Daily Tiger #7 UK by International Film Festival Rotterdam

41ST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM #7 WEDNESDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2012

Peter Kubelka

photo: Ruud Jonkers

Essential viewing Peter Kubelka’s mesmeric work celebrates the essence of film, writes Ben Walters

“Burning fire or running water – these were my early cinemas. I was interested in the fact that the universe is so complex my brain cannot grasp it. I looked into the water and was fascinated.” To those who know his work, it will be no surprise that Peter Kubelka’s cinematic influences are so unconventional, so elemental. His practice has always been closer to the pursuit of natural philosophy than a career in the movies. Kubelka is at IFFR 2012 for two reasons: to attend the world premiere of Fragments of Kubelka, Martina Kudlác˘ek’s film about his life and work; and to deliver one of his extraordinary talks, in which he presents examples of his cinematic output – which totals barely an hour – in parallel with an explication of his theory of cinema, illustrated with exquisite objects from his collection of anthropological artifacts. Four hours long and four years in the making, Fragments was an unusually challenging project. “This was documentary as catch-me-if-you-can,” says Kudlác˘ek, who has also made films about Maya Deren, Jonas Mekas and Marie Menkin. “Kubelka has a radical integrity. He does nothing unless he’s convinced of it.” Cosmic understanding

Born in Vienna in 1934, Kubelka began experimenting with ﬁlm as a teenager but quickly rejected the conventional model of narrative cinema, which he has described as “dead” and a “completely normative process (involving) paid imitators reading strange words written for them (alongside) some music to tell you how to feel”. Instead, he wanted to investigate the essential qualities of ﬁlm as a medium – the forms of human communication and cosmic understanding

uniquely available by means of the projection of light through 24 frames of celluloid a second. A one-time judo champion, Kubelka retains a bullish yet dapper presence, his white hair neatly cropped, a fob watch adorning the three-piece suit he adopted early on. (“I called it my ‘protection suit’. It made me look like a Viennese bourgeois.”) To his side at his talk, held on Monday in LantarenVenster, were three tables covered with objects made of wood, leather, metal, ceramic and stone; their vintages ranging from a couple of decades to 20,000 years old. A stone-age seeding implement lay alongside a cinema clapperboard; a cowbell sat next to a metronome. Kubelka makes the familiar seem profoundly strange and the radically perceptive seem obvious. How, I wondered, had I not previously recognised that the washes of piped music that now surround us evince the same human tendency to alienate ourselves from the natural environment that led to the invention of shoes? (Kubelka showed us ancient African rhinoceroshide shoes and gorgeously inlaid Afghan sandals.) Or the shared lineage of the clapperboard and the rattle as devices to produce “‘now’ moments” of audiovisual synchronicity? “The baby learns that, in nature, things are in sync: where there is movement, there must be sound,” Kubelka said, displaying the similar-yet-different effects of a range of rattles, from the dried seed-pod of an African bread tree to an elegant wooden Japanese clacker and a nineteenth-century European gold, silver and ivory specimen. “In cinema, nothing moves. The word ‘movie’ is a lie. The movement is in the head of the beholder.” Using his jacket in place of a camera shutter, he illustrated how, in four still ‘frames’, the mind could infer a handkerchief’s fall – or its transformation into a rock. Film, he said, brings us into a world “where I am God and I can make things ﬂow and I can stop things… When you sit

in a cinema, you sit in the head of a ﬁlmmaker. You see through his eyes and hear through his ears.” Materiality of ﬁlm

And so we did, thanks to screenings throughout the talk of such pieces as Unsere Afrika-Reise (1960-66), which reconfigures footage taken when the artist was invited to document some businessmen’s African hunting trip; Adebar (1957), commissioned to promote a nightclub; and Schwechater (1958), intended to advertise the brewery of the same name. Each of Kubelka’s patrons had requirements (show us shooting animals; show people dancing; show models enjoying our beer), which he met. But none could have anticipated the extraordinary experiments into the potency and rhythms of light, darkness, sound and silence that he delivered. “I knew something about film that they did not know,” Kubelka said with a glint. “They thought that what you film is the film. Ha! The film is what reaches the screen, and in between is me.” He elaborated: “The camera just filming is nothing. I made a structure which said something about the complexity of audiovisual events.” An awareness of the materiality of film was crucial to such construction; Kubelka reminded us of the “body intelligence” of a pianist, shoemaker or painter. “Analogue film lets you work with your hands, like a tailor would.” Adebar was made “with scissors, glue and film”. If a strip of celluloid reached from Kubelka’s fingertip to his elbow, it lasted a second. Untranslatable into any other medium, these ‘metric’ films help bring us to “the hard core of cinema”, he said. “No poetry functions like this. No music functions like this … You can’t describe my film in words. You can’t hum it.” Kubelka scratched his credit directly into the stock; he displays strips of film as three-dimensional artworks in themselves. Little wonder, then, that Kubelka recoils at the general

condition of “digital slavery”, suggesting that “we are forced today into accepting it because our homeland has been taken away. I’ve been a filmmaker for 62 years and now it’s gone … But I don’t let my films be copied into the digital medium because I believe film will go on, as theatre went on” (after the advent of cinema). No concessions

Kubelka’s formal stringency presented numerous challenges to Martina Kudlác˘ek. He insisted that she shoot handheld, use available light, provide no subtitles (though he speaks English to reach the widest possible audience), and be upfront about the nature of the project. “The camera is part of the event; it must not be hidden.” Nor would he proffer any favours. “He wouldn’t hold up a photo twice so I could get it on camera,” she says, “or even give it to me afterwards. You never get a second chance.” Kudlác˘ek sees Fragments as a document of Kubelka’s ideas and a contextualization of his work – but, obviously, she wasn’t able to include actual excerpts of his films in her DV project. She was, however, able to shoot the projection booth while they were playing, or record their light falling back onto Kubelka’s face as he watches them. The artist remains unrepentant about the rigour of his approach. “All humans are more or less the same,” he says. “They have the same value and the same capacities. So if I make something that pleases me, there is a good chance I will find others (who also like it). It is the great pleasure of my old age to find that my supposition was correct: concessions are not a good investment.” Kubelka concluded his talk by screening his 1960 work, Arnulf Reiner, which rhythmically arranges and rearranges pure filmic units of white light and white sound. It’s an intense experience: captivating, mesmeric, overwhelming and unmistakably, irreducibly cinematic; the medium’s equivalent of gazing into a waterfall or fire.

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OCTOBER 25 – NOVEMBER 7, 2012

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SHADOWPLAY Johan Grimonprez, the award-winning director of Double Take and Dial H I S T O R Y, is set to work on his most ambitious film yet, The Shadow World. The new project, which will again straddle the worlds of documentary and fiction, is based on the book by London-based author Andrew Feinstein, and hones in on the murky world of the international arms business. Grimonprez’s regular collaborator, Belgian producer Emmy Oost of Cassette for Timescapes, is the coproducer on the film. The lead producer is New York-based Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films. The film has just received a Sundance Documentary Institute Development Grant. The budget is $1.5 million. A huge web project will accompany the feature film. Grimonprez’s working method is to question received images and to turn clichés on their heads. His version of The Shadow World will be made in his familiar quizzical style, as he probes away at the secrets of the arms trade, a business “in which profits are calculated in the tens of millions of dollars, while losses are counted in human lives.” Here in Rotterdam, Oost has been drumming up support for other projects on the Cassettes For Timescapes slate. These include Inside The Distance by Elias Grootaers (the director of Not Waving But Drowning). The new feature doc will explore the plight of immigrants, examining how – as they adjust to their new lives – they are often caught between cultures. Its main character is a boxing coach in Belgium who still has strong ties to his homeland, Georgia. In the long run, Oost and Grimonprez hope to revive their long-gestating project How To Rewind Your Dog. This explores the concept of “happy endings” in a world of relentless consumerism. “As I know Johan and he is now working on The Shadow World and it will be so intense for the coming two years, I think it’s probably best to hold it over,” Oost says of a project that has been in development for several years. Cassette For Timescapes was set up in 2008. Oost is part of iDrops, the new Belgian hub for “transmedia”. (GM)

BEAMS ON SCREENS Amsterdam-based Waterland Film and TV is harvesting a bumper crop, Nick Cunningham reports

IFFR 2012 is quickly turning into a bumper edition for Amsterdam-based production outfilm Waterland Film and TV. Yesterday, the company’s Wilant Boekelman and Jan van der Zanden joined as co-producers the HBFsupported German/Brazilian project The Wife of the Man who Eats Laser Beams, and confirmed that the 2012 Bright Future title Back to Stay (Abrir puertas y ventanas), in which they have minority co-pro interest, will open in 15 cinemas in the Netherlands on February 23 (distributor Just Film). Back to Stay received HBF support in 2006 and was selected for CineMart 2008. Waterland’s Boekelman also expressed his delight at the domestic DVD sales on the 2012 Oscar-nominated Bullhead, which the pair minority co-produced. The DVD, also released through Just Film has already offloaded in excess of 100,000 copies. In addition, Boekelman is looking forward to the Berlin Generation world premiere of Kauwboy, the third production of his Waterland Junior division. About The Wife of the Man ..., Boekelman was effusive, and confident that the fi lm will gain additional HBF Plus funding from the Netherlands Film Fund, valued at 50,000 Euros and given to the Dutch minority partner of a project previously backed by the HBF. “We heard a buzz about the project, but we got there first – we are extremely happy about that,” he comments.” We are convinced that we will get HBF Plus funding. This is a project that they cannot ignore, for its humour, from its social realism perspective, and the music that leads the fi lm. It’s important for us to get it into the cinema in Holland. We tried it with Back to Stay and it worked very well.”

Films, drink and rock ‘n’ roll Paris-based Backup Films celebrated its 10th anniversary in Rotterdam this week, reports Geoffrey Macnab

It all began in Rotterdam. CineMart 2002 marked the launch of Paris-based Backup Films (which celebrates its 10th anniversary in Rotterdam this week). Trainloads of friends and descendants of the company descended on Rotterdam on Monday for a party at which the band Black Minou, fronted by Melvil Poupaud and his brother Yarol, performed. “We were invited by Ido (Abram), then the head of CineMart,” recalls founding partner Jean-Baptiste Babin of the company’s earliest steps. The newly launched outfit had just picked up its first project, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady. Right from the outset, Backup sought to work on an international stage. “We thought that being a fi lm producer no longer consisted of producing domestic content for the domestic territory.” The audience, Backup insisted, was “worldwide, global.” Producers needed to structure their financing based on more

than just their home markets. “It is something that seems very obvious now, but 10 years ago, a French producer would literally finance his fi lm by four or five phone calls in Paris,” Babin notes. “That’s no longer the case, and producers have had to adapt.” Backup set out to “provide the means to structure an ambitious international financing strategy for independent producers.” The company never takes producer credits. Nor does it take producer receipts. What Backup asks for is a commission on the money it raises. “We only get paid if we find money and the producer accepts the sources of financing that we provide.” Put it to Babin that the fi lm financing landscape is far more daunting for producers today than it was back in 2002 and he scoffs: “The moaning was exactly the same in 2002 as it is now!” His thesis is that there has never been a time when financing for fi lm was easy. If such a time ever did exist, he adds, “it was way before we started Backup. You just need to adapt, to become a bit of a philosopher and to be very close to the market.” Babin, who cofounded Backup alongside David

Atlan-Jackson, has figures at his fingertips showing just what Backup has achieved over the last 10 years. The company has supported over 400 fi lms. In the process, it has raised over €60 million. Alongside Backup Films, there is a sister company, B Media Management. (Both are part of what is now called the Backup Media Group.) This develops, markets and operates funds. Since 2006, B Media Management has gathered together over 3,000 investors, putting together a portfolio of more than €50 million. Backup has always focused on arthouse, director-driven fare. In the last year alone, it has been working with directors of the calibre of Nanni Moretti (Habemas Papam), Alex De La Iglesia (Balada Triste). The company can invest at any stage in the life of a production, from development to distribution. Backup prides itself on its attention to detail. This applies to the parties it throws as well as the fi lms it helps coax into being. Ask Babin about the 10th-anniversary celebrations here at IFFR and he replies earnestly: “We’ve mostly worked on two angles – the first is alcohol and the second is music!”

Distribution, dig it? Over the past two years, the IFFR has actively increased activity within the digital distribution field, having forged close alliances with MUBI, Cinemalink.tv (an initiative of Benelux distributor Cinemien) and Ximon, a platform launched in April 2011 by EYE, the NVS (Netherlands Producers’ Association) and the Institute for Sound and Vision. Following the IFFR 2012, the fest is planning to collaborate closely with the fi le-sharing VODO.net platform. “So far, VOD has been a bit slow,” explains IFFR distribution manager Juliette Jansen. “And we’re trying to work out which is the best way to do this, and with which partners. We have worked with MUBI since 1 January 2012, with 40 titles. They are interesting as they also work with Playstation and Belgacom. We have most of our titles on Ximon. What is interesting about VODO.net is the combination of a platform and crowdfunding. What they do is to put the fi lms on the platform, and what they found out is that people are willing to donate to future fi lms by the fi lmmaker.” Every month, Jansen offers up new content to the IFFR YouTube channel. A recent success has been Aneta Lesnikovska’s 2007 Tiger Awards contender Does It Hurt?– The First Balkan Dogma, which is approaching the million hits mark, “due to her own efforts”, Jansen points out. She further explains that IFFR’s involvement in distribution is less about fi lling festival coffers than extending its commitment to its fi lmmakers. “Apart from being a huge event for audiences – we are CineMart, we are the Hubert Bals Fund – we want to help the fi lmmakers, not only in making

Juliette Jansen

photo: Corinne de Korver

ﬁ lms but in enabling people to see them.” DVDs of IFFR ﬁ lms continue to sell reasonably well, especially boxed sets such as the 10-DVD Jubilee Box,

Crunch lunch: the CineMart power lunch in de Doelen yesterday focused on film finance.

photo: Ruud Jonkers

which has shifted more than 1,000 units. Nevertheless, Jansen expects VOD revenues to exceed DVD within the next year. (NC)

At yesterday’s CineMart power lunch, key figures – mostly from European national and regional production funds – discussed the impact the credit crunch in Europe is having on film financing. Chaired by Lorna Tee, the participants agreed on the importance of government funding for production. “In tough times like these, public funds are even more crucial”, Roberto Olla from Euroimages said. As banks adopt a more stringent attitude to loans and investments, it was becoming increasingly difficult to cash flow projects. “The banks are often putting pressure on the independent companies we work with,” said Eva Hubert from Filmföderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein GmbH. “Production partners like broadcasters won’t pay until the end.” Discussing his efforts to lobby the Irish government for continued support for the industry while he was running the Irish Film Board, Simon Perry kept cuts to a minimum in the last two years by making the case that “culture is cheap and projects an image of one’s country that is very beneficial abroad.” To Tee’s question of whether harmonization of European tax breaks would be possible, Perry echoed the scepticism of his fellow diners: “It would take 75 years to negotiate and it would never work!”

Jouw gids voor kunst en cultuur Welke films, concerten, festivals, en muziek mag je niet missen? Met de Volkskrant altijd kunst en cultuur bij de hand.

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11/7/2011 1:05:22 PM

Drive, he said

Burning desire

Babis Makridis’ L is a haunting road-movie about a man facing an economic dead-end. By Edward Lawrenson

Wichanon Somumjarn’s autobiographical debut concerns a young man who passionately wants to make films. By Edward Lawrenson

“The idea comes from some while back,” says Babis Makridis of his feature debut L. “A good friend of mine, Yorgos Giokas, sent me a short story about a man who lives in his car and drives around for no apparent reason. So we started working on the script together.” Working with Efthimis Filippou (the screenwriter of Alps, also screening at IFFR), Makridis added new elements to this original premise and three months later had a draft ready. That draft – “a work-in-progress”, says Makridis, who allowed for continual rewriting during production – became the basis for this haunting Tiger entrant. Played with doleful intensity by Aris Servetalis (also in Alps), the driver protagonist of L rarely leaves his car for the ﬁrst half of the movie. Driving along stretches of empty, anonymous-looking roads and motorways, he picks up deliveries for a rich client. On agreed days, he meets his former wife in a half-deserted car-park and spends awkward time with his young kids. And each night, he takes off his shoes, leaves them outside his parked car, and sleeps inside the vehicle. But the joyless order of this routine is shattered when his client dispenses with his services in favour of a better driver... Combining moments of sideways absurdism with atmospheric views of the stark concrete landscapes

through which the protagonist drives, L’s style is slowburning and deadpan. But beneath its implacable surface, the fi lm’s depiction of its hero’s economic and emotional struggle has a gathering poignancy. The fi lm’s depiction of the damaging impact caused by the loss of his regular job has added resonance given Greece’s current financial woes. “We did not intend to show realistically the economic dead-end faced by the lead character. I think the fi lm is simply open to interpretation and it is natural for others to read into it aspects of Greek’s current situation, since it comes from a country facing its worst economic calamity.” Working on a low-budget – “it would not have been made without our friend and collaborators” – the fi lm was shot in locations around Athens over 27 days. “Improvisation was the norm,” says Makridis, who adds that scenes were often rewritten the night before. A lasting memory of the shoot is “the funny look on Aris’ face when Efthimis would give him these huge monologues he had just written, while I was telling him he’d have to memorise them ASAP because we were loosing the light.” Tiger Awards Competition L – Babis Makridis

Wed 01 Feb 12:30 PA7 Thu 02 Feb 10:00 PA6 (Press & Industry) Thu 02 Feb 18:15 PA6 Fri 03 Feb 22:30 LV5 Sat 04 Feb 16:00 PA1

“Don’t tell it so directly.” The comment is directed at Thai director Wichanon Somumjarn, and it’s made by his brother during a remarkable interview included in Somumjarn’s Tiger entrant, In April the Following Year There Was a Fire. It’s apt advice. The fi lm is heavily autobiographical, but blends fiction and documentary, reconfiguring the material Somumjarn drew from his own life into a moving, enigmatic, contemplative mood piece. The director’s feature debut revolves around Nuhm (Nantawut Phoopasuk), a figure closely modelled on Somumjarn himself. Having left his job in constructions in Bangkok, Nuhm returns to a village in the North East of Thailand – where Somumjarn is from – encounters an old flame and talks about his desire to make fi lms. Comprising resonant fragments from Nuhm’s life story, the fi lm emphasises atmosphere over narrative. “I write in a stream-of-consciousness way,” says Somumjarn. “Images pop into my head when I’m working on the screenplay.” At one point, Somumjarn includes documentary footage of his family – which is when his brother speaks to him. “The documentary element grew while I was editing the fi lm,” he explains, adding that the post-production process was around eight months. His brother was not an especially willing participant. “He didn’t like being interviewed,” says Wichanon, “that’s why his back is turned for most of this scene.” Further thickening the fi lm’s mix of autobiographical and imaginative elements is a moment at the start of the fi lm when Nuhm encounters a movie being shot called In April the Following Year There Was a Fire. It’s an indie fi lm, Nuhm is told by the assistant director, and it will only be shown at international festivals. Somumjarn’s own fi lm is likely to face similar difficulties in getting screened in its home country. “The

Wichanon Somumjarn

photo: Corinne de Korver

audience for art cinema in Thailand is small,” he says. Raising the small budget through a combination of private funds, loans from family and some money from the regional government, Wichanon – whose short ﬁ lm Four Boys, White Whiskey and Grilled Mouse played at the IFFR 2010 – is grateful for the Hubert Bals support he received. “It was during post production,” he says. “We were running out of money so it helped pay for a good sound mix and grade.” Tiger Awards Competition In April the Following Year There Was a Fire –

Wichanon Somumjarn Wed 01 Feb 09:30 DDJZ (Press & Industry) Wed 01 Feb 15:15 PA6 Thu 02 Feb 20:15 LV3 Fri 03 Feb 15:45 PA5 Sat 04 Feb 12:15 PA6

Great escape L

Cold comfort Russian Tiger contender Vasily Sigarev prefers movies to the theatre, he tells Ben Walters

Living, Russian ﬁlmmaker Vasily Sigarev’s second feature, tells three stories of contemporary Russian misery in a chilly province. In one, a young couple tries to navigate everyday violence; in another, an older woman deals with the consequences of her alcoholism on her daughters’ lives; and in the third, a young boy pines for his missing father. They might seem to add up to a critique of contemporary social malaise, but Sigarev says – through a translator – that “I was not thinking about society. These stories could have happened a hundred years ago, three hundred years ago, the same as now. But a hundred years ago there was a different understanding of death. (Russian) people’s attitude to the death of those around them has changed. Now, it’s more like in European society, where there are small families, with perhaps one child, and people don’t notice what

happens in families near them. Their neighbours could lose someone and they don’t see it.” Death is seldom far away in Living, which is in the running for a Tiger Award. In more than one story, Sigarev has some characters appear to others after their death. “It’s not a fantasy,” he clarifies. “It’s the psychological reaction of the people in the circumstances. It’s inside these people’s heads, a subjective view.” An expression, perhaps, of the kind of despair that was also part of his debut feature, Wolfy (2009), in which a young girl pursues the mother who has abandoned her. Sigarev began his career as a playwright but seems not to miss theatre – or, indeed, ever to have had much affection for it. “For now, I’m not working on the stage,” he smiles. “I’m taking a rest in the movie industry.” And would he be happy to work only in cinema from now on? “Of course,” he laughs. “I dream of that. I don’t like to go to the theatre. The first time I went to the theatre was to see my own play… and I didn’t like it.” How does his approach to film work differ to his approach to stage work? “There’s no difference in my approach, it’s just a question of whether it’s a script or a screenplay.” And what is it that he prefers about working with the camera? “I don’t know how to explain why, it’s just more interesting. I love movies more than theatre.” For his next project, Sigarev plans a new departure but also to remain consistent. “I’m trying to find the money for a comedy,” he says. “Only the genre will change, not the style of work, the sensibility or the feelings.” Tiger Awards Competition Living – Vasily Sigarev

Vasily Sigarev

Wed 01 Feb 12:15 PA6 Thu 02 Feb 14:30 LV2 Fri 03 Feb 18:30 PA7 Sat 04 Feb 19:30 PA4

Midi Z’s semi-autobiographical Tiger competitor Return to Burma was shot unscripted and without official approval, Ben Walters writes

The title Return to Burma refers to the central character of this Tiger competitor, who comes back to his native country after a dozen years as a guest worker in Taiwan; but it could also refer to its director, Midi Z, who spent a similar period in Taiwan before Burma’s first elections in half a century inspired him to turn his camera on his homeland, and particularly the challenges facing young people. “I was born in 1982 and I think wanting to go abroad is a common feeling among younger people,” Z says, speaking in Mandarin through a translator. “They are more outward looking, they have a freer spirit. But many Burmese people today, old or young, want a better life. There are different ways of doing that – it could be money or it could be your way of thinking. When there is more freedom in Burma and it is more democratic, that will happen. And the situation is changing. It is changing as we speak.” Rather than submit a script for official approval, Z opted for an improvisatory approach, using a threeperson crew and basic equipment and shooting partly in public places such as markets. This was partly practical, bypassing the permit application process, but also an artistic choice. “I aspire to capture the pain and the happiness of the people I fi lm and for the fi lm to have a feel of documentary authenticity,” he says. “You would lose that with a script.” Return to Burma includes a large number of songs, from bouncy radio pop promoting civic pride to impromptu sing-alongs among friends. “In school, you know there’s not much ahead of you in terms of jobs or a career,” Z explains, “but you can aspire to be a popular singer. So a lot of young people learn the guitar and play songs. People really like to sing love songs, sitting under a tree – that’s something I’ve observed many times. It’s also a way to release tension and frustration. In the fi lm, people find this release through music and through religion – at the end you hear people reading sutras from Buddhist scriptures. Sutras and music are a way for people to express their pain, their hope and their expectations of life.”

A different kind of escape can be found through cinema. In Return to Burma’s most playful scene, children recreate moments from Tarantino and Spielberg. “In Burma, children watch all sorts of pirated DVDs. We wanted to ﬁ lm this scene and there were two ﬁ lms they wanted to choose: Pulp Fiction and Saving Private Ryan. The scene provides a contrast – the violence in Pulp Fiction is a different kind of violence to the violence we experience in Burma, so the audience can compare them in the back of their mind. Also, all young kids like guns – we used to play with toy AK47s. I think the reason is that when kids see a soldier, they have a gun and they’re conditioned to know that’s someone to be afraid of, so you know if you have a gun, somebody else is going to be afraid of you. It means you have power.” Tiger Awards Competition Return to Burma – Midi Z

Wed 01 Feb 17:30 LV3 Thu 02 Feb 21:15 PA6 Sat 04 Feb 12:45 PA5

Return to Burma

International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012 would like to thank:

Hoofdsponsors

Subsidiënten

Partners

Stadsontwikkeling

Stichting Democratie en Media • Embassy of Brazil • Stichting van Leeuwen van Lignac • Japan Foundation • Maison Descartes • De Nationale Kunst Loterij • Goethe-Instititut • Embassy of Austria • De Unie

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M U N D U S

ACE • Binger Filmlab • Catalan Films & TV • Centre for the Moving Image • Cinéfondation Résidence du Festival • CineLink • Cinergia • CPH:DOX • Creative Scotland • Doha Film Institute • Durban FilmMart Durban Film Office • EAVE • EYE Film Institute Netherlands • Festival Scope • Film I Vast • Film- und Medienstiftung NRW • Finnish Film Foundation • Flanders Audiovisual Fund • Fundación TyPA • HAF • IFP • Indigenous Branch - Screen Australia • Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin • Irish Film Board • Israel Film Fund • KOFIC • Media Desk Netherlands • Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg • Meetings on the Bridge • NCN Rome • NCP • New Zealand Film Commission • NFDC India • Paris Cinema • Producers Network Cannes • Proimagenes Colombia • Rio de Janeiro State Secretary of Culture • Rotterdam Media Fonds • Skillset • Sundance Institute • Telefilm Canada • Wallonie Bruxelles Images

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Campagnebeeld 2012 Concept en ontwerp: 75B Festivaltrailer Concept en ontwerp: IN10, CCCP • Distributie: Jean Mineur, Gofilex

Distributeurs ABC - Cinemien • A-Film Distribution • Benelux Film Distributors • Cinéart Netherlands • Cinema Delicatessen • EYE Film Institute Netherlands • Filmfreak Distribution • IDTV Film • Imagine Nederland • Just Film Distribution • Lumière • Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst - NIMk • O’Brother Distribution • Sony Pictures Releasing Netherlands • Universal Pictures Benelux • Warner Bros. Pictures Holland • Wild Bunch Benelux

COLOFON DAILY TIGER NL: Anton Damen (hoofdredactie), Else de Jonge (eindredactie),

Programma informatie: Chris Schouten, Melissa van der Schoor Coördinatie A-Z: Saskia Gravelijn, Lot Piscaer, Robert-Jan Schiphorst,

Joost Broeren, Paul van de Graaf, Elsbeth Jongsma, Sietse Meijer, Kim van der Meulen, Maricke Nieuwdorp (redactie), Lotte Kroese, Niki van der Ende, Fabian Schellevis (web), Afke Duinkerken (marketing en communicatie) UK: Edward Lawrenson (editor-in-chief ), Nick Cunningham, Geoffrey MacNab, Mark Baker, Ben Walters (web)

Anne Lynn Cleuren Fotograﬁe: Felix Kalkman, Bram Belloni, Corinne de Korver, Ruud Jonkers, Lucia Guglielmetti, Rogier Maaskant, Nichon Glerum Met medewerking van:

Vormgeving: Sjoukje van Gool, Laurenz van Galen, Gerald Zevenboom, g7b.nl Drukker: Veenman+ Acquisitie: Daily Productions Oplage: 10.000 ex

Anne Lynn Cleuren

Northern souls Pat Holden drew on his family history for his 1970s-set horror ﬁlm, Geoffrey Macnab writes

“In August 1966, The Black Monk of Pontefract began his reign of terror over the Pritchards, an ordinary English family.” Thus writes Colin Wilson in his book, Poltergeist: A Study In Destructive Haunting (1981). The case has a strong personal resonance for British fi lmmaker Pat Holden, whose When The Lights Went Out is a world premiere in IFFR’s Spectrum. The Pritchards were his relatives. Imagine The Exorcist re-made on a council estate in mid-1970s Yorkshire and you’ll come pretty close to the essence of Holden’s fi lm. The Maynards (as the family is called) have just moved into a new home. They’re a proud working-class family who don’t seem credulous or superstitious in the slightest. However, when the slinky starts coming down the stairs on its own, the furniture moves and creaks, strange messages appear on mirrors and the family members feel ghostly presences at their throats, their attitude soon changes. Even the no-nonsense mum (Kate Ashfield) is a little spooked. Disconcertingly, the 12-year-old daughter, who is having a tough time at her new school, strikes up a friendship with the unknown presence. Soon, the priest (Gary Lewis) is summoned to confront the demon. “When it started to happen, my mum provided moral support to the family,” Holden says of the real-life incidents behind the movie. “She would visit the house nightly. I was too young. I wasn’t even allowed in the house.” The

father of the family was so terriﬁed of the eerie presence in his new home that he often didn’t want to stay in the house. He would seek refuge instead in the local working men’s club. “It was left to the mother and kids to put up with what was going on.” Holden (whose previous directorial credits include gritty post-punk drama Awaydays and comedy The Long Weekend) grew up knowing all about the story. “It has been on my mind to make a ﬁlm of it for a long time.” Humorous

No, he says, he never questioned the credibility of events that – at first glance at least – seem far fetched in the extreme. “It’s interesting when people ask that because it has become so normalised for me. The family are quite religious. My mother was quite religious. That’s no indicator of whether they were speaking the truth but you just can’t imagine them ever constructing this. So many people saw it – there were so many eye witnesses. The police saw it. Three policemen went round. Even the local mayor went round… it was something I never really questioned. It just wasn’t in the realms of possibility that anyone was making it up. The things that happened were so extraordinary that you couldn’t really fake it.” When Holden decided to make the fi lm, he made sure he received his family’s approval first. His screenplay was based on interviews with family members. “I think they’re delighted that it has eventually got made.” He was determined to “stay true to the story and make it as authentic as possible. Hopefully, audiences will respond to that.” This is a genre movie, but with a deliberate quirkiness about it. Holden combines shock tactics with scabrous humour. Early on, when the family first become aware of the presence within their home, the dad organises guided tours. We see the neighbours queuing out into the street, ready to pay to visit the haunted house. One of the fi lm’s strengths is its loving – and often humorous – attention to period detail. “I often feel that the 1970s are a little bit caricatured. You know – lava lamps! It ends up being a bit over the top,” the director reflects on how many movies and TV shows depict the era in a clunky and overstated way. “You just know when something is right or wrong. I was

very careful to choose a production designer and wardrobe people who were very sensitive to that.” As he points out, council houses in the 1970s tended to have a “lot of furniture from the 1950s.” He wanted the period detail “to have a light touch, to be a backdrop to the ﬁ lm rather than something too overt and that you question too much.” True to life

Holden likes horror fi lms but isn’t a die-hard horror devotee. The comic elements are – he says – true to life. The family dealt with their ordeal partly by using humour. “I think that might be a northern thing. How we deal with adversity is make fun of it… they had a nickname for the ghost at the time.” The fi lm was originally titled See No Evil (the name of the production company Holden set up). When The Lights Went Out was produced by Deepak Nayar (whose other credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Lost Highway and Million Dollar Hotel). Holden met Nayar through the fi lm’s other producer Bill Bungay (an exec-producer on Duncan Jones’s Moon). Simon Crowe’s SC Films is handling international sales.

Having tackled poltergeists, Holden is now set to enter an equally creepy world – that of Britain’s art dealers. His next fi lm is likely to be a biopic of “Groovy Bob,” the art gallery owner Rober Fraser who was at the heart of 1960s swinging London. An old Etonian, Fraser was rumoured once to have had a sexual relationship with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. “He was a catalyst for the rock aristocracy and the real aristocracy embracing the art world. He art directed the Sgt. Pepper cover (for The Beatles).” Holden is developing the project with writer Harriet Vyner, who wrote a 1999 biography of Fraser. Meanwhile, Holden is also writing Alien Abduction Agency, a screenplay for an animated fi lm being made by Elton John’s Rocket Pictures. “It has been a lot of fun hopping around, doing different things”, he says of the very different fi lms he has been making in recent years. When The Lights Went Out – Pat Holden

Wed 01 Feb 17:30 CI6 Thu 02 Feb 21:45 PA5 Sat 04 Feb 21:45 LV1

The

firstinstep your cultural career

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PRESS & INDUSTRY SCREENINGS ADMISSION WITH P&I ACCREDITATION ONLY

Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal 9:30 In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire [wp]

20:30 Wuthering Heights

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A poetic title, almost a film description, that demands some close reading. Just like the film, which - as a visual poem doesn’t immediately divulge its meaning. A young filmmaker looks back at his childhood in the sometimes boring, sometimes beautiful countryside.

The fact that cameraman Robbie Ryan won an award for his camerawork will not surprise anyone who sees this earthy Brontë ﬁlming: seldom was the mood of the pre-industrial countryside evoked so beautifully. The wellknown and gripping story of the love between Heathcliff and Cathy is more raw and obsessive than ever.

Pathé 2

Benning’s latest work fits in perfectly with his extensive oeuvre of landscape films. In small roads, Benning films 47 roads in the USA. Not only expansive landscapes crossed by trains, but also narrow lanes where only an occasional animal or vehicle passes. 13:15 Black’s Game [wp]

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Jan Zabeil, Germany, 2011, 35mm, 83 min, English

A young German travels through an unnamed country in Africa. Soon, he loses his way, moving deeper and deeper into the darkness of the continent. Africa as a metaphor of the unknown, as an odyssey to the fragile frontiers between mystery and reality.

9:45 De jueves a domingo [wp]

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Scenes from a marriage, viewed from the back seat of the spacious Mazda 929 that a Chilean family uses to go on holiday for a couple of days. Sensitive, personal debut by Sotomayor, beautifully shot by camerawoman Barbara Alvarez (25 Watts, The Headless Woman).

Inspired by the style of Nicolas Pathé 4 Winding Refn’s Pusher films 9:00 (the executive producer), Black’s Game reflects the increasing Neighbouring Sounds [wp] TG violence in the Icelandic crime Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012, and drug scenes of the 1990s. It Video, 124 min, Portuguese, e.s. all starts with Stebbi meeting his Meandering past the residents childhood friend Tóti. of a wealthy street in Recife, where private security guards 15:30 ply their trade, this self-assured Les éclats (Ma gueule, debut portrays the two sides ma révolte, mon nom) BF of the Brazilian Dream. Filho Sylvain George, France, scratches the varnish of a culture 2011, Video, 84 min, English / that revolves around paranoia, Persian / French, e.s. fear and revenge. Sylvain George has aimed his camera for more than four years 11:45 at the ups and downs of refugees Goodbye SP stranded in the French port of Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2011, Calais. Most compassionately, Video, 104 min, Persian, e.s. George provides an impresWithout her husband and witsive and poetic picture of this hout her lawyer’s licence, which hunted group, largely filmed in has been withdrawn, Noora is black-and-white. left pregnant and alone in her apartment. Her attempt to leave 17:30 Iran turns into a fight with male Women on the Edge [ip] SP chauvinism. A personal, nerveKobayashi Masahiro, Japan, 2011, wracking and infuriating film Video, 101 min, Japanese, e.s. by Rasoulof, who was himself The disaster on 11 March 2011 convicted for his films in Iran. made a huge impression in Japan. Few filmmakers were capable of coming up with an Pathé 5 original response, but Kobayashi found a personal way. He invited 9:30 three actresses to his family Corta [wp] BF home in the disaster-stricken Felipe Guerrero, Colombia / area. They act like nothing hapArgentina / France, 2012, pened. Video, 69 min, no dialogue, e.s. Corta (cut) shows how agricultural labourers in Valle del Cauca, Willem Burger Zaal Colombia, harvest a field of sugar cane using machetes. The 12:00 hypnotic rhythm of the timeless I Wish SP (yet rapidly disappearing) hanKore-eda Hirokazu, Japan, 2011, diwork is masterfully reflected Video, 128 min, Japanese in the making of the 16mm film. The great Japanese filmmakers Contemplative and pure cinema. have always been good at telling 11:30 sensitive family tales. On the surface a summery children’s Buenas noches, España SP film, but underneath a drama Raya Martin, Philippines / Spain, 2011, about a boy who is separated Video, 70 min, no dialogue, e.s. from his brother after a divorce. A road movie, but certainly not They don’t wait for a miracle, an ordinary one. A boy and a girl but make one happen. travel through Spain, but they also seem to travel through a lost 15:00 world. An experimental world in L’ Apollonide - Souvenirs which black-and-white can occade la maison close SP sionally assume bright colours. Bertrand Bonello, France, 2011, A world with scraping sound, 35mm, 122 min, French, e.s. that is nevertheless romantic. A A members-only brothel in journey through cinematic art. Paris, early 20th century. A prostitute’s face, mutilated by 13:30 a client, bears a tragic smile. Un nuage dans un Around her, the other girls with verre d’eau [ep] BF their rivalries, jealousy, sadness Srinath C. Samarasinghe, and joy. Unparalleled visual France / Canada, 2011, richness with opulent sets and Video, 90 min, French, e.s. costumes. Young Anna is from Romania and old Noun is from Egypt. 18:00 They are neighbours in a Rânia [ip] BF rundown building in Paris. They share the same interest in idle Roberta Marques, Brazil, 2011, 35mm, 85 min, Portuguese, e.s. news but they hate to talk about Rânia (16) dreams of a career as themselves. Yet, old secrets are a dancer - but if you live in the unveiled, little by little. slums of Fortaleza, talent and effort are not enough. Carried by a beautiful leading role by Graziela Felix, Marques turns her feature debut into an ode to the energy and determination of young people. •FLM•

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In the name of safety, the most banal movements in public spaces are being watched. Before a wide screen of strikingly captivating black-and-white images of daily scenes, we are forced to reﬂect on control vs privacy, technology vs humanity. BF

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Anne Émond, Canada, 2011, 35mm, 91 min, French, e.s.

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Les éclats

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Keith Jones / Deon Maas, South Africa / Czech Republic, 2011, Video, 82 min, English / Afrikaans / Portuguese, e.s.

The striking story of a hidden, underground, even secret and banned movement. Bands with both black and white musicians broke the law. In the apartheid era, punk rock was comparable to worshipping the devil. Rediscover the real punk. Anarchy in SA. 22:15 Mercado de futuros

Der Fluss war einst ein Mensch

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Mercedes Álvarez, Spain, 2011, Video, 110 min, Spanish / English, e.s.

Nikolaï spots beautiful Clara in a night club. Clara follows him home for a one-night stand. Before long, a brief sexual encounter turns into a long night of passionate conversation about love, youth, courage and life. 19:30 Los últimos cristeros [ep]

Compiled from found footage, real and fake, alongside beautifully shot images in the footsteps of the curious narrator: Eden’s Ark is a hypnotic ﬁlm poem about memory and preserving, one that makes a subtle analogy between conserving ﬁlm and botanical species. 20:30 Punk in Africa [ep]

Michael Palm, Austria, 2011, 35mm, 95 min, German, e.s.

17:00 Nuit #1

Overwhelming debut about the doubts of the director Nance about his relationship with a beautiful young woman. He combines personal experiences with fiction, documentary and various animation styles. A film filled with vulnerability and humour; enthusiasm leaps at you from the screen.

Marcelo Felix, Portugal / Brazil / Italy, 2011, Video, 80 min, Portuguese, e.s.

The mastery of Hong Sang-Soo is recognisable in the sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving way in which he manages to restructure familiar elements in every new ﬁlm in a fresh way: boozing, awkward ﬂirting and ditto rejections in this updated Groundhog Day. 14:30 Low Definition Control - Malfunctions #0

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Hong Sang-Soo, South Korea, 2011, 35mm, 79 min, Korean, e.s.

Dominga Sotomayor, Chile / Netherlands, 2012, Video, 96 min, Spanish, e.s.

Terence Nance, USA, 2012, Video, 93 min, English

18:30 Eden’s Ark

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Óskar Thór Axelsson, Iceland, 2012, Video, 104 min, Icelandic, e.s.

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9:45 Der Fluss war einst ein Mensch

12:00 The Day He Arrives

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James Benning, USA, 2011, Video, 103 min, no dialogue

16:15 An Oversimplification of Her Beauty [ip]

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Andrea Arnold, United Kingdom, 2011, 35mm, 130 min, English, d.s.

Wichanon Somumjarn, Thailand, 2012, Video, 76 min, Thai, e.s.

11:00 small roads [ep]

Cinerama 2

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Matías Meyer, Mexico / Netherlands, 2011, 35mm, 90 min, Spanish, e.s.

Álvarez won a Tiger Award for The Sky Turns, a beautiful documentary elegy for the village she was born in. Here she utilises an equally measured style to portray the postmodern economy right before it crashed. The hero is a rag and bone man who prefers not to sell anything.

The eternal battle between worldly rulers and believers LantarenVenster 6 resulted in the 1930s in 9:30 Mexico in a bloody rebellion Wavumba [wp] BF by the so-called Christeros. Jeroen van Velzen, Netherlands, 2012, Meyer (Wadley, The Cramp) is Video, 80 min, Dutch / Swahili, e.s. convincing with his minimalist Fascinating, personal debut anti-Western, in which a last that follows an old fisherman in group of the faithful roams in an Kenya who can immerse himself aimless journey by foot. in a world of stories, especi21:30 ally concerning his unwavering belief in a certain destiny. About The Hunter BF the desire to return to the simple Bakur Bakuradze, Russia, 2011, and clear world of a child, where 35mm, 123 min, Russian, e.s. fantasy and dreams are no less He’s a family man with a farm. real than reality. She’s a convict from a nearby prison obliged to work there. 11:30 Something happens between Weekend BF them. What does it entail? WitAndrew Haigh, United Kingdom, hout giving answers, Bakuradze 2011, Video, 96 min, English depicts the elusive nature of A chance encounter between intimacy. An almost silent film the shy Russell and the extrovert on the tragic beauty of everyday Glen unexpectedly grows into routine. something beautiful. It’s followed by a weekend of drink, sex and discussions. Familiar Cinerama 3 and funny film about the battle with life and love. Winner of the 11:30 SXSW Audience Award. Pablo [wp] RG •FLM•

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The Day He Arrives

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Richard Goldgewicht, USA, 2012, Video, 93 min, English

More than half a century since his title sequence for Dr. Strangelove, graphic designer Pablo Ferro is still setting the tone, bringing ﬁlm audiences in a happy mood with his short animations. This colourful Cuban embodies the genre of the title sequence. 14:00 Die Räuberin [ip]

Nuit #1

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Markus Busch, Germany, 2011, Video, 92 min, German, e.s.

Tania is an actress, 43. Thore is 15, a misﬁt in a small village at the northern tip of Germany. At the beginning of winter, Tania escapes from her numb life to the village. They meet. She decides to steal him from his parents.

Eden’s Ark

Press & Industry Screenings Tuesday 31 January 09:00 de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal 09:00

de Doelen Willem Burgerzaal

09:30

10:00

11:00

Black Dove

Tokyo Playboy Club

14:00

15:00

16:00

The Comedy

14:30

120’

BF Oslo, August 31st Joachim 09:00 Trier 10:00

11:30

11:00

95’

OudePathé Luxor2

Monsieur Lazhar Philippe Falardeau

de Doelen Pathé Jurriaanse Zaal5

09:30

Jouer Ponette Jeanne Crépeau

97’

09:45

13:30 When the Lights

The Invader Nicolas Provost

Pat Holden

80’

12:00

Alms for the Blind Horse Gurvinder Singh

09:30

A Simple Life Ann Hui

Die Unsichtbare Christian Schwochow

12:00 117’

09:30 Splinters - A

Century of an Artistic Family Peter von Bagh 10:00

12:30

The Sound of Light SP Yamasaki Juichiro

74’

95’

Unfair World PartsFilippos of theTsitos Heart Paul Agusta

10:15

Play 14:30 Heart’s

12:00

11 Flowers Wang Xiaoshuai 118’

A. Sasnal / W. Sasnal

Damsels in Distress SP 16:15 O convite ao prazer

Hugo Martin Scorsese

Monsieur Lazhar Philippe Falardeau

12:30

L Babis Makridis

The Descendants Alexander Payne

17:30

Hello, Mr. Tree! Han Jie

20:00

15:30

About the Pink Sky Kobayashi Keiichi

119’

10:00 L’hypothèse du

Mokélé-Mbembé

Marie Voignier

78’

10:00 Jean Epstein, Young

Oceans of Cinema

I’m Still Alive Peter van Houten

15:15

The Patron Saints

M. Shatzky / B. Cassidy

15:00 Shifting

Error

Abigail Child

Shores 2

15:30

verre d’eau

Srinath C. Samarasinghe

LantarenVenster 2

verzamelprogramma

10:00

LantarenVenster 3

14:45 Tamino

Nana Valérie Massadian

77’

Born in Beijing Ma Li

15:00

HH 240’

9:45 Disturbing the

17:15 The Interceptor from HH

Ai Weiwei

14:30 Short Syrian

verzamelprogramma