Love, Lust & Lies

Showing at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Love, Lust & Lies, directed by Gillian Armstrong

Synopsis from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival website:

In 1976 renowned Australian filmmaker Gillian Armstrong met three 14-year-old friends, Kerry, Josie, and Diana, at a youth center in Adelaide. A portrait of their adolescence makes up the core of the film Smokes and Lollies, the first of five documentaries capturing the lives of the three ordinary working-class girls (and later women). With breaks of several years, the filmmaker regularly returned to her heroines, and in 1996, when each has an adult daughter, she released Not Fourteen Again, winning the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary. Despite her original plan, in 2009 Armstrong decided to contact her heroines for the last time in order to find out to what extent they had fulfilled their dreams and desires, and whether they can be as honest with the camera and, above all, with themselves as they all once promised. This unique long-term documentary project superbly charts the seemingly ordinary lives of three women, offering a singular look at Australian society from the mid-70s till today.

The Tree

Showing at the Cannes Film Festival*: The Tree, directed by Julie Bertuccelli

*But not in competition, because among the films in competition, not one is directed by a woman. How... interesting. Feminism: totally unnecessary.

Synopsis from the Cannes website:

After the sudden loss of her father, 8-year-old Simone shares a secret with her mother Dawn: her father whispers to her through the leaves of the magnificient tree by their house. Simone is convinced that he’s come back to protect her family. Soon, Simone’s three brothers and Dawn also take comfort in the reassuring tree. But the new bond between mother and daughter is threatened when Dawn starts dating George. Simone moves into the treehouse and refuses to come down. With branches infiltrating the house and roots destroying the foundations, the tree seems to be siding with Simone. Dawn refuses to let the tree take control of her family...

The film's website is here.

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger

I often wonder why New York can't be more like Portland, and the existence of the Portland Women's Film Festival just added some fuel to the fire.

Showing at the Portland Women's Film Festival: Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger, written and directed by Cathy Randall

Synopsis from the movie's Facebook page (the website seems to be down):

Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger is a coming of age comedy that explores what it’s really like to be an outsider in your own world. Esther (newcomer Danielle Catanzariti) is not like other girls; she befriends a duck, talks to god through the toilet and break-dances at her bat-mtizvah. Her all-girls private school is a daily torment of mind-numbing conformity and bell-ringing rituals. Home is a pressure cooker driven by her mother Grace’s (Essie Davis) demand for perfection. But life changes when Esther meets Sunni, (Keisha Castle- Hughes) and her mother Mary (Toni Collette). She learns that it’s ok to be different and being true to yourself is more important than fitting in.

The Waiting City

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: The Waiting City, directed by Claire McCarthy

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

To adopt a child is to wait, and to wait in a city far from home can be an exciting thing – or a test of all one's resources. In the case of Claire McCarthy's epic, glistening new feature, those on hold are a young Australian couple, Fiona (Radha Mitchell) and Ben (Joel Edgerton), who arrive in Kolkata to claim their adopted child.

Outwardly happy and connected, Ben and Fiona are nonplussed when they discover that their adoption arrangements have hit some bureaucratic snags, even when their Western-style problem-solving skills prove ineffective at helping the situation along. As they dig in for a long wait, they comfort themselves with the assurance that their new daughter Lakshmi, whose picture they have cherished for months, will still be theirs. So, they wait: Fiona works from her laptop while Ben ventures out into the city in search of new experiences and friends. One of these new-found acquaintances is Scarlett (Isabel Lucas), a girl whose easy acclimatization to the rhythms of Kolkata seems to match Ben's own.

As time passes, it also seems to intensify, and the couple respond very differently to the chaos, colour and allure of the city around them. Frustrated by the delays surrounding matters they assumed to be solved, Ben and Fiona inevitably turn on each other, and are forced to confront their differences, long-held resentments and secrets. The hoped-for break in the adoption proceedings does come, but by then there is a question of whether their shattered relationship can, or even should, continue.

But Kolkata doesn't just take, it gives, and McCarthy's deep personal knowledge of the city and its gifts is woven into every strand of the story's fabric. Edgerton and Mitchell provide beautifully articulated performances, ably supported by Lucas, Samrat Chakrabarti as Krishna, a hotel worker they befriend, and Tilotamma Shome as Sister Tessila, a compassionate nun from the adoption centre. Cinematographer Denson Baker's stunning photography captures the vibrant Kolkata with a rich complexity that does true justice to the city and those waiting people within it.

Blessed

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: Blessed, directed by Ana Kokkinos

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

Filmmaker Ana Kokkinos last appeared at the Festival with The Book of Revelation, her third feature after Head On and Only the Brave. Fans of these powerful and provocative films will be enthralled with Blessed, for it shows us an evolving artist in full command of her craft as she tackles the subject of mothers and children.

Set in a working-class suburb of Melbourne over the course of one day and one night, the film introduces us to seven different children, none of whom live in circumstances that make it worthwhile to stay home. Each has a personal odyssey, with problems that need solving and messes that need cleaning up, and none of them can, at first, really articulate what they need and what they want. But they search for it anyway. When dawn breaks at the end of the night, we experience the same twenty-four hours from the point of view of the children's mothers. We learn so much more about these women than we could see when looking only through the eyes of their offspring. The mothers are hostages to their unspoken love for their children, and their powerlessness against it is achingly familiar to any parent. Toward the middle of the film, one of the mothers encounters one of the children, not her own, in a highly charged situation. Sensing his need, she quietly remarks, “Your mother loves you.” “No, she doesn't,” he replies, to which she responds, “Yes, she does – there's nothing she can do about it.”

Kokkinos has lived in Melbourne all her life, and her knowledge of and affection for the city is evident throughout the film. With a meaty and substantive script (based on the play Who's Afraid of the Working Class?) as bait, Kokkinos has gathered a remarkable cast made up of some of the finest actresses working in film today, including Frances O'Connor, Miranda Otto, Deborra-Lee Furness, Victoria Haralabidou and young Sophie Lowe, also appearing at this year's Festival in Beautiful Kate. Emotionally and structurally, Blessed is a challenging film, and like a cinematic fishnet, it casts itself wide and slowly draws everything in – and it's a good catch.

My Year Without Sex

Showing at the Toronto Film Festival: My Year Without Sex, directed by Sarah Watt

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

It's August in Melbourne. As Natalie (Sacha Horler) and her husband, Ross (Matt Day), celebrate his birthday, she collapses. When she wakes up, she's in the hospital after emergency surgery for an aneurysm.

My Year Without Sex is for anyone who has suffered life's daily little challenges, only to get sideswiped by a massive one. This is what happens to Natalie, and her subsequent year-long trial ensures that she has little choice but to laugh and cry, often at the same time.

Ross and Natalie's two kids, two jobs and a dog mark them as a typical family. They deal with the typical things: school, cooking, sports, Christmas, goldfish, birthday parties, lice and bills. But when Natalie's illness hits and she becomes too frail to work or drive, she suffers a further breakdown of confidence and spirituality – one that she is unable to address until she meets Margaret (Maude Davey), a local cleric in the depths of a crisis of her own.

The story unfolds in monthly episodic segments, during which director Sarah Watt (whose film Look Both Ways won the 2005 Festival's Discovery Award) mines the minutiae of everyday life for the profundity that becomes so very clear in a life-and-death situation. Bookmarked and highlighted by colourful and expressive images (Watt is also an animator), the film beautifully captures the rollercoaster ride of family crises. It focuses on the things we take for granted, showing us that great insights rest within the typical, if only we know how to look. And as Natalie faces one funny, annoying, crazy thing after another, she begins to see them as the warp and weft of a full, rich life that is always worth fighting for.

The film's website is here.

Bran Nue Dae

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: Bran Nue Dae, directed by Rachel Perkins

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

One of Australia's most anticipated films of the year, the musical Bran Nue Dae arrives with all the energy, fun and downright sass of the original stage version. Featuring a cast that includes both acclaimed and emerging Australian actors and musicians, the story of one young Aboriginal man's search for love and his true identity can finally reach audiences all over the world.

It's the summer of 1969 in Broome, an idyllic spot on Australia's west coast. Sixteen-year-old Willie (Rocky McKenzie) just wants to hang out with his friends. When he gets up the courage, he also wants to invite the beautiful local church singer, Rosie (Jessica Mauboy), out to the movies. But these typical teenaged pursuits must wait, as Willie is about to leave for Catholic boarding school in Perth at the wishes of his deeply devout mother.

Life at the boarding school under the oppressive and condescending leadership of Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush) soon chafes, however, and Willie rebels, bolting for freedom. Alone in the city, he has no survival skills. He eventually finds a mentor in Uncle Tadpole (Ernie Dingo), an errant former resident of Broome. Tadpole insists on accompanying Willie back home, and the pair hitch a ride with the hippie Annie (Missy Higgins) and a German tourist, Slippery (Tom Budge). In the meantime, Father Benedictus has hit the highway in search of Willie, determined to return him to school.

Underneath the film's road movie/romantic comedy veneer is a story about identity and culture, and how each person needs to navigate those stony shores individually. The latter half of the sixties is a fitting era for such a philosophical search, and production designer Felicity Abbott captures it perfectly. Photography by Andrew Lesnie (who won an Academy Award® for The Fellowship of the Ring) showcases both the stunning Australian landscapes and the compelling visage of Willie as he tries to maintain his emotional footing amid the chaos that surrounds him. Hats off to director Rachel Perkins for shepherding one of Australia's finest stage productions to the screen.

My Tehran for Sale

Showing at the Toronto International Film Festival: My Tehran for Sale, directed by Granaz Moussavi

Synopsis from the TIFF website:

When it comes to our impressions of world events, few of us have the opportunity or, frankly, the inclination to dig beyond mass media. In My Tehran for Sale, first-time Australian-Iranian filmmaker Granaz Moussavimakes a highly personal attempt to show the world a side of Iranian youth never portrayed in the media. Filmed at great risk to all involved, My Tehran for Sale reveals the complex double lives led by many modern Iranian youth who must struggle for cultural freedom.

Since arriving in Australia with her family in 1997 at the age of twenty-three, Moussavi has often been deeply dissatisfied with the one-dimensional portrayal of her country and its people in the Western media. In 2006, following numerous discussions with friend and actress Marzieh Vafamehr, as well as support from the Adelaide Film Festival and South Australian Film Corporation, and renowned Iranian filmmakers Bahman Ghobadi and Abbas Kiarostami, Moussavi found a way to express a fictionalized, yet highly personal story.

Marzieh (Vafamehr) is a young actress working in Tehran. When the authorities ban her theatrical work, she is forced to lead a secret artistic life. At an underground rave, she meets Saman (Amir Chegini), an Iranian now living in Australia, and they soon become engaged. In addition to having their personal lives fulfilled by falling in love, the couple know that if Marzieh's visa application to Australia is successful, she will also have the opportunity to experience true artistic freedom for the first time in her life. This optimism is momentary, however, because extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances soon force Marzieh into making a series of life-threatening and unthinkable choices.

Given the stringent conditions under which the film was made, it is something of a miracle that it was finished at all. Marzieh's world comes to life in the hands of the luminous and outrageously expressive Vafamehr, whose every move is adored by the camera. Enhanced by a wonderful score that includes works by contemporary Iranian musician Mohsen Namjou, the aches and triumphs of Marzieh's story show us another side of Iran's culture – one that we need to see.

The film's website is here.