Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Mood Indigo

Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou over the Paris skyline

Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo is a truly bizarre visual feast of film with an array of unique, spectacular images and special effects leaving the viewer either laughing or perceiving they are visiting an alternative reality. Based on Boris Vian's aptly titled book 'Froth on the Daydream' the story is centred on Colin (Roman Duris) and Chloe (Audrey Tautou) who fall in love and have an idyllic marriage except Chloe becomes ill as a water lilly is growing in one of her lungs. Watching this film requires a suspension of belief - with a door bell on legs which runs up and down the wall, a man dressed up as a mouse living in a replica of Colin's house and a cook who interacts with a chef appearing on a black and white television, the surreal experience is just beginning. For those who enjoy a film which often has little logic and presents endless crazy images (when the police  are called they arrive in a six legged vehicle), Mood Indigo will appeal.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children

Salman Rushdie's novel has been adapted and brought to the screen by film director, Deepa Mehta - although the adaptation remains true to the book as the screenplay and narration for the film is by Rushdie himself. The story timeline spans the modern historical period from Indian Independence, through Partition with Pakistan into the recent past reflecting the hopes and tragedies of tumultuous events in this region of the world. The plot is centred around two boys, Saleem Sinai and Shiva both born at the moment of India's independence at midnight and through the actions of hospital nurse, swapped to different parents.  From that point they travel different paths, one in an affluent family, the other as the son of penniless drunk busker. They are two of hundreds of children whom are born with special powers at this time - ultimately fate will draw them together as protagonists with fatal consequences. 

The film is beautifully shot, predominantly in Sri Lanka (Rushdie's old opponent, the State of Iran, initially tried to stop the film production but the Sri Lankan Government ultimately approved the film. Religious intolerance, old school ties particularly between military officers, family social prejudices and a none-too-subtle criticism of Indira Ghandi are strongly articulated in the film. In many respects, the length of the story could be shorter and the use of 'magical children' is often incongruous with the serious nature of events being portrayed. It is ultimately a film with metaphors, allegorical representations and metaphysical constructs.

 

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Stoker

Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska

Master Korean Film Director, Park Chan-wook's first English language film is best described as more atmospheric than tangible and more horror than suspenceful. Stoker has three of Australia's current best known actresses in its cast - Nicole Kidman, Jackie Weaver and Mia Wasikowska as well as a competent male lead role with Matthew Goode - however there is only so much a good cast can do to manage a muddle of a script which depends much on scenery and lighting and little on conveyance through dialogue. Described as a haunting Neo-Gothic thriller with a nod to Hitchcock, the film story is structured around the world of India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska), a strange introverted young woman who likes to hunt animals, having been trained and shared this interest with her father. Her life and that of her unstable mother (Nicole Kidman) is disrupted by the sudden unexpected death of her father and the arrival of his long-lost brother Charlie (Matthew Goode). Charlie allegedly has been travelling the world but the discovery of old letters by India, reveals he has been in a mental institution and has a predilection for murder. India's aunt (jackie Weaver) also arrives but before she can give a warning about Charlie, he disposes of her.

With gratuitous violence and latent sexual awakening between Charlie and India, this is a voyeuristic film with a superficial plot, shallow one-dimensional psychopathic characters and elements of sado-masochism.  

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Wadjda

Waad Mohammed in a scene from 'Wadjda'

As the first feature film to be shot in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (where there are no cinemas), Wadjda immediately should attract attention and this simple yet reflective film is deserving of such interest. Written and directed by Saudi-born but University of Sydney educated Haifaa Al Mansour, the story is centred on 10-year-old Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), a rebellious, fun-loving yet determined girl growing up in a deeply conservative Islamic society. Wadjda longs to own a bicycle and one day sees a new green one delivered to a local shop so she sets about raising the money to purchase her bike through all manner of activities. Her mother has been reluctant to buy it for her fearing the opinion of wider Saudi society which considers a bicycle as dangerous to a girl's virtue. The film captures effectively the divisions and contradictions between men and women in Saudi society and manages to be gently subversive. Wadjda's fund-raising efforts to buy the bicycle include winning a Koran recitation competition at her school and appearing to be the model of conversion and piety despite being considered by her teachers to be an endless source of frustration. 

Shot with a German production team in Saudi Arabia, the director, Haifaa Al Mansour often had to operate out of a production truck using screen monitors to direct as she was not permitted on the street. Her script is partly autobiographical as it draws upon the experiences of some members of her family. An insightful film, sometimes slow moving and in Arabic with English subtitles, Wadjda  provides a window into a society which is at the cross-roads of change.

Norovirus - the global hitchhiker

Norovirus image

Vomiting, often in projectile form, diarrhoea, muscle and head aches and a churning stomach which lasts a day or two - the symptoms of Norovirus, arguably one of the most common human pathogens on the planet and for which there is no known treatment or vaccine. Norovirus is particularly prevalent during Winter months and highly infectious as exposure to as few as 17 virus particles can lead to infection in comparison to almost 1,000 which are needed for influenza to take hold.

For an RNA virus, Norovirus is very resilient being able to withstand most chemical detergents, freezing and heating up to 600C. It can also survive for up to 2 weeks on hard surfaces such as doorknobs and  tablecloths. There are around 40 identified strains. One study in 2009 the Netherlands which examined a jamboree which had been over-run by Norovirus found that for every person who fell sick, fourteen others were infected. These are startling rates of transmission and account for the speed at which Norovirus epidemics can quickly move to pandemics. Norovirus has two main groups (termed genogroups) which afflict humans - GI and GII - within each of these are viral variants with GII.4 currently having the greatest mutation capacity.  The mutation capability of Norovirus is what makes it hard for the immune system to identify the pathogen  and attack it.

With the Winter season now in full swing in the Southern Hemisphere, the global hitchhiker is bound to make its appearance. In 2012, Novovirus GII.4 Sydney progressed to world -wide infection with a substanial impact on the United Kingdom.

Eyes in Space - Canada's sentinel in the sky

Canada's NEOSSat

The surprise explosion of a meteor over Russia on 15th February this year, again served as a reminder of the vulnerability of the planet and its' inhabitants to contact with near-earth objects. The meteor was undetected and estimated to be approx 17 metres wide delivering a 470-kiloton blast with a shock wave that damaged 3,000 buildings and injured over 1,500 people in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia.

Canada has added to the relatively small number of assets available for space monitoring with the launch on 25 February 2013 of the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat). The suitcase-sized NEOSSat orbits approximately 800 kilometres above the Earth, searching for near-Earth asteroids that are difficult to see using ground-based optical telescopes. NEOSSat is not limited by the day-night cycle but operates round the clock. It circles the globe every 100 minutes, scanning space near the Sun to pinpoint asteroids that have proximity to the Earth. Despite the additional surveillance there remains a significant number of unseen objects as shown below. 

Size in metres	Unknown %
1,000 upwards	7%
150-999	67%
40-149	99%