The cities, towns and villages listed directly above represent just a mere handful of the locales within the more than 80 countries that sent cinema from their lands to the 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival.
This year’s film festival is drawing to a close, Thursday, October 14th the final full day of the 29th edition of our beloved little film festival by the sea.
And what a Festival it’s been: 256 tremendously involving feature-length films, 150 shorts, 87 Canadian films, 30 British Columbia productions, 43 features and 21 shorts from Asia, 32 films from France, 9 films from Africa (Chad, Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Zanzibar), 98 feature-length documentaries, and more, much more. Each autumn for 16 days, those of us who reside in the northwest corridor of our continent are allowed the opportunity not just to visit countries across our far flung globe, but to gain an insight into the values, the wants, the needs, the politics, the education system, the grimy poverty-ridden streets and pristine beaches, and gain too a keen, and deep and abiding insight into the people, the men and woman and children who live in some little town or thriving metropolis located in every corner and landscape of our vast world.

On this last full day of the Festival, we managed to catch three films …

Echoes of the Rainbow (Grade: B): A loving family fable about a mother, father and their two young sons, director Alex Law’s Hong Kong Oscar nominee employs an almost surreal, magical realist construct to tell its romantic story of love and loss. Set in 1969, just before the first landing on the moon, this semi-autobiographical yarn is filled with whimsy, pathos, laughter and the ties that bind us, one and all, together into our family pact of life on this planet. All and all, quite wonderful, and even moreso because VIFF brought Mr. Law to Vancouver for an informative audience Q&A.

Incendies (Grade: B+): Vancouver Observer film critic Volkmar Richter’s favourite film at the Festival, Genie award-winning director Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up to Polytechnique goes deep inside the lives of twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette), who receive two letters after the death of their mother Nawad (Lubna Azabal) — one to deliver to the father they thought was dead, the other to deliver to a brother they never knew existed. Set amidst the civil war in Lebanon in the late 1950s, between the Christian Phalangists, Fatah (PLO) and Sunni Muslims, Villeneuve offers twisty, turny fare in a film that is evocative, lyrical and sometimes viciously violent on the road to delivering an unexpected ending that, while moving, seems to this writer to be just a little too stagily off-kilter in its cinematic / theatrical resolution. Powerful, though. Incendies recently became Canada’s best foreign language Oscar nominee for 2010.

October (Grade B): A laconic story of redemption with enigmatic, almost verging on mute characters, October fascinates because of its setting amidst the slums of Lima, Peru (after all, how often are we provided with an insight into life among the poor in Lima?), but as to the bittersweet story itself, this 2010 Un Certain Regard Cannes’ winner fails to involve sufficiently as it relates its tale of middle-aged, cold-hearted moneylender Clemente (Bruno Odar) and maternal spinster neighbour Sofia (Gabriela Velasquez), who collaborate to raise a 3-month-old baby girl who has been left at Clemente’s door by a hooker he had made pregnant. Syrupy and perfunctory, with subtle strains of religious imagery throughout, October proved winning enough at the screening, but not necessarily memorable (although, one never knows what impact a film has had until days later).

The 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival will be over in just a matter of hours and, as usual, we (and the many hundreds of festival-
goers who’ve been attending, three, four, five or six films a day) are just a bit tuckered, and ready for the final film to be loaded into the projector. We’ll miss the Festival when it’s gone, but at least we’ve got VIFF’s VanCity Theatre and Pacific Cinémathèque to tide us over until next year.
But, lo and behold, one of the VIFF ‘audience favourites’ (and a VanRamblings’ favourite) opens at Cinemark Tinseltown this Friday. The Man From Nowhere will open at Tinseltown, playing daily at 1:45, 4:30, 7:35 and 10:25 p.m. Another VIFF audience favourite (and Cannes’ award-winner), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, opens for a five-day run at the VanCity Theatre this Saturday. Carlos, which screened at VIFF (all five and a half hours) will also be released in Vancouver later this month.
And, let’s not forget, Waiting for Superman (VIFF’s best documentary feature) opens at Festival Cinemas on Friday. We’ll see Mike Leigh’s Another Year this coming January (likely with projected Oscar nods), and Stephen Frears’ Tamara Drewe will visit our shores, as well, before too long.
As for VanRamblings’ filmgoing this Wednesday, October 13th …

The Tree (Grade: B+): A lovely wide-awake dreamscape of a film, Julie Bertucelli’s (Since Otar Left) sophomore film offers a meditation on death, grieving and family set amidst the gorgeous, panoramic, wind swept rural landscape of Boonmah, Queensland (Australia), southwest of Brisbane. Bertucelli sets a melancholy tone almost from the outset, the driving force of the film eight-year-old Simone O’Neil (Morgana Davies) who, more than any other member of her family grieves and mourns the loss of her father. That Simone believes she hears the voice of her father in the branches of the huge, sprawling fig tree in her home’s back yard offers a moving and ethereal response to her personal tragedy, one we might all identify with. Screens for a final time Thursday, Oct. 14th @ 3:30 pm, Granville 7, Th7.

Armadillo (Grade: A-): In February 2009 a group of Danish soldiers accompanied by documentary filmmaker Janus Metz arrived at Armadillo, an army base in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. Metz and cameraman Lars Skree spent six months tracking the lives of young soldiers situated less than a kilometre away from Taliban positions. The result? A gripping, gut-wrenching, frontline insight into the war in Afghanistan, a counterpoint to Restrepo, which some critics felt failed to provide context for the war, and this year’s Academy Award winner, The Hurt Locker, which offered an unflinching look at the war. Armadillo shows just how right Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow ‘got’ the war, the boredom, the machismo, the reverie, and the grit. Winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Mexico’s prestigious Morelia International Film Festival, Armadillo is a must-see should it return to Vancouver for an engagement.

Here we are in the final week of the 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, as an absolutely glorious presentation of the finest cinema the world has to offer — screened and enjoyed by VIFF’s more than 150,000 patrons — draws to its inevitable (and soon very much missed) conclusion.
The folks at the Fest would like to draw your attention to a few salutary, sure to be enjoyed, ‘under the radar’ films yet to be screened, including …

• Mamas and Papas: Encompassing joy, loss and love, Czech Republic director Alice Nellis’ award-winning new drama (Best Narrative Feature, Hampton International Film Festival) explores the fundamental act and art of parenting though the different permeations of modern families. The interlocking story of four couples profoundly affected by having – or not having – children emerges as both intimate and emotionally powerful. Thursday, October 14th @ 2:30 pm, Empire Granville 7, Th4.
• October: When two solitary souls join together via the unexpected appearance of a newborn, a minor miracle unfolds. While Clemente searches for the baby’s mother (an erstwhile prostitute), his neighbour Sofia gradually discovers her latent maternal instincts. Winner, Prix de Jury (Un Certain Regard), Cannes. Thurs, Oct 14 @ 6:20, Gr 7, Th 3.

As to screenings that have been added, you should know about …

• Garbo The Spy (Grade: B+): A tremendously intriguing documentary, offering a fascinating account of an extraordinary Spanish double agent during World War II who helped change the course of history, this Best Documentary winner at this year’s Spanish Goya Awards, is must-see viewing on the final day of this year’s VIFF. You can catch Garbo The Spy, Friday, Oct. 15th @ 7:00 pm, at the Vancity Theatre.
  

• The Two Escobars (Grade: B+): One of the breakout ‘hits’ at this year’s VIFF The Two Escobars, the sordid legend of drug lord Pablo Escobar may have eclipsed that of fellow Colombian (though no relation) Andrés Escobar, the captain of the national soccer team, but Jeff and Michael Zimbalist’s illuminating doc links the two through the sport’s former dependence on narco-funding. The testimony of Andrés’s former teammates — particularly their memories of the 1994 World Cup game against the U.S., in which their captain accidentally scored for the opponent (leading to his murder 10 days later) — in spite of the doc’s brain-numbing score and tendency towards slickness restores the gravitas. Screens two more times: Thursday, Oct. 14th @ 3:30 pm, Gr 7 Th 1, and Friday, Oct. 15th @ 9 pm, Vancity Theatre.

With less than 72 hours to go, now is the time to catch a VIFF film.

On this Thanksgiving Monday, VanRamblings would like to give thanks to the folks who, each year, make our annual Vancouver International Film Festival possible, focusing accolades on the volunteers, and the hard-
working theatre ‘administrative staff’ hired for the duration of the Festival.
VanRamblings is certainly grateful to the Festival’s full-time administrative staff: longtime Festival Director Alan Franey and able Programme Manager / Senior Programmer, PoChu AuYeung, as well as all of the other fine programmers, administrators and board members, publications, box office, film handling, film and television forum, hospitality, and publicity and promotions folks who make our annual Film Festival a joy for us. Theirs is a sacrifice made for each of us, and for that we should be especially grateful.
In this posting, though, we want to focus most particularly on Iulia Manolescu (pictured above), the so-called VIFF ‘exhibitions assistant’ (we think her contribution merits a title more grand than that of ‘assistant‘), at the Empire Granville 7 Theatre. Iulia, quite simply, has made VanRamblings’ Festival; we believe most heartily that Iulia represents everything that is right and good about our local, annual Vancouver International Film Festival.
Iulia may be designated the exhibitions ‘assistant‘, but throughout the first twelve days of the Festival, this year and last and previous to that, she has been so front-and-centre — as she works one arduous 18-hour day after another, keeping VIFF volunteers, her fellow theatre staff, and grateful (and sometimes difficult) VIFF patrons happy and calm, directed and appreciative of their contribution to our annual Vancouver International Film Festival — that her contribution has proved to be invaluable, and near transcendent.
Certainly VanRamblings (who tends to be a little over-enthusiastic during the Festival, well-meaning with a tendency to exuberance) acknowledges Iulia’s contribution to our personal appreciation of the annual Festival.
Always present with a ready smile, calm in the midst of what seems at times to be madness, ensuring that lines of communication are always kept open, and patron lines move in properly, ready with a kind and thoughtful reply to any question posed to her (we try not to be a bother to Iulia and limit our questions to her, as we see just how ‘in demand’ and available she is to her fellow staff and to patrons), Iulia is a wonder and a miracle of kindness and becoming serenity during the often hectic days of our Film Festival.
Thank you Iulia.
And thank you, once again, to every one of the hundreds of administrative and volunteer staff who continue to make our annual Vancouver International Film Festival the première social and cultural event of the year.