ONCE
AGAIN--THE BOLD, THE BRAVE AND THE NEW
As they have been doing so admirably for
more than three decades, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and
the Film Society of Lincoln Center will jointly present a fresh
batch of adventurous movies by especially promising directors. Listed
below, courtesy of the two institutions, are the 26 features to
be shown from March 21 through April 1 in the 2007 edition of the
New Directors/New Films Series. For full details, click
here and visit the web site of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
 7
YEARS
DIRECTOR: JEAN-PASCAL HATTU (FRANCE)
Waiting to visit her husband in prison, Maïté is approached
by Jean, an attractive young man. Although deeply in love with her
husband, she is also lonely and yearning for some kind of physical
connection, so she eventually gives in to Jean’s advances.
Then she discovers that Jean is, in fact, a guard at the very prison
where her husband Vincent is being held. Director Jean-Pascal Hattu
based 7 Years on stories he collected from women involved with men
who were doing time, creating this multi-layered look at people
trying to get by while waiting for their sentences to expire.
THE ART OF CRYING
DIRECTOR: PETER SCHONAU FOG (DENMARK)
11-year-old Allan believes he has a happy, normal family—at
least until his father has one of his crying jags and threatens
to kill himself. The only one who can truly comfort dad is Allan’s
sister Sanne, but father’s spirit also soars when he has the
opportunity to give one of his rousing funeral eulogies; so, as
Allan reasons, why not see to it that there are plenty of them?
With perfect balance, this pitch-black, inverted fairy tale sustains
a cheerful/mournful tone to illuminate a taboo subject. Director
Peter Schonau Fog’s unique accomplishment is to present the
horror within one family through the blissfully innocent eyes of
its youngest child.
AUDIENCE OF ONE
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL JACOBS (UNITED STATES)
Ten years ago, Richard Gazowsky, pastor of the Voice of Pentecost
Church in San Francisco, received a “prophetic whisper”
from God to make movies. Now, in Michael Jacobs’ riveting
documentary, Pastor Gazowsky and his congregation are gearing up
to make Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph, a $50 million dollar Biblical
sci-fi epic. Audience of One is a fascinating study of magical thinking,
an example of the “faith-based reality” sometimes alluded
to in discussions of contemporary politics. And in the end, how
different is Pastor Gazowsky from the thousands of others who sacrifice
everything to be in the movies?
CONGORAMA
DIRECTOR: PHILIPPE FALARDEAU (CANADA/BELGIUM/FRANCE)
At the World’s Fair in Brussels in 1958, the Belgian colony
of Congo played a prominent role, with exhibits spread over several
buildings, even including a populated pygmy village. It was, indeed,
Congorama in Brussels, and it’s where the multi-level, strange
narrative of Philippe Falardeau’s second feature begins, sort
of (the action starts in the present). With the help of a superb
cast headed by the Dardenne Brothers regular Olivier Gourmet, Congorama
spins a tale of three continents, uncertain parentages, unlikely
relationships, unaccredited inventions…and an ostrich. It
is a dry comic riff on the extended notion of family and the metaphysics
of a small world on a large planet
 COWBOY
ANGELS
DIRECTOR: KIM MASSEE (FRANCE)
Young Pablo lives with his emotionally disconnected mother in a
cheap Paris hotel. She takes off whenever she pleases, leaving her
11-year-old son to fend for himself among the cafés where
mother and son are known only too well. When she deserts him once
again, Pablo decides he’s had it. He convinces Louis, a down-on-his-luck
poker player, to drive him to Spain to search—from among his
mother’s many ex-lovers—for the man who could be his
father. Kim Massee, an American raised in France, explores this
relationship between two males who each need to find someone to
belong to.
DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT
DIRECTOR: JULIA LOKTEV (UNITED STATES)
A 19-year old girl of unknown origin or ethnicity makes contact
with her handlers in a drab motel room. The nameless girl learns
and recites her instructions: she is being prepared to become a
suicide bomber. The location will be Times Square. Director Julia
Loktev (Moment of Impact, ND/NF 1998) strips her narrative of motivations:
we never learn the circumstances that have brought the girl to this
place. The tense narrative concentrates on mood, gesture and a telling
accumulation of details. The simple eloquence of novice actress
Luisa Williams’ performance recalls the work of Robert Bresson.
Loktev’s first dramatic feature is both audacious and quietly
spectacular. An IFC First Take release.
EL CUSTODIO
DIRECTOR: RODRIGO MORENO (ARGENTINA)
The remarkable character actor Julio Chavez (A Red Bear, ND/NF 2003)
disappears into the nearly silent role of a middle-aged bodyguard
for an important politician, and the cleverly paced, slow-burning
tale is a mesmerizing portrait of a man whose all-consuming job
is that of an invisible human shield. The measured movements of
Chavez’s alienated Ruben are destined to reach a breaking
point, when this shadow can no longer deny his own repressed feelings.
Director Rodrigo Moreno develops his masterfully wrought psychological
thriller in the celebrated minimalist style that has put recent
Argentine cinema on the international map. Chavez received the Best
Actor award at this year’s Havana International Film Festival
for this performance.
 EUPHORIA
DIRECTOR: IVAN VYRYPAEV (RUSSIA)
A theater director making his feature film debut, Ivan Vyrypaev
sets this stunning fable of passion and revenge in a remote region
of the Russian steppe and strikes an impudent tone somewhere between
Bulgakov and Flannery O’Connor. Pasha is a village goatherd
so smitten with Vera that he concludes they must be destined for
each other, no matter that she is married and has a small daughter
and hostile dog named Pirate. Nothing can dissuade him from pursuing
her by land and sea, and their mad romance—she submits as
if struck by lightning—culminates in a Western-style finale
that is both improbable and metaphorically inevitable.
GLUE
DIRECTOR: ALEXIS DOS SANTOS (ARGENTINA)
Two boys, Lucas and Nacho, and their sidekick, Andrea, are growing
up in a small remote town in Patagonia where they are experiencing
the growing pains of adolescence. Lucas contends with his parents’
imminent divorce. Nacho obsesses over music and sex, while Andrea
is preoccupied with her too-slowly developing body. Once the three
connect they become inseparable. This award-winning feature by first-time
filmmaker Alexis Dos Santos reflects an intensity possible only
by a talented risk-taking cast and a story rooted in the director’s
intimate knowledge of his subject. Scenes were shot in an improvisational
style, capturing the wild beauty of Patagonia’s hot, dry and
windswept summer landscape. A Picture This! Entertainment release.
GRADUALLY...
DIRECTOR: MAZIAR MIRI (IRAN)
Mahmoud is a hard-working itinerant welder. When his troubled wife
Pari disappears, leaving their daughter behind, the gossip mill
in his hometown begins to churn. Helpful and malicious neighbors
offer conflicting accounts of what they think has happened, and
Mahmoud abandons his job to search for his runaway wife. With well-drawn
characters and a great deal of suspense, director Maziar Miri’s
second feature film explores gender prejudices in his native Iran
and reveals the delicate balancing act that women must enter into
to exist within the repressive system imposed on them. This is a
deeply felt, beautifully constructed story that brings a new perspective
to love and marriage, Iranian style.
THE GREAT WORLD OF
SOUND
DIRECTOR: CRAIG ZOBEL (UNITED STATES)
You’ve all seen the ads—Show us Your Talent, We’ll
Make You a Star. For his feature film debut, Craig Zobel shines
a harsh light on the upside—and downside—of looking
for shortcuts to fame. Martin (Pat Healey) and Clarence (Kene Holliday)
are a production company’s A-team, setting up shop in hotel
rooms in large towns and medium-sized cities to audition local musicians
for a shot at the gold ring. Both men seem to believe they’re
supporting new talent, until problems arise—first small, then
larger. Many of the actors playing auditioning townspeople are actual
amateur musicians, and their performances add a touching poignancy.
 THE
INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST
DIRECTOR: PAUL AUSTER (UNITED STATES)
Having submitted his manuscript to his publisher, renowned novelist
Martin Frost needs to recharge himself in seclusion. He is loaned
a place in the country—where his isolation is short-lived.
For his second feature film, American novelist and director Paul
Auster plays with the character from his 2002 novel, The Book of
Illusion. David Thewlis essays the writer looking for peace, and
Irene Jacób, Michael Imperioli and Sophie Auster play his
unwelcome guests. Without missing a beat in moving from the page
to the screen, Auster’s serio-comic fantasy narrative remains
mysterious, haunting, and enticing.
LOVE FOR SALE: SUELY
IN THE SKY
DIRECTOR: KARIM AINOUZ (BRAZIL/FRANCE/GERMANY)
In this follow-up to his internationally successful debut feature
Madame Satã, Karim Aïnouz creates a very different portrait
of an indomitable survivor. Returning to her hometown in poor northeastern
Brazil, Hermila (Hermila Guedes) awaits the arrival of her boyfriend,
though her spunk and zest for life take on an increasingly desperate
edge when it becomes clear that he will not be coming. Guedes’
major achievement is making Hermila likeable even in her most desperately
miscalculated actions of despair. Breathtaking camerawork by veteran
cinematographer Walter Carvalho captures not only the soulful decency
of the townspeople but makes the empty landscape and rich colors
an integral part of their characterization. A Strand Releasing release.
MEANWHILE
DIRECTOR: DIEGO LERMAN (ARGENTINA)
Violeta can’t decide if she wants to move to Ibiza with her
boyfriend Mono or just break up with him. Dalmiro’s ceramics
business isn’t going so well, but things might be looking
up. Sergio and Susana are trying to start a family. These and other
characters form the rich tapestry in Meanwhile, the second feature
by Diego Lerman. He focuses here on those in-between moments in
people’s lives—those times after a decision’s
possibilities have been accepted but before it’s been put
into effect. His characters move in and out of each other’s
orbits, sometimes affecting final decisions or inadvertently foreshadowing
unexpected consequences, together creating a portrait of a generation
used to waiting and enduring.
ONCE
DIRECTOR: JOHN CARNEY (IRELAND)
When not playing for change, an Irish street musician fixes vacuum
cleaners in his father’s repair shop. One day, a flower-selling
Czech immigrant shows up with her broken vacuum and announces that
she is also a musician. Drawn to each other—and to each other’s
musical talents—they launch a career together. With time,
their musical bond becomes even more personal. Director John Carney
has cast musicians, rather than actors, in these finely drawn roles,
and the result, a kind of cinema verité musical, is near
perfect. A Fox Searchlight release.
THE ONLY ONE
DIRECTOR: GEOFFREY ENTHOVEN (BELGIUM)
Living unhappily with his daughter Gerda after his wife’s
death, Lucien (Nany Buyl, one of Belgium’s most renowned actors)
is determined to return to an independent life in his own home.
But that isn’t so easy. Everyone has plans for Lucien, including
Mathilde, his best friend’s wife, with whom he has had a longstanding
affair. When his much younger neighbor, Sylvia, arrives on the scene
and—to Lucien’s surprise—seems to take an interest
in him, all kinds of possibilities emerge. Directed by Geoffrey
Enthoven with a decidedly light touch, The Only One is that rare
film about aging that completely avoids sentimentality.
THE OTHER HALF
DIRECTOR: YING LIANG (CHINA)
Xiaofen lives in one of the dynamically growing cities in Southwestern
China, but her work for a law firm interviewing clients and documenting
their cases is merely routine. When not at work, she must deal with
her down and out boyfriend, a drunk and a gambler and who’s
now on the lam. Life is also hard for her girlfriends and her mother,
and Xiaofen is increasingly distressed by what she witnesses around
her. In his second feature film, director Ying Liang (Taking Father
Home, 2005) playfully pits youth culture against more traditional
ways and interrelates one woman’s reality to the changing
economic and social structures in contemporary China.
PADRE NUESTRO
DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER ZALLA (UNITED STATES)
On the run in his native Mexico, Juan makes a quick getaway by jumping
on a truck carrying illegal migrants to New York City. One of the
other travelers is Pedro, a young man about Juan’s age who
hopes to link up in New York with his father Diego. Since he doesn’t
know Diego, Pedro carries a letter of introduction written by his
mother. Arriving in New York, Juan disappears—and so have
Pedro’s belongings and his letter. Grand Jury Prize winner
at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Christopher Zalla’s
beautifully shot first feature offers a new riff on the immigrant
theme of re-inventing oneself in America.
 RED
ROAD
DIRECTOR: ANDREA ARNOLD (UNITED KINGDOM)
Red Road is in a rough neighborhood in Glasgow whose streets are
constantly monitored by surveillance cameras. On one of the screens
in one of the command stations, a security officer, a woman, catches
a glimpse of a man whose sudden appearance at first surprises and
then obsesses her. What follows is a modernist suspense story, pitch
perfect and unpredictable. For her debut feature, Andrea Arnold,
an Oscar-winning short filmmaker, takes up Dogma’s latest
challenge: three different filmmakers using the same set of characters.
Hers is the first, and she delivers a powerful tale that leaves
its viewers breathless. A Tartan Films release.
REPRISE
DIRECTOR: JOACHIM TRIER (NORWAY)
There is nothing reprised about Reprise, a shooting star of a debut
feature that is wildly inventive and wise beyond the youthful exuberance
of its makers. Two young men are both friends and writers. On the
same day they send their manuscripts off from the same mailbox.
When they do, their lives also take off, in ways that are at once
unpredictable and understandable. Joachim Trier, who made super-8mm
films before he learned to read and write, celebrates life’s
options even when they are lousy. The daring risks he takes as a
filmmaker propel this vivacious cinematic meditation about creativity,
madness and love into an engrossing adventure. Trier’s previous
accomplishments inform the torque of Reprise: he was, for two years
running, Norway’s national skateboard champion.
ROME RATHER THAN YOU
DIRECTOR: TARIQ TEGUIA (ALGERIA, FRANCE, GERMANY)
This innovative visual portrait of a generation focuses on the story
of Zina and Kamel—promising and resourceful young people who,
disillusioned by Algeria’s ongoing civil war, decide to seek
a future elsewhere. Bolstered by spirited repartee full of youthful
flourish and vitality, they search the city of Algiers and its suburbs
for a certain Bosco, an elusive smuggler who, it is said, can provide
them with fake passports. Debut director Tariq Teguia depicts modern
day Algiers as a dreamlike landscape of devastation, a world of
immediate contrasts filled with a sense of foreboding that mirrors
the mood of the two protagonists.
SALTY AIR
DIRECTOR: ALESSANDRO ANGELINI (ITALY)
A riveting debut feature by Alessandro Angelini, Salty Air charts
the emotional minefield that opens up as a young man attempts to
reach into a past everyone else would rather forget. Fabio is a
social worker in a prison. When Sparti, a stone-faced new transfer,
arrives, Fabio suspects Sparti may be his own father, a man convicted
for murder who, years before, told his wife and two young children
to forget him. Aided by some wonderful performances—especially
by Giorgio Pasetti as Sparti—Angelini allows the rawness of
the emotions being tapped to really burst forth; encounters and
confrontations often veer off in uncharted directions, as the jagged
rhythms of the film give it a seething, explosive quality.
 SHELTER
DIRECTOR: MARCO SIMON PUCCIONI (ITALY)
Anna (Maria De Medeiros) and Mara (Antonia Liskova) are returning
to Italy from a holiday abroad when they discover that Anis, a young
Moroccan, has hidden himself in their trunk in order to cross the
border. Anna, an upper class young woman whose mother and brother
run a shoe factory, is eager to help the young man; Mara, a worker
at that factory, wonders what the new arrival will mean for her.
Second-time director Simon Puccioni is particularly adept at creating
characters that are attractive and well-meaning, as well as sexually
and morally ambivalent. When a crisis develops, the trio’s
individual strengths and weaknesses come into play in unexpected
ways.
STEALTH
DIRECTOR: LIONEL BAIER (SWITZERLAND)
Lionel lives the good life: a steady job with Swiss Radio, a handsome
boyfriend and a totally supportive family. But still, something
is missing. Tales of the American western frontier help him fill
the void. Suddenly, he finds out that his ancestors may, in fact,
be Polish. Now he is obsessed with all things Poland, including
an undocumented Polish woman he meets on the street. Ultimately,
he persuades his sister to take off with him for points east, and
on the way, they discover their true selves. Director Lionel Baier,
born in Switzerland of Polish descent, has clearly used his own
background as the basis for this warm, witty and authentic voyage
of discovery.
WAR/DANCE
DIRECTORS: SEAN FINE AND ANDREA NIX FINE (UNITED
STATES)
In Northern Uganda, the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group
that abducts children and turns them into mindless soldiers, has
killed Rose’s parents, Nancy’s father, and made Dominic
into an assassin. All three children now live in Patongo, a large
refugee camp where they attend a one-room school and practice for
the annual National Music Competition held in Kampala, where schools
from across the country vie for awards. Husband-and-wife documentary
team Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine let the children tell their stories
of horror, record their rehearsals, and follow them on their first
trip to Kampala, where the three show with pride, joy and exuberance
what talent and heart can achieve. A ThinkFilm release.
WHAT THE SUN HAS SEEN
DIRECTOR: MICHAL ROSA (POLAND)
Unknown to each other, a little boy, a young teenage girl, and a
man in his fifties named Jozef (Krzysztof Stroinski) are each desperate
to raise a certain amount of money. Set in a large Silesian city
in southern Poland, What the Sun Has Seen follows them in their
determination to succeed in spite of all the obstacles and disappointments
that befall them along the way, and eventually their lives begin
to intertwine. Director Michal Rosa based his story on newspaper
articles and scenes he observed on the street. Together these tales
create a touching portrait of the struggle for human dignity in
a land that still bears the scars of war.
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