Tag: Sydney Film Festival 2016

Full coverage of the 63rd Sydney Film Festival.

SFF 2016 Review: Oyster Factory

An observational look at life in a small Japanese town, where change is more rapid than the people’s way of life.

A lingering shot of a sleeping cat, surrounding by idyllic vistas of the area known as Japan Aegean Sea, belies the tragedy that has fallen Japan since the 2011 tsunami and nuclear accident. Watanabe is one such person who forced to relocate from the affected Miyagi to the small town of Ushimado, where he runs the oyster business for an elderly owner until the latter is ready to retire. Shot in the style of director Kazuhiro Soda’s other documentary films, and simply titled “Observational Film #6” in the opening credits, OYSTER FACTORY follows the local decline in the industry, and the need to hire cheaper Chinese labourers to complete the manual shucking work. The repetitious chronicle of daily life may seem monotonous, but this is the best observation of them all. Indeed, the most drama that the film sees is fishing a man who has fallen into the bay back onto dry land, and even he is smiling benignly the whole time. The observation goes both ways as well, as the subjects mock the cameraman and the subjects at various points throughout the shoot. Comments from interviewees on how the Chinese have a “different way of thinking” never feels like a judgmentally racist remark either, but simply another piece of evidence of how removed this small town is from the bustle of Tokyo. For viewers, even if the world on display is foreign to them, they will feel the inevitability of the change hanging over the people. There are no major revelations or crises to be had by the end, but rather the day’s work comes to an end, flagging a new one to begin. Or as the subjects of the film put it: “The job of the sea is done.”

2015 | Japan, US | DIR: Kazuhiro Soda | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 145 minutes | RATING: ★★★¾ (7.5/10)

June 11, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Land of Mine

An incredibly tense film set in the aftermath of the Second World War.

The third feature from writer/director Martin Zandvliet (A Funny Man, Applause) explores the little-seen aftermath of the Second World War, as a group of teenage German prisoners of war are forced to undergo the painstaking task of removing thousands of land mines from Denmark’s coastline. The Danish sergeant, Rasmussen (Roland Møller) strictly supervises the unenviable task, spitting bile at the green conscripts. However, as their gruesome task progresses, both their inexperience and the sergeant’s view of what is just shifts as rapidly as the placement of bombs in sand. There were 2.2 million landmines buried along the Danish coastline following the war, and the film is often graphic in its depiction of the slow process and consequences to their removal. The often repetitive scenes of defusing mines are extremely tense, the kind of white-knuckling you would expect from an action thriller, only here the tension is only ever broken by a deadly explosion. What Zandvliet and his skilled cast do best in this film is give us a sense of the passing of time on the beaches. We hear that six mines an hour will take three months to clear, but Zandvliet’s deliberate pacing allows us to feel that passage through starvation, sickness, loss and comfort. Møller’s gripping performance softens at key moments throughout the film, yet in a world where the smallest acts of kindness to an enemy are almost a betrayal to the nation. In some ways, Zandvliet follows a horror movie structure, as various members of the cast are slowly picked off by a nameless enemy, but it’s just a more melancholy version of that. An important slice of history made real.

2015 | Denmark/Germany | DIR: Martin Zandvliet | WRITERS: Martin Zandvliet | CAST: Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman | DISTRIBUTOR: Palace Films | RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes | RATING:★★★★ (8/10)

June 11, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Tickled

Truth is stranger than fiction in a head-shaking, hilarious and ridiculously tense doco that’s full of twists.

There are at least a few dozen times during a viewing of TICKLED that you will find yourself wanting to scream at the screen “But it’s just tickling!” The exploration of the competitive tickling industry gets very weird very quickly, and entertainment reporter David Farrier knows weird, having interviewed everyone from Justin Bieber to the Donkey Lady. Yet this was just an teaser compared to the events that unfolded when filmmakers Farrier and Dylan Reeve found video footage of competitive tickling online, and the enigmatic company Jane O’Brien Media, and decided to blog about it. What followed was personal attacks, online harassment, and legal threats. Bizarrely, that was just the beginning of what the pair uncovered.

Narrated by Farrier’s wry and comical attitude, a mixture of Louis Theroux’s bullshit detector and John Oliver’s outsider observations, TICKLED is nevertheless an often terrifying examination of cyber-bullying and intimidation. Is this a film about tickling? It definitely explores that, and the legitimate tickling fetishists Farrier interviews are fun and honest. Yet the primary target of Farrier and Reeve’s investigations is a chameleon, a person who proves that power is the most addictive fetish of them all. As the investigative duo get closet to their goal, the film becomes as insanely tense as any thriller film, all the while remaining a Catfish like cautionary tale of being careful who you trust on (and off) the Interwebs.

2015 | UK | DIR: David Farrier, Dylan Reeve | DISTRIBUTOR: Vendetta Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes | RATING: ★★★★¼ (8.5/10)

June 11, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Swiss Army Man

A film that will take a little time to digest for some, while for others it will soar majestically, like so many jet-propelled bodies.

Paul Dano dragging the bloated and farting corpse of Harry Potter through the wilderness is a vision that speaks to the strength of the independent film scene at the moment. Hank (Dano) is stranded on a deserted island, and has decided to end it all. At least until he spots the corpse of Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on the shore. Manny doesn’t seem entirely dead though, with his flatulence and other bodily functions imbuing him with remarkable abilities from Hank’s point of view. As the duo make their way back to civilization, Hank teaches Manny about life, but in the process is forced to confront some truths about himself as well.

SWISS ARMY MAN skirts a fine line between its erection and fart jokes and the quest for something more meaningful, and miraculously manages to do so despite the fact that it wastes no time in establishing itself as completely bonkers. If you think of the film as one of those Garfield Minus Garfield comic strips, we have Dano playing a tragic and lonely character who spends much of the film hashing out his own personal issues to an otherwise empty vessel. Yet that’s not what the viewer sees: whether it is inside of Hank’s head or a case of the dead coming back to life through the power of love, the magical realism of the films plays as an unconventional buddy/romantic comedy, but also an occasionally heavy-handed musing on depression and disorder. Except, you know, it has a corpse that provides water, acts as a grappling hook and can start fires. Radcliffe conclusively buries his blockbuster persona is one of the most controlled performances to date, a wire-jawed delivery that forms the same function of the Shakespearean fool, overlooked and discarded but nevertheless speaking a penetrating wisdom. Like Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed, audiences are asked to go along for the ride but continuously question, and as the constant references to Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park imply, we should also be prepared to believe in the impossible.

2016 | US | DIR: DANIELS (Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert) | WRITERS: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert | CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano, Mary Elizabeth Winstead | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Entertainment (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes | RATING: ★★★¾ (7.5/10)

June 10, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Certain Women

Kelly Reichardt’s deliberate pace emphasises the strength of the characters in this measured study.

The long and slow shot of an approaching train sets the pace for CERTAIN WOMEN, something that followers of the “quiet filmmaker” Kelly Reichardt should be well familiar with. Meek’s Cutoff, Reichardt’s exploration of women travelling across the Oregon Trail in 1845, used a measured pace to tell the story of forgotten pioneers in an unconventional way, never giving the audience easy answers. So too is the case with this film, based on Maile Meloy’s collection of short stories, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It. A series of vignettes follows lawyer Laura (Laura Dern), who must deal with a client who feels his workers compensation claim is unjust. Couple Gina (Michelle Williams) and Ryan (James LeGros) are attempting to build a new house, but their attempt to buy sandstone from the elderly Albert (René Auberjonois) are fraught, shining a light on their relationship issues. Finally, an unnamed ranch hand (Lily Gladstone) becomes infatuated with Beth Lewis (Kristen Stewart), a lawyer who drives four hours twice a week to teach an adult education class in a small town.

CERTAIN WOMEN is almost the antithesis to hyperlinked films, exposing connections between seemingly disparate people but never using them to unveil a universal truth or heavy-handed meaning. Instead, Christopher Blauvelt’s authentic 16mm photography of the mountains and plains of Montana, coupled with a leisurely pacing, creates a hypnotic effect that draws the viewer into the worlds of the four women. Relative newcomer Lily Gladstone is the most tangible creation of this motif, her monotonous and lonely life of tending to animals and farming represents by the repeated imagery of opening a barn door onto otherwise spectacular mountains. From her point of view, the connection she makes with Stewart’s Beth is a significant break to her routine, and the subtle performance in her expression as she proudly rides Beth to a diner on a horse speaks volumes about the size of her world. The heartbreaking reality of their relationship comes later, but Reichardt’s understated tempo leaves no doubt as to the pall of desperation and loneliness that hangs over their fate. Presented without comment or condescension, Reichardt’s film simply lays out these stories in a row as lasered character studies. She once again leaves us with no conclusive answers to her character’s dilemmas, and like all things she does, allows us to come to our own conclusions at a distinct pace.

2016 | US | DIR: Kelly Reichardt | WRITERS: Kelly Reichardt | CAST: Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams, Laura Dern | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes | RATING: ★★★★½ (9/10)

June 10, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Under the Sun

One of the most creative solutions to filming a documentary in a closed system, Vitaly Mansky’s essential film exposes how real a staged scenario can be.

“My father says that Korea is the most beautiful country… Korea is the land of the rising sun,” expresses 8-year old North Korean schoolgirl Zin-mi, allegedly a representative of a “perfectly ordinary family in the best country in the world.” Russian documentarian Vitaly Mansky set out to follow this family as Zin-mi prepared for the Supreme Leader’s Birthday and her entry into the Children’s Union. As we learn early on, Manksy was given scripts by the government to follow, accompanied at all times and told where to shoot, suggesting that very little ‘reality’ could come of this documentary. Yet Mansky cleverly leaves the camera rolling between setups, capturing the literal men behind the curtain who “suggest” what the various participants will say next.

Cinematographer Alexandra Ivanova, who collaborated with Mansky on Pipeline (2013), shoots beautifully pristine shots of the perfectly ordered empire. The streets and areas are so clean and free of unauthorised debris that they look fake, which is in fact the real truth. Everything we see is a construct, and it is so obviously the case that it reveals how tightly controlled North Korean reality is. Children are told to repeat stories of how the Generalissimo hurdled boulders at enemies to emphasise how treacherous the Japanese are. “You must hate the Japanese, the Americans, their puppets, and all of our other enemies,” is drilled into the children. It would seem like parody if this was not the the face that the North Korean officials chose to put in front of the camera. Mansky’s observations about what they don’t see, such as children entering schools or workers entering factories (on the assumption they sleep there) are just as important. Watching parade after parade of carefully choreographed factory workers, soldiers and dancers, if it begins to feel like a colourful and tightly structured monotony, it’s because it is. As Karlis Auzans’ brooding music intensifies over the charade, a tragic moment comes in the final minutes. Zin-mi is asked what life is like now she has entered the Children’s Union, and she can only burst into tears. Unable to turn to a happy thought for comfort, she finds solace in the only evidence we have seen for the duration of UNDER THE SUN: a recitation of a poem about their beloved Leader.

2015 | Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, North Korea | DIR: Vitaly Mansky | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes | RATING: ★★★★★ (10/10)

June 10, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Cuckold

A South African tale of an unconventional love triangle is perpetually on the cusp of going somewhere.

Smanga (played by the film’s writer director Charlie Vundla) is not a likeable character. When he’s introduced, he is at the bottom end of an alcoholic, self-destructive cycle as the result of his wife Laura (Terry Pheto, Tsotsi) leaving him for another man. His inability to move on gives the audience plenty of opportunities to witness his self-loathing, through prolonged shots of a sedentary Smanga in his underwear drinking from the bottle. There is no sense of urgency to the narrative, not even when a man claiming to be an old schoolmate, Jon (Louis Roux), enters his world as a “life coach.” From here there’s a constant sense that CUCKOLD is building to something, either between the two men or between Smanga and Laura’s new beau. Yet when his ex-wife returns, the triptych of Smanga/Laura/Jon form an awkward threesome, but even this simply wallows in the same nihilistic pattern that the rest of the film does. Shot in a straightforward fashion on a shoestring budget, the deliberate pace and repetitive scenery and lack of goal is perhaps the point, the suggestion being that no good can come of this cycle now. While CUCKOLD might shoot for being a critique of male entitlement, it lands on being a lingering examination of it, and they are definitely not the same thing. The genuinely tense scenes come in the last moments of the film, never giving the viewer the satisfaction of a resolution, and we are left only with a hint of what that embedded entitlement might lead to.

2015 | South Africa | DIR: Charlie Vundla | WRITERS: Charlie Vundla | CAST: Terry Pheto, Louis Roux, Charlie Vundla | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes | RATING:★★★ (6/10)

June 9, 2016
SFF 2016 Review: Goldstone

Ivan Sen’s follow-up to Mystery Road is grander and more intensely exploratory than its predecessor, and it opens the Sydney Film Festival’s competition selection for 2016.

Opening on a set of vintage settler photos showing the history of Chinese-Australian and Indigenous relations in the mining industry, it’s clear Ivan Sen’s GOLDSTONE is intent on laying down a much clearer political message than its predecessor. If Mystery Road was a tip of the hat to the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, then its standalone sequel is a bold examination of contemporary Aboriginal life, mining concerns and human trafficking in the guise of a genre thriller. In other words, it’s one of Sen’s (and Australia’s) most ambitious films to date.

The fortunes of detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) have shifted somewhat, and when he is pulled over for drunk driving by local cop Josh Waters (Alex Russell), Swan is a messy shell of his former straight-edge cop. Ostensibly in town on a missing persons business, his investigations soon run him afoul of Furnace Creek mining company rep Johnny (a wormy pig of a man played with relish by David Wenham) and Goldstone’s pie-baking, eerily-smiling mayor Maureen (Jackie Weaver, only a few shades shy of Animal Kingdom‘s Smurf). Swan soon finds that the fenced-off mining concern is fronting a Chinese prostitution ring amidst a sea of corruption, forcing him to pull his life together and team up with Josh Waters.

Sen’s massive overhead shots of the landscape, filmed on location in Queensland’s Middleton region, give the same sense of enormous and isolating scale that Mystery Road had, yet here it doesn’t quite come with the same nihilistic leanings. For Jay Swan, this is a redemption story, and to maintain the ethos of a standalone thriller, we are never entirely sure what it is Swan is atoning for. Writer/director Sen, who also acts as both the cinematographer and the composer on the film, is responsible for giving the film and the location a roaming atmosphere, one where there is a constant sense of threat around every corner. He’s not beyond a few touches of the surreal either, from a seemingly random neon-lit trailer for Pinky’s (Kate Beahan) mobile brothel, or the incongruous outback hub for the area’s collective seediness, simply known as The Ranch.

Jay Swan, like his creator, is a man who walks between two worlds. Returning to the character specifically because his star Pedersen urged him to do so, Sen explores the tensions between cultures in this film. Occasionally, the point is layered somewhat heavy handedly, but several centuries after the European invasion of Australia, a light touch is the last thing these issues need. We see multiple sides of the coin, through the patently corrupt Aboriginal land council head Tommy (Tom E. Lewis) to the intense spirituality of old Jimmy (David Gulpilil). By the time the inevitable shoot-out occurs, one that ups the ante on even Mystery Road‘s impressive crossfires, there are lingering questions that are perhaps best left for the audience to answer.

Local cinema has struggled to comes to terms with another fine line, between what constitutes an “Australian film” and the commercial aspects of a “genre” film. GOLDSTONE is proof that it can be wholly both, without compromising an iota of either. Filled with plenty of nods to Sen’s beloved Western genre, there a few moment in this film where the stakes feel anything less than high. Slick, darkly comic, and always thrilling, this is the best of what cinema has to offer.

2016 | Australia | DIR: Ivan Sen | WRITERS: Ivan Sen | CAST: Aaron Pedersen, Alex Russell, Jacki Weaver, David Wenham, David Gulpilil | DISTRIBUTOR: Transmission Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes | RATING: ★★★★★ (10/10)

June 9, 2016
SFF 2016: Sydney Film Festival adds Cannes favourites ‘The Handmaiden’, ‘Toni Erdmann’, ‘Personal Shopper’, ‘Red Turtle’ and more

Just as we thought that we had our schedules locked in, Sydney Film Festival has announced seven features directly for Cannes this year, several of which are highly anticipated award-winners. Looks like it is time to buy another Flexipass.

The chief among these are Park Chan-wook’s THE HANDMAIDEN, the Kristen Stewart starring PERSONAL SHOPPER from Oliver Assayas, Studio Ghibli’s first foreign language animated film THE RED TURTLE, the FIPRESCI Prize winner TONI ERDMANN, documentary HISSEIN HABRÉ, A CHADIAN TRAGEDY, Jim Jarmusch’s PATERSON, THE CINEMA TRAVELLERS, documentary that celebrates India’s travelling picture shows and a new print of the Marlon Brando western, ONE-EYED JACKS.

Films go on sale at 10am Monday 6 June 2016, with descriptions and dates below. Check sff.org.au for more details.

THE HANDMAIDEN
Visually sumptuous and very sexy, The Handmaiden is a stunning and suspenseful period drama by acclaimed Korean director Park Chan-wook (Old Boy; Stoker, 2013). Inspired by Sarah Water’s novel ‘Fingersmith’, Park cleverly transposes the story to 1930s colonial Korea and Japan to tell a sensual, twist-filled tale. Sookee (Kim Tae-ri) is hired as a handmaiden to the repressed and isolated Japanese heiress Hideko (Kim Min-hee), who lives with her domineering uncle. Though servile and charming on the surface, Sookee has been planted in the household by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count (Ha Jung-woo). His plan is to seduce and elope with Hideko and take possession of her considerable fortune. But all is not what it seems, and when the intense attraction between Sookee and Hideko explodes, all bets are off. Visually arresting, unashamedly erotic and romantic,The Handmaiden finds Park at his stylish best.

Screens Saturday 18 June, 9.15pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Sunday 19 June, 8.50pm, Event Cinemas George Street.

HISSEIN HABRÉ, A CHADIAN TRAGEDY
In his Cannes-selected documentary, the multi-award winning director of A Screaming Man and Grigris (SFF 2013) honours the victims of a brutal African dictatorship and their long fight for justice. In June 1982, rebel commander Hissein Habré forcefully took control of the Central African Republic of Chad. Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun was one of the many exiles from Habré’s punishing regime, which lasted until 1992. The ruthless political police – supported by the USA, France, Egypt and Iraq – were expected to keep the population in line. Haroun meets the men and women, often bearing mental and physical scars, who survived the regime’s brutal campaign of harassment and imprisonment. The resulting interviews are disturbing but ultimately inspiring. Through their courage and determination, the victims accomplished an unprecedented feat in the history of Africa:that of bringing a Head of State to trial. In 2013, the former dictator was arrested in Senegal. The outcome of Habré’s landmark trial was announced on 30 May 2016, where he was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity, summary execution, torture and rape.

Screens Thursday 16 June, 6.30pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Sunday 19 June, 2.00pm, Event Cinemas George Street.

THE CINEMA TRAVELLERS
A critically acclaimed, poignant documentary that celebrates India’s travelling picture shows and laments their demise, filled with exquisite visuals and marvellous eccentrics. In the world of the touring cinema, the projectionists coax their rusty 35mm projectors into life, sleeping and eating alongside their ancient machines. It’s a far remove from Australia’s multiplexes, but the crowd is no less enraptured. Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s heart-warming documentary, filmed over five years, follows the fortunes of three cinema workers in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Bapu, the proprietor of Akshay Touring Talkies, gets ready for the season by brushing cobwebs from his broken-down truck, and blessing his ancient projector with incense. Mohamed and his crew haul an enormous tent and weighty projector around small-town fairs, where the audience sits on the stony ground. For 45 years, Prakash has repaired touring projection equipment, abandoned cogs and parts now fill his workshop, alongside the ‘oil bath’ projector he invented, and for which he once held big dreams. Declining audiences and ever fewer celluloid options force Bapu and Mohamed to shift to a digital format. Cinephiles will be heartbroken when an ancient projector is sold for scrap, but can be reassured that the movies endure, brighter and sharper than ever.

Screens Wednesday 15 June, 6.00pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Saturday 18 June, 3.00pm, Event Cinemas George Street (includes introduction and Q&A).

PATERSON
Paterson, Jarmusch’s popular Cannes hit, is a gentle, quietly moving portrait of a bus driver poet (Adam Driver, Girls) and his artistic wife (Golshifteh Farahani, About Elly). Paterson (Driver) drives his daily bus route in the city of Paterson, New Jersey, carefully observing the city and people around him. He follows the same routine each day: waking up, going to work, walking the dog, eating dinner at home with his wife Laura (Farahani) and ending the night with a single beer at the local bar. But Paterson is also a poet, and each day he writes a poem in his notebook, finding contentment in its very existence. Meanwhile, Laura finds outlets for her artistic ambitions and harbours dreams of becoming a country musician. Patiently paced, and revealing the beauty in the details of everyday life, Paterson further confirms Jarmusch as a master chronicler of small but profound moments.

Screens Tuesday 14 June, 9.15pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Thursday 16 June, 8.30pm, Event Cinemas George Street.

PERSONAL SHOPPER
Kristen Stewart shines in this spooky ghost story by Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, Clean), which earned him the Best Director prize at Cannes 2016. Stewart (who also stars in Certain Women, which screens in Official Competition at SFF this year) plays Maureen, a young American woman living in Paris and working as a personal shopper for a celebrity. She spends her days perusing the city’s luxury designer stores, collecting fabulous pieces that she is forbidden from wearing and could never hope to own. Alongside her isolating job, Maureen pursues her psychic ability to communicate with spirits. All the while, she longs for a sign from her recently deceased twin, Lewis, who promised to send her a message from the other side. Stewart gives a commanding performance, subtly shifting between certainty and fragility. Things become stranger and stranger as it becomes apparent that an unfriendly spirit is pursuing Maureen. Following their successful collaboration on Clouds of Sils Maria, Assayas and Stewart reunite to create a daring, provocative and creepy existential drama.

Screens Wednesday 15 June, 9.15pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Friday 17 June, 8.15pm, Event Cinemas George Street. Screens with short The Beast.

THE RED TURTLE
The revered Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away) joined forces with London-based artist Michaël Dudok de Wit to create this stunning, dialogue-free, animated fable set on a desert island. A shipwrecked sailor washes ashore and explores his new home. He finds a sandy beach fringed by palm trees, a swaying bamboo forest, limpid freshwater pools and a rocky incline. It’s an earthly paradise that our lanky castaway is desperate to leave, but his escape plans are mysteriously thwarted. It’s a simple story, akin to fairy tales or myths, illustrated in exquisite line and colour, with spectacular dream sequences.

Dudok de Wit has won prizes the world over for his lyrical short films and commercials, including an Oscar for his 2001 short film Father and Daughter. The outstanding creative team for The Red Turtle also includes Isao Takahata (The Tale of Princess Kaguya, SFF 2014) as creative producer, Jean-Christophe Lie (The Triplets of Belleville) as supervising animator, French director Pascale Ferran (Bird People) as co-screenwriter, and Studio Ghibli’s revered Toshio Suzuki (Howl’s Moving Castle, SFF 2015) as producer.

The visuals are mesmerising, symbolic, and charming – look out for the cute sand crabs – and invite the audience to interpret this timeless cycle of life story at their own pace. This unique feature, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes last month, demands to be seen on the big screen.

Screens Friday 17 June, 6.30pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Saturday 18 June, 5.30pm, Event Cinemas George Street.

TONI ERDMANN
Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes, Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann is a clever and original comedy about family bonds, modern business tactics and the value of just letting go. Practical joker Winfried (Peter Simonischek) has retired, and regrets that he doesn’t get to see enough of his busy daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller). Working as a management consultant in Romania, Ines is advising a company how they can increase profits by laying off workers. It’s not the most opportune time for a visit, but Winfried descends on Bucharest and is soon donning a terrible suit, strange wig and outrageous fake teeth. As his alter ego “Toni Erdmann”, a life coach, his intrusion into Ines’ life becomes bolder and more provocative, pushing his daughter to question her life, and the place her father should occupy in it. With fantastic, fearless performances from its leads, a bizarre sense of humour, and a real honesty in its treatment of the complexities of familial relationships, Toni Erdmann is a truly unforgettable cinematic experience.

Screens Wednesday 15 June, 8.15pm, Event Cinemas George Street, and Sunday 19 June, 8.15pm, Event Cinemas George Street.

June 6, 2016
SFF2016: Vampire mermaids, tickles, Pop – 10 films to see at Sydney Film Festival

It’s the most wonderful time of the year again. However, when it comes time to choosing from the list, it’s not an easy task, even for the most hardened cinema goers. After all, the festival represents 244 films from 60 countries, and it’s impossible to see them all. It won’t stop us from trying, of course.

The list below is a collection of 10 films we recommend, based partly on our own choices for the 12 days in June, and partly on the reputation of some winners of giant festivals and awards ceremonies around the world. Feel free to share your own attendee lists and thoughts in the comments below.

A full program can be found at sff.org.au. Tickets are on sale now. You can follow our full coverage on the site. We’ll see you at the cinema.

GOLDSTONE

Australia’s Ivan Sen follows up Mystery Road with rare triple threat for SFF: an Australian, Opening Night film that is also playing in competition (against 11 other international films). Aaron Pedersen reprises his role as troubled Indigenous detective Jay Swan. Trying to track down a missing person, Jay winds up in the small mining town of Goldstone, and is promptly arrested for drunk driving by young local cop Josh (Alex Russell). This one is already getting a lot of buzz, and it’s making its world premiere at the festival. While the Opening Night is now sold out, it’s playing an additional 3 times throughout its SFF run, so there’s few excuses to miss the next chapter in this homegrown franchise.

CERTAIN WOMEN

We loved Meek’s Cutoff when it played at the SFF 2011, and director Kelly Reichardt has since gone on to helm the fascinating Night Moves. Her latest effort re-teams her with Michelle Williams, who was the star of Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy, alongside Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart. Reichardt’s films are always connected to the American landscape, the quiet and more thoughtful counterpart to Cormac McCarthy’s nihilistic view of the same vistas. Clear your mind and your schedule for this one.

TICKLED

File this one under the ‘needs to be seen to be believed’ category, for a film that doesn’t seem to want us to know exactly where it’s going. New Zealand journalist David Farrier delves into the unseen world of tickling competitions, but winds up discovering more than he bargained for, facing threats to his life and more madness even this trailer barely scrapes the surface of.

THE LURE

Two words: vampire mermaids. Described as a “romance-horror-mermaid-musical,” and naturally screening as part of the “Freak Me Out” program, Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska’s film won the Special Jury Award for Unique Vision and Design at Sundance 2016. Unique appears to be the operative word here, in what is sure to be one of the most talked-about nighttime entries at SFF.

RED CHRISTMAS

Australia’s Craig Anderson (Double the Fist) makes his feature film debut by dipping into a Christmas horror film tradition that also includes Silent Night, Deadly Night. Starring horror legend Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling and Cujo), this is the kind of cult film that will be doing the home media circuit for years, built on the classic notion of someone defending their family from a demented stranger. Wallace, of course, has had experience with strange visitors in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.

IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD

Undoubtedly one of the darlings of the film festival circuit, Xavier Dolan‘s movies practically come pre-selected on festival programs. For good reason too: he made his autobiographical feature debut, I Killed My Mother (SFF 2010) at 20-years-old, and his follow-up, Heartbeats, won the Sydney Film Festival Prize back in 2010. Once again in Competition this year at SFF, it comes directly from Cannes 2016, starring Gaspard Ulliel, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux.

SWISS ARMY MAN

Possibly the most talked-about film of the festival so far, most likely due to the pure childlike joy elicited from seeing Harry Potter’s farting corpse being ridden across the ocean waves by Paul Dano. It led to some walkouts at Sundance when it screened earlier this year, but nevertheless won the Directing Prize for Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who are simply known as DANIELS collectively). The DANIELS are probably best known for their music videos for the likes of The Shin’s “Simple Song,” Battles “My Machines,” several Foster the People tracks and Passion Pit’s “Cry Like a Ghost.” Check out the trailer below, or better yet,don’t watch it and discover what this film is about as it goes.

THE COMMUNE

Thomas Vinterberg’s films (The Hunt, The Celebration) are guaranteed to frustrate and challenge audiences, and Trine Dyrholm’s win for Best Actress at the Berlinale only heightens our anticipation for this. It promises to be a touching look at the perils and perks of living a communal life, something Vinterberg himself did from the age of 7 to 19.

GIMME DANGER

We can’t help but be worried about Iggy Pop. He’s 69 and has just had this documentary made about him, by no less a talent than Jim Jarmusch, in a year when musicians and actors are tragically dropping like flies. Nevertheless, another film coming directly from Cannes, this is one Jarmusch has described as both an “essay” and a “love letter” to The Stooges, as Iggy himself relates the immediacy of the era around hits like ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ and ‘Search & Destroy.’

VIVA

Our final, but in no way least choice, Ireland’s Paddy Breathnach goes undercover in Cuba as he follows Jesus (Héctor Medina), who is attempting to steal the spotlight from some local divas. This is a film that we won’t be sashaying away from.

More films

Other films that are filling up our dance card include all of the competition films, which are a great way to get a broad brush-stroke of the award winning films from around the world. Of those, THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER won Best Debut Feature and Best Director at the Veince International Film Festival last year, and it stars Robert Pattinson. Boo Junfeng’s APPRENTICE comes direct from Cannes, where it is screening in Un Certain Regard. We’ve also selected a few other films as highlights in our original post on the program announcement. Some of the other highlights from our personal list of screenings includes KIKI, the winner of this year’s Teddy Award at Berlinale; LOVESONG, the new film from For Ellen director So Yong Kim (and starring indie favourites Jena Malone and Riley Keogh); and Germany’s FUKUSHIMA, MON AMOUR, about a German woman who moves to the ravaged area and meets Fukushima’s last geisha.

May 15, 2016