Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - The Rocket

A rocket explodes on launch at the Rocket Festival

Australian film director and screen writer, Kim Mordaunt who filmed the acclaimed documentary, Bomb Harvest, released in 2007 has returned to Laos for this feature film of a coming-of-age story. The story plot line revolves around 10-year-old Ahlo who with his family is displaced from their home by the construction of a large dam. While travelling to their relocation village, Ahlo's mother is killed in an accident and the family finds itself almost destitute on arrival as the relocation village is not much more than self-built shacks. The village itself is superstitious and Ahlo and his family are forced to flee along with his new friend Kia and her uncle, Purple. Seeking a new life, Ahlo hears of the Rocket Festival, a dangerous, crazy event where large bamboo rockets are launched into the clouds to bring rain but with the incentive of a large cash prize for the winner whose rocket travels the furthest into the clouds. Ahlo builds his own rocket and challenges for the first prize. Ever present throughout this film is the legacy of the Vietnam war with bomb craters, live cluster bombs and large active munitions still littering the landscape and casting a long shadow over the lives of the Laotian people. Overall this is a feel-good film shot in an evocative landscape with a story of overcoming the odds.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Oh Boy

Niko (Tom Shilling) and his father on the golf course

Oh Boy is the feature film debut for German film director, Jan Ole Gerster and deservedly has been a hit winning a number of awards. Its a light-hearted, breezy comedy which does have a serious element both for the characters portrayed and the locational setting which is the German capital, Berlin, currently undergoing transformation. The film has also been shot in grainy black and white which brings an alluring appeal and effective conveyance of mood. The story focuses on law college dropout, Niko (Tom Shilling), who simultaneously loses his girlfriend, has his financial support cut off (after his father discovers Niko dropped out of his course two years earlier) and finds it difficult to actually buy a simple cup of normal coffee. Through a series of chance encounters with various people including many from his past, creating a profound influence on him, Niko finds meaning and an insight into life. This film is episodic in structure and has many humorous points with disarming use of black humour and irony. Tom Shilling portrays the hapless bewildered Niko with laid back conviction seeking to find his way while Berlin, a city with a dramatic historical past, including the Nazi era, provides the canvass for this search.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - The Look of Love

Steve Coogan and Anna Friel - The Look of Love

The latest collaboration between British film director, Michael Winterbottom and actor/producer Steve Coogan is a film of the true-to-life story of British entrepreneur, Paul Raymond. Often called the 'King of Soho', Raymond built a huge night-club, real estate and porn publishing empire worth hundreds of millions of pounds in the second half of the 20th Century. The film concentrates on Raymond's relationship with the three critical women in his life - his divorced wife Jean (Anna Friel), his girlfriend Fiona (Tamsin Egerton) and his beloved daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots). The film has a high level of titillation (its a tits and bum film), indulgence (Raymond seems to drink only champagne whilst entertaining numerous lovers in his penthouse) and drug taking (endless snorting of cocaine). Tragedy strikes when Debbie accidentally dies from a drug overdose just as Raymond was starting to transfer control of his business empire to her. This film is fairly shallow with an over-emphasis on the night club scenes and bare breasts providing little insight into Paul Raymond himself or the acumen which enabled him to be listed as Britain's richest man, the year after his daughter's death. 

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.