It’s been a long month with many big life changes happening since this year’s BFI London Film Festival, but I couldn’t resist reporting back on what was a particularly successful festival. 60 years of bringing the best of world cinema to London masses, the Festival felt the need to go large or go home. And go large it did, with great flourish and style. LFF’s 2016 line-up has seen some of the most innovative and wonderful filmmaking in recent years reminding avid filmgoers and industry folks alike that fresh ideas and great innovators are still amongst us. In the shit storm that is 2016 – there is still gold to be found.
Out of the 248 features in the programme – I conquered 40 – a personal best. I wouldn’t dare put myself or readers through the slog of reviewing them all so here’s a quick round up of what I saw and highlighted are the standouts (in a remarkable year, there were a fair few).
DIVINES (2016)/ Dir. Uda Benyamina
The very definition of jour de vivre, DIVINES, an appealing coming-of-age slash crime drama is the pulsating energetic younger sister of Celine Sciammia’s 2014’s GIRLHOOD (my favourite film of that year). Similarly set in a housing estates of Paris – this time in a Romany camp – passionate but directionless and sometimes criminal, teenage Dounia dreams of a better life for herself, rejecting the more conventional routes of just keeping one’s head above water by slaving away at a nine to five, she decides that crime might be a way the quicker way out of her dire prospects. Becoming a corner girl for local crime lord Rebecca, Dounia things are set for her until she meets young dancer Djiqui, who’s passion for dance and for her makes her question the course her life is taking.
There’s much to love about DIVINES, the most identifying attraction to this story is the energy and freshness in which the story is told, from the script, to the direction of Uda Benyamina to the commanding performance from Benyamina’s real-life sister Oulaya Amamra. From the first scene introducing Dounia and her easily led best friend Maimouna dressed in burquas to hide their stolen loot from the supermarkets, which they then peddle outside school, its evident this is a fresh take on the age-old story of girl gone bad who wants to be good.
There are so many fantastically original moments infused in a real and tragic world that counter the adult ways in which Dounia outwardly behaves with her internal childlike view of the world. In particular the wonderfully Michel Gondry influenced scene in which Dounia and Maimouna playfully imagine their lives in Thailand, once they’ve made their fortune from selling drugs. The juxaposition of the innocence in which they dream and the reality of what they’re doing perfectly demonstrates the bittersweet and tragic existence of childhood lived in poverty and limited opportunities. That’s not to say that DIVINES demands sympathy for Dounia and her actions but asks for understanding of what drives her to do what she does. She is after all barely more than a child.
Initially hesitant about the use of dance in a straight drama, Benyamina shows a keen eye and interest in the use of the body in also expressing emotion. Dounia may seemingly be worlds apart from the world of dance from the outset but these scenes are infused cleverly within the film to add to its vivacity. Dounia shares not just a physical connection with security guard and aspiring dancer Djiqui, but also a unceasing drive for something better and Djiqui offers Dounia an opportunity to direct that passion on a less crime-filled and dangerous path.
While the finale aims for an emotional punch to the consequences of a person’s actions, it instead tiptoes into melodramatic hysterics but is saved by Amamra’s riveting appeal and range solidifying DIVINES as a fantastic journey and more than worthy winner of Cannes Camera D’Or.
CHRISTINE (2016)/Dir. Craig Shilowichz
MOONLIGHT (2016)/Dir. Barry Jenkin
A dedicated member of the growing MOONLIGHT cult, I feverishly recommend this film be seen by all. Initially it would seem to be a ‘black film’ (I have internal issues with that term but there’s not anything more succinct to replace it) for a black audience. MOONLIGHT both is and isn’t that. It is a ‘black film’ in the conventional sense that it exclusively focuses and features people of colour, set in the black and Latina communities of a part of Miami. Part pseudo-memoir of its director and a loose adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, MOONLIGHT could be seen to be a story about an unexplored American community – a black gay story told by a black gay man. There are political aims of the film as well in it’s representation of black people – in particular black men – as fully realised people with complexities and desires. Something that we rarely see in film or media in general. MOONLIGHT, however, isn’t a film for black audiences, nor gay audiences. MOONLIGHT is a film for inclusive audiences. A deeply romantic and human tale, MOONLIGHT is a two-hour myriad of acute commonalities from which audiences can pick and relate to.
A ridiculously eloquent, beautifully realised tale of one man’s quest for self-acceptance in a world determined to destroy his ability to embrace himself in all his complexities. MOONLIGHT might not set the world alight in narrative originality (a lonely young boy trying to navigate life in a Miami ghetto with a drug addicted mother and bullies on every corner) but Barry Jenkin’s achingly personal chaptered life of young Chiron is remarkable in the way it subtly subverts stereotypes and faces down toxic masculinity that permeates all society (not just amongst black communities) carefully presenting just how harmful it is to men as it is to women.
What elevates MOONLIGHT is the way in which black men featured are fully realised. For example, in the first chapter Little, young Chiron encounters local drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) at an abandoned crack house after Chiron escapes from bullies. Detecting a lonely frightened child Juan takes Chiron for a burger before he takes him home where it’s revealed that he’s in a committed loving marriage with Teresa (Janelle Monae – QUEEN). They become Chiron’s centre of stability and a safe haven in Chiron’s spiralling and dysfunctional world.
That’s not to say that Jenkin’s tars all its characters with an angel brush. In a two painful scenes that follow each other, Juan confronts two people smoking crack he’s just sold in public, realising one of them is Chiron’s mother Paula (Naomie Harris suitably haggered for the part). He angrily berates her for putting her son through hell for being such a poor mother. She counters, not without justification, that as her dealer, he’s a player in the circle of hell her son exists in. Both feel shame for their situations; Paula assaults Chiron in frustration, while Chiron quietly confronting Juan about his drug dealing and the fact he sells to his mother, causes Juan to break down in grief.
Conceding that there are a few issues with plotting and the screenplay (there is a sense that there are scenes missing) does not take away from the experience of watching MOONLIGHT. This is a film of moments and the moments presented are eternally fascinating. Moments made more powerful by the performances (all fantastic across the board) in particular Trevonte Rhodes as the final manifestation of Chiron, who going by Black – the nickname given to him by the only man he’s had a physical connection with – presents himself outwardly as a stereotypical gangster, he is now a drug dealer like Juan and is built like a 50 Cent doppleganger. Inwardly, he’s still the same sensitive soul searching for a connection and the profundity of realising that this person who superficially so different is actually any one of us watching him is something to behold.
Combined with the meticulous direction and beautiful cinematography (the use of colour strongly reminded me of MOTHER OF GEORGE another cinematic feast for the eyes) MOONLIGHT is as personal and unforgettable a film anyone is likely to see this year.
SHORT AWARDS PROGRAMME ONE (THE SEND-OFF/LOVE/THE GIRL WHO DANCED WITH THE DEVIL/9 DAYS – FROM MY WINDOW IN ALEPPO/THE TREMBLING GIANT/YOUR MOTHER AND I)
INDIVISIBLE (2016)/Dir. Edoardo De Angelis
ARRIVAL (2016)/Dir. Denis Villeneuve
LOST IN PARIS/Paris Pieds Nus (2016 or 2014 from some sources)/Dir. Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon
THE GHOUL (2016)/Dir. Gareth Tunley
THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE (2016)/Dir. Andre Ovredal
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (1991)/Dir. Julie Dash
A privilege to see this for the first time and on the big screen with the great Julie Dash in attendance, DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST is a period poem to the resilience, history and preservation of the Gullah community on the coast of South Carolina. As if in a dream DUST carefully explores the complexities of Black America lives; generational differences as younger residents want to leave to join the industrial revolution happening on the mainlands; tradition vs. modernity; gender conflicts; historical legacies and the scars they leave; colourism; class – anything that affects Black audiences know is discussed eloquently and magnetically in DUST. My third foray into the filmography of the great LA Rebellion film movement (KILLER OF SHEEP, SANKOFA) and another reminder of how important and still relevant these filmmakers are to shaping my film sensibilities.
THE GIANT (JATTEN) (2016)/Dir. Johannes Nyholm
A rare beast of a film, THE GIANT is a gentle fable of a physically and mentally disabled man’s obsession with Pentanque – a sport similar to that of bowls. A combination of realist heartwrenching drama about people living in the fringes of an uncaring society, part underdog sports documentary with splashes of dreamlike fantasy sequencing, THE GIANT is all parts fascinating and wonderfully realised.
Rikard (immaculately played Christian Andren) is a soon-to-be thirty year-old living with debilitating tumours that cover most of his face and what is never stated but assumed to be autism. Barely able to speak, Rikard resides in a group home for those with special needs. In dreary realism, we follow him on his life finding Rickard’s only in his element when he’s playing Pentanque, which he tries to do every waking hour (much to the bemusement and sometimes frustration of his carers and fellow residents). After a shocking incident during practice where Rikard is injured, his team use it as an excuse to get rid of him, justifying it as for “his own good”. The only person championing poor Rikard is his gruff friend Roland (Johan Kylen) who understands the live-saving importance of Pentanque to Rikard, persuading him to set up their own team and enter the Nordic competitions.
Juxtaposing the documentary-style of this one plot is the other more fantastical exploration of Rikard’s psyche. Whenever life is derailing around Rikard or he feels under threat or bullied, he retreats into himself and the audience is treated to spectacular Scandinavian views from the perspective of a giant, slowly revealing that Rikard is the giant, traversing mountains and cities on a particular quest that’s not revealed until the very end. It becomes apparent that Rikard’s obssession with this game comes from the knowledge that its the only time in his life where he’s in control of his destiny – where he is his own hero. Everything else is full of pain and immense personal loss, especially with his mother, who the audience’s discovers is also living in a home and has been separated from her son since birth (their single heart-rending encounter contains all the pain of the last thirty years).
Evoking various styles and genre where you get flashes of Michel Gondry, Ron Andersson, Sergio Leone, documentary filmmaking and ROCKY spiritual at any one time, THE GIANT is really one of a kind film about how the most lonely or socially excluded of us can strive for self-determination or try to be our own heroes.
THE GRADUATION [DOC] 2016/Dir. Claire Simon
This fly-on-the-wall look at an elite Parisian film school and the application process is everything I wish talent shows like The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent and Pop Idol would be. Claire Simon’s engrossing investigation of the rigorous entry process for la Fémis is at times, hilarious, sobering, edge-of-your-seat viewing as we follow inspirational young things, from all walks of life, trying to make the holy grail that is Film School.
Primarily from the perspective of the ‘judges’ so-to-speak make for the most entertaining moments. Watching auditions/workshops/interviews of the would be students and listening in on the judges’ thought processes; their shared and more often than not divisive opinions of candidates draws an interesting reflection of just how difficult it is to separate emotion, gut instincts, assumptions and experience from impartiality. Just like watching the aforementioned reality shows, you’ll find yourself agreeing wholeheartedly at some opinions, vehemently against others and sometimes just happily baffled with what’s going on.
At an interview, have you ever wondered what makes the people on the other side of the desk tick or what’s it like to hold someone’s hopes for the future in your hands? Then THE GRADUATION makes for a must-watch.
THE STATION AGENT SPEAKS 