Daily Tiger #1 (English) by International Film Festival Rotterdam

Rutger Wolfson

photo: Bram Belloni

Meant to be A strong showing for Dutch cinema and a major new prize are among the new features of IFFR 2013. Festival director Rutger Wolfson talks to Edward Lawrenson

“Very ready, yes”, says Rutger Wolfson, director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, when asked about the organisation’s preparedness for this 42nd edition. You’d expect Wolfson to put on a good show, speaking, as he is, to the Daily Tiger just a day ahead of opening night. But the confidence seems genuine. “I think we have a very strong and balanced programme”, says Wolfson, now in his sixth year in charge. “We have great guests coming, and organisation-wise things are going very smoothly; there have been no technical screw ups.” Dutch focus

Wolfson is especially bullish about the strong showing of cinema from the Netherlands. Two of the Tiger competition films – The Resurrection of a Bastard and Silent Ones – are Dutch, and local titles feature through the rest of the programme. As Geoffrey Macnab points out on page 3, the festival’s renewed focus on Dutch cinema comes at a difficult time for the industry, with state support for the sector due to fall in 2013 in response to the ongoing economic crisis. “We realised the festival could play an important a role for the Dutch industry”, says Wolfson. “A lot of big international industry professionals and press will see Dutch films, so they get a lot of attention. The

Dutch media are interested in it too.” The fact that there are so many interesting films from the Netherlands emerging right now is, Wolfson says, a trend IFFR is ready to exploit. “You have to be lucky enough that films are available; and this year there was a lot of choice. There were really strong films. We’re happy that we can bring all these films into the programme: it’s almost like it was meant to be.” IFFR’s renewed emphasis on Dutch cinema is, Wolfson argues, part of wider debate around the future of government support of the industry. “The money available for supporting Dutch productions is going down. Luckily there will be a parliamentary summit this February to look into things like introducing a tax shelters, and I’m very happy our showcase of Dutch films will re-emphasize the argument.” Will Wolfson or any other IFFR figure be at the summit? “No, but the Minister of Culture is attending the festival,” Wolfson says. “And I’m sure we’ll have a chat with her.” Eyes on the prize

This attention to the practicalities of supporting original talent lies behind the introduction of a new prize at IFFR this year. Alongside the festival’s long-standing Tiger competition strand, it is launching The Big Screen Award Competition and the KNF Award, in both of which ten titles will compete for guaranteed distribution throughout the Benelux (an initiative the festival is running in cooperation with Amstelfilm). “The reality of distribution at the moment is pretty grim”, says Wolfson. “There are fantastic films being

made that never get theatrical release.” Wolfson continues: “We wanted a prize that would really support our effort to get films into cinemas.” Selected from titles in Bright Future (dedicated to original work from newcomers) and Spectrum (for more established talent), the new competitive strands allow the festival to recognise films ineligible for the Hivos Tiger awards (devoted to debut and second features). “There are really great films by directors like David Verbeek or Alicia Scherson that can’t be in the Hivos Tiger Awards Competition because they’ve already had films in that strand”, Wolfson points out. “We want to have beautiful new films and we want to make them visible, and that’s always the good thing about a prize: there’s the prize itself, which is distribution, but it also gives your film more attention.” In addition, IFFR is also partnering with digital film distributor Under the Milky Way to make available favourite titles from from past editions in a dedicated ‘IFFR room’ on iTunes. New titles screening in Bright Future and Spectrum will also be added to this room (itunes.com/iffr) throughout the year. Dream ticket

The reduced distribution opportunities for the kind of cultural cinema IFFR supports – which has led to the creation of these initiatives – is a consequence of the continued economic crisis. Another consequence is a slight drop last year in audience visits to the festival. “We had 274,000 visits,” says Wolfson – a figure most other festival directors can only dream of, but one that

INTERNATIONAL film festival rotterdam

does represent a fall from previous editions. It’s comparable with other cultural organisations during the recession, says Wolfson. IFFR is also making changes to its ticketing options, introducing an €18 voucher that provides visitors with reduced admission rates. “There’s a really important group,” says Wolfson on the findings of recent research into IFFR visitor profiles, “who watch around six or seven titles. They are really important to us because they are very loyal visitors and they are really important to the atmosphere of the festival because they are film-lovers. We wanted to give that group the opportunity to buy more tickets.” High standing

With funding cuts from the national and the city government due to come into effect in 2014, the importance of ticket sales to the IFFR’s budget remains high (the budget currently stands at €7.3 million). “We’ve been dealing with this since the crisis began in 2008;” says Wolfson, “we rely heavily on admissions and our partners, so government support is only part of our income.” “We’re already spending time on finding new partners and developing new initiatives – we’re pretty good at it”, Wolfson adds. Additionally, IFFR’s high standing among its large public audience, Wolfson suggests, helps protect it from overly severe cuts: “We have such a large audience who really support us; people care about the festival. I’m pretty confident we won’t have to make any compromises to the programme next year.”

PROUD PARTNER OF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM 2013 Join Jameson on Facebook: facebook.com/JamesonNederland

Geniet, maar drink met mate.

Resurrection of an industry After years of struggle, Dutch cinema is connecting with local audiences and festival programmers. By Geoffrey Macnab

Rob Duyser

photo: Corinne de Korver

iPads in the stream “We’re up and running”, says IFFR’s video library supremo Rob Duyser, amidst the hustle and bustle of setting up on the 4th floor of De Doelen. By Mark Baker

This year is Duyser’s seventh edition in charge, which means he’s been around almost as long as the video library itself. “There was one before that,” he recalls, “four booths, I think, with VHS tapes and DVDs. We kept a VHS booth up until about four years ago, then it was phased out. That year we had one VHS booth and no one used it, so that was a pretty clear signal!” Now, Duyser says, the same is happening with DVD. “Just two years ago, 99% of the films we received were on DVD”, he says. “Now it is only about 50%. DVDs have a number of disadvantages – they are too fragile, one scratch and they are ruined, and all the for-

New juror for Tiger Shorts Solange Farkas, director of the Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, who was scheduled to sit on the jury of the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films, has unfortunately had to cancel due to illness. Her replacement is Brent Klinkum of Transat Video, a multi-facetted organisation, its core activity is curating audio-visual programmes in specific contexts, as well as the curatorship of exhibitions in varied settings and venues. See the festival website (www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com) for further information.

Tea House for free speech As part of its Inside Iran strand, IFFR has established its own Tea House at Schouwburgplein 54 (on the corner of De Doelen), where you can sip hot beverages and watch various talks and performance pieces (which we’ll keep you updated on in the Daily Tiger). Its hours are from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and it officially opens today at 5 p.m. All welcome for High Tea, Water Pipes and Free Speech.

mats used these days are much easier to deal with as a file. Production and post-production houses are using a whole range of HD-ready formats, and streaming means we don’t need to standardise these down for DVD. We can show HD as HD, which means the image quality is just getting better and better, year on year.” This year, the video library again has 40 dedicated booths. The additional Wi-Fi streaming facility can handle about 100 more viewers, watching on their own devices. “The Wi-Fi uses a separate server from the booths, it is squished down slightly so more people can watch at the same time”, Duyser explains. “But the quality is still very good.” At present, all IOS devices should also be able to stream the video library films. Unfortunately Android is not supported yet, Duyser says, but he’s working on it…

In addition to the video library in De Doelen, once again this year there is a second facility in LantarenVenster. “That will run on these two machines here”, Duyser says, pointing to two gleaming iMacs. On the eve of the festival opening night, Duyser says the library has “about 400 titles” ready to go, which should get up to about 450 (“roughly three-quarters of the festival selection”) by the time the library opens for business on Thursday morning. “Some of the retrospective programmes don’t go on, and occasionally there are rights issues with some titles”, he explains. “But most people are keen to have their films on our system. The video library at IFFR has a real market function.” The video library is open to industry guests from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day of the festival, and closes at 6 p.m. on Saturday, 2 February.

Digital deluge The IFFR’s screening of The Master is on glorious 70mm. But celluloid screenings at the festival are outnumbered by those on digital. By Nick Cunningham

It was inevitable that IFFR exhibition would go digital, but even Rotterdam staff are surprised at the speed with which celluloid has been replaced by DCP (Digital Cinema Package). In 2011, 130 IFFR features were delivered on 35mm, compared to eight on DCP, with video accounting for 140 features. Early DCP adopters seemed to have been sales agents tired of the physical strain of schlepping numerous titles from festival to festival. But the real shift began in 2012 – by then, 80 features were DCP, against 70 on 35mm. This year, the digital transformation seems to be nearing completion with 150 features on DCP and 30 on 35mm (and 70 on video). In the main, the Signals retrospective programmes account for this year’s celluloid portion. A notable exception is the 70mm public screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s IFFR public opener, The Master. From a festival perspective, the logistical benefits of DCP outweigh the disadvantages. “For us, it’s quite easy to use, instead of 35mm”, comments programme co-ordinator Melissa van der Schoor. “Very few venues can actually play 35mm. So programming-wise it is easier to make the schedule. Also transporting-wise it is easier to carry a hard disc in a suitcase than a 35mm print that weighs approximately 25 kilos.” Van der Schoor points out that IFFR sponsor NedciPro has this year offered DCP upload for festival films for a third of the usual cost. The success of DCP depends upon the degree of prescreening preparation. Gone are the days when a pro-

jectionist could load the film 30 seconds before the screening was due to commence. Now, a considerably greater lead time is required for a successful outcome. “It takes between 30 minutes and two hours to ingest the film into the server, so if we make a mistake in our print logistics we have to cancel the show, because there is no way that we can solve it in time – so mistakes are much more critical”, points out the festival’s film technology tsar Rembrandt Boswijk. “And then there is the kdm (key delivery message) management, with which approximately 60% of the film is protected, so we can only show it if the producer allows us to.” Through this agreement, the film’s producer provides a precise time-window in which to play the film, linked to a specific server/projector combination. “If the producer allows us to show The Master in Pathé 1 at this time on this machine, then we have to be sure these kdms are correct – no typos, no wrong dates, no festival mixups. When we combine this with logistics, we have two major points of potential failure within our infrastructure that can fuck up the screening. So we really have to make sure everything is right.” A cultural downside of DCP is, of course, the passing of a romantic era. The physical characteristics of celluloid – its weight, smell and feel – can no longer be appreciated by film professionals. Boswijk points out in turn that the new cinema projectionists lack all technical savvy, merely being required to press a button to start a screening, unlike the exhibition professionals of old. “The guys who can really project 35mm, 70mm or 8mm, they are a really small group, and they are the ones we are afraid of losing. There are no new people coming in anymore. We used to call them the dinosaurs, but now they are the saviours. We need them”, he implores.

INTERNATIONAL film festival rotterdam

Picture the scene. The Dutch audience is in the cinema, waiting for the surprise film. The moment it starts and the spectators realise it’s a Dutch film, they all begin to walk out. This, suggests Claudia Landsberger, Head of EYE International, used to be a regular occurrence. The Dutch simply didn’t like Dutch movies. Local festivals weren’t so keen on Dutch fare either. The last time (before this year) IFFR opened with a Dutch title was 15 years ago (with Peter Delpeut’s Felice...Felice...), a film that anyway was Asian-themed. “Now, people really want to go to Dutch films”, Landsberger says. There has been a sea change, both as far as Dutch audiences and festival programmers are concerned. Rotterdam opens this year with Guido van Driel’s The Resurrection of a Bastard (see page 6), a debut feature from a Dutch director that also competes in the Tiger competition. As does Ricky Rijneke’s debut feature Silent Ones. Meanwhile, there are Dutch features, documentaries and shorts scattered throughout the programme, many from first time filmmakers. “I’m ecstatic!” Landsberger enthuses of Rotterdam’s renewed enthusiasm for Dutch films. “Obviously, the IFFR programmers and director see something in this new generation of filmmakers.” Meanwhile, Dutch box-office figures for 2012 are again impressive. The market share for local films was at 16% (down a little on the 2011 figures but still a strong number). With 30.6 million visitors and a slight increase (0.6 per cent up on 2011), 2012 was a robust year for cinemas in the Netherlands. Total box office was at €245 million. Among Dutch films, The Family Way attracted most moviegoers. In total, nearly 5 million people (2011: 6.8 million) went to see Dutch films in cinemas. While the average ticket price (€8.01) has hardly increased compared to 2011 (€7.88), going to the movies remains the most inexpensive of all leisure activities. There is increasing evidence of theatre and TV talent collaborating with the film community. For example, Diederik Ebbinge’s debut feature Matterhorn is a film premiere in Rotterdam, but was originally made for TV. The challenge now is for the festival films being unveiled in Rotterdam over the next 10 days to go on to attract audiences in Dutch cinemas. Hopes are high, for example, that The Resurrection of a Bastard could prove a crossover success – a film that plays equally well with critics and audiences. “Rotterdam could be so important for Dutch films. I hope this isn’t just a oneoff”, Landsberger notes of the strong Dutch selection. There is already evidence that festivals can help Dutch movies break into mainstream distribution in the Netherlands. For example, The Deflowering of Eva Van End has been picked up for theatrical release by Benelux Films following its successful launch at Toronto last September. One of the ironies about the current flowering of Dutch cinema is that it is happening just as severe cuts are about to hit the sector. Dutch directors are going to have to learn how to be creative with less money. Doreen Boonekamp, head of the Netherlands Film Fund, points out that the new coalition Government is beginning to recognize the sector’s concerns. A special summit will be held in late March by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Culture to discuss the state of Dutch film production with distributors, exhibitors, producers and the Netherlands Film Fund. As yet, there is no further progress on plans to establish a Dutch tax shelter or to set up regional film funds. Boonekamp talks of the ambition to raise Dutch market share of overall cinema-going yet further. “We did research together with distributors and exhibitors that revealed that having a good number of Dutch films in the cinemas has a positive influence on the total cinema audience for all films.” So if the Dutch sector is thriving, Dutch film culture as a whole will benefit. However, insiders acknowledge it will be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain current market share once the cuts are introduced. Fewer films will be made. There will be even less incentive for international filmmakers to coproduce with Dutch partners. On an anecdotal level, senior figures within the Dutch industry point out that their friends and colleagues outside the industry are now talking about Dutch cinema with a curiosity and enthusiasm they’ve never shown before. “After the bad years of the 1990s,” Boonekamp says, “we are making films now that are much more attractive, nationally and internationally.”

VOLUME 8

VICE MAGAZINE VOLUME 8 NUMMER 1

NUMMER 1 VICE MAGAZINE VOLUME 8

NE VICE MAGAZI

FREE FREEFREE VOLUME 8

NUMMER 1

VOLUME 8 NUMMER 1

HET SYRIË

HET SYRIË ISSUE

NUMMER 1 ISSUE

De nieuwe

OPEL ADAM

NEDERLAND

NEDERLAND NEDERLAND

JOUW ULTIEME ZELFPORTRET.

SSEUE ËISISU YRËIISSUE T SRI HET SY HEHTESYRIË

12-12-04

11:19 AM

12-12-04 11:19 AM

NL v8n1 Cover (4mm).indd 1 12-12-04 11:19 AM

dd 1

NL v8n1 Cover (4mm).in NL v8n1

Cover

1 (4mm).indd

DE BRON VAN VERLICHTING IN DONKERE DAGEN Bekijk het op VICE.com

www. opel .nl

Opel Nederland

Gemiddeld brandstofverbruik 5,1-5,0 l/100km; gemiddelde CO2-uitstoot 119-118 g/km.

8000_00_000_WT_Opm_132x190mm.indd 1

NAOMI WATTS

16-01-13 13:12 EWAN MCGREGOR

VICE_ad_IFFR_875x115.indd 1

10-01-13 1

A FILM BY J.A. BAYONA (El Orfanato)

NU IN DE BIOSCOOP

NU OP HET IFFR

/ VOLGINDEPENDENTFILMS

/ VOLGINDEPENDENTFILMS / VOLGINDEPENDENTFILMS

/ VOLGINDEPENDENTFILMS

3 OSCAR NOMINATIONS ®

BEST ACTOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

joaquin

phoenix

philip seymour

hoffman

amy

adams

4 - 7 april 2013 the cinemas willemstad

the Master paul thomas anderson director of “Magnolia” and ”there will be blood”

24 januari in de bioscoop

curacaoiffr.com THE UNTOLD STORY BEHIND THE FILM THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

14 MAART IN DE BIOSCOOP www.foxfilm.nl

House of horrors Receiving its world premiere later today, Anthea Kennedy and Ian Wiblin’s The View from our House is a haunting and quietly moving essay film that revolves around the memories of a young woman growing up in Nazi-era Berlin. By Edward Lawrenson

As fragments from the diaries and notebooks of the teenage Erika, an aspiring photographer living in Berlin’s Tempelhof district in the 1930s, are read out, Kennedy and Wiblin build an evocative portrait of the location through static shots of the neighbourhood and occasional glimpses of Erika’s own photos. Past and present combine in a film that sorrowfully recreates the texture of everyday life while hinting at the traumatic political realities underlying the suburban routine, most vividly through Erika’s recollection of screaming coming from a building at the end of her street – in fact an SA prison. “She was my aunt”, Kennedy says of Erika, ahead of the premiere. A Jewish refugee to Britain (who would be interned as an ‘enemy alien’ when war broke out), Erika Koch went on to a career photographing diplomatic functions in London and died in 2010. UK-based filmmakers Kennedy and Wiblin started work on a project on Erika’s memories of Berlin while she was still alive, but it was only after she died that they found the diaries and notebooks from which much of the voiceover would be drawn – “they were literally discovered in the attic, a cliché but true”, says Kennedy. “I think she’d be pleased there was a film based on her life,” Kennedy adds, but she points out that the project of the film is wider than family biography: “We wanted

it to resonate with the present. To connect with the racism that is throughout Europe today.” Gathering images of Tempelhof over three separate trips, the film shows the neighbourhood across the seasons: “We have the sense of different times of year – it’s important because the SA prison was in existence for over a year, a period that coincided with Erika’s first year as a photographer. We wanted to convey that passing of time but not in a chronological way: we’re not particularly fond of clear linear films.” Like their previous film Stella Polare (which showed at IFFR in 2006 and similarly explored ideas of European history), The View from Our House was shot in standard definition video, a format that lends it the “low-key look” that heightens the impressionistic mood. “We were happy to work with the particular aesthetic that SD give us”, explains Wiblin. “For us there’s a certain harshness about high-definition video we’re not keen on.” Having partly funded the budget of around £25,000 with support from the UK Arts Council, Kennedy and Wiblin arrive in Rotterdam fresh from finishing The View from Our House and have yet to firm up plans for other screenings. Admitting to nerves before the first screening, Kennedy adds: “We are hoping for it to be seen at as many other festivals as possible.”

Spectrum The View from Our House – Anthea Kennedy and Ian Wiblin Thu 24 Jan 16:45 LV1 Fri 25 Jan 16:15 PA3 Sun 27 Jan 20:15 CI7 Tue 29 Jan 15:00 CI5 (press & industry)

Last rites Dead Body Welcome sees Dutch director Kees Brienen recreate a traumatic event from his past. By Nick Cunningham

Kees Brienen’s debut feature Dead Body Welcome is one rooted in tragedy. In 2006, the filmmaker – formerly a programmer for IFFR – went to Ghana to observe a solar eclipse with his best friend, artist Jeroen de Rijke. When he arrived, he was informed that De Rijke had died some days before. His task then was to organise the return of his friend’s body to the Netherlands. Two years later, while in Mexico with filmmaker Elisa Miller (Alicia Go Yonder, Tiger Competition 2010), Brienen decided to retell the tragic story in feature form. “I decided to focus on that specific story because I felt so lonely when I was travelling in Ghana”, Brienen stresses. “I expected to encounter my best friend, but I when I got there I found out he was dead. And when I came back to Holland, somehow I was never satisfied with my own explanation of what had happened. I couldn’t find enough words, or the right words, to explain how it felt to be there by myself… so maybe I should show it.” Brienen subsequently received e30,000 in funding from the Netherlands Film Fund, set his story in India, cast himself in the lead and enlisted Miller’s support as assistant director. He also persuaded muchacclaimed Dutch editor Menno Boerma to cut the film. The resulting work follows Brienen’s journey after the discovery of his friend’s death towards a dramatic climax which, without revealing its spectacular

celestial context, fuses the most element forces of light and dark, fire and death, lyric and silence. And in a coda that references the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brienen invokes the revolving projections within the work of his favourite artist, Jordan Belson. “You make yourself very vulnerable when you are acting in your own film”, he stresses. “Of course I’m not Woody Allen or Clint Eastwood. I’m not a director who can direct himself. That is why I asked Elisa to come with me to be my assistant director. It’s very important to have somebody to reflect with who is not the cameraperson. The cameraperson looks at things from a technical perspective, but wanted Elisa with me to reflect on the content, and on how I acted.” Late in the shoot, Brienen and his crew filmed a mass cremation, an event that shaped the film’s ending. “When I returned Jeroen’s body to the Netherlands in 2006 … it was very distressing for his family. There had been a discussion as to whether or not to cremate him in Ghana or to bring him home. In my film, I decided to cremate him, because I thought in retrospect that is what I would have done. In a film, you can do anything.”

Bright Future Dead Body Welcome – Kees Brienen Fri 25 Jan 19:30 PA 3 Sat 26 Jan 21:15 PA 6 Mon 28 Jan 11:00 CI 3 (press & industry) Tue 29 Jan 19:15 CI 6 Thu 31 Jan 17:15 CI 7

Butterfly collector Bearing torches for HBF It begins with a landscape at twilight. Then from out of the darkness a handful of female figures emerge, dressed in white body suits, moving through tall grass, holding small electric torches. By Edward Lawrenson

This is the leader Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong has made for the IFFR to introduce the festival’s HBF Harvest films, its selection of Hubert Bals Fund-supported titles. A haunting, beautifully filmed mood piece lasting just over a minute, Suwichakorn-

pong’s short film is entitled Lublae, after the district in Northern Thailand in which it was filmed. The area has certain mythical associations for Thai audiences. “Lublae signifies something mysterious,” explains Suwichakornpong in advance of her trip to IFFR, “there’s even an element of spookiness about it.” She heard stories about the region as a young girl, but it wasn’t until later that she realised the place actually existed: “It became more interesting to me, because I thought the location was pure fiction and it suddenly became concrete, and along with it the possibility that all the stories revolving around this mysterious land could be true. Even if it’s legend, part of me wants to believe. It’s like cinema, in a way – when you watch a good fiction film you want to suspend your disbelief.” Suwichakornpong was especially fascinated by a story about Lublae in which all the inhabitants were women, and she populates her own film with an allfemale cast of ten (drawn from her group of friends). Returning to the festival for her fifth consecutive year, Suwichakornpong has past involvement with the HBF: her 2010 Tiger Award-winning feature Mundane History was supported by the Fund. “I feel very thankful to the HBF”, she says. As well as directing this leader, in this year’s festival she is showing Overseas, a short co-directed with Wichanon Somumjarn (whose 2012 Tiger entrant In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire was also supported by HBF).

Bernadette Weigel’s world premiere in Bright Future Fair Wind – Notes of a Traveller is a poetic, meditative documentary born of an experiment “to fall in love with the world at first sight”. By Mark Baker

Alone and armed with her Canon 1040 XL-S 8mm camera, Weigel set off by boat from Vienna, travelling East with no fixed destination or schedule in mind. “The budget was about €30,000, so the whole team worked for free. We were supported by companies that still work with film footage, such as Kodak, Andec and AVP, who transferred it to HD”, the Austrian director (who has assistant director and lighting credits to her name on films such as Das Weisse Band) says ahead of her arrival in Rotterdam. “The film is a reminiscence of things that disappear: like film footage. This footage has body, size and weight. Every image is a physical reality of captured light. Fair Wind is about sensuality. 8mm footage is much more expensive than video and because each roll is so short – just 2.25 minutes – you have to make strong decisions about what and how long to shoot.” Being in the decision-making seat was a welcome experience for the debut director. “As I worked on ‘professional’ films for so many years, having to control every inch and second while shooting to get a ‘perfect’ result, it was a great release and a gift to just let moments arise in front of the camera. Life expresses itself and you capture fragments of it. I call this way of shooting ‘picking pictures’ or ‘running around with a butterfly net’.” The film makes creative use of asynchronous sound (for example the sound of children playing over images of men gambling), but this was not a purely practical decision necessitated by shooting with the 8mm cam-

INTERNATIONAL film festival rotterdam

era, the director reveals. “I was travelling alone and my camera makes lots of noise so this was the only way to do the film. But on the other hand, it was a formal decision too; it allowed me to create a double layer of expression in each scene. The two layers influence and change one another. Sound should not be the slave of the image. Sound is a whole universe by itself.” Weigel is currently preparing her first full-length fiction film. “The concept is to keep maximum freedom while shooting and tell a story at the same time. It will be a story about three children, set in nature. You could describe it as a kind of ‘freestyle Tarkovsky’”, the director says. Asked about her hopes for Fair Wind after IFFR, she quotes a Bulgarian proverb: “Whatever comes along is welcome.”

Bright Future Fair Wind – Notes of a Traveller – Bernadette Weigel

Thu 24 Jan 18:15 PA 6 Fri 25 Jan 14:30 CI 4 Sun 27 Jan 12:00 CI 2 Mon 28 Jan 22:15 LA 6 (press & industry) Thu 31 Jan 09:00 CI 6

Portrait of a hoodlum Cartoonist-turned-debut-director Guido van Driel’s The Resurrection of a Bastard is a stylish adaptation of his own graphic novel. By Geoffrey Macnab

The Resurrection of a Bastard (the opening film at this year’s IFFR) marks 50-year-old Dutch director Guido van Driel’s first foray into feature filmmaking after a successful career as a cartoonist and graphic novelist. The film tells the story of a Frisian hoodlum who has a life-changing experience. As the film opens, we see Frankie (Yorick van Wageninen) in a neck brace. Something has happened that has changed his personality – he has been beaten almost to death. He is no longer the “old Ronnie” – he is now thoughtful, contemplative, even kind. In a flashback, we are introduced to the old Ronnie and he is indeed... a bastard. We see him beating up a man who owes him money, and attacking his wife and kid. This is the prelude to a gruesome torture scene which makes ingenious use of a Hoover. The Resurrection of a Bastard is based on ‘Om Mekaar in Dokkum’, one of Van Driel’s graphic novels. The original story was much expanded by van Driel and his co-screenwriter, Bas Blocker. “Compared to the comic, if I was to do the comic on a one-to-one basis, it would be a 16-minute movie, not more! We had to do extra scenes.” When the graphic novel was first published, many reviewers pointed to its cinematic quality. This helped convince Van Driel, as he puts it, that “at least once in my life, I should really try my very best to direct a movie.” After working on graphic novels in “total isolation” and with nobody to answer to but himself, Van Driel was initially startled by the collaborative nature of filmmaking. His technical knowledge wasn’t huge, but he relished working with actors. The film touches on racism and fear of the other. (One of the protagonists is an asylum-seeker.) There is also an undertow of surrealism and deadpan humour. The Dutch goodfellas are all thickset types with sideburns and spectacles. One of the main villains is called James Joyce (the late Jeroen Willems), speaks

idiosyncratic English and plays the electric guitar. He has either heartburn or bad breath – or maybe both. The scene in which Ronnie is assaulted is filmed in highly stylised fashion. Dressed all in white, he is attacked and shot in the neck in the gents’ toilets of a big nightclub by a masked assailant also dressed in white. His spirit seems to leave his body and float upwards. He survives the assault and goes after his attacker. Alongside the violence, the director also pays unlikely attention to landscape in general, and to an ancient oak tree in particular. Willems, who died suddenly in December, was the

director’s original choice to play the lead but turned the role down because of other commitments. However, the director did manage to persuade him to play Joyce. Topkapi Films’ Frans van Gestel, producer of The Resurrection of a Bastard, describes Guido van Driel’s debut feature as being in the spirit of the “Belgian wave.” This, Van Gestel argues, is a “crossover film” with the same swagger and formal inventiveness as the Oscar-nominated Flemish title Bullhead. It’s the kind of modestly budgeted but highly original film that (Van Gestel predicts) will escape the art house

E INFO FOR MOR 20 622 8790

am: 0 Amsterd 1 7951 m: 010 41 a d r e t t o R Y OPEN DA 013 ary 2 23 Febru

INTERNATIONAL film festival rotterdam

ghetto into which so many festival films fall and attract a popular audience.

Hivos Tiger Awards Competition The Resurrection of a Bastard – Guido van Driel

Thu 24 Jan 13:45 DJZ (press & industry) Fri 25 Jan 19:00 PA4 Sat 26 Jan 09:30 CI 5 (press & industry) Sat 26 Jan 16:00 PA7 Sun 27 Jan 12:45 PA5 Tue 29 Jan 09:00 PA5 (press & industry) Sat 02 Feb 19:15 PA1

Press & Industry Screenings Thursday 24 january Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal 9:30 Toegetakeld door de liefde [wp]

Cinerama 3

•FLM•

•geel•

Ari Deelder, Netherlands, 2013, DCP, 90 min, Dutch, e.s.

Arie has writer’s block and thinks he has found his muse in the beautiful tram driver Sonja. When her tram line is abolished, he feverishly looks for her. While his fantasies about Sonja become increasingly beautiful, Arie himself is having an increasingly hard time. 11:30 Halley [ep]

Beto is dead and can no longer hide this with make-up and perfume. Life stops. For zombies too, at some stage. But before we get that far, Beto experiences a special friendship with the vivacious Luly. Contemporary Gothic story with an unusual twist.

Guido van Driel, Netherlands / Belgium, 2013, DCP, 90 min, Dutch, e.s.

Dokkum, of all places. You ﬁnd yourself there as a crook from Amsterdam. There you are in the refugee centre as an Angolan refugee. Or you live there, as a vindictive Friesian farmer. And why? Because Guido van Driel ﬁlmed his comic strip there, that’s why. 16:00 Longing for the Rain [wp]

Yang Lina, Hong Kong, 2013, DCP, 98 min, Mandarin, e.s.

The cliche that money doesn’t make you happy is perhaps nowhere more topical than in the nouveau riche Chinese middle classes. It acquires a surprising turn in Yang Lina’s ﬁction debut: Asian ghost story, erotic drama and social documentary in a unique and explosive mix. 18:15 Shanghai [ep] Dibakar Banerjee, India, 2012, DCP, 110 min, Hindi, e.s.

In Shanghai, starring top actors from the Indian new wave, multinational companies are in cahoots with corrupt politicians to restructure a small town. An opposing social activist dies in a suspicious trafﬁc accident, into which his beautiful and determined assistant starts digging.

9:45 Four Ways to Die in My Hometown [ep]

•paars01•

12:30 Touch [wp]

•blauw•

•paars01•

Shelly Silver, USA, 2013, Video, 70 min, Mandarin / Cantonese, e.s.

As a student, the director managed to ﬂee revolutionary Iran. Many who stayed behind did not survive. When there are renewed protests in Teheran 30 years later, she goes looking for a couple of other survivors who ﬂed. An emotional, very personal documentary.

14:15 The Charm of Others [ep]

•geel•

Antonio Campos, USA, 2012, DCP, 105 min, English / French, e.s.

Many Americans preceded him to Paris, but lost soul Simon primarily experiences the dark and harsh side of the city. His own dark side becomes visible when he gets involved with prostitution and extortion. Psychological thriller drama by the promising Campos. BF

Anand Gandhi, India, 2012, DCP, 139 min, Hindi / English, e.s.

•geel•

Three philosophical parables converge at a paradox: restoring a photographer’s eyesight might do more harm than good; a monk with ethical concerns chooses death over life-saving surgery and a stockbroker seeks justice when an organ is illegally sold.

•geel•

•paars01•

Peter Schreiner, Austria, 2013, DCP, 140 min, German, e.s.

Simon Killer

•FLM•

9:45 Miroir mon amour [ip]

No hay pan

•paars01•

11:45 Ninah’s Dowry [ip]

•geel•

Victor Viyuoh, Cameroon / USA, 2012, DCP, 95 min, English / Babanki, e.s.

Women do not have much to say in the interior of Cameroon. Maybe not so surprising, but this beautifully-told story makes very tangible what it means when your life is entirely decided by others and by tradition. Marrying off and selling don’t seem the same, but they can be. 14:00 Wasteland

The Russian Novel

•geel•

Rowan Athale, United Kingdom, 2012, DCP, 106 min, English

Q&A met regisseur

Giuliana: ‘Man’s soul is full of closed doors and you have to open them carefully.’ Christian: ‘The question is, will you then be happier?’ In search of one’s self, in search of the other. No love story will come out of it. And yet it may. 19:45 The Love Songs of Tiedan BF

•geel•

Hao Jie, China, 2012, Video, 89 min, Mandarin, e.s.

He is rich. She is beautiful. She becomes his mistress. He gives her a revolver, she gives him a latex suit. He offers a million dollars, imprudently. She comes to him one night, to remind him of his promises. With Laetitia Casta and Benoît Poelvoorde.

The story starts where the tale ends: Snow White wakes up to the age of sexuality and discovers a world where the dwarves have become tall, and her Prince Charming is deprived of charisma. And, most terrible of all, her mother is incomparably more sexy.

Is Ninomiya Ryutaro the new Kitano Takeshi? He also directs himself with black humour. Told in funny, vexingly realistic fragments and set in the Japanese lower class. With workers who still have work, but don’t do much to keep it. They prefer to bellyache. 16:45 Fata Morgana [wp]

•geel•

Siegrid Alnoy, France, 2012, DCP, 84 min, French, e.s.

Ninomiya Ryutaro, Japan, 2012, Video, 89 min, Japanese, e.s. •FLM•

Hélène Fillières, France / Luxembourg, 2012, DCP, 80 min, French, e.s.

Cinerama 7

A man, a place, a form, an essay, maybe a story. Observation agrees to an arrangement with light, image, something. A return to Chinatown NYC, narrated from one man’s point of view. An austerity of shared entrances and off-the-cuff desires. An insider’s ﬁction.

Nahid Persson Sarvestani, Sweden, 2013, Video, 75 min, Farsi, e.s.

12:45 Ship of Theseus

•paars01•

With the same loving selfmockery in the face of romantic bombasts as in his low-budget jewel A Great Actor, Shin here introduces, meandering and exhaustively, a mediocre writer who will do anything to write a verbose masterpiece.

The effect of people moving away from the Chinese countryside, portrayed in poetic, occasionally stunning and often magical scenes. A student returns to her birthplace because she has a premonition that her father, who has already been in his cofﬁn for seven years, is dying.

Cinerama 4

Shin Yeon-Shick, South Korea, 2012, DCP, 140 min, Korean, e.s.

•geel•

Chai Chunya, China, 2012, Video, 90 min, Chinese, e.s.

10:00 Simon Killer

21:45 Une histoire d’amour [ip]

•FLM•

9:15 The Russian Novel [ip]

12:00 My Stolen Revolution [wp]

Sebastián Hofmann, Mexico, 2012, DCP, 85 min, Spanish, e.s.

13:45 De wederopstanding van een klootzak [wp]

Cinerama 5

•FLM•

ADMISSION WITH P&I ACCREDITATION ONLY

Lively, romantic comedy in the Chinese countryside in the 1960s and 70s, before and after the Cultural Revolution, which banned local music traditions. As a little boy, Tiedan fell in love with the beautiful singer next door and as an adult, with her daughters.

In sombre Yorkshire, a bloodcovered Harvey is interviewed by Inspector West. In ﬂashbacks, we see how Harvey, determined to get his revenge on a drugs baron, plots to bring him down. An intelligent heist ﬁlm in which, of course, nothing is as it seems. 16:30 Vergiss mein nicht

Toegetakeld door de liefde

•geel•

David Sieveking, Germany, 2012, DCP, 88 min, German, e.s.

Gretel, the director’s mother, is stricken with Alzheimer’s. We follow her decline day by day while delving into her past as a mother, a spouse and an ex-feminist activist. Remarkably unsentimental, the documentary is as intimate as it is universal. Ship of Theseus

Halley

Touch

Fata Morgana

Pathé 1

Centro histórico diverse regisseurs SP

SP 109’

SP 91’

14:15

Jean-Claude Brisseau

BF 90’

Vulgaria

Odayaka Uchida Nobuteru 14:30

Ping’an Yueqing Ai Weiwei

SP 91’

16.00

16:15

142’

10.00

11.00

12.00

13.00

11:30

11.00

12.00

Revolution

TG 85’

14.00 Guido van Driel

14:00

70’

Wasteland Rowan Athale

90’

15.00 TG

139’

Ninomiya Ryutaro

14:15 The Charm of

Others

13:45 De wederopstanding van een klootzak

13.00

II 75’

95’

Ship of Theseus Anand Gandhi

Touch Shelly Silver

12:45

Nahid P. Sarvestani

12:00 My Stolen

105’

12:30

Ninah’s Dowry Victor Viyuoh

16:00

89’

106’

16.00

19:00

The Master Paul Thomas Anderson

SIgnalS: domInIK graF

nungen einer Reisenden

85’