed documentaries and only three features, partly as a result of the political situation in Portugal. With an energy and creativity that is exceptional for a man of his age, he has in recent years made an average of one film a year. Non, ou a vã glória de mandar (1990), Vale Abraão (1993) and Je rentre a la maison (2002) have definitively given him a place, according to many critics, among Europe’s film greats such as Bergman, Antonioni and Bresson. De Oliveira’s film début is a visually stunning documentary poem about life and work along the principal river of the director’s native Porto region. Greatly admired by critics and artists such as Luigi Pirandello, Douro, faina fluvial reveals De Oliveira’s incredible eye and sense of rhythm. Although Hollywood had already ushered in the arrival of sound cinema in 1927, Portugal’s film industry remained decidedly underdeveloped and continued to produce silent films into the early 1930s. (Harvard Film Archive)

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Jonas Mekas

USA, 2003, b&w, 16mm, 15 min, no dialogue Cam: Jonas Mekas Print: Light Cone Distribution

Williamsburg, Brooklyn is a ‘diary-film’ by avant-garde legend Jonas Mekas, which documents his neighbourhood and its people from 1948 to 1951, and includes some footage from the 1970s. This film contains some of the first footage Mekas shot with the camera he bought on arrival in the US. There’s no grand dramatic narrative here, only the fleeting poetry of ordinary people caught in little everyday moments. Mekas (1922, Semeniskiai, Lithuania) lives and works in New York. In 1944, he and his brother Adolfas were imprisoned in a forced labour camp in Nazi Germany for eight months. At the end of 1949, he emigrated with his brother to the USA, settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in New York. Two weeks after his arrival, he borrowed the money to buy his first Bolex 16mm camera and began to record moments of his life. He discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel’s pioneering cinema 16, and he began screening his own films in 1953. He has been one of the leading figures of American avant-garde film making, playing various roles: as a critic and writer, as the co-founder of what would become the Anthology Film Archives, and as a film maker (including famous diary films such as Lost, Lost, Lost (1975) and As I was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2001). His newest work Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (2009) premières in the section Signals: Size Matters.

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Les statues meurent aussi Statues Also Die Chris Marker, Alain Resnais

France, 1953, b&w, 35mm, 22 min, French Pro Comp: Presence Africaine, Tadie Cinema Sc: Chris Marker Cam: Ghislain Cloquet Sound: René Louge Mu: Guy Bernard Print: Ministère des Affaires Etrangères - Bureau de la Coopération Européenne

‘When people die, they become part of history. When images die, they become art. This classification of death, that’s what we call culture.’ That’s how the notorious art documentary, for years banned in France, that Marker (1921, France) made with Alain Resnais (1922, France) based on an exhibition with the title ‘Why is black art in the Ethnological Museum and Greek or Egyptian art in the Louvre or The Metropolitan?’ The two young film makers reject the lack of interest for this art in the context of colonial relations.

La diga del ghiacciaio Ermanno Olmi

Italy, 1953, b&w, 16mm, 11 min, Italian Pro Comp: Servizio Cinematografico della Societa Edison Cam: Carlo Pozzi Ed: Carla Colombo Mu: Pier Emilio Bassi Print: Cineteca Nazionale

Olmi (1931, Treviglio, Lombardy) moved with his family in 1933 to Milan, where the Edison Volta electricity company took him on after World War Two. That period formed the basis of Olmi’s semi-autobiographical Il Posto (1961), about the grind and boredom of an errand boy with a large company. He became involved at Edison Volta with the film and theatre department and realised about 40 films and documentaries between 1953 and 1961. The first of them is La diga del ghiaccicio (The Glacier Dam), a fine example of the most underestimated of all film genres, the industrial documentary.

Sapovnela

Song About a Flower Otar Iosseliani Russia, 1959, colour, video, 18 min, no dialogue Sc: Otar Ioseliani, Ilya Khutsishvili Cam: Valiko Shanidze Print: Pierre Grise Productions

‘Sapovnela’ means ‘the flower that nobody can find’. We present this film without subtitles (the voice-over was forced on us by the censorship in the Soviet era, but the film was banned anyway due to its ending). This was my first attempt at combining music and colours. Also, this is a story about the old florist Mikhail Mamulashvili who created wonderful compositions in his small garden. (Otar Iosseliani) Otar Iosseliani (1934, Georgia) studied maths and directing in Moscow. His first mid-length drama Aprèl initially succumbed to the censor’s scissors. When he started to feel thwarted by the Soviet authorities in the 1970s, he moved to Paris. He won prizes for both Les favoris de la lune and Et la lumière fut in Venice.

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Brutalität in Stein

Brutality in Stone Alexander Kluge, Peter Schamoni Germany, 1961, b&w, 16mm, 12 min, German Pro: Alexander Kluge, Peter Schamoni, Dieter Lemmel, Wolf Wirth Cam: Wolf Wirth Ed: Heidi Genée, Ursel Werthner Mu: Hans Posegga Print: Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv Berlin Sales: Peter Schamoni

In 1960, Kluge (1932, Halberstadt, Germany) co-directed his first short film with Peter Schamoni entitled Brutality in Stone, a poetic montage film reflecting on the notion that the past lives on in architectural ruins; that the ruined structures of the Nazi period in particular bear silent witness to the atrocities committed. This film is important for a number of reasons: Brutality in Stone marks the beginning of a process in which German film makers of the 1960s and 1970s began to overturn the apparent amnesia German cinema had demonstrated during the 1950s in regard to the Nazi period. In addition, the film was premièred at the annual Oberhausen short film festival in February 1961. The festival was significant because it functioned as a forum for young and experimental film makers attempting to develop modes of cinematic practice outside the rigid, commercial framework of the industrial system - modelled on Hollywood - that had been set up with the assistance of the American occupying forces in the immediate post-war period. A year after the première of Brutality in Stone at the Oberhausen festival, Kluge was one of the authors and signatories of the ‘Oberhausen Manifesto’, a document that outlined the imperatives of bringing a new kind of German cinema into being. (Michelle Langford, Senses of Cinema)

Machorka-Muff

Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet Germany, 1963, b&w, 16mm, 18 min, German Sc: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet Cam: Wendelin Sachtler Ed: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet Sound: Janosz Rozner, Jean-Marie Straub With: Erich Kuby, Renate Lang, Guenther Strupp, Rolf Thiede Print: BFI - British Film Institute www.straub-huillet.com

Through the performance of Colonel Machorka-Muff, a former Nazi who is reinstated in the Adenauer regime, we see the unchanging thinking of the Nazi and/or the military mind. As the colonel of the title, Dr. Johannes Eckhardt is properly cold and convincing as a believer in the rights of the soldier. In 1954, Jean-Marie Straub (1933, Metz), then a student, moved to Paris where he became a film club organizer. He met Jacques Rivette and Robert Bresson. In 1958, he refused to do his military service in Algeria and left for Munich with his wife, Danièle Huillet (1936 - 2007). Five years later, they co-wrote and directed M achorka-Muff, their first film. They have since made a further twenty films together. Their best-known film, The Chronicle of Anna M agdalena Bach (1967), was the first time the Liepzig chorale had ever been heard in public. In 1969, the couple moved to Rome. One overriding law governs all their films: despite the transposition in time and space, the cinematic adaptation must respect the text’s original meaning. (Unifrance)

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Les enfants désaccordés Philippe Garrel

France, 1964, b&w, 35mm, 15 min, French Sc: Philippe Garrel Cam: André Weinfeld Ed: Philippe Garrel With: Christiane Pérez, Pascal Roy, Maurice Garrel, Marcel Domerc, Jean-Noël Roy, Pascal Laperrousaz Print: Claudine Kaufmann

In Garrel’s first effort, teenagers Pascal and Christiane run away, steal a car and land in a big house on the outskirts of town. Their games and conversations about their problems with their families alternate with interviews of people endeavouring to explain the youngsters’ behaviour. On his position in the French film industry, Garrel commented: ‘It has always been like this. Since my very first film. I did not choose to be marginalized. I was literally put outside. I remember my first film, it was a short movie I made in 1964, Les enfants désaccordées. I shot this film when I was 16 years old. It was shown on television together with another film that somebody else did. This other director was interviewed for the occasion, and when it was finally my turn, I was told they were not going to interview me since I was so different and just too original. They were not interested. That’s the way I started. I was always considered different from anybody else. So this forced me to make cinema outside of cinema, so to speak. It was only when I met Andy Warhol in 1969 - that was after he had been injured - that I realised it was not so bad to be an outsider. To work outside the established art world. In my case this is not a pose at all: I was forced to work that way. Now I’m used to it, so I don’t feel frustrated any more.’ (CinemaScope/Stefean Grisseman)

Saute ma ville Chantal Akerman

Belgium, 1968, b&w, 35mm, 11 min, no dialogue Cam: René Fruchter Ed: Geneviève Luciani With: Chantal Akerman Print: Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief Sales: Paradise Films

Chantal Akerman’s first film prefigures the most progressive aspects of her later work. Akerman (1950, Brussels) herself plays a young woman who finds a new solution to the problem of housework. The whimsical nature of the story is rendered serious by the quality of the claustrophobic framing and the oblique camera angles. (Pacific Film Archive)

Weg nach Rio

Way to Rio Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein, Clemens Klopfenstein INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE Switzerland/Italy, 2008, colour/ b&w, video, 22 min, German Pro: Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein Pro Comp: Ombra-Films Sc: Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein, Clemens Klopfenstein Cam: Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein, Werner Zuber Ed: Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein, Clemens Klopfenstein Sound: Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein, Giorgio Wolfensberger Mu: Giulio Catarinelli, Boosey and Howkes With: Diego Fratini, Lorenz Cuno Klopfenstein, Niccoló Tramontana, Fred Tanner, Georges Janett, Samuel Müri Print: Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein Sales: Ombra-Films www. klopfenstein.net

A gangster flees through the night after a failed robbery. In the morning he is expected by his ‘cronies’ at the airport. Way to R io is the combination of the graduation film Nach R io by Clemens Klopfenstein (1944, Täuffelen), who went on to make such classic IFFR films as E nachtlang Fuurland, and its new interpretation R io, directed by Lukas Tiberio Klopfenstein. Shot in 1968 in Zurich and 2008 in Umbria. Two beginnings.

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Signals: First Things First

The Terence Davies Trilogy Terence Davies

United Kingdom, 1984, b&w, 35mm, 101 min, English Sc: Terence Davies Cam: William Diver Ed: Mick Audsley, William Diver With: Terry O’Sullivan, Wilfrid Brambell, Sheila Raynor Print: BFI - British Film Institute

‘Originally there were three medium-length films (Children, M adonna and Child, Death and Transfiguration), all of which had the same protagonist, Robert Tucker, and followed him from childhood to death, illustrating a lifetime struggle between Robert’s (homo-) sexuality and his Catholicism and family background. Terence Davies (1945, Liverpool) has now edited all three into a feature-length film in which the original three parts have become three acts of a continuing drama. For those in need of a filmic reference, the Davies Trilogy resembles the trilogy by Bill Douglas (My Childhood, My Ain Folk, and My Way Home). Davies has stripped his fragmented narrative to the barest essentials: the way the light falls through a window to light a room and the character sitting in it, a glance, an obliquely heard half-phrase, the tones in which a name is pronounced, all provide more needed information than dialogue (of which there is a minimum). The sudden understanding shock of sexual self-discovery when the young Robert sees the water running over the body of an older boy in a school shower room has never been captured so accurately (and economically) on screen before. The film is not a happy one (films about repression never are) but it is terrifyingly moving.’ (David Overbey, 1984) See also Of Time and the City (2008) in Spectrum.

Jiu shi liu liu de ta Cute Girl Hou Hsiao-hsien

Taiwan, 1980, colour, 35mm, 90 min, Mandarin Pro: Yeh Chen-feng Sc: Hou Hsiao-hsien Cam: Chen Kun-hou, Lee Sichuang Ed: Liao Ching-sung With: Feng Fei-fei, Kenny Bee Print: Chinese Taipei Film Archive

Born on April 8, 1947 to a member of the Hakka ethnic minority in the Southern Guangdong Province of mainland China, Hou fled to Taiwan (Kaohsiung) with his parents at just two years of age to escape the civil war that followed in the wake of Mao Zedong’s 1949 revolution. A long-time movie fan, Hou studied film at the National Taiwan College of the Arts after his mandatory two year military service in 1969. After graduation in 1972 and a brief stint as a salesman, he embarked on a more traditional route to becoming a film maker than some of his contemporaries, working his way up through the studios and finally reaching assistant director and then screenwriter in the late 1970s (as well as being a director, he would go on to write Edward Yang’s Taipei Story (1985) and produce Zhang Yimou’s R aise The R ed Lantern (1992). In 1980, he finally got the chance to direct a feature film. And though the result, Cute Girl, a (necessarily) rather glossy and formulaic melodrama, made very little critical inroads (and certainly didn’t herald the talent and vision to come), it did allow Hou the opportunity to direct again. And it served to win him, as a young up-and-coming director, the chance to work on a project that would allow him to take advantage of newly relaxed censorship laws and make the kind of film that he hungered for. (Adam Bingham, Cinetext)

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Nocturne Lars Von Trier

Denmark, 1980, colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Sc: Lars Von Trier Cam: Tom Elling Ed: Tómas Gislason Sound: Henrik Jørgensen With: Solbjørg Højfeldt, Yvette, Anne-Lise Gabold Print: National Filmschool of Denmark

Follows the hallucinatory happenings of a sunlight-phobic woman, at once establishing Von Trier’s penchant for naturalist techniques while also foreshadowing his obsession with existentially afflicted females.

Befrielsesbilleder Images of Liberation Lars Von Trier

Denmark, 1982, colour, video, 52 min, Danish Sc: Lars Von Trier Cam: Tom Elling Ed: Tómas Gislason Ad: Søren Skjær Sound: Iben Haahr Andersen, Morten Degnbol Mu: Pierre de la Rue With: Edward Fleming, Kirsten Olesen Print: National Filmschool of Denmark

The film, shot in 35mm and running almost a feature-length 57 minutes - highly unusual for a Film School production - was set in the chaotic final days of World War II, shortly after Denmark was liberated on May 4, 1945. Von Trier (1956, Denmark) added to the film previously unseen documentary footage of violent street scenes that transpired in Copenhagen in the wake of liberation. We see incidents of brutality and humiliation as citizens beat up stool pigeons and suspected collaborators. He managed to purloin this material from the archives of Denmarks Radio. (‘If it happened, it should also be shown,’ was his motto.)

Einsvierzig One Fourty Ulrich Seidl

Austria, 1980, colour, 35mm, 16 min, German Sc: Ulrich Seidl Cam: Ulrich Seidl Ed: Paul Choung With: Karl Wallner Print: Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion

Karl Wallner, the protagonist of this film, is a man aged about 50. At the age of 14 he stopped growing and didn’t get any taller than 4 foot 7. The film shows scenes from the life of a dwarf at home, at work, in his free time. Ulrich Seidl (1952, Austria): ‘This is the first film I made at the Viennese film Academy. I wanted to make a film about a handicapped man who stayed small but without hypocritically feigning sympathy as usual in such a case. I wanted to show the handicapped man as an individual, laugh at him or think he’s boring just like anyone else. The film caused fierce debates and I was attacked, as I would often be later, as a Sozialpornographen.’

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Der Ball The Prom Ulrich Seidl

Austria, 1982, colour, 35mm, 50 min, German Sc: Ulrich Seidl Cam: Susanne Meitz, Hermann Dunzendorfer Ed: Angela Kauf Sound: Alf Schwarzlmüller With: Hans Rasch Print: Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion Sales: Coproduction Office

This short film takes us to Horn, a small town in Austria where Ulrich Seidl grew up. For years it has been the tradition that students organise the graduation ball at the end of their school career. That is not only one of the most important social events in town, but also the high point of Shrove Tuesday. Ulrich Seidl: ‘Der Ball was the reason that I got kicked out of Film Academy. The teachers were not happy about the structure nor the editing and they thought the film could damage the reputation of the school.’ Seidl (1952, Austria) acquired worldwide fame with stylised, often controversial documentaries such as Good News (1990) and Loss Is to Be Expected (1992). Also his features shot in the same, recognisable style, Hundstage (2000) and Import/Export (2007) evoked fierce reactions.

Pacific Motion Michael Glawogger

Austria, 1981, colour, 16mm, 7 min, no dialogue Sc: Michael Glawogger Cam: Michael Glawogger Print: Österreichisches Filmmuseum

A movement. Glawogger, companion of Seidl since the 1980s and maker of for instance Workingman’s Death, started his career with beautiful studies such as this one.

Street Noise

Michael Glawogger Austria, 1982, colour, 16mm, 9 min, no dialogue Sc: Michael Glawogger Cam: Michael Glawogger With: Kimberly Hoskins, Jose Montano Print: Österreichisches Filmmuseum

A street in Oakland. Early morning hours. A motion. Music. A few sound bits. Someone paints the wall of a studio. Colours. Broken televisions. A street in Oakland. Early morning hours. A motion. Different music. Columbus. End.

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Tod eines Lesenden Death of a Person Reading Michael Glawogger

Austria, 1984, colour, 16mm, 15 min, no dialogue Sc: Michael Glawogger Cam: Michael Kreihsl, Joachim Berc Sound: Christof Schertenleib, Rainer Riese, Igor Orovac Mu: Armin Pokorn With: Reinhard Hauser, Marian David, Emanuel Schmid, Erwin Leder, Hans Escher, Klaus Ortner Print: Österreichisches Filmmuseum

A man reads a book. Ordinary enough, except that he has been sentenced to death and is scheduled to be shot in ten minutes. Obviously, he will not get to the end of the story. Based on an unfinished short story by Arthur Schnitzler.

Futsu saizu no kaijin The Phantom of Regular Size Tsukamoto Shinya

Japan, 1986, colour, 4 min With: Fujiwara Kei, Kanaoka Nobu, Taguchi Tomorowo, Tsukamoto Shinya Print: Gold View Co. Ltd.

The real career of Tsukamoto as a film director starts with the 18-minute The Phantom of R egular Size, made on 8mm colour film. It’s a precursor to the cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: The Iron M an (1989). That also applies to the role of cult actor Taguchi Tomorowo, who in this case also plays the role of the typical Japanese salaryman. He is attacked in a metro station by a robot woman who is under the control of a psychopath, of course a role played by Tsukamoto Shinya (1960, Japan) himself. The film also has a scene with the ‘penis drill’ and towards the end of the film both protagonists become swallowed up in a large half metal monster. Nightmare Detective 2 is included in the Hungry Ghosts section of this year’s programme.

Denchu Kozo no boken The Adventure of Denchu Kozo Tsukamoto Shinya

Japan, 1987, colour, 47 min, Japanese With: Fujiwara Kei, Kanaoka Nobu, Taguchi Tomorowo, Tsukamoto Shinya Print: Gold View Co. Ltd.

The Adventure of Denchu Kozo (literally: electricity pylon boy) is about an unhappy boy who has an electricity pylon growing out of his back, yes indeed, and is the continual victim of bullying. His only friend is the girl Momoko. He gets transported 25 years into the future, where he finds himself in a world threatened by cyborg vampires. With the aid of an older version of Momoko, he does all he can to prevent the vampires building their machine that will block out the sun in order to make it possible for them to rule the world. The film was also released on 8mm colour film. Many of the experiments with visual effects, such as stop-motion animation and pixellation, were to return in Tetsuo: The Iron M an. Tsukamoto (1960, Japan) won the main prize with it at the PIA Film Festival. His new film Nightmare Detective 2 is included in the Hungry Ghosts section of this year’s programme.

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Signals: First Things First

Shikashi... fukushi kirisute no jidai ni However... Kore-Eda Hirokazu

Japan, 1991, colour, video, 47 min, Japanese Cam: Ito Shinji Print/Sales: TV Man Union, Inc.

However… examines the life and impact of Yamanouchi Yoyomori. As the head of the national Social Welfare Bureau in Japan, Yoyomori was responsible for compensating victims of Minamata Disease, a neurological disorder caused by methyl mercury poisoning. As the wheels of the bureaucracy slowed, Kore-Eda’s subject became a sort of martyr for the cause, having grown increasingly frustrated with his department’s unwillingness to support the victims despite his overwhelming commitment to them. (Viennale) Kore-Eda Hirokazu (1962, Japan) is one of the most important directors to emerge from Japan in the last twenty years. Having proved his independent and humanist point of view in documentary film making, he made a very successful transition to fiction with M aborosi. Many consider the tragically true tale of social isolation of Nobody Knows, which was awarded the Cannes Jury Prize, the highlight of his career so far. His latest film Still Walking is included in the Spectrum section.

Incoherence Bong Joon-Ho

South Korea, 1994, colour, 16mm, 30 min, Korean Pro Comp: KAFA - The Korean Academy of Film Arts Sc: Bong Joon-Ho Cam: Joh Yong-Kyu, Son Tae-Woong Ed: Bong Joon-Ho With: Yoo YeonSoo, Yim Sang-Hyo, Yoon Il-Joo, Kim Ryo-Ha Print: KAFA - The Korean Academy of Film Arts

Incoherence was the very first success for Bong Joon-Ho (1969, Seoul). Of all Korean directors who started their careers in the 1990s, he may have been the most successful in acquiring both commercial and and artistic success. It’s a black comedy triptych, made during his studies at the KAFA, in which he shows the hypocritical, lofty and immoral stupidity of important people. The hand of the later maker of Memories of Murder and The Host can also be seen in this supple film and narrative style.

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Koza

Cocoon Nuri Bilge Ceylan Turkey, 1995, b&w, 35mm, 1:1.37, 20 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: NBC Film Sc: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Cam: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Ed: Yusuf Aldirmaz, Nuri Bilge Ceylan Mu: V. Artyomov With: Fatma Ceylan, Mehmet Emin Ceylan, Turgut Toprak Print/Sales: Pyramide International

Cocoon was made when Ceylan (1959, Turkey) was already 36. It is about an old couple (played by Ceylan’s parents), who are in their seventies, and live separately due to some painful experiences in their past. One day they come together again. But the meeting which they hope will heal the lingering pain doesn’t give the expected results. Ceylan’s interest in photography began when he was given a camera at the age of 15. His interest in art and film eventually led him to study cinematography at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. Ceylan left after two years and decided to learn film making by watching movies and making them. ‘In school they are too slow and I was not young so I had to be very quick. I just went into it with my imagination, figuring out what the best way for me was.’ He won the Caligari Prize in Berlin with K asaba (1997), which will be screened in the Young Turkish Cinema section this year. Ceylan also won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes for Uzak/Distant (2003).

Dos en la vereda

Lisandro Alonso, Catriel Vildosola Argentina, 1995, colour, 16mm, 3 min, Spanish Pro: Lisandro Alonso Sc: Lisandro Alonso, Catriel Vildosola Cam: Lucio Bonelli Sound: Catriel Vildosola With: Facundo Arias, Jose Morales Print/ Sales: Lisandro Alonso

Together with Catriel Vildosola, the most important sound man of the New Argentine Cinema, Lisandro Alonso made this short film at the age of 20 while studying at the film academy. He also worked as a sound man and later as an assistant to other Argentine productions before making his debut with Freedom (2001), which won a FIPRESCI Award in Rotterdam. Vildosola was also responsible for the sound of Liverpool, the most recent feature by Alonso, screened in Spectrum this year.

Rey muerto Dead King Lucrecia Martel

Argentina, 1996, colour, 35mm, 13 min, Spanish Sc: Lucrecia Martel Cam: Esteban Sapir Ed: Fernanda Rossi Ad: Alejandra Crespo Sound: Horacio Almada Mu: Lía Crucet, Laura Ruggiero With: Rolly Serrano, Sandra Ceballos, Carlos Aldana, Marcelo Machuca Print: INCAA

Dead K ing was made after Martel (1966, Salta, Argentina) won a screen play competition as part of the short film collection Historias Breves (1995), that is often regarded as the starting point of the New Argentine Cinema. Domestic violence situated in north-eastern Argentina. Martel study at Avellaneda Experimental (AVEX) and went to Animation Film Academy ENERC in Buenos Aires. Yet Martel calls himself an autodidact, if only because the film school shut its doors due to lack of funds. Martel: ‘I am not a real cinephile. As far as I’m concerned, going out doesn’t necessarily mean going to the cinema. As an adolescent, my father gave me a camcorder. I kept making video films of the family without being really fascinated, without thinking: I want to go on with this. But in retrospect that may well have influenced me. I was primarily fascinated by technology, machines. And film is an interesting mix of mechanical and spiritual aspects.’ (VN, Ab van Ieperen) See also The Headless Woman

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38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Signals: First Things First

Adulte

Carlos Reygadas Mexico, 1998, b&w, video, 7 min, no dialogue Sc: Carlos Reygadas, Astrid Mertens Cam: Diego Martinez Vignatti Ed: Serge Van Oekel Sound: Max Bodson, Nicolas Lenoir Print: Mantarraya Producciones

A short film, Bergmanesque and surrealist in tone, shot in black & white 8mm. A man, a coffin, a cliff. Yet not without humour. With only three feature films to his name, Carlos Reygadas (1971, Mexico City) has distinguished himself as one of the most authentic, audacious and uncompromising talents in Mexican cinema today. From Japón to the controversial Battle in Heaven and the magical Silent Light, Reygadas creates muted, mysterious allegories that grapple with ideas of alienation, spirituality and sexuality that are central to our times. Also see: Serenghetti (Urban Screens)

Durachki

Fools Alexey German Jr. Russia, 2001, video, 28 min, Russian Sc: Alexey German Jr. Cam: Alexey Ubeyvolk Print: VGIK

Two unlucky guys suddenly experience a reversal of fortune. Their dreams come true: the one who wanted to get married meets a perfect woman, and the one who had dreams of travelling the world, sets off on a journey. Made when he studied at VGIK in Moscow, this is the first film by Alexey German Jr. (1976, Moscow), son of - obviously - Alexey German.

Crespià: The Film Not the Village Albert Serra

Spain, 2003, colour, video, 84 min, Catalan Sc: Albert Serra Cam: Àngel Rufí Ed: Àngel Martín Sound: Lluís Costabella Mu: Lluís Costabella With: Lluís Carbó, Jaume Badia, Francesc Usó, Montse Triola, Anna Darné, Eustaqui Esteso Print: Andergraun Films

Crespià, the Film not the Village is a portrait of a Catalan village in the summer. It oscillates between documentary and fiction, like Fellini’s Roma. The film is an artificial but nonetheless realistic re-creation of life in the village in the 1980s. Albert Serra (1975, Banyoles): ‘I meant to make a work of art, but I was unable to fulfil my ambition; I ended up making an ‘auteur’ film. The idea was born four or five years ago. I happened to be spending a Sunday afternoon in Madremanya, in the Catalan countryside. There was a popular fete in the village. This is where I saw most of my personal mythology synthesised. I immediately realised that this was my personal Hairspray or Cry Baby. I only had to add a few details to complement the reality I saw in Madremanya. Is it fiction or a documentary? At first it was fiction. That explains the artificiality of the interpretation and musical sketches. I hate documentaries. They are the perfect excuse for people with no imagination. But as the film is a portrayal of a world that has almost vanished, it could be considered a ‘document’. This annoys me a bit, because I consider myself an artist. I believe the film has at least three or four unforgettable moments of beauty, which justify the rest. Is it a musical? More or less. It does have good music in it, and some wonderful ‘sardanes’ by Manel Saderra. And live music of the fete.’ See also: El cant dels ocells (Bright Future)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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Het NederlaNds FoNds voor de Film Feliciteert deze Filmmakers met HuN premiĂ¨re tijdeNs Het iNterNatioNal Film Festival rotterdam 2009

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Het laatste gesprek noud heerkens

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NederlaNds FoNds voor de Film, JaN luiJkeNstraat 2, 1071 Cm amsterdam telefoon 020 5707676, e-mail iNFo@FilmFoNds.Nl, website www.FilmFoNds.Nl

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Signals: Regained

Japan, 1971 colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:2.35, 72 min, Japanese Pro: Asakura Daisuke Pro Comp: Kokuei Co. Sc: Deguchi De Cam: Ito Hideo Ed: Nakajima Isamu Mu: Minami Masato With: Sasaki Ten, Sato Hiroshi,

Kim Makiko, Aoki Yuji Print/Sales: STANCE Company

Funshutsu kigan: 15sai no baishunfu Gushing Prayer Adachi Masao It’s hard to find a film this year which so adequately illustrates last year’s slogan ‘Free Radicals’ as does Adachi Masao’s Gushing Prayer. It is an outrageous combination of counterculture and pinku eiga, wildly shot in gorgeous black-and-white cinemascope, and, like Wakamatsu Koji’s Go, Go Second Time Virgin (1969) which Adachi scripted, radical, subversive and culture-pessimistic. Yasuko, Yoko, Koichi and Bill are high school freshmen who engage in group sex to find out the reasons for their dissatisfaction and desensitization. They want to discover how they can ‘beat’ sex and therefore win against adult society. When 15-year-old Yasuko, who has got pregnant, tells her classmates that she has slept with their teacher, she is accused of betrayal and of breaking their vow not to have sex just for pleasure. Yasuko declares that she has felt something only because she prostituted herself. In order to confirm whether this is true, and encouraged by her peers, Yasuko becomes a prostitute and sets out on a self-exploring journey. When she locks herself in a hotel room and decides to kill herself, suddenly her teacher and Koichi show up. Interspersed with actual suicide notes and employing several alienation effects, Gushing Prayer is a penetrative allegory of the political dissatisfaction and spiritual void after the failed 1960s student movement. (EH)

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The living legend of Japanese political cinema ADACHI Masao (1939, Japan) is known for his experimental work in the early 1960s and his collaboration with important film makers such as Nagisa Oshima and Koji Wakamatsu. In the early 1970s he became a member of the Japanese Red Army and subsequently spent 26 years in Lebanon. He made his comeback as a film maker in 2007 with The Prisoner-Terrorist. Films: Wan (1961, short), Sain (1963), Datai (1966), Gingakei/Galaxy (1967), Hinin kakumei/Contraception Revolution (1967), Sei chitai (1968), Ryakushô renzoku shasatsuma/A.K.A Serial Killer (1969, doc), Jogakusei gerira/Student Guerilla (1969), Seiyûgi (1969), Sekigun-PFLP: Sekai senso sengen/The Red Army-PFLP: Declaration of War (1971), Funshutsu kigan 15sai no baishunfu/Gushing Prayer (1971), Yûheisha/Terorisuto/ The Prisoner/Terrorist (2007)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 23:40:35

Signals: Regained

Japan, 1969 colour, 35mm, 1:2.35, 78 min, Japanese Pro: Asakura Daisuke Pro Comp: Kokuei Co. Sc: So Yutaka Cam: Hamano Masayuki Ed: Shimura Akira Mu: Akutagawa Takashi With: Hashimoto Miki, Kawato

Keisuke, Fujii Mitsugu, Mizumori Reo, Koyanagi Rika, Yoshioka Ichiro Print/Sales: STANCE Company

Blue film no onna Blue Film Woman Mukai Kan

When stocks plummet at the Tokyo stock exchange, morals topple like dominoes. Though much more serious and dramatic in tone and visuals than the other Japanese pink film in our Regained programme (Gushing Prayer) there’s still a high score of subversity and social critique to be enjoyed in Blue Film Woman. Mariko’s father Kenzo has been very successful as a private investor, but one day the stocks he had expected to rise suddenly slump and he ends up with huge debts. In return for prolonging repayment, the loan shark Uchiyama demands Kenzo’s wife. He also forces her to sexually comfort his mentally challenged son. After being abused by Uchiyama’s son, on her way back she is hit by a car and dies. Shocked by the death of his wife, Kenzo falls ill and becomes bedridden. Mariko now has to carry the burden of taking care of her sick father and earning the family income. Uchiyama makes advances on Mariko as well and presses her to pay her father’s debts. Torn by guilt, Kenzo kills himself. Mariko vows to take revenge on Uchiyama. She becomes a high-class prostitute and secretly films the sexual encounters with her clients, all men of distinction and social standing, to blackmail them. To make even more money to buy stocks, with which she wants to beat Uchiyama, Mariko sells the blue films to an underground broker, but enters dangerous territory. (EH)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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MUKAI Kan, born MUKAI Hiroki (1937-2008, Japan), established his own production company, Mukai Production (later renamed Shishi Production) in 1965. After his feature début Flesh (1965) he directed more than 100 sexploitation films, so-called pink movies. He became one of the most important directors of the heyday of pink movies in the 60s and 70s. As producer he raised several generations of young directors, among them Takita Yojiro, Sato Hisayasu, Zeze Takahisa and Imaoka Shinji. Later, beginning with Going West in 1997, he directed a number of independent films about elderly people. Films: (selection) Niku/Flesh (1965), Esa/Bite (1966), Zoku Niku/Flesh 2 (1968), Blue film no onna/Blue Film Woman (1969), Niku buton (1971), Tokyo Deep Throat (1975), Going West (1997), Last Dance (2001), Dôsôkai/Alumni Meeting (2004)

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Russia, 2008 colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.37, 140 min, Russian Pro: Igor Mayboroda,

Maria Chistyakova Pro Comp: MD Project Ltd Sc: Igor Mayboroda Cam: Pavel Lebeshev, Uri

Klimenko, Vadim Alisov, Igor Klebanov, Uri Raiski, Uri Lyubshin, Sergei Machilsky, Sergei Kozlov, Valentin Piganov, Radik Askarov, Alexander Negovsky Ed: Igor Mayboroda Ad: Igor Mayboroda Sound: Leonid Dragilev Print/Sales: MD Project Ltd

Rerberg i Tarkovsky. Obratnaya Storona ‘Stalkera’ Rerberg and Tarkovsky. The Reverse Side of ‘Stalker’ Igor Mayboroda This documentary examines several cinematic novelties that are part of the ‘Rerberg’ series and tells the story of the artistic journey and dramatic fate of one of the brightest Russian directors of photography, Georgi Rerberg. During the time when Georgi Rerberg worked in the cinema he shot a number of outstanding films. Some were with Andrei Konchalovsky, but probably the best known of all is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror, a classical piece of filmic art and an indispensable part of the world’s cinematographic heritage. Rerberg comes from a wellknown dynasty of artists who were reflecting on the crisis of human relations in the totalitarian society of the USSR, as Georgi Rerberg did himself during the shooting of Stalker, another masterpiece by Andrei Tarkovsky. R erberg and Tarkovsky. The R everse Side of ‘Stalker’ is a film very rich in factographic material and is a unique occasion for all film lovers to view material uncovered by director Igor Mayboroda in his research that has been unknown until now. In terms of rediscovering Soviet film history as well as getting to know the fascinating person of Georgi Rerberg, the artist hidden behind his camera, this is a true pearl. (LC)

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Igor MAYBORODA (1959, Ukraine) studied electronic engineering at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and directing at the Kiev State Institute of Theatrical Art. Later in his career he attended courses on producing and script writing, after which he wrote and produced his own films. R erberg and Tarkovsky. The R everse Side of ‘Stalker’ is his feature début. Films: Rerberg i Tarkovsky. Obratnaya Storona ‘Stalkera’/ Rerberg and Tarkovsky. The Reverse Side of ‘Stalker’ (2008)

38TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

12-01-2009 23:40:36

Signals: Regained

Russia, 1966 b&w, 35mm, 99 min, Russian Pro Comp: Goskino Sc: Yuri Klepikov Cam: Georgi Rerberg Ad: Mikhail Romadin With: Alexander Surin,

Lyubov Sokolova Print/Sales: Mosfilm

Cinema Concern

Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy Asya’s Happiness Andrei Konchalovsky

A healthy young Russian beauty who lives and works on a Soviet collective farm during harvest time becomes pregnant by a handsome rascal. To the disapproval of the folks in charge, Asya is so delighted with her fertile state that she’s not in the least upset that her lover won’t marry her. Konchalovsky chose mostly non-professionals from the location where Asya’s Happiness was filmed (only three of the actors are professionals), and encouraged them to speak in their own words about real experiences. Under a political regime opposed to religion, the film’s ordinary people are revealed as extraordinarily moral, practitioners of bedrock Christian values. So dangerous was Konchalovsky’s unfettered imagination, his film was banned for 21 years! Vincent Canby (New York Times Review): ‘Asya’s Happiness is a movie of insight and a good deal of humor. The film is reportedly a favorite of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. Mr. Konchalovsky allows the movie to wander around, poking into the lives and reminiscences of subsidiary characters. These are what give the film its richness and feeling of authenticity. Asya’s Happiness displays ease, compassion and natural humor.’ (EH)

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Andrei KONCHALOVSKY (1937, Russia) comes from a family of famous Russian painters and poets and is the brother of Nikita Michalkov. He has written screen plays for directing colleagues and directed plays and operas. In the early 1980s, he moved to the US, where he made several successful features, including Runaway Train (1985). Films: Malchik i golub (1961), Pervyj uchitel (1965), Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy/Asya’s Happiness (1966), Dvoryanskoye gnyezdo (1969), Dyadya Vanya (1970), Romans o vlyublyonnykh (1974), Sibiriada (1979), Split Cherry Tree (1982), Maria’s Lovers (1984), Runaway Train (1985), Duet for One (1987), Shy People (1988), Homer & Eddie (1989), Tango & Cash (1989), Blizhnij krug (1991), Kurochka Ryaba (1994), Lumière et compagnie (1995), Dom durakov (2002)

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Battements solaires Solar Beats Patrick Bokanowski

France, 2008, colour, 35mm, 1:1.37, 18 min, no dialogue Pro: Patrick Bokanowski Pro Comp: Kira B.M. Films Sc: Patrick Bokanowski Cam: Patrick Bokanowski Ed: Patrick Bokanowski Mu: Michèle Bokanowski With: Franck Dinet Print: Light Cone Distribution Sales: Kira B.M. Films

Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique. (EC) Patrick BOKANOWSKI (1943, France) is an avant-garde film maker. The Angel is the most outstanding work in his oeuvre.

L’ange

The Angel Patrick Bokanowski USA, 1982, colour, 35mm, 70 min, French Sc: Patrick Bokanowski Cam: Patrick Bokanowski Ed: Patrick Bokanowski Ad: Christian Daninos, Patrick Bokanowski Mu: Michèle Bokanowski With: Maurice Baquet, Jean-Marie Bon, Martine Couture, Jacques Faure, Mario Gonzáles, René Patrignani, Rita Renoir Print/ Sales: Light Cone Distribution

Described by Cahiers du cinéma as ‘a 2001: A SpAce OdySSey, produced under the same conditions as erASerheAd’, The Angel invites you on a surrealist ascent into a world of silhouettes and symbols. This elusive film consists of a series of hypnotising tableaux: a man with a sword, a library populated by doppelgängers, an endless staircase, a woman in an egg-shape... Patrick Bokanowski, French filmmaker and artist, has developed a manner of treating filmic material that crosses over traditional boundaries of film genre: short film, experimental cinema and animation. His work lies on the edge between optical and plastic art, in a ‘gap’ of constant reinvention. Patrick Bokanowski challenges the idea that cinema must, essentially, reproduce reality, our everyday thoughts and feelings. His films contradict the photographic ‘objectivity’ that is firmly tied to the essence of film production the world over. His experiments attempt to open the art of film up to other possibilities of expression, for example by ‘warping’ his camera lens (he prefers the term ‘subjective’ to ‘objective’ - the French word for ‘lens’), thus testifying to a purely mental vision, unconcerned with film’s conventional representations, thus affecting and metamorphosing reality, and thereby offering to the viewer of his films new adventures in perception. (Pierre Coulibeuf )

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Films: The Woman Who Powders Herself (1972, short), Déjeuner du matin/To Lunch of the Morning (1974, short), L’ange/The Angel (1982), La part du hasard/The Share of the Chance (1984), The Beach (1992, short), Au bord du lac/At the Edge of the Lake (1993, short), Flammes/Flames (1998, short), Le canard à l’orange/The Duck in Orange Sauce (2002, short), Éclats d’Orphée/Glares of Orphée (2002, short), Battements solaires/ Solar Beats (2008, short)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Canada, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 80 min, English/French Pro: Christian Medawar Pro Comp: National Film

Board of Canada Sc: Luc Bourdon Ed: Michel Giroux Sound: Sylvain Bellemare, Frédéric Cloutier Print/Sales: National Film

Board of Canada

La mémoire des anges The Memories of Angels Luc Bourdon

Imagine an angel memorising all the sights and sounds of a city. Imagine them coming to life: busy streets full of people and vehicles, a bustling port, children playing, lovers kissing in parks. Then recall the musical accompaniment of the past: Charles Trenet, Raymond Lévesque, Paul Anka, Willie Lamothe, Oscar Peterson, Igor Stravinsky. That city is Montréal. That angel is the National Film Board of Canada. This is The Memories of Angels, Luc Bourdon’s virtuoso assemblage of clips from 120 NFB films from the 50s and 60s. A journey in time, a tribute to the vitality of the city and a wonderful cinematic adventure, it recalls Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire: the same sense of ubiquity, the same sense of dreamlike freedom. The film is a history lesson on the 20th century: the red light district, the eloquent Jean Drapeau, young Queen Elizabeth greeting the crowds and Tex Lecor shouting ‘Aux armes, Québécois!’ Here are kids dreaming of hockey glory, here’s the Jacques-Cartier market bursting with fresh produce, the department stores thronged with Christmas shoppers. Bourdon and editor Michel Giroux have assembled fluid, clear sequences, underlining the beauty of the black-and-white images contrasted with coloured ones. The Memories of Angels also showcases the singular beauty of Montréal, its architectural and human wealth and the grandeur of its setting.

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Luc BOURDON (Canada) is a video artist. His works include fiction and documentary, essays and experimental pieces, installations and reportage, and he also works as a producer and for television. He has made some fifty works that draw on the notions of history and memory. He often tries to reshape the moving image through a playful approach to sound and image. Films: (selection) Entre la pagie et la manique (1984), Distance (1984, co-dir), Reverse Letter (1984), Schème vidéo/Video Scheme (1984), Say Cheese for a Trans-Canadian Look (1985), Touei (1985), Le cercle vicieux/ Vicious Circle (1986), Ne retenez pas votre souffle (1986), Full House (1987), The Story of Feniks and Abdullah (1988), A mille lieux (1992), Lemmy Constantine (1993), Hommage (1993), Plan de fuite/Flight Plan (1995), Question de bande (1998), De la parole aux actes (2000), La grande bibliothèque (2005), Classes de maîtres (2008), La mémoire des anges/ The Memories of Angels (2008)

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USA, 1958 b&w, video, 77 min, English Pro: Timothy Carey Pro Comp: Frenzy Films Sc: Timothy Carey Cam: Edgar G. Ulmer,

Ray Dennis Steckler Ed: Carl Mahakian Mu: Fred Graff With: Timothy Carey, Gill Baretto, Betty Rowland Print: Vassily Bourikas Sales: Absolute Films

The World’s Greatest Sinner Timothy Carey A classic example of a shoestring budget, and one of the most notorious underground films ever made. If Elvis Presley had ever done a movie where he played a cult leader, it might look like this. It’s the story of a man who wakes up one day and decides he’s God. He starts his own church, preaching his gospel using NO WAVE rock ‘n’ roll. Eventually, he gains a large group of followers who call him God and listen to his teachings about eternal life. He makes a deal with Satan, forces a man to commit suicide, has sex with an 80-year-old woman and a 14-yearold girl, wears flashy suits with cuffs that say GOD in gold, runs for president and battles the real God to the death!! Timothy Carey’s strange performance of histrionic body language, hypnotic drawl, and occasional trademark of closing his eyes while speaking and listening echoes an erratic energy that is tantalizing to witness (like a precursor to Nicolas Cage). The World’s Greatest Sinner is haphazardly edited and directed by Timothy himself; the bizarre nature of the material go hand in hand with the film making. If nothing else, this movie serves as an indictment of cult leaders and the corruption of the human soul. The music for this amazing film is by a young Frank Zappa, including the great theme song. (Jerry Saravia)

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Timothy CAREY (1929-1994, USA) is one of Hollywood’s least understood actors. The public got to know him first by his face only, through uncredited, though characteristic roles in, for example, The Wild One (Laslo Benedek, 1953) and East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955). Later on he acted in films by Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola and John Cassavetes. The biggest part he ever had was in the only film he directed himself, The World’s Greatest Sinner. Films: The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962)

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Belgium, 1985 colour, video, 65 min, English Pro: Stefaan Decostere Sc: Chris Dercon,

Stefaan Decostere Cam: Raoul Delombaerde,

Daniel Demoustier Ed: Marc Cuypers Ad: Stefaan Decostere Sound: Guido De Bruyn Mu: Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Jeffrey Lohn With: Paul Virilio, Jack Goldstein, Klaus Vom Bruch Print/Sales: Argos Centre

for Art and Media http://cargoweb.wordpress.com

Warum wir Männer die Technik so Lieben Why We Men Love Technology That Much Stefaan Decostere The documentary Why We Men Love Technology That Much was made in 1985 to analyze the close relation between war and technology. The video shows how war, speed and technology organize and reorganize reality, until only filtered reality remains. The artists - Klaus vom Bruch in video and Jack Goldstein in paint and sound - propose their personal artistic versions of it. Since then, no radical change has occurred in the relation between war and technology. It has only became more intensified. Technology brings the logic and reality of war even closer into our daily lives. Nowadays we all are actively involved with media. Digitisation, virtualisation and automation are our major interactions on a massive scale with technology. They guideline the basic moves possible in the playing field here. Now there also exists an update/remake version of the film in the form of an interactive installation (presented during the festival by V2_ Institute for Instable Media). Today’s changed attitude towards documentary images is the main theme of WARUM 2.0 (WHY 2.0). A 360° panorama amidst transparent screens and multiple interactive access points turns the installation into an arena. A new conversation has been recorded with Paul Virilio. The new footage was shot in Haiti, Iraq, Gaza, Darfur, Kosovo and Afghanistan by freelance cameraman Daniel Demoustier. (EC)

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Stefaan DECOSTERE (1955, Belgium) studied directing at the National Film School RITS in Brussels. From 1979 until 1998, he directed and produced documentaries for the Flemish Belgian Television (the former BRTN). His programmes on video art, dance and technology aim to establish a critical platform for discussing the impact of media on our daily lives. His work has also been shown at a variety of film festivals. In addition, Decostere builds installations based on the films he has made for television. Together with Margit Tamás, he started Cargo in 1998. Films: (selection) Warum wir Männer die Technik so Lieben/ Why We Men Love Technology That Much (1985)

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Australia, 2008 colour, 35mm, 102 min, English Pro: Michael Lynch,

Paul Wiegard Pro Comp: City Films Worldwide Sc: Mark Hartley Cam: Karl von Moller Ed: Jamie Blanks, Sara

Edwards, Mark Hartley Ad: Marcus Cobbledick Mu: Stephen Cummings, Billy Miller With: Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Hopper, Stacy Keach,Quentin Tarantino, Brian TrenchardSmith, Steve Railsback Sales: Magnolia Pictures /

HDNet Films

Not Quite Hollywood Mark Hartley

It is often said of a film: a roller coaster ride. But this characterisation is seldom as justified as in this ultra-fast, jam-packed, intelligent documentary about Ozploitation, a term refering to a series of Australian genre films in the 1970s and 1980s that were often crazier and more radical than their American and British predecessors. The film starts with a flashy title sequence and introduction and then, in three chapters, provides an incomparable survey of the craziness of Australian exploitation films. Ockers, Knockers, Pubes & Tubes focuses on the racy films so typical of the early 1970s and not only down-under. Comatose Killers and Outback Chillers primarily looks at bloodthirsty horror films and finally High Octane Disasters & Kung Fu Masters takes a look at disaster films and cruel kung fu films. There are many interviews with important leading figures from the field, including directors Richard Franklin, Ted Kotcheff, George Miller, actors Dennis Hopper, Jamie Lee Curtis, George Lazenby, Roger Ward, Barry ‘Dame Edna Everage’ Humphries, producers, writers, critics and über-fan Quentin Tarantino, who really can’t be stopped when he starts talking about his love for these films filled with primary fears and urges. For more information, see also the beautifully designed www.notquitehollywood. com.au (EH)

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Distr. NL: BrunBro Films www.notquitehollywood.com.au

Mark HARTLEY (Australia) studied at Swinburne School of Film & Television. Afterwards he started working in different fields of the film industry including working as assistant editor to Jill Bilcock. During this period he also began directing music videos, and after a while his work won a swag of awards. Since 2003, Hartley has worked for DVD Distributor Umbrella Entertainment, where he specifically looked after a large list of ‘Ozploitation’ titles finding their way onto DVD. Not Quite Hollywood is his feature début. Films: Not Quite Hollywood (2008)

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South Korea, 1960 b&w, 35mm, 108 min, Korean Pro Comp: Korean

Literature Films Sc: Kim Ki-young Cam: Kim Deok-jin Ed: Oh Young-keun Ad: Park Seok-in Sound: Sohn In-ho Mu: Han Sang-ki With: Kim Jin-kyu, Joo Jeungnyeo, Lee Eun-sim, Eom Aeng-ran, Ahn Sung-ki Print/Sales: World

Cinema Foundation

KIM Ki-young (1919-1998, South Korea) is one of the most eccentric figures in Korean Cinema. His career, lasting nearly four decades, contains the most grotesque and melodramatic films that are often compared to the work of Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray. The Housemaid (1960) can be seen as his breakthrough.

Hanyeo The Housemaid Kim Ki-young

A digital work-in-progress version of the restoration of the great Korean classic The Housemaid was already screened at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The restorative work by the Korean Film Archive has now been finished. The film, originally released in 1960, swept all the awards at the Best Korean Film Awards that year. It tells the story of a composer who sleeps with the maid while his wife is away at her parents’ home and ends up losing everything because of the deranged maid. The film depicts the intellectual husband’s conflict - not knowing what to do between the maid, who has her eyes set on becoming the missus of the house, and his wife, who has no idea what’s going on. The interior creates a claustrophobic atmosphere, within which a suffocating psychological warfare unfolds. This film, made three decades before Fatal Attraction, is representative of Kim’s leading originality. The work is based on a murder case in which a maid working for the family of a middle-school teacher kills their five-year-old. The first in the Housemaid trilogy (The Housemaid, The Woman of Fire, The Woman of Fire 82), it caused a sensation, and anecdote has it that at the time of its opening, all the women in the audience got agitated and rose from their seats, screaming: ‘Kill that wench!’ (excerpts from Kim Ji-young monography, KOFIC)

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Films: (selection) Yangsan Province (1955), A Defiance of Teenagers (1959), The Housemaid (1960), Hyeon-haetan Knows (1961), Goryeojang (1963), A Soldier Speaks after Death (1966), Woman of Fire (1971), The Insect Woman (1972), Transgression (1974), Promise of the Flesh (1975), The Woman of Fire ‘82 (1982), An Experience to Die for (1990)

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Studio Under Supervision Two films. Twice the same film maker. Twice the same painter. Twice the same music. But there are twenty years in between. It all comes down to the passing of time. Yes, those men read Proust.

Portrait du peintre dans son atelier Portrait of the Painter in his Studio Boris Lehman

Belgium, 1985, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 36 min, French Pro: Boris Lehman Pro Comp: Dovfilm Sc: Boris Lehman Cam: AntoineMarie Meert Ed: Daniel De Valck Sound: Henri Morelle Mu: Esther Lamandier With: Arié Mandelbaum, Boris Lehman, Esther Lamandier Print/Sales: Dovfilm www.borislehman.be

The first of what are now two films about the painter Arié Mandelbaum. Twenty years after this film, the film maker made the second part under the title A pAinTer Under The SUperviSiOn that will see its world première during this festival. The film maker is primarily interested in the person Mandelbaum, in the friend Mandelbaum and in their shared Jewish background. And there is also a third person present, as a voice: the vocalist Esther Lamandier. A three-cornered relationship between music, painting and cinema. The camera stays in the studio. Even when the painter falls asleep on the sofa. Boris LEHMAN (1944, Switzerland) studied piano and film in Brussels. Between 1962 and 1966, he worked as a film critic. He was then involved with various film organisations, he acted and assisted colleague film makers. Many film libraries have dedicated retrospectives to his work.

Un peintre sous surveillance A Painter Under the Supervision Boris Lehman

WORLD PREMIERE Belgium, 2009, 16mm, 36 min, French Pro: Boris Lehman Pro Comp: Dovfilm Sc: Boris Lehman Cam: AntoineMarie Meert, Rachel Simoni Ed: Ariane Mellet, Amarante Abramovici Sound: Jacques Dapoz, Marie André, Juliette Achard Mu: Esther Lamandier With: Arié Mandelbaum, Boris Lehman, Esther Lamandier Print/Sales: Dovfilm

After a break of 20 years, the film maker makes another portrait of the painter Arié Mandelbaum. Together with his new film, that is premiered here, the older part is also being screened: pOrTrAiT Of The pAinTer in hiS STUdiO. Here too, the film maker is not primarily interested in a portrait of the painter. He is more interested in the person and the friend. He could just as well have been a baker. But he still makes an attempt to touch on the ineffable. Even though painting would be pointless if you could describe it. The film maker and the painter share a Jewish background. But you don’t always have to talk about that. It’s a double portrait. Of a painter and a film maker. Boris LEHMAN (1944, Switzerland) studied piano and film in Brussels. Between 1962 and 1966, he worked as a film critic. He was then involved with various film organisations, he acted and assisted colleague film makers. Many film libraries have dedicated retrospectives to his work.

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Films: (selection) Portrait du peintre dans son atelier/Portrait of the Painter in His Studio (1985, short doc), A comme Adrienne/A for Adrienne (2000), Histoire de ma vie racontée par mes photographies/Story of My Life Told by My Photographs (2002), Homme portant (2003), La dernière (s)cène/The Last Supper (2004, short), Tentatives de se décrire/Trying To Describe Oneself (2006), Un peintre sous surveillance/A Painter Under the Supervision (2009, short doc)

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INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Germany/Austria, 2008 colour, video, 89 min, German Pro: Martin Choroba Pro Comp: Tellux-Film GmbH Sc: Andi Niessner Cam: Markus Krämer Ed: Katja Hahn Sound: Sebastian Simon, Hans

Schranz, Ulla Kösterke, Frank Heidbrink, Richard Koburg With: Herbert Achternbusch Print: Tellux-Film GmbH Sales: Telepool

Achternbusch Andi Niessner

Cult director Herbert Achternbusch has directed nearly thirty films and ten plays, acted, written novels and essays and he also paints, yet he remains an inscrutable man for his audience. Andi Niessner, who formed part of the production team on two of his latest major features, allows a glimpse behind the veil in Achternbusch. Achternbusch, who stopped making films in 2002 despite great respect, left a very idiosyncratic oeuvre. In it, he reveals himself to be an uncompromising and unconventional film maker, with an explicit love-hate relationship with his birthplace in Bavaria. In the documentary, Achternbusch speaks openly about his parents, religion, his childhood and the early years of his creative career. Niessner travels with him to places he loves and intercuts these excursions with personal memories by his children and old friends Margarethe von Trotta, Gabi Geist, Dieter Dorn and Sepp Bierbichler. Achternbusch in turn speaks about colleague directors such as Schlöndorf, Von Trotta and Herzog. Slowly but surely, the partly self-imposed loneliness in which he works - having been in the past a frequent guest at the International Film Festival Rotterdam - acquires more relief.

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Andi NIESSNER (1967, Germany) grew up in Munich and produced some musicals before he started attending the film academy in Munich. At the same time he directed cinema and television commercials. In 1999 he directed his first short film Sabotage. The years that followed he directed several productions for television. Films: (selection) Sabotage (1999, short), Björn the Hurdles for Bureaucracy (2001, short), Silent Warriors (2004, short), Rumpelstilzchen (2006), Shoe Shine - About Shoes and Shoe Lovers (2006, short doc), Achternbusch (2008, doc)

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Canada/Spain, 2008 colour/b&w, video, 105 min, Catalan/English/Spanish/ Hebrew Pro: Mark Peranson Pro Comp: Cinema

Scope Productions Cam: Mark Peranson Ed: Mark Peranson Sound: Marc Benoit Print/Sales: Cinema

Scope Productions www.waitingforsancho.com

Waiting for Sancho Mark Peranson

Mark PERANSON is editor and publisher of Cinema Scope magazine, programmer for the Vancouver International Film Festival and programming coordinator of the Vancity Theatre in Vancouver. He made his feature film début as an actor in Albert Serra’s El cant dels ocells. With Waiting for Sancho, Peranson made ‘a kind of making of’ this film of Serra. Films: Waiting for Sancho (2008, doc)

In this ‘making of’ about Albert Serra’s latest feature Birdsong, the director and VIFF programmer Mark Peranson takes a look at how Serra’s oeuvre came about. Serra rarely works from a script and leaves his amateur actors and crew, all from a small village outside Barcelona, in ignorance about the precise intentions of his film. He starts from a basic ambition; in this film, for instance, he wants to strip the biblical story of the Three Wise Men of any dramatic cloak in order to turn the quest of the three men into a pure act of unknowing surrender. Peranson, who himself plays the Hebrew-speaking Joseph in a film further spoken in Catalan, observes the crew and actors in their improvisational quest for the best shot. Serra shipped off his regular crew to a Canary Island he hardly knew himself. This intervention was intended to unlink the familiar bond between actors and landscape and raise the narrative to an abstract level. The contrast between Peranson’s colourful shots and the black-and-white aesthetics of Birdsong is great, but the two directors also display similarities. Both in the feature and in the documentary, long tranquil shots are juxtaposed between the short dialogues and both films end with a prophetic picture that safeguards time from all urgency. Birdsong is selected for the Spectrum programme.

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EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Indonesia, 2008 colour, video, 72 min, Indonesian Pro: Eros Djarot, Gotot

Prakosa, Setiawan Djody Pro Comp: Ekapraya Tata Cipta

Film, SETDCO Indonesia Sc: Eros Djarot, Gotot Prakosa Cam: Soetomo Gandasubrata Ed: Tri Rahardjo Ad: Chalid Arifin Sound: Handy Ilfat Mu: Kantata Takwa, Swami With: WS. Rendra, Iwan Fals, Clara Sinta, Setawan Djody, Sawung Djabo, Yocky Suryoprayogo Print/Sales: Ekapraya

Kantata Takwa Gotot Prakosa, Eros Djarot

This memorable political music film arrived in Rotterdam more than 18 years later than planned. As early as 1990, the first invitation was sent for the film that was to have its international première here. There are many reasons for the delay. Firstly there was the political climate of President Suharto’s repressive New Order politics. The film documents a series of artistes and their performances in which they rebel against the politics of repression. That was not without its risks. For instance the poet Rendra disappeared behind bars and the same fate threatened artistes such as Sawung Jabo and Iwan Fals (who plays a vital role in the film). The film focuses on a historic rock concert in Jakarta’s Senayan Stadium. The group Kantata Takwa, uniting various musicians, performers and poets, gave a rousing and very political performance. A planned follow-up gig in Bandung was banned and the recordings were shelved. After that, simple water damage and lack of money prevented the release of the film. Only recently was the original film material converted to digital video and the film completed. Most striking in the film is that the euphoria of the moment, the spirit of resistance and the conviction of the artists involved is still tangible. The crew behind the camera (mostly students) was equally involved in the events. (GjZ)

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Tata Cipta Film

Gotot PRAKOSA (1955, Sumatra) studied painting at the art academy in Yogyakarta, he then worked as a freelance journalist and cartoonist. In 1974 he became a film student at the Instituut Kesenian Jakarta. He mainly concentrated on animation films and experimental collages, directing himself or with others. K antata Takwa is his second collaboration with Eros Djarot. Eros DJAROT left Indonesia temporarily to study at the London International Film School. He is a controversial figure in the Indonesian film world. He is a recognised and important composer of film music and made his directing debut in 1988 with Tyut Nya Dhien, a film which was nominated for the Caméra d’Or in Cannes 1989. He made this film with his brother Slamet Rahardjo. Djarot has made more than 50 popular musical works in Indonesia. Films: (Gotot Prakosa)Kantata Takwa (2008, co-dir) Films: (Eros Djarot)Tjoet Nja Dhien (1988), Kantata Takwa (2008, co-dir)

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signAls pAolo Benvenuti

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siGnals: paolo Benvenuti

the evocative world of paolo Benvenuti Paolo Bertolin

Paolo Benvenuti is one of the greatest contemporary Italian directors, yet his masterly opus has until now remained almost unknown to international and Italian audiences alike. Becoming active in the late 1960s, Benvenuti found his first source of inspiration in the popular culture of Tuscany, after which he choose history as his primary subject matter. Benvenuti sees Italy as a country that dismisses history. For Benvenuti, making films based on thorough historical research, questioning the cinematic presentation of history and inviting the audience to actively interpret the meaning of historical facts is a culturally and politically relevant stance, an act of resistance against a cultural climate that invites oblivion and revisionism. Content aside, Benvenuti is a real master of rigueur and visual composition. Never following cinematic vogues, Benvenuti has been painstakingly pursuing his own brand of timeless cinema. Like no other Italian film maker in the past two decades, Benvenuti has consistently moulded his palettes and compositions after the immensely rich tradition of Italian painting. Each and every frame of his films is thus bestowed with the immaculate beauty of a tableau vivant, respectfully paying homage to its model, yet claiming a life of its own.

Gostanza da Libbiano

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Son of the reputed cinematographer Mario Benvenuti, Paolo was born in Pisa in 1946. He initially devoted himself to painting, completing his studies in the Arts. In 1968, however, he plummeted into an inspirational crisis. At that point, he discovered cinema. In May 1968, he followed a seminar organized by Adriano Aprà and Dario Menon in Reggio Emilia, discovering American and Italian underground cinema as well as Vertov’s mAN With the cAmerA and Godard’s the chiNese (La Chinoise). Later that year, he took another seminar organized by Aprà and Menon in Venice, where he became acquainted with the masterpieces stored in the archives of the Venice Film Festival: Mizoguchi, Dreyer, Bresson, but most of all, Rossellini’s eUropA ’51. These two eye-opening seminars convinced Benvenuti and other young artists from Pisa to organize a film making collective. They decided to call themselves Gruppo Cinemazero, as they intended to start ‘from zero’ in order to revive the pureness of the Lumière brothers’ cinema. In the heated political climate of ‘68, they could not help becoming the local voice of student protest by their filming of demonstrations, strikes and confrontations with the police. At this time, Benvenuti anonymously directed two shorts, il BAllA BAllA and off siDe (Fuori giuoco). The group also organized a Rossellini retrospective in Pisa, with the revered maestro in attendance. The encounter with Rossellini was a key event in Benvenuti’s apprenticeship to film making. Benvenuti recalls he once asked the maestro how he would choose where to place the camera. Rossellini replied that he always chose the point of view that maximized information for the audience. To this day, Benvenuti keeps this teaching as a touchstone of his cinematic approach. In 1971, Benvenuti directed the documentary oN the pisA moUNt (Del monte Pisano). While exploring the Tuscan countryside, Benvenuti came across the remnants of the local rural culture. Amongst a group of peasants and shepherds, he found the last treasurekeepers of its main cultural expression, the maggio.

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Puccini e la fanciulla

An indigenous form of drama in verses, the maggio was staged every year in the month of May (maggio in Italian), from plays written by the farmers themselves. This discovery led to the making of meDeA, Benvenuti’s first major work. The film presents the rigorous staging of an original maggio, starring some of the old farmers from the town of Buti who still mastered the maggio tradition. meDeA was invited to the Forum of Berlin Film Festival, and spawned a revival of the maggio. The success of the film brought Benvenuti to a second key encounter. Jean-Marie Straub saw meDeA and asked to meet Benvenuti and the peasants from Buti. Deeply fascinated by the rural culture of Tuscany, Straub decided to relocate to Italy and work with the farmers. Between 1972 and 1975, Benvenuti worked as Straub’s assistant, most notably on moses UND AroN. Working for RAI television’s experimental programme in 1973, Benvenuti directed A frAgmeNt of vUlgAr chroNicle (Frammento di cronaca volgare), a film Benvenuti today regards as too heavily influenced by

Straub. Nevertheless, this was the first time Benvenuti based his script on rigorous historical research, namely the war between Pisa and Florence (1494-1509) In 1976, following the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Benvenuti conducted a round of interviews to feel the pulse of the public on the subject of Pasolini. However, the result, pAsoliNi: morte Di UN poetA badly displeased the sponsors, who made the film disappear. After two more films for TV centred on the tradition of maggio, il cANtAmAggio and chilDreN of BUti (Bambini di Buti), Benvenuti found his true voice in a rapturous short, il cArtApestAio (1979). Filming the creative process of a master of papier mâché sculptures, Benvenuti established one of the tenets of his cinema from then on: emotion. Around that time, after reading Mario Brelich’s L’opera del tradimento, a provocative investigation into the character of Judas, Benvenuti started thinking about his first feature, JUDAs’ k iss (Il bacio di Giuda). He would have to wait a decade before making it,

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though. In the meantime, he shot another short documentary, the DAy of the r egAttA (Il giorno della regatta) (1983), and did extensive research on the Gospels in preparation for his script. Finally, in 1986, he received state funding of 250 million lire to make his début feature. However, Benvenuti could only complete JUDAs’ kiss in 1988, when the film was invited to the Venice Critics’ Week, and RAI and the state distributor Istituto Luce decided to sponsor the post-production. Despite great critical praise, the film was only released the following August. This was Benvenuti’s first in a series of unfortunate, missed chances to meet the Italian audience. In 1992, Benvenuti completed his second feature, coNfortorio, based on historical research into the execution of two Jews in the Papal Rome of 1736. Invited in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, the film never found a commercial distributor in Italy – a fate that was shared by Benvenuti’s following feature, tiBUrzi (1996). Made to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the brigand Tiburzi, the film is anything but commercially appealing: devoid of all the action that one could expect from a brigand’s biopic, it dissects social and political issues related to the central character and reflects on the representation of history through cinema. Thanks to unanimous critical praise, gostANzA DA liBBiANo (2000), the hauntingly beautiful rendition of a trial for witchcraft, did marginally better and found limited release. However, this rigorous and thoughtprovoking masterwork deserved much more, if only for the monumental performance by Lucia Poli. In 2003, Benvenuti was invited to the Venice competition with secret file (Segreti di stato), a film that violently divided Italian critics. Based on historical research first suggested by Danilo Dolci, a political activist mostly remembered for his non-violent struggles against the Mafia, secret file investigates the 1947 massacre of Portella della Ginestra and exposes the political workings of the Mafia and American secret services, the dark founding pillars of the Italian Republic. For once, Benvenuti had a producer and a distribution backing him, but the film could not enjoy its succès de scandale. Benvenuti claims, in fact, that shortly after a question about the film was raised in the Parliament, the distributor decided to pull it from the movie theatres. With his sixth feature, pUcciNi AND the yoUNg girl

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(Puccini e la fanciulla), Benvenuti returned to independent production modes. Completed last year on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth, this enchanting and subtle film shedding new light on the composer’s love affairs is perhaps Benvenuti’s most experimental work to date, as well as the first he co-signed with his wife Paola Baroni (who has been a collaborator since gostANzA DA liBBiANo). Avoiding the use of dialogue, the narration develops only through the reading of epistolary correspondences and through a complex musical texture meant to convey the emotional backbone of the picture. The chromatics and the compositional architecture, on the other hand, are the result of close research on the vistas of the second generation of Macchiaioli artists active at Torre del Lago, where Puccini owned his villa. After this latest enthralling achievement, it is about time for the world to discover Paolo Benvenuti! This Rotterdam Focus is hopefully a first step towards the well-deserved recognition of a great filmmaker. Paolo Bertolin is programme advisor for the Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica.

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Italy, 2008 colour, 35mm, 84 min, Italian Pro: Giovanni Carratori Pro Comp: Arsenali Medicei Sc: Paola Baroni,

Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Giovanni Battista Marras Ed: Cesar Augusto Meneghetti Ad: Paolo Benvenuti, Aldo Buti Sound: Mirco Mencacci Mu: Paola Baroni With: Tania Squillario, Riccardo J.

Moretti, Giovanna Daddi, Debora Mattiello, Federica Chezzi Print/Sales: Adriana

Chiesa Enterprises

Puccini e la fanciulla Puccini and the Young Girl Paolo Benvenuti, Paola Baroni

Benvenuti’s latest, dazzling opus was conceived for the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of composer Giacomo Puccini’s birth. Once again, rather than tailoring a conventional biopic, in the first picture where he fully shares directing credits with wife Paola Baroni, Benvenuti singled out a precise episode in Puccini’s life: the controversial love affair with his maid Doria Manfredi, that eventually led to the latter’s suicide. With the help of students from his film school Intolerance, Benvenuti embarked, as usual, on a meticulous process of historical research, and came up with the unexpected discovery of the true identity of Puccini’s lover and source of inspiration for the opera he was composing at the time, La fanciulla del west. A finding that entailed a huge controversy (also judicial) around the film. Yet, to Benvenuti, Puccini and the Young Girl is the film where he could most clearly elucidate the mechanics of class relationships, or of how a dominant class uses its subjected as it likes. In order to emphasize the emotional côté while keeping a respectful stance towards the characters involved, Benvenuti and Baroni fashioned a one-of-a-kind stylistic paradigm, shaping up Puccini and the Young Girl as a fascinating dialogue-less picture, punctuated only by music and readings of original epistolary correspondences.

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Paolo BENVENUTI (1946, Italy) was really young when he started painting. He was trained at the Instituto d’arte and the Magistro d’arte of Florence. In 1968 he started working in avant-garde cinema. From 1976, Benvenuti began conducting courses and seminars on the theory of audio-visual language at several institutions in Italy and abroad. The year 1998 marked his encounter with Paola BARONI, with whom he started a fruitful artistic collaboration. Paolo and Paola married in 2002. Films: (Paolo Benvenuti) Il balla balla (1968, short ), Fuori Gioco (1968, short), Del monte pisano (1971, short), Medea - il Maggio di Buti (1972, short), Frammento di cronaca volgare/A Fragment of Vulgar Chronicle (1974), Pasolini, morte di un poeta (1976, short), Il cartapestaio/ The Papier Mâché Master (1977, short), Il cantamaggio (1978, short), Bambini di Buti/ Children of Buti (1978, short), Il giorno della regata/The Day of the Regatta (1983, short), Il bacio di Giuda/Judas’ Kiss (1988), Fame/Hunger (1988, short), Confortorio (1992), Tiburzi (1996), Gostanza da Libbiano (2000), Segreti di stato/ Secret File (2003), Puccini e la fanciulla/Puccini and the Young Girl (2008, co-dir) Films: (Paola Baroni) Puccini e la fanciulla/Puccini and the Young Girl (2008, co-dir) 433

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Il bacio di Giuda Judas’ Kiss Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1983, colour, 35mm, 87 min, Italian Pro Comp: Cooperativa Alfea Cinematografica, RAI Tre Sc: Paolo Benvenuti, Gianni Menon, Marcella Niccolini Cam: Carlo Di Marcantonio Ed: Mario Benvenuti Mu: Stefano Bambini, Andrea Di Sacco With: Carlo Bachi, Giorgio Algranti, Emidio Simini, Marina Bersotti, Pio Gianelli, Nicola Checchi Print/Sales: LAB 80 Film

Judas’ K iss had a gestation of more than a decade. First suggested to Benvenuti in 1976 by the reading of Mario Brelich’s L’opera del tradimento (The work of treason), the film project developed through the years as a scrupulous research on both canonical and apocryphal Gospels. Benvenuti committed himself to the task of shedding new light on the figure of Judah, questioning his statutory image of traitor. Faithfully respecting the Gospels’ accounts, Judas’ K iss depicts a different Judas, one who might have actually been Christ’s main accomplice in the attainment of the latter’s fate of death and resurrection. This provocative thesis takes shape in the film through a compelling and elaborate visual treatment. Benvenuti in fact stages Judas’ K iss as if it were a popular representation of the mysteries, and consequently arranges his images as arrestingly beautiful tableaux vivants, drawing their inspiration from the golden age of Italian religious painting, i.e. from Giotto till Caravaggio. By presenting Christ as a meta-historical figure, Benvenuti also regards his film as a theoretical response to Rossellini’s approach of accepting the Gospels’ accounts as factual chronicles for his Messiah (1975). Premièred at the Venice Film Festival in 1988, this astounding masterwork has since then remained almost invisible.

Confortorio Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1992, colour, 35mm, 84 min, Italian Pro: Andrea De Gioia Pro Comp: Arsenali Medicei Sc: Simona Foa, Gianni Lazzaro, Giuseppe Cordoni, Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Aldo Di Marcantonio Ed: Mario Benvenuti Ad: Paolo Barbi With: Emidio Simini, Fabio Pistoni, Emanuele Carucci Viterbi, Stefano Bambini, Marcello Bartolomei, Atos Davini Print: Cinecittà International Sales: LAB 80 Film

‘Every death has to be comforted; every soul has to be saved. We snatched from the Evil One even the dirtiest scum: parricides, rogues, misbelievers, Lutherans, hardened assassins, prostitutes.’ ‘But they were not Jews!’ This poignant exchange of lines aptly summarizes the content of Benvenuti’s second feature, Confortorio (from the name of the institution attending to the religious comfort of those sentenced to death). Based on historical records dating from the Rome of the Popes, Confortorio retains the qualities of a classic tragedy: unity of space, time and action. It chronicles an endless night in 1736, when high prelates from various confraternities (Dominicans, Capuchins, Jesuits) pertinaciously tried, but eventually failed, to convert to Christianity two Jewish thieves who had been sentenced to death. The first execution of Jews in Rome in 120 years, in fact, posed a huge moral challenge to the whole Vatican hierarchy: ‘If you kill a Jew’s body, you murder the man, and you are guilty of not respecting the commandment’, says the head of the Capuchins. The gripping drama of two poor fellows who find dignity and even greatness in their stubborn will to die ‘in their God’ is magnified by Benvenuti’s cinematic canvas, where the dramatic effects of chiaroscuro replicate the style of late Caravagesques.

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Tiburzi

Paolo Benvenuti Italy, 1996, colour, 35mm, 84 min, Italian Pro: Grazia Volpi, Andrea De Gioia, Claudio Grassetti Pro Comp: Arsenali Medicei, Ager 3 Sc: Paolo Benvenuti, Lele Biagi, Mario Cereghino, Antonio Masoni Cam: Aldo Di Marcantonio Ed: Roberto Perpignani Ad: Paolo Barbi Sound: Alessandra Perpignani With: Stefano Bambini, Marcello Bartolomei, Atos Davini, Giuseppe Francione, Pio Gianelli, Dario Marconcini, Silvana Pampanini Print/Sales: LAB 80 Film

Tiburzi is the very unusual biopic of a legendary brigand. In telling the story of Domenico Tiburzi (1836-1896), a Robin Hood of the Tuscan Maremma, Benvenuti in fact does away with all the adventure and action inherent to the character, to instead concentrate on a dry deconstruction of his myth and, most of all, of the scheming and plotting surrounding his death. Book-ended by two songs impressively performed by peasant poetess Silvana Pampanini, which function as the prologue and epilogue in a Tuscan rural drama, the film unfolds with a first act that clarifies the historical and political background behind the hunt for the elusive brigand. Then, we follow through gorges, behind waterfalls and inside caves the fruitless search for the yet unseen Tiburzi. Finally, in the second act, the absconded protagonist makes his indeed ‘majestic’ appearance, yet we never hear him utter a single word. With this silence, Benvenuti seems to state that Tiburzi can only be known through the accounts of others, as he himself didn’t leave written testimonies. In his habitual attempt to restore the look of the times he recounts, Benvenuti here took inspiration for his visuals from the Macchiaioli painters, the pictures of the Alinari Brothers, and from the images on farmers’ and shepherds’ ex-voto offerings.

Gostanza da Libbiano Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 2000, b&w, 35mm, 87 min, Italian Pro Comp: Arsenali Medicei Sc: Stefano Bacci, Giovanni Benvenuti, Mario Cereghino Cam: Aldo Di Marcantonio Ed: Cesar Augusto Meneghetti Ad: Paolo Barbi With: Lucia Poli, Valentino Davanzati, Renzo Cerrato, Paolo Spaziani, Lele Biagi, Nadia Capocchini, Teresa Soldaini Print: Filmitalia Sales: LAB 80 Film

Inspired by the records of a trial for witchcraft, Gostanza da Libbiano won Benvenuti unanimous critical accolades and comparisons with Dreyer and Bresson. Originally, Benvenuti intended to direct Gostanza right after Confortorio (1992), in order to complete a trilogy he began with Judas’ K iss (1983). Just like in a triptych, Judas’ K iss stands as the central piece, presenting Christ’s words and project, while the two following features play as the side pieces, displaying the aberrations that the Church made in the name of Christ, once it established itself as a temporal power. While in Confortorio the enemies the Church fights against are the Jews, Gostanza provides a topical example of how women have been victimized through the centuries in the name of religion. But whereas Confortorio ends in an execution that becomes a (tragic) triumph, the eventual fate of Gostanza proves even more dreadful than death itself. Thanks to Benvenuti’s rigorous composition of frames (inspired by Mannerist painter Bronzino), to the enchanting black-and-white cinematography and to the unforgettable performance by Lucia Poli, Gostanza da Libbiano ranks among the best Italian films of the decade. After winning the Special Jury Prize at Locarno International Film Festival, it was Benvenuti’s first film to receive a real, albeit limited, theatrical release in Italy.

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Segreti di stato Secret File Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 2003, colour, 35mm, 85 min, Italian Pro Comp: Fandango Sc: Paola Baroni, Paolo Benvenuti, Mario Cereghino Cam: Giovanni Battista Marras Ed: Cesar Augusto Meneghetti Ad: Paolo Bonfini Sound: Roberto Bartoli, Fabio Melorio With: Antonio Catania, David Coco, Sergio Graziani, Francesco Guzzo, Aldo Puglisi Print/Sales: Fandango

Secret File is Benvenuti’s most controversial and explicitly political film. Here, Benvenuti fictionalizes a historical research first suggested to him by political activist Danilo Dolci (1924-1997), and centred on the massacre of Portella della Ginestra. On May 1st 1947, peasants gathered in the valley of Portella to celebrate the victory of a coalition between the Socialist and Communist Parties at regional elections. Suddenly, machine guns opened fire on the crowd, leaving eleven people dead and dozens injured. Official reconstructions ascribed responsibility for the massacre solely to the mob of bandit Salvatore Giuliano. But the protagonist of the film (one of the bandits’ lawyer) thinks otherwise, and begins a daring investigation. For this mystery film, Benvenuti decided for once to base his visuals on cinematic models, moulding a surprising interplay between the modes of Hitchcock and Rossellini. In a masterly and goosebump-inducing scene, he exposes through a simple card game the intricate and harrowing connections between mafia, politics and the American secret services in post-War Sicily. After competing at the Venice Film Festival, Secret File was Benvenuti’s first film to receive national release. However, Benvenuti recalls that a parliamentary question convinced the distributor to soon withdraw the troublesome film from the theatres.

Benvenuti and the Tuscan ‘maggi’ Del monte Pisano On the Pisa Mount Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1971, colour, video, 30 min, Italian Pro: Mario Benvenuti Pro Comp: Amministrazione Provinciale Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Alfredo Muschietti Print: Arsenali Medicei

Exploring the colours and sounds of the Tuscan countryside’s increasingly abandoned territories, Benvenuti discovers, amongst old peasants, the remnants of an ancient and endangered tradition: the maggio, a form of popular poetry dating back to the Middle Ages.

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Medea, un maggio di Pietro Frediani Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1972, colour, video, 45 min, Italian Pro Comp: CEPA Film Sc: Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Alfredo Muschietti Print: Arsenali Medicei

Benvenuti revives the tradition of maggio by filming with commendable rigueur the performance of a maggio composed by peasant poet Pietro Frediani (1775-1857), and based upon the character of Medea. Old farmers and shepherds stage the text on the backdrop of an ancient oil mill.

Il cantamaggio

Paolo Benvenuti, Gianni Menon Italy, 1978, colour, video, 45 min, Italian Sc: Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Ezio Bellani, Mario Benvenuti Ed: Lulu Traina With: Dario Fo Print: Arsenali Medicei

Introduced by future Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, this documentary investigates the composite cultural tradition of the maggio, a poetical performance that Tuscan peasants used to stage in the month of May. Fo here poignantly pinpoints the selfreflexive social and political facets of the maggio.

Bambini di Buti Children of Buti Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1976, colour, video, 12 min, Italian Pro Comp: Cooperativa Alfea Cinematografica Sc: Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Paolo Benassi Print: Arsenali Medicei

A child finds the manuscript of an ancient maggio in an old trunk, and dreams of bringing back to life his ancestors’ art together with his friends. Between documentary and fiction, Benvenuti leads a bunch of kids to rediscover the tradition of the maggio.

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Benvenuti Early Works Il balla balla Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1968, b&w, video, 5 min, Italian Pro Comp: Cinegiornali Liberi di Zavattini Sc: Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Mario Benvenuti Print: Arsenali Medicei

Made in 1968, within the framework of the activities of the Cinemazero collective, Il balla balla could be regarded as Benvenuti’s own The Big Shave (1967, Martin Scorsese). Influenced by the manners of underground cinema, it provides a timeless indictment of the political and economical exploitation of youths.

Fuori gioco Off Side Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1968, b&w, video, 10 min, Italian Pro Comp: Cinemazero Sc: Paolo Benvenuti, Faliero Rosati Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Mario Benvenuti Print: Arsenali Medicei

Off Side is a work that was commissioned to the Cinemazero group and directed by Benvenuti to denounce the discriminations against disabled people. The juxtaposition of images and sounds conjures up a hard-hitting and virulent cry for help.

Frammento di cronaca volgare A Fragment of Vulgar Chronicle Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1974, b&w, video, 76 min, Italian Pro Comp: Cooperativa Nuova Communicazione Sc: Paolo Benvenuti, Michele Luzzati Cam: Mario Benvenuti Print: Arsenali Medicei

Under the influence of Jean-Marie Straub, for whom he was assistant director at the time, Benvenuti fictionalizes historical documents on the long conflict between Pisa and Florence at the end of the 15th century. The work on history, composition and language heralds Benvenuti’s stylistic trademarks.

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Il cartapestaio

The Papier Mâché Master Paolo Benvenuti Italy, 1977, colour, video, 10 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: Centro Sperimentale Teatrale Sc: Paolo Benvenuti Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Paolo Benassi Mu: Pino Pollino Print: Arsenali Medicei

Benvenuti himself identifies The Papier M âché M aster as the landmark where he found his own voice. In this early masterwork, the laborious creative process of a papier mâché master is transfigured into a metaphor of God’s creation of man, thanks to the ecstatic camera work and Schönberg’s music.

Il giorno della regata The Day of the Regatta Paolo Benvenuti

Italy, 1983, colour, video, 25 min, Italian Pro Comp: Cooperativa Alfea Cinematografica Cam: Mario Benvenuti Print: Arsenali Medicei

A short documentary commissioned by the administration of Pisa to celebrate the traditional regatta between the Marine Republics of Italy. The evocative opening is a suggestive trompe l’oeil, where model galleons become real sailing ships entering the city on the eve of the competition.

Fame

Hunger Paolo Benvenuti Italy, 1988, colour, video, 8 min, Italian Pro Comp: Interferenze Audiovisivi Sc: Paolo Benvenuti, Francesco Bettini, Claudio Ciurlante, Paolo Rossi Cam: Mario Benvenuti Ed: Roberto Burchielli With: Nia Peeples Print: Arsenali Medicei

Benvenuti’s sole excursion into the territories of comedy. A cinematic scherzo where Benvenuti, aided by the comic act Specchio (Mirror), attempts to revive the comicality of silent films, by means of a simple sketch centred on a couple of very hungry characters.

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signAls peter lieChti

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tracking peter liechti’s cinematic Journeys Constantin Wulff

To mark the release of his latest film The Sound of I nSecTS - R ecoRd of a M uMMy the work of the Swiss artist Peter Liechti is being honoured with a retrospective. Liechti’s cinematographic quests are in the twilight zone between documentary, impressions and fantasy. He seeks links between different disciplines - from photography and visual arts to music and film. Liechti is also acting as a guest programmer with caRTe B lanche.

From the start, Peter Liechti’s films injected a new mood into Swiss documentary film making. Already his first pieces, produced in the second half of the 1980s, convincingly demonstrated how productively Liechti, born in eastern Switzerland in 1951, was able to interweave documentary material with products of the imagination. His A trip to the moUNtAiNs (Ausflug ins Gebirg, 1968) points the way: in characteristically quirky language, this film essay appears, at first, to be chronicling a melancholy trip to the Austrian mountains, but gradually unfolds into a complex reflection on film making itself. In A trip to the moUNtAiNs, Liechti is both a collector and commentator of images: his rough Super-8 and video images engage with clichés (which the viewer is expected to know) about the Alpine landscape and with personal experiences in the mountains. Liechti translates his critical perspective on ‘having to enjoy’ the nature experience, his spontaneously anti-sentimentalist response, into wonderfully cantankerous narrative (‘The mountain destroys my thoughts. The mountain saps my brain.’). And the mood is mirrored in the weather (rain, fog, hail), the monotonous landscapes (‘Nothing to write home about’) and the dreariness of everyday life (the gloomy hotel room, the raspberry gateau he has to eat). A trip to the moUNtAiNs is a sketch and at the same time a first cinematic stroke of inspiration: a passionate search for ‘an individual perspective’, a kind of ‘auto-ethnographic study’ composed by combining direct observation with ironically distanced criticism of what he sees.

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His approach in the short, polemic, political essay theAtre of hope (Théâtre de l’espérance, 1987) is similar. But this time Liechti’s cinematic excursion offers not an angle on mountain summits but on a summit conference: in the mid-eighties, Geneva was the scene of an encounter between two powerful heads of state, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. With the benefit of hindsight, Liechti confronts Super-8 glimpses he himself caught on the spot with other visual and acoustic found footage: with the stereotypical television images of the event, a selection of musical numbers and several repetitions of an art action by Roman Signer (whose ‘Suitcase Action’ becomes the actual fulcrum of the piece). theAtre of hope is a montage film that glaringly demonstrates the monstrousness of this kind of media event (the smiling masks of Nancy and Ronald Reagan!) through radical juxtaposition of material. Where A trip to the moUNtAiNs still uses spoken commentary as a powerful vehicle of opposition, this time round the purpose is served by music and allusions to the art world: central axes of Liechti’s further work, with the help of which he will continue to develop his cinematic poetics of resistance. In his next film, kick thAt hABit (1989), music, audiovisual performances and filmic movement form a fascinating whole. Going out from the dark trash sound of eastern Swiss electro-musicians Norbert Möslang and Andy Guhl, Liechti charts sound and noise worlds, not only documenting or illustrating them, but allowing them to communicate with his own visual worlds. Though there is a tendency to describe kick thAt hABit as the ‘music film’ in Liechti’s oeuvre (in part to distinguish it from his ‘text films’), there is far more to it than that. As we might expect from Liechti, kick thAt hABit is a sort of travelogue: a wondrous stream of images and sounds, of riskily complex montages once again taking us on a roam through eastern Switzerland, and giving us a chance to watch and listen to like-minded artists at work. This forty-minute film immensely expanded Liechti’s cinematic range, attaining a resoluteness of expression

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Sound of Insects - Record of a Mummy

that anticipated much that would be so admirable in his later ‘big’ motion pictures. Shortly thereafter, Liechti put out a piece seemingly located at the other end of the documentary spectrum: grimsel (1990). Originally conceived as a militant polemic against the planned construction of a new power station in the mountains, the parameters of the project changed shortly before shooting began: the project was cancelled, for economic reasons. Nonetheless, as the subtitle ‘Augenschein’ (‘taking stock’) implies, Liechti (and the initiator of the film, Res Balzli) embarked on an on-site inspection of the scene, patiently questioning the locals, documenting the austerity of the surroundings and approaching the natural environment from a variety of perspectives. Although grimsel does not differ significantly from comparable pieces in its methods, the results of its enquiry extend far beyond the film’s political intentions. Instead of propounding theses, grimsel

turns into a critical reflection on politically-committed cinema per se: in its own amazing way, the film demonstrates how the landscapes, language and perceptions of the affected population give rise to ideas and attitudes. Liechti’s quest for timely forms of expression and his interest in cinematographic experiments ultimately led to his first internationally acknowledged masterpiece: sigNer’s sUitcAse (Signers Koffer, 1996), a portrait of the eastern Swiss artist Roman Signer, who is exceedingly important to Liechti’s oeuvre (and not only because of his frequent appearances in the films). Far more than a traditional artist portrait, sigNers koffer is the outcome of fruitful complicity between portrayer and portrayed. Signer’s art actions, which are staged as surprising cinematographic moments, form the point of departure for a polyphonic composition virtuosically amalgamating the acoustic and the visual in a breathtaking synthesis. Created over many years

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Signer’s Suitcase - on the road with Roman Signer

Namibia Crossings

and in the course of extensive travels, sigNers koffer fits in perfectly with Signer’s own world of art and artifice and can be regarded as emblematic of Liechti’s entire body of work: a film that documents a thoroughly independent spirit. Liechti continued to pursue this path in his subsequent cinema documentaries: in lUcky JAck (Hans im Glück, 2003) the film maker tells of his attempts to give up smoking by taking crosscountry hikes. His efforts to break the habit are presented as autobiographical journeys between Zurich, his current home, and St. Gall, where he was born: three times he takes different routes through eastern Switzerland and each time the ‘narrating I’ cum ‘film making I’ returns (home, the cutting room) with a plethora of images, sounds, events and thoughts. lUcky JAck takes up a variety of ideas touched on in A trip to the moUNtAiNs: the connection

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between the physical strain of walking and the (equally physical and palpable) work of film-making itself; critical reflections on the meaning of ‘Heimat’, the feeling of rootedness (by way of everyday observations); and ironically melancholy self-questioning as cinematic method. lUcky JAck is an image-filled travel diary that continually draws energy from the friction between obstinate wilfulness and social norms. And, like A trip to the moUNtAiNs, which ends in images of sick fish (‘Everywhere in the green water, the white blooms of disease’), the structure of lUcky JAck, too, is shaped by progressive thematic concentration on basic questions of life and death. Like all of Liechti’s films, lUcky JAck is also a multifaceted story about the relationship between the individual and society. This confrontation moves centre stage in NAmiBiA crossiNgs (2004), his most recent cinema film, for which Liechti accompanies the Hambana Sound Company, an ensemble of musicians and singers of widely diverse national origins, on their concert tour of Namibia. NAmiBiA crossiNgs documents an ambitious music project (which grew out of a local workshop) that not only aims to bring together a variety of musical styles, from jazz and classical to traditional African music, but is designed to initiate basic encounters between cultures. Against the backdrop of magnificent scenic views and numerous travel impressions, Liechti captures the results of this art laboratory – both the successful, usually musical moments, and the mounting conflicts among the members of the heterogeneous ensemble – in his typically laconic way. And yet, the film is not a document of failure. On the contrary: it merely brings out where the boundaries lie, and must be respected, or where they can possibly be transcended. And perhaps that is the common denominator of Peter Liechti’s film oeuvre: cinema understood as an art form that allows boundaries to be transcended in a multiplicity of ways. Constantin Wulff is a writer, journalist, curator and film practitioner.

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Signals: Peter Liechti

WORLD PREMIERE

Switzerland, 2009 colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 88 min, English Pro: Peter Liechti, Urs

Augstburger Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion

GmbH, Swiss National Television / Schweizer Fernsehen D.R.S. Sc: Peter Liechti, based on a text by Shimada Masahiko Cam: Matthias Kälin, Peter Liechti Ed: Tania Stöcklin Sound: Christian Beusch Mu: Norbert Möslang, Christoph Homberger Print/Sales: Swiss Films www.peterliechti.ch

The Sound of Insects - Record of a Mummy Peter Liechti This intriguing latest film by Peter Liechti ignores all kinds of featurefilm conventions. The story was inspired by the novella Miira ni narumade by the Japanese writer Shimada Masahiko, who was in turn inspired by a incredible true story. A hunter discovered the mummified corpse of a man aged forty in one of the most remote areas of the country. From his detailed diary notes, it became clear that he had committed suicide by starving himself. In the film we see precise observations of the surrounding nature insects, branches, trees, woods - and a series of images of a different order. Are they images of memories, of delusions, of an associative nature? The voice-over text is about self-observations involved with the decay of the human body and the approaching inevitable end. In the film, Liechti is probably interested in making the transitory nature of the ego tangible: all kinds of subtle manipulations take place in image and sound that forge the film into a unity, in which the camera seems to represent the subjective gaze. But despite all these words, this is primarily a film to experience in a sensual rather than an intellectual way. And a film that ideally illustrates the definition of Manoel De Oliveira: Images, words, sounds, music: the four mainstays of the temple that is cinema. (EH)

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Author, director and camera man Peter LIECHTI (1951, Switzerland) was educated at the Zürich University of Art and Design. He started making film experiments and film performances in 1983. He has carried out several film projects featuring well-known artists and musicians, such as Roman Signer, Norbert Möslang and Nam June Paik. Liechti’s films have been shown at numerous international film festivals and broadcast on television. Films: (since 1990) GrimselEin Augenschein/Grimsel-An On-Site Inspection (1990, short doc), Roman Signer, Zündschnur (1990, short), A Hole in the Hat (1991, short), Signers Koffer- Unterwegs mit Roman Signer/Signer’s Suitcase-On the Road with Roman Signer (1995, doc), Marthas Garten/ Martha’s Garden (1997), Hans im Glück - Drei Versuche, das Rauchen loszuwerden/Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking (2003, doc), Namibia Crossings (2004, doc), Hardcore Chambermusic (2006, doc), Sound of Insects - Record of a Mummy (2009, doc)

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Signers Koffer - Unterwegs mit Roman Spigner

Signer’s Suitcase - on the road with Roman Signer Peter Liechti Switzerland, 1996, colour/b&w, 35mm, 1:1.37, 80 min, German Pro: Peter Liechti, Madeleine Hirsiger Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH, SF Schweizer Fernsehen Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Dieter Gränicher Sound: Peter Guyer, Res Balzli, Ingrid Städeli Mu: Knut Remond With: Roman Signer Print: Swiss Films Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH

Signer’s Suitcase is a kind of road movie that takes us right across Europe - from the Swiss Alps to eastern Poland, from Stromboli to Iceland, always following the magically charged ‘groove’ of the landscape. A wide-ranging attempt to find the ideal travelling speed. Roman Signer uses his very personal bag of tricks to mark the stations along the way: strikingly simple operations brimming with subtle humour. But the film is also a journey through mental states. A tightrope walk between whimsy and melancholy. Danger - both physical and psychological - becomes a stimulus to the senses. Sudden plunges, abrupt mood changes shape the rhythm and atmosphere of this cinematic journey. (CW)

Marthas Garten Martha’s Garden Peter Liechti

Switzerland/Germany, 1997, b&w, 35mm, 1:1.66, 90 min, German Pro: Res Balzli, Silvia Koller Pro Comp: Balzli & Fahrer & Co. Filmproduktion, Bayerischer Rundfunk Sc: Peter Liechti, Martin Witz Cam: Werner Penzel Ed: Dieter Gränicher Sound: Ingrid Städeli Mu: Martin Schütz With: Stefan Kurt, Susanne Lüning, Làszlò I. Kish, Nina Hoger Print: Swiss Films Sales: Balzli & Fahrer & Co. Filmproduktion

Karl lives a secluded life. He likes to keep his flat in perfect order, enjoys spending quiet hours in a café, likes to sleep. One evening, in somewhat sinister circumstances, he meets Martha, a woman who exercises an enigmatic fascination. A fatal love story is set in motion; even at the very end, Karl will not be able say what really happened - or how it could. He soon realizes that love has also brought something uncanny into his life. Gradually, even the best-repressed demons in him are unleashed. Even the jolly ‘stag outings’ with his old friend Uwe can no longer provide the relaxation he is used to. Karl experiences his encounter with Martha as a convulsion, a fall from on high. The violence of his feelings shatters his thin veneer of ‘security’; he plummets to hitherto unknown depths. Ultimately he experiences his surroundings as no more than a macabre backdrop for his own decline and fall. Convinced that the whole city has been infiltrated by the ‘undead’, he barricades himself in his home. But that is precisely where he finds his pallid neighbours sitting, and above all where Mr. Tepesch, the old vampire, has settled down: it is a carefully laid conspiracy. Meanwhile Martha’s ties to the neighbourhood are growing ever stronger. Karl has been drawn into a murderous maelstrom that can only lead to bloodshed. (CW)

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Signals: Peter Liechti

Hans im Glück - Drei Versuche, das Rauchen loszuwerden Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 2003, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 88 min, German Pro: Peter Liechti, Paul Riniker Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH, SF Schweizer Fernsehen Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Tania Stöcklin Sound: Dieter Lengacher Mu: Norbert Möslang Print: Swiss Films Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH

Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking is the story of a man who sets out to shake his smoking habit. He decides to hike from Zurich, where he currently lives, to St. Gall, where he grew up and started smoking. He is prepared to keep repeating the journey - always choosing another route - until he has achieved his goal: finally becoming a non-smoker! He hopes that through the ritual cross-country trek and the strict smoking ban he imposes on himself along the way, he will be able to rid himself of some emotional baggage, and of his addiction. On his search for the sources of his addiction, the haunting yet comic quest for his spiritual home increasingly becomes the central theme. All of the images, ‘insights’ and memories he comes across on his non-smoking treks ultimately form the basis of a cinematic ride through heaven and hell in his own country - with the occasional foray far beyond national borders. Lucky Jack is a reckoning and a declaration of love. A road movie for pedestrians, a regionalist film for the homeless. It is dedicated to all the smokers and other addicts, to all the unlucky devils who have managed to remain decent anyway - and of course to Lucky Jacks everywhere. (CW)

Namibia Crossings Peter Liechti

Switzerland/Germany, 2004, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 92 min, German Pro: Franziska Reck, Brigitte Schrödter Pro Comp: Reck Filmproduktion, Bayerischer Rundfunk Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Guyer, Peter Liechti Ed: Lorendana Cristelli Sound: Dieter Meyer Mu: Hambana Sound Company Print/Sales: Reck Filmproduktion

Nambana Sound Company: 12 musicians and singers from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Switzerland and Russia go on tour together. Twelve different dreams on the way to a country that, like the newly founded ensemble, has to re-invent itself from scratch: Namibia, formerly German Southwest Africa. The communal quest for the deeper sources of music progressively metamorphoses into individual borderline experiences, above all through the encounter with groups of local musicians in remote provinces - euphoric, sad, intense encounters... Namibia Crossings is a journey through a country of archaic beauty, full of bizarre contrasts and contradictions - a constant echo to the polyphony of the mental landscapes created by the highs and lows of our ensemble. (CW)

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Hardcore Chambermusic Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 2006, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 72 min, German Pro: Peter Liechti Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Guyer, Peter Liechti, Matthias Kälin Ed: Tania Stöcklin Sound: Balthasar Jucker Mu: Koch-Schütz-Studer Print: Swiss Films Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH www.peterliechti.ch

The well-known Swiss ensemble of Koch-Schütz-Studer have been intensely involved in the European music scene for over fifteen years. Their music is forceful and direct: never ‘otherworldly’, though always sensitive; never ‘primitive’, though always passionate - music that is challenging and authentic. For one month straight, they played two sets a night in the same place at the same time... 30 days of single-minded concentration on one thing. Equalling the excitement in cinematic form, Hardcore Chambermusic aims to convey the thrill and exhilaration of these 30 live concerts to an audience that was not physically present. Music and film become an entertaining synthesis of two independent expressive means - a musical adventure as cinematic chamber piece. A musical marathon is compressed into one hour of film. Hardcore Chambermusic invites viewers to immerse themselves, to share in the joy and suffering - to experience music in a new way. (CW)

Liechti Shorts 1 Grimsel - Ein Augenschein Grimsel - An Eye, Witness Report Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 1990, colour, video, 48 min, German Pro: Res Balzli Pro Comp: Balzli & Fahrer & Co. Filmproduktion Sc: Res Balzli, Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Pius Morger Sound: Andreas Litmanowitsch Mu: Martin Schütz Print: Swiss Films Sales: Balzli & Fahrer & Co. Filmproduktion www.peterliechti.ch

Grimsel-West was the name of a project for the expansion of the hydroelectric plant in the Hasli Valley. Submitted on 30 June 1988, its realisation seems fairly improbable for the moment. Originally conceived as an expression of opposition to the construction of a new dam, the film tries to fathom the undercurrent of apprehension caused by such plans to exploit the environment.

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Ausflug ins Gebirg A Trip to the Mountains Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 1986, colour/b&w, video, 30 min, German Pro: Peter Liechti Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Peter Liechti Sound: Peter Liechti Mu: Res Wegmann Print: Swiss Films Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH www. peterliechti.ch

The videos are rife with slapstick and insidious comedy. We are given a clear view of the lunacy of human rituals of selfdestruction: when Signer sets off rockets in his own direction and then seeks refuge behind a wooden hoarding. The liberating laughter that follows Signer’s actions is surely an unconscious reaction to the relief of once again having managed to escape disaster by the skin of one’s teeth. (Ernst Grohotolsky, Neue Zeit)

Tauwetter Nice Weather Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 1987, colour, 16mm, 1:1.37, 10 min, no dialogue Pro: Peter Liechti Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Peter Liechti Sound: Florian Eidenbenz Mu: Andreas Wegmann Print: Lichtspiel Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH www.peterliechti.ch

When the snow melts and the hills of Appenzell are dotted with green and white, buckets of water slowly make their way up and down the slope. After a time, the gentle movement turns into violent swaying. Shots ring through the air, the buckets are punctured. Slowly the water begins to flow. This is the high point of a ritual that begins deep within the bowels of the mountain. Then trails of water spurt through the air to the thawing slopes and the water begins to gush, nearly causing the well in the valley to overflow...

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Liechti Shorts 2 Kick that Habit Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 1989, colour/b&w, video, 45 min, no dialogue Pro: Peter Liechti Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Dieter Gränicher Sound: Norbert Möslang, Andy Guhl, Thomas Imbach Mu: Norbert Möslang, Andy Guhl, Knut Remond Print: Swiss Films Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH www. peterliechti.ch

K ick That Habit is neither a conventional portrait of a musician nor a psychedelic illustration of Recycling Noise Music or videoclip tarted up with documentary frills. It is a subtle attempt to mesh a visual and an acoustic world of expression that ends up creating a fine-spun synthesis. The portrait of two musicians (Norbert Möslang and Andy Guhl) who recycle discarded electronic equipment to produce innovative sounds is the starting point of an enigmatic search for lost, destroyed, deranged experiential worlds.

Théâtre de l’espérance Theatre of Hope Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 1987, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 18 min, no dialogue Pro: Peter Liechti Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH Sc: Peter Liechti Cam: Clemens Steiger, Peter Liechti, Roman Signer Ed: Peter Liechti Sound: Florian Eidenbenz Mu: Sun Ra, Elvis Presley Print: Lichtspiel Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH www.peterliechti.ch

World peace, disarmament and re-armament are hackneyed phrases, and the images we see on television and in the paper are hackneyed images. It was with this in mind that I set out - with more than a little delight - to drag the long-worn-out images of the Geneva summit between Reagan and Gorbachev into the spotlight once again.... The film revives those days gone by as exactly as possible, in accordance with the wonderfully flickering pictures that had branded themselves in my memory. (PL)

Roman Signer, Zündschnur Peter Liechti

Switzerland, 1990, video, 26 min, no dialogue Pro: Peter Liechti Pro Comp: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH Cam: Peter Liechti Ed: Peter Liechti Sound: Peter Liechti Print: Swiss Films Sales: Liechti Filmproduktion GmbH www.peterliechti.ch

Starting from the Appenzell railway station, a fuse (German: Zündschnur) was laid along the 20.06-km-long Appenzell - Gais - St. Gall railway line, burning its way along the tracks for 35 days at a speed of 150 sec/metre. Artist Roman Signer lit the fuse by gunpowder ignition at 4 p.m. on 11 September 1989, and brought the action to an end with an analogous smoke signal at the St. Gall railway station at 12.04 p.m. on 15 October.

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Liechti: Carte blanche 1 My Village Wang Wei

China, 2008, video, 75 min, Mandarin Print/Sales: Wang Wei

The titles of Wang Wai’s films are My Village 2006, My Village 2007, My Village 2008.... A basic one-chip DV camera which is often placed on a tripod; most of the sequences are comprised of approximately 10-minute takes, portraying the scenes of the village as if they were on the stage of a Beckett theatre. ‘I live my life in this village and this is also where I film... It is just the most everyday village possible and the most everyday villagers possible... I film them from among them, for I myself am one of them...’ (Wang Wei)

Liechti: Carte blanche 2 Das Kind ist tot Herbert Achternbusch

West Germany, 1970, video, 18 min, German Pro: Herbert Achternbusch Print: Filmmuseum Munchen

The essential Herbert Achternbusch in 18 minutes: a family portrait in Super-8, mostly black-and-white. A cinematographic chamber piece, personal, sad and self-ironical, commented by Achternbusch himself. Striking simplicity, shocking radicalism, and a bright spirit. I’d call it a perfect poem.

Tsuioku no dansu

Letter from a Yellow Cherry Blossom Kawase Naomi Japan, 2002, colour, video, 65 min, Japanese Pro: Naito Yuko Pro Comp: Sent Inc. Sc: Kawase Naomi Cam: Kawase Naomi Ed: Kawase Naomi, Shotaru Anraku Sound: Kawase Naomi Print/ Sales: Sent Inc.

I remember the whole film somehow gliding, drifting. Fleeting images, but very precise. Notes by an extremely sensitive hand, light and deep. A love letter and a dance on the grass. Another poem, another attempt of showing what we cannot see, or giving a voice to what we cannot express in real life.

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Liechti: Carte blanche 3 Glitterbug Derek Jarman

United Kingdom, 1994, 35mm, 60 min, English

Derek Jarman was a master in using the subtle charm of the Super-8 format: intimicy, authenticity, happiness and the innocent ‘glamour’ of youth - all together in an exciting mix of moving pictures and music by Brian Eno - brilliant!

Null Sonne No Point

Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel Germany, 1997, colour, video, 35 min, English Print: Cinenomad Munich

Music is beauty and elegance, but also concentration, reflection, intelligence and dignity. The rehearsal of a radio play by the late Art Ensemble of Chicago in the studio, observed by the camera with an enormous feeling for moments of music and silence, for rhythm and space.

Balifilm

Peter Mettler Canada, 1997, colour/b&w, 16mm, 1:1.37, 28 min, no dialogue Pro: Peter Mettler Pro Comp: Grimthorpe Film Sc: Peter Mettler Cam: Peter Mettler Ed: Peter Mettler Sound: Peter Mettler Mu: The Evergreen Club Gamelan Print: Grimthorpe Film

Peter Mettler calls it a ‘small film’. For me, Balifilm is a cinematographic piece of ideal duration. A visual approach to the Balinese culture of great physical and spiritual qualities at the time: spontaneous, light-handed, direct... A full-touch music-film: image, sound, colours and rhythm create a swinging synthesis for all our senses.

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Liechti: Carte blanche 4 Der Lauf der Dinge Peter Fischli, David Weiss

Germany, 1987, colour, 35mm, 28 min, no dialogue Pro Comp: T&C Film Print/Sales: T&C Film

A film by the Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss: A simple idea of the perpetuum mobile, the nonsense continuum, the art of delicate equilibres and the most absurd happenings within a scenery of pure trash... Certainly one of the most entertaining ‘art-movies’, and eventually the best work of Swiss camera man Pio Corradi.

Operator

Matthew Walker United Kingdom, 2007, colour, video, 2 min, English Print/Sales: Matthew Walker

Rainy day, lazy hours in the city, a bored guy in his apartment who is asking the operator for the telephone connection with God... 2 minutes of animation, 2 minutes of British humour at its best one more poem!

Dockpojken Puppetboy Johannes Nyholm

Sweden, 2008, colour, video, 28 min, Swedish Pro: Jessica Dahlöf Ask Pro Comp: Joclo, Film i Väst Print/Sales: The Swedish Film Institute

A most irritating fusion of fiction, documentary and animation: The story of Puppetboy, who is protagonist, script writer and director of his own show at the same time - though the piece is no longer under control...

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Liechti: Carte blanche 5 Picture of Light Peter Mettler

Canada, 1994, 35mm, 1:1.66, 93 min, English Pro: Peter Mettler, Andreas Zuest, Alexandra Gill Pro Comp: Grimthorpe Film Sc: Peter Mettler Cam: Peter Mettler Ed: Peter Mettler, Mike Munn Sound: Gaston Kyriazi, Leon Johnson, Pe Mu: Jim O’Rourke Print: Grimthorpe Film

We live in an era when things don’t seem to exist if they are not captured in images. But if you look in the darkness, you can see the lights of your own retina, comparable with the Northern Lights, with the movements of thoughts, such as the formless accumulation of everything we have ever seen.

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tussenb

signAls Jerzy skolimowski

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siGnals: Jerzy skoliMowski

Jerzy skolimowski: outsider, nonconformist, a Man Between Ewa Mazierska Born in 1938 Jerzy Skolimowski is one of the most original Polish directors and one of only a handful who gained genuine recognition abroad. This position is evidenced by awards he received at international festivals, favourable opinions from the most influential European critics and fellow film makers, including Jean-Luc Godard, and the willingness of stars such as Jean-Pierre Léaud, Alan Bates, John Hurt and Jeremy Irons to appear in his films. Yet unlike Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Andrzej Wajda, Skolimowski enjoys a cult following rather than worldwide popularity. This is largely due to the fact that his films are regarded as elitist and difficult to comprehend. For most of his career Skolimowski has rejected the rules of cinematic genres and oscillated between realism and non-realism, mainstream and avant-garde. Moreover, he does not comfortably fit any label capturing national allegiance. Both Western and Eastern critics are unsure whether they should call him a ‘Polish director’ or an ‘international director of Polish origin’, not mentioning using such descriptions as

Jerzi Skolimowski

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‘British director’ or ‘American director’. Skolimowski’s own pronouncements, in which he accentuates both his patriotism and interest in Polish affairs, and at the same time his desire to conquer foreign markets and for this purpose to shoot in English, do not help to pigeonhole him. Furthermore, unlike Polanski, who updated his directing skills by making at least two films in each decade and produced some genuinely popular films in the later part of his career, Skolimowski’s best years as a film director coincide with his youth. After the 1980s, he made only two films, thirty Door key (ferDyDUrke) and foUr Nights With ANNA. Consequently, he appears to belong to the by-gone age of the rebellious 1960s and early 1970s, which poignantly contrast with the conformist, materialistic 1980s, 1990s and the new millenium. Critics tend to describe Skolimowski as an outsider. This opinion is supported by the claim that neither Skolimowski nor his characters, who function as his alter ego, like mixing with the crowd but instead remain detached, and that they rather give up on any advantages society offers them and accept loneliness and suffering, than betray their views and values. True, they do not accept uncritically any opinion people around them offer and try to interact with society on their own terms, but they want to interact nevertheless. One is even struck by the easiness with which they divert from their itinerary and stop on their road in order to meet somebody (who might be an old friend or a complete stranger), engage in conversation and enter into activities in which their peers indulge. This is because an urge to play and test themselves, is stronger in them than a desire to preserve their integrity and distance. As for Skolimowski himself, his cinematic career comes across not as a solitary pursuit, but rather as a model example of collaboration. He collaborated on the scripts of other directors, such as Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski, invited friends and colleagues, such as Andrzej Kostenko and Jerzy Gruza, to work on scripts for films he directed, and allowed his actors and

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Barrier

other collaborators, such as Kostenko, the composer Krzysztof Komeda, the actors Tadeusz Lomnicki and Jane Asher, to provide an input into his films which exceeded a normal job description. Skolimowski also played a significant role in Poland’s cultural and artistic life of the 1960s. He travelled with the Komeda Sextet, making lighting for their concerts and was linked to the students’ satirical theatre, STS, befriending the leading figures of this movement, such as Agnieszka Osiecka, Zbigniew Cybulski and Bogumil Kobiela. In the mid1960s he was heralded as the voice of his generation and the principal creator of Polish ‘third cinema’ or the ‘third wave of Polish cinema’ – the cinema of those who were brought up in People’s Poland and addressed their films to their contemporaries. Skolimowski’s position as the voice of young people was not only recognised in Poland, but also abroad, as demonstrated by his participation in the portmanteau film, DiAlóg 20-40-60. Made in Czechoslovakia, DiAlóg 20-40-60 was meant to reflect the differences in attitudes to love of people representing

different generations, those in their twenties, forties and sixties. Significantly, Skolimowski took responsibility for depicting the youngest generation. Skolimowski perfectly encapsulates the desire to belong to transnational cinema: cinema that has a capacity to foster bonds of recognition between different groups, especially those based on the commonality of generational experience, as opposed to sharing the same national history and culture. Equally, Skolimowski was transnational in his ambitions, wanting to make films of European quality. It is worth citing here Jan Nowicki, the actor playing the main part in BArrier, who claims that before the Bergamo festival in 1966, where this film received the Grand Prix, Skolimowski conveyed his hope for the main award in such terms: ‘I am only scared of Visconti. The rest of the competitors does not matter.’ I suggest calling Skolimowski and many of his characters ‘nonconformists’ rather than ‘outsiders’. The problem for them is not belonging but conforming: accepting what is on offer wholeheartedly and uncritically. This term also excellently captures the choices the director made at various moments in his career. His first professional decision, consisting of using pieces of reels allocating to him in the Lódz Film School for making a full-length feature film, iDeNtificAtioN mArks: NoNe, rather than for shooting various prescribed ‘school exercises’, can be perceived as the typical action of a nonconformist. Several years later Skolimowski decided to emigrate when the political authorities shelved his fourth film, made in Poland, hANDs Up!, pledging that he would not work again in his native land till it would be exhibited. He kept his pledge, although, as he admitted on many occasions, the personal cost of adhering to his word was very high. Many of his characters, such as Leszczyc in iDeNtificAtioN mArks: NoNe and WAlkover or Alex Rodak in sUccess is the Best r eveNge, also at some point in their lives shun the ‘easy life’ in order to stay true to themselves, even if they are not sure what it means. Both in Polish and Western criticism Skolimowski’s artistic persona is contextualised in two principal ways. Firstly, as Roman Polanski’s ‘younger brother’, who shared many features with this director, both as a film maker and as a man. Both studied at the Lódz Film School in its heyday of the 1960s and belonged to the School’s most colourful characters; they even became its greatest legends. Skolimowski co-wrote

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the script for Polanski’s kNife iN the WAter and, in due course, followed in the footsteps of the director of cUl-De-sAc, choosing life as an emigrant, but one who is happy to return to Poland for work, if he finds there a suitable subject and favourable shooting conditions. Skolimowski and Polanski both have a gift for seeing the unusual in the ordinary; to capture the absurd and the surreal below the surface of normality. The trajectories of their careers are also similar as both started with films based on original scripts, full of jazz and lacking any overt moral message, even anarchic, to move gradually to films based on novels written by other authors, more classical in form and conveying distinctive moral messages. Furthermore, both artists combine a directing career with acting. Secondly, Skolimowski’s films, particularly those made in Poland in the 1960s and le DépArt, are regarded as a Polish response to the French New Wave, especially the films of Jean-Luc Godard. Both started their careers making films about young people disenfranchised from society, and they avoided traditional psychology. Moreover, Godard and Skolimowski showed remarkable disrespect for the rules of professional film making and succeeded in turning technical flaws into virtues of their films. Both also made their own presence in the film visible: in Skolimowski’s case, by playing the main parts in the movies he directed; in Godard, by frequent lending his own voice to the film,

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as voice-over or by dubbing the actor. Yet, the director of BArrier, with his preoccupation with youth, autobiographism, interest in the lives of things, his combining romanticism with surrealism, his interest in the soundtracks, is a wholly unique director. Unfortunately, viewers have rarely opportunity to discover and appreciate his versatility and originality. That Skolimowski needs to be discovered or rediscovered we can derive, for example, from the list of ‘hidden gems’, published in 2007 by Sight and Sound, in which Deep eND is considered one such gem by David Thompson, who praises Skolimowski’s films in such terms: ‘Skolimowski’s direction is extravagant, crude and tender by turns, slapping the audience in the face with its insouciance and weird wit. The energy of a foreigner tackling British territory easily outweighs misjudgements of class accents, and today the soundtrack by Can and Cat Stevens would probably win a high cool rating.’ I completely agree with this assessment, claiming that there are more ‘hidden gems’ in Skolimowski’s CV and many will shine brighter now than at the time they were made. Ewa Mazierska is Professor of Contemporary Cinema at the School of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Central Lancashire, UK. She is currently working on a book about Jerzy Skolimowski.

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Signals: Jerzy Skolimowski

France/Poland, 2008 colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 87 min, Polish Pro: Paulo Branco,

Jerzy Skolimowski Pro Comp: Alfama

Films, Skopia Film Sc: Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Adam Sikora Ed: Cezary Grzesiuk Ad: Marek Zawierucha Sound: Frederic De Ravignan Mu: Michal Lorenc With: Artur Steranko, Kinga Preis, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Redbad Klijnstra Print/Sales: Elle Driver

Cztery noce z Anna Four Nights with Anna Jerzy Skolimowski

Four Nights with Anna is set in the rural, north-eastern part of Poland, where time appears to stand still. Leon, who was brought up by his grandmother, is a somewhat dreamy, if not slow-witted, middle-aged man, who cannot fight for himself. As a result of this weakness, those around him repeatedly misunderstand and abuse him. Leon falls in love with Anna, a nurse, working in a local hospital, whose rape he once witnessed. Too shy to tell her about his feelings, he sneaks into her room when she is sleeping, washes the dishes, brings her flowers and even tries to put a diamond ring on her finger, bought with his redundancy money. After a rather unsuccessful Thirty Door K ey (1991), the film Four Nights with A nna was heralded as Skolimowski’s return to great form. Ascetic, but heavy with symbolism, with few, but carefully chosen locations, it brings to mind the cinema of Robert Bresson and Krzysztof Kieslowski, as well as the beginnings of Skolimowski’s career, when the director was able to say much using minimal words. As in his early films, the music is given the role of conveying what the characters are unable to say: it is the music of their souls. This refers especially to Anna, who has little narrative autonomy, always being seen through Leon’s eyes. (EMK)

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Jerzy SKOLIMOWSKI (1938, Poland) is a film director, scriptwriter and actor but also a poet and painter. He graduated in ethnography from Warsaw University in 1959 and attended the prestigious Polish Film School in Lódz. Skolimowski has directed more than 20 films in and outside of Poland since his 1960 short film début The Menacing Eye. Films: Oko wykol/The Menacing Eye (1960, short), Hamles/Little Hamlet (1960, short), Erotyk/Erotique (1960, short), Boks/Boxing (1961), Pieniadze albo zycie/Money or Life (1961, short), The Nude (1962), Rysopis/Identification Marks: None (1964), Walkower/ Walkover (1965), Bariera/Barrier (1966), Rece do góry/Hands Up! (1966), Le départ (1966), Deep End (1970), The Adventures of Gérard (1970), King, Queen, Knave (1972), The Shout (1978), Moonlighting (1982), Dialóg 2040-60 (segment The Twenty-YearOlds, 1968), Success Is the Best Revenge (1984), The Lightship (1985), Torrents of Spring (1989), Ferdydurke/Thirty Door Key (1991), Cztery noce z Anna/ Four Nights with Anna (2008)

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Erotyk

Erotique Jerzy Skolimowski Poland, 1960, b&w, 35mm, 4 min, Polish Pro Comp: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Jacek Stachlewski With: Elzbieta Czyzewska, Gustaw Holoubek Print/Sales: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School

Erotique is the first Skolimowski film with a strong surrealistic feel. A man and a woman meet in a room covered with newspapers, the centrepiece of which is a large, dusty mirror, on which she writes the word ‘Erotique’ in Polish. The woman seems to be simultaneously attracted and repelled by the visitor, who might be an innocuous stranger or a rapist. (EMK)

Oko wykol

The Menacing Eye Jerzy Skolimowski Poland, 1960, b&w, 35mm, 3 min, Polish Pro Comp: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Jerzy Mrozewski With: Iwona Sloczynska, Wojciech Solarz Print/Sales: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School

Somewhere in a funfair, a man enters a small caravan wielding a knife. In the next scene, a man is practising throwing knives at a woman from a rocking horse. This short is no more than a student’s exercise or joke, but it reveals an important motif of Skolimowski’s work: a man demonstrating his maleness at the expense of a woman. (EMK)

Hamles

Little Hamlet Jerzy Skolimowski Poland, 1960, b&w, 35mm, 8 min, Polish Pro Comp: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Jacek Stachlewski With: Zbigniew Lesniak, Elzbieta Czyzewska, Wieslaw Golas, Ryszard Ostalowski, Hanna Skarzanka Print/Sales: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School

In Little Hamlet, Skolimowski shows his predilection for immature or dwarfed characters, who would later populate his full-length films. Here a group of Warsaw proletarians meet in a destroyed building, consisting largely of stairs, littered with newspapers. A song from a record introduces the film characters as dwarfed versions of personas from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Hamles, Ofelka, Learcio. (EMK)

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Signals: Jerzy Skolimowski

Pieniadze albo zycie Money or Life Jerzy Skolimowski

Poland, 1961, b&w, 35mm, 4 min, Polish Pro Comp: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski, based on a short story by Stanislaw Dygat Cam: Jacek Stachlewski With: Stanislaw Dygat, Bohdan Lazuka, Krystyna Sienkiewicz Print/Sales: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School

Skolimowski’s last short is set during the Second World War. Two men meet at a funfair: one slim and one large, squabbling about money in the proximity of German policemen. In five minutes, Skolimowski succeeds in conveying his idea of the war and allows Stanislaw Dygat, the author of the story on which his film is based, to reveal a natural acting talent. (EMK)

Rysopsis

Identification Marks: None Jerzy Skolimowski Poland, 1964, b&w, 35mm, 76 min, Polish Pro Comp: The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Witold Mickiewicz Ed: Halina Gronek Ad: Jerzy Skolimowski Sound: Jan Czerwinski Mu: Krzysztof Sadowski With: Jerzy Skolimowski, Elzbieta Czyzewska, Andrzej Zarnecki Print: Polish National Film Archive

The action of Skolimowski’s feature début begins on 1 September, the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. It presents one day in the life of Andrzej Leszczyc, a student of ichthyology who, between the morning and late afternoon, gives up on his studies, breaks up with his partner, meets another woman and bids her farewell to join the army. Leszczyc perfectly conveys the mindset of the first generation of Poles to grow up after the war, during the so called period of ‘small stabilisation’ under Party leader Wladyslaw Gomulka. He is sceptical about the achievements of war veterans, yet at the same time experiences an inner void and looks for some purpose in life. Identification M arks: None is renowned as much for its content as for the way it was made. It was assembled from pieces of reels allocated to Skolimowski, then a student in the Lódz Film School, for making various school exercises. The difficult production circumstances explain why the director cast himself in the main part and for the roles of three different women chose his then partner, Elzbieta Czyzewska. The casting, and repetition of some visual motifs, such as staircases, create a surreal atmosphere. As Skolimowski’s début remained the only ‘independent’ film made in socialist Poland, it attracts new generations of viewers, including students of directing, dreaming of emulating Skolimowski’s early success. (EMK)

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Walkower

Walkover Jerzy Skolimowski Poland, 1966, b&w, 35mm, 78 min, Polish Pro Comp: Gruppo Syrena Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Antoni Nurzynski Ed: Alina Fadlik Ad: Zdzislaw Kielanowski Sound: Mikolaj KompanAltman Mu: Andrzej Trzaskowski With: Jerzy Skolimowski, Aleksandra Zawieruszanka, Krzysztof Chamic, Elzbieta Czyzewska, Andrzej Herder, Tadeusz Kondrat, Krzysztof Liwin, Stanislaw Zaczyk, Henryk Kluba Print: Polish National Film Archive

Walkover constitutes the second part of Leszczyc’s adventures. The young man arrives by train in an unnamed, newly built industrial town. The purpose of his visit is to take part in a boxing ‘first step’, a competition for young, aspiring boxers. Leszczyc, however, does not fit this category. He took part in a number of ‘first steps’ previously and even earns his living by selling trophies from the competitions. Moreover, he will soon turn thirty. His short stay in the plant will prove very important for him - here he will meet his old female colleague from the university and learn to shun walkovers in boxing as much as in real life. As well as continuing Leszczyc’s story, Walkover marks Skolimowski’s development as a surrealist. The industrial plant has the dreamy atmosphere of a labyrinth, with Leszczyc returning to the same places and people, often belonging to his half-remembered past or to Polish romantic mythology. The mood is greatly enhanced by the music. Written by Skolimowski’s friend and long-term collaborator, jazz composer Krzysztof Komeda, it often amplifies natural sounds, as well as conveying what Leszczyc cannot express in words. The film was shot in only twenty nine shots, which was appreciated by the critics, but caused the director many problems and discouraged him from using such ‘Bazinian techniques’ in future. (EMK)

Bariera

Barrier Jerzy Skolimowski Poland, 1966, b&w, 35mm, 83 min, Polish Pro Comp: Gruppo Kamera Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Jan Laskowski Ed: Halina Prugar Sound: Wieslawa Dembinska Mu: Krzysztof Komeda With: Jan Nowicki, Joanna Szczerbic, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Maklakiewicz, Ryszard Pietruski, Maria Malicka, Malgorzata Lorentowicz Print: Polish National Film Archive

Like Identification M arks: None (1964), this begins during an important holiday: Easter. Four medical students play a game of catching a matchbox in their mouths. The one who wins takes the prize, a piggy-bank holding their joint savings, and leaves, telling his pals that he is giving up his study. With his belongings in a suitcase, the winner wanders through the unnamed town (in reality Warsaw), meeting his senile father, a war veteran, a beautiful tram driver, his university friends and a number of new people. The protagonist of Barrier has no name in the script and is played not by Skolimowski, but by Jan Nowicki, later one of the greatest Polish stars. However, there are enough similarities between this character and Leszczyc of Identification M arks: None and Walkover (1966), to include Barrier in the Andrzej Leszczyc series. The student still comes across as a disfranchised young man attempting to find his place in the Poland of ‘small stabilisation’ of the 1960s, the period when Wladyslaw Gomulka was the leader of the Party. Unlike his predecessors, he is more consumption-oriented, wants to have immediately what took his elders decades to accumulate. Barrier deserves attention for its stunning black-and-white cinematography; the images are clear of anything unnecessary for the action, which affords the film ascetic elegance. Krzysztof Komeda’s great score not only enhances the mood, but fills the gaps in the narrative. (EMK)

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Le départ

Jerzy Skolimowski Belgium, 1966, b&w, 35mm, 91 min, French Pro Comp: Elisabeth Film Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski, Andrzej Kostenko Cam: Willy Kurant Ed: Bob Wade Sound: Philip Cape Mu: Krzysztof Komeda With: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Catherine Duport, Jacqueline Bir, Paul Roland, Léon Dony Print: Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief Sales: Belfilm

Le départ is Skolimowski’s first film made in the West. Its protagonist, nineteen-year-old Marc, works as a hairdresser’s apprentice in Brussels and dreams about becoming a racing car driver. He enters his name for a rally due to start in two days, but does not have a car and goes to great lengths to acquire one. However, when he’s finally in a position to participate in the competition, he and his girlfriend stop at a hotel to get some sleep and they oversleep the rally. Marc is Andrzej Leszczyc’s Western counterpart. Like Leszczyc, he likes games and refuses to follow the rules prescribed to him by his elders. He can thus be described as an ‘eternal boy’, Skolimowski’s favourite type of character. There are also differences between the two, as Marc’s identity is entirely defined by what and how he consumes; his love of cars is his only distinct feature. Without it, he would be nobody. Marc is played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, the ‘face’ of the French New Wave and its ultimate rebel. Le départ is the most ‘musical’ film of Skolimowski’s. One feels that without music, Le départ would not survive as a coherent artefact, but break into a series of disjointed episodes. Music not only illustrates the events or counterpoints them, but practically replaces them, filling long passages without words and endowing the whole film with amazing energy. (EMK)

Rece do góry Hands Up! Jerzy Skolimowski

Poland, 1967, colour, 35mm, 72 min, Polish Pro Comp: Gruppo Syrena Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski, Andrzej Kostenko Cam: Witold Sobocinski, Andrzej Kostenko Ed: Zenon Piórecki, Grazyna Jasinska, Krystyna Rutkowska Sound: Jan Czerwinski, Norbert Zbigniew Medlewski Mu: Krzysztof Komeda With: Jerzy Skolimowski, Joanna Szczerbic, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Bogumil Kobiela Print: Polish National Film Archive

Hands Up! has two planes of action. The contemporary part is set at a reunion party of medical-school alumni and on board a freight train, where five of them reminisce on their past and the lives of their parents, who fought in the war. The second plane is set in the 1950s, when all of them were students and took upon themselves the task of assembling a huge portrait of Stalin. The portrait turned out to be faulty, having two pairs of eyes. Consequently, they had to explain their mistake to a commission, comprised of activists in the youth organisation, which accused them of sabotage. The main victim of the mistake was, of course, Andrzej Leszczyc. As with the three earlier parts of the four-part Leszczyc series, the director takes issue here with the relationship between Poland’s present, which is represented as consumerist and morally thwarted, and its past, on this occasion the war and the Stalinist past. The film tackled the ever-contentious topic of Polish Stalinism, so Skolimowski was asked to self-censor his film, cutting out the episode with the four-eyed Stalin. His refusal meant that the film ended up on the plank and precipitated the director’s emigration. Of all the films Skolimowski made, Hands Up! seems most expressionistic. The camera is static and the interior of the train looks like a stage, where characters play out their psychodrama. (EMK)

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Deep End

Jerzy Skolimowski West Germany/United Kingdom, 1970, colour, 35mm, 88 min, English Pro Comp: Maran-Film, Kettledrum Productions Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski, Jerzy Gruza, Boleslaw Sulik Cam: Charly Steinberger Ed: Barrie Vince Ad: Tony Pratt, Max Ott Jr. Sound: Karsten Ullrich Mu: Can, Cat Stevens With: John Moulder-Brown, Jane Asher, Diana Dors, Karl Michael Vogler, Christopher Sandford, Erica Beer, Jerzy Skolimowski Print: Paramount Pictures (L.A.) Sales: Hollywood Classics / Altadena Films

Deep End is one of a number of Skolimowski’s films set in England, but this England was, in fact, constructed in Hamburg. Mike, a boy from a working class family, after finishing school finds a job in the public baths/swimming pool in Fulham, London. There he becomes interested in Susan, who is slightly older than him and has been working in the baths for several years. Soon the interest changes into obsession, which Susan tries manipulating for her advantage. However, in the end it leads to tragedy for both characters. Despite its modest budget and largely improvised script, Deep End turned out to be one of the best films in Skolimowski’s career, short of being his masterpiece. With its focus on a disorientated, naive young man entering the cynical adult world, it perfectly fits Skolimowski’s oeuvre. Moreover, the director excellently shows here, as he did earlier in Le départ (1966), that consumption governs the lives of Westerners and that it is a complex discursive system: it operates in ‘chains’. Deep End can also be seen in the context of the ‘Swinging London’ films, due to catching the pleasures and dangers of living in this city at the end of the 1960s. Jane Asher, cast as Susan, a typical ‘Soho bitch’, was at the time one of the symbols of ‘Swinging London’. She plays Susan excellently, with the right measure of cynicism and vulnerability.

The Shout

Jerzy Skolimowski United Kingdom, 1978, colour, 35mm, 86 min, English Pro Comp: Recorded Picture Co Ltd, National Film Finance Corporation, Rank Film Production Sc: Michael Austin, Jerzy Skolimowski, based on the short story by Robert Graves Cam: Mike Molloy Ed: Simon Holland Ad: Tony Woollard Sound: Alan Bell, Tony Jackson Mu: Anthony Banks, Michael Rutherford, Rupert Hine With: Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Field, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry, Julian Hough, Carol Drinkwater, Nick Stringer Print: Recorded Picture Co Ltd Sales: Granada International

The idea of making a film based on the short story by Robert Graves came from the producer, Jeremy Thomas. In order to screen it, Skolimowski embellished the original narrative with a number of extra characters and plot lines, whilst preserving the subjective mode of narration. The film begins with a woman inspecting some human corpses in a mental asylum. Then the action moves to a small village in Devon, some years earlier. A childless couple, composer Anthony Fielding and his wife Rachel, are visited by a traveller named Crossley. This man, who apparently lived among Australian aborigines for many years and learnt their deadly shout, causes a deep crisis among the couple, testing their rationality, even sanity. The Shout belongs firmly to the British cinema of the late 1970s. It was almost concurrent with Nicholas Roeg’s The M an Who Fell to Earth (1976) and John Boorman’s Exorcist II: The H eretic (1977). All these films focus on ‘aliens’ - people who come from afar and disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens, and are told in non-linear ways. Another typical feature is the use of an electronic score, perfectly suited to the subject of a duel between different types of music. Its centrepiece is a shout, uttered on the dune by Crossley. Here Skolimowski used a voice but re-worked it, taking advantage of the most advanced technical equipment. (EMK)

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Signals: Jerzy Skolimowski

Moonlighting Jerzy Skolimowski

United Kingdom, 1982, colour, video, 97 min, English Pro: Michael Whyte Pro Comp: Channel Four International LTD. Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski Cam: Tony Pierce Roberts Ed: Barrie Vince Ad: Tony Woollard Sound: Alan Bell, David Stevenson Mu: Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer With: Jeremy Nowak, Eugene Lipinski, Jiri Stanislaw, Eugeniusz Haczkiewicz, Denis Holmes, Judy Gridley, Jerzy Skolimowski Print/ Sales: Goldcrest Films

In December 1981, four Polish men, led by Nowak, fly to London armed with one-month tourist visas. They claim that they are coming to buy a second-hand car with their joint savings of twelve hundred pounds, but in reality their aim is to renovate the house of their Boss. The task proves very difficult, for them and for Nowak, as the house lacks basic amenities, the men are harassed by their neighbours and the money is insufficient to buy materials and food, which makes the workers disaffected, angry and rebellious. Moreover, during their stay martial law is announced in Poland. Moonlighting, probably the first feature film to deal with the martial law of 1981, was read as a metaphor of the situation in Poland. The distant and powerful Boss, played by Skolimowski, was identified as Poland’s Big Brother - the Soviet Union - with Nowak playing its inept and unconfident younger brother - the Polish government, trying to subjugate the Solidarity rebels. At the same time, it excellently represents the conditions befallen thousands of Polish emigrants during this period. It can be also read as a Polish-British version of Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959). Thanks to the overlapping layers of meaning, good acting (especially Jeremy Irons as the hapless Nowak) and excellent use of colour, with red signifying danger, Moonlighting stands the test of time. (EMK)

Success Is the Best Revenge Jerzy Skolimowski

United Kingdom, 1984, colour, 35mm, 91 min, English Pro: Jerzy Skolimowski Pro Comp: DeVere Studio, Gaumont Sc: Jerzy Skolimowski, Michael Lyndon Cam: Mike Fash Ed: Barrie Vince Ad: Voytek Sound: Mike Crowley, Jim Roddan Mu: Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer With: Michael York, Joanna Szczerbic, Michael Lyndon, Jerry Skol, Michel Piccoli, Anouk Aimée, John Hurt Print: Filmmuseum

Success Is the Best R evenge is Skolimowski’s second film about martial law in Poland, in 1981. It is also his most personal film. Its protagonist, the famous Polish theatre director, Alex Rodak, bears many similarities to Skolimowski and in the roles of Rodak’s wife and children he cast his own wife and sons, Michal and Jerzy. The film was shot in Skolimowski’s London house, which was re-mortgaged in order to secure funds for Success. The film begins with Alex Rodak receiving the Légion d’honneur in Paris, where he meets his wife and sons for the first time in two years. Their separation was caused by martial law in Poland: Rodak could not leave the country, while his family waited for him in London. The award allows Rodak to reunite with them and embark on a theatre project about martial law in Poland. However, the project turns into a series of problems and mishaps. De-centred, incoherent and even incomprehensible at times, Success is nevertheless one of the most interesting films in Skolimowski’s career, excellently revealing the director’s obsessions and originality, such as his affinity to romanticism, expressionism and self-irony. In a sense, it is also a sequel to Identification M arks: None (1964), because Michal’s peregrinations through London bear a striking similarity to Leszczyc’s walks through an unknown town in Skolimowski’s feature debut.

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The Lightship Jerzy Skolimowski

USA, 1985, colour, 35mm, 88 min, English Pro: Moritz Borman, Bill Benenson Pro Comp: CBS Productions Sc: William Mai, David Taylor, based on the novel by Siegfried Lenz Cam: Charly Steinberger Ed: Barry Vince, Scott Hancock Sound: Guenther Stadelmann Mu: Stanley Myers With: Robert Duvall, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Lyndon, Tom Bower, Robert Costanzo, Badja Djola, William Forsythe, Arliss Howard Print: Filmmuseum Sales: Hollywood Classics / Altadena Films

The Lightship belongs to the middle part of Skolimowski’s career, in which he focuses on the relationship between father and son - on this occasion played by the director’s real son, Michael Lyndon. The film is set in the mid-1950s and has as main character Captain Miller, commander of the lightship ‘Hatteras’, floating off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. Miller takes on board his rebellious teenage son Alex, and soon becomes subjugated to the terror of three gangsters on the run, who invade the ship. The challenging situation is a test of the closeness and understanding of father and son. Although based on the novel Das Feuerschiff (1960) by German writer Siegfried Lenz, which was interpreted in the context of the Germans’ behaviour during the Second World War, Skolimowski regards The Lightship as his closest approach to Joseph Conrad’s work, especially his Victory (1915). An important connection between The Lightship and Victory is the aura of foreboding and utter pessimism, which can be linked to the Polish, romantic heritage of both artists, with its tragic heroism and ‘culture of disaster’. The Lightship was difficult to shoot, largely because of Skolimowski’s conflict with his star, Klaus Maria Brandauer. However, the effect is a very assured film, in which all means are used to convey a simple, yet powerful story. (EMK)

Ferdydurke

Thirty Door Key Jerzy Skolimowski Poland/France/United Kingdom, 1991, colour, 35mm, 1:1.66, 98 min, English Pro: Jerzy Skolimowski Pro Comp: Million Frames Ltd., Thirty Door Key Ltd., Cinéa Sc: Joseph Kay, John Yorick, Jerzy Skolimowski, based on the novel by Witold Gombrowicz Cam: Witold Adamek Ed: Grazyna Jasinska Sound: Mariusz Kuczynski, Jerzy Szawlowski Mu: Stanislaw Syrewicz, Michal Lorenc With: Iain Glen, Robert Stephens, Crispin Glover, Marek Probosz, Artur Zmijewski, Judith Godreche, Dorota Stalinska Print: Polish National Film Archive

Warsaw, 1939. The country prepares for war with Germany. Józio, a man who has just turned thirty and published his first book, is visited by his old teacher, Professor Pimko, who claims that Józio is still immature and orders him to return to school. Pimko finds accommodation for Józio with the Mlodziaks, who pride themselves on being an utterly modern family. Józio is enchanted by the beautiful Zuta Mlodziak, but rather than giving in to her charms, he rekindles his love for his cousin Zosia. Their love develops against the background of the peasants’ rebellion and German bombs being dropped on Warsaw. Thirty Door K ey was Skolimowski’s attempt to internationalise and modernise the most cult Polish novel, written by Witold Gombrowicz. Skolimowski used non-Polish actors in the main roles and set his film in a distinctive moment of history: the end of prewar, sovereign Poland, with all its elaborate and often silly traditions. He achieved his goal, but at the heavy price of reducing the intellectual content of the text and a sense of overcrowding the film with characters, motifs and ideas. Although disappointing in the eyes of critics and Skolimowski himself, Thirty Door K ey has its charms: excellent music, exquisite settings and the presence of the director himself in the role of a headmaster, overseeing the most boring assemblage of teachers. (EMK)

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Rotterdam Shorts

Kort Rotterdams / Rotterdam Shorts 2008

Rotterdam Shorts is a project initiated by the Rotterdam Film Fund (RFF) in which Rotterdam production teams are asked each year to realise a short film with recognisable Rotterdam elements.

Circus

Ruben Broekhuis WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour/b&w, 35mm, 7 min, no dialogue Pro: Nico de Haan, Herman Slagter Pro Comp: Doenk, White Bull Film Sc: Ruben Broekhuis Cam: Floris van der Lee Ed: Jasper Verhorevoort Sound: Mark van der Male, Ronnie van Overveld Mu: Vidjay Beerepoot With: Alex Laman, Flip van der Kuil, Tim Haars, Wesley van Gaalen Print: Rotterdams Fonds voor de Film Sales: Doenk

A fifteen-year-old boy discovers the positive influence of extraordinary people on the street. Ruben BROEKHUIS (1981, Netherlands) was educated in audiovisual design at the St. Joost Art Academy in Breda. He graduated in 2007 with Why Peter Runner Can Run, an experimental short documentary.

Sommige dingen zijn heel eenvoudig

Some Things Are Really Simple Hester Overmars WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour, 35mm, 1:1.85, 11 min, Dutch Pro: Kuba Szutkowski Pro Comp: Szutkowski AV Sc: Hester Overmars, based on the novel by Sanneke van Hassel Cam: Gregg Telussa Ed: Nathalie Alonso Casale Ad: Ben Zuydwijk Sound: Bart Jilesen, Erik Griekspoor Mu: Tom Nestelaar With: Bram Coopmans, Astrid van Eck, Dragan Bakema Print: Rotterdams Fonds voor de Film Sales: Szutkowski AV

Wout comes home unexpectedly. He is confronted by an alienating truth: an unknown man is making dinner for his wife and child. Bit by bit the relations unfold. Hester OVERMARS (1971, Netherlands) studied history of society at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and works as a documentary maker. Some Things Are R eally Simple (2009) is her first short fiction film.

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Rotterdam Shorts

Njebeshnoje mwuilo Heavenly Soap Laura Beijn

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, colour/b&w, 35mm, 8 min, Dutch Pro: Floor van Benthem Pro Comp: Airrebels Sc: Laura Beijn Cam: Stef Tijdink Ad: Rosie Stapel Sound: Willem Schneider With: Medi Broekman Print: Rotterdams Fonds voor de Film Sales: Airrebels

Surrounded by brightly coloured jars and bottles, Sophie works good-humouredly in a soap shop. One day she discovers that her environment is getting increasingly strange. After secondary school, Laura BEIJN (1987, Netherlands) started working as an assistant programme maker and editor. Heavenly Soap (2009) is her first short film.

Opening Night Tim Leyendekker

WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, 35mm, 5 min, no dialogue Pro: Tim Leyendekker Pro Comp: Absent without Leave Sc: Tim Leyendekker Cam: Adri Schrover Ed: Tim Leyendekker, Matte Mourik Sound: Kees van der Knaap With: Dominique Murk, Antoinette Akkerman, Erik Sterk Print: Rotterdams Fonds voor de Film Sales: Absent without Leave

And a voice said: ‘Hope appears in many forms, but tonight you’re on your own.’ Tim LEYENDEKKER (1973, Netherlands) attended the Willem de Koning Academy for Fine Arts in Rotterdam. He is a visual artist, film maker and curator.

Lucide

Lucid Ferry van Schijndel WORLD PREMIERE Netherlands, 2009, b&w, 35mm, 1:2.35, 8 min, Dutch Pro: Jeroen Rozendaal Pro Comp: StudioRev Sc: Ferry van Schijndel, Thomas van der Vliet Cam: Adri Schrover Ed: Ferry van Schijndel Ad: Jan Willem van der Schoot Sound: Henk-Jelle de Groot Mu: Thomas van der Vliet With: Dragan Bakema, Peggy-Jane de Schepper Print: Rotterdams Fonds voor de Film Sales: StudioRev

Lost in a bizarre, unconscious state, Jimmy fights to regain control over his dreams in order to get his life back on track. Ferry van SCHIJNDEL (1979, Netherlands) is one of the founders of VOLOP, an animation studio in Rotterdam. Besides animating, he writes scenarios and teaches animation at the Art Academy in Rotterdam. Lucid (2009) is his first short fiction film.

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