Discovered amongst the offerings of Korea's Pusan Film Festival.

A Gift to Stalin

This is a story of a man who survived from gruesome dark ages. Only thing he has left is the memories of his childhood. The director with future, Rustem Abdrashev and Kazakhstani outstanding actor, Nurzhuman Ikhtimbaev and Russia’s most representative screenwriter, Pavel Finn created a touching and dramatic epic. Kazakhstan in 1949, the times when the minorities were forced to move to Central Asia by former Soviet government, a Jewish kid named Sashka is on a train with his grandfather being deported with others. His grandfather dies on the train and he is dropped off with the body at a small village. He meets an old man, Kasym and stays with him. The village has various races and classes; nevertheless, all of them live in peace. But the tragedy is upon the village. Every villagers are killed and only Sashka survived.

The title, The Gift to Stalin has two significances. In 1949, Soviet government carried out a nuclear test for anniversary of Stalin’s 70th birthday. Many innocent people fell the victims to the nuclear test. It turned out that Stalin gave his gift of death to the people. The other significance is about Sashka’s dream. He has a hope that if he gives Stalin a gift, he will be able to meet his parents again. Through the relationship between Sashka and Kasym, Rustem Abdrashev is showing the value of trust and hope that never change even during the most violent and the darkest days. The Gift to Stalin is multi-nationally produced. It was filmed in Kazakhstan, and Russia, Poland, Israel participated in its production.

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Captain Abu Raed

Abu Raed is a sweeper who works at the Amman airport. One day he happens to find a pilot’s cap in a trash can at the airport and puts it on. A child from the village mistakes Abu for a pilot, and thus begins the story of Abu and the children. Abu tells them hundreds of stories that he read in books and meanwhile, he realizes his own dream of adventure that even he himself forgot for a long time. These happy days come to an end when a boy named Murad exposes him, but Abu tries to keep his friendship with the children and sacrifices himself to seek shelter from Murad’s family. Although the concept is a novel one, the superficial setting of the characters and artificial developments disturb our concentration on the characters.

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Tahaan - A Boy with a Grenade

It is the story of Tahaan, an eight-year-old boy who takes a long and risky journey to find his best friend and also an important asset to his family, their donkey, Birbal. The director, Santosh Sivan, criticizes the world of adults, which is full of conflict, by presenting events that the boy has experienced on his journey to Kashmir where the war is still going on. Tahaan makes his decision to get his donkey back, which was taken away by a creditor when his grandfather passed away. However, the donkey is already sold to another merchant, Subhan, and Tahaan decide to follow his tracks. Tahaan meets Idrees on the way, and Idrees tells Tahaan that if he throws grenades at the army base, in return Idree would find Birbal for Tahaan. Tahaan finally accepts the offer. The director brings up some social issues such as the conflict in Kashmir, and creates an intense rhythm throughout the movie. In particular, the end of the movie channels people’s attentions to Tahaan, and whether or not he will throw the grenades.

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Together with my Father

Together With My Father, a family drama by director Daniyar Salamat, portrays the warm love between father and son. Karim, a teacher of carpentry at a school, is divorced and living with his son Baysal. His ex-wife has remarried the principal of the school he is teaching at. Karim and Baysal are more like friends than father and son. As Baysal watches the relationship between his mother and father, and though he can not be a part of it, little by little he gets a glimpse of the adult world. He does not completely understand their world, but he believes he understands it to a certain degree. He worries about his mother being unhappy in her new marriage, while he also roots for his father who secretly likes the flower shop owner. He even understands when his father comes home drunk with a strange woman. However, reality does not change, and Baysal cannot understand why reality doesn’t change as he wishes it to. Though Baysal has a grown up mind, he is nevertheless still a child. Director Daniyar Salamat portrays a family drama that avoids an overly dramatic element while conveying the love between father and son in a misty light.

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Interesting.

Two-legged Horse is playing in Montreal at the FNC (starts next week (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)), but I'm not going to see it. I'm not really a fan of the Makhmalbaf's (father or daughter) heavy-handed style.

I'm getting a pass and going to see 25-30 films at the FNC this year. Only a handful of them would be of any interest here. Among them:

MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH
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A strange documentary about a family secret revealed when a grandmother dies leaving behind reels of film footage and a note saying "must read after my death." Not sure how much screen time kids will get, but it sounds fascinating either way.

TOKYO SONATA


The new film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa features a young piano virtuoso. I'm very excited about this one, as I'm a fan of the director's work and have read some really good reviews since it played at Cannes.

ACNÉ
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Uruguayan film about a 13-year-old boy.

L'APPRENTI
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"Sweetly emotional first feature about nature, traditional farm life and the absent father. International Critic's award, Venice Film Festival." This is a French film.

AFTERSCHOOL
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"A chilling, stylized portrait of America's golden youth, falling somewhere between Gus Van Sant and Michael Haneke." I'm interested in this one, as these are two filmmakers I like a lot. It's also been recommended by someone whose tastes I usually share.

I think the characters may be older than the usual age of interest here, though.

COUNTRY TEACHER
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Czech film. But I think there are only older teenage students in this one as well.

More at Pusan...........


The Flower Bridge

Part documentary, part drama, Ciulei’s The Flower Bridge is a moving and enlightening portrait of a nation dealing with a rash of fracturing families that have nothing to do with divorce or death. In Moldavia, over half the labor force has left the tiny country to find work. Costica, father of three, is part of one such family. At home in the village of Acui with his children while his wife works in Italy, Costica does his best to make a happy home for his family under the circumstances. By also allowing the so-called characters to interpret themselves, we are shown lives that are at once filled with humor, hardship, and unfettered affection. The poignancy of receiving letters and gifts from a mother separated by need complements that of father of children diligently working on the farm. 

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Marilena from P7

13-year-old Andrei lives in the slum outskirt of Bucharest. Fell in love with newcomer prostitute Marilena at first sight, Andrei now only shoots for driving the trolley bus to get her heart. Director Cristian
Nemescu died in car accident at his age of twenty seven, while he was working on postproduction of his debut feature California Dreaming, which won Un Certain Regards Prize at the 60th Cannes Film Festival. Marilena from P7 delivers the fragility of the painful emotion captured us when we were young and in love.
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Party

A young boy is about to take his grandmother on a much-desired visit to see his mother. Since his grandmother can’t walk, he finds a little cart to carry her through the narrow alleys and passages - right up to the desolate cemetery.

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