Thirteen candidates to the Golden Angels of Tofifest 2014
The selection for the On Air main competition at the Tofifest IFF has just been announced. Thirteen films from Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Israel, Slovenia, Georgia, Greece, Great Britain, and Ethiopia will compete for the Golden Angel award. The starters in the race will include Corn Island from Georgia, which has already made the critics delighted, a Ukrainian epic about the master of cinema Sergei Paradjanov, and the Ethiopian Difert produced by Angelina Jolie.
For many years, the film festival in Torun has been consistent in focusing on debuts and sophomore films, which resulted in discovering new and rising stars of international cinema, every single year. The On Air competition is an original selection of the best debuts made in the last 12 months. This year, the starters in the race are dominated by films from Europe. Films from Ukraine, Georgia, and Poland are particularly strongly represented.
Ukraine is heralded by two films and two co-productions. Paradjanov by Olena Fetisova and Serge Avedikian (Polish premiere) is a biography of the great master of cinema Sergei Paradjanov. He is considered one of the most outstanding filmmakers of the 20th century, a versatile artist and dissident, whose views and artistic independence led him to prison in the USSR, where he spent a number of years. His Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Colour of Pomegranates have become part of the history of international cinematography.
This Ukrainian-French-Armenian-Georgian coproduction is suspended between the extremities of Paradjanov’s personality, presenting him as a visionary of film art, poetry, and visual arts. Olena Fetisova succeeds in demonstrating the unique personality of this filmmaker, who made films that became milestones and brilliant descriptions of the three countries he worked in, i.e. in Armenia (The Colour of Pomegranates), in Ukraine (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors), and in Georgia (The Legend of Suram Fortress). Each of these films presented the diversity and rich history of a particular country, even though in the time of Sergei Paradjanov all three were part of the Soviet Union.
The film by Olena Fetisova encompasses 26 years in the life of Sergei Paradjanov, from 1964, in which he made his Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, to 1990, in which he passed away. We witness his life in Kiev and Yerevan, his arrest and imprisonment, and the forging of the The Legend of Suram Fortress, in Georgia. The film also features such sequences, as the visit of Marcello Mastroianni, the stories behind sex scandals – Paradjanov was accused of being homosexual, by Soviet authorities – and Paradjanov’s relationships with his wife and children. It is a genuine kaleidoscope that tells the story of the life of a genius, who Sergei Paradjanov definitely was. The film won the Jury Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
The Tribe by Miroslav Slaboshpytskiy won three important awards, during this year’s edition of the Cannes IFF. It is a fascinating film in which not a single word is spoken. The reason for it is the story set in a special boarding school for deaf-mute, where we find the main protagonist, Sergei. He soon becomes a member of a school gang – the title Tribe – but falling in love with the Boss’ girlfriend puts his life in danger. This shocking film explores the embarrassing and thoroughly hidden truth about the post-Soviet plague of sexual abuse of young women.
Film critics were enthralled by The Tribe. They emphasised the phenomenon of a film, in which no words are spoken and yet we fully comprehend what is going on: “Just as in the films made in the dawn of the silent era, the language of gestures and facial expressions, and even postures become almost completely comprehensible” (Variety). Its powerful appeal was also recognised: “It is one of those rare films that you can’t quite believe really exist, that demonstrate that cinema still has a few tricks up its sleeve” (Filmcomment.com); “It is the great discovery of this year’s festival in Cannes” (The Guardian).
The film was also applauded by film critics – it was awarded during this year’s Cannes IFF (Grand Prix La Semaine de La Critique, Visionary Award, and GAN Foundation Support), as well as Grand Prix and Fipresci Award at the Golden Apricot IFF in Yerevan (Armenia), and Grand Prix and Special Prize for Director at the Andrey Tarkovsky Festival (Russia), and a number of awards at the ArtFilm Fest (Slovakia).
Georgia is represented by two films in the ON AIR competition. Many film enthusiasts are already anticipating Corn Island by Giorgi Ovashvili (Polish premiere). The winner of this year’s Karlovy Vary IFF has been heralded as the great discovery and the Georgian candidate for Academy Awards – it is an artistically ascetic drama that includes only a few dialogue lines. Film critics have compared the film to the works by Tarkovsky, Bresson and… Shakespeare. The film takes us to the area near the Inguri River, on the borderline between Georgia and Abkhazia. It is 1992 and the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict is in progress. One of the many small islands located in the middle of the river live Abga, an old farmer from Georgia, and his teenage granddaughter Asida, who try to plant corn on it. They are surrounded by military patrols, on both sides of the river. One day, the girl finds a young Georgian soldier hiding on the island. The idyll of the Corn Island comes to an end.
Ovashvilli approaches the subjects he discusses with astounding fluency, thus letting cinematographer Elemer Ragalyi perform true magic with his camera. The director manages to build a very clear drama about the bond between man and nature, at the same time demonstrating a very practised eye for picturesque landscapes. This film drama captures a symbolic timelessness, by presenting the everyday toil of the main protagonists caught in the camera eye, and by using minimum interaction in a completely innovative manner.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that “Georgian director George Ovashvili weaves a powerful life-and-death fable from simple ingredients in this almost wordless drama”. Variety has called the film “masterclass of emotional minimalism, in which the old masters like Bresson, Tarkovsky, Kaneto Shindo, and Terrence Malick resound. And with a little touch of ‘The Tempest’ by Shakespeare.” One may find it interesting to learn that filmmakers from as many as 13 countries joined forces to work on this Georgian-German-French-Czech coproduction!
The other director from Georgia, Levan Koguashvili, will come to Torun with his Blind Date. It will be already the third film of this director to be presented at Tofifest. In previous years, we had the opportunity to see his Street days (2010) and a short film A woman from Georgia (2009).
Blind Date is a comedy-drama about strong women and sad men experiencing their “midlife crisis”. The companions to the soul of a modern forty-year-old are Sandro, a history teacher, and Iva, his best friend, ex-footballer, and currently the coach of a female team. Both of them met in childhood, but today these bachelors with receding hairlines are teachers in the same primary school and struggle with the same problem: they are already in their forties, but both have no one to share their lives with. The remedy they intend to use is an online blind date. This film story about searching for love will take the audience through the reality of everyday life in Georgia, offering a great deal of humour, sensitivity, and attention, as more and more comical situations come to life.
The atmosphere of the film has been applauded by jurors and awarded it with three trophies at the prestigious Sofia IFF (Best Film, Best Director, FIPRESCI Award), GoEast Film Festival in Wiesbaden (Best Director Award), and at Lecce Festival of European Film (Golden Olive Tree).
Same as last year, Poland has two films selected for the debut film competition. The first of the two is Hardkor Disko by Krzysztof Skonieczny. It is a full-length debut of one of the best video-clip directors in Poland and the winner of the Koszalin Screen Debuts Festival “Young and Cinema”. In the director’s explication, Skonieczny emphasises that: “This story is a modern version of an ancient tragedy, in which Gods let a catharsis happen, but a happy end is no option. This is a story about a desperate search for identity, about guilt, revenge and punishment, and love that is impossible to fulfil.” The director takes us to a modern metropolis, full of contrasts. Nouveau riche parents and their hedonistic children seizing the day surrounded by the reality in which anger is welling up and tension reaching the point of explosion. This is the scenery in which we are introduced to Marcin, a young boy, who comes to the city and shortly after that encounters Ola, a little younger than him. The girl is so fascinated with him that she invites him to join her private world, where strong drugs, never-ending parties of the artistic bohemia, and illegal car races reign. However, Marcin has come here with a deeply hidden secret and a meticulously crafted revenge plan, of which neither his girlfriend nor even the closest family have the slightest clue.
A film critic from filmweb.pl has emphasised the role of a cinematographer: “The director and cinematographer Kacper Fertacz managed to capture the breath of a metropolis, instil tension in the seemingly trivial scenes, and shoot the surrounding in a stunning way. More than that, Fertacz follows actors with his camera in a brilliant way.” No wonder that Kacper Fertacz was awarded for cinematography at the Gdynia Film Festival, just a few days ago.
The other of the Polish contestants is Kebab & Horoscope by Grzegorz Jaroszuk. This film was coined the “most Czech film of the festival”, during the film festival in Karlovy Vary, as it is a story of two fraudsters, who pretend to be marketing specialists to save a carpet shop from collapsing, wrapped in a genuinely Czech-like atmosphere.
The owner of a carpet shop decides to save his collapsing business and hire marketing specialists. Unfortunately, instead of experts, two fraudsters, who go by the names Kebab and Horoscope respond to the advertisement. Their arrival and the “corrective programme” implemented ad hoc will not only change the company and the lives of its employees, but also trigger a chain of unexpected events, in which the leading roles will be played by: a shy cashier, who shares her apartment with a neurotic mother; an accountant, who tries to find true love on the Internet; a catty porter, and an unpredictable electrician, whose greatest fear is… high voltage. Thanks to this kaleidoscope of personalities, the two conmen ready to do everything will soon realise that life can be just as sophisticated, as a pattern on the most expensive Arabian carpet.
Kebab & Horoscope is the dark horse in the festival’s race, as “it is rare to see a director, who offers such a coherent and consistent vision of the represented world, in their film debut,” as we could read on the Onet.pl website. The film won two awards at the recently held Gdynia Film Festival.
As for the Ethiopian Difret by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, this film differs from all other contestants in many ways. It is a simple, if not an amateurish film, which won the Audience Award at the prestigious Sundance IFF (Audience Award World Cinema Dramatic) and the Panorama Audience Award at this year’s Berlinale.
How did it happen that a film featuring, among others, poor peasants from Ethiopian villages and great many untrained actors won so many important awards? Why was it received with such great emotions by the audiences at the biggest film festivals? Had it not been for Angelina Jolie, who co-produced this movie. Jolie has fought for the right of African women for many years and this is exactly what Difret is about. It discloses a virtually unknown to us and shocking tradition, common in Ethiopian villages, i.e. forceful kidnapping of young women with the intention to marry. It is one of the oldest traditions in this country. The film features two equal heroines – Meaze, a young lawyer and advocate of women’s rights, who lives in the capital city of Addis Ababa, and fourteen-year-old Hirut. The young girl is kidnapped by a man from her village and then raped, as an initiation before a wedding, following the tradition in Ethiopia. Much to the surprise of other villagers, Hirut kills the oppressor with his own rifle, in an attempt to escape. She is accused of murder and Meaza steps in to defend her in court.
The impressions and emotions generated by Difret are further enhanced by the fact that this drama was based on true events.
It is after some time that films from Germany reappear in a competition at Tofifest. Stations of the Cross by Dietrich Brüggemann is a touching story about what the fanatical approach to Catholicism leads to.
The form itself is enough to take us by surprise. The film is comprised of 14 parts, which corresponds to the 14 Stations of the Cross. The films focuses on Maria, 14, a girl from a small town in the south of Germany, who lives with her parents and three siblings. The family follows very a rigorous Catholic code of conduct and belongs to a fictitious Society of Saint Paul congregation, whose leaders do not accept the reforms introduced to the Catholic Church in 1960s (it is a paraphrase of the Society of Saint Pius X that actually exists). The dominating mother fears the adolescence of her daughter, while Maria’s father is extremely detached from family life, as he has no say in his own home. Living according to rigorous rules leaves no room for individual development and spiritual searching. Maria, who is preparing for confirmation, under the tutelage of a local priest, becomes more and more fascinated with martyr saints. The seed of believing in miracles sown in her soul is beginning to sprout.
Mass media highlighted the fantastic performance of Lea van Acken, who debuted on screen as Maria (The Hollywood Reporter). The film won the Silver Bear for the script and the Ecumenical Film Award at Berlinale 2014, as well as many awards at the Norwegian International Film Festival and Edinburgh IFF.
Last year, cinema from Israel came to Tofifest with Rock the Casbah, which showed the war with the Palestinians seen from the perspective of Israeli male soldiers. This year, we will see the same world from the perspective of Israeli female soldiers. Zero Motivation by Talya Lavie (Polish premiere) is a keen black comedy that portraits the everyday life of young female soldiers, who work in an army administration office, which is a mirror of the situation of women in the Israeli army. The film is a story about three young female soldiers and their both real and surreal journey into the labyrinth of bureaucracy, and the turbulences related to adolescence, which is a tragicomic observation of life in the militarised society of Israel.
Zohar and Daffi are best friends, who serve in an administration office in an artillery base, deep in southern Israel. They share the same bunk and spend most of the time together, sharing their secrets, as they find it difficult to communicate with anyone else. When storm clouds are gathering in the south, Daffi will stop at nothing to get herself transferred away from this most southward military base she hates so much. Zohar, on the other hand, has an entirely different attitude, as she does not seem to care where she is stationed. However, she will try to talk her friend out of leaving the base, as she is scared of being left alone in this desolate base. There is one more person, though, who would not mind her leaving – it is Rama, their highly motivated commanding officer.
The film won an award for best storyline and the Nora Ephron Prize at the Tribeca IFF in New York, as well as 12 nominations for Israeli film awards.
We have not seen a film from Slovenia in the ON AIR competition, since the award-winning Gravehopping (Odgrobadogroba) by Jan Cvitkovič. This year, Class Enemy by Rok Biček represents Slovenia. It is a story about the drama between pupils and one of the teachers, set in a modern school in Slovenia. A German language teacher becomes the most hated person in one of the classes. When one of the pupils commits suicide, the entire class considers him responsible for her death. When the pupils finally realise that not everything is so black and white, as they used to think, it is already too late... The director commented: “I believe that film art should relate to the problems of the people who live in a particular country, but also to the global community. In my film, I succeeded in capturing this perspective through presenting the micro-universe of pupils in a secondary school, who constitute a particularly vulnerable society. Whether they like or not, this makes them very susceptible to everything that affects the directly and to whatever takes place around them.”
Class Enemy won awards at the IFF Bratislava (FIPRESCI Award) and Vilnius IFF (Best Actor Award, CICAE Award).
Tourist by Ruben Östlund represents Sweden (in coproduction with Denmark, France, and Norway) (Polish premiere). Tomas and Ebba take their children to spend a few days skiing in the French Alps. They intend to have an idyllic short winter holidays. The weather is great, sun is shining, and the snow-capped ski slopes look just impressive. And just when everybody is having their lunch on the restaurant’s terrace, they are hit by an avalanche coming directly from the mountains. This incident transforms this holiday rest into the test of their marriage. Tomas and Ebba will everything in their power to save their ties. But first they have to rethink that it means to be a husband, a wife, and a parent. Reflecting on this triggers a chain of tragicomic events and a couple they have recently become acquainted with seems to have the same doubts. It all gets a little more complicated, when hidden secrets surface. Will Tomas and Ebba be brave enough to overcome their weaknesses and save their relationship?
The film has won the Jury Award in the Un Certain Regard section, during this year’s Cannes IFF.
In 2007, Hallam Foe from Great Britain won all the important awards of Tofifest. This year, Snow in Paradise by Andrew Hulme can repeat this success (Polish premiere). It is a powerful feature film based on an authentic story of Martin Askew, who grew up in the crime-ridden East End district in London, ruled by the culture of crime. The film analyses a very relevant topic of the growing role Islam plays among immigrant communities. The film has been made by one of the best European editors, who worked on Control and American.
The protagonist in Snow in Paradise is Dave, a petty criminal, who thrives on drug dealing and violence that is eating away East End. When his actions end up in his best pal Tariq being killed, Dave finds himself thrown in the world of remorse and guilt he did not expect to exist. Quite unexpectedly, he discovers Islam and that introduces peace in life, until his former way of crime comes back to him, putting his new beliefs to a test.
A Blast (coproduced with Holland and Germany) by Syllas Tzoumerkas will have its Polish premiere at Tofifest and represent Greece – last year, this country was heralded by Eternal life of Antonis Paraskevas. A Blast is a story about Maria, a mother and wife, who leads a peaceful and quiet life, only to see come down in one second. Syllas Tzoumerkas comments: “A Blast is set in the fervent years of the collapse of the Greek economy. It tells the story of a generation’s disillusionment and radicalization. Maria starts her adult life with the best of intentions. Ten years after, no matter where she looks her world is cracking. Unwilling to reconcile with a life of unreturned care, lost dignity and broken-down desire to live, Maria attacks. She attacks herself, her past, the people she loves, her country and the perception of her sex in a relentless battle to find truth, in her and around her.”
The winner of the ON AIR competition will be announced on 24th October, during the Closing Ceremony of the Tofifest IFF, at the at the Festival Centre (Od Nowa Centre).
The films featured in the On Air
competition at Tofifest 2014
- A Blast, Syllas Tzoumerkas, 2014, Greece, Holland, Germany (Polish premiere at Tofifest)
- Blind dates, Levan Koguashvili, 2013, Georgia, Ukraine
- Class Enemy, Rok Biček, 2013, Slovenia
- Corn Island, George Ovashvili, 2014, Georgia, Germany, France, Czech Republic (Polish premiere at Tofifest)
- Difret, Zeresenay Mehari, 2014, Ethiopia, USA
- Hardkor Disko, Krzysztof Skonieczny, 2014, Poland
- Kebab & Horoscope, Grzegorz Jaroszuk, 2014, Poland
- Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2014, Germany
- Paradjanov, Olena Fetisova and Serge Avedikian, 2013, Ukraine, France, Georgia, Armenia (Polish premiere at Tofifest)
- Snow in Paradise, Andrew Hulme, 2014, Great Britain (Polish premiere at Tofifest)
- The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, 2014, Ukraine
- Tourist, Ruben Östlund, 2014, Sweden, Denmark, France, Norway (Polish premiere at Tofifest)
- Zero motivation, Talya Lavie, 2014, Israel, France (Polish premiere at Tofifest)
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