Dahomey (2024) NYFF 2024

 

Mati Diop charts the return 26 of 7000 artifacts taken from the kingdom of Dahomey at the end of the 19th century. As one of tthe artifacts talks to us, we watch the artifacts boxed up, returned and put on display. At the same time we listen to a discussion about the meaning of the return by students and people visiting the exhibtion.

What is this doing on the main slate of the NYFF? This is not to say that the film is bad, it's not, rather it's simply similar to several other films about the the return of antiquities. I've seen this sort of thing before and Diop, outside of the spooky voiced  statue, doesn't do anything new. Franklyit's a minor film from the director and doesn't need to be in the main slate spotlight.

To be fair the real problem is that the film feels rushed in being put together. It's a document of the return mixed with a group discussion. However having seen similar films I know there is so much more that could have been explored (more context of the events and history of the kingdom of Dohomey). 

Worth a look, but you don't need to do a mad dash to the festival.

Io Capitano (2023) opens tomorrow

If IO CAPITANO  was in English and by from an American studio it would be up for Best Picture instead of just the Best International Feature at the Oscars.  It is an emotional roller coaster telling the story of a young man who leaves Senegal who leaves his family to go to Europe to find work to help make things better back home.

This is a hell of a ride. It's a film that earns every smile, laugh and tear. 

What makes the film work is the great cast. Because I knew no one in the cast (it's all non-professionals-though you'd never know it) I didn't have to fight getting over a well know face and could accept what happens completely at face value. This was true life harrowing adventure that held me tight in it's grip. I wasn't going anywhere and just sat on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it all came out.

What I like is that director Matteo Garrone keeps the fantastic flourishes he sometimes uses to a bare minimum. He rightly understood the human drama didn't need anything to make it work, just for the story to be told with respect.

This is simply great storytelling.

Highly recommended, this is a must see, especially if you can see it on a big screen where the visuals will overpower you.

Night Of The Kings (2020) NYFF 2020

 

Night of Kings is the first of the New York Main Slate Films that feels like it belongs on the Main Slate. An arresting tale that puts New Yorkers (and audiences) in a place they never had been before. It engages us on various levels and makes us go WOW at the sheer audacity of what we are seeing.  While it may not be perfect it is a cinematic meal that knocks our socks off.

The premise has a young man being brought to a prison. He is raw meat and the prison is essentially the wild west where the guards let the  prisoners govern themselves. The head man inside is dying and he knows his days are numbered. He has plans for the young man who he declares is the new “Roman” or storyteller.  The young man will have to entertain everyone.  What the Roman isn’t told, at least not right away, is that if he ends his story before morning they prisoners will kill him. Desperate to stay alive he begins to spin out the tale of his friend Zama, a notorious crime lord who was just killed.

What follows is pure magic. This is a tale about stories and survival and life that spins out in so many different ways. This is a film that uses every type of storytelling device it can muster to suck us in and drag us along. Because the film essentially blends stories, recreations and reality with song and dance (the prisoners will spontaneous move or chant in response to the tale)  I’m guessing this is going to be something that ends up on the stage.  I was amazed at every turn.

While I don’t think the film is perfect, I think it get s a bit too mystical toward the end, I still think this is a glorious piece of filmmaking. This is the sort of film that I go to the movies for…and in truth this is the sort of film that I go specifically to the New York Film Festival for.  Getting to see earthshaking, eye opening films like Night of Kings is why NYFF remain relevant and why it is a festival I return to every year.

Highly recommended.

Atlantics (2019) NYFF 2019

The first thing I need to say about ATLANTICSis forget the hype. Forget the awards. Forget the way people have described it and just go see it blind. I say this because everything I have read or heard about the film has been completely wrong.

The film concerns a young woman named Ada who is betrothed to a man named Omar but who really loves a laborer named Soulimon. When Soilmon and his friends are not paid for their work for four months on a construction sight they take a boat and head to Spain. Ada and the other women are left to their own devices. As Ada’s wedding to Omar approaches strange things begin to happen. Her wedding bed spontaniously combusts, the womenin the city seem to become possessed by spirits and there are eird things going on with the police officer investigating events.

Forget this being a horror film, despite the supernatural aspect this is a drama/romance and it is a moving one at that. Moving with its own rhythms and in its own way this is a lovely small film. We fall in with Ada and her plight. We come to understand, as much as possible her world. This is a lovely exploration of the course of the human heart.

For me the problem with the film was the making of the hype machine. As good as the film is I am kind of lost as to why it won Cannes. Its good but I don’t see it as being at that level. I am also kind of lost about how the film is a great tract on feminism and the plight of the African woman. While I see the thematic elements that many reviews have claimed are in the film, but at the same time I would argue that the threads are not fully explored. Yes we get that many women are left when their men go off but at the same time the film doesn’t say a whole hell of a lot about it other than it happens.

But don’t let what other people have said get in the way of enjoying the film. Simply see it and enjoy a lovely little film.

ATLANTICS PLAYS October 9 and 10. For more information and tickets go here

Wulu (2016) New Directors New Films 2017

One of the very best films of New Directors New Films and in the running for a place on the best of the year lists WULU is a frightening roller coaster ride through the drug trade in Mali. Its a film that will leave you limp by its conclusion.

A van driver is tired of his dead end job. Five years on he is fast tracking to nowhere. When he is passed over once more he contacts a friend in the drug trade and asks for a job.Soon he is running drugs, rising up the ladder and dodging bullets.

The first feature from Daouda Coulibaly is certain to bring offers from Hollywood and the rest of the world. Looking like a bug hollywood film the film carries the weight and the lived in quality of real life certainly Coulibaly or someone connected to the film understands about real life with the violence taking on a frightening realness that Hollywood simply never manages. Coulibaly staging of his set pieces are going to be copied by the next generation of filmmakers across the globe for their simplicity and impact.

I've read how some writers have compared it to various crime films including SCARFACE and while that maybe true on some levels WULU is most assuredly it's own thing.Frankly I haven't been this bowled over by a crime film sin GANGS OF WASSEYPUR. WHile the two films are completely different in their approaches, scope and story telling, both film get under your skin and make you realize you've seen something special.

I don't want to say too much or over sell the film. I also don't want you to know where it goes. I say this because something I read before I saw the film had me waiting for one thing to happen. When it did, much earlier than I thought I thin found I enjoyed the film more because I didn't know where it was going. To that end I'm just going to say buy a ticket and take the ride.

One of the best films at NDNFs and highly recommended.

For tickets and more information go here

Touba (2013) DOC NYC 2013

Touba is a city in Senegal. Its the home to a mosque founded by the Bamba the spiritual founder of the area's Muslims. Every year the faithful across Senegal and the surrounding countries make a pilgrimage to the mosque in order to pay tribute to the Bamba and to fulfill the holy obligation of making a pilgrimage. Over the course of seven year director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and her crew filmed the events that transpire over the course of the festival days and turned it into an immersive experience that is kind of like being dropped into the masses of people.

I have no way to explain what the film is like other than to say its awesome in the truest sense of the word. I was sitting dumb struck, gob smacked and amazed at what I was seeing. Yes its simply people on a pilgrimage, yes I’ve seen stuff like this, but never like this. Never before did I feel I was there. The sound and image are truly overwhelming. I wanted to turn it off but at the same time had I been there in Touba I couldn’t turn it off it would all just have to wash over me.

Words really fail me where this film are concerned. Its one that anyone who loves what documentaries can do really must see- and see as big a possible. In all seriousness this is a film that gains with size. Its also a film with a wicked surround track that puts you in this place. If there ever was a film that should be seen in a theater this is it. You need to be free of distractions and just make the trip and the only way to do that will be to disappear into a darkened theater and make the journey to Touba.

One of my most magical film going experiences of 2013.