Next Wednesday, the 45th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam starts, the biggest fest of its kind in the Netherlands. This year, in its ten-day run there will be roughly 250 feature films and 250 shorts on display, over a hundred of which will be world premieres and/or international premieres.
With the full schedule only released one week in advance, and ticket sales starting yesterday, looking through the roster is a mad scramble as always, so we're here to help with a big gallery, telling you what we recommend. Mind, with so many premieres there are bound to be many surprises... but here's what we know. Happy browsing, and let us know what we missed!
Neon Bull - Gabriel Mascaro
The Brazilian artist Gabriel Mascaro, who has one leg in visual arts and the other in cinema, has made a riveting film with Neon Bull, netting awards all over the globe. Set against the backdrop of vaquejada rodeos, the filmmaker follows a tight-knit group of cowhands working, traveling and living together. Similarly to some films of Bruno Dumont, the absence of a plot is palpable, though it opens doors to different storytelling modes, with the film sometimes verging on documentary. Mesmerizingly shot by Diego Garcia, Mascaro makes great use of widescreen shots and staging the action in-depth of the frame space. Telling the story mostly from the point-of-view of Iremar - cowhand by day and dressmaker by night – in a hypnotic cycle of mundane rituals.
Neon Bull melds several selling points: great camerawork, storytelling which blends fiction and documentary elements into one cohesive form, a socio-economic situation tackled through the unexpected angle of busting gender stereotypes, an examination of human body in space... and the cherry on the top of the cake: the best sex scene in a long time, brimming with naturalism.
(Martin Kudlac)
Lowlife Love - Uchida Eiji
We're big fans of UK distributor Third Window Films, helmed by Adam Torel, and that's the same Adam Torel who has now produced a jet-black ironic Japanese film about making films. It's called Lowlife Love, is directed by Uchida Eiji of The Greatful Dead fame, and has its international premiere in Rotterdam.
Tanna - Bentley Dean, Martin Butler
Named after the South Pacific island on which it is set, this delicate film marks the narrative debut for acclaimed documentarians Bentley Dean and Martin Butler. Tanna certainly blurs the fictional/non-fictional line, however, because the filmmakers have actually opted to adapt a Vanuatu tribe’s true story and have it acted out by the local people of Yakel.
Focusing on the perspective of a large-than-life girl, we see almost a Greek tragedy unfold as she witnesses her older sister falls for the wrong man: a charismatic chieftain’s son. Already a relationship challenged by distinctions in class and pre-arranged marriages, things only get worse as the two lovers’ tribes come to blows and they are forced to make some desperate choices.
Despite the film’s moments of tragedy, though, it is impossible not to appreciate its many glorious vistas and tribal flourishes, something which is often heightened by the fact that the cast have been known to brave the cold at a number of festival red carpets in their traditional outfits.
(Thomas Humphrey)
High Rise - Ben Wheatley
Based on a famous book by J. G. Ballard, High Rise locks a large society of competing classes in a large building... and lets them duke it out to apocalyptic results. Ben Wheatley has been dividing audiences at festivals worldwide with his film (check Kurt Halfyard's review), and I can't wait to see what I'll make of it.
MA - Celia Rowlson-Hall
What happens when you give a camera to a feminist choreographer? An absorbing motion spectacle happens. Professional dancer and choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall has cut her teeth on over fifty short films and videos already, and MA is her feature debut. Not only has she directed it, she also wrote it and stars in it. A (re)vision of the biblical tale about Mother Mary pilgrimage and events preceding the point zero of Christian religion set in modern Americana. The French director Guillaume Nicloux attempted a transcendental movie last year reuniting French powerhouse stars Depardieu and Huppert on the big screen in Valley of Love. Similarly, MA is a transcendental ballet-movie, peppered with softcore surrealism, and filled with atmosphere-building and eye-candy locations.
(Martin Kudlac)
Aaaaaaah! - Steve Oram
On the outskirts of London, a fictional society exists where people are basically still monkeys. In a documentary style, the film follows two monkey tribes and their alpha-males during their fights and other daily tribulations, and this results in a dry comical look at -what else- typically "human" behaviour.
Bleak Street - Arturo Ripstein
Mexican filmmaker Arturo Ripstein latest film has simple ingredients: two mini luchadores + two prostitutes who missed their retirement = one accidental double-murder. Even though the basic scheme might suggest a mexploitation fare, the monochrome camera gliding through a space where only glances of daylight soak through as in the constant reminder of life at the bottom of social pyramid, disposes of all the proprieties of social drama.
(Martin Kudlac)
Full Contact - David Verbeek
A drone pilot (played by Gregoire Colin) tries to come to grips with a terrible mistake he's made. To achieve his mission to rejoin the rest of mankind, he needs to conquer two landscapes in his mind: a desert, and a brutal boxing school. David Verbeek impressed in the past with intelligent, well-made films like How To Describe a Cloud, and I'm very curious about his newest.
Land of Mine - Martin Zandvliet
Another film which delves into difficult and traumatic true stories is the cleverly titled Land of Mine, Martin Zandvliet’s follow up to his award-winning 2009 debut feature Applause. This film centres on the aftermath of World War II in Denmark, where some 2.2 million mines were erroneously deployed in anticipation of the D-Day landings, and it looks specifically at the German prisoners of war (often just boys themselves) who were forced to clean them up.
Filled with blistering performances from Møller – himself now a well-respected villain in Danish productions – and the remarkably young cast that surround him, this film constructs its chain of bone-shattering explosions with remarkable care and really invests you in each and every one of the boys’ struggles. In marrying the war genre with his very minimalist Nordic style, Zandvliet has also succeeded in creating an incredibly pure cinematic experience that really gets under your skin.
(Thomas Humphrey)
Cemetery of Splendour - Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Ever since his Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won Cannes, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has become an almost-household name. And by most accounts, his new film Cemetery of Splendour is fantastic in multiple meanings of the word.
In his review, Christopher Bourne calls it a lovely, beguiling work.
We Have the Flesh - Emiliano Rocha Minter
Seeing this emerging Mexican director short film Dentro planted a seed of curiosity in me, about where he will go from that. His debut feature Tenemos la Carne / We Have the Flesh promises an “apocalyptic vision of Mexico” throwing into description of the film labels such as “surreal art direction”, “disquieting sexual relationship“ and "strange rituals” get the imagination running. Last year, the Peruvian drama Videophilia (And Other Viral Syndromes) was unveiled at Rotterdam, which proved to be a visual gem from Latin America. Taking into account the cinematic boom in South America, Tenemos la Carne may also be a mind-opening experience.
(Martin Kudlac)
Bang Gang - Eva Husson
A group of sixteen and seventeen year olds experiment with group sex, cameras and social media, but things take a surprising direction when the inevitable bursting of their careless bubble happens. Kurt Halfyard was impressed, as explained in his review.
The Plague at the Karatas Village - Adilkhan Yerzhanov
The Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov's third feature The Owners had some wonderful black comedy - a mixture of Kafkaesque and Beckettian elements – revolving around a trio of orphaned siblings leading a futile fight against local corrupted authorities over the ownership of a derelict house. Yerzhanov piled one tragicomic scene over another in a minimalistic style, crowning the whole endeavour with a finale which coupled an effort to protect the last remnant of the orphans' earthly belongings with an unexpected ambulance musical number. The minimalism and deadpan black humour was a combination worth following. Having seen tidbits of the work-in-progress show-reel of his new project The Plague at the Karatas Village, at CentEast Market in Warsaw, the surrealistic imagery gave off vibes that the art direction and the form are going to be the dominant aspects. Described as “Brechtian with a mythical, horror-like undertone,” this one is sure not to be missed.
(Martin Kudlac)
Bone Tomahawk - S. Craig Zahler
A bloody western, pitting a posse led by Kurt Russell against a tribe of cannibal troglodytes? What's not to love? Well, Todd Brown mentions a few things, perhaps, but he had plenty of fun with it regardless.
Evolution - Lucile Hadžihalilović
Coming as a sort of long-anticipated and vaguely related sequel to Hadžihalilović’s wonderful stylised (but also quite creepy) Innocence, her latest feature certainly mines a similar vein as it secretively tells its tale of a group of boys who are being held for sinister purposes by their monstrous mothers. But this film definitely feels like a step in a different direction, and a real step up in the quality of her filmmaking too.
Set in an uncanny retro-futuristic commune on a small Atlantic island with dark, brooding beaches, Evolution is certainly an atmospheric little number and is part of that tidal wave of films with child actors that seems to be sweeping by recently. Nevertheless, Hadžihalilović’s effort is definitely a cut above many of her rivals, and the way she eerily accentuates her film’s colour palette whilst simultaneously blurring the beauty and abhorrence of nature is utterly compelling.
(Thomas Humphrey)
Altes Geld (Old Money) - David Schalko
How's this for a synopsis: an evil billionaire (played by Udo Kier no less) needs a liver transplant, and for the operation to be successful, the organ needs to come from within his own family. So, he tells his children that the person who can deliver him a liver will become the sole heir to the family fortune. This results in what writer/director David Schalko gleefully describes as "Dallas for psychos".
This year, the festival has a special section for television series. and this one will be shown in its entirety, all eight episodes end-to-end, as one six and a half hour long film. And oh boy, am I tempted to go watch it!
Tikkun - Avishai Sivan
“A young man from the ultra-orthodox Jewish community suffers a crisis of faith after a strange accident” tells a long story - of a 120-minute film – short. A promising Jewish Orthodox religious scholar questions his existence after his father brings him back from the dead, a death caused by a curious bath-tub accident. The writer-director (confessing not to have a personal connection to religion) sets for a glacial pace to enable the viewers´ eyes to migrate from one corner of the frame to the other, in minimalistically and enigmatically organized scenes. The slow unspooling of the action may be painstaking to many, but the film is worth every second, and includes a controversial shot which caused a handful of walkouts several minutes before the credits rolled. Enthralling cinematography assures Tikkun will leave a mental imprint, not a scar, for some time.
(Martin Kudlac)
Raiders!: The Story of The Greatest Fan Film Ever Made - Jeremy Coon, Tim Skousen
Remember that famous fan-film, where a group of teenage friends recreated their favorite film Raiders of the Lost Ark in its entirety, shot for shot? Here's a documentary about that.
Too Young to Die! - Kudô Kankurô
With the proliferation of young-adult narratives and tides of coming-of-age, Too Young to Die! by Kudô Kankurô sounds like just the thing. A rock´n´roll kitschy ride through inferno becomes an absurdist comedy and demonic musical, after a 16 year old pupil goes to hell and sings with demons.
(Martin Kudlac)
The Model - Mads Matthiesen
Danish director Mads Matthiesen follows up his award-winning Teddy Bear with a feature thriller, in which a model moves from Denmark to Paris to start an international modelling career. Things turn pear-shaped when she gets caught in an obsessive, possessive relationship with a photographer.
The Assassin - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
One of the most beautiful films of 2015. Not everyone agrees, but this sedate wuxia ended high in our top-10 last year. It gets a showing in one of the Netherlands' largest screens, which may be a match made in heaven.
Embrace of the Serpent - Ciro Guerra
This film’s inclusion in the IFFR programme is no surprise given that it was funded by the Hubert Bals film fund, but it really does deserve its place. Through an almost mystical narrative, Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent focuses on two chance meetings at two different time periods between a prying Western explorer and a posturing native shaman, and the result is mesmerising.
Coming at a pivotal time for the director (whose career has accelerated exponentially since 2006) and for his country, Embrace of the Serpent spearheads a scintillating movement which is stepping out from the successful shadows of neighbouring countries like Argentina or Brazil. Already a winner at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and currently standing with a chance of winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, this feature isn’t just one of the highlights of Rotterdam, it’s one of the highlights of the year.
(Thomas Humphrey)
The Shell Collector - Tsubota Yoshifumi
A blind collector of seashells finds a rare and very poisonous species, the sting of which can be lethal. But its toxins also have strong healing and hallucinatory properties, and before long, different people disturb the collector's peace to try it out. Director Tsubota Yoshifumi was in Rotterdam in 2010 with his Abe Shinichi biopic Miyoko, which I liked a lot.
Malgré La Nuit - Philippe Grandrieux
A filmmaker with signature and defying style, Philippe Grandrieux, is a regular in Rotterdam. His latest effort Malgré La Nuit is called “more Lynchian than ever” thought the reference is unnecessary since Grandrieux is a notion of its own. With little knowledge about the project and many expectations, this plunge into the macabre and pornographic abyss under the auspice of the French master is a must.
(Martin Kudlac)
Men and Chicken - Anders Thomas Jensen
The director of Adam's Apples reunites with star Mads Mikkelsen to bring a totally bizar story of, well... men and chicken. Michelle "Izzy" Galgana saw it at Fantastic Fest and called it a gross-out comedy blended with a Scooby-doo episode.
The Whispering Star - Sono Sion
In 2014 and 2015, Sono Sion released a veritable barrage of movies, all of which were outrageous, bizarre, controversial, exuberant. The exception was a little black-and-white science fiction film The Whispering Star, probably the quietest and most subdued we've ever seen from Sono.
Todd Brown caught it in Toronto and really liked it.
Chevalier - Athina Rachel Tsangari
Tsangari, brought on the same wave as Yorgos Lanthimos, startled viewers with delightedly weird tale of love, life and death in Attenberg. Though her next project was supposed to be Duncharon “a black science fiction comedy with grumpy astronauts, prematurely advanced children and bionic bunnies, set on a volcanic Greek island doubling for Charon, the largest satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto“, instead it winded up being Chevalier, a sausage fest on a luxury yacht, all dipping into an odd game to determine who the best man is. Chevalier is supposed to be a character study wedged into absurdist comedy.
(Martin Kudlac)
11 Minutes - Jerzy Skolimowski
With more than 20 films and a prestigious collaborations with Roman Polanski under his belt, 11 Minutes marks something of an explosive departure for the Polish master Jerzy Skolimowski. Very openly he has admitted that this script was born out of a very personal pain caused to him by a number of family bereavements, and how his efforts to produce it were very much part of an attempt to overcome the mental and physical turmoil he was experiencing.
This is intensely apparent in the film as it boldly forces home the fragility of human life with plentiful lashings of dark humour: It quite literally follows half a dozen characters through eleven electric minutes that will unexpectedly bind them together forever in a tragedy of seemingly impossible proportions. Full of moments of playful selfie-esque phone footage and shot restlessly from different character perspectives, this film assumes an almost intensely Cubist dimension towards its end and it paints out its moments of life and death in brusque, energetic brush strokes.
(Thomas Humphrey)
Alone - Park Hong-min
A man accidentally witnesses a murder, and ends up in a nightmare... literally, as he seemingly wakes up after this rough start. But soon, memory, reality and nightmares start to mix, and the area the man lives in becomes a scary labyrinth.
Pierce Conran saw the film last year and was very much impressed.
The Love Witch - Anna Biller
It's already nine years ago that Anna Biller visited Rotterdam with her film Viva, her extremely colourful stab at the seventies sex films of Radley Metzger. Well, she's back with a new film, and by the look of The Love Witch, her tastes haven't become any less colourful...
A Copy of my Mind - Joko Anwar
We are big fans of Indonesian director Joko Anwar here at ScreenAnarchy, as his films are gorgeous and often carry a wicked genre streak. In this, his newest, he shows two people drawn together by a love for B-films, but who get in trouble once the couple discovers evidence of criminal activity, and they themselves wind up in a thriller.
In his review, Pierce Conran noted Anwar's ample wry commentary.
Green Room - Jeremy Saulnier
Saulnier's follow-up to his Blue Ruin, which played at Rotterdam a few years ago, Green Room is another intelligent thriller with a deceptively simple story. A performing up-and-coming band plays a gig in a decidedly dodgy area and get on the wrong side of the local skinheads, resulting in a bloody siege situation. Exceptionally well-done, Ryland Aldrich called the film awesome in his review.