MWFF 2017: Resina

RESINA

FIRST FILM WORLD COMPETITION
Italy

Inspired by a true story.

At the end of its last screening at the Montreal World Film Festival 2017, during the Q & A session with the director Renzo Carbonera, a woman from the audience called the film "a pearl". Indeed, this film is a real gem. The cinematography is great, the sceneries from the Northern Italy where the film action is set inspire a desire to be in that countryside, to walk on its mountainous paths, and to see those magnificent vistas in person. Yet not only visual senses grab viewer's attention, the auditory elements are foremost as they introduce the audience to the unique sound of an all male choir and to their superb singing (watch the film trailer at the end of the article). 

The film has two themes that are intertwined. One deals with the reinvention of a male choir that has come to its total decline, far from its former glory when it was winning prizes and choir competitions not only in Italy but internationally. And the second themes deals with an edgy and at first distant personage Maria, the main heroin, who returns to her native village after the disappointments in the big world, and unwittingly, and even at first unwillingly becomes the saviour, motivator, and a kind of an inspiring "guardian angel" that resurrects the choir, giving it a new sound and artistic face. In the process, she also reinvents herself and her life, overcoming her former personal and artistic rejections, and establishing her own musical career as an accomplished director of an all male choir.

The film's title RESINA in Italian means a tree resin. Resin is a liquid stored in the outer cells of trees that is highly viscous in the beginning but gets hardened when treated. It is used to manufacture lacquer, varnish, jewellery, and perfumes, and is also used to seal and hold together wooden sculptures and boats. It is an appropriate name for the film as it symbolizes the pine-wooded region where it is set, and the hardening and solidifying of both Maria's character and the choir's artistic existence from their previous amorphous states. Ending in letter "a", the word Resina sounds feminine, as if it were Maria's artistic name, representing her strength that has glued the choir and made it hold together.

The film was shot in Luserna, Maria's native village situated in the area that was annexed to Italy after the World War I, prior to that being close to the Italian border but inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The inhabitants still speak an ancient Germanic language called Cimbric which is rapidly becoming extinct. Only about 100 people in Luserna (or Lusérn in Cimbric) use this language in their everyday life. Another 100 understand it and either don't speak it or speak it badly. The population is ageing, and the new terminologies and concepts of the contemporary world cannot be expressed in this ancient Cimbric language, so it is rapidly being replaced by the modern Italian.

Make a point to see this gem of a film, it is intriguing and inspiring. You will also hear the sounds of the language as spoken by its natives speakers, the language which most likely will no longer exist within another decade or two. And you will hear their two beautiful and haunting traditional folk songs as arranged by the film's music director Luca Ciut.

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

Male choir and female director. A family and a small community need binding together in order to face challenges of the future.

Production Team

Director : Renzo Carbonera
Screenwriter : Renzo Carbonera, Alessandro Bandinelli

Cinematographer : Harald Erschbaumer

Country : Italy

Length : 90 min.

Editor : Elena Cabria

Cast : Maria Roveran, Thierry Toscan, Alessandro Averone, Jasmin Mairhofer, Mirko Artuso, Vasco Mirandola, Andrea Pennacchi, Diego Pagotto.

Music : Luca Ciut

RESINA was inspired by a story featured in Renzo Carbonero' previous documentary film Stop and Listen (2010). You can read about this documentary film here.

FILM TRAILER on VIMEO

This is not an official trailer which will be published later this fall when the film is released in Italy. At this point, it is only a teaser.

https://vimeo.com/226657653

Director Renzo Carbonera presented his film at MWFF 2017 before the projection and answered the audiences' questions after the film ended. See the before and after photos of his on stage presentations just below.

Click on images to enlarge them. 

For more information about the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: Chinese Delegation Photo Highlights

Montreal World Film Festival

Montreal World Film Festival has great ties with the Chinese film industry. Serge Losique, the festival's president, in his youth worked on his first film in China. This year, a special Chinese section was instituted at MWFF entitled Chinese Film Festival with three best film prizes. Here are the winners in this category:

CHINESE FILM FESTIVAL

1st Prize:  THE AMBER by Chen Peng'ao (China)

2nd Prize:  THE BLOOD HOUND by Jianhua Liu (China)

3rd Prize:  ACROSS THE RIVER by Zhang Yueling (China)

On December 2, 2017, the festival also held a special press conference with all the Chinese film directors in attendance at MWFF 2017. The Chinese films artistic aspirations but mainly the promotional strategies especially in the western world were discussed. The group photo of the Chinese directors together with two key discussion and ideas animators is at the top of this article.

THE HIDDEN SWORD

The crew of the Chinese film The Hidden Sword that won the Best Artistic Contribution Prize at the festival's Closing Awards Ceremony, held two well attended special events at the MWFF 2017, both of them open to the general public:

On August 28, 2017, at Astral, they presented a Master Class with the director and screenwriter Xu Haofeng that lasted over 2 hours.

A day later, on August 29, 2017, at the Hotel Intercontinental, the film's team held a press conference where once again they talked about The Hidden Sward film, the history of the traditional sword fighting, the techniques of the masters, the necessity of the sword arts being preserved and passed onto the future generations, and also about how the film was conceived, made and promoted.

The members of the The Hidden Sward production team also attended the festival's closing ceremony on September 4, 2017 where Xu Haofeng received the prize on the Cinema Imperial stage.

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FOOTSTEPS

The team of the Chinese film Footsteps often attended screenings of other films at the festival which provided several picture taking opportunities.

Here are photos of the Footsteps director Wong Wai with his leading actors and crew members.

Footsteps consists of 4 stories dealing with the same theme of a woman's position in the society, how she behaves within a family and in a relationship to a man. The two main characters play the principal roles in all four stories which are spread from each other in 20 years periods, each story representing a one generation gap. It becomes very obvious how interestingly confident and liberated a woman progressively becomes, how much more personal freedom, power and confidence she gains.

Click on images to enlarge them. 

For more information about the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: Awards

41ST WORLD FILM FESTIVAL, MONTREAL 2017

Monday, September 4, 2017

AWARDS

FEATURE FILMS

World Competition

Grand Prix of the Americas (Best Film):

AND SUDDENLY THE DAWN / Y DE PRONTO EL AMANECER by Silvio Caiozzi (Chile)

Special Grand Prix of the Jury:

DEAR ETRANGER / OSANAGO WARERA NI UMARE by Yukiko Mishima (Japan) 

Best Director:

Maciej Sobieszczanski for the film RECONCILIATION / ZGODA (Poland)

Best Actress:

Irena Kovacevic in the film THE BASICS OF KILLING / DRUŽINICA by Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia / Serbia)

Best Actor:

Karel Roden in the film A PROMINENT PATIENT / MASARYK by Julius Ševcík (Czech Republic/Slovakia)

Best Screenplay:

Hosein Namazi for the screenplay of his film APPENDIX (Iran)

Best Artistic Contribution (ex-aequo):

- THE HIDDEN SWORD by Xu Haofeng (China)
- ANNA KARENINA. VRONSKY’S STORY / ANNA KARENINA. ISTORIYA VRONSKOGO by Karen Shakhnazarov (Russia)

Visual Innovation Award for Transmitting the Oral Traditions:

SAYAKBAY - HOMER OF 20TH CENTURY by Ernest Abdyjaparov (Kyrgyzstan)

ZENITHS FOR THE BEST FIRST FICTION FEATURE FILMS

First Films World Competition

Golden Zenith:

THE RETURN / DOLAONDA by Chul Heo (South Korea)

Silver Zenith: 

SWEET PARENTS by David Bly (Canada / USA)

Bronze Zenith: 

THE LOST ELEPHANTS / LES ÉLÉPHANTS PERDUS by Claude Andrieux (France)

SHORT FILMS

  

1st prize:

THE LAST CHURCH BELLS / POSLEDENITE KAMBANI by Nicola Popovski (Macedonia)

Jury Award:

THE CLOWN / LE CLOWN by Maxime Genois (Canada)

Special Mentions: 

UCHEBNIK by David Csicskár (Hungary)

WOLF / VARG by Erik Andersson et Frida Kempff (Sweden)

Special Prize of Laughter:

THIS IS ED!! by Bob Hiltermann (USA)

  

CHINESE FILM FESTIVAL

1st Prize:  THE AMBER by Chen Peng'ao (China)

2nd Prize:  THE BLOOD HOUND by Jianhua Liu (China)

3rd Prize:  ACROSS THE RIVER by Zhang Yueling (China)

AWARDS OF THE 48TH STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL, MONTREAL 2017

(Held under the auspices and in collaboration with MWFF 2017)

Awards granted on Sunday, September 3, 2017

NATIONAL COMPETITION (CANADA)

Norman McLaren Award (Best Film):

LAND by Samiramis Kia (York University, Toronto)

  

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

1st Prize - Best Film of International Competition

ELENE by Sezen Kayhan (Koç University, Istanbul,Turkey)

BEST FILMS BY CATEGORIES:

Fiction Film:

THE BABYSITTER by Heli Hardy

(The Steve Tisch School of film and Television, University of Tel Aviv, Israel)

Special Mention:

NINE KNOTS / NUEVE NUDOS by Lorena Colmenares

(University of the Andes, Bogota, Colombia)

  

Animation Film:

WISHING BOX by Wenli (Lizzie) Zhang

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, USA)

Documentary Film:

OPEN DOORS by Pavel Marcano (Universidad del Cine, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

  

Experimental Film:

NIPENTHES by Jon Simvonis (AMC Metropolitan College, Athens, Greece)

For more information about the film festival visit the  Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: Elvis Walks Home

ELVIS WALKS HOME

WORLD COMPETITION

Albania

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

"Mickey, an Albanian refugee without documents who lives in London, is an imitator of Elvis Presley. He works to entertain the British troops in the 1999 Balkan war. When a conflict in the wings began, he flees in his King costume and lands in the military zone. He is captured by a group of refugee children, victims of this absurd war."

The film raises issues of how people behave in extraordinary situations in war conflict zones, how much humanity and bravery a person can keep under the conditions of hatred, power struggle, the fire arms being pointed at you, and the general moral depravity of those who intent to profiteer in the most debased ways during a war. It reveals that many of those who under normal peaceful conditions function quite adequately within their community can easily turn into hard-core killers with absolutely no regard for other people's dignity, right to live, or any other rights. It also shows how the fighting sides in the Balkan conflict were ready to shoot at anything that moves, even children or UN humanitarian encampments.

A group of children, as multi-ethnic as the Balkan conflict region itself, who have lost their parents and homes are wondering through the military zone trying to reach a UN camp. Their main concern is to avoid being captured by the organized crime groups. Yet mirroring and imitating the war situation around them, they form a society of their own, with a similar hierarchical structure of a crime gang, where the gun-power rules, and where those without firearms are mistreated and ordered around. 

Mickey, an Elvis Presley impersonator, is captured by this children's group. He not only keeps his human face through various ordeals imposed on him by the children and other war structures they encounter, but is surprisingly able to master leadership and even a Rambo-like strategy and action. At the end, only one card is left for him to play to save the children's and his own life, and it requires no firearms...    

The film makes the statement that it is not guns that have the ultimate power to resolve human conflicts but rather collective values like music, culture, love and humanity. 

The director was able to cast excellent actors. Dritan Kastrati, who plays the Elvis Presley impersonator, expressed masterfully through his on-screen persona the complexity of the Balkan war. A especial mention goes to the children actors who did an excellent job to portray their juvenile gang with credibility and authenticity.

PRODUCTION TEAM 

Director: Fatmir Koçi

Scriptwriter: Jonathan Preece
Photography: Marek Wesolowski
Country: Albania
Lenght: 94 min.

Lead Actors: Dritan Kastrati, Amos Muji Zaharia, Erand Hoxha, Juli Emiri

Children Actors: KLAUS LAÇI, SAMUEL VARGU, ARMIN VARGU, VIVIAN BIAGIONI, ARBER SINANAJ, ENEA SHINJATARI, LONEL BOÇI,  GLEDI SPAHIU, JONA ANASTASI, MIKEL JAKU, NAIEL HOXHA, REIS ÇANI, NIKOL SHOSHA, LAURA ÇANI

FILM TRAILER

For more information on the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: A Prominent Patient

A Prominent Patient
Masaryk

WORLD COMPETITION

Czech Republic

The film is based on a true story. 

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

"In 1939, the flamboyant diplomat Jan Masaryk emigrated to the United States following the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. With the help of psychiatrist Dr. Stein, a German immigrant, Masaryk recalls the political struggles that led to the Second World War and tries to defeat his real and personal enemies."

The film shows the historical situation in Europe just before the World War 2, focusing largely on Czechoslovakia. It reveals how some big-scale geopolitical strategies were conceived and played at the time, what complex international moves were considered and deployed, disregarding interests of smaller countries like Czechoslovakia.

The film is set in years 1937-1939. The main character is Jan Masaryk, the son of the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk who was the founder of Czechoslovakia at the fall of the Austro-Hungerian Empire. Film starts with Tomáš Masaryk death. Shortly after, Jan Masaryk becomes a Czechoslovak ambassador to the United Kingdom. At that time, Czechhoslovakia faced Germany's aggression and their demand to annex Sudet (Sudeten in German) territory, a part of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk tries to persuade England to help keep Czechoslovakia intact, but fails. The Munich Agreement is settled, and Czechoslovakia gives up to Nazi Germany at first it's borderline Sudet lands and later the entire country.

Jan Masaryk, devastated by the political events, travels to the United States where he has a vast network of family and friends, since his mother was an American. According to the film, he is institutionalized there due to a nervous breakdown, and treated by Doctor Klein, a refugee from Germany. Their relationship is intense, as two great professionals (a psychiatrist and a politician) influence each other in understanding not only their personal but also geopolitical struggles.

The film includes a few sequences of Masaryk's life that in reality happened outside of the plot's time-span. It appears these time shifts away from the Masaryk's real life chronology were chosen for a more compact presentation of Jan Masaryk's personality, to show what a "character" he was, and also to create a more compelling visual story:

- There does not exist any evidence that Jan Masaryk was hospitalized during his three months visit to the US in the early 1939. However, in 1912, at the age of 26, he attended for a short period the Vineland Developmental Center in New Jersey, a special school for young men and women, and was diagnosed there to have a mild form of schizophrenia. But is not it claimed that genius often borders on madness?

- Similarly, he met Marcia Devenport, an American journalist, only in 1941, not during the time covered by the film (1937-39).

- In addition, although at his times cocaine was wildly used by the European high society, there is no evidence that Masaryk did. Non of his family, friends or associates mention it in their memoirs or correspondence.

The film succeeded in portraying vividly a slice of a very complex geopolitical period in European history (which was actually even much more complex than what could be shown during the film's 100 minutes). It also succeeded in recreating on the screen one of the personages and political players of that era - Jan Masaryk - and show his unusual and astute personality and how he fought to make a difference for his country. 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Julius Ševčík

Producer: Julius Ševčík

Script: Julius Ševčík

Lead Actor: Karel Roden
Lenght: 100 Min.

Music composed by: Kryštof Marek, Michał Lorenc

Initial release: December 22, 2016

N.B.

On September 4, 2017, this film received the Best Actor Prize awarded at the festival's closing ceremony to the film's lead actor Karel Roden for his portrayal of Jan Masaryk.

FILM TRAILER

For more information, visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.

MWFF 2017: Anna Karenina. Vronsky’s Story

ANNA KARENINA. VRONSKY’S STORY
Анна Каренина. История Вронского

WORLD COMPETITION

Russia

This was the Montreal World Film Festival 2017 opening film, projected right after the opening speeches and the declaration of the festival being open. The film is an imaginary sequel to a Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina.

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

"1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, in Manchuria. Hospital director Sergey Karenin discovers that his patient, Vronsky, is the one who has ruined his mother's life, Anna Karenine. Without great expectations, he asks Vronsky the question that has haunted him all his life: what pushed his mother to end her life. Vronsky consents to tell him the story of his tragic love for Anna."

The film is a period piece that masterfully portrays both the horrors of the 1904 war and the splendour of the Russian aristocratic society some 30 years prior to that war, the time of the Leo Tolsoy novel's plot. It depicts the bravery of the Russian solders and officers during the war, their special attitude of honour, and at the same time the strict behaviour rules for Russian high society women that affected so tragically the main characters' love story. 

A chance encounter brings Vronsky, Anna's lover, to meet Anna's son Sergey so many years after his love affair with Anna. A dialogue that takes place between them, cut into sequential pieces due to Segey Karenin's army doctor responsibilities, elucidates the nature of the relationship that Vronsky had with Anna. It becomes very clear that theirs was not just a banal love affair but real love, and that Vronsky is still haunted by this relationship so many years later. 

Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina has been recognized from the very time it was first published in the 19th century as the world's literary masterpiece. By watching this film, especially those who have not read the novel, will have a chance to acquaint themselves with the Leo Tolstoys's genius as a writer and his sensitive understanding and portrayal of the women and their place in the society of his time. Both the novel as well as this film show great sympathy for the main heroin Anna, and make the reader and the viewer to contemplate her situation and her desperation, affecting gravely her emotional stability that led to a tragic end.

I highly recommend this film. Not only will it acquaint the spectator with some past historical events, but it will also bring closer to the viewer the Russian 19th century high society culture and the way of life, and the emotional world of some women who were on the bring of being emancipated yet unable to fight to the end the well entrenched society's obstacles.

PRODUCTION TEAM

DIRECTOR:  Karen Shakhnazarov

SCRIPT: Karen Shakhnazarov, Yuriy Poteenko (co-writer)

LEAD ACTORS: Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Maksim Matveev

COUNTRY: Russia
LENGTH: 137 min.

LANGUAGE: Russian, French subtitles

Check the MWFF 2017 films schedule here.

Visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website for more information.

N.B.

On September 4, 2017, this film received the Best Artistic Contribution Prize awarded at the festival's closing ceremony.

FILM TRAILER

Article's dedicated web address.