Sundance Film Festival – Page 25 – LFM: Libertas Film Magazine

LFM Sundance Review: Restoration from Israel

By Joe Bendel. To this day, Steinway pianos are assembled by hand in a long, painstaking process. The resulting fractional differences give each Steinway its own unique individual sound. The preferred choice of many concert pianists, Steinways are works of art in themselves. One vintage 1882 Steinway might even save an elderly antique woodworker’s business in Yossi Madmony’s Restoration, which screens during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Yaakov Fidelman knows wood better than anyone. His partner Maxim Malamud knew people. With his sudden death, their jointly owned restoration business may not survive the loss of its public face and bookkeeper. Equally troubling, Fidelman begins to suspect his son Noah might have considered his late partner more of a father than the senior Fidelman.

Indeed, Fidelman and his ambitious attorney son have never been close. It is a void Fidelman’s mysterious new assistant would like to fill. The homeless Anton is a former pianist from a well-to-do family. In fact, it is he who recognizes the potential value of the Steinway languishing in the corner of the workshop. Perhaps as a musician who no longer plays, it makes sense that Anton would be attracted to Noah’s pregnant wife, Hava, a former Israeli teen TV idol who no longer sings. Steadily mounting resentments all lead to an almost Biblical confrontation between Fidelman’s metaphorical son and his blood offspring.

While the conflicts of Restoration are deeply seated, the film is the very picture of elegant restraint. Unfolding at a stately pace, Madmony focuses like a laser-beam on Fidelman’s quiet soul-searching. Sasso Gabay subtly anchors the film as the difficult craftsman, suggesting much inner turmoil, but never betraying the character’s taciturn reserve. It is a wholly engrossing character study.

Lushly lens by cinematographer Boaz Yehonatan Yacov and featuring a pitch-perfect chamber-music score by Avi Belleli, Restoration represents film fully realized as fine art. Considering that the Israeli film industry is arguably more reflexively anti-Israel than Hollywood, it is also quite a pleasure to see such an apolitical cinematic import from the country. Wise and sad, Restoration is a film for mature adults (in the best sense of the term) that is likely to have a long life on the Jewish Film Festival circuit following Sundance. Highly recommended, it screens again in Park City on Wednesday (1/26) and Friday (1/28).

Posted on January 25th, 2011 at 2:11pm.

LFM Sundance Review: The Wind is Blowing on My Street & Women’s Freedom in Iran

windblowing — 'Anonymous' actress from "The Wind is Blowing on My Street."

By Joe Bendel. The media constantly assures us that Muslim women actually find veils and headscarves liberating or comforting in some way. However, one young Iranian woman cannot wait to tear it off once she is safely at home. This leads to some tense moments when she accidently locks herself out of the family flat with head uncovered in Saba Riazi’s short film The Wind is Blowing on My Street, which screens as part of Short Program II at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Riazi’s second year NYU graduate school film tells a relatively simple story, but it raises a number of significant issues regarding the state of (perhaps not-so) contemporary Iran. Noticing her predicament, a young man of college age newly arrived in the neighborhood keeps her company, even though each passer-by is a very real cause for concern.

The misogynist implications of a society that makes an uncovered head a legitimate crisis are inescapable. However, Wind clearly suggests that Iran will be a heavy price for its extremism, precipitating a study-abroad exodus of its best and brightest students seeking escape from the regime’s intolerance, like the film’s two lead characters. Yet maybe the film’s most telling commentary comes in the closing credits, in which the lead actress is simply billed as “anonymous.”

Riazi helms with a deft touch, in no way overplaying the potential menace of the situation, but never letting viewers forget the vulnerability of the young woman’s position, either. She also elicits some quite natural, down-to-earth performances from her principal leads. A very good short film, Wind is one of several bold Iranian themed selections at this year’s Sundance. It screens again with Short Program II on Friday (1/28) and Saturday (1/29).

Posted on January 25th, 2011 at 1:52pm.

LFM Sundance Review: Circumstance & Sexual Freedom in Iran

By Joe Bendel. Trading one addiction for another is a peril of rehab. This seems to have happened with Atafeh Hakimi’s brother. Drug-free but now a virulent religious Islamist, Meyran Hakimi’s return destabilizes his affluent Iranian family in Maryam Keshavarz’s Circumstance, which screens during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Mehran was once the most promising musician in his musical family. Much to their regret, the newly radicalized prodigal son has forsaken such pursuits. Unbeknownst to his family, Mehran’s career path now involves the secret police. This will directly complicate Atafeh’s life when they both fall in love with her best friend, the free-spirited Shireen Arshadi.

Needless to say, neither lesbian relations nor free-spiritedness in general cut much ice with Mehran. Having wired the family flat for surveillance, the jealous brother understands exactly what is going on between the young women. As Hakimi and Arshadi press their luck in Tehran’s underground party scene, brother Mehran bides his time, not about to let the inevitable crisis go to waste (as our current administration would counsel).

Circumstance2 — Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy in "Circumstance."

While press kit descriptions of the Iranian-born, American-educated Keshavarz’s previous works sound like a somewhat mixed bag, Circumstance is a legitimately bold, outspoken critique of the institutionalized mistreatment of both women and homosexual Iranians under fundamentalist misrule. There is no question Hakimi and Arshadi’s relationship puts them at an existential risk. At times, Keshavarz also captures the absurd situations fostered by the Iranian system, as when the two young women help their gay Iranian-American friend Hossein dub Sex in the City into Farsi to hook people into watching Gus Van Zandt’s Milk strategically placed on the same bootleg disk. However, the extent to which the mullahs have evidently co-opted the supposedly atheistic Che Guevara as a symbol of their revolution is hardly surprising. After all, Che shared their zealous commitment to statism through terror.

Circumstance is an intriguing film on multiple levels, examining not just gender and sexual orientation, but also class in contemporary Iran. The Hakimis are the sort of privileged family that are assumed not to exist in Iran, but their father’s early support for the Islamic Revolution during his student days preserves their position, despite their relative moderation. Yet, those allowances only extend so far.

Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy are undeniably charismatic as Hakimi and Arshadi (respectively), which makes their dire straits quite disturbing. Though a relatively small part, Sina Amedson leaves a strong impression as Hossein, deftly serving as the film’s conscience when he directly challenges Hakimi and Arshadi to strive to “change their circumstances” (thereby supplying the film’s title as well).

Though Circumstance is somewhat frank depicting the women’s relations, it is not meant as titillation. Indeed, it is a revealing look at life lived under oppressive conditions. A real standout at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Circumstance screens again on Tuesday (1/25) in Salt Lake City and Wednesday (1/26), Thursday (1/27), Friday (1/28), and Saturday (1/29) in Park City.

[UPDATE: Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Participant Media has just acquired Circumstance for distribution.]

Posted on January 24th, 2011 at 11:36pm.

LFM Sundance Review: Ticket to Paradise

By Joe Bendel. In 1993, Cuban youths liked their head-banging music just as much as their American counterparts—possibly more so. Of course, the underground scene was decidedly dangerous thanks to frequent police rousts and the ravages of AIDS. The latter will take on ironic significance in Cuban filmmaker Gerardo Chijona Valdes’ Ticket to Paradise, which screens during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Cuba is no workers’ paradise for Eunice. Sexually abused by her widower father while her teacher turns a blind eye, she has reached her breaking point. After a physical altercation with the old man, she runs away from home in hopes of finding shelter with her grown sister. Quickly running out of money, she falls in with a trio of pill-pushing metalheads on their way to Havana. Alejandro, their informal leader, has told their butch girlfriend-with-benefits they are going for a concert – but he has different, rather foolish and shocking plans once they arrive.

paradise12 — From Gerardo Chijona Valdes’ "Ticket to Paradise."

Truthfully, the first half of Paradise is pretty compelling, as Eunice and her new found friends navigate the seedy underbelly of Communist Cuba. However, Chijona Valdes springs the horrifying twist too soon, leaving at least a full third of the film to wallow in his characters’ how-low-can-they-go suffering and depravity.

If Paradise was intended as pro-regime propaganda, it does not even come close to working. Throughout the film, the entire country looks like it is falling apart, while the law of the jungle seems to rule among the people. At least it faithfully propagates the myth of Cuba’s crackerjack health system, which must have been how the film was approved by some clueless apparatchik.

Miriel Cejas deserves considerable credit for her work as Eunice, enduring all manner of on-screen humiliations. It is not her fault that Paradise’s final scenes ring so false. (Instead, the blame lies solely with the manipulative story.) By and large, her three primary compatriots are also quite convincing, looking like they came straight off the streets themselves.

Chijona Valdes certainly creates a visceral atmosphere of menace and decay (of course, it’s not like any of his locations had been refurbished since 1993). His indulgence in lurid melodrama simply undermines what could have been a rare work of gritty Cuban naturalism. Interesting but ultimately just too much everything, Paradise screens again during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival this Tuesday (1/25), Thursday (1/27), and Saturday (1/29).

Posted on January 24th, 2011 at 11:11pm.

LFM Sundance Review: In a Better World

By Joe Bendel. For one young boy, it’s tough being the Swedish kid in his Danish school. While his father is an advocate of turning the other cheek, his new friend is a proponent of more direct action. As a global meditation on bullying, Susanne Bier’s In a Better World (trailer above) should probably be considered a leading contender amongst the nine shortlisted films for the best foreign language Oscar. Its chances will probably be further bolstered when it screens this week during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival now underway in Park City, Utah.

Swedish plus conspicuous retainer equals frequent poundings for Elias, a good kid struggling with his parents’ separation. He idolizes his father Anton, an altruistic doctor often absent volunteering his services at a free African medical clinic. One fateful day, the new kid Christian intervenes in a bullying session, walloping his tormentor with a bicycle pump before pulling a knife on the larger boy. Problem solved.

Christian has a few issues himself, including a deep-seated resentment of his father following his mother’s untimely death from cancer. Though their fast friendship should represent healthy socialization for Elias, Christian proves to be a nakedly manipulative little wretch. Better is also not exactly subtly hinting at his self-destructive impulses, portraying him like Poe’s Imp of Perverse, constantly haunting the roof of a hulking old factory while brooding darkly. Yet, it will be Anton’s conflict-avoidance strategy when encountering a grown-up bully in front of the boys that serves as a catalyst for Christian’s potentially tragic plans.

Better is sort of like a Nordic Crash, with the teachable moments coming at a regular clip. Unfortunately, the film often confuses earnestness with profundity, offering plenty of the former, but not nearly as much of the latter. In fact, it seems like Bier somewhat loses control of her message. Comparing the brutality Anton witnesses in Africa with Christian’s escalating anti-social behavior, she clearly implies the tendency towards the animalistic is present in all of us, even ostensibly civilized Scandinavians. Yet, one could easily conclude within the context of the film that a little fight out of Anton might have been more productive, preventing considerable tragedy in both settings.

Though laboring under Better’s self-conscious serious-mindedness, much of the ensemble distinguish themselves rather well. As problematic as his character seems in retrospect, Mikael Persbrandt brings a compelling dignity to Anton, largely selling his Gandhi routine in-the-moment. After accepting too many villainous roles in English speaking productions, Ulrich Thomsen redeems himself with a deeply humane supporting turn as Christian’s grieving father Claus. Amongst the young actors, William Jøhnk Nielsen’s work is particularly notable, projecting the full range of emotions roiling within the understandably pained Christian.

Even if Better’s “so there” takeaway really is not there, it is the kind of prestige picture that perfectly suits the Academy’s sensibilities. Indeed, cinematographer Morten Søborg captures the harsh beauty of the African landscape, bringing to mind many past Oscar favorites. Clearly tremendous passion went into Better, but it falls short of its ambitions. While not an out-and-out failure, it should not be a priority for those making the Sundance scene when it screens again on Wednesday (1/26), Saturday (1/29) and Sunday (1/30).

Posted on January 23rd, 2011 at 10:02pm.

LFM Sundance Review: Abraxas

By Joe Bendel. This might be the quietest film about punk-rock ever produced. Sure, Jonen could peel the paint off the walls when he was shredding, but his subsequent gig as Buddhist monk is much more sedate. Yet there is a connection between the two that screen writer-director Naoki Katô intriguingly explores in Abraxas (trailer above), which screens during this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Abraxas will likely shatter most viewers’ preconceptions of Buddhist monks. In addition to his punk-rock past, Jonen is a bit of drinker with a cute but increasingly exasperated wife Tae and young son Riu. Genshu, the resident temple priest, also has an attractive younger wife, making Abraxas quite the recruitment film for Buddhist religious service. Genshu however, is at peace with his path. Jonen by contrast, hears the siren call of the extreme music he used to make. Yet it is not the past glory he misses, but the oneness with sound. He is not looking to fill a void, rather he seeks the void.

Indeed, the punk-rock playing monk might sound precious, but there is nothing cutesy about Abaraxas. To his credit, Katô never dumbs down the material, crafting one of the more thoughtful and thought-provoking films about Buddhism (or any religion) in quite some time. Despite the importance of punk, it is only heard sparingly in Abraxas. Instead, it is the sounds of rain and even more prominently silence that Katô shrewdly employs to set the tone throughout the film.

Still, Katô ‘s film is hardly the cinematic equivalent of a scholarly religious treatise. Dealing with universal issues like loss and the need for belonging, Abraxas would be an excellent companion film to Yojiro Takita’s Oscar-winning art-house breakout hit Departures.

Appropriately Zen-like, the entire ensemble demonstrates ease and restraint in their parts. Though Japanese alt-rocker Suneohair (a.k.a. Kenji Watanabe) gets to rock-out and act a little crazy from time to time, it is still a very grounded and sincere performance. In many ways, Kaoru Kobayashi quietly supplies the heart and soul of the film as Jonen’s senior Genshu, expressing wisdom and tolerance while sounding like a fully dimensional character instead of a cliché in the Kung Fu tradition. Manami Honjo brings a warm, smart presence as Genshu’s wife Asako – while as Tae, Rie Tomosaka supplies surprising depth and nuance in what could have easily been a standard issue nagging wife role.

Abraxas may very well be too subtle to generate the heat it merits in Park City. Yet, it is a richly accomplished film that deserves to find audience (and an American distributor). Highly recommended, Abraxas screens again on Tuesday (1/25), Wednesday (1/26), Thursday (1/27), and Friday (1/28) as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Posted on January 23rd, 2011 at 10:01pm.