PSIFF ’15: Beti and Amare

Amare is sort of like Jeff Bridges’ Starman, except he has a prominent set of fangs. He just might need that chomping power. Of all the places he could fall to Earth, he finds himself in Ethiopia during the 1936 Italian invasion. Fortunately, he will soon meet a terrestrial guide to learn from and perhaps protect in Andy Siege’s fable-like Beti and Amare (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Beti has already been brutalized by the war, but she is not talking about it. Her mother sent her to stay with the grandfather she hardly knows, believing she will be safer in the remote desert. However, the area is patrolled by a trio of self-proclaimed “protectors,” whose like Beti has ruefully seen before. They definitely take notice of her too, making her highly vulnerable when her grandfather must leave to buy new livestock.

Thanks to some quick thinking, Beti is able to temporarily forestall the dubious militia men. Into this tense environment lands an egg with a passenger inside, like Mork from Ork, but the visitor Beti names Amare has the consciousness of a child. At least he is a quick learner, instinctively resourceful, and sports a mean set of canines. Confrontation is obviously inevitable, especially when an Italian soldier stumbles into the film.

Reportedly produced on a $7,000 budget, B & A is an admirably scrappy little film. Granted, Siege’s Spartan aesthetic and minimalist desert locale make virtues of necessities, but bringing in a period science fiction film for less the five figures is impressive any way you slice it. Just imagine what he could do with an extra grand. Clearly, he has a passion and talent for filmmaking (and he is credibly intense and loathsome playing the Italian), but it would not kill anyone if he picked up the pace a little in his next film.

So maybe there is a little bit of slack in B & A. Regardless, Hiwot Asres performance as Beti is remarkably brave and honest. Siege also has an amazing eye for visual composition, mixing black-and-white with color for striking effect. He even stages bizarrely stylized dream sequences that look like the product of Georges Méliès on an acid trip.

Admittedly, B & A is a little rough around the edges, but Siege’s execution is so strangely distinctive, he earns the benefit of the doubt. After all, it is about as underdog a film as you are likely to see at a major festival. Recommended for those looking for something different, Beti and Amare screens this Friday (1/9) and next Sunday (1/11), as part of this year’s PSIFF.

PSIFF ’15: The Monk

Serving as a Buddhist monk should be a calling rather than a mere job. However, employment prospects in Burma are so bleak, many take up robes for subsistence reasons. In Zawana’s case, he was adopted into the monastic life he seems so ill-suited for. However, his abbot’s illness will bring the novice to a crossroads in The Maw Naing’s The Monk (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Zawana enjoys exchanging flirtatious love notes with the cute village girl Marlar and listening to the rebellious monk Yewata’s mp3 player. Still, he feels a tie of loyalty to Abbot U Dahma, who found him starving on a park bench when just a young child. When Yewata decides to seek a less strict monastery in Yangon (a.k.a. Rangoon), Zawana nearly leaves with him. He somewhat regrets his lack of daring when Marlar also ventures to the big city, ostensibly to pursue her studies. Unfortunately, Zawana will soon follow them when the Abbot’s cancer demands treatment in a bigger hospital.

As is often the case, the change of environment helps Zawana put things in perspective, but the bustling capitol does alter the film’s quiet, defiantly naturalistic aesthetic. Indeed, it is easy to see how the director’s work as a poet and a documentarian influenced his stylistic approach. Viewers also get a sense of how the monks and novices do or don’t live in balance with nature and their more profane neighbors.

Many will need to acclimate themselves to The Monk’s contemplative pace, but there is an easily discernable narrative to follow, involving very real stakes. It truly transports viewers to the distant Burmese province, lushly lensed by cinematographer Vit Janecek, but it is considerably more character driven than a travelogue or docu-essay. Novice Zawana is a classically conflicted figure, impressively brought to life by Kyaw Nyi Thu’s tremendous range and depth. Likewise, Han Newe Nyein shows uncommon presence and subtlety as Marlar, while Thein Swe Myint plays the Abbot with fitting gravitas.

It is a shame the modern-era Burmese film industry is still in its intimacy, because the entire ensemble shows a natural talent for screen acting. Some reports bill The Monk as the first independent feature narrative produced inside Burma (as most citizens call it), but similar claims were made for the Burmese-raised, Taiwan-based Midi Z’s Return to Burma. In truth, it seems like an exaggeration in both cases, since Ohn Maung’s cautionary 1920 silent Love and Liquor would clearly predate them both.

That hardly matters though. It is just encouraging to see Burmese filmmakers examining the country’s current condition through a cinematic prism. The even better news is The Monk is quite rewarding when considered strictly on its own cinematic merits. Recommended for those who appreciate meditative films with an understated but powerful emotional kicker, The Monk screens this Tuesday (1/6) and Thursday (1/8), as part of this year’s PSIFF.

PSIFF ’15: NN

Where can you hide an extra body where it won’t be noticed? A mass grave might work, if you have access. According to his solid intelligence, a forensic anthropologist knows with certainty there is a surplus corpse at his latest excavation, but identifying it will be the agonizingly tricky part. The past becomes a torturous burden in Héctor Gálvez’s NN, which screens this weekend at the 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Fidel’s team had multiple sources identifying the location of the grave and its occupants. The man in the blue sweater was not supposed to be there. There are no papers or distinctive markings on the skeletal remains, except for a photo of a woman in her twenties. Graciela is a presumed widow, who believes the body might be her long missing husband. She gets some of its circumstantial details correct, but others do not quite match up. Nevertheless, she holds out hope for closure through a DNA test.

Even though Fidel is not a touchy-feely sort of person, he forms an ambiguous bond with the haunted woman. In some respects, they are kindred spirits, tilting at windmills, even though her grown son and his superiors in the justice bureaucracy would prefer to let the past stay dead.

While NN (a form of shorthand for “John Doe”) carries all sorts of implicit criticism of the Fujimori era, it does not belabor its political points (and fudges its dates, presumably for the sake of ambiguity). Still, Fidel’s team could have just as easily investigated some Shining Path atrocities as well. After all, there is a reason Fujimori’s get-tough policies were so popular. Were he on the ballot today, he would probably carry a sizable plurality, if not an outright majority.

Regardless, part of NN’s virtue is its quietness. Gálvez never hits the audience over the head, preferring to let them simmer in murky intrigue. Yet, despite its reserve, NN should not be dismissed as Slow Cinema. There is real plot here, entailing serious stakes. As Fidel, Paul Vega scrupulously shuns histrionics. Nonetheless, he is so tightly wound and deeply repressed, he looks like he might shatter if he tipped over. While Antonieta Pari’s Graciela goes more for the gut, it is still a rigorously disciplined, exquisitely dignified performance.

Various descriptions make NN sound like CSI as reconceived by Samantha Power, but it is more of an examination of grief and the long term effects of living with death. It is a well put together package, nicely underscored by Pauchi Sasaki’s subtle musical cues. Still, some wider context would have given it greater perspective and resonance. Recommended for its world weary restraint, NN screens tomorrow (1/2) and Monday (1/5) during the 2015 PSIFF.

PSIFF ’15: Today

Youness is the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, but since Iran is still a man’s world, he could get away clean, nonetheless. However, the grouchy old cab-driver is too compassionate for that. A fateful fare could have serious long-term implications in Reza Mirkarimi’s Today (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Youness is the type a cabbie who will just toss out customers if they rub him the wrong way. Yet, he takes pity on the extremely pregnant and considerably panicked Sedigheh. He will even schlep her into the hospital, despite suspecting she has no money for the fare. At this point, he could safely bolt according to Iranian law (as we are later told), but he stays nonetheless.

It is quickly apparent Sedigheh has been physically abused and has neglected her pre-natal care as a result. Naturally, the hospital staff silently accuses Youness. Despite the awkwardness and potential legal ramifications, he accepts their contempt, for Sedigheh’s sake, because as an unaccompanied pregnant woman, she would be even further marginalized by the Iranian medical system.

On its face, Today is a deceptively simple issue-oriented drama, but it makes a deeply eloquent statement on contemporary Iranian society. It is a lot like A Separation with a more fully developed social conscience. It is a bit surprising Iran selected it as their foreign language Oscar submission and utterly baffling how it could miss the shortlist cut. You would had to have seen a heck of a lot of films this year to find nine better than Today.

Perhaps it is too subtle. You really have to pay attention to what is said and what is left unsaid to fully appreciate the positions Youness and Sedigheh are in. It is also fascinating how ghosts from the past loom over the film in strange and unlikely ways. For instance, the hospital in question lacks the latest medical equipment, because it was once part of a larger triage center during the Iran-Iraq War, but has yet to be retrofitted after the adjoining building was closed.

Eschewing cheap theatrics, Parviz Parastui puts on a clinic in how to say more with less as the taciturn Youness. It is a quiet performance, but he has the audience hanging on his every word and gesture. In contrast, Soheila Golestani’s guileless directness and vulnerability are quite arresting. Watching them feels like being there in that slightly shabby hospital in Tehran. That might not sound like a lot of fun, but the net effect is hard to shake off.

While Today is about as character-driven as films get, it is still quite an impressive feat of direction. Mirkarimi has quite a lot of traffic to manage, sort of like a stage farce, except it is deadly serious. It is too bad he will not be getting any Academy love this time around, especially since his previous film A Cube of Sugar had been selected as Iran’s Oscar submission two years ago, until the Islamist government decided to boycott in protest of a low rated youtube video. This is a potent film that directly advocates breaking the pernicious cycle of abuse, but it is probably too complicated for daytime talk show hosts to understand. Highly recommended for everyone else, Today screens this Friday (1/2) and Tuesday (1/6) as part of this year’s PSIFF.