OINK - Fragments Festival

 

OINK, the first stop motion animation film made in the Netherlands

The first animated film to win the Golden Calf (Netherlands Oscars) in 2022, tells the story of a young girl Babs who is granted the birthday present of a pig by her eccentric grandfather. Based upon the book Revenge of Oink by Tosca Menten and directed by Mascha Helberstad.

Following in illustrious footsteps of Aardman and Burton, the animation says as much about human life as any live-action depiction could do. Acerbically satirical yet endearing towards the human relationships it depicts there is so much to admire in the production here.

Babs at the film's beginning is a sort of vegan who bemoans the meat industry, and yet when she is bestowed the gift of Oink it is love at first sight for her. 

Entertaining for all the family (with some scenes that may be unsuitable for young ones), this is a wonderful film that translates across many languages about belonging and responsibility.

OINK is part of the Fragments Festival at Genesis Cinema this weekend, screening at 10.45am 

www.twitter.com/FragmentsFest

My thanks to them for the screening link

Unidentified Objects - Fragments Festival

 

Premiere at Fragments Festival, directorial effort from Juan Felipe Zuleta

An off-beat indie road trip movie about two people who start off as strangers and are en route to an alien pick up point in Canada.

Winona has the belief she is to be abducted and convinces her neighbour, to borrow his car and they drive to the abduction site together. Together the two forge to find their place in the universe.

Using distinct details such as the hot pink car in which they travel, the pair encounter some oddballs on their journey such as a nefarious border agent and two admirers of Winona who is a sex worker. Interspersed with odd vignettes and side-tracks that can be disruptive in other hands, yet Zuleta shows a deftness in handling proceedings throughout.

The film has an unusual energy thanks in part to the casting of small person actor Matthew August Jeffers as Peter and Sarah Hay as Winona making the odd couple. The chemistry between the two of them make for good viewing as they come to terms with their lot in life, overcoming the difficulties the planet in this galaxy has thrown them forcing Winona to seek answers elsewhere and smart Peter to question the rationale of it all, in a dwarf body he struggles to come to terms with his place as he feels he does not belong in this world.

For any road movie, the journey is always forward it is only when the characters stop and talk in diners or in the car, when those periods of calm arrive they get the opportunity to reflect and understand themselves and each other. The destination as ever is not the goal, the journey is the reward for these two outcasts on this world as they seek the answers on some other strata.

Unidentified Objects screens as part of the Fragments Festival on Friday 29th September at 9pm in Genesis Cinema 

Fragments Festival

www.twitter.com/FragmentsFest

Melenas - Ahora

 

Spanish quartet Melenas return with third album AHORA from Trouble in Mind Records on 29th September 

The spanish foursome brandish their influences brazenly upon their guitar necks and 88 keys, this long player shows the band are exploring notions of identity and personality in their work.

For fans of Hinds (Spanish counterparts), nevertheless this is a band who are immersed in the inspiration of early 1980s synth and new wave records from Depeche Mode to New Order with a hint of Kraftwerk. The use of synthesizers are paramount and welcome in this album. An indie album that is electronica, an alternative album with mainstream appeal.

Ahora is translated as Now. The album according to the band shows, 'the importance of time, to reflect on how we live our everyday lives, with whom we share our moments and how we want (or don't want) to do it.

The dreamy pop of '1986' is married with somber songs such as 'Flor de la Frontera', and yet this is indicative of that life in which they mention. Since the pandemic, when we had that prolonged period of inner reflection with ourselves, we experience high highs and then have to suffer low lows, those lows may last longer and we seek those highs more and more.

There is a real harmonious and melodic rhythmicality to the works, it reminded this listener of a sole artist such as Sweet Baboo - who uses keyboards to make beautiful melodies with heartbreaking vocals. Take a song such as K2 which has this lovely sound as the band use those harmonies to create a lushness to proceedings following the album opener/introduction of the title track. 

While all the songs are written and sung in Spanish, the universality of the musical sonic landscape is key to the growing appeal of the band who have been released in the United States without the necessity of an English language dubbed version for instance.

Since their beginnings, Melenas have always been an intriguing act and with this third album they again forge an identity as a band who are bold and unique in their production creating a catalogue of music that is embracing with its warmth and intelligent in its construction. Melenas return with that difficult third album, and they are having fun here.

Ahora is released by Trouble in Mind on all platforms from 29th September.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Anna Hints' Estonian film is the official entry for the Academy Awards in 2024 for Best Foreign Language Film.

Hints' film can be best described as one of neo-realism in this vain millennial age in which we live. A film depicting the talks that women have in an Estonian sauna, conversing about their lives, the struggles in life from cancer to abuse to dealing with the everyday worry of body image and consciousness. 

One woman is the focal point as a conduit for us the audience, listening rapt to her friends while the women speak to her with just their bodies on display and their heads cut off by the frame, slowly though the frame becomes larger and the women are more seen as the film progresses. The filmmaker is making a statement here that the woman speaking are all women, sometimes unseen by society and yet living with such difficulty because of that same society putting such constraints upon them in terms of expectations when it comes to beauty and ability.

The film is broken up with views of Estonian life in the cold climate, how the sauna is constructed, folk music being performed and viewed. One clever scene, shows how the smoke begins in an empty sauna and how quickly it takes over the space and the women in a sense become hidden; and that what they speak of is private in this confessional booth of a hot room.

The film plays as a metaphor for how women are hidden or shunned from society, yet the sauna is a place to cleanse yourself of the pain and it is a blessing such as baptism was. It is no mistake that the film starts with a mother cradling her new born baby skin to skin.

Ironically, I have got this far into a film review featuring naked females and not mentioned the nakedness. However, there is nothing titillating or violating about the depiction of the female form in this instance, it is an exercise in showing that all forms of female are perfect just with minor imperfections, those same imperfections that certain members of society put far too much emphasis upon. You learn that all women are beautiful in their own right, each body is beautiful and to quote one women's story, 'a human is a human'.

Sweat it out! Sweat it out!

Sweat the pain out!

Out! Out! Out!

There is also something about the sound of natural laughter between a group such as when one woman talks about being on Tinder and dick pics, there is an absurdity to the situation she describes that makes people giggle but the infectious nature of it makes it grow to a chorus of giggles that envelopes you with warmth.

Open, raw and forthright - this is a film to be cherished, embraced and held in close regard. One of the best in recent years that says so much about so many things without a threat of politicisation or grandstanding.

The film has one standout story - a graphic retelling of a rape by one of the women. It is told with such bravery and honesty, that at the ending of the recollection, the rest of the sauna is silent as was this viewer. The mother asks, 'I want to protect my daughter from all this. How do I do that?' and I suppose that is the problem the film is addressing, we have come a long way but still so far to go. The film ends with the women after the sauna walking to a nearby natural waterway, spiritually returning to the calming water for peace, we start our life's journey in the calm water of our mother's womb and seek that tranquility throughout life.

A triumphant film that is revitalising in the power of the human spirit to overcome all the obstacles life throws at you, so often these women are alone in their struggle. However, they are strong and the stories they tell speak volumes of where we are still and how far women still have to go for equality.

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD is the closing film of this years Fragments Festival at Genesis Cinema, Mile End, London this Sunday 1st October 5pm. Tickets are still available.

https://www.instagram.com/FragmentsFestival/

https://twitter.com/FragmentsFest

https://www.facebook.com/fragmentsfestival

THE HIGH ROAD by Ken Lussey

 

New contemporary novel by Scottish based author Ken Lussey from Arachnid Press

This reader has followed the career path of Ken Lussey since he published his first World War 2 novel back in 2018. A writer who is both prolific and knowledgeable in his depiction of fictitious espionage tales in historical accurate settings. 

This time we see him take a different tact as writers of series are prone to doing such as Brian McGilloway does from time to time. This time the story is about a cop Callum who returns to his Scottish roots following the death of his father to scatter his ashes. The disappearance of a cousin, Alexandra, leads to him staying in central Scotland and the North-West while serving a suspension from the Met Police. 

Lussey has always been fond of Scotland and takes pleasure in the landscapes and transposing the lush vistas to parchment, with a keen eye for mood and atmosphere. Here the road less travelled is key to the narrative of Callum as he must follow hunches and visit towns he has never heard of to find the missing persons.

Callum shows himself to be a deft detective, capable of inducing information from people and overcoming obstacles when necessary such as several guns pointed in his direction. The criminal underworld comes to the surface on occasion, and Callum reeling from his wife leaving him for his boss, finds affection in the arms of female policewomen. 

Yet there is growth and development for the character as the narrative progresses, he grows as the roads get narrower further up the western coast line.

The story is well told and at a pace familiar to readers of Lussey's other works, the concluding shoot-out and fallout is handled delicately and you admire the moxie of a character like Callum, a man who is not necessarily outside of his comfort zone but he is dealing with this almost notion above his station with aplomb and getting his mojo back in more ways than one.

The film ends on a high and it calls to mind the film Local Hero, where a fish out of water finds that this is his best place to live. And in the author's note, there is a promise of a sequel.

THE HIGH ROAD is out now from Arachnid Press, my thanks to them for the review copy

BALLYWALTER

Brand new Northern Irish film written by Prassana Puwanarajah , starring Seana Kerslake and Patrick Kielty.

Located in Northern Ireland, Ballywater tells the story of a young woman who has returned to her hometown of Ballywalter after a relative failure of making it work in London. She finds herself a bit arrested in her development while the rest of her family and life has progressed without her; her sister is expecting a new baby and she is struggling to keep down part-time work in cafes. This has led to her landing a job driving a taxi to make regular income. 

During this role, she happens upon a regular fare of Shane (Kielty in his first acting role) a man being driven to a stand-up comedy workshop as he embarks upon a new chapter in his life. The film is the bond these two forge together during their regular cab journeys to and from Belfast back to the eponymous town.

While the first half of the film is firmly Eileen's story, an unfortunate accident leads to her spending more time with Shane through consequence and we get to learn more about Shane's backstory and history, from his separation from his wife to his seeking for solace in comedy.

The film is a wonder to watch helmed by two great lead performances that anchor the film that could easily waiver if not for them and the sure-hand direction by first time director Puwanarajah with a well observed script from Belfast writer Stacey Gregg. A film of fleeting moments and those people who come into your life and just as quickly, leaving an indelible impression upon you and the rawness with which it addresses the character's emotions especially in Shane's final stand-up routine where he opens up about his depression. This is derivative of the film's low production budget which if it had a larger scale might have come across as pompous, yet the close-ups utilised help garner a strong emotional connection to the film.

The film is beautifully shot, depicting Northern Ireland not through a rose-tinted lense but proudly displaying the greyness of it all. Yet the actors embody their two lead roles with great relish with Kielty (enjoying a purple patch in his career as he is now host of The Late Late Show in Ireland) is quite the revelation delivering all the dramatic notes when required on point.

The employment of an ending reminiscent of Lost in Translation, says as much about the film's influences and its hope to appeal to an audience that is cine-literate and it is not a bad film to borrow film with this relationship that can go no further than being platonic yet it finds both leads embarking on second chances.

The confident direction by a new director married with two strong lead performances means this is a film that will reward the viewer in spades; its a low key wonder of a film that should be cherished.

Ballywalter is out on limited release in UK/Ireland from 22nd September

Kira Muratova DVD release

             

Studiocanal release to Home Entertainment a double bill in their Vintage World Classics, two seminal works by Russian female director Kira Muratova on Blu-ray/DVD from 18th September

A Ukranian film director, screenwriter and actress of Romanian/Jewish descent, Kira Muratova’s work was overlooked for many years due to the censorship of her early films in the Soviet Union - Brief Encounters was banned for twenty years and The Long Farewell for 17 years.  Muratova spent much of her artistic career in Odessa in Ukraine and made nearly all of her films at Odessa Film Studios.  Her work has been celebrated by film scholar and critic Dr Elena Gorfinkel as “one of the most distinctive and singular works of world filmmaking.”  

The first film The Long Farewell (1971) tells a tale of a relationship between a mother and teenage son. Their close relationship becomes clouded when adolescene arrives and after a visit to his father, Sasha (Oleg Vladimirsky) wants to breakaway from his overprotective mother and live with the father instead.

Muratova takes great care with crafting a coming-of-age tale filled with tension with underlying issues rising to the surface. Her film style is reminiscent of the early nouvelle vague with jump cuts and experimentation with form and presentation, yet there is an observant eye throughout of the location and the black and white photography helps create a more archive feel as if memories being presented on the screen.

Brief Encounters (1967) was Muratova's debut feature and shows the genesis of her impressionistic style again embracing the tropes of the French new wave. The film focuses on a love triangle between a city planner (Muratova herself), her free-spirited geologist husband (Vladimir Vysotsky) and a young woman they employ as their housekeeper (Nina Ruslanova). 

Eastern Europe has always been good at these by chance love triangles - such as Knife in the Water (Polanski) - but this one is different in that it focuses more on the women than the man in this instance and the man is outnumbered, whereas in Polanski's for example it was two men fighting over a woman. 

Muratova was ground-breaking in so many ways and putting female stories front and centre is paramount to her appeal and its a shame she is not more well known due to political ramifications. Hopefully these Studiocanal releases will help spread the word of her work which is extensive and gratifying.

The Long Farewell/Brief Encounters are released by Studiocanal in their Vintage World Classics strand on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital. Both discs feature interviews with scholar Dr Elena Gorfinkel who states that Muratova is “one of the most distinctive and singular works of world filmmaking.” along with video essays.

My thanks to Studiocanal for the review discs for an honest review

FRANK CAPRA: MR. AMERICA

 

Debut documentary feature film from British director Matthew Wells

This debut feature from Wells focuses on perhaps the first name above the marquee director, a man whose name sold a movie as much as an actor performing in his film be it Clark Gable or Barbara Stanwyck.

Capra's dominance of American popular culture from 1934 to the start of US involvement in World War 2 following the attack on Pearl Harbor. While that global event curtailed his career like others, he returned to make the most beloved of American movie classics but strangely a film that marked the beginning of his demise suddenly.

Frank Capra was born in Palermo, Italy and the first thing he wrote in his memoir when he started to write his life was 'I hated being poor'.

The film takes us through the major milestones of Capra's career stating that he had to work hard, but the fortuitous landing spot of Columbia Pictures which allowed him to expand as an artist and work in different genres before finding something that works. Capra would make war films, aerial flight films, dramas and yet he worked hard looking for the next project and building up a base of loyal soldiers around him from a regular cameraman and writer which culminates in the success of It Happened One Night in 1934. The first (and one of only 3 film still) to win the five major Academy Awards which itself was a happy accident.

Yet it was a success because of the work that came before hand along with some good fortune. Clark Gable was sent to Columbia as punishment for asking for more money, Claudette Colbert did not believe in the script and yet as the archive footage shows, the film is full of wonderful moments of cinematography and laid the blueprint for many a romantic comedy, buddy comedy and road trip movies which are repeated to this day. It was a slow burn of a box office hit, as positive word of mouth and repeat viewers led the film to glory.

Following that, Capra took a break and then returned to the spate of social commentary films for which he became renowned for starting with Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

The film then ends with a lot of talk about It's A Wonderful Life, Capra's favourite film and the archive interview of Capra throughout the film is vital to show his strength as a director and artist; normally in these documentaries it is rare to hear from the subject themselves mostly instead leaving it to the talking head experts and critics. Those are welcome here such as Alexander Payne - a director himself who uses small budgets, good casts to tell good human stories.

This is a vital documentary that serves as a reminder that Capra was perhaps the first superstar director, the man whose name above the title alone would serve as box office gold. That is until his career post Wonderful Life sadly lost steam and was only rekindled when that film was given a new lease of life in the 1970s when it was endlessly repeated on American television. 

Capra did not die poor and as Clarence says to George in his inscription within Tom Sawyer, 'no man is a failure if he has friends', Capra was universally admired at the time and his career from 1928 to 1948 was one of striking while the iron was hot. His films serve a great importance in the birth of talking American cinema, building up the mythos of right and wrong and the power of community that can share the problem and make the life of an individual all the better for it.

FRANK CAPRA: MR. AMERICA will be out later this year.

Summer of No Light - The Natvral

 

Sophomore release by Kip Berman pseudonym out now from Dirty Bingo Records

Kip Berman's alter ego, The Natvral, won rave reviews in 2021 with his debut album Tethers, a troubadour solo release full of unrequited and forgotten loves with a hipster twist hailing from Brooklyn, New York as he does.

He returns with a new album and it is more of the same with some killer tracks mixed in with melodic album tracks making it a full package as one. However, with the previous album, there is a tinge of melancholy underpinning the whole album from 'A Glass of Laughter' to 'Summer of Hell' which juxtaposes the exultant melody with downbeat subject matter.

Berman remains a spirited and prolific songwriter, one who is a harbinger and conduit for exploring his past to make sense of the living present. You get the sense his writing is a form of therapy and allows him to channel emotions into the art form of music making.

What is so beautiful about this album is it's imperfect nature of it all, there is a rough and readiness to proceedings and yet it is welcoming to all due to the universality in regards to themes of love and loss.

The title of the album 'Summer of No Light' is taken from the climate crisis of 1816, a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia darkened much of the world's sky - the ash brought dramatic global cooling and famine. During that summer however, was a period of creative explosion for one famous writer. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein that summer, she was in Lake Geneva riding out the awful summer. Berman expresses admiration that someone such as Shelley could sustain themselves through art, and yet getting fucked up. Famously Shelley was in Switzerland with her lover Percy Shelley, Lordy Byron and Claire Clairmont (Byron's paramour).

Tethers was completed under the restrictions of the global Covid-19 pandemic and was one of the finest releases during that period; and his defiance shines again in the punchy opener 'Lucifer's Glory' but the mark of any artist is one who can mix the riotous songs with ones of softness such as the closer 'Wintergreen'. 

Berman sounds happy and artistically free, drawing upon personal experience and gaining perspective on his life is a joy for all who listen.

Summer Of No Light is out now from Dirty Bingo Records