Sydney Film Festival 2021 - Film Review - Undine

Paula Beer Undine

 
Director and Screenwriter Christian Petzold has used the myth of the water sprite as the basis of the story for this film. Undine (Paula Beer) is a Berlin historian and guide who endures a breakup with her lover Johannes. Oddly she informs him that any betrayal will mean his death and her return to her place in the water. Alas the relationship does breaks down, however Udine meets a professional diver, Christoph and falls into a relationship with him that changes the rules that she follows. Its a meaningful relationship and creates the possibility that Undine will stay on land.  When Christoph is injured in a diving accident and left seemingly brain dead in hospital, Undine restores his life leaving Johannes lifeless in his swimming pool. Undine returns to the water leaving a recovering Christoph frantically searching for her.

In mythology, Undines are a form of elemental beings associated with water and derived from the writing of Paracelsus. The title of this film is drawn from the work of Friedrich del la Motte Fouque titled 'Úndine'. The attraction of love and yearning to live on land underpins the myth of the water sprite. 

The film has dramatic moments but its generally a light romance film with a love story that suggests a possibility, but which ultimately cannot be realised. 

Sydney Film Festival 2021 - Film Review - The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson

Leah Purcell The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson

Well known indigenous actor, Leah Purcell wrote, directed and acted in this period Australian Western genre film set in 1893 in the alpine country of the Snowy Mountains. 

Purcell has melded a number of themes together - isolation and hardship in the Australian rural backcountry, domestic violence towards women, treatment of the Aboriginal community and the commitment of a mother to her children (which is central to the overall story).  The film is visually atmospheric and plays to the topography of the Australian landscape and its relationship to the lives of the characters. This is recognised in Aboriginal storytelling and Purcell's reimaging of the Henry Lawson classic tale 'The Drover's Wife'. Purcell includes elements of Lawson with the rough hewn house, the bevy of children, the general living conditions and a menacing bullock that arrives one day.

The plot line is centred on Molly Johnson (Leah Purcell) who lives on an isolated farm with her young children while her drover husband is away for months at a time herding sheep flocks. Molly struggles to care for her young family and on a chance encounter with the newly arrived Sergeant of the constabulary, Nate Clintoff (Sam Reid) and his wife, she sends most of her children to town to the care of a charitable woman.

All is not what it seems and when the Sergeant learns from a droving team that Molly 's husband has not been seen for some time, he begins to suspect that something else has happened. The situation is further complicated by an escaped Aboriginal man, Yadaka (Rob Collins) wanted for murder who arrives at Molly's farm as he journeys to a hideout.  

There are a few jarring elements in this film. The dialogue is a mix of modern expressions and the formal verbal language of the 19th Century; the local frontier town has characteristics more akin the American West than the Australian version of the same; Molly has a loaded rifle at the ready be it needed for beast or human and is perhaps too gun totting; and there are more than a few cliched scenes in the film. The Drover's Wife was a personal project for Leah Purcell and took some years to bring to completion. 

Sydney Film Festival 2021 - Film Review - Quo Vadis Aida

Jasna Duricic and Johan Heldenbergh Quo Vadis Aida

 
It's 26 years since the Bosnian war, yet for many people living in the former Yugoslavia, the impact of this conflict remains ever present. Film maker, Jasmila Zbanic has tackled the horror of the war crimes committed at the supposedly UN safe haven zone of Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces in this high production value film.   

The story is set in  July 1995 and centres around UN translator Aida (Jasna Duricic) as she seeks to provide shelter for her family at the UN peacekeeper base as the Serbian army overuns Srebrenica. 30,000 terrified people crowd around the perimeter of the UN base as they are encircled by the hostile, menacing Serbs. As the UN translator she becomes aware that the Serbian army has no intention of respecting the UN ultimatums which are little more than hollow rhetoric. Her increasingly desperate efforts to save her husband and two sons form the core of this film and the now documented duplicity of the Serbian army particularly General Radko Mladic are a central theme. The helplessness of the Dutch peacekeepers and their abandonment by the UN is as poignant as Aida's despair.

This film deservedly was nominated for an Academy Award and has high production values with a large capable cast, significant military assets (tanks, armoured cars, military vehicles) for effect and effective photography. Not surprisingly there is no happy ending for Aida as indeed there was none at Srebrenica.

Sydney Film Festival 2021 - Film Review - The Power of the Dog

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog

 
Producer/Director/Screenwriter Jane Campion has returned to film making after a long absence with this dark Western period piece thriller set in Montana (but filmed in New Zealand) in the year 1925. With a key cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee with superb cinematography, Campion demonstrates again her skill in this genre. She won Best Director at the Venice Film Festival in 2021 for this film.

The plot contains elements of hyper male masculinity, dark brooding menace and harsh conditions on a ranch run the Burbank brothers Phil (Cumberbatch) and George (Pelmons). George is quiet and calm while his brother Phil is charismatic, muscular and bullying of those he deems inferior. Enter into this mix is the widowed restaurant-owner Rose (Dunst) and her sensitive son, Peter (Smit-McPhee). When George marries Rose and she joins the household her quiet manner enrages Phil who reacts with his  brooding and often aggressive manner.  His behaviour increasingly depresses the gentle Rose leading to her growing dependence on alcohol. The tension builds between the characters as George tries establish a more peaceful environment for his wife and step son while Phil seeks to sabotage his efforts.

Campion has positioned the protagonists expertly in this story and when the conflict reaches its climax and then end point, it is through the most unexpected method of intervention from the least obvious character.  Much of the production and technical staff of this film are Australian and this proficiency contributes to a quality production.

Sydney Film Festival 2021 - screening in a COVID world

 
After several false starts for 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sydney Film Festival has managed to return to live screenings at multiple venues with strict COVID safe planning.  This is good news for both cinema enthusiasts and the wider film industry which has had to operate under severe disruptions as the pandemic has moved across the world. The impact and efficacy of vaccines has been the game changer for all large gatherings of people particularly for indoor settings.

The festival has been scrupulous in managing the risk of COVID: seating has been reduced in venues by 25%, all attendees must have been double vaccinated and show their certificates on entry to the venues, QR code check-in is required and face masks must be worn in the venues and throughout the screenings. Breaks between films have been increased to 1 hour and 15 minutes to enable on-site cleaning and attendees must leave the cinemas and re-enter when permitted.  

This is the reality of daily life under COVID-19. The number of films has been reduced in order to enable the necessary controls to be in place but nonetheless on each of the days of the festival between 10 and 14 venues are screening one or more films. In itself, enabling the festival to occur is a major achievement.                                                    

IPCC 6th Assessment Report - the magnitude of the crisis defined

 

The 6th Assessment Report from the IPCC makes for sobering reading and was issued prior to COP26 in Glasgow.  In summary, the report has found that:

• Human induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones has strengthened since the 5th Assessment Report.
• Global surface temperatures will continue to increase until at least mid-century under all emission scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5C and 2C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2)  and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.
• Under scenarios with increasing CO2 emissions, the ocean and land carbon sinks are projected to be less effective at slowing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere.
• Continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle including its variability, global monsoon precipitation and the severity of wet and dry events.
• With further global warming, every region is projected to increasingly experience concurrent and multiple changes in climatic impact-drivers.
• Low-likelihood outcomes such as ice sheet collapse, abrupt ocean circulation changes, some compound extreme events and warming substantially larger than the assessed 'very likely' range cannot be ruled out.
• Strong rapid and sustained reduction in CH4 (methane) would also limit the warming effect resulting from declining aerosol pollution and would improve air quality.

The report now finds that serious climate impacts that previously were thought to be less likely, are now considered to be possible due to the accelerated increase in global warming. 

The report can be accessed at this link: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

COP26 Glasgow - reigning in climate change - can it be done ?

COP26 commences on 31 October 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland and concludes on Friday 12 November. But will it achieve the necessary agreement from all the members of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to reduce carbon emissions? This is the 26th meeting and while some progress has been achieved over the years, the target date of zero emissions by 2050 will be too little, too late. Significant reduction is needed much earlier than 29 years into the future and more likely by as early as 2030.

Link to:  COP 26 Glasgow website