The Last Time I Saw Macao - too many experiments wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

The Last Time I Saw Macao may be the strangest film I saw at this year’s EIFF (though it has strong competition from Taboor).  It was slightly hampered by the fact that the sound was not working for the first 20 minutes or so, and I wasn't sure if the directors had chosen to keep the voices off screen in the way they did with faces or if it was in fact a mistake – given how important sound was to the atmosphere of the film as it progresses, it was a big mistake.  It probably did prevent me from getting into the film early on as I maybe needed to but I’m not sure that isn't the whole reason I didn't fully engage with the film.

The narrative of the film is actually in the narration, as an unseen Portuguese man tells of a strange and dark story when he returns to Macao to help a friend.  The visuals are presented in a weird sort of travelogue style, almost as if we are watching someone’s odd holiday slide show as he tells us the story over the top.  Events happen off screen – the scene presented as an empty stage or on the other side of a door or wall and we merely hear them happen or are told that they have just occurred.  It works in some cases and not in others.  Letting the viewer fill in their own gaps can of course be a brilliant film making technique that draws the audience in, but perhaps needs to be more sparingly as it felt like we had to do too much of the work.  The problem too is this is coupled with unseen characters (so you’re never sure whose hand is whose etc) and a vague and opaque plot – all three together are a bit alienating.

There are some really interesting tonal elements – montages of visual and audio that create a distinct moment or feeling but they never feel knotted together as one film.  I am definitely not against film makers doing something different and using a defined style but it has to be in service of the film itself and what these stylistic choices do to increase the viewers’ understanding, emotion or engagement.  The Last Time I Saw Macao felt imprisoned rather than liberated by the stylistic choices.  It feels like there was a really interesting film trapped in there but despite several stunning instances of brave visual or sound choices, there was too much experimentation going on to let something meaningful through.

7 Boxes - one simple task, one not so simple night

Paraguayan crime caper 7 Boxes is a mix between gritty realist thriller and black crime caper that sometimes work together and sometimes is discordant and uncertain.   I still can’t tell if I would have preferred it to stick to one or the other (and which of those would have been better!) It sometimes felt like the characters and their stories had come from two different films and had accidentally got mixed up together.

It grabs your attention from the opening super-fast montage scene and holds onto it throughout, it is certainly never predictable.   Market porter Victor is promised the money he needs to get the camera phone he craves if he can just cart 7 boxes around away from their current location and back to their owner, evading the police and gradually others.  It is full of blackly comic mix ups, incompetent villains and bungling police but also of deadly serious gang members (one of whose motivation is to get money for his kid’s medication – which doesn't really fit with comedy) and violent realism. 

The camera work and editing is stunning – fast paced, kinetic and evocative.  It turns the market setting into a character of its own.  The ever twisting plot is competently handled and mixes multiple elements well without feeling contrived or unconvincingly coincidental.

 On the whole, the characters worked, and the actors were excellent, except that distractingly one of the villains resembles Tom Cruise’s character from Tropic Thunder (complete with dodgy bald wig and in this case false teeth) which I kept expecting to be ripped from the character as some comedy plot point but isn't.

It is definitely a film worth seeing, mainly because it is so gripping, energetic and full-on, but I wish it had settled on a tone and stuck to it – probably the blacker comedy one – instead of presenting a slightly strange and uncomfortable mixture, which means the film doesn't quite fulfill its potential. 

A Story of Children and Film - a wonderful essay on the brilliance of film at capturing childhood

A Story of Children and Film is a beautiful, intelligent and mesmerising film essay on how children and childhood have been portrayed in film over the years.  Mark Cousins has an extraordinary ability to engage, inspire and inform all at the same time. 

Put together in an entrancing way, that feels like one of the relentless and exciting journeys depicted in some of the chosen films, Cousins identifies several key emotions of childhood (from wariness, to adventure, to the strop) and picks clips from films both familiar and strange to demonstrate how good film can be at reflecting the world back at us.  He does this not only by pointing out what the film is showing us but how it is showing it to us – by camera work, lighting, editing, sound, showing the brilliance of the film makers behind the clips.  I was completely engrossed from start to finish, and came away with another list of films to check out.

This is a documentary that can speak for itself, so I’m not going to say much more other than check it out if you can.

Of Snails and Men - I have a cunning plan....

Of Snails and Men is a gentle Romanian comedy, not unsurprisingly receiving comparisons to The Full Monty due to its subject matter.  Set shortly after the fall of Communism, it is about a union leader who tries to convince his colleagues to try an unusual money making scheme to buy out their factory after it is due to be sold.  Although not completely based on a true story, it was inspired by an idea on similar lines from about 10 years ago that was named one of the worst business ideas of all time!

It is an amusing, if not consistently funny film, but doesn't have anything like the emotional pull of The Full Monty.  There is something very 90s about the film, especially the side romantic storyline, which is presumably deliberate to reflect the time setting of the film, but it did sometimes make it feel a bit old hat and tired.  The film is good at capturing the sense of a town stuck in the past with no future, but somewhere that is also optimistic and that will probably never give up on trying to save itself.  It’s a likeable enough, pleasant film, but didn't feel hugely original or memorable. 

Die Welt - is a new life out there?

If I’ve had two themes come through in multiple films that I've seen at EIFF, they are people trying to escape their country and people slightly adrift in the world, not sure where they fit in.  Perhaps I subconsciously chose films on similar lines, or maybe it is a reflection of the world at the moment.  Die Welt combines both of these as a young Tunisian comes to the decision for his life to start he needs to leave Tunisia, around the time of the recent revolution.

The film splits into two halves reflecting two different ways in which the character might reach his new life – the first lighter, funnier, more hopeful, but as that option seems to close on the central character, Abdallah, the film becomes slightly darker and atmospherically more desperate.  The first half was perhaps my favourite.  The camera work felt more energetic and the humour that infused this section was used really evocatively as well as entertaining.  There are some great monologues to camera, the opening one as Abdallah tries to convince a customer at his DVD store to buy something other than Transfomers 2 is a mini work of art on its own.

Director Alex Pitstra is Dutch, but his father is Tunisian and the film is reflective of his experiences in getting to know his Tunisian family and heritage. His life sits very much on the other side of the fence from Abdallah, but the film brings an interesting take on perceptions of Europe from those trying to reach it.  There is a sprawling cast but all the individual characters feel like they add up to a well-rounded whole.

Although I’m not 100% convinced the two halves fully melded together and that the tonal shift completely worked (if anything it was the carry over of some of the tone from the first half that made it feel slightly uncertain), Die Welt is definitely a very interesting and engaging film that feels like it opened a window on aspects of Tunisian life in a fresh way.

Everyone's Going to Die - but not just yet....

Everyone's Going to Die is a funny, sometimes very, very funny, British debut independent film, set on one day in Folkestone. It is the story of Melanie and Ray, two very different people both lost in their lives.  They meet a couple of times by chance and, having nothing better to do, spend the day chatting and trying to help the other figure something, anything, about their lives.

The film avoids an instant spark type set up, which could have drifted into cliche, with little more than boredom the original reason for continuing their conversation.  Although at first there is nothing to suggest these people would get on, as the film unwinds, the friendship begins to make its own kind of sense.

Nora Tschirner is perfect in her role (very early on I worried we were about to get an Anglo-German take on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl - but this is a fully reaised character, grounded in reality, quick-witted and easily amused). The deadpan performance from Rob Knighton is also effective and surprisingly the actor's first feature film.  The unexaggerated characters make the occasionally absurd humour all the funnier as it feels so much more likke real life.

The directors are also on their first feature but they are very adept at bringing together a naturalistic atmosphere, well reaised sense of place, cool soundtrack and both comedy and drama in a way that both make the film feel light and fresh but also emotionally touching.  They allow the actors to shine and give us characters well worth spending the day with.  Definitely one of my highlights of EIFF.

Before Snowfall - the further away from home...

Before Snowfall is not always an easy watch. It follows a teenager, Siyar, as he travels from Iraqi Kurdistan through Turkey and onwards as he chases his sister.  However, this is not to save her. He believes he must kill her after she flees with the man she loves on the day she is to enter into a marriage that he has promised her to.

The film creates moments of unbelievable tension but also a dilemma over how to react to the protagonist.  The journey that the audience wills Siyar on is the emotional one to realising his intentions are horribly wrong - a journey away from the oppressive mindset of where he has come from.  But you sense he needs to go a long way on his other journey, the one Siyar has chosen for himself towards murder, even as far as finding his sister, to arrive at the destination that the audience needs him to get to - the place where he no longer believes he must kill her.  The tension lies in which, if either, he will arrive at first and also the unease about how far you want him to go.

Abdhullah Taher was discovered by chance and is excellent at conveying the tug between what he has always been told the world must be like - and what he must do to be a man - and the new world he is finding both in his travels and his growing friendship with Evin.  Evin is the heart of the film, and actress Suzan Ilir steals the show with an exceptional performance.  Evin has her own journey to go on and the acctress brings an excellent mix of compassion, fun, ferocity and heartbreak.

This is an ambition first film, tackling a very difficult subject from a new angle which director Hisham Zaman handles brilliantly, walking the tightrope of demonstrating Siyar's conviction without alienating the audience from the character.  It is well paced, with gentler moments that develop the characters interspersed and balanced well with the harder and tenser moments.

This is Martin Bonner - friendship can be found in unusual places

Although in many ways, a fairly simple film, it's hard to get over how different This is Martin Bonner felt.  It tells the story of Martin Bonner, an Australian man with an American family, who has moved to Reno after divorcing who still has regular phone contact with his daughter who has recently had a child, but less so with his artist son.  He seemingly knows no-one bar colleagues at his work and works as a volunteer manager for a church scheme to help people leaving prison.  In many ways he has been cut off from the world, but he will not let it get away from him, and finds his own ways to build connections.  Eventually, he builds a friendship of sorts with Travis Holloway who has just been released following a prison sentence for manslaughter after a drink driving crash.

Because in conventional storytelling, drama comes from conflict, it is rare you come across a drama where no-one is a bad person, even for the sake of driving the plot.  The characters in This is Martin Bonner aren't the most charming, or the funniest, or the sweetest people you will meet on film, but they feel genuine and real. They may not have the answers or be totally in control of their lives, but they are trying to do their best and make sense of the world in the best way they can.

Paul Eenhoorn is terrific as Martin and gets excellent support from the rest of the cast.  He doesn't always say that much and plays the character quietly, but you soon feel like you've known him for years.  It really feels like the film is showing characters as how we hopefully see the people we like in our lives - as complex people, who mean well and want to help out when they can, who are trying their best, sometimes getting things wrong, but not malicious.  Whereas many films judge their characters or mock them, this film gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and it therefore connects on a much more interesting emotional level. This maybe makes it sound like it's a cheesy or happy clappy film; in fact the tone is quite sombre, but not without humour.   It is emotionally real and fulfilling, with a refreshing, warm and truthful world view.

The film was shot for a really small budget, partly funded by Kickstarter, and kudos to those who spotted it and put their money in, as it was really money well spent.  It uses Reno, a city I know virtually nothing about, fantastically as a location, making it both an unknown and anonymous town and one that feels like somewhere with real communities. It has a great sense of humour and whilst recognising life is serious, doesn't take it too seriously.  I am really interested to see what director Chad Hartigan does next and hope he continues to bring us the world on these terms.

Up and Away (Bekas) - escaping and escapism

Up and Away is a sweet, very funny, very moving story of two orphan brothers in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1990 who make it their mission to travel to America and meet Superman.  It features two of the best child performances I can remember seeing recently, two actors who handle both the comedy and tragedy of their story brilliantly and memorably. 

Director Karzan Kedar does a very good job of keeping a light overall tone to a film which is frequently dealing with tough and upsetting circumstances.  Despite their harsh lives, the brothers are still kids – and very funny kids at that.  The fantasy of bring Superman back to save Kurdistan is poignant – it drives the brothers and brings a lot of the humour but the audience knows this will never happen.

The tense moments are incredibly tense (there were audible sighs of relief when certain scenes were over) and the sadder moments are truly affecting.  The relationship between the brothers is believable and touching, each with their own distinct personality.  The credible relationship is one of things that stops the film tipping over into sentimentality during its happier moments.   Given the situation it is tackling – two desperately poor orphans trying to escape their country through some of the most dangerous means imaginable – it seems a bit insensitive to describe it as massively entertaining but that is a measure of how funny it can be and how memorable the two kids’ performances are. 

ACAB (All Cats are Brilliant) - finding an anchor in uncertain times

ACAB (All Cats Are Brilliant) provides a different take on simmering revolutionary feelings in modern day Greece.  Elektra’s anarchist boyfriend is awaiting trial for a series of offences, their friends staging stunts and protests in support.  Elektra is no less committed to the cause, but her take on it is not one of grand, futile gestures and dogmatism and polemic.   Her approach is subtler and more creative, leaving unusual, questioning posters dotted around the city.

The film does two particularly interesting things.  Firstly, it’s portrayal of contemporary Athens which no longer feels like a city in a modern European democracy but as one step away from a war zone or police state – an occasional visit to the still wealthy areas emphasise this. 

Secondly, it poses questions around how people engage with politics and change in a turmoil.  Is her boyfriend Manousos brave for risking his freedom for what he believes in, preaching all or nothing revolution, or foolish as he is not succeeding in changing anything and being side-lined? Her parents are not endangering anything but are also only shouting at the TV in protest – does this make them as bad as those in charge for not taking more direct action to change things? Elektra herself is trying to work out her place within this new world, torn between idealism and pragmatism, as she wanders round the city. Maria Georgiadou's performance is brilliant at portraying this mix of uncertainty and determination, and brings a fully-realised and sympathetic character to the screen.  The only real connection she finds is with a child from a rich background that she babysits for, gently helping him see the world in a new way and enjoying the holiday away from the trouble in the rest of the city.  The film doesn't spoon feed answers, instead focusing on giving on a portrait of a city in uncertain times and the people trying to find their bearings again within it.  It is entertaining, engaging and thoughtful, infused with both anger and hope.  It is well scripted, directed and acted and is a really fascinating insight into an uncertain time that could see the country pulled in any direction.

The Swimming Pool - one day in the sun....

The Swimming Pool is only an hour long and in some ways feels like a lengthened short rather than a full feature.  Its strength is its observational, non-judgemental tone that allows the individual characters to come through, important given the lack of narrative drive. 

It depicts a day in the life of four disabled teenagers and their swimming instructor at a pool in Cuba.  What it portrays well is a group of kids testing how to relate each other and how far they can push things – something that is heightened by the way they are clearly stuck in a group together, separated from the other kids who they have to clear the pool for.   The film unfolds gently, perhaps a little too gently given it only has a short running time, with a documentary feel to it.  It has nice moments of comedy and emotional touches, but in the end is a short, quiet piece that doesn't quite reveal as much as it could have.

Pluto - ice cold and cracking under pressure

Pluto is a brilliantly chilling film from South Korea.  My own regret is that I suspect it is also a much more biting satire than I was able to realise as I didn't know anything about South Korea’s school system or class structure beforehand.

It opens with the murder of the star pupil, Yujin, at an elite boarding school on the eve of the highly competitive national exams for entry to the top universities.  The chilling tone is set by the callous indifference with which the murder is met – from his school, his friends, his family, even the initial suspect is more concerned with whether this will affect his academic performance than the fact that a murder has happened.  Only the police are concerned about what has happened.

As the truth of what has been going on in the school, and the intense competition that the students are driven into, is revealed, the film only becomes more and more unsettling.  Only one character is even remotely likeable, although the central character also caught up in this is very compelling even as his choices become less forgivable.  This makes the film eerily fascinating and utterly horrifying.

The film has a good deal of visual flair, infusing the film with more and more creepiness and unease.   Yujin’s laconic bitterness, June’s furious determination and the other school kids bratty entitlement mix together superbly and make the film an even more tense and intense experience, building to a heart stopping stand-off.

Although  deliberately exaggerated and heightened in both plotting and emotion, the film doesn’t lose the viewer but instead draws them in further to the melodrama.  At times I’m not sure I was still breathing.  It unwinds at its own pace making the punctuations of violence even more shocking.  This easily could have turned schlocky or incredible (I can imagine some people will find it so) but I felt that it packed so much in yet contained it so well that I was gripped from beginning to end.

You and Me Forever - Teenage Strife

Although by no means a bad film, You and Me Forever didn't really engage me.  The actors give good performances and a lot of the direction is excellent, energetic and capturing the feel of the teenager’s world. But I had real issues with the central character which meant I was never really absorbed by her life.

Laura is annoyingly passive, apart from when clashing with her parents, never showing any individuality or taking control over her destiny.  It’s not that it isn't credible that would thoughtlessly abandon a close friend for someone who seems more glamourous and cool but teenagers can be so absolute in their actions and emotions because of the internal, unshakeable logic and world view that drives them. They might act in an illogical, incomprehensible way, but it is driven by a belief that this is totally right. Laura’s internal logic does not come through enough to make her choices understandable and so she becomes a frustrating presence rather than a sympathetic one.  Her passivity and poor choices feel like a projection of adult incomprehension rather than genuine teenage acting out.  Perhaps that was the intention, but it didn't work for me.  Or perhaps I’m just getting too old and have more tolerance for adults who aren't able to take control of their lives (see Oh Boy)  than teenagers who don’t take control.

The film does have its positives.  Along with the performances, the film gives a good sense of the feeling of being stuck in a small town and therefore away from the action where life is surely happening without them.   In many of the scenes it also captures well the sense of testing out the boundaries of the world (the girls drinking and generally being loud on trains feeling pretty familiar – see most teenagers on buses/street corners etc!) and a sense of exhilaration from being two people against the world.  Laura’s new friend, though more extreme, feels more convincing, if only because I did get a sense of her world view.  With a central character more of a protagonist who made choices for some apparent reason, rather than no apparent drive of her own, this could have been a truly convincing snap shot of small town teenage life.

Oh Boy - In Search of a coffee in Berlin

Oh Boy was the first film of this year’s festival that I really loved.  It had a hard comparison to live up to as one of my all time favourite films I saw at EIFF is In Search of A Midnight Kiss – this wasn't quite as good but it also can live with the comparison.  Although Oh Boy is not a romance, it is shot in black and white and features a guy in his twenties wandering his city whilst not sure which direction his life should take.  However, instead of romance Niko primarily needs a coffee.

In fact, the coffee is really just a nice recurring joke, his failure in this, just one of several trials he encounters during the day, many of them trivial but most definitely adding up to this Not Being His Day.  In this film, having nothing to do seems to mean that pretty much anything can happen and Niko wanders from scene to scene to character to character, and frequently from misunderstanding to misunderstanding.  The misunderstandings generate the humour within the film; the characters (and their comparatively more profound problems) the emotional heart and the bittersweet poignancy.  

Tom Schilling gives an excellent central performance, quiet and unobtrusive, that really allows you to believe that Niko could have meandered into the uncertainty of his life without this making him a frustrating or pathetic character.  The direction is lovely and makes Berlin as much one of the interesting characters Niko meets as any of the people.  Director Jan Ole Gerster explained in the Q&A that he chose black and white and the great soundtrack to give it a timeless feel.  For me, even more importantly, the black and white gives it a less polished and therefore much more personal and real feel which fits brilliantly with the atmosphere and connection that the director is trying to create. 

The other great choice that the director makes is to not tell or spell out for the audience the impact each encounter has on Niko.  The character is processing and figuring it out for himself and the audience can interpret his character development in their own way  too, which probably means for every viewer there is a different  take on the central character.

I was really pleased to hear the film had been a big success in Germany as I hope this means it can become more widely known.  As a piece of character driven, involving, believable and funny film making, it is a truly engaging and touching experience.

Old Stock - for when life gets tough

Old Stock is a gentle and wryly amusing film following a young man, Stock …, who has moved into his grandfather’s retirement home, and retired from life, following his involvement in a serious accident.  Although the film isn't going to change the world, it starts from a nice different idea and plays it out well, tackling ideas around guilt and the choices people make to engage with life and the people around them in an engaging manner. 

The film isn't necessarily told in the most original way, and is largely what you’d expect from a quirky indie, but it is still very enjoyable, with really good central performances and some good, funny, set pieces and ideas.  The central conceit of such a young man happy to have retired from life may not be the most credible or believable if the film didn't handle it so well, setting it within the character’s emotional decision making rather than his whole character and making it a hook for the story rather than the driver.  Using this as a jumping off point rather than the framework for the film is one of the things the film does well as it leaves more room for the stories to shine.

The visuals are nicely done, and it gives a sense of a town not much less sleepy than the retirement home itself.  The relationships between the characters are believable and feel like they are genuinely developing rather than forced in a certain way to drive other aspects of the plot. 

 These are characters that it is interesting to spend an hour and a half with and a film with handles its amusing and heartfelt tone well, so even though not life changing, it’s an enjoyable, very funny, and warm-hearted film.

From Tehran to London - Imprisonment comes in many forms

The saddest thing about From Tehran to London is that is unfinished as director Mania Akbari made the difficult decision to end production to protect her cast and crew and to leave Iran for London when film makers began to be arrested by the Iranian authorities.

At the most superficial level, From Tehran to London is a drama about a disintegrating marriage and illicit relationships. But the circumstances of trying to make the film infiltrated the story and atmosphere on screen and it is much more about the limits of self-expression and creative imprisonment.

Much of the film focuses on everyday activities that wouldn’t normally be on screen while the dramatic, expositional conversation surrounds it.   This gives it an effectively melodramatic feel and also adds to the claustrophobic feeling of the film.  It is this feeling that the film is particularly brilliant at drawing out.  We never leave the house and camera positioning always has a sense of how limited this space is.

The portrait of the marriage at the centre of the film begins by showing it a reasonably positive and playful light – it is clear that Ava expects a reasonable amount of personal freedom and self expression that is gradually shown to be being suffocated within the marriage.  The plot deals with several subjects that you would expect to be taboo in Iran, but I didn’t realise until the accompanying short documentary about the film that one of the Iranian rules being broken is that of showing someone dancing (in fact, originally not just Ava, but her maid Maryam would have been shown dancing, but the latter scenes had to be cut to protect the actress who remains in Iran).

Although unfinished, the film still manages to viscerally represent  life stifled creatively and emotionally.  Hopefully Mania Akbari will be able to make films with full creative freedom, wherever she now makes them.  To end on a positive note, in the Q&A she expressed hope that things will also improve in Iran following the recent elections, so she may yet be able to find that freedom in Iran soon.

ID - Everything can be lost in Mumbai

ID journeys with a young middle-class woman into the sprawling and chaotic maze that is Mumbai and out of her complacent life.  Based on a real event, a painter collapses at Charu’s shared flat on a day she is more concerned with job interviews and what is going on with her friends.  At first, she has no idea what to do in a crisis and convinced someone other than herself must be responsible for the man tries to get out of the situation; her conscience never allows her to fully abandon him however.  Her naiveté lets her down, leads her to take him to an expensive hospital and to find herself frustrated through indifference and bureaucracy at every turn.

Charu may not be streetwise, and completely out of her depth in a Mumbai much more manic and turbulent than her more familiar Kolkata, but she is determined to solve the mystery.  Geetanjali Thapa gives an excellent central performance – portraying well a character knocked out of her familiar surroundings but without making her too earnest or stereotyped. 

What the film does particularly well is give a sense of her journey as a labyrinth. Many times she is in a place that seems as poor or alien from her lifestyle as you can get only for her to turn a corner into somewhere even more desperate or marginalised. The film is not always subtle, but in some ways this works for it – Charu has a conversation on her iPhone about a marketing strategy for Adidas whilst seemingly right on the furthest edge of the worst slum and city (both geographically and figuratively) a neat trick that is just about effective.  It also really gets across the way that the bigger a city becomes, the easier it is for an individual to not exist for the rest of the city.  Instead of more people to look out for you, anyone's identity can be lost.

The main let down for the film for me is the score which was distracting and intrusive.  In some ways, Charu is paranoid and on edge and the score seems to be being used to reinforce it.  But if feels a mismatch tonally and makes the film feel more over-the-top than it otherwise is.  The film excels in its realism; the score jars.

Overall though,  the film is very well made, gives a really good sense of Mumbai and of the massive gulf between the middle-class and the poor without hammering it home too obviously and it is centred around a very convincing and believable protagonist. 

Taboor - Strange goings on in Iran.... but what and when?

Taboor is a near wordless (apart from a few lines of voice-over there is no dialogue),mysterious film following an older man, wearing a foil suit under his clothing, around his city.  It is strange and disquieting, perhaps a little too mysterious and unexplained to be truly satisfying.

For the most part, the lack of dialogue works well.  In parts, it gives the film a sort of deadpan humour, with a sort of visual punchline in the long still shots and silent exchanges between the characters.  It also adds to the unsettling nature of the film, something reinforced with the occasional horror genre camera work of unnerving shots down long corridors or over stairwells.

The film does use its urban landscape very well, finding locations and shots that make the film feel like it has twisted out of this landscape and gives it a dystopian atmosphere.  The city is almost deserted, but whether it is supposed to be post-apocalyptic is uncertain, particularly when an ambulance arrives quickly and efficiently making it seem like this is still set on the edge of a functional world.

All of this does make the view experience the troubled unease of the central protagonist. He is clearly searching for something or trying to solve something wider than the odd tasks in hand but it remains unexplained.  Unfortunately,  I found the frequently weird scenarios and uncertain narrative often a bit too perplexing and disorientating to really lose myself in the film, instead becoming quite conscious of trying to understand what is going on.  This is not to say that my attention wasn't mostly held by the moving and I was frequently absorbed and overall I would say it was a worthwhile watch, if mainly for the interesting technique.  However, the person next to me was constantly fidgeting and the lack of dialogue and slow, still camera and lack of explained narrative means it probably wouldn't be for many people.

Viola - Shakespeare goes..... somewhere?

Sometimes when you come out of a film not entirely sure what you've just been watching, it's refreshing, some times it's just annoying.  Viola falls somewhere between the two - partly because it feels like the film is missing a third act.  It's a film that engages and holds the attention whilst it is happening without quite cohering; funny and well-acted but missing a layer.

It starts with a performance of a scene from Twelfth Night, leading to a backstage discussion on the nature of relationships and attraction.  This then spills into an exploration of one of the actor's theories through a constant reacting and retelling of the scene by two of the actors at one of them's flat.  All very interesting and intriguing.  Except we suddenly cut half way into a conversation in a different flat with two different people.  One of them is called Viola and we follow her around Buenos Aires until she is also forced to examine the nature of her relationship in a conversation.  We see her also put theories to the test.  And then the film draws to a close.  We both do and don't have an answer to the questions posed but not in the most satisfying way.  

Much is unexplained but it feels opaque rather than intriguing.  There is definitely a thought-provoking film with a different take on relationships in there if only it could be expounded more. The acting is excellent, with a convincing rapport between the cast that makes you want to sit in on their conversation. However, the one-hour running time doesn't allow ideas to be fully explored or to really enter the characters' world.  The lightness and humour to the film makes it entertaining and interesting in the moment but it is not quite a film that adds up to the sum of its parts. 

Sofia's Last Ambulance - Life on the front-line in Bulgaria

Sofia's Last Ambulance is a documentary following one of the city's very few ambulances, one with a worrying lack of suspension.  It is interesting enough, mainly because the crew, particularly Mila, were such engaging and undeniably characters facing an endless affront to their patience with humour, good grace and compassion.  The characters also shone clearly through because although a documentary. it was shot and cut like a character-led art house type film, rather than one with talking heads interspersed with real life footage.  The vast majority of shots were still cameras from the dashboard focusing on a single person for an extended period, frequently through a fog of cigarette smoke, so you got to see the full gamut of their emotions for each episode.  We never see a patient, just how these heroic people deal with what's thrown their way on shift.

However, this style also brought about my biggest issue with the film - the frustrating lack of context.  Although each individual episode engaged, there was no real sense of timescale, (was this a typical 24 hours or much longer time?), of the wider issues of the health service or of modern Bulgaria.  Interesting as the crew were, isolating their story from its wider world felt like we were only get a small part of the story and it did them a disservice.  It also seemed that pretty much every story chosen was one which showed the world at it's most testing or desperate, but with no context or variety, the impact is less.

It is still a rewarding film,  because of the strength of the characters and the reserves they find to deal with the situations they come across.  I was very happy to spend time with Mila, Krassi and Plamen.  And the fixed camera being thrown about in the ambulance as it races through the city was as visceral as many car chases in action films. Many of the episodes had their own individual tension and suspense and the unpredictability of many scenes had the real human feeling to them that are brought out so much better by documentary than fiction. But something that told me a bit more about the wider situation, that put these characters and their trials in context, could have made it so much more fulfilling and interesting.