SLIFF ’12: Zarafa

It was an unusual instrument of statecraft and a case of outside-the-box thinking from Egyptian Pasha Muhammad Ali, a relative modernist in his time.  To curry favor with French King Charles X, he sent the rare gift of a young giraffe.  Getting a giraffe across the Mediterranean was a bit of trick it the early Nineteenth Century.  That journey inspired Rémi Bezançon & Jean-Christophe Lie’s defiantly 2D Zarafa (trailer here), one of twenty-one animated features submitted for Oscar consideration, which screens this Sunday as part of the 2012 St. Louis International Film Festival.

Le Vieux Sage has gathered the village children to tell them the story of their ancestor, Maki.  It is a tale that does not start auspiciously.  Abducted by French slave traders as a young boy, Maki escapes with the help of a herd of giraffes.  Nearly recaptured by the head slaver Moreno, the boy is saved by the mysterious Bedouin Hassan’s timely intervention, but unfortunately not before the cruel Frenchman murders the mother of a two year old giraffe.  Pledging to look after Zarafa, as she will be dubbed, just as the giraffes looked after him, Maki will dog Hassan all the way to France, who in turn will attempt to fulfill his duties to the Pasha.

You have to love the 2D.  Bezançon and Lie have a lush visual sense, clearly inspired by their Arabian and Mediterranean locales, not unlike some of Michel Ocelot’s films, but with a more muted color palate.  Their vistas and cityscapes are particularly lovely, but their animals are not as expressive as viewers might expect.  There is a bit of anthropomorphism, but it is rather restrained.  For Francophone audiences, the voiceover cast is also quite impressive, including Simon Abkarian (fantastic in The Wedding Song) as Hassan and Ronit Elkabetz (genuinely smoldering in the Israeli film The Band’s Visit) as the sultry Greek pirate Bouboulina.

Based on an intriguing historical footnote, Zarafa largely avoids the sins of sentimentality and manipulation that often mark animation produced expressly for children.  Still, there is an unmistakable political correctness, particularly in the film’s determination to ignore the demographic realities of the African slave trade, both then and now.  Nonetheless, most parents will welcome the underlying principles of the film, such as the value of freedom and the importance of keeping one’s word.

Slightly sad in a traditional Disney way, Zarafa is old fashioned animation in several appealing ways.  One of the more artistically rendered animated features to throw its hat in the Oscar ring, Zarafa would be a worthier nominee than many of the better known contenders.  Reasonably engaging for parents as well as children, it should be a crowd pleaser when it screens this Sunday (11/11), for free, courtesy of this year’s SLIFF.

SLIFF ’12: The Good Son

Leila Manner is about as Hollywood as you can get in Finland.  Her oldest son Ilmari is her greatest enabler.  It is a small but ragingly dysfunctional family unit that Manner’s would be suitor should steer well clear of in Zaida Bergroth’s The Good Son (trailer here), which screens during the 2012 St. Louis International Film Festival.

Manner just burned another batch of bridges at her latest movie premiere.  Hounded by the press, she whisks off Il Manner and his younger brother Unto for a secluded rest in their vacation home.  Of course, as soon as she arrives, she gets bored and proceeds to invite some deadbeat showbiz friends over for a party.  She immediately clashes with a fellow actress, but there is a bit of chemistry between her and well known author Aimo Marttila, a friend of a friend.  Ilmari Bates does not like the looks of him at all, but for a while he seems to be preoccupied with his ex-girlfriend, the small town floozy Karita.  Yet, his psychological issues only need a slight push to reappear in spades.

In the hands of another director, Good Son could have easily traveled into genre territory.  Instead, Bergroth is more concerned with the family relationship dynamics.  In a way, it could be considered the dark flip side of parental reversal films, like The Descendants, in which precocious children abet the dubious parenting of an immature father or mother.  Ilmari is a rather twisted kid, but what can a self-absorbed, boozy diva like Manner expect?  Why Marttila would want anything to do with her is hard to fathom.

While not dogme per se, Good Son definitely has a modest indie look.  At least, it is sunny by the lake.  In contrast, the psyches on display are rather dark.  A fitting companion to Paprika Steen’s crash-and-burn star turn in Applause, Bergroth stages an uncomfortably intimate chamber drama.  Although not reaching Steen’s level of soul-shredding, Elina Knihtilä is still rather frighteningly convincing portraying Manner’s vain and self-destructive behavior. 

Despite all the warning signs his character ignores, Eero Aho brings an appropriately mature, world-weary presence to Marttila.  However, as the title character, Samuli Niittymäki might be going for slow burning intensity, but largely gives the audience empty stares.

To her credit, Bergroth resists overplaying the oedipal card, suggesting many dimensions to the mother-son codependency.  Not exactly winding up where you might expect, Good Son is surprisingly honest and grounded, considering its potential for sensationalism.  It consistently commands viewer attention even with its weak lead.  Moderately recommended for those drawn to psychological dramas, The Good Son screens this Saturday (11/10) and Tuesday (11/13) as part of this year’s SFIFF.  More highly recommended, Christian Petzold’s Barbara, Michael Roskam’s Bullhead, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Headshot, Valeriy Todorovsky’s Hipsters, H.P. Mendoza’s I Am a Ghost, Tom Shuyu Lin’s Starry Starry Night, and Eric Khoo’s Tatsumi will also screen during the festival.