Daily Tiger #7 (English)

DAILY TIGER 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam #7 Wednesday 28 January 2015

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Rotterdam to Torino Cinéart picks up Ixcanul The Seven Year Pitch Kevin Jerome Everson

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Expert Panel EFAD mobilises Marten Rabarts Tiger release panel

ENGLISH EDITION

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The Man in the Wall Das Zimmermädchen Lynn

Tuesday’s IFFR conference on co-producing beyond Europe

photo: Ruud Jonkers

Khavn walks into a CineMart

New World of Opportunities

Philippine filmmaker Khavn is back in Rotterdam for the 11th year, screening his latest film Desaparadiso in the Spectrum Premieres section as well as presenting a new project in the CineMart co-production market. Melanie Goodfellow reports

Creative Europe’s new support for coproduction funds was under the spotlight at an IFFR conference on co-producing beyond Europe on Tuesday. By Melanie Goodfellow

“I go to a lot of festivals throughout the year but Rotterdam is home-base,” says the prolific fi lmmaker, who had made roughly 47 features in a career dating back to 1999. Achinette Villamor of Quezon City-based Kamias Overground is at CineMart looking for co-producers for his upcoming zombie project Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War. Although he has had several fi lms at IFFR over the years, it is the first time he has presented a project at the market. “I met Stephan in Rotterdam the first year I came in 2005. I was gate-crashing the lunches,” he says, referring to German producer Stephan Holl of Rapid Eye Movies, who produced past fi lms Mondomanila as well as Ruined Heart!

IFFR LATE NIGHT

Tonight’s IFFR Late Night features a screening of the taping of the Pussy Riot interview in the Oude Luxor, together with clips from the new documentary featuring the female Russian activists, Pussy Versus Putin, introduced by Tom Barman.

“We don’t know if we’ll collaborate on Only the Dead, but we’ve just finished shooting The Very Brief Life of an Ember about a gang of child gangsters in Manila.

Aged three to sixteen years old, they like to kill and rob, but one day they get caught,” says Khavn. “After that, we’re planning to shoot a fiction about a man in a bar, provisionally entitled Disko Inferno.”

His CineMart project, meanwhile, is a zombie movie about a murdered woman who returns from the dead to solve the mystery surrounding her death.

It is inspired, like many of Khavn’s fi lms, by an incident in his family history which was never dealt with by the family.

“We haven’t decided how much of a zombie she’ll look like yet,” says Khavn. “She’ll have wounds from her death, but other than that she’ll probably look normal. A few years ago, there was a case of a young girl who was believed to be dead and she woke up in her coffin. The case prompted a huge outcry, but it also fed into the Philippine superstitions about death.”

Producer Villamor says the project has prompted a good response at CineMart, particularly from German and French producers. Under a co-production, the fi lm would be shot in the Philippines and post-production would be done in the partner’s country. “We did the co-production of Ruined Heart! at The Post Republic in Berlin, which worked well for us,” says Villamor.

“The aim of the new support is all about building new relationships, between producers and fi lmmakers from Europe and beyond,” said Dag Asbjørnsen, policy adviser at Creative Europe – MEDIA. The new support is aimed at encouraging European producers to co-produce with partners from within the Union, as well as beyond its borders. In the past, Creative Europe funding has mainly been earmarked for European recipients. “It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this out of Media. I think this is extremely important,” said Croatian, Paris-based Cedomir Kolar.

Kolar gave a case study on Indian Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, which he signed up for at CineMart in 2012, having scouted the project at the NFDC Film Bazaar in Goa, with German producer Roh Film boarding shortly after.

“Lunchbox should be included in the top ten all-time case studies,” commented conference moderator Michael Gubbins. “It was a remarkable fi lm which made a lot of money and did extremely well on the international markets.”

Kolar said the benefits of making the fi lm through a co-production had been both financial and creative – especially for director Batra. “The fact is, in India you can’t finance fi lms except with private money as today there are no stable forms of state finance,” said Kolar. “The main thing was the opening of an inde-

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

pendent Indian fi lm to the market. We got a good sales company on board, The Match Factory, and it got loads of international exposure.”

“One thing to be aware of is that Indian officials really don’t understand what a co-production is – it was a catastrophe,” said Kolar. “We climbed a huge wall in order to get the paperwork done, but we managed it. In the end, we set up two bilateral co-productions – one between India and France and a second one between India and Germany – a three-party agreement just through them.”

Kolar revealed that the European producers had helped protect Batra from demands on the Indian side that the fi lm have a happy ending, and also employ a lot of brash music in the backdrop.

“Ritesh wanted a minimalist soundtrack, so we brought German composer Max Richter in to work with him, which worked really well.

At Tuesday’s packed meeting, representatives of the first five recipients of the Creative Europe support – HBF+Europe, IDFA Bertha Fund Europe, the Sarajevo City of Film Fund, Torino Film Lab Distribution and World Cinema Fund Europe – also presented their new funding strands.

TIGER ALERT

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GIRLHOOD by Céline Sciamma, being screened in more than 50 cities across Europe as part of the LUX FILM DAYS, has been on a European tour. The LUX FILM PRIZE of the European Parliament, awarded since 2007, subtitles three European masterpieces and by showing them allows Europeans to exchange their views on topics of collective social interest.

28 Jan. 29 Jan. 30 Jan. 31 Jan.

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Cinerama 1 Pathe 1 Schouwburg Grote Zaal Lantaren Venster 1

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Mangiare welcomes IFFR

19/01/15 18:08

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Rotterdam to Torino

The Seven Year Pitch Expert Panel: The Producer

By Nick Cunningham

Dutch director Ricky Rijneke yesterday revealed to the Daily Tiger that her new project The Hunter’s Son (working title) has been selected for the Torino Film Lab 2015. In the film, which Rijneke describes as a psychological drama about guilt and innocence, a 12-year-old boy growing up in a hunting family commits an impulsive act that explodes into tragedy, forcing these people to question themselves and everything they thought they knew.

The film, produced by Rotterdam Films, has already attracted co-production support from Les Films de l’Apres-Midi (France) and Stenola Productions (Belgium). “I think that the Torino Film Lab is a good place to develop your script, because you are you are really placed in a group where you can have feedback, and you have a tutor [Franz Rodenkirchen], so I am very curious,” Rijneke said.

Rijneke presented her debut film Silent Ones at IFFR in 2013, where it was nominated for a Tiger Award. It has been screening at Amsterdam’s EYE for the past eight weeks. “After the debut in

Rotterdam it was selected for a lot of festivals so I was travelling a lot with it,” she said. “It was a very busy period so now I am looking forward to focusing on a new work.”

Silent Ones

By Harriet Warman

Why do directors need producers? This was the basic question at the heart of IFFR’s industry Expert Panel: The Producer, moderated by Katriel Schory of the Israel Film Fund. Tackling this question were producer and former DFI director of film financing, Paul Miller, and two producer/director partnerships; Shrihari Sathe of Infinitum Pictures and Scott Cummings, director of IFFR 2013 short film selection It Felt Like Love, along with collaborators Ricardo Pretti (editor, August Winds) and Bruno Safadi.

Opening the discussion with the idea of the ‘ideal producer’, Schory spoke of a producer’s ability to be a “great integrator”, bringing together creative practitioners from all art forms to work together to create one complete work. If a producer can maximise the creativity of each individual, and integrate their contribution with the wider scope of the production – and within budget – then they have succeeded. In discussing a producer’s skills, and the various types that exist for different stages of a film’s production timeline, the main point that each panellist agreed on was the importance of building trust and colla-

boration between the director and the producer. For Cummings, this means Sathe “empowered” him by restricting the hundreds of possibilities that he saw in front of him, whilst for Pretti, it’s essential that a producer is willing to be open-minded and take risks, embracing the idea that there’s no one single way to make a film and that support is needed at every stage of a film’s production: “in cinema, we don’t do anything alone.”

Agreeing that the collaboration between a producer and director is – for Miller – akin to a short-term (5 to 7 year) marriage, or for Safadi a “4 to 5-year best friend’” rather than that a strictly professional partnership – the advantage of a cooperative approach is that time and money are saved when commencing a new project. Furthermore, proposing it’s important to counter the culture of a “pitching industry”, Schory suggested that producers should be more proactive in finding projects they want to develop, and that this might be the best way to maintain the strong collaborative partnerships that makes sure great ideas become the films they were intended to be.

Cinéart picks up Ixcanul

Benelux distribution outfit Cinéart announced yesterday the pick-up of HBF-funded Ixcanul, directed by Jayro Bustamente. The Guatemalan debut film, which screens in the Berlinale competition, received €20,000 in HBF post-production support in November 2014.

The film portrays the daily existence of a 17-year-old girl living in a village in the foothills of a volcano,

Ixcanul, who faces an arranged marriage. But then she falls under the spell of Pepe, a young plantation worker who enthralls her with talk of emigrating to the U.S. When Pepe leaves alone, he also leaves Maria pregnant.

Cinéart’s Wallie Pollé commented yesterday: “It is a debut from an amazing talent. I have never seen a film before from Guatemala, and this looks like a film from a director who has made ten or twelve films.

Really amazing, the way he works with the actors. A miracle. I am sure he will win a prize in Berlin.”

Cinéart has five films at IFFR: Eden, Timbuktu, Girlhood, The Farewell Party all screen in Limelight, and Melody is selected for both Limelight and IFFR Live.

“IFFR Live is very successful in terms of how people related to it,” commented Pollé. “I watched it on Facebook and on Twitter and got a lot of reactions. I wasn’t at the screening but I was told the response to the film in the thetare was really amazing. I was happy with the whole IFFR Live construction.” NC

The art of projection

Kevin Jerome Everson

photo: Bram Belloni

Clocking in Rotterdam habitué Kevin Jerome Everson is at the festival this year with his eight-hour film Park Lanes, capturing a day-in-the-life of a bowling alley equipment factory in Virginia.

By Melanie Goodfellow

Run Away

The Boys from Fengkuei

By Nicole Santé

Seven classics of Taiwan New Cinema can be seen at IFFR under the Signals Regained: Made in Taiwan banner. A programme exceptional not only for its celebration of the 1980s Taiwanese new wave, but also because the seven films are being screened on 35mm. A rarity at a festival that is now principally digital: just a handful of films, including those in the Jang Jin retrospective, are also being shown on ‘old-fashioned’ celluloid. These Taiwanese masterpieces can only be seen in LantarenVenster 6, where two 35 mm projectors have been set up side

by side. This is necessary for a fluent screening of the films – the individual reels cannot be spliced together because of the fragility of the old film stock – cutting and pasting could damage the old prints.

When one reel is finished, the operator simply switches to the next act which has been cued up on the other projector. This is known in film jargon as the ‘changeover system’. That this exceptional old material can be screened is thanks in part to Richard Suchenski, director of the Center for Moving Image Arts in New York.

It is screening as part of Edwin Carels Time Out! programme, revolving around the modern trend to skimp on sleep and squeeze as much into each day possible. “The people who are in the film are doing what they do – if I hadn’t been there they would have still been doing the same thing. We shot over three days, using digital cameras … we could probably have finished it in two-and-a-half days, but I was shooting some 16mm material as well,” says Everson, who used Blackmagic digital cameras for the shoot.

He reveals that the project dates back eight years to a museum commission that fell through after the curator left. “It’s hard to get permission to shoot in these factories. The owners have got liabilities, corporate secrets ... they don’t want people copying their products. I started out trying to shoot in an automobile factory, but couldn’t find one that would let me in with a camera,” says Everson.

The artist and director says he was inspired to make an extra-long film by Andy Warhol’s Empire and the works of Philippine filmmaker Lav Diaz, such as the 630-minute Evolution of a Filipino Family, which have also screened at IFFR. “His films are very humane.

You see someone pushing a cart up a hill and if it takes 20 minutes in real life, it takes 20 minutes on

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

the big screen. There’s a physicality about that that I like and also playing with this notion of time,” he says.

Screenings of the film at the LantarenVenster have been well attended, says Everson. “People are liking it, although I don’t think anyone has sat through the whole thing,” he recounts. “The first day I didn’t think I was going to sit through any of it and I watched six hours of it. The critics I speak to say it’s got a good flow … the comments have been fairly positive.”

Park Lanes was produced by Madeleine Molyneaux of New York and Los Angeles-based production and distribution company Picture Palace Pictures. The pair have been collaborating together for a decade this year after meeting at Rotterdam. Other projects in the pipeline include a history of African Americans, a joint project with researcher Claudrena Harold. The pair previously collaborated on Sugarcoated Arsenic, which screened at IFFR last year. He is also completing two works about African American series killers Anthony Sowell and Alton Coleman – one of which might also run long. The filmmaker is also mulling a feature-length project revolving around the theme of eyewitness accounts, stemming from a personal tragedy as well as his love of Caravaggio’s paintings.

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Put it out there Expert panel: Making the Most of a Film Festival

By Oris Aigbokhaevbolo

Ask any newcomer to the film festival circuit about his experience and the words ‘overwhelming’ and ‘awed’ – or their French, Italian or Dutch equivalents – may well tumble out. Aptly named, last Sunday’s Make the Most of a Film Festival panel was set up to ease the nerves of the festival newbie. Hayet Benkara, the festival’s moderator, explained that the panel was to be conducted ‘as a conversation’ and as such encoura-

EFAD mobilises to protect copyright laws

photo: Bram Belloni

A proposed overhaul of European copyright law to fit the digital age could threaten European film finance. By Melanie Goodfellow

Representatives of the European Film Agency Directors group (EFAD) met up in Rotterdam yesterday for a second workshop on potential impending changes to European copyright law. The European Union is currently reviewing a 2001 directive (2001/29/ EC) aimed at harmonising copyright law across the community. EFAD’s members fear the EU will attempt to breakdown the territorialisation of digital rights as part of this review. Such a move, they say would be catastrophic for the funding systems propping up the European film industry.

“The European Union is currently working on a big reform of the European copyright laws, which it has announced as one of its priorities. We don’t know what it entails exactly as yet, so it’s difficult for us to take a position,” explains Julie-Jeanne Régnault, European and multilateral affairs adviser at France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC).

“But the general message we want to get out is that all the European agencies are mobilised on the issue and are following the reform process closely, in particular from the standpoint of what it could mean for the financing of the creative industries, which is at the heart of all our work,” she says.

“We want to see how these reforms represent an opportunity or a threat to our creative industries,” she continues. “We’re worried that the reforms could have a negative impact on the financing of creativity. “We don’t know exactly what they want to do, but we know they’re ‘keen to improve cross-border access’, which in itself is great idea, but we have to be careful that the reform isn’t going to make it difficult for a producer to exploit his film territory by territory.”

Other attendees at the meeting include Netherlands Film Fund chief Doreen Boonekamp, British Film Institute’s head of strategic development Carol Comley and strategy expert Neil Watson, Chiara Fortuna from the cinema department of the Italian Culture Ministry and Claus Hjorth from the Danish Film Institute.

The discussion on copyright will be continued at a general meeting of all EFAD members during the Berlin Film Festival on 10 February. EFAD represents the directors of 31 films agencies in Europe, from 28 member states of the European Union as well as Norway, Ireland and Switzerland.

The European Union is due to publish a preliminary report on its reform proposals over the summer.

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ged her audience of directors, producers, sales agents, writers and programmers to ask questions of the speakers after the initial presentation.

Director Nathan Silver, one of six panellists, spoke first, expressing his frustration at the rabidly commercial nature of most festivals. He referred to popular festivals as ‘meat markets’. “I didn’t get into filmmaking to sell things,” he said. A nervous titter ran through the gathering.

The task of reassuring the audience fell to his co-panellists. Offering practical advice, sales agent Nathan

Fischer said the successful film is one positioned ‘in a certain way.’ The trick, he averred, is to seek an unusual angle when presenting your film.

Members of the panel agreed that the size of the festival matters. With big festivals, the chances of significant, spontaneous, encounters are reduced.

By contrast, smaller festivals provide intimacy.

“When you go to big festivals,” said Simon Field, producer and former director of IFFR, “you are hustling, but if you come here it’s easy to meet people.” Also, it is necessary to temper great expectations with realism regarding film premieres.

“Berlin and Rotterdam have a fetish for the international premiere,” Field added.

For Bianca Taal, programmer at IFFR, it is necessary for programmers to look at the programmes for other festivals and “figure if they fit your festival.”

Acknowledging the importance of a good review ‘or tweet,’ Benkara asked the panel’s ‘outsider,’ film critic Jay Weissberg of Variety, about his work during festivals: “How do you manage to find the music in the noise?” “Not everything is reviewed,” was the answer. How then does a filmmaker catch the eye of perhaps the most highly regarded critic on the festival circuit? Said Weissberg: “Try to have your materials out on the festival floor.” Sometimes, it seems, making the most of any festival can be that easy.

Roving EYE Incoming EYE International director Marten Rabarts talked to the Daily Tiger yesterday about a very busy IFFR 2015 and an even busier future banging the drum internationally for Dutch cinema.

By Nick Cunningham

This week, Rabarts has been hosting the IFFR Live programme of Europe-wide simultaneous screenings of Rotterdam titles, the final film being Marinus Groothof’s The Sky Above Us, screening this evening.

“So many things could have gone wrong, and that’s the risk you take, but it has gone resoundingly well. I think the idea of exploding a cinema event across Europe, taking a festival outside of the boundaries of a single cinema in a single town, is proving to be a success.”

“Also, the different tones [of the films] have been very nice. The session with Ramón Gieling (Erbarme Dich – Matthäus Passion Stories) was different from the opening film [surfing epic Atlantic.]. It was about pain and beauty and Bach and tears, so obviously I wasn’t going to kick that off wearing a wetsuit,” he commented, referencing his opening day sartorial choice.

In his future capacity as EYE International chief, Rabarts will be calling on his vast experience heading up training at the Binger and NFDC (India), and will look to be part of the “project conversation” between filmmakers and the Netherlands Film Fund at the earliest opportunity. “When you work on a project, when it is being created on the page or in the cutting room, you understand at a DNA level why that film matters to the makers, why it is being made, and I would very much like try to translate that experience into my new role at EYE. If I understanding the DNA, then I’m personally much better equipped to present the work outside the Netherlands.”

Following last summer’s simultaneous launch of the Netherlands Film Commission and Production Incentive (that offers up to 30% in production credits) Rabarts

Marten Rabarts at the screening of the IFFR Live opener Atlantic.

sees clear opportunities for EYE and the Film Fund to work in tandem presenting what the Dutch can offer the international film world. “Reaching out to new territories, bringing production to the Netherlands, promoting the Dutch industry internationally. I see that we will be working synergistically and ever more closely within the Dutch infrastructure,” he said.

“My third focus is EYE itself,” Rabarts added. “It is a terrific collection of ideas, exhibitions, of archive

photo: Bram Belloni

– with a vision to screen top quality international cinema. All within that landmark building. I look forward to taking the EYE Institute, in terms of its content, to the rest of the world … its archives, collections and the shows we curate.” EYE’S groundbreaking exhibitions in 2014 featured the works of the Quay brothers and the solid light works of Anthony McCall. “Let’s see how the curatorial taste of EYE can travel.”

Release the Tiger, but stay involved Monday’s presentation of Tiger Release resulted in an on stage workshop, focusing on the possibilities and challenges for filmmakers that will make use of Tiger Release as an online launching platform.

Lot Piscaer reports

Tiger Release, a partnership between IFFR and tech company Infostrada, will give rights-holders the opportunity to show their films on global VOD platforms. It is a “slow burner”, festival director Rutger Wolfson commented. “We are taking it slow: it’s a new thing, people have to get used to the idea. But we are totally committed to this.”

The novelty aspect certainly didn’t scare off filmmakers Anna Sofie Hartmann (Limbo) and Edmund Yeo (River of Exploding Durians). They were the first to sign up for Tiger Release, and brave enough have their cases analysed by a panel of experts moderated by Michael Gubbins. Five other filmmakers already expressed strong interest in releasing their films through Tiger Release (Aditya Vikram Sengupta with Labour of Love, Benjamin Crotty’s Fort Buchanan, Georg Tiller’s White Coal, Damian Marcano with God Loves the Fighter, and Liew Seng Tat’s Men Who Save the World).

And why shouldn’t they? Wolfson sums up: “There are no risks here, only opportunities.” There’s also no need to worry over TVOD or FVOD models, DCPs, IMFs, metadata and megadata or other dizzying terms. Infostrada executive Evert Larooi eased film-

The industry expert panel: IFFR Managing Director Janneke Staarink, filmmakers Edmund Yeo and Anna photo: Bram Belloni Sofie Hartmann, and moderator Michael Gubbins.

makers’ concerns: Tiger Release will take care of all this for you.

Filmmakers are not, however, expected to rest on their laurels once their film is on the platforms. They need to get noticed among the thousands of other titles. IFFR will play a role in marketing the films, but filmmakers themselves should also be a part of this, it was stressed. The industry experts made this pretty clear, offering advice on marketing and publicity strategies to the filmmakers involved. Some first

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

findings: Finding an audience in a very early stage is key; crowdfunding can also work as a marketing and promotion tool. Share your experiences and learn from each other: read case studies, find a mentor.

Places like Rotterdam offer a great network. Adapt your promotional materials to online formats and possibilities. Take care of your film – be a responsible parent to your baby. On the other hand, like in parenting, you don’t have to do it all by yourself. Find a budget and get some help from the experts.

The Apartment

Diary of a Chambermaid

By Tina Poglajen

By Harriet Warman

Presented in the Bright Future Premieres section, The Man in the Wall is a tense psychological drama with fleshed-out characters that seem pulled onto the screen directly from life itself. “Although the story is not autobiographical, it feels very personal to me,” says Evgeny Ruman, the director of the film, which is also one of this year’s nominees for the FIPRESCI award. “And although none of the characters could be said to be based on actual people, they often resemble different sides of myself and the people close to me,” he continues.

The dialogues have a natural ring to them, inviting the question whether they have sometimes been ad-libbed on the set. This is not the case, it turns out. “There was not much improvisation at all; the dialogues had been well-rehearsed beforehand. I asked the actors to treat the text as they would a theatre play.” Theatrical in its structure as well, the screenplay follows the dramatic unities as prescribed by Aristotle. The narrative of Shir, whose husband inexplicably disappears one rainy night from their flat in Tel Aviv, rarely, if ever, strays into sub-plots. Instead, the brilliantly paced account of her waiting for Rami alone in their flat, cinematically confined to its four walls (plus a balcony) unravels in the course of one night, hours passing since Rami’s disappearance marked for stronger effect by interposing clock hands. “I wanted the audience to have an intense feeling of spending the night inside this apartment, with these people, unable to leave,” explains Ruman. “The same way that the main characters are

Approaching his adaptation of Markus Orths’ novel, director Ingo Haeb knew he couldn’t take the narrative of a cleaning-obsessed chambermaid only at face value. “It was clear that it was a modern, adult, fairytale” says Haeb.

Whereas the novel presents the experience of Lynn plainly, without any doubt as to the actuality of her experiences, when envisioning the source as a more ambiguous, cinematic work, for Haeb, “the distance between the audience and the character is gone, so I wanted to keep it open.”

Das Zimmermädchen Lynn (The Chambermaid Lynn) follows its titular heroine as she goes about her weekly routine, working at the Eden Hotel, cleaning the rooms with a fastidiousness that outstrips the efforts made by the other chambermaids. Lynn (Vicky Krieps) is fascinated by the lives of the hotel’s guests, and examines the remnants of their lives – clothes, books, etc., that they leave behind when they go out. One day hiding under the bed to avoid detection, Lynn gets instantly hooked on another aspect of one guest’s life when he hires dominatrix Chiara (Lena Lauzemis). Having compartmentalised her sexual life, much like her work, exercise and cleaning, Lynn is desperate to know what it would be like disrupt the order she has created, and so makes a date with Chiara too.

Visualising Lynn’s world involved meticulous planning

by Haeb, who focused on the tiniest details, such as the colour of a telephone, or the way Lynn’s hair is parted, in order to convey the structures that the character has put in place in order to go unnoticed. This meant in terms of the production design that “everything becomes important.”

trapped in their lives. During the writing, I restricted myself to staying within these boundaries.”

Though alone for much of the night, Shir randomly receives visits at likely and unlikely hours. Not all of these exist in the same sense. Another couple, who Rami and Shir have agreed to meet for dinner and forgot to cancel; Rami’s best friend; Shir’s mother and other acquaintances, perhaps kept secret during the daytime, all pop in and out of the lonely flat that is haunted by feelings of guilt, fear, anger and suspicion.

Accusations are thrown around from the start, though whether there’s anything to them is always questionable. The truth unfolds only gradually as each of the twelve short sequences frustrates as well as delights with its atmosphere of riddles and dead-ends, nods and winks, and effortless conclusions of scenes in absurdly comical moments. “I decided to write a scene a day, no matter what. There are twelve scenes in the film, so the first draft was written in 12 days. When I began writing, I didn’t have the ending in mind yet, or the twists. I worked those out during the writing process.”

With things never what they seem at first glance, the role of the scapegoat in The Man in the Wall keeps switching between the players. Finally, it becomes clear that its existence was quite meaningless in the first place.

The Man in the Wall Bright Future Premieres Wed 28 Jan 16:00 PA1; Sat 31 Jan 21:45 PA2

This careful approach also extended to making sure the audience could understand the origin of Lynn’s obsessiveness, through the relationship with her mother (Christine Schorn). To do so, Haeb consulted a psychologist/philosopher, who could advise what kind of maternal relationship would produce Lynn’s particular coping methods and her attitude to sex. Says Haeb: “With this kind of mother, she would have the psyche that ‘I never had sex, but sex is done to me’.” Such an important relationship becomes key to understanding Lynn’s initial reticence when attempting a less passive approach to intimacy with Chiara.

Far from being the familiar story of a sexual awakening however, Das Zimmermädchen Lynn is successful in showing the shifting power dynamic between Lynn and Chiara. For someone for whom sex is simply a perfunctory activity, it is feeling at all – rather than having feelings for a woman – that is important. Says Haeb: “This is not a coming-out story” – rather, Lena was cast as Chiara for her androgyny. “She’s neutral [to Lynn].” While Lynn begins to gains confidence in the new feelings she’s experiencing, for Chiara, her feelings – and Lynn’s – make her vulnerable. Plunging into something new is all part of human nature for the director however, and though we see Lynn grow and take risks in the film, for Haeb “getting what you want and going too far” is inevitable.

Das Zimmermädchen Lynn / The Chambermaid Lynn Spectrum Fri 30 Jan 12:30 CI1

PRESS & INDUSTRY SCREENINGS 09.00

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LL The Sky Above Us Marinus Groothof 09:15 – 10:45

de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal

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LL Erbarme dich

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LL The Tribe Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy 14:00 – 16:10

– Matthäus Passion Stories

Ramón Gieling 11:30 – 13:05

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LL A Most Violent Year J.C. Chandor 17:00 – 19:05

TG Vanishing Point Jakrawal Nilthamrong 13:30 – 15:10

de Doelen Willem Burger Zaal SP Li Wen at East Lake Li Luo 09:15 – 11:12

Pathé 5

SP Poet on a

Business Trip Ju Anqi 12:30 – 14:13

SP Mijn witte

Cinerama 2

SP La La La at Rock

hemd

Yamashita Nobuhiro 11:45 – 13:28

BF Banana Pancakes and the Children of Sticky Rice Daan Veldhuizen 09:00 – 10:25

de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal 09:15

The Sky Above Us [wp]

Erik van Lieshout 11:30 – 12:49

LL Ik ben Alice Sander Burger 12:30 – 13:50

LL Métamorphoses Christophe Honoré 14:30 – 16:12

WOENSDAG 28-01-2015 •blauw•

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Longinotto’s documentary is about Brenda Myers-Powell, who fights against sexual exploitation and supports prostitutes in Chicago. Brenda knows what she is talking about: her own story, involving teenage prostitution and a life of violence and abuse, is in stark contrast to her dauntless energy and optimism.

13:30

Vanishing Point [wp]

LL

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Ramón Gieling, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 98 min, Dutch/English

Impressive, labyrinthine narrative by Gieling (Johan Cruijff: en un momento dado) on Bach’s St Matthew Passion and the exceptional relationship that experts (including theatre director Peter Sellars and conductor Pieter Jan Leusink) and enthusiasts have with this work. In the meantime, a homeless choir rehearses the piece.

14:00

The Tribe

WF

TG

Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Thailand, 2015, DCP, 100 min, Thai, e.s.

A serious film about serious, complex issues (including a dramatic car crash), presented in a light, playful way. The film follows two very different men, each of whom changes his life in his own way. This doesn’t seem to be a direct result of the choices they make. Change can be like that.

Pathé 5

LL

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Li Wen at East Lake [wp]

SP

•paars01•

As with everything in life, the same goes for East Lake, a threatened lake near the expanding mega city of Wuhan. You can get worked up about it and get involved - or you can think, it won’t affect me.

Fortunately there’s the intriguing new film by Li Luo, which brings to an end these doubts.

17:00

12:30

LL

J.C. Chandor, USA, 2014, DCP, 125 min, English/Spanish, d.s.

•blauw•

1981, New York. An exceptionally violent year. As the owner of a fuel oil business discovers. He is having problems with the police, his wife,and competition from the Mafia. Although all he really wants - he says - is to make an honest buck. An atmospheric thriller from a filmmaker who gets more interesting all the time.

Poet on a Business Trip [wp] SP

•paars01•

Ju Anqi, China, 2015, DCP, 103 min, Mandarin, e.s.

•paars01•

Rob Krikke (33) has Down’s syndrome and is an actor with a theatre company.

Since his sister died in an accident, that event won’t let go of Rob anymore. A decision is taken to make a play about her death. Documentary maker Didderiëns follows this process closely, shunning neither poetry nor confrontation.

11:45

La La La at Rock Bottom [wp]

SP

•paars01•

Yamashita Nobuhiro, Japan, 2015, DCP, 103 min, Japanese, e.s.

He is very famous in Japan, the singer in red from Kanjani Eight. Here, Subaru plays a small-scale gangster who’s lost his memory and is helped by a girl who just by chance happens to be the manager of a band. Comedy with music, craziness, melancholy and love.

Black Stone [wp]

Li Luo, China, 2015, Video, 117 min, Mandarin, e.s.

A newcomer arrives at a boarding school for deaf teenagers. Their world is defined by power, violence and exploitation. To survive there, you have to be like them. And only love can be your escape. A radical drama without a single dialogue but with gestures which are more powerful than any words.

SP

Dré Didderiëns, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 70 min, Dutch, e.s.

14:15

09:15

Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine, 2014, DCP, 130 min, no dialogue

Mijn witte hemd [wp]

In all its simplicity, a completely unique film, shot more than 10 years ago and only now edited. A poet sets off on a ‘business trip’ through inhospitable Xinjiang. The physically exhausting trip provides an existential brothel visit, bumping on bad roads and a glimpse of a disappearing world, but also 16 melancholy poems.

SP

Artist/filmmaker Roh has an impressively sombre world view; based on the sad fate of a Filipino-Korean family, he shows a decayed society where it’s impossible to distinguish between material and immaterial pollution. Those who can cope with this are rewarded with moments of mercy and magic.

16:45

Ando Hiroshi, Japan, 2014, DCP, 118 min, Japanese, e.s.

LL Loin des hommes David Oelhoffen 17:00 – 18:50

SH Het universum van Jaap Pieters Barbara den Uyl 19:30 – 20:17

SP

•paars01•

A female student falls for a senior, but the senior not really for her. He is willing to go to bed with her, but doesn’t feel love. The couple embark on a painful yet passionate experiment.

A 1970s story in 1970s images, based on the legendary book by the then very young writer Kei Nakazawa. Nominated for The Big Screen Award.

BF The Bull Larissa Figueiredo 22:00 – 23:18

13:30

La vie de Jean-Marie [wp]

SP

•paars01•

Nathan Silver, USA, 2015, DCP, 70 min, English, e.s.

12:30

SP

•paars01•

Peter van Houten, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 166 min, Dutch/French, e.s.

The fragile harmony of a sober commune is cruelly disrupted by the arrival of Ann. The paranoia and drug relapse she causes result in destructive chaos.

With admirably controlled improvisations, Silver creates an idiosyncratic film that leaves a deep impression.

Beautiful, poetic documentary portrait of an aged Dutch pastor who - probably as the very last one - watches over the spiritual life of about 25 villages in the French Pyrenees and does so with an unprecedented vivacity, sincerity and sensitivity for female beauty. Long, but very infectious.

22:30

17:00

SP

The Wolf’s Lair [wp]

•paars01•

Khavn, Philippines, 2015, DCP, 75 min, Tagalog/English, e.s.

What can a family do if someone disappears in a dictatorship? You can’t go to the police for help or information. Many families were affected in this way by the cruelty of the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986). The film shows one of them as an example of paradise lost.

Cinerama 4

•paars01•

Banana Pancakes and the Children of Sticky Rice [wp] BF Daan Veldhuizen, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 93 min, Lao, e.s.

There’s a myth that suggests the ghost of the 16th-century Portuguese king Don Sebastiaan founded a magical kingdom on the island of Lençóis off the Brazilian coast after his defeat against the Moors.

Five centuries later, a young Portuguese woman (and a small film crew) arrives there. The island is still enchanting.

When backpackers come to a small village in rural Laos, their arrival divides the local population and disrupts the relationship between two childhood friends. A complex East-meets-West story, told in a cinematographic language that is as rich as it is confrontational.

It was to be an ‘epic on the artist as worker’. Which WORK undoubtedly is. Above all, however, it is a cheery shambles, featuring a manly search for the essence of the story. A search that leads us into in the basements of The Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, among countless cats.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

BF

•geel•

Larissa Figueiredo, Brazil, 2015, DCP, 78 min, Portuguese, e.s.

•geel•

Erik van Lieshout, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 80 min, Dutch, d.s.

Three elderly single women receive a remarkable visitor: as an experiment, care robot Alice is placed in their home for a while. This newcomer is not without an effect on the elderly ladies. Nor on us: a poignant, at times heartrending and morally thoroughly confusing documentary.

Métamorphoses

Loin des hommes

22:00

+

•blauw•

LL

•blauw•

Christophe Honoré, France, 2014, DCP, 102 min, French

The Bull [wp]

WERK [wp]

LL

Sander Burger, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 80 min, Dutch, e.s.

Every family has its secrets, the family of Present-day France. A teenage girl Portuguese filmmaker Mourão included. is picked up by a good-looking man As the granddaughter of the well-known outside her high school. Her interest in writer Tomaz de Figueiredo, she picks the beautiful stranger grows stronger as apart several of them in an intimate yet he tells her sensual, marvellous tales of universally meaningful way. As such, the gods falling for young mortals. She her film also becomes a portrait of decides to follow him, for a while. dictatorship and resistance and of the 17:00 urge to create art.

09:00

11:30

Ik ben Alice [wp]

14:30

SP

Catarina Mourão, Portugal, 2015, DCP, 102 min, Portuguese, e.s.

•paars01•

Roh Gyeong-Tae, South Korea/ France, 2015, DCP, 92 min, Korean/Tagalog/English, e.s.

Undulant Fever [ip]

Nathan Silver 19:30 – 20:40

WF Dreamcatcher Kim Longinotto 19:30 – 21:07

Desaparadiso [wp]

SP Desaparadiso Khavn 22:30 – 23:45

Heaven

SP The Wolf’s Lair Catarina Mourao 17:00 – 18:45

Stinking Heaven [wp]

09:15

Kim Longinotto, United Kingdom, 2015, DCP, 97 min, English

While NATO has been bombing military and civilian targets for months in 1999, three inhabitants of Belgrade attempt to lead a more or less normal life in spite of all the death around them. The city itself is not only a backdrop but also a protagonist in this story of fear, love, loyalty and the madness of war.

Erbarme dich - Matthäus Passion Stories [wp]

Dreamcatcher [ep]

SP Stinking

19:30

Cinerama 2

09:15

LL

SP Undulant Fever Ando Hiroshi 16:45 – 18:43

SP La vie de Jean-Marie Peter van Houten 13:30 – 16:16

WERK

de Doelen Willem Burger Zaal

Marinus Groothof, Netherlands/ Belgium/Serbia/Greece, 2015, DCP, 90 min, Serbian

A Most Violent Year

+

LL Timbuktu Abderrahmane Sissako 10:00 – 11:37

LantarenVenster 3

SP Black Stone Roh Gyeong-Tae 14:15 – 15:50

Bottom

Dré Didderiëns 09:15 – 10:25

Cinerama 4

14.00

•blauw•

Shortly before the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence, a teacher (Viggo Mortensen) is forced to accompany a local murderer (Reda Kateb) across the Atlas Mountains to a French colonial court. A North African Western, based on a short story by Albert Camus. Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

19:30

Het universum van Jaap Pieters [wp]

LantarenVenster 3

LL

David Oelhoffen, France, 2014, DCP, 110 min, French/Arabic

SH

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Barbara den Uyl, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 47 min, Dutch, e.s.

10:00

Timbuktu Abderrahmane Sissako, France/ Mauritania, 2014, DCP, 97 min, French/Arabic/Bambara/English

LL

•blauw•

Tragically, this beautiful film becomes more relevant every day. Almost everything in it is beautiful, from the locations to the traditional costumes, but the story is one of the major dramas of our time: fanatical strangers disrupt the lives of a nomadic community on the edge of the desert. The desert becomes an unwilling metaphor.

Charming portrait Jaap Pieters, lover of life among the Super-8 filmmakers.

Ample attention is paid to his fascination for life’s rough edges and the beauty of being.

1

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INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

Anton Damen (hoofdredactie), Radboud de Bree, Sanne de Maijer (eindredactie), Joost Broeren, Tara Lewis, Sietse Meijer, Maricke Nieuwdorp, Nicole Santé, Paul van de Graaf (redactie), Martje van Nes, Jodie de Groot, Anne van de Wetering (marketing en communicatie) English section: Nick Cunningham (editor-in-chief ), Mark Baker (copy and production editor), Melanie Goodfellow (editor),Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, Ruben Demasure, Tina Poglajen, Harriet Warman (trainees), Lot Piscaer (online) Programma informatie: Chris Schouten, Melissa van der Schoor Coördinatie A-Z: Saskia Gravelijn (tekst), Erik Diekstra (beeld) Fotografie: Felix Kalkman (coördinatie), Bram Belloni, Bas Czerwinski, Corinne de Korver, Nichon Glerum, Ruud Jonkers, Nadine Maas, Marije van Woerden Vormgeving: Sjoukje van Gool, Pascal Tieman, Gerald Zevenboom Drukker: Veenman+ Acquisitie: Daily Productions Oplage: 10.000 per dag

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