It must be almost spring because here comes MSPIFF (the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Fest-ival). From April 7 to 23 there will be over 250 films shown from all over the globe. The Film Society has been showing other than mainstream films since 1962.
To see the full list of films, go to http://mspfilm.org/festivals/mspiff/
BY ED FELIEN
Ms Piff turned 35 years old on April 7 when this year’s Festival began. And she’s all over town—mainly at St. Anthony Main, but also at Uptown, Metro State University, McNally Smith in St. Paul, and in Rochester at the Galaxy 14 Cine. This year she has more than 250 films, with a strong representation of Minnesota documentaries.
1944
Estonia/Finland
“1944,” the biggest box office hit in Estonian history, is a study in the tragic conflict between conscripted Estonians in the German army fighting against conscripted Estonians in the Russian army. Beautifully shot, the breakneck battle scenes contrast with the stillness of a deserted church. The horror of war, the slaughter of innocents, the terror of dogma used to destroy simple humanity, somehow fade into the background as you enjoy the laughter of children. (Ed Felien)
100 minutes.
Tuesday, April 19, 4:50 p.m.
THE NEW CLASSMATE
India
Apeksha is a willful, free-spirited girl who can’t see the point in making any effort at school. Her mother, Chanda, who works as a maid, desperately wants her daughter to do better in life than she did. In a last-ditch attempt to save her daughter from herself, Chanda joins her daughter at school in an attempt to spur her on, and to complete her own schooling. While occasionally overdone in a particularly Indian way, “The New Classmate” is well acted, well shot, and capable of jerking a tear from even the most cynical reviewer. It’s also a timely look at the contrasts between the lifestyle of the Indian middle class and those who wait on them, and raises the question of whether the poor have a right to dream or not. (Frank Bures)
96 minutes.
Monday, April 18, 5:10 p.m.
AFERIM!
Romania/Bulgaria/Czech Republic
“Aferim!” Is a poorly made Romanian film about a bounty hunter in 1835 tracking down a runaway Gypsy with his son. It has an American Western feel about it most of the time. It’s worth seeing if you’re interested in understanding slavery in Europe in the early 19th century. The attitudes expressed are documented by authentic sources. (Ed Felien)
106 minutes.
Thursday, April 21, 4:55 p.m.
WALNUT TREE
Kazakhstan
In this award-winning debut film, Yerlan Nurmukhambetov gently makes fun of ordinary life in a small village in southern Kazakhstan. He brings out its nuggets of quirkiness in a kind of nibbling (as opposed to biting) satire. There is no strong storyline. Yet, the feeling of the film stays with you for a long time. People work at sensual, slow-moving, labor-intensive tasks—like peeling apples, shaking walnuts from the trees, shucking sunflower seeds from gigantic flowers. Everybody, including the ever-ready military unit, drives around in a wide range of motorized contraptions. There are brief and inexplicable violent images. There’s a stunningly beautiful rainstorm. A young couple sends out elaborate wedding invitations and holds an elaborate wedding in which they are wished happiness many, many times. A baby is born … (Elaine Klaassen)
81 minutes.
Monday, April 18, 9:30 p.m. (Rochester Galaxy 14 Cine)
HEAVENLY NOMADIC
Kyrgyzstan
This slow-moving, stunning visual tapestry shows a way of life in which information comes from legends and nature, not media. A traditional nomadic three-generation family—surrounded by the grandeur of mountains, flowing streams and large herds of horses—live without modern inventions and have only sporadic contact with other human beings. A gradual revelation of each family member’s unique personality is accelerated by three visits—from a meteorologist who taps out his reports in Morse Code; the college student of the family; and developers’ bulldozers. (Elaine Klaassen)
81 minutes.
Monday, April 18, 5:15 p.m.;
Tuesday, April 19, 4:45 p.m. (Rochester Galaxy 14 Cine).
ENDORPHINE
Canada
A girl is traumatized by witnessing a murder. The body remembers in fractured images, primal impulses, juxtaposed personas and other forms of imaginative chaos what the mind cannot afford to know. Describing this narrative simply as non-sequential would be an injustice.
So begins the ascent into Andre Turpin’s exquisite cinematic gestalt. His questions define the approach. By asking, “Is time a side effect of awareness?” and, “How do we deform time?” Turpin obligated himself to construct a dense immersion experience, and his creative team registers success. Unrestrained kudos to Sylvain Bellemare (sound designer), Josée Deshaies (cinematographer), Sophie Leblond (editor) and Francois Lafontaine (composer), who met the challenge of creating an aural persona that carries the story and never bullies with “too loud,” “too repetitive,” or “too manipulative.”
Cinephiles and historians will appreciate subtle (and not so subtle) references and visual quotes along the way.
Whether the questions hook your interest or not, embrace this elegant film. Just don’t expect easy answers or innocuous, comfy-cozy imagery … herein lies some decidedly tough stuff that may linger longer in memory than on screen. (Nancy Ruppenthal)
84 minutes.
Monday, April 18, 9:30 p.m.
TALENT HAS HUNGER
USA
It’s not easy to find someone who doesn’t love the sound of a cello. It is easy to find films about the classical music world that seem a bit stilted or elitist. “Talent Has Hunger” most assuredly is not in this category.
Paul Katz is a renowned cellist (Cleveland Quartet) and current faculty member at The New England Conservatory in Boston. Academy Award-nominated director Josh Aronson documents Katz’s professional relationships with a number of students, including a child prodigy, over a seven-year period, as they morph from students into young adult professionals. Each has followed her or his unique path post-conservatory. Through individual lessons, master classes and interviews with royalty in the master lineage (Bernard Greenhouse, Janos Starker) and renowned Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey, Aronson exhibits the talents and dimensionality of Paul Katz. It’s the depth treatment of Katz’s pedagogic philosophy and personal manner that forms the heart of the film. We accompany these young artists as they explore the tangled elements of this ethereal environment: talent, motivation, commitment, dedication and stamina, just to name a few. By the end of the film it is clear how Paul Katz has earned preeminence as a cello pedagogue in the United States today. (Nancy Ruppenthal)
82 minutes.
Saturday, April 23, 4 p.m.
MESSI
Spain
The narrative frame around this documentary is a little rickety: It features a faux-restaurant where people who were friends, family or teammates of the great soccer player Lionel Messi sit and discuss his life and legacy. This does lend a refreshing earthiness to the film, but it makes the flow a little rough, as do the reenactments of Messi’s youth, which are intercut with real footage of young Messi playing in Rosario, Argentina, where he grew up. Nonetheless, fans of Messi (and of soccer in general) will not be disappointed. His story is powerful enough to withstand even the most awkward documentary treatment, and the various back stories flesh out some dimensions of the quiet star that are often missing from his public persona. (Frank Bures)
93 minutes
Sunday, April 17, 1 p.m. (Metro State University)
NOTHING IN RETURN
Spain
In this charming film by actor-turned-director Daniel Guzman, two teenaged boys (best friends Dario and Luismi) get into lots of trouble and swear a lot. Dario’s parents are not up to the task of parenting so he puts his own family together. Luismi is a substitute brother he can always count on; Justo, a cheerful unscrupulous rogue, is a father figure he can definitely not always count on; and fanciful Antonia (played with endearing authority by the director’s own 92-year-old grandmother), like a good grandma, feeds him and doesn’t ask too many questions. The stage is set for disaster as the best friends bounce off the walls together. In the end, serious growing up takes place. (Elaine Klaassen)
93 minutes.
Monday, April 18, 10 p.m.
BLUSH
Israel
Ed Felien: Did you see “Blush” as a commentary on the alienation of youth in Israel? I think on one level it’s a commentary on all youth going through adolescence, but this has a marked Israeli feel to it. A sense of doom. And the father looks like Netanyahu.
David Goldstein: I thought the father looked like a nebbishy Tony Soprano. Tore my heart out when they were looking for Liora in Arab territory. What can be worse than a 17-year-old’s broken heart? Good sound track.
EF: Yes, Tony Soprano is a good comparison. And the scene where the father is incapable of dealing with the Palestinian police when he needs their help finding Liora would have been similar to Tony Soprano dealing with blacks or Russians. “What can be worse than a 17-year-old’s broken heart?” —A father losing control of his family? A mother losing her oldest daughter—fearing she’s been kidnapped by Palestinians? A daughter who can’t see the man she loves? Everybody’s heart gets broken. But, where the film could have descended into depression and self-pity, it seems to end optimistically. The 17-year-old gets her heart broken, but she goes on. She moves forward. And perhaps she’s better for the experience.
DG: Hold on cowboy. I didn’t say he acted like Tony Soprano, I said he looked like a nebbishy Tony Soprano. I’m sure you would have been cool, calm and collected if Clea or Kari went missing and were amongst people that were attacking, knifing, killing and maiming people from Minneapolis. (Ed Felien and David Goldstein)
83 minutes.
Tuesday, April 19, 7:10 p.m.
MAGALLANES
Peru/Argentina/Colombia/Spain
The Peruvian military crushed the Shining Path insurgency after 20 years of civil war. Victims from both sides were left in its wake. Magallanes, a former army officer, now lives in a poor area of Lima and struggles to make ends meet. He has a small gig driving around a much-feared former colonel, and he also picks up occasional fares driving taxi. One day he recognizes his passenger as the adolescent Indigenous girl kidnapped and held by the colonel as his sex slave. From that moment forward, Magallanes’ attempts to deal with the past are multiple and represent varying degrees of morality. Powerful performances bring to life this brilliant and gripping story. Actor Salvador del Solar is a first-time director in this adaptation of Alonso Cueto’s novel “La Pasajera.” (Elaine Klaassen)
109 minutes.
Tuesday, April 19, 4:45 p.m.
WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
Peru
Timely is the release of this Sundance Special Prize recipient in light of the recent and under-reported Amazonian oil spill in Peru.
“When Two Worlds Collide” is closely filmed by Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel and chronicles an initially peaceful protest movement by Indigenous people in Peru. In 2008, President Alberto Garcia is in trade negotiations with the United States seeking to benefit his economy. The deal would involve the harvest- ing of natural resources on Indigenous tribal land. Filming literally from the center of the action, some scenes resonate on a visceral level as tensions mount between local government officials, law enforcement and protesters. The film works as a chronicle and as a fascinating study of power processes as control over various valued resources shifts and slides along like a hungry python with no allegiance and limitless, insatiable hunger.
This is an old story all dressed up in bright Peruvian colors with fresh faces full of energy and optimism. (Nancy Ruppenthal)
100 minutes.
Thursday, April 21, 2:30 p.m.
MY SKINNY SISTER
Sweden/Germany
A beautifully performed movie by two young actresses raises an important and little understood illness: eating disorders. It’s the story of two sisters, Katya, the older one, slim and beautiful who spends her time working compulsively on her skating and throwing up after meals, and Stella, the younger one, an adolescent who is plump because she eats too much. Stella also lusts after a male teacher who ignores her and is jealous of her older sister until she comes to understand that her older, beautiful sister is ill. Stella tries to convince their loving, but preoccupied, parents that their older daughter needs their help, finally persuading them that something has to be done. (Erica Bouza)
95 minutes.
Tuesday, April 19, 8:15 p.m. (Metro State University)
STANDING TALL
France
French writer/director Emmanuelle Bercot (co-writer Marcia Romano) has created a nuanced and complex study of impaired parenting and its dramatic impact on children in contemporary French society. More importantly, she has extended her focus to the high priority given to juvenile rehabilitation in France.
In contrast to the U.S., the structure of French legal and judicial systems allows for more direct contact between workers and offenders. Thus we see Judge Florence Blaque (Catherine Deneuve) intervening in the life of Malony (Rod Paradot), a caustic troubled teen, as she deftly perceives his true needs at several pivotal moments in his young life. (The film won two César Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Actor.)
This narrative reveals two integrated threads. First, the present story of actions, consequences, and forced resiliency; second, the back story of toxically immature parenting from which prison and residential treatment provide some protection. Set alternately in rural and urban France, fine cinematography and the natural world infuse the viewer with the same sensory nourishment as that experienced by the young offenders in the film.
It is refreshing to see a film that so clearly frames what is needed, not what is wanted, as the road to affirmative character development and maturity. (Nancy Ruppenthal)
118 minutes.
Saturday, April 23, 1:40 p.m.
THE BODA BODA THIEVES
Uganda/Kenya/South Africa
Abel is a teenager in the Ugandan city of Kampala who tells his parent he’s spending his days looking for work, when he’s actually hanging out with his aimless ne’er-do-well friends. His mother works in the quarry and his father drives a Boda Boda, a motorcycling taxi, on which he owes money. When his father is injured in a crash, Abel takes over the bike and has to deal with corrupt police, territorial spats and his own cohorts, with whom he goes on a minor crime spree. When a friend tells Abel he wants to do one more job, Abel isn’t prepared for that job to be himself, and he has to face his mistakes and try, if possible, to right his wrongs to save his father. (Frank Bures)
85 minutes.
Wednesday, April 20, 9:20 p.m.
10 BILLION – WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE?
Germany
By the year 2050, the world’s population is predicted to hit 10 billion people. This is causing many people to question how our global food system will be able to feed everyone. Valentin Thur examines this question in his film “10 Billion.” Thur travels the world and talks to everyone, from genetically modified organisms (GMO) food scientists, to traditional small rural farmers, to modern organic and urban farmers. He brings up an array of important (and often ignored) food-related topics, like pollution, animal cruelty, wealth distribution, land grabbing and human rights. The importance of small farmers and local food systems is emphasized in the second half. Thur’s closing statement sums up what he’s learned from his journey: “I personally feel responsible for the source of my food and how it’s made.” You will too after watching this powerful film. (Raina Goldstein Bunnag)
102 minutes.
Monday, April 18, 4:50 p.m.;
Wednesday, April 20, 4:30 p.m.
UNCLE HOWARD
USA/UK
Howard Brookner’s nephew, Aaron, is the director of this homage to his Uncle Howard, whose cutting edge work in the ‘80s is largely unknown. “Uncle Howard,” who died of AIDS in 1989, left behind a documentary he made in the early 1980s about William Burroughs, which received great reviews. Aaron’s tenacious searching for the Burrough’s footage pans out and the result is astounding: great footage of Burroughs and others, including Allen Ginsberg, Frank Zappa, John Waters, Andy Warhol and Jim Jarmusch (who also worked on the Burrough’s doc).
Besides showcasing Howard’s work, the rest of the documentary reveals a much-loved and loving person. A host of stars offer eulogies, Patti Smith among them: “He’s a hard guy to get into bed, that’s why I like him.” Before he died, Howard wrote to his mom, “Death is not so bad for the dying, it is much worse for the living. The worst part was knowing what my death would do to you. It isn’t so bad to live a short life as long as you do what you want with it—and I did.” (David Goldstein)
96 minutes.
Tuesday, April 19, 4:40 p.m.;
Thursday, April 21, 9:30 p.m.
THE ANTHROPOLOGIST
USA/RussianFederation/Kiribati/Peru
Once upon a time the science of anthropology was about people, their quirks and customs. But times are not so simple any more, and “The Anthropologist” makes the case that the most urgent issue in the study of human beings is studying how they are adapting to rapid shift in their environments from climate change. With occasional commentary by anthropologists Mary Catherine Bateson (Margaret Mead’s daughter), the filmmakers follow anthropologist Susie Crate (with her daughter Katie) into the field, first to Siberia, where melting permafrost is flooding crops; to the island nation of Kiribati, where sea levels are rising dangerously; to Peru where glaciers are vanishing and ancient corn varieties are failing. The result is an entertaining, if sobering, picture of what it means to depend on this planet, and a reminder that even those of us who don’t live in far-flung villages may soon have to adapt. (Frank Bures)
80 minutes.
Wednesday, April 20, 4:45 p.m. (Rochester Galaxy 14 Cine);
Friday, April 22, 4:40 p.m.;
Saturday, April 23, 12:45 p.m.
