My first day at AFIFest presented by Canva was filled with the arts. Of course film is a artform itself (which pulls together various other arts). For example, a short video playing on screen prior to each film at the festival celebrates AFI Conservator—one of the world best film schools, where new screenwriters, producers, directors, editors, cinematographers, and production designers learn their craft. It takes all these artists (and more) to make a movie.

A bit of knowledge of Russian literature may (or may not) help to appreciate The Idiot(s), directed by Michael Englert and Malgorzata Szunowska. The film is based on the book The Gambler’s Wife by Andrew D. Kaufman. Before the screening, one of the producers encouraged us to treat this as an “anti-biopic”.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Johnny Flynn) and his wife and transcriber Anna (Amiee Lou Wood) arrive in Germany, having fled Russia because of debts. Here, Feodor is supposed to write his new book, but spends all his time (and all their money) on roulette. Fyodor is appalled and fascinated with the German bourgeoisie, including Russian ex-pat writer Ivan Turgenev (Christian Freidel)) whom Fyodor loathes. But it is Anna who is the real center of the film. She is not so much muse as she is slavedriver and promoter. Fyodor is played a bit over-the-top by Flynn, but Wood’s Anna, while more subtle, is the best part of the film. This is a story told with humor, but it also has a strong dose of pathos.

Ilker Çatek’s Yellow Letters (Gelbe Briefe) was the winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It looks at the way the arts can become the target of authoritarian regimes, and how intimidation is used as a show of power.

Aziz and Darya are a married couple involved in serious theater. Aziz also teaches at the university. There are protests going on in the society. Soon Aziz and Darya are out of work because of their support of dissident ideas. The government brings charges against Aziz who is now driving a cab to make a living.

The film is set in Turkey, but openly identifies Berlin and Hamburg as stand-ins for Ankara and Istanbul. That blending of nations makes it clear that this is not a film about any one country, but about the way oppression against the arts and ideas is so widespread. Viewers, even in the US, shouldn’t fail to see parallels in their own settings.

Elsinore, directed by Simon Stone, is also set largely in the world of theater, but like the play Hamlet which is central to the story, is about what it means to live and to die.

Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott) famed for his role in Chariots of Fire has a chance to play Hamlet for the National Theatre. The problem is he has AIDS. Even though his doctor (Olivia Colman) wants him to focus on treatment, for Ian, playing Hamlet is the only thing on his bucket list. As the disease progresses, we see him preparing for the part, and eventually on stage in many ways living out both his dream and Hamlet’s very nature.

The film may be a little mawkish at times, but I see that as fitting for a film that seeks to encourage a focus more on the will to be than to not be. Charleson went on for 24 performances, and died a few weeks later. “What a piece of work is man.”