Animation Now 2020: NZIFF Review

The 2020 Animation Now selection greatly benefits from the personal touch of its curator, Malcolm Turner.

Every single film in this collection feels personal to Turner, who delivers eloquent introductions, advising the audiences what to look for and why the shorts have been selected.

It's a masterful use of the VOD platform for the festival strand, and while the collection has its usual hit and misses, there's no doubting Turner's passion throughout - and it's infectious.

Some of the animated fare is the usual mindboggling stuff that's more abstract and obtuse, but nevertheless visually entertaining.

That said, the mix of handpainted fare and simpler computer animated drawings shows the industry itself is in rudely good health, with some 4000 selections needing to be waded through by the festival.

Japan's Locomotr is a curious surreal 3 minute piece; elsewhere, Swiss director Michael Frei's Kids leans heavily into Escher and is all the better for it, its simplicity rendered in the most mind-blowing way; and Polish superhero drawing Rain amuses as much as it uses its blank canvas to tell a compact story.

All in all, Animation Now 2020 feels globally more personal than ever before - and it's all the better for it.

Wendy: NZIFF Review

Perhaps the most obviously commercial offering of the New Zealand International Film Festival for 2020, Wendy has pedigree in its director, the creator of the wondrous Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Blessed with a prodigious lead in Devin France as Wendy, Benh Zeitlin's take on the Peter Pan story is a film that's more in love with the land and its leads than in its actual storytelling.

When Wendy tires of her life in a railwayside diner, she is startled to see another kid atop a train. Jumping on the train with two friends, she finds herself transported to Neverland and into the life of Peter Pan.

JM Barrie's tale is gifted an environmental feel in among Zeitlin's eye for the wild. 

Through the deltas and over the lands of the heartland of America to the lost island, Zeitlin's freewheeling camera makes a great fist of the landscape, and recalls many of the shots of Beasts of the Southern Wild.

While not every child actor hits the necessary straps, and while the older section of the actors feel too ragtaggle to be complete, the exuberance and wide-eyed nature of France makes for a great companion on this journey.

"The more you grow up, the less you get to do the things you want" may be a fair adage espoused at one point, but thanks to a haunting score, talent when it's needed and a sense of adventure, this is a Peter Pan story like you've never seen before.

Family Members: NZIFF Review

A little more than just a hang-out movie (though barely so), Argentinian film Family Members concerns siblings Gilda and Lucas.

The pair return to their mother's home after her unexpected death and find it taped up, the scene of a crime. Breaking in and settling in, they begin what they believe will be a simple goodbye to their mother and issues, but are subsequently thwarted by the onset of a nationwide bus strike.

Rendered unable to leave and effectively stranded, the duo finds ways to live - Lucas strikes up a friendship with local Guido, a bond born of shared bodybuilding loves; meanwhile Gilda spends her time flirting with a long distance boyfriend, whom Lucas suspects doesn't exist.

To say Family Members is languid is a massive understatement - the film is in no hurry to go anywhere anytime soon.

However, weird messages from within a hole in the beach and thanks to quirky scenes like throwing their mother's prosthetic hand in the sea, the film finds a kind of pace that's intriguing, but occasionally soporific.

The push-and-pull dynamic between the duo is interesting enough to keep you entertained, and while the blandness of seaside life is nicely committed to the screen, the film's subtleties keep the long term love far away from it.

It may be a film of growing pains, but Family Members' slow-burn to get anywhere ethos is also its worst enemy - despite the occasional whimsy, this one doesn't have the lingering power after the film's done.

Sandra Beerends - They Call Me Babu New Zealand International Film Festival Q&A

Your Name

Sandra Beerends

Title of your film

They Call Me Babu

Tell us about your 2020

The premiere of They Call Me Babu was at Idfa in Amsterdam, end of November 2019.

The film released directly afterwards and from then on I had a Q&A tour around the country,

which continued in 2020.

Then in the first week of January 2020, I received the ‘Christal Film Prize’ for reaching 10.000 visitors in the cinema, which is huge for a documentary in The Netherlands.

End of January I was visiting Biarritz (France) for the screening on FIPA, where I had a Q&A for a sold- out theatre in the wonderful Casino at the beach.

In February and March I still had Q&As and lectures and won the Audience Prize at IFA .

March 2, I was nominated for The DDG award (Dutch Directors Guild).

How has Covid-19 impacted you and your film?

March 12, was the Award Ceremony for the DDG Award, and then it was cancelled, due to Covid 19.

(March 14, my youngest son was supposed to travel for 4 months to South America, but 1 hour before the plane leaves I read about the outbreak of Dengue and Corona and we cancelled the trip, I am so happy he stayed home)

March 16, all the theatres were closed (after 16 weeks in the theatres for They Call Me Babu)

and all lectures cancelled.

The film was then screened via PICL (on line streaming in cooperation with distributors) 

All the film festivals were cancelled or postponed.

May 6-17, screening at on line Dokfest (Munchen/Germany)

May 17, winner Dokfest Horizonte award.

May 19, winner of BUMA award (for the music of Alex Simu for They Call Me Babu)

May 19- 28, screening at on line TDF (Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival), Thessaloniki (Greece).

May 20, release of the DVD.

June 10-21, selected for Sydney Film Festival (Australia) in the program ‘Europe! Voices of Women’.

June 29, broadcast on NPO 2 (Dutch Television), a lot of publicity on radio, TV and other media, almost 500.000 people watched it.

July 24- August 3, Selected for New Zealand International Film Festival

So about the impact of Covid 19

Everything stopped at our ‘Intellectual lockdown’ (as called by our Prime Minister Mark Rutte).

But I was lucky to already have had a wonderful premiere at IDFA, 16 weeks  in the theatres and wonderful (inter)national reviews). So for me it was- although sad - not a big deal to be screened only on line.  And it did bring me an award at Dokfest and maybe a greater audience and publicity at Sydney Film Festival. The only restriction about not screening at online festivals is for Indonesia. 

Because  the film is about the history of Indonesia, from the perspective of an Indonesian young woman, working as a nanny for a Dutch family, I really want to be there when it is screened.

For me, as a filmmaker with Indonesian roots,  it is very important to talk about the film with the Indonesian public. There is a lot of discussion going on about our ‘shared’ history. And I hope this film can be a start to look together at our history and share our feelings.

I want to end with saying that I am very happy to have been selected for the NZIFF and I hope a lot of people will see it.

What's the moment you wish audiences were seeing in a theatre, and why?

See also question 7.

But in general, looking at a film in the theatre can be magic!

Maybe, people online don’t look at the credits, and that is a pity, because it is there I made a special moment to make a tribute to all the women who contributed with their stories. I made a kind of graphic moment to get them out of the shadow, mirroring the scene  with the white kapok (plantseeds used for pillows and matrasses), in which you will see the women responsible for tossing up the kapok.  And because it has been a life changing journey for Alima, the music for the credits is kind of consoling to give the audience a moment to come back to reality.

What have you learned about film-making, the film-making community and the film-going audience during the pandemic?

From one moment to the other, it felt like there was suddenly a virus attack, like in a movie. The whole world stopped and so did the film industry. Luckily in The Netherlands there was a financial allowance from the government and the National Film Fund. After some weeks people start to make movies with others by ‘zoom’, developing new stories and plans and film ‘beautiful silent Amsterdam’. The film audiences looked at all kind of online platforms, mostly for free, but after some time, it was boring, nothing new and then luckily there were all the books that you planned to read one day… 

What's the single best moment of your film?

How can I prefer one single moment? Every moment is precious to me…

But if I have to, maybe it is the moment that my main character Alima falls in love with Riboet (before that she felt very lonely without the Dutch kid Jantje, she was taking care of) and this love, triggered not only her female physical awareness but also her intellectual and political awareness and she feels she can contribute to the world and feels connected to the women in the world. 

The music support her emotions from loneliness, to falling in love, to  I can dream, I can make a difference, I feel connected to all the women. And the portraits of all this different women are beautiful.

What do you plan to do next in terms of filmmaking?

I have lots of Ideas but they are all growing inside, as a kind of creative pregnancy.

Heroic Losers: NZIFF Review

Wildly accessible, heist movie Heroic Losers is here for a good time, and nothing more.

When a group of elderly Argentines band together to pool money for a co-operative, they're stunned after handing over their life savings when the bank they've invested into collapses. 

Learning that all of their cash was taken out by a swindler, the group decides on payback....

Heroic Losers is a slickly pulled together, crowd-pleasing affair, that does exactly what it says on the tin, and little more in between.

That's not to deny it its many pleasures though - from taking notes off of Hollywood heist films, Sebastian Borensztein clearly knows what he's doing, pulling the pieces together and ending it with a crescendo of comeuppance and good vibes.

Led by Ricardo Darin, La Odisea de los Giles packs in much energy and gusto in its 2 hour run time.

Its set up and payoffs are well paced, and its tale of ordinary people against the banking criminals will hit a timely note for many.

This is escapism in its purest form, and while it's essentially a lads-only affair (albeit elderly ones), the vibe is purely flighty and fun. Popcorn festival fun doesn't come more readily than this, and that's no bad thing.

Because when the final showdown comes, you'll realise just how much you're in the losers' corner and how sweet this genial level of payback feels.

Last and First Men: NZIFF Review

Composer Jóhann‌ ‌Jóhannsson is best known for his music from films like Sicario and Arrival.

And despite having died relatively young, Jóhann‌ ‌Jóhannsson also left a movie, mixing imagery and his evocative score to relatively strong effect.

Robbed of a big screen presence, Last and First Men's multimedia presentation feels more slight than it should. A voiceover from Tilda Swinton that starts with pomposity but gradually finds a place of its own despite claiming to be from "2000 million years in the future."

Adapted from the 1930s book of the same name, Last And First Men is a collection of Balkan landscapes shot in black and white, and slow swirling camera movements.

Dissonant, dizzying and discordant, this dystopian piece of work is more successful without the voiceover, as the series of images and sounds progress building to a hypnotic crescendo. There's something mesmerising in what Jóhann‌ ‌Jóhannsson has committed to screen, and the electronic screeching and maudlin feel of the soundtrack fits perfectly with the apparently disconnected architectural structures.

Then, somehow, against the odds, in the final 15 minutes of the film, everything comes together - the voiceover finally clicks into place and it feels like the jigsaw puzzle pieces have all dropped to reveal a wider picture - it's a deeply commendable result, given the initial struggle to have it all gel.

Last and First Men is Jóhann‌ ‌Jóhannsson's acutely aural experience; it's the kind of film headphones and a large screen were made for - and even though there's no sense of urgency in the final destination, much like parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey's mix of future visuals and audio, the journey of Last and First Men is a deeply engaging and strangely spiritual one.

Corpus Christi: NZIFF Review

Polish drama Corpus Christi was nominated for an Oscar - and it's easy to see why.

The story of ex-con Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) who's just out of juvie and who decides on a whim to masquerade as a priest is one rife for comedy and misunderstanding. But what director Jan Komasa delivers is a film of outstanding dramatic value, and of morally questionable virtues.

Integrating into a nearby community after his panicked attempts to bail out fail, Daniel finds something of a rebirth as the priest, tending to a flock damaged and torn by a recent tragedy. 

After initially ripping off the sermons he's been part of in juvie, the community responds to Daniel's apparent freshness of approach and his unconventional ways of administering faith. But as Daniel spends more time there, he finds his own sense of morality intruding into the job, and politics begin to clash with personal faith. Just around the corner though, is the sense of the inevitable, building Corpus Christi into a film that bustles with tragedy and dread.

Thanks to an intense performance from the steely-eyed Bielenia, Corpus Christi finds the magnetism it needs from its lead. 

With piercing blue eyes and a dogged determinism, Bielenia never once shows any sign of fading from the screen, keeping every single sequence alive with electricity and uncertainty.

The script helps greatly, building from the initial comedy of the confessional to the raw treatment of tragedy within the community and the divisions that arise from it. While Daniel appears to come at this side of things with his own sense of judgement and humanity, the script plays fast and loose with questions over whether Daniel is undergoing a rebirth of sorts, and whether in fact, faith is infecting his life for the better.

Muted colours, unusual scenes and a never-less-than-compelling performance from its lead grant Corpus Christi a great deal more than its conventional "con hiding in plain sight" trope.

It may be about forgiveness at its core, but Corpus Christi is unforgiving to the end - its final moments are desperately bleak and yet, offer a sense of Daniel's rebirth at a key moment in time. Maybe it's not the rebirth the audience wants, but this drama is of the top tier and well worth seeking out.