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New film by Bas Devos out 7th June from New Wave Films

The story revolves around a Romanian construction worker in Brussels, Belgium who is considering going home until he encounters a Chinese specialist in moss. This unexpected connection between two wondering souls sparks the possibility of new beginnings for both in this 

The film was winner of the 2023 Encounters at the Berlin Film Festival and Best International Film at the 2023 Galway Film Festival

The film takes its time in bringing the two people together - they have a brief encounter about half an hour into the film, but the true connection does not take place until nearly an hour into proceedings. The attention to detail and our maintaining of attention upon the two leads is partly down to the restrained and nuance both convey. Stefan Gota has such an expressive face in the same vein as Matthias Schoenaerts, one that can be vacant yet also say so much with his presence alone.  Liyo Gong provides a performance of assuredness and calm nature.

The film, reminded me of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem 'Nature' where Emerson relays about the essence of transcendentalism and gaining a divinity through nature, you can only understand reality through studying nature. Both of these souls like for instance Bob and Charlotte in Lost in Translation, are seeking answers in this mystery of life and find each other in this fleeting moment.

However, the star of the show is the director Bas Devos, a deliberate and methodical director, who is able to film wonderful images and allows the film time to breathe and not rush proceedings, much like the moss which as the forefront of the narrative for both of our protagonists.  These things take time.

But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. In the woods, is perpetual youth - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The film is about connection and finding a place in this world that you can call home, when faraway from the first one; it will remind you of films you have seen before and yet is unlike anything you may have seen before. Reminiscent of the Dardennes naturally, a smidgen of the methodical technique of Tarkovsky and yet something of its own making and minute uniqueness.

Here is released by New Wave Films on Friday 7th June, my thanks to them for the review opportunity.

TORI AND LOKITA

NEW DARDENNES FILM OUT DECEMBER 2ND

The Dardenne Brothers return with another moral drama that rages against social injustice this time looking upon the hardships endured by two African immigrants as they navigate safe passage while in exile on the streets of modern Europe.

Shot with a hand-held medium to close-up style reminiscient of other works, it destabilises the viewer by putting them very much in the point of view of the adolescents with the peril they find themselves, the watch is not pleasant but when commenting on something as uncomfortable as human trafficking it should not be.

For long periods, the pair are apart from each other as the struggle becomes very real for them both as they have to pay smugglers, work for cannabis growers all off the grid seemingly without their papers. We bare witness to this due to the filming nature and the isolation felt by them is real throughout - the influence of De Sica's Bicycle Thieves remains.

The toil the two young unprofessional actors have to endure is there for all to see, yet the pair Pablo Schils (Tori) and Joely Mbundu (Lokita) conduct themselves admirably throughout, the decision to cast unknowns (a regular occurence in the Dardennes oeuvre) is again a masterstroke as the lack of baggage for the audience with the youthful pair leads to empathy coming to the forefront.

The message of friendship and solidarity between the two is paramount and told so evocatively that the notion of self-sacrifice by one to the other is not a surprise, considering how exploited as individuals they become. The suspense felt is palpable at times. The climatic chase expertly done yet that flourish of action amidst the cruelty beforehand smacks less than those felt by the characters at times. 

This is an angry film about the plight so many people have to endure moving from conflict to conflict as in life though, it is not so much the destination but the journey itself that is the story. Deeply powerful and yet understated in its execution, Tori and Lokita is a watch to endure yet remember.

Tori and Lokita is out from Picturehouse Entertainment on Friday 2nd December

Under The Tree

Released from Eureka Entertainment, Under The Tree is a tale about how relationships can break down quickly in today's society.

Directed by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, Under The Tree is a dark surburban tale that tells the story of a man accused of adultery and forced to move in with his parents. Whilst a custody battle ensues for the daughter, the male Alti (Steinhor Hroar Steinthorsson) is sucked into a dispute between his parents and neighbours surrounding a prominent tree that puts his parents deck in a permanent shadow.

The Icelandic-language film was first premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was Iceland's entry into the 2018 Oscars in the Foreign Language category.

In recent years, European cinema has become this bastion of minor events becoming of greater importance to individuals; as world events become more and more importance on a socio-political scale. This takes a misanthropic approach to the relationships between people and especially neighbours.  In cinema much like life, you cannot get to choose your neighbours; and this film explains how you avoid people in this age of continual communication.

From the outset, there is an ominous air pervading the film; from a father who seeks pleasure in online porn to credit sequence that takes place in a shooting gallery with an eerie violin score playing underneath.

Cleverly, the film juxtaposes this bleakness of tonality by having all the narrative take place over a sun-drenched Icelandic summer full of sunshine and warmth; the characterisation is clear the dispute ferments long brewing resentment within neighbours coupled with a simmering jealousy between generations.

Shot with assured confidence and helped with great naturalistic performances by a unified cast in the majority of hand-held medium close ups, Under The Tree is a clever film full of enrichment and reward that packs an emotional punch.

Under The Tree is out from Eureka Entertainment on 10th August.
My thanks to them for the review opportunity.

Glory

GLORY (SLAVA, Bulgaria, 2016)

Winner of the Best International Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2017, the Bulgarian feature Glory written and directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov is released in selected cinemas on Friday 5th January.

Telling the story of a lonesome train track engineer, Tsanko Petrov (Stefan Denolyubov) who on his rounds discovers millions of lev. Instead of pocketing the money for himself, Tsanko reports the money to the authorities and he is heralded as a hero and rewarded by the Ministry of Transport for his efforts with a watch. That does not work.

Tsanko is handled in a PR effort by married woman Julia Staikov (Margita Gosheva) who in a brief spell of bad press for the train industry sees an opportunity to make a good story, the only problem is Tsanko suffers from a debilitating stutter and stammer.

Julia is an ambitious woman hell bent on succeeding no matter the cost to integrity putting pressure on her married life with hen-pecked husband, Valeri (Kitodar Todorov) as they attempt IVF treatment for their first child.

At the ceremony, when Tsanko is to be honoured, Julia removes his beloved watch from his wrist for the merits of the ceremony; following on the PR department misplace his watch which he wishes to be returned. What follows is a tale of irresponsibility and arrogance, in an attempt to belittle the hard working labour force with the brute corruption of ministry position.

Shot by Krum Rodriguez utilising hand-held cameras and close to medium shots for the majority of the film, the film is a window into a world of behind the scenes back-baiting and how government laughs at the lower classes, such as when Julia and her team first see the footage of Tsanko laughing at his inability to talk clearly.

The film is a slow burn as most European language films are but there is a power to the performances in the honesty of their portrayal; Denolyubov plays Tsanko as a mild man in a crazy world stuggling to be understood, and Gosheva adds a femme fatale tinge to Julia yet has the power to convey panic such as when she reads a paper in a press conference, her eyes have character.

The ending confrontation between Tsanko and Julia is heart pounding fraught with tension, with a bittersweet ending for Valeri who is happy in his own world whilst his wife does her usual damage limitation.

Grozeva and Valchanov have crafted a morality tale for the these fraught times of frustration and lack of trust in ruling bodies, which can translate well to Western Europe from our Eastern European neighbours.

Glory is distributed by New Wave Films on Friday 5th January.

The Unknown Girl

The Dardennes brothers (The Kid With a Bike, L'Enfant) are back with their new film The Unknown Girl out on DVD from Curzon Artificial Eye on Monday 6th February.

The film tells the story about a young female doctor, Jenny Davin (Adele Haenel) in small town Liege, Belgium; who after a long day refuses to open the door to her clinic when already an hour after closing. The next morning policemen tell her that the young woman - a black African immigrant working as a prostitute.

This starts a moral guilt in our young female protagonist, a conflicting individual who is almost bullying to her young trainee doctor. The trainee is a male and she admits she did not open the door to the girl to instill a means of superiority.

She begins an investigation to find out the identity of the young girl who has been buried without a name so here family can be informed.

The Dardennes are famous for small town stories with universal themes, here are tropes of privacy, guilt and belonging. Jenny is unusual in the sense that we do not know her history, where has she come from; we are aware of her future more with the impending clinic she may well take control of. The story makes her reassess her decisions and she does alter from lacking bedside manner to becoming a better local GP by using her local knowledge to her advantage.

Shot with gripping hand held flourish in the same vein as classic neo-realism and the better Ken Loach films, bringing a sense of documentary realism to a fictional story.

It also has a political message on immigration within EU borders in today's current political climate providing a compelling platform for this intelligent film with a brave central performance from Haenel.

The Unknown Girl is out on DVD from Monday 6th February from Curzon Artificial Eye

Youth

Paolo Sorrentino is one of the most enigmatic filmmakers in Europe yet alone Italy incorporating a mixture of tales of an ageing man in Central Europe embraced by the performances of Toni Servillo in The Consequences of Love and The Great Beauty. 

Sorrentino has attempted English language film before with the Sean Penn vehicle This Must be the Place, a film using the oeuvre of David Byrne's Talking Heads back catalogue as a springboard. He returned for the aforementioned Great Beauty before this latest venture, Youth starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel.



They both play 80 year old veterans of entertainment who meet for their annual two week holiday at an elite spa in Switzerland. Caine plays a composer who could have been as great as Stravinsky yet is famous for a more popular composition he wrote for his singer wife from whom he is now estranged. Keitel is a film director who with two co-writers and an acting duo is attempting to create one last masterpiece to make with his ageing muse, played by a fleeting and glowing Jane Fonda.





Whilst we might be witnessing the twilight of these two men, they are surrounded by youth in terms of the young people who serve them or give them massages, Caine's daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) who is going through a separation from her husband who has fallen for a younger woman. 

Paul Dano, an exciting young American actor portrays a young accomplished actor who is most famous for playing a robot in a science fiction franchise picture; he would prefer to take risks with roles and his career, which leads to him taking on a future role as a famous world leader to show his range and craft, which shows an over reach on his behalf.
This pervading sense of youth and innocence is in stark contrast to the ageing men and the manifestation of end of existing exhibited by the inclusion of a man resembling Diego Maradona. While Caine and Keitel's character can continue to exist in the popular culture through composing or directing which has no age restrictions only a restriction by an individual's ambition, whereas Maradona has a limited shelf life due to physical demands. Even the newly crowned Miss Universe is restricted, she may want to get into acting as she states but she unfortunately will only ever be Miss Universe.



Keitel is keen to point out that all you have are memories and the craving for creativity and embracing your strengths, not yo be pigeon holed by one piece of work. 



Sorrentino has moulded a film that is about celebrity - a subject that fascinates him - ageing, loss and friendship. Caine and Keitel are two titans of screen acting and cleverly have never suffered by such pigeon holing in their CV, and their depiction of friendship is portrayed effectively with genuine affection and emotion.

A wonderfully odd and eccentric film with laugh out loud moments it can be included in the great pantheon of hotel movies (Lost in Translation remains the top), a hotel allowing fleeting friendships and moments. The film is stylistically shot with a great sense of space and environment, at times you sense the people could even be there against their will in a dystopic world, yet Sorrentino has a sure hand over proceedings helped by an ensemble cast of a refined quality and an eclectic soundtrack to boot.

Youth is available on Digital download from 23rd May and on DVD and Blu-ray from 30th May from Studiocanal.

Victoria

Directed by Sebastian Schipper, Victoria is a gripping look at a night in the life of a young Spanish girl who lives in Berlin, and gets sucked into doing something she would not ordinarily do.

Shot in real time, the film is supposedly shot in one take as the camera follows Victoria (Laia Costa) as she leaves a nightclub at 4am in the morning to go home before work. There she encounters four guys and there is an initial flirtation with Sonne (Sebastian Lau).  He and his friends are German, and Victoria cannot talk German fluently, so in broken English they communicate about life, drink and having fun.

Halfway through the film though, there is a shift in tone as the narrative takes an abrupt turn involving a favour ex-convict Boxer (Franz Rogowski) owes someone from when he served jail time.

The hand-held camera that follows Victoria and the real-time situation creates a fear of impending doom as we follow this vulnerable girl making hasty decisions revealing her naivety because she is alone in a big city abroad.  Until the abrupt turn in the narrative, this viewer feared that Victoria was going to be a victim of sexual assault, but the shift shows how immediate a world we live in.

This is a film for the millenial era - a generation of knee-jerks and instant reaction to feel like you belong to this world.  It is a film of the here and now, and how every decision can change the rest of your life, but also how fleeting moments and meetings with people can have a further longer lasting influence.

Shot with real panache by Director of Photography Sturla Brandth Grovlen (his is the first name credited at the end of the film - and rightly so), whose camera goes where the characters go into lifts and cars; there is never a let down in the tension as the narrative unfolds.

It is a credit that while the film could be marketed as a one-take gimmick film, the cast elevate the film to something more than its selling point and a film that stays with you due to the intense performances and conviction of a director to follow through on the potential of an idea to reach the ceiling and burst through it.

Victoria is out on DVD (£13.99rrp) and Blu-ray (£15.99rrp) from Curzon/Artificial Eye on 23rd May
www.curzon.com