Reviews

I loved Persepolis both as a graphic novel and as a film. So I was looking forward to Satrapi's new work. I had neither read the graphic novel nor much about the film before watching, which I now regret because this film has little or nothing to do with its predecessor. First of all, it is no animation film and Satrapi's beautiful artwork is limited to the opening titles and to a tale told by the Angel of Death towards the end of the film. The whole cast is French, they speak French and both look and behave like French and, except when it comes to the characters' names, one has to do a big effort to keep in mind that the story is supposed to take place in Teheran. It might be a meaningless detail to some, but for me it was a disturbing discrepancy. The whole film has a superb photography and every scene is carefully manufactured (i.e. manipulated in post-production) into something that indeed looks like a powerful work of art. But inside this nicely wrapped box, I find really little that makes this film worth watching. It's not a film for children: I wouldn't want to tell my children the story of a man who decides to let himself die showing total disrespect for both his wife and children. But as a grown-up, I am really missing something, that something that I did find in the autobiography of a little girl growing up away from a country which has ceased to exist. Chicken with plums is a sort of disturbing bedtime story about a man who lost the joy of living, carefully wrapped up in some sort of misty reverie, nothing more than that. Still, it is probably supposed to be a comedy, and that adds a little sugar to the pill that you'll have to swallow if you decide to watch this. I feel a big disappointment. Just like that plate of smoking-hot chicken with plums which is left untouched on the table by the protagonist.

Kriegerin/Combat Girls is the last film of a kind that has become one of Germany's finest exports. I am thinking of films like "Das Experiment" and "Die Welle" which, directly or indirectly, investigate what lies behind a dictatorship like Nazism and the dangers of falling into one again, which sometimes may seem far away. With this film, this time we are taken very close to the reality of a small (supposedly East) German town where far-right extremists rule the place and intimidate migrants. The point of view is entirely coincident with the main character, Marisa (award-winner Ukrainian-born Alina Levshin), who plays the passionate girlfriend of one of the gang's most violent and dangerous subjects. Her acting is amazing and, as already stated by another reviewer, it brings the film to a totally different level giving it the effectiveness of a documentary. The film is essentially about a girl who seems to know very well what she wants (to the extent that her whole body is covered in tattoos which are also political statements), while in fact some events will force her to reconsider not only her set of values, but also a relationship with a man whose deep love quickly turns into the deepest hate. On the background, there is a side story about Marisa's dying Nazi grandfather. She doesn't want to accept that he had been violent to her own wife before she was born, and that relates directly to the violence she in turn has chosen to surround herself with. A 15 years old seeking to be accepted into the gang is also dragged into this spiral of hate and violence - a consequence of her dominating father - until she understand what that really means. The third girl of the gang is always in the background, she's very passive and hardly talks and shows a melancholy which turns out to be a result of life's injustice. This is in my opinion the best German film since Gegen die Wand/Head On. Both educational and a piece of -literally- screaming art. A must see!

What a disappointment. A perfect wedding which turns to be not perfect, love triangles, a middle aged hair dresser (Paprika Sten) who after chemotherapy feels ugly but for some inexplicable reason receives courtship from mister Gorgeous (Pierce Brosnan). The depiction of Italy could not be more stereotyped (there is a mandolin trilling throughout the film). I went to see it because of Susanne Bier's name, but not only did it turn out to be not my kind of film, but the script is in fact objectively boring with few surprises or suspense. Anybody can guess the rest of the plot after some time. In spite of a few funny lines and embarrassing scenes, I bored myself to death, especially towards the end of the film. Now I am supposed to write at least 10 lines but I don't know what to do with the rest of the space! My summary: A good film for my granny, maybe. Everyone else - use your time for something else.

If you expect a Hollywood movie or professional acting, this film is not for you. But if you leave behind all your expectations about this beautiful film by an unknown Italian director played almost entirely (except for the leading role) by non-professional actors, you will enjoy it until the very last second. This film is special also because it portraits the life of a people, that of an Occitan-speaking village in the Italian Alps, which rarely finds its place in modern mass media. Tradition is for these people what holds them together. Diritti challenges their - and our - definition of tradition, by showing that the locals fail to understand that the stranger, who practices the same way of life that was once widespread in those mountains, has something to teach them about their own identity. Brilliant.