ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Romania

Collective – The Press, the State, and Trust

by Leave a Comment

“The way a state functions can crush people sometimes.”

In 2015 a fire broke out in Colectiv, a Bucharest nightclub. Twenty-seven people died because there was only one exit. The corruption that allowed that to happen enraged the populace and led to the fall of the Romanian government. But after four months, thirty-seven other victims died in hospitals because of infections. Collective, from German-Romanian director Alexander Nanau, takes us into the controversy, the investigation, the governmental response to these new deaths, and the reasons behind those deaths.

We learn that while Romanian officials were telling their people that their hospitals were as good as any in Europe, in reality, they were a disaster. The main problem, we discover, is that the disinfectants that were being sold to hospitals were extremely diluted, making them completely ineffective. The company that made the products provided bribes and kickback to administrators and officials. As the investigation is underway, the owner of the company dies under mysterious circumstances.

Nanau has brought us an observational documentary. There are no interviews or voice overs. Rather the camera allows us to be present for a variety of events. It takes us into the newsroom of Sports Gazette (Gazeta Sporturilor) where Cătălin Tolontan leads a group of investigative reporters. We meet a burn victim who models for art photographs. We go to press conferences with the Minister of Health as he tries to defend the corruption being discovered in hospitals and the government. When a new Minister of Health takes over, he allows Nanau access to his meetings as a way of being transparent.

It may seem a bit strange that the investigation seems to be led by a sports journal. Tolontan had experience with investigative stories dealing with the government, mostly with the Ministry of Sports. His expertise was an important part of why the story ended up in that newspaper, which is among the most read in Romania.

One of the key issues involved in the film in many ways is trust. Whom can we trust? The government spokespeople? The reports from labs who test the disinfectants (those labs are accredited by the government)? The doctors who run the hospitals? The press? The filmmaker?

When Vlad Voiculescu becomes the new Minister of Health halfway through the film, he shows a great amount of trust by allowing Nanau to bring his cameras into his offices. Voiculescu, as an outsider, wants to establish transparency so that the people can have a sense of trust. The idea is that trust will beget trust. Voiculescu seeks to bring reforms to the health care system, but he is challenged by some who want to undermine his efforts.

I should note that the film doesn’t end on a hopeful note. As the new election looms in Romania, Voiculescu is faced with the idea that the reforms he was beginning could vanish when the next government takes over. That election, in 2016, reflected the populism that was also taking place in other countries, including the US and the UK. It may make us wonder about where we place our trusts—as individuals, and as a society.

Collective is the winner of several awards from film festivals around the world. It is Romania’s official submission for Best International Film consideration.

Collective is available in theaters and on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Wednesday at AFIFest 2020

by Leave a Comment

My cat has enjoyed AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi a great deal this year. She rarely has a chance to spend a whole afternoon on my lap when I actually have to go to movies. I doubt she realizes the qualities of movies she’s sleeping through. She’s missing out on some very good stuff.

The documentary Collective, by German-Romanian filmmaker Alexander Nanau, arrived at AFIFest with a load of festival awards. It takes place in the aftermath of a tragic 2015 nightclub fire that claimed 27 lives. The corruption that that fire exposed led to the fall of the government, and a new temporary government of technocrats. Yet, another 37 victims of the fire died over the next four months, mostly from infections. All the while the Minister of Health claimed the hospitals were among the best in Europe. When journalists discovered that the disinfectants being sold to hospitals were blatantly diluted, a new scandal erupted. This film takes us inside the controversy, the investigation, and the attempts at the new Minister of Health to create a better medical system.

The key quote I found in the film: “The way a state functions can crush people some of the time.” This is one of many films I’ve seen this year that portray the need of an independent and trustworthy press for democracy to function. Collective not only speaks to that need, but is clear that the power of government can be overwhelming. This film is Romania official submission for Best International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

In Ekwa Msangi’s Farewell Amor, an Angolan immigrant in New York is reunited with his family after seventeen years apart. Walter came to America following the Angolan Civil War, his wife Esther and daughter Sylvia went to Tanzania. It has taken all this time for Walter to get permission for them to join him. Meanwhile, their lives have gone in different directions. Esther has become quite religious. Walter has made a life for himself—with another woman. Sylvia, in high school, has her own dreams. There are chapters in the film that give us the perspective of each of these characters. It is interesting how dancing keeps coming into play within the film. The characters find identity, both separately and as family, in dancing. At times that dancing may be a source of conflict, but it can also be the beginning of healing.

You may wonder if there are ever any comedies at festivals. Yes, in fact I took one in yesterday with My Donkey, My Lover & I by Caroline Vignal. Antoinette, French fifth grade teacher, is having an affair with Vladimir, the father of one of her students. When he cancels a romantic getaway to take a hiking trip with his wife and daughter, Antoinette decides she will do the same hiking adventure and surprise him. Totally unfamiliar with hiking, she hires a donkey for the journey. Naturally, it becomes a comedy of errors as Antoinette must deal not only with Patrick the donkey, but with her total lack of hiking ability. When she does manage to run into Vladimir and his family, the awkwardness and revelations become a bit more than she expected. The trip turns out to be a way for Antoinette to come to better understand herself and opens up new possibilities for her.

The Whistlers: Cops and Robbers and Robber Cops

by Leave a Comment

It is amazing how complicated heist movies can be. That’s their nature. Pulling a gun and asking for money doesn’t really make for a movie plot. But if you can steal something through various steps, and then twist things up with double and triple crosses, you have a story that even when we aren’t sure what’s happening, we want to see how it all works. The Romanian film The Whistlers from writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu is such a film. The Whistlers was Romania’s submission for Oscar consideration last year.

We first meet Cristi on his way to the Canary Islands. Here he reconnects with Gilda, an archetypical femme fatale. What we will discover little by little, is that Cristi is a corrupt police officer. He has been recruited by a gang of criminals to help a prisoner to escape. For this plan to work he must learn a whistling language used by criminals. (Yes, there really is such a language.)

Also, little by little we learn the background is that the gang has been laundering money through a mattress factory in Romania. They want their money. But when police begin to close in on the factory, the gang wants to get their money back. The leader of the gang is ruthless and deadly. But when the chance comes for some of the characters to get rid of the gang and keep the money, things get increasingly complex. And the complexity is mirrored in the fact that the film uses three languages (Romanian, Spanish, and English) intermittently. (Four languages if you include the whistling.)

This is not a film with good guys and bad guys. There are some people we are rooting for (especially Cristi and Gilda), but everyone is corrupted or corrupting. There are now Robin Hood type of motives involved here. The money isn’t going to be put to some noble use. The immorality of this group would lend support to the Calvinist belief in the total depravity of humanity.

We are, though, drawn to Cristi. Maybe because he doesn’t have a strong personality or will. He is seemingly carried along by the plot, rather that the mastermind. He takes advantages of situations, but isn’t really the instigator. The only thing he really has going for him is his love for Gilda. But is she really worth his devotion? Would she reciprocate? Or is it enough that Cristi acts to win her?

The film can be a bit hard to follow at the start. It helps to have brief overview while you get your bearings in the film that goes back and forth in time. But it is an enjoyable ride that ends up with a scene of great beauty.

The Whistlers is available for rent via Virtual Cinema. Check your local art house website or https://www.magnoliapictures.com/virtualcinema.

Friday at AFIFest 2019

by Leave a Comment

Welcome to Hollywood and AFI Fest Presented by Audi. I love coming to this festival and discovering some of the best films in the world, some of the great history of the industry, and the work of filmmakers who are just now making a name for themselves.

Part of the New Auteurs section featuring emerging filmmakers is The Planters. Written by, directed by, and starring Alexandra Koltcheff and Hannah Leder, this is the kind of quirky dark comedy that seem to thrive in festivals. Martha (Kotcheff) is a bit of a failure as a telemarketer, but she has a “business” of shoplifting small things and burying them in the desert, where people dig them up and leave money. One day in the desert she is run down by Sadie (Leder), recently released from a mental hospital, wearing a wedding dress and racing helmet. The two (more actually, with Sadie’s other personalities) strike up a tentative friendship as the work to keep Martha from losing her job. But when someone starts stealing Martha’s buried goodies, problems arise. Of interest is that Sadie has hallucinations when she looks into one of the tins Martha buries stuff in. She sees twisted Bible stories. It is all very odd, but also something you can’t quite turn away from.

Antigone, from director Sophie Deraspe, is inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy (and Brecht’s updating version). Antigone (Nahéma Ricci) is a straight-A student from an immigrant family. She lives with her grandmother, sister, and two brothers in Montreal. (Her parents were killed just before the family immigrated when she was three.) When one brother is killed by police, and her other brother is arrested and threatened with deportation, Antigone plans a way for him to escape while she takes his place. When she is arrested faces the legal consequences, she becomes a bit of a cause célèbre among Montreal youth. She is acting out of love for family that transcends all else in her life. This was a very strong film that deals with love, family, and dignity, as well as the underlying struggle of past verses the future. In court she blurts out “My heart tells me” to save her brother. It creates a question in viewers minds as to what our hearts tell us to do and what we would sacrifice for those we love. Antigone is the official Canadian submission for International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

In Corleliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers, Christi (Vlad Ivanov), a corrupt police officer, is involved a money laundering scheme. The beautiful Gilda (Catrinel Marlon) brings him to the Canary Islands to learn a secret whistling language used by criminals. It is a comical heist thriller, in which everyone seems to be being watched by someone, and everyone seems to be trying to two-time someone. Very entertaining. The Whistlers is Romania’s official submission for International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

Monday at AFIFest 2018

by Leave a Comment

Although I’ve seen my share of comedies at AFIFEST Presented by Audi, it seems that film festivals often show darker films than many people are used to. That is in part because they are made not so much to sell tickets to a large audience as to bring a story to life that the filmmaker wants to tell. My choices for Monday all had a bit of darkness to them, even when they were showing hope.

Angels are Made of Light is a documentary by James Longley about a school in Kabul, Afghanistan. After years (actually decades) of conflict, the educational system in this old part of town is in ruins—literally. Even as a new school is being built, the walls in the old school are falling down. We meet some of the students (mostly boys, although there is a section that focuses on girls) that are trying to get an education, but the realities of their lives make it hard. Many need to work to help their families. The film weaves in some of the history of Afghanistan and its many wars.

Romanian director Ioana Uricaru gives us Lemonade, a story set in the U.S. about a woman trying to get her green card. She has married a man (For love? We don’t know.) and brought her young son over. But a corrupt immigration official and various other challenges begin to ruin the life she has made here and hopes to establish. It offers a look at the desperation that many face as they try to find a life in America.

Playing with Lemonade was a short, Desert Rats, by Shaz Bennett, a story of a girl whose father was abandoned as a child in the Utah desert by a polygamous father. She returns to the desert to remember him.

 

From Quebec comes Genesis from director Philippe Lesage. It is the story of two siblings as they struggle with love, belonging, and alienation. Guillaume (Thoédore Pellerin) is something of the class clown in school, but he is often the odd man out in social situations. His older sister, Charlotte (Noée Abita) leaves a safe, but unexciting relationship, but in her new relationships she is vulnerable both emotionally and physically. Both are seeking to understand how to deal with their yearnings and find someone to love. The last half hour of the film switches to a summer camp with a young boy and girl in their first experience of young love. That add-on is meant to remind us of the simplicity and awkwardness of youthful yearnings, but really distracts from the more powerful stories of Guillaume and Charlotte.

 

The Story of Us – Ep. 3: Love Never Fails

by Leave a Comment

Turning on the television, reading the newspaper, or even browsing a news website these days is enough to fill a person with dread. Tensions between countries are escalating.  People are increasingly accusing others of things publicly (for better or worse).  Making a wrong move these days can result in viral videos and being hunted by a digital mob that has more presence by the hour. In a world filled with darkness and fear, what power does love have, if any?  In the third episode of The Story of Us (National Geographic, 9PM/8CT or on demand), Morgan Freeman explored some unique answers to the question that are worthy to be considered.

The episode began with Freeman recreating the Beatles’ famous walk across Abbey Road in England.  It made perfect sense, as the Beatles sang their famous tune “All You Need Is Love” to a worldwide audience around the time of Woodstock.  But were McCartney and the band correct? Freeman offered a number of vignettes providing challenging perspectives on what love truly is.  On a trip to Ethiopia, for example, he watched a tribe’s manhood ritual, one that involved women attempting to acquire the attention of boys by waving thin tree branches at them.  When a boy found the woman he wanted, he took the branch from her and hit her, causing potential scars on her back and side.  It was brutal to watch, but the reason for it involved love in the form of protection and unity.

Another segment of the episode found Freeman interviewing a Pakistani-born attorney living in England.  She thought she found Mr. Right on her own, but ended up divorcing him after a year.  Meanwhile, her parents back home attempted to play the role of Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, arranging a suitor and marriage for her with a man she met for thirty minutes while visiting the family in Pakistan. She married him; fifteen years and two kids later, they’re still happily together.

Love does not always have to involve romance, however.  The story of Major William Swenson’s determination and sacrifice to save a fellow member of his team in harm’s way during an ambush was powerful.  The point here was simple: the bond between members of a group (military or otherwise) can become so strong that the group loves each other enough to stand beside each other in both good times and bad.

Love can even hope to bring dignity to a person’s life who hasn’t seen it in a while.  One gentleman in London put his beliefs into action by taking his backpack and a stool into the streets in an attempt to provide homeless individuals haircuts and shaves.  Watching the transformation of a haggardly older man was visually eye-opening.

Of course, it’s easy to look at these examples and immediately think of the Apostle Paul’s famous commentary on love in 1 Corinthians 13: love doesn’t boast; it isn’t self-serving; it always protects; it never fails regardless of country or the people involved.  However, my biggest takeaway from the third episode came from the initial interview Freeman had with a gentleman in a quiet playground.   A few decades ago, Romania had an overglut of kids thanks to laws enacted by former dictator Nikolae Ceausescu requiring all families to have at least five offspring.  As a result, orphanges across the country were filled beyond the breaking point, both in number of kids and lack of workers. Conditions were beyond deplorable, with kids never seeing green grass or even the outside of the building. The gentleman being interviewed was able to get out of the orphanage to America through adoption, but when shown true love by his new parents, he simply couldn’t handle it; it was a foreign concept to him. He rebelled and ran away from his family, but later learned that one of his new sisters had been in a bad car accident.  And just like the prodigal son in Luke 15, he returned home to find his father with open arms, ready to receive him back with no conditions.

So, does love have power in this day and age? Absolutely!  We just have to be willing to slow down and look around a little bit. What we see may amaze us and perhaps transform our lives to be more loving and caring for those we hold dear—or even those we don’t know.

Graduation – The Compromises We Make

by Leave a Comment

What are we willing to compromise for our children? Our standard of living? Our freedom? Our integrity? Graduation from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu gives us a glimpse into a man’s anguish when his daughter might miss a chance to study abroad where more opportunities will be available.

Romeo Aldea (Adrian Titieni) is a doctor in a small Transylvanian town. Many years earlier he and his wife opted to stay and help build the new post-Communist nation. But little has changed through the years. His daughter Eliza (Maria Drăguṣ) is about to finish high school and has been accepted to attend university in England. She just needs to do well on her final exams. But the day before the tests, she is assaulted near the school and her arm in injured in the attack. She can’t postpone the tests. Romeo must find ways for her to be able to take the tests—and make sure she passes them, even if the events may make that difficult.

At first, he does what just about any of us would do. He talks to the officials who initially won’t let her take the tests because some people cheat by hiding answers in a cast. But when he navigates that problem, more arise. Can she have more time? Are there ways to be assured she passes. He begins to find connections. The Deputy Mayor needs an organ transplant. Can Romeo move him up the list? The Deputy Mayor collects favors that he can share-possibly even those who score the test? Will Romeo really do whatever it takes to give his daughter this chance?

Mungiu’s films deal with the real-life choices people make and the good motives that may have bad consequences. Sometimes those may be extreme choices, such as abortion (and various choices along the way) in 4 Months, Three Weeks and Two Days, or the cult-like behavior in Beyond the Hills. Even the best of reasons for our choices often lead to results that we regret.

As we see the story unfold, we learn that Romeo has made other compromises in his life. He and his wife are not in a happy marriage. He has a mistress, and perhaps a son. It is just one of the ways he has lived with convenient moral compromises that he sees as acceptable given the realities of his life.

Of course, we all have to make compromises and choices through our lives. Sometimes we feel justified, even if they push the boundaries of what is ethical. As we watch Romeo make choice after choice, each one pushing things a bit more, we wonder if there will be a breaking point. Then too, Eliza has choices to make. Perhaps the choices her father has made through the years are not really what she wants from life. How do we make the choices in our lives? Are many of them made for us, or do we in the end own them ourselves? And how do we live with the results of those choices that may shape our lives for years to come?

Photos courtesy of IFC Films

AFIFest – Animation Sandwich

by Leave a Comment

Eating at film festivals can sometimes be a challenge. Grabbing a quick sandwich between screenings is sometimes the best you can do. But yesterday I had a really interesting sandwich: a dark brooding film from one of my favorite Romanian directors placed between two animated films.

©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

Disney’s Moana will be in theaters November 23, but people at AFIFest got to see it a bit early. It had its premiere at the festival on Monday night with a reprise Tuesday afternoon. Moana is a Pacific Islander princess. She is a special child, who is loved by the sea, but her father the chief believes that the island they live on represents safety. Moana though feels called to leave the island in order to fulfill a part of her people’s creation mythology. So she sets off to find the demigod Maui to force him to return the heart of a goddess and restore balance to the universe. Maui isn’t so hot on the idea of heading out with this young woman, but (of course) in time they manage to appreciate each other and save the world. Music includes songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton). I’m not that fond of movie musicals, but you have to appreciate Miranda’s style.

5807f0d817a6e_the-red-turtle

The other animation was very different. The Red Turtle comes from Japan’s Studio Ghibli. But unlike its previous films, this one is not Japanese. Directed by Michael Dodok de Wit, this is a multination collaboration. A castaway finds himself on a small tropical island. He tries to find a way off the island, but is stopped each time by a red turtle. He eventually kills the turtle, but when remorse sets in the turtle transforms into a woman. The film recounts the years they spend on the island. While the story of Adam and Eve quickly comes to mind, one shouldn’t get too caught up in looking for parallels. This is a story that reflects a universal aspect of what it means to be human. Like other Studio Ghibli films, there is a strong environmental sensibility here. Man and nature are at first adversaries, but in time we discover that man and nature are not just in harmony, but that man and nature are one. The Red Turtle opens in theaters this Friday. My fuller review will follow soon.

5807f9f5125ab_graduation-3_courtesyofsundanceselects

Between these two animated films I saw Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation. Mungiu is one of the key directors in what is considered the Romanian New Wave. His films reflect the moral issues faced in the transition from Communist rule to a more democratic setting. In this film Romeo, a doctor, is the father of Eliza, a promising student who has a chance to go to the UK for university, but she must do well on her high school finals. But the day before the tests begin she is attacked. Romeo tries to get special consideration for his daughter because of the trauma and injuries. Favors are asked, connections are made. But is this the way Eliza will best be served? Is all this honest? When Eliza discovers that Romeo is having an affair, she loses all trust in his moral judgment. Romeo believes he is doing what is right for Eliza—this is her chance to get someplace better in life. But is this an example of selling one’s soul to fulfill a desire?

Photos courtesy of AFIFest presented by Audi, Walt Disney Studios, and Sundance Select

Aferim! – When Everyone Knew Their Place

by Leave a Comment

“We live as we can, not as we want.”

Aferim! is set in 1835 in the Balkans. It is a time in which the structures of society were clearly stratified. Everybody had their place—and nearly all groups looked down on other groups. For filmmaker Radu Jude, this is an attempt to better understand modern day Romanian society by bringing into focus the history that people often overlook or even try to suppress.

It is a bit of a road trip film in which a constable, Constandin, has been dispatched by the local aristocrat to find and return a runaway Gypsy slave. As Constandin and his son travel to various areas, they have a series of encounters with different people: Christians and Jews, Russians and Turks, Romanians and Hungarians. Each group says terrible things about those not like them. A Christian priest is by far the most prejudiced against Gypsies and also heavily anti-Semitic. Even after the slave is found and brought back, we see the strictures of society continuing to play out in very unjust ways. Jude portrays all these various prejudices with humor through overstating them, but it is clear he expects his viewers to see and hear what is still being said more subtly today.

Aferim-1

Constandin is a man in the middle of competing worldviews. On the one hand, he has been charged with maintaining the order of society. The slave (in more than just running away) has broken that order, and Constandin must bring him back to face the consequences despite the fact that, when he hears the slave’s story, he knows that it will not be justice. All along the way, as he and his son encounter so many people and ideas, it shows that change is in process, but he has been tasked with obstructing any change. He is at times somewhat philosophical about it all, but only on the level of aphorisms that often contradict each other.

Aferim-3

While the near feudal aspects of that society may seem very different than our own past, it should be noted that, in the United States at that time, slavery was still in force. The Antebellum South was in some ways just as rigidly stratified as the culture we see in Aferim! And just as Jude looks back at where his society was nearly two centuries ago to get insight into where they are as a people today, we also sometimes look back at Western or Civil War epics to reflect beliefs and situations that continue on our time. It is important to understand that many of the issues that exist today are the results of ideas and actions from many years ago that continue to influence us for good or ill. It is only by such recognition that we can begin to bring the kinds of change that may be required to make a better world.

Photos courtesy Big World Pictures