The story of Armenia’s complicated suffering is laid bare in two stylistically opposite yet thematically linked films. From Golden Apricot Film Festival.
GAIFF Day One: Ararat to the West, Karabakh to the East
Redmond Bacon
Redmond is the editor-in-chief of Journey Into Cinema.
Distant Voices, Windless Lives
With a tight 1:1 ratio and an eye for arresting visuals, Windless sure looks great, but its grief-laden tale fails to hit with the viewer emotionally.
No One is Watching in the Panopticon
A study of a young confused man that examines the changing mores of Georgian society, Panopticon fails to stimulate the brain or the heart.
The Fate of Life Under the Grey Sky
With a stripped-back aesthetic, Mara Tamkovich’s debut Under the Grey Sky carefully surveys the cost of practicing independent journalism in modern-day Belarus.
What we ask of a statue is that it doesn’t move. Prodding the Parthenon.
With alacrity and charm, Daphné Hérétakis’ short What we ask of a statue is that it doesn’t move takes aim at one of Greece’s most enduring national symbols.
The Other Way Around Is Repetitive. Meaningful. Beautiful. Repetitive.
There is beauty and meaning littered throughout the repetitive actions of Jonás Trueba’s endlessly playful Directors’ Fortnight romcom The Other Way Around.
The Story of Souleymane. Cycling Through Limbo.
The Story of Souleymane is a tightly-focussed, Dardenne-esque tale of an immigrant delivery driver trying to make ends meet that brims with heartfelt emotions.
The Empty Pageantry of Savanna and the Mountain
A group of villagers stage a series of increasingly bizarre protests against the development of a lithium mine in the unengaging Savanna and the Mountain.
Parsing the Puzzling Persian of Universal Language
Matthew Rankin’s culture-bending comedy fable throws up all kinds of intellectual questions, but rarely engages on a deeper, emotional level.
Holy Cow. Curdled Maturity.
Love and cheese freely intermingle in Louise Courvoisier’s diverting yet underwhelming debut Holy Cow, (somehow) playing in Un Certain Regard.