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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 2016
AT THE ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL
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Lion opens Zurich with a roar of celebration Patrick Wachsberger
TODAY
La La Land
NEWS Mara in the frame Rooney Mara discusses her powerful autumn-festival trio » Page 3
INTERVIEW Hugh Grant Why this year’s Zurich Golden Icon couldn’t pass on Florence Foster Jenkins » Page 4
REVIEW La La Land
Heed industry sea change, says Wachsberger
This infectious, jewel-coloured musical is suffused with ambition » Page 6
SCREENINGS
» Page 9
BY ANDREAS WISEMAN
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairman Patrick Wachsberger is being honoured at Zurich Summit with the Game Changer Award. It is in recognition of his 30-year navigation of the industry’s choppy waters, which has seen him play pivotal roles in multi-billion-dollar franchises, including the Twilight series and two of the industry’s most successful independent film companies of recent decades. After he became Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group co-chairman in 2012, the indie major grossed more than $1bn at the international box office three years in a row. Despite mixed domestic box-office fortunes this year, Lionsgate is sitting on a red-hot awards contender in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, a potential hit in Deepwater Horizon and a possible new franchise with Power Rangers. However, the film business is more unpredictable than ever, claims the former Summit boss. “We’re going through a sea change,” he says. “The business is moving more rapidly now than at any point during my time in it.” Few franchises have proven more transformative in the independent film business than Twilight, and another instalment remains “a possibility”, says Wachsberger. “If Stephenie [Meyer] wants to tell a story related to those characters, we’re here for her.” Wachsberger highlighted properties The Kingkiller Chronicle and Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking as potential franchises in the pipeline. He will be presented with his award on Sunday night.
Heavy-hitters gather for Zurich Summit BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW Karl Spoerri, Iain Canning, Garth Davis, Nadja Schildknecht and Harvey Weinstein
BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW
The Zurich Film Festival got off to an emotional start on Thursday with the European premiere of Australian director Garth Davis’s heartwarming drama Lion. The tale of a young Australian man who attempts to retrace the Indian birth mother he lost as a child left hardly a dry eye in the packed theatre (with the festival thoughtfully including a packet of tissues in the opening-night goodie bag). “The audience responded really well,” said ZFF co-founder and artistic director Karl Spoerri. “It’s a very emotional film. It’s
interesting this year we have so many films related to the family.” Harvey Weinstein, Lion’s executive producer and US distributor, and producer Iain Canning joined Davis on stage ahead of the screening. A gentle buzz is growing around Lion as a potential awards season contender, not least because of Weinstein’s involvement. Nearly 300 films he has been connected to over the years during his time at Miramax and The Weinstein Company have won Oscars. But Weinstein was non-committal when asked whether the Zurich screening marked an early
step for an Oscar campaign. “Just enjoy the film and lower your expectations. Hopefully, you’ll be surprised,” he told the audience, adding with a joke: “The other reason I’m here is that if Donald Trump wins president, I want to know whether you’ll accept 350 million refugees.” Securing the European premiere of Lion was a coup for Zurich, says Spoerri. “It’s amazing. It’s always a struggle to get the bigger films here, especially for a European premiere. Harvey knows and likes the festival. We pushed hard and promised him our best slot.”
Dalian Wanda, Sony seal major partnership China’s Dalian Wanda Group and Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group have struck a partnership to co-operate on multiple big-budget movies, marking another step into the global film industry by the Chinese real estate and entertainment titan. Wanda, which already owns AMC Theatres and bought
Legendary Entertainment for $3.5bn in January, confirmed on Friday that it would both invest in Sony productions and strive to highlight China in those films. “The alliance will help strengthen Wanda’s power to influence the global film industry, and set a good precedent for Chinese film producers in their international investment,” the
company said. The statement did not name the films involved in the Sony deal, but titles could include summer 2017 tentpole SpiderMan: Homecoming and the Jumanji reboot. Earlier this year, Wanda used its AMC Entertainment leverage to buy European exhibitor Odeon & UCI Cinemas for $1.2bn. Andreas Wiseman
The worlds of Hollywood, independent cinema, new technologies and the major film territory of China are set to collide this weekend at the annual Winston Baker Zurich Summit. Lionsgate co-chairman Patrick Wachsberger, Oscarwinning director Oliver Stone, indie production doyen Christine Vachon and Chinese film financier Wei Han will be among those convening at Zurich’s luxury Dolder Hotel in the heights of the city. Wachsberger will also join a panel on the challenge of releasing feature films in the digital, multi-platform era alongside Michael Barker, copresident of Sony Picture Classics, and producer Scott Franklin of Protozoa Pictures, the production company of Darren Aronofsky. The winds of change is the leitmotif running through the summit with one panel exploring the impact that virtual and augmented reality is having on the financing and creation of audiovisual content. An afternoon talk puts the spotlight on emerging Chinese power players and is expected to be a big draw.
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NEWS
Rooney Mara catches critical glow for powerful TIFF trio Two -time Oscar nominee Rooney Mara is no stranger to challenging roles. From The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’s Lisbeth Salander to Carol’s Therese Belivet, the actress doesn’t shirk intensity. Her latest projects are no different. The actress starred in three films at the Toronto International Film Festival: emotional true story Lion, harrowing abuse drama Una and affecting romance The Secret Scripture. With the well-received Lion receiving its European premiere at Zurich Film Festival on Thursday, the actress is currently preparing to star in prestige biopic Mary Magdalene opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Jesus. “It’s a huge undertaking,” says Mara. “But I’m happy to have something to throw myself into.” The film will reteam Mara with Australian director Garth Davis, whose powers of persuasion came to bear on their first collaboration, Lion. “It was the story and script which attracted me,” says Mara, who plays Dev Patel’s girlfriend in the movie. “I wasn’t planning on working at that time but it was such a beautiful story. When I spoke to Garth, I felt connected with him
Assayas hopes to revive Idol French director Olivier Assayas, who is receiving Zurich’s Tribute award this year, is trying to resurrect his bigbudget English-language action thriller Idol’s Eye. The film, which is a passion project for the film-maker, was shut down on the eve of a high-profile shoot in Toronto featuring Robert Pattinson and Robert De Niro in late 2014 after the US financiers pulled the plug at the eleventh hour. “I hope it will be my next film,” said Assayas. Melanie Goodfellow
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Alamy
BY ANDREAS WISEMAN
McGregor to kick off ZFF Masters BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW
Ewan McGregor will touch down in Zurich next week to talk about his feature directorial debut American Pastoral. The tale charts how an American family falls apart when the daughter gets involved in radical anti-Vietnam War protests. It has just premiered at Toronto to solid reviews. At Zurich, McGregor will discuss his decision to go behind the camera and the challenges that posed. McGregor is one of four ZFF Masters speaking at the festival this year, alongside Woody Harrelson, Daniel Radcliffe and Olivier Assayas. Harrelson discusses his journey as an actor, while Radcliffe, who has ditched his school-boy wizard aura this year with performances in quirky comedy Swiss Army Man and thriller Imperium, will talk about his varied post-Potter career.
Rooney Mara at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival
and I really wanted to work with him.” Mara joined up with another Australian director Benedict Andrews (“I find most of the best talent comes out of Australia,” says the actress), the searing theatre adaptation for Una.
The actress plays a young woman haunted by sexual abuse she suffered at the age of 13. “Una was very challenging and intense,” says Mara. “I had to go to some dark places.” Despite acclaim for her three performances this autumn, in
particular Una, Mara doesn’t see herself as part of this year’s Oscar race. “I’m heading to Sicily to shoot Mary Magdalene,” she says. “I don’t feel like I’m going to be part of the awards this year, thankfully. It’s a daunting, exhausting time.”
Ewan McGregor
Lion team reveal journey behind emotional true story BY WENDY MITCHELL
Following Lion’s well-received Toronto world premiere, executive producer and US distributor Harvey Weinstein, producer Iain Canning and director Garth Davis discussed the film’s journey ahead of the film’s European premiere at the Zurich Film Festival on Thursday. The film is adapted from the memoir of Saroo Brierley, who was separated from his family in rural India and subsequently adopted by an Australian couple. Decades later, he found his birth mother with the help of Google Earth. Weinstein told a press conference he felt a personal connection to the material when
Lion director Garth Davis and Harvey Weinstein
he first read the script: “Georgina [Chapman, his wife] is involved in fashion, and her inspiration has always been
India. She started a school in Delhi to take kids off the street, the Rose Home Shelter. This story was very appealing because
of these kids and what happens to them.” Weinstein also paid tribute to director Garth Davis’ visual storytelling style. “The first hour of the movie looks like De Sica only with Garth’s style. I think it’s very moving and very real.” Davis, a commercials veteran who makes his feature directorial debut with Lion, didn’t hesitate to get involved. “I loved the story so much and was so moved by it. I retraced Saroo’s steps in India, I went to some of the orphanages, the streets of Calcutta. I tried to absorb the story.” Audiences are taking note. In Toronto, the film was the runner up for the coveted audience award.
September 24, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 3
INTERVIEW HUGH GRANT
Lost in showbiz Hugh Grant managed to orchestrate a graceful retreat from show business but Florence Foster Jenkins proved too compelling to stay away for good. Jeremy Kay reports
H
‘It is one of [my] performances that makes me the least miserable’ Hugh Grant
“Although I wasn’t particularly involved in show business at that time, I would never have been able to look myself in the mirror if I’d declined it.” Grant researched Bayfield, reading his letters at Lincoln Center in New York. “I found him incredibly touching,” he says. “I loved the disparity between his outward suave, in-control sort of gentleman-in-waiting demeanour. But inside — this is what the letters show you — he was a rather desperate bit-part actor who’d never had any success, didn’t have enormous talent. “As soon as she died, there are his letters: writing to the top actors and theatre directors of the time, begging for a part, saying, ‘I don’t know if you remember me but I was the third spear carrier in Chichester in 1924 and I wondered if you had any work now.’”
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ugh Grant, in Zurich to collect the Golden Icon Award on Tuesday (September 27) and present Pathé’s Florence Foster Jenkins, has the air of a man about to undergo root canal treatment during a recent press day at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons. Dressed in dark jeans and open-neck shirt, Grant stoops, makes brief eye contact and slopes off rapidly towards the sofas when we meet — more, it seems, out of a desire to get on with it than out of allegiance to the beloved, awkward on-screen persona he fashioned a couple of decades ago. Grant seldom gives interviews but has agreed to play ball in support of his latest film, a New York-set true story from the first half of the 20th century about the calculated but ultimately devoted marriage between the tone-deaf opera singer of the title and a jobbing actor/manager. The BBC Films/ Pathé production is currently on release in the US via Paramount, where it earned $27m to date (the film reached $4.2m in the UK earlier this year). This is not the first time Grant has strayed off the rom-com path, the foundation of a fabulously successful career ever since Four Weddings And A Funeral propelled him to numerous on-screen pairings with Hollywood leading ladies, most notably Julia Roberts in Notting Hill, and a couple of Bridget Jones films, where he swapped innocent charm for rakish allure. About A Boy showed deeper acting chops, and there was broader comedy in Small Times Crooks and retro swagger in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Yet Bayfield, his layered character in Florence Foster Jenkins, slots neatly into director Stephen Frears’ recent gallery of male protagonists: capable yet conflicted men of ambition who are not entirely beyond reproach. The film has garnered some of the best notices of Grant’s career and, these things being relative, it turns out he is wildly fond of the role too, “I would put it up there with About A Boy as one of the performances that makes me the least miserable.” Grant had never worked with Frears when the director sent him the script. “It was funny and sad, which is always a promising cocktail,” he says. “It had this brilliant part: complex and nuanced and [it had the] potential for comedy and potential for sadness and it had him — Stephen Frears — a classy, award-winning director, and the small matter of Meryl Streep.
(Above) Hugh Grant at the London premiere of Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins; (below) sharing a scene with Meryl Streep, the film’s titular lead
4 Screen International at Zurich September 24, 2016
All the world’s a stage Playing opposite Meryl Streep was another new experience. “It was largely as I expected it would be,” says Grant. “She was intense emotionally and brought a method actor approach to the work I’ve found with other New York actors.” Theirs is a poignant chemistry on screen. “I’m sure there was an element of opportunism there when they first met, as there was for [Jenkins] too, but by the end of their 30 years together they were thick as blood.” Grant is judicious about his roles. Asked why he skipped current release Bridget Jones’s Baby, he pauses before answering, “That’s a long story. They spent a lot of time developing it but I could never quite feel comfortable with how Daniel [Cleaver] would have behaved in the second half of the film.” These days he devotes much of his time to Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, which he championed after his phone was intercepted by the News Of The World. “I’m not an acting junkie,” he says. “I have been open to doing anything good that comes my way. I don’t particularly view myself as a fan of rom-coms: it’s just that they have been some of the best s scripts to come my way.” n
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REVIEWS
Reviews edited by Finn Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com
La La Land Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan Starry-eyed and saturated with pure romance, La La Land revisits many of the narrative themes of Damien Chazelle’s debut, Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench, for a jazz-infused, jewel-coloured musical, infectiously scored by Justin Hurwitz. Suffused with love — for Los Angeles, the films of MGM’s golden age and Jacques Demy, and its intensely appealing star-crossed leads Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling — Chazelle’s dream-like follow-up to Whiplash is as la-la-light as its title, and looks set to tap dance its way into the hearts of incurable romantics everywhere. The energetic ambition cannot entirely paper over the storytelling softness at its core, though Linus Sandgren’s driving camera works hard to distract. If Whiplash — also scored by Hurwitz, like Guy And Madeline — crackled with tension, La La Land is its polar opposite. There is so much love and lightness here that Chazelle’s film could — and does — take to the air. Offering the most simple of boy-meets-girl plots, Chazelle relies heavily on Stone and Gosling to work their movie-star charisma to a punishing level. As the modern yet timeless lovers Mia and Sebastian, they sing, affectingly, and they dance, well enough. They are immediate romantic icons, faces full of love and longing, torn between life and their art.
6 Screen International at Zurich September 24, 2016
GALA PREMIERE US. 2016. 128mins Director/screenplay Damien Chazelle Production company Summit Entertainment International sales Lionsgate, lionsgate@ lionsgate.com Producers Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt Cinematography Linus Sandgren Production design David Wasco Editor Tom Cross Original music Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul Main cast Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, JK Simmons, Finn Wittrock, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Legend
La La Land is classic dream-factory escapism, shot on the Warner Bros lot in anamorphic Cinemascope in 35mm (with an unusual 2.52:1 ratio). A long-gestating project for Chazelle, it riffs, like Guy And Madeline, on two lovers whose dreams may not be compatible with their art. She is an actress; he is a jazz pianist (John Legend, a co-producer, plays a band leader who buckles up the score). As a drama, this is less nourishing than the heritage to which it pays tribute. But for Chazelle, the story is just a slight rib around which he builds a modern rhapsody. With its love for Los Angeles, movies, actors, music and Paris, it feels like the giant adoring love child of everything from The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg to Round Midnight to An American In Paris. Chazelle sets out his stall — and the film’s strong colour choices — with an exhilarating opening sequence set on a gridlocked Los Angeles freeway. Starting with the sounds of car radios switching their stations until their inhabitants emerge to break out in the full, Fame-style production number ‘Traffic’, this is fluid, bravura film-making, a joy to watch. The sequence is built around Mia (Stone) and Sebastian (Gosling), motorists who have a hostile encounter before she goes to her job in a cafe on the Warner Bros lot, a depressing audition, and then home to her apartment, where a giant
picture of Ingrid Bergman watches over her bed. Mia and her flatmates then swing into an irresistible rendition of ‘Someone In The Crowd’, complete with a dizzying Hollywood pool sequence. La La Land is not without its issues. The track back from this show-stopper to Sebastian’s unfulfilled life in an unfurnished apartment is a hard cut, and the film’s momentum stalls until the couple sees each other again in JK Simmons’ restaurant, where Sebastian is thumping out Christmas carols. A fun piece at a party where Sebastian plays ‘I Ran’ picks up the pace again, and soon they are dancing in the moonlight, driving up to the Griffith Observatory as things — literally — take off. Moving airily through the seasons, La La Land acquires its poignant topnote through its epilogue, a late what-if thread that is beautifully played out by Chazelle and matches precisely the themes of Guy And Madeline with its lingering regret and longing. A clear line runs through Chazelle’s three features, each hammering away at his theme: music, love and art, can they live together? He is fond of dropping the lights until everything in the film fades out beyond a solitary figure; the film falls away at the end of La La Land, but the thoughts behind it linger on. Perhaps it is not so la-la light after all.
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» La La Land p6 » A Monster Calls p7 » Snowden p7
Snowden
GALA PREMIERE
Reviewed by Tim Grierson
A Monster Calls Reviewed by Graham Fuller The sophisticated tween-fiction fantasy A Monster Calls is blessed by a harrowing supporting turn by Felicity Jones as a cancer-stricken single mother but, sadly, her haunting performance can be occluded by the movie’s visual excess. JA Bayona, the gifted Spanish director of The Impossible, deluges his story — albeit well acted and technically flawless — with emotionally coded representational imagery and hectors the viewer with stylistic shifts, mood swings and frantic pacing. Feistily portrayed by pint-sized Scottish actor Lewis MacDougall, 12-year-old English northerner Conor O’Malley bears a heavy cross. He is beaten by a school bully (James Melville) and drearily admonished by his understandably tense maternal grandma (Sigourney Weaver), who reluctantly installs him in her fastidiously appointed house when Mum (Jones) stays in hospital. Repressing the spectre of his mother’s death, Conor starts having nightmares, triggered by his viewing of 1933’s King Kong. The ape colossus seeds in Conor’s unconscious mind his nightly visitor — a bark-skinned giant sprung from the roots of a yew tree. Liam Neeson provides the booming voice and performance capture for the barnstorming woody monster, which initially menaces the unfazed Conor but predictably becomes his guardian and moral instructor. He insists on telling the boy three fables to show that assumptions people make about others are often wrong, and that good and evil co-exist in most of us. A fourth tale — that he orders Conor to tell him — is not a tale at all, but a kind of self-discovery. The film has become such a pictorial maelstrom by the time Conor verbalises a home truth crucial to his coming of age that the moment is underwhelming. The abutting of Conor’s conscious and unconscious states justifies the swarming images, but the film’s overwrought tone can grate. A Monster Calls is at its best in its raw emotional scenes — when Conor smashes up his Grandma’s wellkept house in a helpless rage it effects a change that prompts a reconsideration of Weaver’s hitherto unsympathetic presence.
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GALA PREMIERE US-Sp. 2016. 108mins Director JA Bayona Production companies Participant Media, River Road Entertainment, Apaches Entertainment, Telecinco Cinema, Pelicula la Trini, Lionsgate International sales Lionsgate International, internationalsales@ lionsgate.com North American distribution Focus Features, www. AMonsterCallsFilm.com Producer Belén Atienza Screenplay Patrick Ness, based on his novel Cinematography Oscar Faura Production design Eugenio Caballero Editors Bernat Vilaplana, Jaume Marti Music Fernando Velazquez Main cast Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Liam Neeson, Toby Kebbell, James Melville, Geraldine Chaplin
» Lady Macbeth p8 » Hell Or High Water p8
Was Edward Snowden a patriot or a traitor when, in 2013, he revealed sensitive information about the US government’s secret surveillance of its citizens? What’s disappointing about Oliver Stone’s biopic is that, for all its intriguing ideas, it fails to engage with the complexity of that question. Joseph Gordon-Levitt nails Snowden’s meek exterior and cool intelligence, but the film leaves its main character unsatisfyingly opaque. Arriving in US theatres last week, this Open Road release will benefit from the timeliness of the subject matter. The 2014 documentary Citizenfour, also about Snowden, won an Oscar, and this summer’s Jason Bourne based part of its plot on societal anxieties about privacy in the internet age. But it is uncertain how much of a draw Snowden will be outside of those invested in this debate. The story ought to be in Stone’s thematic wheelhouse: the film’s central topics are government hypocrisy, the failure of the US to live up to its promise and the power of the media. But although the Oscar-winning director tones down the stylistic flourishes, he substitutes them with only a fitfully compelling character study. The film plays like a conventional biopic that tries to ‘explain’ its protagonist by tracking in flashback the development of his romantic relationship with Lindsay (Shailene Woodley), essentially turning her into the frustrated voice of reason who inspires him to change. The film’s structure offers intermittent character shading and, with Ed as our guide, Snowden becomes a thumbnail sketch of US espionage strategy during the 21st century. But the various mentors and colleagues he meets along the way are only mildly engaging, mostly serving as cautionary tales meant to provoke Ed into realising the patriotic principles for which he thinks he is fighting are all excuses for the country to beef up its unlawful worldwide surveillance programme. As with last year’s The Walk, Gordon-Levitt disappears into a real-life role, but it is not a performance that suggests an attitude about the character or a way of perceiving him. Probably intentionally, Gordon-Levitt wants Snowden to remain a mystery, his willingness to risk prison to do what he felt was right left teasingly enigmatic.
Ger-US. 2016. 134mins Director Oliver Stone Production companies Open Road Films, Endgame, Borman/ Kopeloff Productions, Vendian Entertainment, TG Media, KrautPack Entertainment International sales Wild Bunch, obarbier@ wildbunch.eu US distributor Open Road Films, www.openroadfilms.com Producers Moritz Borman, Fernando Sulichin, Philip SchulzDeyle, Eric Kopeloff Screenplay Kieran Fitzgerald and Oliver Stone, based on the book The Time Of The Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena and based on The Guardian book by Luke Harding Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle Production design Mark Tildesley Editors Alex Marquez, Lee Percy Music Craig Armstrong, Adam Peters Main cast Joseph GordonLevitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, Lakeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage
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REVIEWS
Lady Macbeth Reviewed by Jonathan Romney Not an adaptation of the Bard, but in other ways as Shakespearean as it gets, Lady Macbeth is a powerfully austere 19th-century drama. Superbly acted and executed, this spare piece of storytelling marks an assertive feature debut for theatre and opera director William Oldroyd, following prizewinning Sundance-screened short Best. Using its low budget to inventive effect, the austerity of this iFeatures project makes it a more challenging theatrical proposition than more mainstream UK heritage dramas, but its emotional and narrative intensity, not to say its potent erotic charge, will make for moderate upmarket exportability and strong festival presence. Written by playwright Alice Birch, the film is based on Lady Macbeth Of The Mtsensk District, the 1865 novel by Nikolai Leskov that inspired Shostakovich’s opera of the same name. Birch’s adaptation sets the action in rural northern England in the 1860s, where young Katherine (Florence Pugh) is seen marrying an older man, Alexander (Paul Hilton), in an alliance that is strictly business. Tight compositions and formal symmetries in Ari Wegner’s photography emphasise that Katherine is a prisoner in this male household, where her only companion is maid Anna (impressive first-timer Naomi Ackie). When Katherine intervenes to save Anna from abuse by a group of her
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM/ COMPETITION 2016. UK. 88mins Director William Oldroyd Production company Sixty Six Pictures, iFeatures International sales Protagonist Pictures, info@protagonistpictures. com Producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly Screenplay Alice Birch Cinematography Ari Wegner Production designer Jacqueline Abrahams Editor Nick Emerson Music Dan Jones Main cast Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Naomi Ackie, Paul Hilton, Christopher Fairbank
husband’s workers, headed by groom Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), her defiance towards Sebastian’s macho taunting develops into flirtation and the two become lovers. As Katherine takes drastic measures to protect her new freedom, she comes to live up to the film’s title. Lady Macbeth is one of several recent attempts to free UK costume drama from the prettifying conventions that so often stifle it, but it is also a powerfully political film. It not only shows how patriarchy creates its own nightmare nemesis,
but also muses disturbingly on questions of race in British history, with no punches pulled in the depiction of the abuse of the black maid Anna. As Sebastian, singer-songwriter Jarvis transcends the Heathcliffian brooding-hunk aspect of the role to create a man as much victim as lover. Pugh is altogether a revelation, her Katherine starting out as coy Victorian bride, her rebellion gradually making her more ambivalent, before she emerges as an altogether terrifying anti-heroine of Greek tragedy dimensions.
and no bundles. They plan in rapid succession to hit all the smaller branches of the Texas Midland Bank — which happens to be the predatory lender closing in on the family property. From the ‘Closing Down’ and ‘Debt Relief ’ signs that pepper the landscape, to the film’s steady-gazed depiction of hard-scrabble communities, Hell Or High Water announces its intention to elevate its themes beyond the rigid confines of the crime genre. But all that is just bonus texture; the film’s ace card is its intertwining of not one but two mismatched buddy relationships.
As entertaining as the bank-robbing brothers often are, they are eclipsed by the lawmen on their tail: near-retirement Texan Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Bridges) and his half-Comanche, half-Mexican partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham). Whether ribbing Alberto for his Catholic faith, Native American ancestors or presumed preference for effete soccer over American football, Bridges tosses off the zingers, enriched with a dry Texan twang. The score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis — initially plaintive, progressively more throbbing — is predictably strong.
Hell Or High Water Reviewed by Charles Gant Nine films into his all-over-the-map 14-year movie career, David Mackenzie delivers what is certainly his most commercially appealing entry so far, and one of his most fully achieved. Building momentum from the acclaimed 2013 UK prison drama Starred Up, Hell Or High Water is also his most genre-inflected effort, working from an expertly honed screenplay by Sicario scribe Taylor Sheridan. Throw in a tangy cast toplined by Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster, and the UK director looks set to finally make good on his long-simmering, by turns warming and cooling, commercial promise. Pine and Foster play west Texan siblings Toby and Tanner Howard. Elder brother Tanner (Foster) is an unrepentant hell raiser who has somehow managed to stay out of jail for a year. Law-abiding Toby (Pine) is estranged from his wife and two teenage sons, embarrassed to visit them as he is way behind on his child support. But Toby’s biggest problem is that the bank is foreclosing on a mortgage raised against the family ranch. He must raise cash quickly, or lose it all. That’s already getting ahead of ourselves. The film plunges us in just as the pair are committing their first bank robbery where, with smart restraint, they take only low-value bills
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GALA PREMIERE US. 2016. 102mins Director David Mackenzie Production companies Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Oddlot Entertainment, LBI Entertainment, Film 44 International sales Sierra/Affinity, joey@ sierra-affinity.com Producers Peter Berg, Sidney Kimmel, Julie Yorn, Carla Hacken Screenplay Taylor Sheridan Cinematography Giles Nuttgens Editor Jake Roberts Production design Tom Duffield Music Nick Cave, Warren Ellis Main cast Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gil Birmingham
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SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell
» Screening times and venues
are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration.
paullindsell@gmail.com
investigative journalism and the trail of his latest case — a probe into financial fraud — leads to the unexpected: his own brother. Set in Warsaw, ZFF is screening all six episodes of HBOEurope’s most recent miniseries.
SATURDAY SEPT 24 09:15 EUROPE, SHE LOVES
(Switzerland, Germany) 2016, 100 mins. Greek, English, Estonian, Spanish. Dir: Jan Gassmann. Zurich-based film-maker Jan Gassmann and cinematographer Ramon Giger travelled the length and breadth of Europe to capture the realities of life faced by four couples. A poetic yet blunt insight into the intimate attitude towards life of a generation of young people who see themselves robbed of future prospects. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arena 4 press
09.30 SNOWDEN
(US, Germany, France) 2016, 135 mins. English. Dir: Oliver Stone. Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage. “There’s something going on inside the government that’s really wrong.” Edward Snowden is a conscientious man — and it was as such that the young patriot carried out his work as a computer expert for various American secret services. He gained insight into the increasingly comprehensive, not to mention illegal, surveillance techniques employed by the US. In June 2013, the 29 year old met journalist Glen Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras and presented them with confidential secret service documents in order for them to enlighten the global public. A biopic about a modern-day hero. Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly press
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Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections
SEARCH PARTY
FESTIVAL 10:00 CODE M
(Netherlands) 2015, 98 mins. German (dubbed). Dir: Dennis Bots. Cast: Nina Wyss, Senna Borsato, Joes Brauers, Hannah van Lunteren. Isabel, 11, is on a quest for the sword of d’Artagnan — the former leader of the legendary Three Musketeers.
Isabel’s only clue to its whereabouts is a mysterious code. Together with her cousin Rick and her friend Jules, she sets out on a fast-paced adventure through old mansions and castles, quickly discovering she’s not the only one seeking the coveted item. One for all and all for one! ZFF for Kids Arena 5
10:00 CODE M
an ingenious plan to avert a national disaster.
See box, above
International Feature Film/ Competition Arena 4 press
11:15 OPERATION AVALANCHE
(US) 2016, 94 mins. English. Dir: Matt Johnson. Cast: Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, Josh Boles. At the height of the Cold War in 1967, the heads of the CIA fear a Russian spy may jeopardise the first moon landing. Under the guise of documentary filmmakers, the overzealous newcomer agents Matt and Owen infiltrate NASA’s headquarters in order to expose the mole. As the two detectives eavesdrop on secret internal calls, they make a shocking discovery — and soon come up with
11:30 PERSONAL AFFAIRS
(Israel, Palastine) 2016, 90 mins. Arabic. Dir: Maha Haj. Cast: Sanaa Shawahdeh, Mahmoud Shawahdeh, Doraid Liddawi, Hanan Hillo, Ziad Bakri. In Nazareth, Nabeela and Saleh spend every evening in front of the television — after many years of marriage, the two have nothing more to say to each other. While she sits knitting a pullover, he spends his time searching Wikipedia for curious knowledge about plants and animals. Their children
have long since flown the nest. Be it Israel, Palestine or Sweden, political conflict or lack thereof, despite their constant lively exchange of views, each member of this family has a hard time putting in words what they actually want to express. International Feature Film/ Competition Arena 3 press
12:00 LA LA LAND
(US) 2016, 126 mins. English. Dir: Damien Chazelle. Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend, JK Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt. A homage to the golden age of musicals. Two dreamers cross paths in Los Angeles — Mia, a passionate, aspiring actress, who is eaten up by loneliness, and charismatic Sebastian, who is working on his career as a jazz musician but has never made it past performing small gigs. Their budding relationship is put to the test when they both begin to become more successful. What once drew them together and united them in their struggles, suddenly threatens to tear them apart. Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly press
MOTHER
(Switzerland) 2002, 100 mins. German, Hungarian. Dir: Miklos Gimes. The life of Alice Gimes is caught between the various memories of her old homeland, Hungary, and being an immigrant in Switzerland. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she travels back to the place where her executed husband is now a martyr. Retro: Marcel Hoehn Filmpodium
12:30 MA VIE DE COURGETTE
Switzerland, France, 2016, 66 min Dir: Claude Barras His name is Icare, but everyone calls him Courgette; at 10 there is a lot to be discovered. Claude Barras’ stopmotion animation is a humble masterpiece. ZFF for Kids Arena 5
13:00
(US) 2016, 27 mins. English. Dir: SarahViolet Bliss, Charles Rogers. Cast: Alia Shawkat, John Reynolds, John Early, Meredith Hagner. Dory is living a somewhat aimless life in trendy Brooklyn. While everyone in her circle of narcissistic friends has an extremely interesting job, Dory feels like the odd one out. Frustrated with both life and her boyfriend, she is delighted when one day an exciting opportunity arises: a former college friend has gone missing and Dory, fascinated by the disappearance, sets off to investigate. What started as fascination, however, soon turns to into obsession. Pilot episode of new TBS series. TVision Corso 4
13:15 KILL BILL VOL. 1
(US) 2003, 111 mins. Dir: Quentin Tarantino. Q&A with Uma Thurman following the screening of Tarantino’s bloody ode to vengeance. Special Screening Arena 4
13:30
THE PACT
HELI
(Poland) 2015, 50 mins. Polish. Dir: Marek Lechki. Cast: Marcin Dorocinski, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Magdalena Cielecka, Jacek Poniedzialek. Piotr knows what he wants and how to get it. This smart, serious man has made a name in
(Mexico, France, Germany, Netherlands) 2013, 105 mins. Spanish. Dir: Amat Escalante. Cast: Armando Espitia, Andrea Vergara, Linda Gonzales, Juan Eduardo Palacios. Heli, barely an adult, is already the provider for his family of five. »
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SCREENINGS
Anxiously he observes how his sister, Estela, becomes romantically involved with police cadet Beto. When he deposits two parcels of cocaine on the roof of Heli’s house, the life of the family begins to fall apart. Soon Heli is pursued not only by the local drug cartel, but also by a special police unit and the military — all of which intimidate Heli’s family.
Many people have since followed the developments in the US police force with scepticism: provincial towns are being overrun by tanks and respectable citizens are being monitored by high-security technology. Film-maker Craig Atkinson has charted the developments in this area for the past two years and offers a rare and unsettling insight into American police culture.
New World View: Mexico Arena 3
International Documentary Film/Competition Corso 4
13:30 SANTA & ANDRES
(Cuba, France, Columbia) 2016, 105 mins. Spanish. Dir: Carlos Lechuga. Cast: Lola Amores, Eduardo Martinez. In 1983, in a rural mountain region of eastern Cuba, Andres, a non-compliant gay writer in his 50s, is blacklisted by the government for having “ideological problems”. When a big event arises someone reliable must be appointed to watch over him and ensure he does not get in a position to make any public political statement. Santa — a country girl in her 30s who works on a farm — is assigned to the task. For three days, Santa will sit in front of Andres’ hut and keep watch over him. The two are as close as it gets of being true opposites. What they cannot imagine, however, is that they have more things in common than they ever expected. Window: San Sebastian Corso 2
14:15 DO NOT RESIST
(US) 2016, 72 mins. English. Dir: Craig Atkinson. “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” On the streets of Ferguson in Missouri, things are heating up between police and demonstrators. Following the shooting of the African-American student Michael Brown by a police officer in August 2014, violent protests erupted in more than 170 cities across the US.
14:30 COLD WATER
(France) 1994, 94 mins. French. Dir: Olivier Assayas. Cast: Virginie Ledoyen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Cyprien Fouquet, Laszlo Szabo, Dominique Faysse. France in the 1970s. Following a robbery, two lovers flee to an abandoned house in the countryside where a wild party is under way. They later find their way to a commune. Highlights the attitude to life of a youth caught between rebellion and nihilistic disorientation. Retro: Olivier Assayas Filmpodium
14:30 THOSE WHO JUMP
(Denmark) 2016, 80 mins. French, Bambara. Dir: Moritz Siebert, Estephan Wagner, Abou Bakar Sidibe. Hope and fear live hand in hand in the forests of the Gurugu Mountains in northern Morocco, where there is a clear view of the Spanish enclave Melilla. Images taken by a hidden surveillance camera, belonging to the Spanish border police, show a group of people trying to scale a highsecurity boundary fence in vain. The fence separates the African continent from Europe. Like many others, Abou has lived in the clandestine camp for more than a year, ceaselessly attempting to jump the fence. One day, he is given a camera. Border Lines Arthouse Piccadilly
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THE WORLD OF US
(South Korea) 2016, 95 mins Direction: Yoon Ga-eun Cast: Choi Soo-in, Seol Hye-in, Lee Seo-yeon. Ten-year-old Sun is the outsider in her class so is delighted when newcomer Jia befriends her. But the realities of school will test their friendship. ZFF for Kids Arena 5
15:00 JULIA’S DISAPPEARANCE
(Switzerland) 2009, 87 mins. German. Dir: Christoph Schaub. Cast: Corinna Harfouch, Bruno Ganz, Stefan Kurt, Andre Jung, Sunnyi Melles. Age makes you invisible. Of all days, this is something Giulia discovers on her 50th birthday. Shopping is said to be appropriate therapy — and while doing just that she meets a stranger. Retro: Marcel Hoehn Corso 3
15:15 A MONSTER CALLS
(US, Spain) 2016, 108 mins. English. Dir: Juan Antonio Bayona. Cast: Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Ben Moor. Twelve-year-old Conor refuses to accept the fact his mother is severely ill. Forced to live with his grandmother, Conor begins to retreat into his own fantasy world, where he is visited by a tree monster. As threatening as the monster appears, it seems to understand what Conor is going through. Gala Premieres Corso 1
16:00 MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES
(US) 2016, 109 mins. English. Dir: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato. Cast: Robert Mapplethorpe, Edward Mapplethorpe, Fran Lebowitz, Brice Marden, Debbie Harry, Ken Moody, Robert Sherman, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Carolina Herrera, Brooke Shields.
The only thing more outrageous than Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs was his life. Born in a suburb of New York, he was in his mid-20s when he began to take highly aesthetic images of sexually excited men. It was the era of Andy Warhol’s Factory and a new dawn of hedonistic sexuality. The great artist talks about the passions that influenced his art. Intimate recollections by those who knew him cast additional (sometimes critical) light on a man whose provocative subject matter dared to discover where art ends and pornography begins.
16:15 CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
Special Screenings Arthouse Le Paris
TRIVISA
OFFICE
(Hong Kong, China) 2015, 119 mins. Cantonese, Mandarin. Dir: Johnnie To. Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Sylvia Chang, Eason Chan, Wang Ziyi, Lang Yueting. In the wake of the global financial crisis, chairman Ho Chung-Ping and CEO Winnie Chang prepare to save their billiondollar company. The turbulence of the economy is matched only by that of the company’s employees. A takedown of capitalist corruption shrewdly packed as a song-anddance extravaganza.
(France, Germany, Switzerland) 2014, 124 mins. German, English, French, Swiss German. Dir: Olivier Assayas. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz, Juliette Binoche. Once a celebrated actress, Maria Enders made her breakthrough starring in “Maloja Snake”. Twenty years later, she is to perform in a new version, but in another role: that of the older woman. Her younger counterpart is to be taken by Hollywood’s hot new thing. Retro: Olivier Assayas Arena 4
(Hong Kong, China) 2016, 97 mins. English, Thai, Cantonese, Mandarin. Dir: Vicky Wong, Frank Hui, Jevons Au. Cast: Lam Ka Tung, Richie Jen, Jordan Chan. Hong Kong in the summer of 1997. Shortly before the handover of the British administered territory to China, three of the city’s most infamous robber barons brood over their future. When all three are coincidently seen together in the same restaurant, it is rumoured that the hostile eccentrics are planning one last major coup.
HOOLIGAN SPARROW
(China, US) 2016, 84 mins. English, Mandarin. Dir: Nanfu Wang. Cast: Ye Haiyan, Wang Yu, Nanfu Wang. Following the rape of six girls by their headmaster in the Hainan Province, women’s rights activist Ye Haiyan (alias Hooligan Sparrow) and her friends take to the streets in a noisy protest. This is not the first assault by a state employee — most of whom go unpunished. Film-maker Nanfu Wang accompanies Hooligan Sparrow wherever she goes — and soon appears herself on the radar of the Chinese authorities. No interrogation techniques, deportation charges or threat of imprisonment can stop these women from taking their message to the world. With considerable luck and skill, Wang manages to smuggle the film material out of her homeland. Border Lines Arthouse Piccadilly
16:45 LE COEUR EN BRAILLE
(Mexico) 2015, 87 mins. Spanish. Dir: Katina Medina Mora. Cast: Ilse Salas, Pablo Derqui, Rosa Maria Bianchi. Sparks fly when charming photographer Nicolas and confident student Isabel meet in a hospital corridor; suitably, a passionate love affair ensues. As self-assured as each of them appears to be, both have demons. Nicolas is irritated by Isabel’s reticence, while she, in turn, has to deal with his epilepsy.
(France, Canada, UK) 2004, 110 mins. English, French, Cantonese. Dir: Olivier Assayas. Cast: Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Beatrice Dalle, Jeanne Balibar. After the death of her lover, drug-addicted Emily attempts to get her life back on track. Her son is currently living with her in-laws in Canada. She sets off on a journey half way round the globe, from Vancouver to Paris, London and San Francisco, in a battle for custody.
(France) 2016, 90 mins. French. Dir: Michel Boujenah. Cast: Alix VaillotSzwarc, Jean-Stan Du Pac, Charles Berling. Marie, 12, is an excellent student and an outstanding cellist who dreams of studying at a renowned music school and becoming a musician some day. Nobody knows, however, that Marie suffers from an disease affecting her ability to see. Although her sight is good enough to live a more or less normal life at the moment, Marie becomes increasingly aware she must one day live her life in complete darkness. When her worried parents contemplate sending her to a school for the visually impaired, Marie realises her lifelong dream may be at risk. Together with her classmate Victor, she attempts to defy her fate: she will help him with his homework if he becomes her eyes.
New World View: Mexico Corso 4
Retro: Olivier Assayas Filmpodium
ZFF for Kids Arena 5
Window: Hong Kong Arena 3
Window: Hong Kong Corso 2
16:30 CLEAN
YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ME
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17:30 TEMPESTAD
five years, absence has her living in a limbo that gives way to desire, hope and the struggle to find her husband and nine-year-old son Brandon alive.
(Mexico) 2016, 105 mins. Spanish. Dir: Tatiana Huezo. Early one morning, entirely innocent Miriam is accused of human trafficking. She is locked away for years in a prison reputedly run by a notorious cartel. In Mexico, “pagadores” is the name given to those who have to pay the price for somebody else’s crime. In an environment of permanent fear, we also find the story of Adela, whose daughter disappeared without trace one day. New World View: Mexico Corso 3
18:00
» EL BUZO
2016, 16mins. Dir: Julio Cesar. Cu Camara is the diver in the Mexico City sewerage system. His job is to repair pumps and dislodge garbage that flows into the gutters to maintain the circulation of the sewerage waters. » EN EL ESTACIONAMIENTO FESTIVAL 18:30
DREAMLAND
NERUDA
(Switzerland, Germany) 2013, 95 mins. Swiss German. Dir: Petra Volpe. Cast: Andre Jung, Luna Mijovic, Ursina Lardi, Bettina Stucky. Christmas Eve in Zurich: a tale of loneliness, desire and deception.
(Chile, Argentina, France, Spain) 2016, 108 mins. Spanish. Dir: Pablo Larrain. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Moran, Diego Munoz, Pablo Derqui. Chile, 1948. With the onset of the Cold War, president Gonzalez Videla’s political policies become
Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections
NOCTURAMA
(France, Germany, Belgium) 2016, 130 mins. French. Dir: Bertrand Bonello. Cast: Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Guyot. On an ordinary morning in Paris, a number of male and female adolescents from different districts, with different backgrounds and from various origins, set out individually, yet somehow connected, and begin a strange dance through the labyrinth of the metro and the streets of the French capital. Hours pass by, during which distances are covered, messages are sent, mobile telephones are discarded, security systems are hacked and bombs planted. Conducted with precision, they seem to be following a plan. Finally, they come together in a posh department store, at closing time. Bombs
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are exploding in Paris. Ahead lies a long and nerve-wracking night. Gala Premieres Corso 1
18:15 THE OTHER HALF OF THE SKY
(Switzerland) 2016, 80 mins. English, Chinese, Mandarin. Dir: Patrik Soergel. Cast: Zhang Lan, Zhou Yi, Dong Mingzhu, Yang Lan. They are four of the most successful businesswomen in China: belonging to a generation who experienced the austerity of China’s cultural revolution, followed by the subsequent economic boom, they have worked their way to the very top in a patriarchal society. International Documentary Film/Competition Corso 4
her from the countryside to the Chinese capital. increasingly right wing. The worldrenowned poet Pablo Neruda, who despite fame and fortune is committed to communism, must flee underground after publicly denouncing the president. Police officer Oscar is given the task of arresting him but Neruda remains one step ahead at all times. Gala Premieres Arthouse Le Paris
18:30 I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY
(China) 2016, 128 mins. Mandarin. Dir: Feng Xiaogang. Cast: Fan Bingbing, Guo Tao, Da Peng, Zhang Jiayi, Yu Hewei. In order to get one of the rare secondary dwellings available, Li Xuelian and her husband come up with a plan: they file for divorce. Li, however, didn’t reckon with the deceitfulness of her husband. Six months after the divorce, he unceremoniously marries another woman. A disaster for Li, who lost her fraudulent husband as well as her honour. In order to salvage her reputation and convince the corrupt authorities of her innocence, she sets off on a years-long campaign, which takes
Gala Premieres Arena 3
NERUDA See box, left
18:45 MISERICORDE
(Switzerland, Canada) 2016, 90 mins. French. Dir: Fulvio Bernasconi. Cast: Jonathan Zaccai, Evelyne Brochu, Daniel Gadouas, Charlie Arcouette, Marie-Helene Belanger, Marthe Keller, Marco Collin. Thomas, originally from Geneva, has spent the past three months fishing in Quebec, Canada. On the day of his scheduled return, he happens upon the scene of an accident: he finds 13-year-old Muk from a nearby Native Indian reserve lying in the middle of the road — the car that caused the accident has fled. He makes a promise to Muk’s mother that he will do anything in his power to find the one who hit and ran. His quest, however, is met with suspicion by local police officer Laurie. International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2
An ordinary day in Romania. Under a highway exit close to Bucharest, Lidia and Denisa are changing their clothes; warm pullovers and sneakers are exchanged for tight tops and heels. When the youthful Vanessa turns up under the bridge to compete with the girls, they try their best to get rid of her. The women’s biggest problem, however, is an encounter with the police, who are not afraid to help themselves to the women’s hard-earned cash. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arthouse Piccadilly
19:00 CERTAIN WOMEN
(US) 2016, 107 mins. English. Dir: Kelly Reichardt. Cast: Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, James Le Gros, Jared Harris, Lily Gladstone, Rene Auberjonois. Three stories set in the North American snowcapped and wide-ranged state of Montana. Gala Premieres Arena 4
SHORTS FROM MEXICO PROWL
(Germany) 2016, 75 mins. Romanian. Dir: Alexandra Balteanu. Cast: Corina Moise, Iulia Lumanare, Iulia Ciochina, Sergiu Costache, Dragos Olaru.
(Mexico) 2016, 89 mins. Spanish. » AUSENCIAS
2015, 28mins. Dir: Tatiana Huezo. Lulu wakes to the silence of an empty house. After
2016, 15mins. Dir: Juliana Orea. Lis and her brother Gonzo are waiting in a car for their father Gabriel to arrive. After waiting for hours, Gabriel returns carefree, so Lis decides to show her anger by leaving him out of the car. Father and daughter must face the real problems of their relationship. » MIL CAPAS
2015, 18mins. Dir: Tess Anastasia Fernandez. Maria is allergic to the sun. She is in charge of a water park owned by her and her aunt, Tita. Only she wants to keep it as a family business. There, she falls in love with Leonardo, the aqua areobics coach, who makes her forget about her illness for a while. » VIDEOHOME
2014, 11mins. Dir: Emiliano Rocha Minter. The productive sense of civilisation is now on strike. Inhabitants face leisure time and the possibilities of boredom while discovering their liberty limited by the walls of their homes. In these micro worlds there are no rules nor conventions and home becomes a white canvas where anyone can rethink life and its nonsense thanks to the extended pause outside productiveness. New World View: Mexico Filmpodium
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SCREENINGS
20:00 THE CHARRO OF TOLUQUILLA
(Mexico) 2016, 90 mins. Spanish. Dir: Jose Villalobos Romero. Cast: Agustin Jaime Garcia Dominguez, Analia Garcia Hernandez, Rocio Hernandez Gonzalez. Horses, sombreros and guitars: everyday items for the mariachi Jaime Garcia. The full-time charro — a Mexican cowboy of sorts — exhausts himself with jokes and banter during his evening performances and surrounds himself with beautiful women. However, that is just one side of his life in which not everything is as it used to be. His daughter and her mother crave fatherly attention and an HIV diagnosis gradually saps the last of his energy. New World View: Mexico Corso 3
20:30 SENNENTUNTSCHI — CURSE OF THE ALPS
(Switzerland, Austria) 2010, 115 mins. Swiss German. Dir: Michael Steiner. Cast: Roxane Mesquida, Nicholas Ofczarek, Andrea Zogg, Carlos Leal, Joel Basman. A gripping adaptation of a classic Swiss legend.
his Chinese father refuses to tell him anything in detail. The traditional wake begins and Alex is left dealing with his relatives and the imminent cultural differences. Reluctant to believe that his brother died of a sudden brain haemorrhage, Alex begins to dig deeper into his father’s family history. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Corso 4
21:00 FUTURE BABY
(Austria) 2016, 91 mins. German, English, Hebrew, Spanish. Dir: Maria Arlamovsky. “I just lend my belly to people.” A young Mexican woman gives birth to a baby in an operating theatre — and her job is done. The newborn is given to its new American parents. When many couples’ biggest wish won’t come true, modern reproduction methods are on hand to help. But it is not only surrogate motherhood that has become a feature of everyday life. Reproduction engineers are tinkering in laboratories all over the world.
Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections
Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arena 7
THE SOUL OF THE TIGER
SNOWDEN
(Switzerland, Belgium) 2016, 91 mins. French, Mandarin. Dir: Francois Yang. Cast: Frederic Siuen, Audrey Bastien, Xin Wang, Bing Yin, Marianne Basler. Alex Chen and his girlfriend Eloane go rock climbing in the mountains. Their lighthearted holiday is put to an abrupt end when Alex receives a shocking telephone call: his brother Jun is dead. Back in Paris’ Chinatown, Alex is determined to find out what happened. While his French mother retreats into mourning,
(US, Germany, France) 2016, 135 mins. English. Dir: Oliver Stone. Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage. Gala Premieres Corso 1
THE SALESMAN
(Iran, France) 2016, 125 mins. Persian. Dir: Asghar Farhadi. Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi.
12 Screen International at Zurich September 24, 2016
In the middle of the night, Emad and Rana are awoken by a grinding sound. Shortly thereafter they are evacuated from their apartment block, which is in danger of collapsing. The young couple soon find a new place to live and everything seems fine. One odd thing, however, remains: despite several attempts to contact the previous tenant, she still has not picked up most of her possessions. One day, after waiting for her husband to return from work, Rana opens the door and is faced with a nasty surprise. Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly
21:15 PORTO
(Portugal, France, US) 2016, 75 mins. English, French, Portugese. Dir: Gabe Klinger. Cast: Anton Yelchin, Lucie Lucas, Chantal Akerman. Two misfits drift through life in the harbour town of Porto. Their paths having crossed once, resulting in a brief affair. All that remains now are vague memories of an intense encounter. Special Screenings Filmpodium
THE RECONQUEST
(Spain) 2016, 108 mins. Spanish. Dir: Jonas Trueba. Cast: Francesco Carril, Itsaso Arana, Pablo Hoyos, Candela Recio, Aura Garrido. Nobody ever forgets their first true love. Manuela and Olmo were aware of this even at the tender age of 15. Now that they are both over 30, they live in completely different worlds. The magic of young love seems long gone. With trepidation yet familiarity, the two suddenly find themselves facing each other — not entirely by accident — in Madrid, their native city. Old letters surface, sparks turn to flames and the unanswered: “what if…?” question arises. Window: San Sebastian Arena 3
SNOWDEN
(US, Germany, France) 2016, 135 mins. English. Dir: Oliver Stone. Gala Premieres Arthouse Le Paris
21:30 SAUSAGE PARTY
(US) 2016, 89 mins. English. Dir: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon. Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, James Franco. Between tinned food, boxes and glass jars on an endless supermarket shelf, Frank the little sausage is awaiting his big day: the instance in which he will be picked up and taken to paradise. When he along with his shelf mates finally makes it into a cart, they are suddenly faced with complete horror in the kitchen of their buyers: potatoes are being skinned alive while not even baby carrots are spared. Frank and his fellow sufferers set off to warn their friends back at the supermarket. Special Screenings Arena 4
21:45 TRESPASS AGAINST US
(UK) 2016, 98 mins. English. Dir: Adam Smith. Cast: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Rory Kinnear, Lyndsey Marshal. The Cutler family spend their time raiding large estates, taking wild car rides and tormenting the police. Chad is completely loyal to his patriarchal father, yet finds himself increasingly at odds with their way of life. Although his wife and kids stand by him, he longs to offer them another life. Despite his desire to free himself of his father’s controlling grasp, Chad agrees to go along with his latest heist plan. International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2
22:30 IRMA VEP
(France) 1996, 99 mins. English, French. Dir: Olivier Assayas.
Cast: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Leaud. A celebrated Hong Kong diva travels to Paris for a film shoot. She slips into a skintight black latex suit to play the role of the queen of burglars Irma Vep. With all eyes on her, her translator is creating more chaos than understanding, and the aged director turns into a bag of nerves. Retro: Olivier Assayas Corso 3
23:00 ROBBERY
(Hong Kong) 2015, 92 mins. Cantonese. Dir: Fire Lee. Cast: Derek Tsang, Lam Suet, J Arie, Ken Low, Philip Keung. Luckless Ping has no idea what lies waiting around the corner when he accepts a job at a 24-hour shop. His misfortune begins with the first customer — a police officer with digestive problems who is in a rush to get to the toilet. What comes next is a hot cheerleader, a grandfather looking for a sandwich and a pair of scissors, and a suicide bomber who just wants to blow everything up. Arena 7 Window: Hong Kong
23:00 UNDER THE SHADOW
(Iran, UK, Jordan, Qatar) 2016, 84 mins. Persian. Dir: Babak Anvari. Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian. As bombs rain from the sky at the height of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, Shideh and her daughter Dorsa take cover in their apartment block. When a missile hits their apartment building, a neighbour dies in mysterious circumstances. Following this, Dorsa’s behaviour becomes increasingly disturbed and Shideh is slowly drawn into a mania in which she struggles to cling onto what is real and what is not.
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Special Screenings Corso 4
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