#siff2018

Zombillennium is a French film in which the local undead-themed amusement park literally is owned and operated by the ex-denizens of hell. When a safety inspector tries to shut it down, he is turned and becomes one of the workers there. Soon he's attempting to organise the labour force and campaigning for better working conditions, to the disgust of the vampire leaders. Beautifully stylish animation with zombies, witches and werewolves and a message about the strength of unions set to a really fun soundtrack. It never veers from the formula, but it does the formula well. 8/10

Zombillennium trailer here.

Pig. Black-listed Iranian film director Hasan has been out of work for two years, reduced to shooting occasional bug spray commercials, and his favoured star/girlfriend strikes up a relationship with a new director. When a serial killer starts murdering film directors, Hasan becomes even more depressed - is he really so irrelevant now that not even a serial killer wants him? A black comedy with forays into the truly surreal, offering commentary on narcissim and the power of social media. This film definitely offers some surprises and unexpected twists; very enjoyable but it does flag in a couple of places along the way. 7/10

Pig trailer here.

The Oslo Diaries. A documentary on the failed attempt to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in the early to mid-nineties. The material comes from notes made by the people involved at the time, the books some of them later wrote about it and interviews with people involved who were still alive when the film was made. We get their perspectives on it at the time, and their perspectives twenty years after it broke down. At the time, I was in university and not watching a lot of TV, so while I was aware of the generalities, the details of it were fascinating to learn. The final interview with Shimon Peres, the last interview he gave before he died in late 2016, was stunningly affecting. 8/10.

I don't have a trailer for The Oslo Diaries, just a link to an info page.

Half Widow. A young Kashmiri woman has her husband dragged away one evening by paramilitaries. Her efforts to find out who took him and what happened are blocked at every turn, along with those of other women whose family members are missing. As time passes, these half widows have to make choices on how to live their lives - do they move on or continue to hope? The cinematography in this film is utterly gorgeous, with amazing scenery and direction, but it was definitely on the slow side. 7/10.

Half Widow trailer here.

A Man of Integrity. Another Iranian film (SIFF deliberately featured them this year), of a very different type. Reza lives with his family quietly farming goldfish in the north of Iran, having been made unwelcome in Tehran because of his political activism. But even in small towns, corruption is a way of life, and when Reza refuses to pay the usual bribes to make his life easier, the situation escalates with every move from either side. A tense thriller, very tightly directed, with a twist of an ending that's almost too much. We felt like it might have been better with a little more to hint at it, and a little more exploration of it means before the film ends. 8/10

A Man of Integrity trailer here.