That audacious auteur of excess, Takashi Miike, unveils his latest offering, Shield of Straw to be a surprisingly straight laced police narrative that’s notably unfettered by psychosexual shock value or absurdly grotesque violence. Sporting a generously enjoyable first half hour or so, Miike’s excessiveness instead configures itself in pace deadening repetition, where the film’s central theme is explored, regurgitated and discussed over and over again in every monologue, diatribe, shootout and/or explosion. Which is a pity considering the interest Miike manages to instill in the wan but promising B grade dramatic conflict from a concept we’ve seen before in several variations.

Quickly we learn that the ragged corpse of a young girl seen in the opening sequence belongs to the granddaughter of a vengeful billionaire Ninagawa (Tsutomu Yamazaki), who has used his vast funds to force every major publication in Japan to run an advertisement offering one million yen to anyone that will kill the man who police have identified as the prime suspect. That man is convicted murderer Kiyomaru (Tatsuya Fujiwara), recently released from serving a sentence for a similar crime nearly a decade prior.

Kiyomaru’s former cell-mate quickly becomes the first to make an attempt on the wanted man’s life, forcing Kiyomaru to turn himself over to police custody for protection. But when Ninagawa decides to grant one million yen to anyone willing to even try to kill Kiyomaru, the police quickly realize they are in a sticky situation as now they must transport the suspect to the DA in Tokyo within 48 hours. A unit of secret police are assembled to guard Kiyomaru in the entourage, namely Mekari (Takao Osawa), whose own wife was senselessly killed only three years prior, and his partner Shiraiwa (Nanaku Matsushima), a single mother hungry to prove her merit and secure a fast track promotion. As a ridiculously large caravan of police cars escort the crew to Tokyo, the elite team soon realizes that they face the most danger from within from their own sanctions as their colleagues are all highly skilled and trained killers.

The establishing sequences in Shield of Straw are remarkably rapid, quickly rushing headlong into one dozy of an action sequence that all fits very well into the general formula of how all these things tend to go, but Miike’s certainly got our rapt attention from the starting gate. It’s too bad then that nearly immediately after this we’re continually and perpetually flung into an onslaught of paroxysms concerning leaks as to Kiyomaru’s whereabouts on the way to Tokyo, which means no one can trust one another and motives and integrity issues for each character are discussed repeatedly. Of course, we predictably learn several other rote surprises pertaining to corruption higher up the chain, but nothing can resurrect the film’s initial energy. To break up the stagnant sequences dealing with the film’s blatant messages about greed (a cop remarks towards the onset that taxpayer money is needlessly wasted on the police caravan—touché) Tamio Hiyashi’s screenplay is peppered with oddball moments of ludicrousness, such as a young girl taken hostage in a sequence that goes on far too long, or the father of Kiyomara’s first victim conveniently popping up for some proselytizing.

Ending with about as much corny pizzazz as a made for television series, it’s unclear why this latest Miike feature was selected for Main Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, as it’s basically a nice looking genre rehash of 16 Blocks (2006) and it plays like something one could easily see remade with names like Mark Wahlberg or Olivia Wilde plopped into the lead roles. Based on novel by Kazuhiro Kiuchi, the title’s flashy significance, of course, (like Dearden’s Woman of Straw) is because straw is easy to burn. Too bad that Miike didn’t realize that a languorous, slow burn requires substantial fuel.

Reviewed on May 20 at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival — MAIN COMPETITION.

Children switched at birth and discovered years after the error is the well-worn melodramatic scenario that master filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda manages to make potentially one of the most elegantly simplistic entries into said familiar territory with his latest film, Like Father, Like Son. A scenario generously used throughout the history of cinema (and more recent titles like The Other Son and Midnight’s Children come to mind), Koreeda deftly examines a quietly moving nature vs. nurture sequence of events that manages to be generously moving despite feeling familiar when compared to other entries within Koreeda’s impressive oeuvre.

Beginning with his preschool entrance exam, we are introduced to six year old Keita (Keita Ninomiya), who is being interviewed by a panel of adults concerning his family background. We quickly pick up on the fact that Keita and his parents, Ryota (Masashi Fukuyama) and Midori (Machiko Ono) are quite wealthy, and it’s established in the interview that Ryota thinks his son takes after his mother in being too kind and lacking motivation to succeed. It turns out that Ryota is a mostly absent father, but is intent on raising a son that will lead an aggressively successful life, forcing Keita into piano lessons and even composing a list of daily drills and rules for Keita to adhere to. Midori seems cowed by her husband’s imperiousness, avoiding confrontation even while disagreeing with his treatment of Keita. But suddenly, the hospital in which Keita was born contacts Midori and we learn that for an as yet undisclosed reason, Keita and another boy, Ryusei (Hwang Sho-gen) were switched at birth.

Ryota seems immediately relieved, believing this explains Keita’s lack of so many gifted qualities he believes should have been passed down genetically. Upon meeting the working class parents of Ryusei, Yudai and Yukari (Lily Franky and Yoko Maki), Ryota is instantly disgusted with their mediocre, casual ways, what with the couple having two other children and running a suburban appliance store. While Ryota wishes to keep both Keita and Ryusei, ultimately, to the chagrin of Midori, the parents switch the boys to their rightful biological owners, which begins a series of developments that forces the cold hearted Ryota to learn what being a father is really all about.

As with his Nobody Knows (2004) and I Wish (2011), Koreeda again returns to subtle ripples of devastating emotional trauma involving the separation or uprooting of children from their parents or safe environments. While Like Father, Like Son is neither as devastating as Nobody Knows nor as hopeful as I Wish, he once again captures excellent and naturalistic performances from children, and it’s quiet hard not to be drawn into the plight of Keita and Ryusei, both subjected to a domineering parental figure insistent on continuing a cycle of emotional neglect/abuse experienced at the hands of his own father. Persistently simple and straightforward, Koreeda’s commentary may seem overtly obvious, but it’s never less than compelling.

Starting out with stiffly smug and uncomfortably wrought scenes due to the overtly pretentious Ryota (in a performance from Masashi Fukuyama that at first feels overly rehearsed but soon becomes genuinely transformative), Koreeda paces the film smoothly and mines a quiet grace with the character of Midori, who not so secretly wants to keep the son she grew to love over the past six years, a young boy she insistently claims takes after her. While it’s difficult to fault Like Father, Like Son, it’s an overtly familiar scenario from the talented Koreeda, returning us to the fragile and precarious lives of children constantly in danger of interruption by the adults supposedly there to look out for them. Fans and followers will certainly prize this latest entry, but Like Father, Like Son is also Koreeda like Koreeda.

Reviewed on May 18 at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival — MAIN COMPETITION.

For his first film made outside his native country, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi unveils his latest exercise in domestic unrest with the French language The Past. Following hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed 2011 film, A Separation, anticipation has been high, and Farhadi nearly succeeds in equaling the compelling portrait of miscommunication and misunderstanding he has so brilliantly wrought in his previous film. Once again beginning with a couple on the verge of severing ties (though this time the separation has calcified into divorce), intertwining character arcs unveil an overly complicated scenario that unfortunately brings us to a finale that seems a bit little too late.

Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) has returned to Paris from Tehran seemingly to grant his ex-wife Marie’s (Berenice Bejo) request to divorce. While his presence wasn’t necessarily required, it seems they intend on finally ending on good terms, even though they’ve resided apart for the past four years. Arriving at Marie’s home, it’s obvious she’s in the midst of some domestic quandaries of which Ahmad had been unaware. First, Marie’s teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet) has been giving her mother a hard time, acting out aggressively in reaction to her mother’s recently announced engagement to another suitor. It seems Marie would like Ahmed to try to communicate with Lucie to find out what’s wrong, and we learn that Ahmad is actually Marie’s second husband, and not the father of her two daughters.

A young boy, Fouad (Elyes Aguis) now resides at Marie’s and Ahmed discovers he is the child of her new fiancé, Samir (Tahar Rahim). Unnerved that Marie didn’t bother to get him a hotel as he requested and has forced him to stay uncomfortably in this new situation, the stage has been set for Ahmed to become embroiled in a tiringly complicated scenario that has erupted between Marie, Samir, Lucie, and Cecile, Samir’s wife, whose presence is aggravating the scenario.

To reveal any further details on The Past’s tightly coiled plot would be like pulling the loose thread of a sweater that causes the whole garment to unravel. Once all the main players are introduced, we’re treated to a sort of mysterious, even foreboding domestic drama that reveals itself throughout a series of compelling and well-staged interactions akin to the director’s best past works, such as A Separation and the deliciously uncomfortable About Elly (2008). But after several turns of the screw, one can’t help but feel that Marie and her increasingly agitated life at home turns into something a bit belabored.

Lack of communication, little white lies, the inability to express profound and uncomfortable revelations to one another, (both as a couple and the familial unit as a whole), are elements on display that Farhadi once again proves he has a knack at delving into with aplomb. But eventually a moment arrives when it feels like Marie, Lucie, and Samir just seem to be playing out a wicked kitchen sink drama, cruelly forcing outsider Ahmad into the situation. While he bluntly questions Marie as to why she insisted on bringing him to Paris under the guise of finalizing the divorce, her lack of explanation is never vocalized, which makes the enjoyably dense buildup utilizing Ahmed for the film’s first half feel like a red herring.

Farhadi reunites with cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari from A Separation, and there’s no question that The Past looks great, again focusing on harried, enclosed living spaces, both at Marie’s home and Samir’s Laundromat. In a role that was widely publicized as being offered first to Marion Cotillard, Berenice Bejo is quite surprisingly well cast here. While this isn’t her first role since her much hailed Oscar nominated performance in The Artist (she has a fluffy supporting role in the crowd pleasing Populaire) Bejo finally gets to inhabit a fleshed out, multifaceted role. Her anxious face hovers uneasily on the screen throughout most of the film, finally erupting into a torrential fury, a potent scene that seems hampered by the continuous unspooling of the plot. However, she’s as convincingly soft as she is shrill.

Tahar Rahim seems well suited for hellish domestic strife, as this follows on the heels of his callous portrayal of a somewhat cold hearted spouse in 2012’s Our Children (aka A Perdre La Raison), and he’s as equally believable here. However, it’s Ali Mosaffa’s kindhearted turn that feels the most effective, his shared sequences with both Bejo and Burlet making the overly long running time feel all the more worthwhile.

While The Past may not trump Farhadi’s previous work, it’s still an excellent piece of melodramatic cinema, with a finely staged script and engrossing performances. Concerned overall with the things we can’t seem to let go from our past that continually hamper the future, Farhadi bookends the film with some blunt metaphors. Upon picking up Ahmed at the airport, Marie asks him to help look behind to see if it’s alright to leave, and as the two stare out towards the back of the vehicle, the title is announced. You’ll have to check out the film for a cliffhanger final moment that returns us to the same question posed by Farhadi, how do we forget the past and move forward?

Reviewed on May 17 at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival — MAIN COMPETITION.

Technically not the first title out of the gate (as Amat Escalante’s Heli received an early preview the night before) this morning’s first 8:30a.m screening belonged to a contempo “Belle de Jour” with director-screenwriter Francois Ozon’s Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie) which stars the exceptionally beautiful Marine Vacth in the role of a seventeen year-old sex-ploration of self – a theme that Ozon has visited several times before, most recently in 2003′s Swimming Pool starring Ludivine Sagnier. Our critics pretty much had a similar response to the first a.m crowd, warmed up to the portrait, which is sectioned off in four seasons, ultimately following her journey from virgin to seasoned pro. Oddly humorous in spots, there is a sincere attempt at examining how a small percentile use their body, naïveté, and beauty to their advantage. Perfect filler in a Cannes edition where several folks were looking forward to Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac. Click on the image below for the latest set of critic panel grades.

Moving right along the trajectory we’re all well familiar with by now, François Ozon makes yet another sexed-up François Ozon film with this tale of a year in the life of a nubile seventeen year-old prostitute. With plenty of beautifully photographed flesh to prevent a heavy onset of boredom, Jeune et Jolie suffers from a sterile first half that feels just like any other erotic French drama; attempts at characterization are actively avoided, and it makes for a removed viewing experience – however intentional it may be – that does the film few favors. At times resembling a watered down Catherine Breillat film or a less idiosyncratic remake of Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, only a 2nd act tonal shift toward lighter Ozon territory livens things up, before fluttering to a landing (or two…or three…) that reveals Ozon’s struggle to arrive anywhere meaningful with this ultimately superficial affair.

Ozon actively deceives viewers on numerous occasions, starting things off with a standard coming of age set-up that sees Isabelle (portrayed by the strikingly perfect – anatomically speaking – Marine Vacht) courting a hunky German body surfer. He quickly pops her cherry, which sends the film into a new season, and Isabelle into an unexplained venture into prostitution – all of her clients ranging from middle-aged to ‘on their way out.’ The lack of motivational insight would be more striking were Isabelle’s (or anyone’s) gestures as humans even remotely curious, but with Vacht often imitating a walking mannequin and her clients playing model stereotypes of wealthy old fellas who pay for sex with hot girls, there isn’t much to get excited about beside the almost Gregory Crewdson-esque gloss of Pascale Marti’s almost Vogue-grade lensing.

Once the nature of Isabelle’s double life is unveiled to her family and friends, the film takes a refreshing turn toward lighter territory. The idea that she could and would sleep with anyone and everyone (even her step-father) is hardly suffocating or used for dramatic nonsense; Ozon is aware of the awkwardness of the young girl’s exposure, and milks it in a tone that feels both one with and outside of where the film had been heading. The traumatic incident which called the end to her addictive occupation makes the new-found humor feel even more dissonant and bizarre, and at least there was now something in the film to grab on to. Isabelle’s normalization as an every-teenager progresses the film to a new form of banality as we await an impending relapse, while M83 and Crystal Castles tracks break away from Philippe Rombi’s Mahler-esque score (which vaguely evokes Visconti’s own tale of tragic lost youth, Death in Venice), to further emphasize her return to life of an ’average’ seventeen year-old girl.

While he’s crafted a technically stunning and handsome package, Ozon’s intentions only reveal themselves to be mysterious and marginal; it’s all rather unsatisfying once the credits roll. Several false endings bring the film to a final moment – a bit out of nowhere – surely meant to be poignant but that registers as unearned and empty. Vacht ought to get plenty of notices if not for her restrained performance than at least her physique, while Jeune et Jolie itself should join the line of recent Ozon films that fail to capture his old spark and relevance.

Reviewed on May 16th the 2013 Cannes Film Festival – Main Competition section
93 Mins.

It seems that for some, the appetite for rare and exotic fruits extends far beyond mere curious fascination and well on into the realm of impassioned obsession. They’re appreciative of harvest heritage and community farming, craving unique local flavors home grown in the untapped wilderness or bought and sold via small provincial marketplaces. Exploring lighter, sweeter fare than his previous China focused efforts, Up The Yangtze and China Heavyweight, director Yung Chang follows the winding path to the gardens of Eden in his tangy exposé, The Fruit Hunters.

Following the pursuits of horticulturalists, pomologists, and backyard enthusiasts as they search for white fleshed mangoes and forgotten fruits preserved within Renaissance paintings, we travel the globe learning of fruits rarely tasted in the western world. As it turns out, actor Bill Pullman (of Independence Day and Lost Highway fame) is also a fruit fanatic. Out in the Hollywood hills where he lives and farms is own personal hillside garden, we see him hosting neighborhood gatherings, trying to gain support of a community owned orchard. Long before he made a name for himself on the big screen, Pullman was a teenage kid growing up basically alone in the backwoods of upstate New York. Those self sufficient summers left a lasting impression, and now, though lacking the sense of scent, the quest for fruit is not only a delectable indulgence, but also a method of gainful gratification that circumvents the big industry choke hold held by produce giants like Chiquita or Dole.

Light as the topic may seem, Chang’s continued interest in the cultural disconnect between individuals and industry rises to the surface as he questions the globalization of few select fruits and observes the fiscally focused politics destroy good intentioned communal farming projects before they ever take root. But while the film carries Chang’s thematic DNA, it remains a drastic departure in style and structure for the docu director. Dabbling in divisive reenactments that give historical context to the cultural importance of fruits, he extends his visual flair while causing tonal turmoil. You may not know that one’s obsession with the translucent flesh of the lychee has caused an entire empire to fall, but the seriousness of such an event is played with such costumed frivolity that the sequence feels a last minute addition that forcefully bridges current obsessions with the lineage of legends. Balanced by Chang’s gracefully concerned voiceover that leads us along, not all of these historical digressions are as wonky as the aforementioned, but none of them seem completely at home in the film.

While occasionally topsy-turvy in its storytelling, The Fruit Hunters is first and foremost a love letter to carnal produce. First time cinematographer Mark Ó’Fearghail shoots sensually in ultra intimate close-ups, conveying the visual beauty of exotic fruit while causing vivid visual associations to sex organs. The forbidden history of fruit is no secret, from the apple that tainted Eve to the pomegranate that bound Proserpina, they’ve always been an erotic symbol of indulgence that humans have never been able to abstain from. Chang’s subjects are no different, continuously infatuated by the touch, smell and taste of fruit, but responsibly conscious of its natural fragility. Informing while invoking curious salivation, Chang’s vibrantly photographed doc may inspire open minded tasting and a green thumb or two, but little else.

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Buzz: Coming to the Croisette with one of the most anticipated sophomore films, Barnard’s multiple festival award-winning debut, experimental, bio-documentary The Arbor (2010) put her on the map of British filmmakers to watch out for.

The Gist:13 year-old Arbor and his best friend Swifty, both excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighborhood, meet Kitten, a local scrapdealer and begin collecting scrap metal for him using a horse and cart. Swifty has a natural gift with horses while Arbor emulates Kitten – keen to impress him and make some money. But when Kitten begins to favor Swifty, leaving Arbor hurt and excluded, a wedge is driven between the boys. Arbor becomes increasingly greedy and exploitative, increasing the tension between them, and leading to a tragic event which transforms them all.

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Buzz: Seeing that the wait time between films can be a lengthy one, We Need to Talk About Kevin director would be in the middle of lensing Jane Got a Gun, but since dropping out she took on jury duty for the Main Comp and is showing perhaps the most anticipated short film on the Croisette this year.

The Gist:The 16 minute short film, enters the mind of an endurance swimmer on a journey through Britain’s waterways, using sound and images to penetrate his thoughts, feelings, dreams, nightmares, memories, escape.

Section: Un Certain Regard

Buzz: The Quebecois wunderkind appears to have made quite the impression on the Cannes family, gaining entry into a coveted Un Certain Regard category showing, after having competed in Palme d’or competition with her short (Chef de meute) in the previous year. Chloé Robichaud’s short also landed at the Toronto International Film Festival and was named as one of TIFF’s top 10 short films of 2012. It actress on the Croisette this year in Sophie Desmaris toplines this young adult dealing with Olympic-sized pressures account, and the trailer indicts that there might be something special in the sauce. It appears that Xavier Dolan is not the only bright hope, in what has fast become a vibrant Quebecois filmmaking scene.

The Gist: This tells the story of a young woman (Desmarais) who moves from rural Quebec to Montreal with her boyfriend to run on the McGill track team. But big-city life and her passion for the sport put pressure on their relationship.

Section: Main Competition

Buzz: Steadily guided by Cannes’ fest head honcho Thierry Fremieux, Amat Escalante receives a major big stage showing for his long-awaited third film (worth noting it was among the four hand-picked winners for the 2010 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards along with Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Elena” and Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild“). Sangre (Un Certain Regard – 2005), his debut feature announced the helmer as an up-and-comer in Mexican cinema, while his home-invasion follow-up Los Bastardos divided up the critical mass when it showed once again in Cannes in 2008 (Un Certain Regard).

The Gist: In a small Mexican town, where most citizens work for an automobile assembly plant or the local drug cartel, Heli is confronted with police corruption, drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, love, guilt and revenge in the search for his father who has mysteriously disappeared.

Section: Critics’ Week

Buzz: I know her debut feature, Love Like Poison, left a lot to be desired for many, but based solely on the strength of her short film With All My Might, Quillévéré deserves at least three strikes before being ousted from the ‘must see whatever she does’ list. Critics Week opening films actually have a fairly solid track record, so look for this to potentially be one of this year’s out-of-nowhere breakout hits.

The Gist: Suzanne and Maria are sisters who are extremely close. They have a happy childhood despite the absence of their mother, who passed away when they were still little girls. Nicolas, their, at times clumsy, but loving father runs the household the very best he can, until the day that Suzanne gets pregnant. Little Charly arrives and the family gets bigger. Years go by, Suzanne meets Julien, a bit of a bad boy, and they fall hopelessly in love… She runs away with him abandoning everyone and leaving everything behind.

Section: Un Certain Regard

Buzz: Buzz: Lav Diaz can get ghetto-ized as that Filipino director who makes obscenely long films (which, his films really are often way too long), but he’s also one of the best Asian filmmakers working today (his eight-hour Melancholia is a flat-out masterpiece). Strikingly prolific considering the length of his films, the Twitterverse was quick to tease his latest – <em>only</em> four hours and ten minutes long – as a misplaced submission to the festival’s Short Film Corner. Alas, Diaz is one of the most avant-garde and sui generis directors in this year’s event, so this should be a refreshing break from the (relatively) straight-forward routes of 98% of the rest of the pack…for those with butts brave enough to give it a shot.

The Gist:<em>A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.</em>

Section: Critics’ Week

Buzz: Wholly unassuming, as most Québécois films tend to be outside of Quebec, Sébastien Pilote made perhaps the best Canadian film of 2011 with his strong debut The Salesman. A small chorus responded to it, in the shape of a Grand Jury Prize at the Bombay International Film Festival and a spot on that year’s Canada’s Top Ten (probably the only film that year to earn a collective “Huh!?” upon its announcement).

The Gist: Gaby raises lambs on his farm, the Gagnon & Sons farm. Except that he doesn’t have a son. He has two daughters he has raised like princesses and who live far away, in the big city. One day, his older daughter asks him for a loan to save her from losing her home. Gaby, whose sense of paternal duty exceeds all reason, chooses to sell off his farm.

Section: Un Certain Regard

Buzz: Alain Guiraudie is one of the most interesting French filmmakers almost no one in North America has heard of, winning the praises of Jean-Luc Godard for his short 2001 feature, That Old Dream That Moves (“The best film at the Festival de Cannes.”) and continuing on to make some of the freshest, most vibrant, and complex queer films the cinema has ever seen. His last film – 2009′s Directors’ Fortnight alum, The King of Escape - hardly stole the show upon it’s premiere four years ago, but it has gone on to become somewhat of a dark horse critical darling among American critics such as Dan Sallitt and Vadim Rizov. Hopefully this anticipated follow-up will deliver the goods, and be duly lauded.

The Gist:“Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel. An attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway.”

Section: Out of Competition

Buzz: The guy who made Shoah made this. Period.

The Gist: 1975. In Rome, Claude Lanzmann filmed a series of interviews with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last President of the Jewish Council of Elders in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, the only “Jewish elder” (according to Nazi terminology) not to have been killed during the war. 2012. Claude Lanzmann, at 87, exhumes these interviews from Rome, returning to Theresienstadt, the town “given to the Jews by Hitler”, a so-called model ghetto, but a deceitful ghetto chosen by Eichmann to dupe the world. Through the various periods, from Nisko in Poland to Theresienstadt, and from Vienna to Rome, the film provides an unprecedented insight into the genesis of the Final Solution.

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Buzz: The first feature film from Swiss-Iranian director, Kaveh Bakhtiari, documents the plight of illegal immigrants from Iran living in Greece, where they are in transit until they find their way to other Western countries. Director’s Fortnight has selected yet another hot topic as this issue has become a grave one in many Western countries.

The Gist: Kaveh Bakhtiari, the director, spent long months among a group of Iranian illegal immigrants in Athens to follow their individual fates. Seeking their dream of a better life and freedom, people from all walks of life make the radical decision to leave everything behind and emigrate from Iran. They cross the exceedingly dangerous border into Turkey, risk their lives on board refugee boats heading for Greece, and finally arrive in Athens, where they find shelter with Amir, who runs a “boarding house” for illegal immigrants. Amir’s place has evolved into a sort of headquarters, as it were, where everyone is mapping out plans to continue their journey.

Section: Critics’ Week

Buzz: ​A first feature film from Sicilian directors, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, selected for Critics’ Week, it is a crime noir with a touch of the surreal. Shot by director & cinematographer Daniele Cipri, the images are haunting and promising. The producer Fabrizio Mosca defined the film as​ “an extreme, stylized, researched and rigorous film, in the style of Le Samourai by J.P. Melville.”​ A statement that produces anticipatory excitement. One hopes it is precisely as promised.

The Gist: Salvo is a mafia killer in Palermo. Rita is twenty and blind from birth. Salvo sneaks into Rita’s house, to kill her brother. There is a fight, a ferocious, hand to hand struggle. Rita’s blind eyes, trembling with rage and distress, staring at him yet unseeing, seem to disturb Salvo and he closes them with his hands covered in blood. When he removes the hands, Rita’s eyes see for the first time.

Section: Un Certain Regard

Buzz: This first feature film from German filmmaker, Katrin Gebbe, is an exploration of a young man’s increasingly dangerous liaison with a religious Christian punk group, non-chalantly called The Jesus Freaks. A series of dangerous tests of faith for young Tore are in fact, cruel games. If the summary delivers the excitement it promises, this would be a highpoint in Un Certain Regard. This appears to be a cross between Ulrich Seidl’s Dog Days and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games.​ One hopes that is the case.

The Gist: The young Tore seeks in Hamburg a new life among the religious group called The Jesus Freaks. When he by accident meets a family and helps them to repair their car, he believes that a heavenly wonder has helped him. He starts a friendship with the father of the family, Benno. Soon he moves in with them at their garden plot, not knowing what cruelty is there to come. True to his religious belief he stays with them although the increasing violence by Benno is torturing him. Tore is fighting the torment with his own weapons. A dangerous struggle between libidinous actions and altruism begins. Inspired by true events.

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Buzz: Not a stranger to prolific film festivals, Anurag Kashyap’s films have debuted in Venice (Dev D), Toronto (That Girl in Yellow Boots) and most recently last year in Cannes with Gangs of Wasseypur. This year, along with Ugly, he is one of the co-directors of Bombay Talkies which screens in Cannes a a special tribute to India. His latest film seems to be torn from the headlines as the safety of young girls is thrust into the forefront. Designed as a thriller, this kidnapping tale may prove to be timely for audiences not only in India, but everywhere..

The Gist:Rahul and Shalini are the divorced parents of ten-year Kali. The little girl now lives with her mother and step-father, Shoumik, who runs a Mumbai police brigade. One Sunday, Kali is spending the day with her father when she disappea​rs.

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Buzz: Basil da Cunha is a Swiss filmmaker of Portuguese descent. In 2011 and 2012, his short films Nuvem and Os vivos também choram were part of the official selection in Directors’ Fortnight, where the latter short was awarded a Special Mention from the Jury. Expectations are high for Da Cunha’s first feature film. However​,​ based on the images, it promises​ to be another gritty, crime-riddled, violent drama, set in the Afro-Portuguese community in Lisbon. Let’s hope Da Cunha brings something new to this oft-treaded​ setting.

The Gist: Straight out of jail, Sombra returns to his life as a drug dealer in the creole slum of Lisbon. In between the money he has lent and can’t get back, the money he owes, a fanciful iguana, an invasive little girl and a ringleader who begins to mistrust him, he starts to think that he might have been better off in prison.

​

Section: Un Certain Regard

Buzz: Cambodian director Rithy Panh, perhaps best known for his 2003 documentary, S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine or a 2008 Isabelle Huppert film, The Sea Wall, unveils this intriguing hybrid documentary/Claymation feature in Un Certain Regard, and it has already been compared to the likes of Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir. Luckily, Panh’s latest has already received distribution deals through Paris based Film Distribution (FD) ahead of its world premiere, which bodes well for a project that may very well introduce Panh to a wider audience.

The Gist: In The Missing Image, Franco-Cambodian Panh pieces together his adolescence in a Khmer Rouge labour camp, through archives and reenactments using small clay figurines, in the work.