First up was the sweet short film The Accordion from the amazingly resilient Jafar Panahi who, in 2010, was jailed in Iran for six years and forbidden from making films for 20 years. The Accordion was a beautiful, subtly political film that shows a world so politically intolerant and foreign to me that I cannot comprehend how an innocent mistake by a child can lead an adult to steal that child's livelihood. A simple tale with a simple message and a complex tapestry of social injustice and resolve.
Following that lovely film was the amazingly powerful Mohammad Rasoulof film Good Bye. Arrested just before the films completion the film was finished underground and won the filmmaker a Best Director gong at Cannes this year. The film is a beautifully realised drama telling the painful story of an intelligent, well educated Iranian woman who is trapped in a life of uncertainty, persecution and the feeling of being a foreigner in her own country. Her husband has fled their home after publishing uncompromising articles in a newspaper that has since been shut down, leaving his wife behind in the predicament of being pregnant and unable to do anything. She is trapped in a world where women are not even allowed to see a doctor alone without written permission from a male partner of guardian, a world where she earns a living decorating cardboard boxes with wrapping paper, and where the only chance of escape is to break the law. Good Bye is Beautiful, subtle and utterly heartbreaking. I had tears in my eyes at the end and felt so exhausted with empathy at the end of the screening that I contemplated going home and having a sleep.
But I didn't, and the seat to my left that was filled in the previous session by Miff-Blog-a-Thon blogger Thomas Caldwell was filled by his lovely wife Sarah and we enjoyed the moving portrait Life In Movement of former Sydney Dance Company Director Tanja Liedtke whose life was painfully cut short in 2007 after a horrible early morning accident. Liedtke was quite a character and documented her creative processes thoroughly, this film is the painstaking amalgamation of clips from the vaults of her personal videos with interviews with her company and footage of the troupe preparing to reprise her most celebrated piece in a tribute tour of the world. This is an incredible portrait of a committed artist and the creative process lovingly told through the eyes of those closest to her. It was truly stunning and all artists and performers should see this film.
Those of us left in the cinema for Martha Marcy May Marlene had to leave before the screening due to a film test that may have spoiled the film. We were the first let back in however and I picked a great spot in the middle of the row half way down the cinema where the leg room is generous and the viewing is good. Pre-screening I met a fellow cinephile and MIFF member Jansen and we discussed our previous viewings before being warned by an official that security guards wearing night vision goggles would be surveying the crowd for anyone using electronic devices. This put an unnerving edge on the screening of a film documenting the emotional journey of a girl who has been lured into and brainwashed by a cult. I can see how this film would disappoint people however I found it to be a very affecting portrayal of the madness of life in a cult and how in affects a person after they leave. Elizabeth Olsen (sibling of the famous twins) was truly remarkable as the emotionally dysfunctional Martha who disappeared from her family for many years. Persuaded into a cult that is self sufficient and seems wholesome enough to begin with she adopts the pseudonym Marcy May after the cults leader bestows the name upon her. We pick up at a point in the story where Martha has run away and has called her sister from the nearby town. Cult members follow her and threaten and coax her to come back to the farm. The film cuts then between Martha trying to recover from the ordeal at her sisters house and flashbacks to her time at the cult. This film is a terrifying look into a world I could never comprehend or understand and was truly terrifying.
Film of the day
Good Bye was just absolutely perfect and I was so affected by it that I was still thinking about it at the end of the day.
Surprise of the day
I first read about Martha Marcy May Marlene a while back on geeky blog Bleeding Cool, where I normally go for Doctor Who news and expected something quite different. Given the thematic content of the film however I was surprised by how tenderly the film was handled.
Film total so far
38
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