Fausto (2018) NDNF 2019

Andrea Bussmann tells a series of stories, often filled with greed and the supernatural along the Oaxacan coast in Mexico.

The key to whether you are going to like or love this series of stories is entirely dependent on of they build to something for you. The stories are not really connected with some being told by seemingly random people and other by an unseen narrator.

To me some were really creepy and while others were just sort of there. For me they never built to anything and by the time the film ended I was ready to move on. On the other hand some people who've seen the film found it built to some grand revelation. I don't see it but it could just be me.

Recommended for those looking for some really good stories who doesn't mind the occasional okay one.

Belonging (2019) NDNF 2019

Burak Çevik contemplates the murder of his grandmother by his aunt in his sophomore film BELONGING. Told in two parts the film seeks to make sense of the tragedy, first with a recounting of the testimony of Cevik's aunt's lover's testimony and then with a fictional recreation of the first meeting of the doomed lovers.

I originally watched BELONGING unaware that it was based on an actual event that happened in the director's past. I had thought the entire film was fictional, however after reading on the film and it's screening in Berlin I discovered that the testimony that opened the film is the testimony given in the murder of his grandmother. Finding this out changed, slightly, my opinion of the film by giving it some added weight.

Based on truth or not (the second part of the film is supposition) this is an okay film. An attempt to try and sort how so something so tragic could have such a banal beginning never builds to any heat. We know it's all going to go wrong, and we know how, we just get to watch how the killers were put on the road. While never bad, it never is truly engages.

A disappointment.

Midnight Family (2019) NDNF 2019

If you ever get sick or injured don't do it in Mexico City. The government has only 45 ambulances for the whole population of 9 million. The slack is picked up by small family operations who  are harassed, put upon and struggle to get paid for their services

MIDNIGHT FAMILY is the story of the Ochoa family who go out every night hoping to make a few bucks as they help the injured. We watch as they are bothered by the cops, try to get to a call first to get the client, and simply try to make ends meet.

Good slice of life shows us an occupation that most of us never considered. While we in New York will bitch about the EMS at least we don't have to worry if anyone will show up, and if they do if it will be an hour or more later. The Ochoa family  are a nice bunch of people who are just like the rest of us. They are not hot shots or crazies but people who want to help and they worm their way into our hearts.

Those who go into the film looking for constant excitement are going to be disappointed. Yes, we see them on runs but we also see them trying to pay the bills, cleaning up the blood and trying to catch some sleep. This is a hard life. It is especially tough when the cops bust their chops because they can as they are hounded now and again for the right paperwork. This is the story of the dull grind of the job.

If you live in a big city or somewhere there is responsive medical services MIDNIGHT FAMILY will make you thankful for what you have

MIDNIGHT FAMILY plays April 4 and 5 at New Directors New Films. For tickets and more information go here.

The Load (2018) NDNF 2019

Looking almost like a color Bela Tarr film but with all hues bled out of it, The Load is a dark brooding film about guilt and secrets in a country torn by war.

A truck driver is given the keys to a truck and told to drive from Kosovo to Belgrade. He is not to stop, not to pick up anyone and not to look in the back. He doesn’t really know the way but he’ll do his best. Things go wrong from the outset when a bridge he needs to cross is blocked off by the wreckage of an “accident”. Thrown on to truly unfamiliar roads he picks up a hitchhiker who promises to show him the way.

More interested in mood than suspense this is a film that is going to play best with those who love brooding films about things other than on the surface. If you want a film of ideas this is for you. This is a film that is full of ideas, kind of at the expense of the characters who to me seemed more like pieces to move around rather than real people. And while I wanted to know what was in the van and at the end of the journey I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Recommended for hardcore art film fans. All others need not take the journey.