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Italy
Far more sophisticated than The Wishful Thinkers, but also experimenting with that grey area between fiction and documentary, is Daniele Gaglianone’s engaging MY CLASS. Recent migrants to Italy are learning to speak Italian in evening class – which seems even more poignant in the light of the Lampedusa tragedy. A film crew is capturing this class of genuine immigrants, yet their inspirational, patient teacher is played by an actor, the excellent Valerio Mastandrea, and they all do fresh takes for the crew. But what makes this movie stronger is their articulation of their deepest fears and desires, as classroom scenes give us insight into their backgrounds and native lands, and their emotions rise to the surface.
Tackling another hot-button topic, Valeria Golino’s HONEY is about an ‘angel of mercy’ called Irene, aka Honey, played by Jasmine Trinca. She makes a living from death, in getting drugs and helping facilitate a good ending for terminally sick people. She’s all very professional and matter of fact as she’s sent on missions of mercy across Italy, for money, even going as far as Mexico to get exactly the right meds. Until she hits a flaw in the plan and faces a massive dilemma. As instructed, she gives the right pills for a terminal treatment to a older man, but he turns out to be in perfect physical health. What should – and what can – she do? It not only challenges her moral certitude, but might also force viewers to reevaluate theirs too.
A kidnap thriller set in Sicily is not exactly unprecedented, but SALVO, from joint directors-screenwriters Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza is a little different. Salvatore is a ruthless hitman going about his business in Palermo’s relentless heat, like the Milk Tray man, but with a gun, until he can’t quite complete one of his missions. Having taken out everyone else, ‘Salvo’ cannot bring himself to kill a young, blind woman. We hear her breathing amplified, extreme close-ups dominate, and we get her point-of-view as she’s taken to a remote, abandoned warehouse with bags of atmosphere, and starts to regain her sight. Others want her dead. But will Stockholm Syndrome force her towards Salvo – and is escape possible?
Inventive, tongue-in-cheek and featuring festival favourite Martina (Lives of Others) Gedeck as a gallery owner, THOSE HAPPY YEARS is Daniele Luchetti’s knowing examination of the world of ‘cutting-edge’ performance art in the seventies. Kim Rossi-Stuart plays Guido, an avant-garde artist with a very open attitude to his marriage, and a desire to be exhibited in Milan. He and his wife, Serena, have two unbelievably cute sons, one of whom narrates and films their adventures. Luchetti explores their love, trust and freedom, with warmth and humour, and traces Serena’s affections when they take another direction. He may think he’s a liberal, liberated new man, but Guido is unable to deal with this. But can he fight back?
Greece
The premise of THE ETERNAL RETURN OF ANTONIS PARASKEVAS (right) is brilliant. A TV presenter’s career is on the slide, so he fakes his own kidnap to a huge, empty hotel, far away from the public eye. Then he watches as the media coverage and his own personal popularity soars. This is quite a coup for the screenwriter Elina Psykou, who also directs with some wit on her feature debut. And in the title role, Christos Stergioglou is suitably lugubrious and troubled as he expects to rescue his flagging career, but is in danger of cracking up and going feral in his solitude. In truth, the final film doesn’t quite work, despite some nicely surreal moments, but there’s loads of promise from Psykou, making hers a name to watch.
Germany
Consisting of 59 ‘chapters’ and running at just under three hours, THE POLICE OFFICER’S WIFE, from director and screenwriter Philip Gröning is structurally compelling, as each section, however lengthy or fleeting, adds another angle or layer to the narrative. Indeed, you feel almost emotionally drained by the climax. At the opening, everything looks idyllic externally. We see a young family: policeman, his doting wife and their small daughter, as they go on an Easter egg hunt, have supper and enjoy their domesticity.
This is interspersed with scenes from his work, but there’s a constant feeling that he can fly into a sudden, unprovoked rage. We glimpse his wife’s bruises, hidden on her back, arms and legs, multiplying and spreading over time. She’s always on edge, on guard, as this casual suburban brutality continues. He plays his video games, does his job, and beats his wife, but she still loves him. Everything is normalised and entirely believable and crushing to watch – exploring the same territory as The Fear, but in greater depth.
Russia
In director-screenwriter Boris Khlebnikov’s stark A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE (right), Sasha is a pawn in the midst of land-grabbing politics. He encourages a group of workers to settle and labour on farmland, and when a sudden buyout is announced, he’s happy to settle for compensation, but his farm workers won’t quit. This is their only hope, they just want to work, banding together to fight to stay. Sasha is persuaded to dig his heels in and lead them, even though he risks losing his girlfriend Anna, who works for the developers, and he’s also threatened. He doesn’t know who to trust, he starts losing other comrades, and is driven to the very edge. Some compelling issues drive the drama, as greedy, faceless development steamrolls idealism and individualism.
SHAME, from director Yusup Razykov, is based on the Kursk submarine disaster, and those waiting… and left behind. What emerges is that the women back on the shore are just as trapped in their remote, icy isolation. A mood of desperation and bubbling panic permeates the film, which is very strong on atmosphere. Much of the action and tension revolves around a strong, but flawed outsider, Lena, beautifully played by Maria Semenova, who is just one of many damaged people portrayed. Haunting.
Romania
Calin Peter Netzer’s CHILD’S POSE is a smart skewering of an entitled, upper-class Romanian family and their sense of entitlement. They all close ranks to try to prevent the spoilt, grown-up son going to jail after he kills a poor child while driving. The rich mother, Cornelia (the excellent Luminita Gheorghiu) is in every single scene, bending every rule and coercing every witness and law officer to get her son cleared, as she swiftly loses focus of right and wrong in her singlemindedness. He’s ungrateful, of course, but Cornelia still says: “I’d give my life for him. I’d cut off my hand for him.” Claustrophobic and involving throughout, this movie shows how blind and smothering love can be.
Bosnia
Experienced filmmaker Danis Tanovic shows the brutal truth of having to live – or exist – on the very edges of society in AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER. Using real Roma people ‘reenacting’ what had really happened to them, Tanovic fashions a documentary-style story of one family who cannot get help when the overworked mother of two tiny daughters has a miscarriage and needs treatment. Her husband – the ‘Iron Picker’, who collects fly-tipped scrap metal to sell – tries to make ends meet despite power cuts, bitter snow, and their beat-up car finally packing up and ironically being turned into scrap. But they face endless closed doors and discrimination, seriously endangering her health, and the men of the village even reminisce that life was better in the war, having spent four years in the trenches. Desperate and eye-opening.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.