Cambridge Film Festival Daily Friday 26th October

FESTIVAL DAILY FRIDAY 26TH OCTOBER

INSIDE THIS ISSUE PG. 2 Our very own Elle Haywood reviews Giorce Stavreski’s SECRET INGREDIENT

PG. 3 Nick Kitchin shares his thoughts on ERIK & THE IBAN

PG. 4 LEMONADE, as seen by student writer Sarah Henkel

Photo © Dave Riley 2018

OPENING NIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA THE 38TH CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL STARTS OUT WITH A LEGENDARY TOUCH The 38th Cambridge Film Festival opened last night with an utterly successful screening of Terry Gilliam’s latest picture, THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. Make sure to catch its second screening on Saturday 27th October at 5:30pm at our beloved Arts Picturehouse!

Today’s Daily will feature a series of reviews by our dynamic team. The following films will be screening again in the week, so make sure to catch them!

All content © TAKE ONE MAGAZINE 2018 Daily editor – Yemi Chabi Takeonecinema.net | @takeonecinema | FB takeonecinema.uk

SECRET INGREDIENT ELLE HAYWOOD, STUDENT WRITER Gritty, cynical and intensely gripping – Gjorce Stavreski delivers a powerful piece that rests on a son’s desperate devotion to battle his father’s illness that delves them both into the unforgiving underworld of Macedonia’s drug-trade.

With his father losing the fight to terminal lung-cancer and with it, his hope and mind, Vele (Blagoj Veselinov) is beginning to run out of options. His immediate dismissal of ‘phoney’ herbal medicines, topped off by the fact he cannot afford pharmacy drugs due to delayed wages, puts him in a difficult position.

During a drug-raid, Vele stumbles across said drugs and stashes them away. His quick thinking results in him baking a cake from the marijuana to give his father, which immediately brings about temporary relief from the physical and mental suffering.

There’s an indirect, visually empowering sentiment about the The film direct, – with clean-cut subtle techniques suchshots as natural and barren wide-angled set th light out in concrete locations that result in the audience focusing on the emotional storyline. pretences are as minimal, and instead stages whichManufactured to some may be considered too structured, but displays the strength of the film’s concepts through dialogue. Straveski has commented on Italian Neorealism being a notable the authentic relationships of the characters oozes through the influence on his work (including De Sica and Rossellini) which cancracks be spotted in subtlethe elements and cements piece. such as social order and focusing on survival over ambition. It demonstrates clearly how working-class struggles are not just traits of the past but how they transpire in modern society.

Vele and his father, Sazdo, play out the traditional strains of the kin relationship; the doomed philosophy of the dying old man attempting one final lecture about education and future planning, which his son just brushes off, determined to find a cure.

Later on, hustled under the dim, rouge lights of the city, he talks with Jana after their date about the complexities of relationships between families, in which she accuses his father of influencing Vele’s introverted nature after a past tragedy.The film rests upon these small, yet hugely intense conversations which set of a chain of events that run through the plot. They are framed as emotionally charged, and pessimistic – but are instead defined and poignant.

The legalisation of cannabis for medicinal and recreational consumption is in the spotlight of the world media, as countries battle to decide its fate in each state. With the bleak financial and economic state of society, many people are turning to alternative consumptions to alleviate their emotional state. Through the film’s journey, there is a shift in Vele’s optimism – be it the hallucinogenic properties of the weed or having one last bout of hope for his father. Cinematographer Dejan Dimeski intensely documents this as the film’s colour palette flows from the drab darkness of the brutalist period; to the warmth caress of Macedonia’s highlands. The country’s bureaucracy surrounding drug use links its to acts such as beastiality, to which the others find highly amusing but Vele is mentally submerged into this melancholy state. His own depression is a subconscious projection of the country’s social and economic struggles Despite the bleak outlook at times; the inner determination to keep going is unsuspectingly uplifting, even as the town’s hysteria over this ‘magical’ cake with healing properties grows, drawing in unwanted attention from the disgruntled cartels. Homeopathic treatments have become a far more common option in areas such as the Balkans as a final resort and favourited in regards to traditional outlooks. The film gives a fresh depiction of disparities between Western and Eastern European attitudes towards health and welfare.

SECRET INGREDIENT exposes the rising poverty crisis within Macedonian society in a far-too common context of life and death.

The concept of social reality and economic crisis, tied in with characters engaged in bleak, emotional storylines and muted aesthetic cinematography unites this simple, confiding piece.

SECRET INGREDIENT will be repeated on the 29th October at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse at 14:45pm

ERIK & THE IBAN NICK KITCHIN In 1959 a young man by the name of Erik Jensen boarded an ocean liner bound for Sarawak on the tropical Island of Borneo. Little did he know he would spend the next seven years living and working with the indigenous Iban people, researching their language and culture. Simultaneously, the traditional way of life for the Iban would come under threat and Erik would end up steering a group of these Iban though times of difficult change, slowly persuading them of the benefits of adaptation.

More than 50 years on, Dan Childs’ excellent documentary takes Erik back to where he lived all those years ago, to find the people he left behind and to discover what has become of them. With wonderful Iban inspired graphics to give context and backstory, Erik guides us through modern Sarawak on an odyssey of rediscovery.

It is clear from the start that the world he knew then has gone. At one point Erik comments that the two or three hour bus journey he is taking from Kuching back to the province of Samanggang would have taken, back then, three days. He reflects that there was only one car then anyway, but that now perhaps we should expect traffic congestion! These questions of change remain throughout the documentary and challenge us to consider the effect of change, both as a source of empowerment and enrichment for the indigenous Iban while reflecting on the consequences of that change on the culture itself.

The film, perfectly paced for its 40 minute running time, explains a great deal of complex social change and the director rightly has one eye on the past with the other firmly on the future. While the environmental impact of change is always there as a subtext, this allows the film space to do two things. Firstly, it displays extraordinary and rarely seen footage of the Iban (much of which Erik shot) as they were just prior to the seismic changes that were about to be imposed on their ancient way of life, footage that captures a moment in history that is, remarkably, a mere two generations ago. It allows the viewer to consider the broader context of the global changes that our planet has undergone in the last half century; extraordinary things to consider.

The second is more subtle but equally compelling. The eye on the future helps us to frame the changes in a positive context. These cultural changes are often heralded with doom and gloom but here the film lets us a see a different narrative, where the grandchildren have real opportunity to follow their dreams (of becoming a doctor, for instance) while being lifted out of real poverty (with the introduction of electricity), while still retaining and remaining interested in much of their cultural heritage (such as traditional dance, weaving and medicine). It is this story, in the context of the last 50 years of global change, that is a rare and welcome cinematic discovery.

Erik remains at the heart of this film and is a large part of what makes it so engaging. He and the director leave you with a lot to consider about the world we live in and what is important to us as individuals.

What does success mean, and who imperative should we believe? Above all, the film encourages us to reflect on how we treat others and how we live in society.

At the start, Erik reflects on his time in Sarawak, “As the great English anthropologist Evans-Pritchard once said, it is not the length of the experience but the intensity of the experience that matters”. A metaphor for the film perhaps, and for us all to consider in our daily lives.

ERIK & THE IBAN will be repeated on the 28th October at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse at 5:15pm, with a special Q+A with director Dan Childs, Dr. Erik Jensen and producer Michelle Cullen.

LEMONADE SARAH HENKEL, STUDENT WRITER Ioana Uricaru’s LEMONADE stars Mălina Manovici as protagonist Mara – a Romanian single mother trying to get a green card and secure the American Dream for herself and her son.

Mara came to the US on a work visa as a nurse. Through her job she meets Daniel, who she marries just before her visa runs out. Until the relationship is put under serious pressure, the portrayal of their marriage is deliberately vague. It’s not a grand romance but there is some warmth to it. LEMONDADE is not a success story – it shows the gritty aspects of immigration, such as the rushed medical examination where she gets vaccinated without consultation, as a series of confrontations with a misogynistic immigration officer. A situations that seemed unpleasant but manageable at the start spirals downward.

Mălina Manovici as Mara, and Milan Hurduc as her son Dragos, both give subtle but evocation performances. Mara, who starts out trying to keep her head down and get through the immigration process, finds herself increasingly out of her depth but is unwilling to let go of her chance at the American Dream. Mara struggled in Romania, as a single mother trying to make ends meet, and the film shows that life as an immigrant is just as challenging in its own way.

LEMONADE is a gritty and evocative story about people trying to make their own luck.

LEMONADE will be repeated on the 27th October at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse at 5:00pm