HEARTOF THETIGER photo: Bram Belloni
43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam #8 Thursday 30 January 2014
Delegates enjoy a drink and the buzz at the Late Night Drinks hosted by African Metropolis and Boost! in de Doelen during CineMart.
CineMart awards
Exceptions prove the rule
Last night, the CineMart Awards were presented in the Arcadiszaal in de Doelen.
The phrase ‘Iranian film’ has long become a buzzword. In a country plagued by political instability and cultural oppression, filmmakers still manage to tell authentic stories – and expand the expressive possibilities of the medium of cinema, while they’re at it. By Irina Trocan
By Micheal Pattison The ARTE International Prize (€7,000) goes to the producer of the best CineMart project. New financial support comes this year from the Global Film Initiative, which continues its established relationship with the Hubert Bals Fund and IFFR by presenting three grants of $10,000 US each to the selected films. Susan Weeks Coulter, Chairman of the Board of the Global Film Initiative, says: “We felt that perhaps this year filmmakers would appreciate knowing they had an immediate decision about some financing and we have decided to make that a reality for the three of them today.” Italian-French co-production Happy Time Will Come Soon, directed by Alessandro Comodin and produced by Paolo Benzi (Okta Film) and Thomas Ordonneau
UPC Audience Award As of Wednesday 14:28 hours 1. Nebraska............................................................4,74 2. Starred Up..........................................................4,63 3. After the Tone....................................................4,61 4. Sorrow and Joy..................................................4,58 5. Feel My Love......................................................4,58 6. Zombie: The Resurrection of Tim Zom.........4,58 7. The Selfish Giant...............................................4,50
(Shellac Sud), took the €7,000 ARTE International Prize. According to the jury, “This very original project seems to go deep into the rich, sensitive world of the filmmaker we noticed with his excellent previous film L’estate di Giacomo. The elaborate narrative of the project, nourished by family stories and rooted in the landscapes of North-eastern Italy promises a beautiful and imaginative film.” The €30,000 Eurimages Co-production Development Award, meanwhile, went to Tabija (Bosnia-Herzegovina), directed by Igor Drljaca and produced by Amra Bakšic Camo and Adis Djapo (SSCCA/pro.ba). The jury said: “This CineMart, the jury decided to give the Eurimages development award to a young team developing a project with great urgency. The writer/director has found an interesting form and style to tell this important story. The fact that he lived abroad for some time may have helped him to clarify what he wants to say about the situation in his native country. This will be a film that portrays a generation of young people after a war ... The producer is experienced and has been successful with films at international festivals. We are very much looking forward to seeing this intense, modern film from a country that hasn’t made such a film yet.” Both awards were decided by a three-person jury consisting of Annamaria Lodato (ARTE France), Dorien van de Pas (Netherlands Film Fund and Dutch Representative of Eurimages) and Pierre Menahem (MPM Film). The Global Film Initiatives Grants were awarded to Chingari – The Spark (India), directed by Rajesh Jala and produced by Rajesh Jala (The Elements) and Cedomir Kolar (A.S.A.P. Films); Nervous Translation (Philippines), directed by Shireen Seno and produced by Arleen Cuevas and John Torres (Peliculas Los Otros); and Mustang (Turkey/France/Germany), directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven and produced by Charlotte Vincent (Aurora Films).
8. Papusza..............................................................4,49 9. The Creator of the Jungle................................4,47 10. Sexy Money........................................................4,46
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The ARTE International Prize consists of €7,000 and not €5,000 as erroneously stated in yesterday’s ‘Daily Tiger’. The Prins Claus Fund Film Grant is no longer given.
Abbas Kiarostami has been making films for fourtythree years and the innovations in his work never stop. Jafar Panahi has managed to produce and release on the festival circuit two feature films while under house arrest. Asghar Farhadi pushes classic cinematic narration to a degree of unprecedented intricacy to allow us to go deeper and deeper into the emotions of his characters. Which begs the question: How do they do it? And why is nobody in, say, Morocco as successful artistically, since hypothetically the political situation there allows for this? Despite what you might think of at first, Yassine el Idrissi’s The Iranian Film (screening for the last time today, 20:30 in LantarenVenster 3) is really about Morocco; it uses Iranian film as a quality standard – a Holy Grail, if you prefer – in the quest by two Moroccan filmmakers who are out to make a film of their own. To bracket it within a genre, it more resembles the films-about-film starring New York-based bohemian filmmakers than the more old-fashioned, metaphysical search depicted in Federico Fellini’s Otto e mezzo and its many, many imitations. Produced in the Netherlands as part of a Master’s degree programme, The Iranian Film is a witty, entertaining film that’s not afraid to expose inconvenient assumptions in the Moroccan production milieu. When the two aspiring filmmakers set out to find support for their project, one of their first advisors – presumably speaking for an entire class of local professionals – hints that what they should do with their film is paint a bad image of their country, because that is how they can attract more foreign funds. But since they refuse
international film festival rotterdam
to respect authority or sell their souls to get into filmmaking (the phrasing depends on how dramatic your worldview is), the search goes on. From a formal point of view, The Iranian Film is not as committed to ambiguity and realism as the films it ostensibly takes as models (although it occasionally mimics their construction, like in a theatre scene made mostly of reaction shots, reminiscent of Kiarostami’s Shirin). Composed of bite-sized encounters and revealing mishaps, featuring bit players who seem authentic and unwittingly embarrass themselves with ridiculous speeches, it adheres pretty closely to the mockumentary format that’s become familiar to us from US movies. For a film about filmmaking, it’s refreshingly disenchanted with the magic of cinema – unlike other films that at first dismiss escapism and then end up letting it sneak in through the back door. Films can inspire youth. Films can dazzle the audience. Films can offer valid metaphors for understanding life. But these are the exceptions. El Idrissi’s next project is a fiction film about the turmoil in Syria – interestingly, it follows a documentary he made on the same topic (produced by VPRO and already in the editing room). He says the two films have no footage in common, but he will be using archive material. “I’m playing with reality and trying to make something fictional of it. There will be news footage and YouTube clips. Social media played a major role in these events – it’s not the only cause behind the Arab spring, but it wouldn’t have been the same without it.”