A collection of reviews of films from off the beaten path; a travel guide for those who love the cinematic world and want more than the mainstream releases.
Miguel Llansó returns with another way out philosophical science fiction film.
This time out the story concerns a young woman named Mia who goes off to meet her friends. They end up using a virtual reality/meditative head set that has un planned for side effects.
If you know Llansó‘s film then you know you are not going to get anything approaching a typical science fiction film. Llansó is a singular voice in cinema (all cinema not just genre) and he freely mixed low tech and high tech with every genre under the sun and any idea that comes into his mind for films that don’t look like, or behave like anything you’ve ever seen. They are films that end up haunting your soul forever because they attach themselves to your very being.
I am a huge fan of Llasnso's films and his skill.
That said I’m still pondering INFINITE SUMMER. The film is completely different than his previous work. It seems to be trying to be “normal” even though it really isn’t. I think the problem for me is the English dialog doesn’t ring true. It feels like it was written by someone who doesn’t speak the language for people who don’t speak the language. While the dialog in Llansó‘s films can be odd, this seems a bit too odd. I am going to have to see the film again.
My problem with the dialog aside this film is still very good As with all of Llansó's films it’s a heady mix of ideas and images. It’s a mix that gets under your skin and the final galactic images wow and the broken look of one character as he stands behind police tape is absolutely crushing.
This film is often a stunner and worth a look, especially since you are reading Unseen Films and a lover of films that are great and off the beaten path.
Stefan is a teenage boy whose mother is the public face for the Milosevic regime. As the political situation begin to crumble and the people begin revolting Stefan is forced to confront the fact that life is not as his mother says it is and that his childhood is over.
One of the best films at this year's New Directors New FIlms is a stunning mediation not only the history of Serbia but also the state of the world today. In a world where everyone is being fed a steady stream of echo chamber pablum from their choice of news source, we all are running into possible danger about what is really going on catching up with us.
On a smaller scale this is simply a great little drama. It is beautifully acted to such a degree that by the time the final images are flickering on the screen we are broken. In a festival full of cold artistic turns LOST COUNTRY is a film with a beating heart.
SAFE PLACE is 24 hours in the life of a fragmenting family in the wake of one members attempted suicide.
Based on the director’s own life the film is a trip into the lives of a bunch of very real people. We are watching the moment following a terrible event and watching what happens as it all plays out. Since it is a film of the moment, there is no effort to go back and explain any of the back story. We are simply watching the characters as they live their lives. Back stories are not needed since they are living their lives.
A beautifully acted and made film I suspect that the film is going to want more details then we get. People want details on either side of the events in a film and SAFE PLACE doesn’t give them. That’s both a strength in that it makes it all real, and a weakness since there were a couple of times I wish I knew a bit more to have things connect to me emotionally.
Quibble aside this is worth a look for anyone wanting a heady lived in Drama
Trippy film inspired by the writings of Jorge Luis Borges has multiple "connected" stories spin us across the globe to Argentina, Algeria, New York, Greece, Nepal, Greenland, Thailand, Mexico and South Africa. Its a meditation on everything and the inter-connectedness of it all.
This wonderful puzzle box film is a must for anyone who love heady mind trip films. Its a film that grabs you and takes you along forcing you to think about what you are seeing and how it all is connected to the life beyond the film.
And I really can't tell you much more about this film except to say that you need to just see it. It is a film that you need to experience since how you see things and how you assemble it will be unique to each person. There is no real through line except that there is. This is a film that is kind of about ideas, except that it has some people you get attached to in it.
I went to the opening block of films at The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival Thursday night. Good friend of Unseen Joe Bendel has been trying to get me to go for over a year. He said there was no excuse for me not going this year since he had given me more than enough warning. He was right, I had no excuse, and having been I’ll definitely go to more next year.
The evening started when I met Joe at the bar that’s attached to the Tribeca Cinemas. We hung out, talked, had a drink and Joe had some of the food they put out for everyone to enjoy.
Zlatko Filpovic introduces the evenings program
I have to say it’s been a while since I was last at the Tribeca Cinemas but they have renovated them nicely. The new décor is lovely and the seats quite comfortable. To be honest one of the reasons I didn’t want to get a lot of tickets for the fest was the Cinema seats used to be a bit rough, but they replaced the old theater seats and all is right with the world.
The evening began with the short THE CHICKEN. Set in 1993 in Sarajevo the film tells the story when a young girl’s dad sends her a live chicken from the front line instead of cake. What happens is pure chaos as the young girl decides to set the bird free instead of having it for dinner. Creating more tension and terror than most full on horror films this is a great little film. It’s a killer slice of life of life during war time. If the film has any flaw its that the little girl is a tad too naive about what her actions are- I mean they live under the watchful eye of snipers. It would have worked in a longer film but here its slightly unbelievable (especially since she knows what her mother going out means.)
The feature was the documentary DEAR LASTAN which was about the advice columns supposedly written by Lastan a comic character in children’s magazine Modra Lasta, once the second bestselling magazine in Yugoslavia.
The film charts the course of the advice column from its creation on to today. Along the way we get to hear from some of the people who were Lastan and other people who work at the magazine. We watch how the advice column went from questions about unrequited love among grade schoolers and how to survive 5th grade to frank questions of sex, parental abuse and social problems. The frank honesty and slight humorous responses made the magazine a must read for the Yugoslavian youth for the decades before the internet.
This is a really good little film. Once the film gets beyond the specifics of Yugoslavia you realize how many of the problems really are universal the film becomes utterly fascinating. Watching the film I got jealous, how great would it have been if there had been someone like Lastan in the US? How much better adjusted we all would have been? Then again if someone tried to do it in say Weekly Reader or Highlights parents groups would have had their heads explode.
If the film has any flaw it isn’t the film’s fault, its simply that because the film isn’t in English only the speaking voices are subtitled so all of the letters and magazine pages remain untranslated. I know that had I been able to read the printed material more would have been gained. On the other hand just being able to see this film was an absolute treat
Zlatko invites director Irene Skoric to the stage
I should mention that after the film there was a very brief Q&A with director Irena Škorić and her DP. There were only big two points discussed. The first was that Mondra Lasta is still being published, but only with a print run of around 30,000 copies. The other was that the film came about when the director was asked what she wanted to do next, and she said something on Lastan but that was impossible because his identity was secret more closely guarded than some national security ones, only to be told instantly that the person she was talking with knew the guy who was the first person to write as Lastan.
I want to thank the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival for bringing this film to the US. I’m looking forward to next year to see what other treats show up.
