Cinepolitica Film Festival Day 4

Newsroom 10/04/2014 | 13:53

Up until April 13, at Studio, Elvire Popesco and Union Cinemas will be screened over 20 powerful films, on current political topics, some of which have been submitted or nominated for the Academy Awards.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Studio Cinema

14:00 –  Friends from France (d. Anne Weil & Philippe Kotlarski, France / Russia / Canada / Germany, 2013, 92′)

Synopsis: The year is 1979. Because Jérome is in love with Carole, his cousin, because she wants to support the cause of the Jews in the Soviet Union, but especially because both of them are aged 20, the two embark on an adventure behind the Iron Curtain. In Odessa, they act as tourists during the day, and meet Jews who want to emigrate from USSR and are harassed by the Soviet authorities during the night. All changes when Viktor asks Jérome for a favor, and the latter has to choose between law and morals. (provided by Cinepolitica)

 

16:00 –  Paradjanov (d. Serge Avedikian & Olena Fetisova, Ukraine / France / Georgia / Armenia, 2013, 91′)

Synopsis: In 1960, Soviet Armenian film director Serghei Paradjanov’s never ending feast of a life is twice changed: he is to become the father of a boy and of a movie. A hit in Europe, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS receives a cold welcome in the USSR. He leaves Ukraine for Armenia, where his bohemian lifestyle is unchanged and where he shoots SAYAT NOVA. Little does he know his every step is closely watched by the KGB. Arrested on suspicion of sodomy, Paradjanov spends five long years in prison, where he finds salvation in art. Upon his release, he returns to Georgia, where he directs THE LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS, a new frowned upon title back at home, a new masterpiece of world cinema. PARADJANOV was Ukraine’s official proposal for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2014 Academy Awards. (provided by Cinepolitica)

18:00 – Neighbouring Sounds (d. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012, 125′)

Synopsis: Life in an exclusive neighborhood in the Brazilian town of Recife follows its own steady course: Bia suffers from severe insomnia caused by her neighbors’ dog, and tries to silence it by any means possible, João falls in love with a girl he knows nothing about, while Dinho is the scare of all the other residents’ cars, and their respective CD players. Above all, the fatherly figure of Claudio, the master without a crown of the neighborhood. The relative equilibrium of it all is blown into pieces when the employees of a private security firm offer their services. Little by little, secrets old and new are revealed. The sins of post-colonial Brazil are finally accounted for, which is by no means one and the same thing with justice being made. Brazil’s official proposal for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2014 Academy Awards. (provided by Cinepolitica)

 

20:00 – The German Doctor (d. Lucía Puenzo, Argentina / France / Spain / Norway, 2013, 90′)

Synopsis: In 1960’s Patagonia, a German doctor and an Argentinian family’s paths intersect. A guest in Eva (Natalia Oreiro) and Enzo’s (Diego Peretti) hotel, the stranger quickly becomes fascinated by Lilith (Florencia Bado), the couple’s little girl. Aged 12, she looks more like a 9 year old child, which makes the perfection obsessed doctor take it upon himself to help the girl mature at all costs. His charisma, and also his money-upfront politic, ease her parents’ acceptance of him. In the end, they realize Lilith was the subject of a genetic experiment, and the German doctor was no other than one of the most ruthless criminals in history.

Elvire Popesco Cinema

15:00 – Super Trash (d. Martin Esposito, France, 2013, 71′)

Synopsis: Only miles away from the shore, away from the prying eyes of the hordes of tourists that invade the French Riviera every year, a new landform can be admired, one that has yet to be included in the local maps: the garbage mountain. Filmmaker Martin Esposito sets camp near Villeneuve Loubet, to witness what could well be an ecological disaster. This is how he learns that no real recycling efforts are being made, with one of the main polluters being the Cannes International Film Festival.

19:00 – Plot for Peace (d. Carlos Agulló & Mandy Jacobson, South Africa, 2013, 80′)

Synopsis: In the mid ’80s, caught in endless guerilla wars, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique formed a toxic triangle, an equation whose only constant was the ever increasing number of human victims. Ruthless businessman or spy, friend of the South African people or pacifist visionary, Jean-Yves Ollivier cannot be denied his role in having restored peace in the South of the Black Continent, and having helped give back to the world one of its most illustrious leaders, Nelson Mandela. Best Documentary at Regards sur le Cinéma du Monde festival in Rouen, France.

Special Screenings

17:00 – The Bag of Flour (d. Kadija Leclere, Belgium / Morocco / France, 2012, 92′)

Synopsis: Alsemberg, Belgium, December 1975. Sarah, 8 years old, lives in a Catholic foyer. One day, her biological father, whom she has never met, comes to take her for a weekend in Paris. But it is in Morocco that Sarah wakes up, in a little town lost in the middle of the Atlas. Very soon, her father leaves, abandoning her without any explanation. She then slips into the life of a little Moroccan girl where the only schooling she is offered is that of knitting. Nine years later, we find Sarah, 17 years old, a teenager like all the others… At least, almost. We are in 1984, in the middle of a hunger revolt (The Revolt of ‘Aw-bach’). Sarah’s father has never sent the money he had said he would, and for the family where she is staying, each mouth to feed accounts for more and more. Sarah will have to find a way to earn her board. But then, there is also her wish of leaving, to going back to the Belgium of her childhood, the school, the books and a life that Sarah imagines free… The first feature written and directed by Kadija Leclere was selected in over 35 international film festivals.

Master Class

21:00 – Power and Truth in Romanian Cinema (Cristian Tudor Popescu)

About the “Interferences of Politics in Romanian Cinema” will talk the writer and filmologist Cristian Tudor Popescu on Friday, April 11th, from 9pm, at Elvire Popesco Cinema. He will take a critical approach, with applied examples, on the history of local cinema and its relation to politics, topic he expanded on in his book “Deaf Film in Mute Romania”.

Photo courtesy of Cinepolitica

Oana Vasiliu

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