WELCOME TO FILMFEST 2011!
Rhodes University's International Office and School of Languages take great pleasure in presenting an annual series of exciting films from around the world, free of charge. The films we show vary from fascinating documentaries about topical issues to classic as well as contemporary movies by internationally renowned directors. You can also expect a fair dose of offbeat and experimental fare.
Filmfest's aim is to promote an awareness of the weird and wonderful, sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, world we live in and the diverse cultures that populate it. Each term's programme is compiled by a member of the Rhodes community and focuses on a particular theme or genre.
All screenings take place on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm in the Eden Grove Red Lecture Theatre (except where the programme indicates otherwise) and everybody is welcome to attend.
Enjoy the movies - and please tell your friends about Filmfest!
CURRENT PROGRAMME: MOVIES FROM CENTRAL, EASTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE
Tuesday, 16 August @ 7.00 pm
Adam's Apples (Adams æbler)
Denmark, 2005
94 min
Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen
Starring Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen and Nicolas Bro
From Amazon.com:
An overly-optimistic preacher with a penchant for taking in lost causes to help around his remote church finds his rose-tinted view of the world challenged by a psychotic neo-Nazi he is trying to reform in this jet black comedy from Green Butchers screenwriter/director Anders Thomas Jensen. Vicar Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen) prides himself on his efforts to help those in need by offering them a variety of odd jobs around the church and spreading the good word. After 'adopting' a violent Saudi immigrant and a drunken tennis pro with a history of sexual assault, Ivan is approached by Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) -- a decidedly non-reformed neo-Nazi planning to lie low in the countryside for a spell before returning to the city to once again wreak havoc. When Ivan inquires as to what his new charge's goal will be during his stay in the countryside, the snide hooligan sarcastically states that he would like to bake a cake -- a response which prompts the gullible Ivan to place him in charge of the church's cherished apple tree. As ravens immediately descend upon the tree, Ivan concludes that Satan is attempting to prevent Adam from realizing his true potential. Meanwhile, Adam takes it upon himself to give the cheery clergyman a crash course in the harsh realities of life. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: European Film Awards, Fantasporto Awards.
Tuesday, 23 August @ 7.00 pm
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile)
Romania, 2007
113 min
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Starring Anamaria Marinca, Vlad Ivanov and Laura Vasiliu
From Amazon.com:
There was a loud outcry when Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days failed to garner a 2008 Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, and it could certainly be argued that this extraordinary movie was unfairly overlooked. At the very least, had it been nominated, it would have offered a stark contrast to Best Picture contender Juno. Whereas the latter is a funny, touching tale of a teenage girl who decides to find more suitable parents for her soon-to-be-born child, 4 Months is a decidedly bleak look at a time and place when one of the two alternatives to adoption (i.e., keeping the child) is beyond consideration and the other is an illegal, highly dangerous last resort. It takes a while for the viewer to realize that abortion is the subject of director Cristian Mungiu's film; for the first 40 minutes or so, all we know is that Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), college roommates in a country still controlled by the Ceausescu dictatorship, are up to something they'd prefer to keep secret. Gabita, it develops, is pregnant. She is also an innocent, scared screw-up who's unable to handle any of the necessary details involved in solving her problem, which obliges the far more capable Otilia to take care of everything from booking the hotel and meeting the abortionist to buying black market cigarettes for the pair. What follows is anything but cute, clever, or romantic. Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), the abortionist, is a straightforward but frightening character who demands more than money for his services. Meanwhile, Adi, Otilia's boyfriend, is a decent but essentially clueless fellow who insists that she attend his mother's birthday party on the very day that the two girls have checked into the hotel where Gabita's procedure takes place; the two scenes in which we meet Bebe and Adi's parents, reveal Mongiu's mastery of his medium and are at once intense, discomfiting, and completely riveting. And if Oscar voters missed the boat, many other didn't: among numerous other plaudits for the film was the '07 Palme d'Or at Cannes. --Sam Graham
Tuesday, 30 August @ 7.00 pm
Interrogation (Przesluchanie)
Poland, 1989
118 min
Directed by Ryszard Bugajski
Starring Krystyna Janda, Adam Ferency and Janusz Gajos
From Amazon.com:
Based on a true story reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski's harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland and only became available on underground VHS through a copy smuggled out by the director at great risk. Tonia (Krystyna Janda), a singer in a sleazy cabaret, is imprisoned without explanation. Days become weeks become months, varied only by the persuasion, intimidation and torture of interrogation. Janda's outstanding depiction, of a woman who becomes heroic in the face of torture and imprisonment, takes you to places few films are willing to explore. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: European Film Awards.
Tuesday, 6 September @ 7.00 pm
The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye)
Soviet Union, 1977
111 min
Directed by Larisa Shepitko
Starring Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin and Sergei Yakovlev
From Amazon.com:
The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age thirty-nine, just as she was emerging on the international scene. The body of work she left behind, though small, is masterful, and her genius for visually evoking characters interior worlds is never more striking than in her two greatest works: Wings, an intimate yet exhilarating portrait of a female fighter pilot turned provincial headmistress, and The Ascent, a gripping, tragic World War II parable of betrayal and martyrdom. A true artist, who had deftly used the Soviet film industry to make statements both personal and universal, Shepitko remains one of the greatest unsung filmmakers of all time.
Based on a novella by Vasili Bykov, The Ascent depicts two Soviet partisans, Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin), searching for food to feed their starving troop in German-occupied Belarus. This war film depicts horror through landscape, featuring long shots of frozen tundra and snowy forests. Well-known as a Christian allegory, The Ascent likens Sotnikov to Christ as he morally transcends corruption and cruelty inflicted upon himself and his partner by Russian Nazi-collaborator, Portnov (Anatoli Solonitsyn). Like Tarkovsky’s masterpiece, Andrei Rublev, The Ascent charts a character’s path through a dark, dismal historical period. Set partially afield and partially in prison camp, it makes for brutal viewing that is nevertheless stunningly rewarding. It is wonderful to have a female auteur to add to the Russian cinematic canon, as Sheptiko brings to these hardened characters a sensitivity that could be construed as feminine. --Trinie Dalton
