#20thsff

A QUINTET (2014) is an omnibus feature film that explores the different aspects of emerging filmmakers who are living and working in countries that are different from their homes. The film had its world premiere during the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival.

Elie Lamah’s short film entitled FRIEND REQUEST takes place in Berlin during the homonymous film festival. Rami (David Berton), a Lebanese director, spends his night in a bar where he meets Ayala (Maryam Zaree), a director from Israel. As expected, there is some high tension between them due to the unsolved conflicts of their countries. A walk and chat during the night will help them discover that they are not that different. Although, could they really be friends?

FRIEND REQUEST is trying to deal in the most detached way with the unsolved and crucial problems that the Middle East faces. Both Rami and Ayala are forced to present themselves as typical representatives of their origins and the harder they try to do that, the easier it is to lose all those seemingly unbridged differences. Their ideas and basically their identities could easily blend and coexist with each other just as they do during that night. Unfortunately, this process of embracement goes through some cliché topics that revolve around cinema, food, and culture. This lack of any true originality could easily restrict the film into an already predictable banality.

Elie Lamah delivers a film that could be watched pleasurably but at the same time loses some of the high targets already set. Apart from the final plot twist,, which could or could not be a surprise, the rhythm and the evolvement of the film are quite predictable. For that reason there is a constant been-there-seen-that feeling while watching the characters’ discussions.

A feature film allows more time to develop a longer story, build characters, and try to figure out the relationships between them, but in a short film you have to do it very quickly. It is a difficult job, yet THE HOUSE IN THE ENVELOPE, the first part of the omnibus A QUINTET (2014), shown at the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnian director Sanela Salketić does a pretty good job.

The story is about a young Turkish girl Layla who comes from Berlin to Istanbul only to finds herself in a situation, where she has to search for her grandfather and try to convince him to forgive his son (her father), so he takes the house his heir left him after he passed away.

The story starts and ends at the same point. In the opening we see Layla entering the taxi by the seashore. At the end she is sitting on a bench by the shore talking to her grandfather. She drives twice with the same chatty taxi driver. Two scenes, in which the character of Layla is developing – towards the ending with her grandfather she speaks about herself and her father, sometimes making pronunciation mistakes, which is natural for someone not living in Turkey. All this time Layla is trying to convince her grandfather to reconsider his attitude about her late father.

French New Wave veteran Jean-Luc Godard was one of the thirteen filmmakers who were invited to participate in the making of BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO / LES PONTS DE SARAJEVO (2014), an omnibus centered around the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to the outbreak of the World War I.

Godard had already tangoed with the cultural identity of Sarajevo when approaching the Bosnian War in his I SALUTE THEE, SARAJEVO! / JE VOUS SALUE, SARAJEVO! (1993),a two-and-a-half minute photomontage of a single color image – shot in 1992, in the Eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina, by the American photographer Ron Haviv – which depicts three soldiers of the Arkan paramilitary Serbian troups with their guns pointed towards three dead corpses laying on the ground.

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, Godard's section of the BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO omnibus, is more than an autonomous work and comes as an attempt to shed new light on the problems proposed by I SALUTE THEE, SARAJEVO! in 1993. “There is a rule and an exception,” Godard states once more. “Culture is the rule and art is the exception.”

In his piece BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO he incorporates parts of I SALUTE THEE, SARAJEVO! into a typical Godard-collage, combining archive material, photographs, paintings, his already classic abundance of jeux de mots, and countless cultural quotes and references; a polyphonic construction that makes more than a few faux pas, yet manages to remain one of the boldest in the omnibus with its discourse on a simulacrum of reality residing in war photographs that he calls playfully faux-to-graphs.

The constructed artificial views of terror spread throughout popular culture (like the Pulitzer winning photograph of a boy on the verge of being eaten by a vulture), terror that art must exonerate, is exactly what Godard addresses critically in his film.

Sergei Loznitsa’s REFLECTIONS is one of the thirteen short films gathered in the omnibus BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO / LES PONTS DE SARAJEVO (2014). The project was coordinated by the film critic Jean-Michel Frodon and was meant to be released this year to commemorate one hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, which took as a pretext the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo. Still, BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO does not restrict itself to this historical moment but reflects on different aspects of last century’s events related to the capital of Bosnia which shaped Europe’s pathway.

In his segment, the Ukrainian director renounces the pretension of originality and brings to attention a very common sense – that suffering in troubled times and immense human sacrifice are too quickly forgotten in more prosperous times. But he does so in an efficient way that gives to this exception a renewed power.

The film is a collage of sounds, photographs, and filmed material that bring in the same dimension a distinct moment from Sarajevo’s turbulent past and its quiet present. The black and white images shot by cinematographer Oleg Mutu (known for his collaboration with Romanian New Wave directors) of the city’s streets on a sunny day are superimposed also with black and white portraits of men that fought in the Bosnian War photographed by Milomir Kovačević in 1992. From the foreground each of the now probably dead fighters gazes for a few seconds straight at the audience, and the black and white image sharpening his features makes his presence more acute. Simultaneously, the peaceful life of the present time unfolds behind him.

With REFLECTIONS Sergei Loznitsa shows once again his interest in history and politics, as well as the preference for some stylistic choices, which he developed in his previous documentaries: the non-narrative structure in THE SETTLEMENT / POSELENIE (2002) or LANDSCAPE / PEYZAZH (2003), the using of archive material in BLOCKADE / BLOKADA (2006), REVUE / PREDSTAVLENIE (2008). Besides, this film and his most recent feature documentary, MAIDAN (2014), shown also at the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival, rely on sound to bring new meaning to the scenes.

In this segment from BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO Loznitsa operates a rather symbolic selection of the aspects he shows from the present, giving us motives of everyday life (children playing, trams passing, tourists discovering the city), but repeatedly making references to motives of religious diversity – also the main cause for the conflict in the area.

Hungarian director Ádám Császi’s debut feature LAND OF STORMS / VIHARSAROK (2013) is a deeply emotional and visually impressive gay-themed drama that follows quite close the path of the Hungarian cinematic sublime allegorical tradition (Miklós Jancsó, István Gaál). Behind the cover of a tragic true story, Császi exposes homophobia which is a social issue that is still quite present in modern-day Hungary. Homosexuals are usually marginalized, stigmatized, and they sometimes also become victims of groups of extremists in their own country.

Land of Storms – which participates in the 20th Sarajevo Film Festival in the Feature Film Competition section – tells the story of Szabi (András Sütő), a young footballer from Hungary, who is living in Germany and is secretly in love with his colleague Bernard (Sebastian Urzendowsky). After a series of conflicts, Szabi is forced to quit his team and to return to his grandfather’s abandoned house in a Hungarian pastoral area. There, he accidentally meets the teenage builder Áron (Ádám Varga), and their encounter slowly evolves to an awkward and unpretentious sexual relationship. This relationship will help them to discover their true selves.

LAND OF STORMS is a film based on the perpetual quest of a new identity; a quest that is viewed through the prism of the conquering and threatening homophobia. Initially Császi follows a safe path by searching and reinventing the identities of his heroes. They are both lost in their current living situation and apparently they are missing a piece of themselves, so they are always struggling to evolve their personalities and feel more mature in a literal way. The way that Császi presents this journey is sometimes quite symbolical but also not that far away from explicit reality. To enforce his message, the director – who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Iván Szabó – creates a deeply allegorical religious film that juxtaposes biblical scenes and symbolisms upon these boys’ romantic drama.

Szabi, who could be easily described as a fallen angel or even as a prodigal son, is trying to discard his old profession and become a beekeeper, despite the wrath of his father’s (Lajos Otto Horvath) God-like figure. Áron, on the other hand, will need to struggle in order to shake off himself the overbearingly traditional religious society of his village and his mother (Enikő Börcsök) too. These experiences will bring them closer to one another, and they will both realize that they are in love with each other. Symbols also play an important role in this procedure. The cross is always present; the water in different forms is used as a cathartic tool, either to baptize the heroes into their new identities or to clear their conciseness for their committed sins. Confessions behind closed doors will also offer the necessary transcendence and a more powerful dramatic climax. As a spectator would expect, their acts will bring upon them the rage and violence of the local community – rage that would lead to scenes of public and private humiliation.

The judgmental religious subtext that is followed so meticulously throughout the film creates an asphyxiating environment for both the audience and the personages. Szabi, who leaves his anxious urban life, believes that a new and almost virgin landscape could be his land of opportunities – but instead he will only find storms. As a modern missionary, he is trying to spread his ideas to a new world; but it is clearly stated that under the powerful and irrational homophobic environment no one can really survive, so inevitably he should adapt. This claustrophobic sensation is especially enhanced by Marcell Rev’s cinematography that stays absolutely true to the Hungarian tradition of dramas set in wide landscapes. While LAND OF STORMS takes place in a sort of Eden, liberated and almost elegiac, everything seems locked down and cast upon the heroes’ lives and decisions. The openness of the fields will not be enough for anyone to escape and even when they seem to be free in the fields, they are truly enslaved by their conservative and dangerous society. The almost theatrical approach in the depiction of the most crucial moments also gives a unique depth to the viewer as the characters feel to be present and close to him.

Mike Leigh’s latest passion project, MR. TURNER (2014), premiered in Official Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and was just shown at the Special Screenings section of Sarajevo Film Festival.

Indeed, William Turner (1775-1851), the famous English painter, considered the master of light, receives an appropriately illuminating biopic in an exceedingly beautiful and superbly detailed portrait of the artist as a moody middle-aged man, whose talent with the brush clouded his sometimes atrociously poor social skills. Mike Leigh’s passion for his subject is more than tangible throughout the entire film, which concentrates, in fact, on approximately the last twenty-five years of his life.

Meticulously evoking Turner’s paintings through Dick Pope’s lyrical and spectacular light lensing, Mike Leigh proves to be a cinematic painter himself. Just like Vermeer, a painter he admires, he is interested in the action taking place in a room filled with people, when not actually depicting Turner’s wanderings in the countryside. The film studies Turner’s relationship with his very small entourage. But, the relationships with his fellow artists and his family are deliberately left unexplained. It seems that Turner departmentalized his life in order to feel at home wherever he went. All this is tackled at one point or another but more depth would have been appreciated. The artist appears as a very grumpy, solitary, and lonely person, “happily” existing in his own solitude. In that sense, what is interesting is that the director, beyond showing the above-mentioned affinity to the subject of his film, also seems to identify with him. A character study, the film takes its time to carefully observe its protagonist in the last years of his life, lingering on every detail. On occasion, it may seem too slow, but it is precisely through the accumulation of these details that the director and his lead actor Timothy Spall build up their multi-layered and multi-faceted portrait of the painter.

In that regard, Spall manages to completely inhabit Turner, thus delivering an exceptional performance that has rightfully earned him the Best Actor prize in Cannes. Through his grimacing face and grunts that often than not replace the dialogue, Spall succeeds in brilliantly transmitting every thought that crosses Turner’s mind and every wince of pain that circulates through his fatigued body. The rest of the cast delivers uniformly good performances.

As far as techs are concerned, they are all top-notch, from the visually splendid production design by Suzie Davies and the elegant and lavish costumes by Jacqueline Durran. Both Davies and Durran impressively and most accurately bring the 19th century to life on screen. The music, however, is unfortunately scarce; but, when present, it makes sure to delicately convey Turner’s masterpieces and his roving and skittish spirit.

My professor used to say: “Just as we need technology to survive, we need art to help us go through our daily lives.” And Mike Leigh’s latest film MR. TURNER (2014) is indeed a remarkable piece of cinema art. MR. TURNER was in preparation even more so than Leigh’s other films were, for a very long period of time (from the 1990s), and I can easily say that is truly one of his finest features.

Once again, Leigh goes for a period piece, as in TOPSY-TURVY (1999) for example, but this time about one of Britain’s famous painters, William Turner. It is a serious challenge to depict faithfully a period in British history, in-between the Georgian and Victorian era, since the film takes place from 1825 to 1854. With great help from his regular collaborator, director of photography Dick Pope (for this film they used digital cameras for the first time and featured some extraordinary CGI shots), as well as production designer Suzie Davies, Leigh really captured and recreated the said period in history. The English countryside, cities, and towns, the White Cliffs of Dover – they have never looked so beautiful before.

No single shot in the movie is less beautiful than the paintings of William Turner. He specialized in watercolor landscapes, but what Leigh has decided to portray in his movie is William Turner's passion for marine paintings, for which he was famous. Like all of Leigh’s films, he and his actors build characters doing lots of preparations and improvisations, reaching a unique and incredibly authentic result. At the beginning of the story we see William Turner in a beautifully crafted wide shot, standing and sketching, while the sun is rising, and at the ending he is sketching again when the sun is setting. Between those two shots Leigh puts together a collage made of bits and pieces of William Turner’s life: his relationship with his father, dealings with his fellow painters, his kind of a double life, his interest in modern technology such as trains and photography, him being ridiculed, and so on.