The heart of the Vancouver International Film Festival is world cinema, this year spanning 300 films from 55 countries across the globe, most of them award winners ready to arrive on our shores at month’s end and the first two weeks of October, offering a moving & utterly humane perspective on the world that is both phenomenally enlightening and filled with hope.
Today on VanRamblings, a quick glance at four VIFF 2018 programmes.
From the VIFF 2018 programme: the Panorama programme presents the world’s boldest creators and their exceptional works, the year’s most anticipated international films, and new discoveries curated by VIFF’s exceptional programmers specifically for discerning VIFF audiences.
The Panorama programme spans four series: Contemporary World Cinema, Spotlight on France, Vanguard, and new this year, Focus on Italy.
Panorama films arrive on our shores to much critical acclaim and near rabid VIFF patron interest, so if you see a film you like, you should book your tickets for those films now, including: Jafar Panahi’s latest, 3 Faces (which is currently taking TIFF by storm); Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum; and Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro, the winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes.
There are, of course, more than 100 films from across the globe in the Contemporary World Cinema series, including The Wild Pear Tree, the latest film from Master Nuri Bilge Ceylan (2014 Cannes Palme d’Or winner for Winter Sleep); the well-reviewed new film from German director Christian Petzold, Transit; Berlin Best Actor winner Anthony Bajon in The Prayer; and pushing the boundaries of cinema, Holiday, Swedish-born director Isabella Eklöf’s viciously auspicious low-temperature, high-impact début, a sun-splashed dark tableau about a frost-bitten summer vacation gone awry.
Each of the films named above are linked to the VIFF online page, allowing you to easily purchase tickets for one of the film’s upcoming screenings.
There are only nine films in the popular Spotlight on France series this year, each exceptional and each film exploring the rich cinematic culture that continues to flourish in France, a rare opportunity for habitués of the Lower Mainland to screen this year’s finest Gallic delights from l’Hexagone.
For instance, there’s Shéhérazade, proving that VIFF films are not only for the blue rinse and grey-haired crowd. Winner of the Prix Jean Vigo for France’s best first feature of the past year, Jean-Bernard Marlin’s slice-of-life drama about young love on the mean streets of Marseille harkens back to Italian neorealism in its use of non-professional actors and gritty locations. Kenza Fortas, as the tough teen prostitute Shéhérazade, is a real find. A native Marseillais, Marlin has crafted “an ultra-realist portrait of juvenile delinquency … and a surprising and engaging love story to boot.”
According to the VIFF programme, this year’s Vanguard series features 10 films, international cinema that’s slightly ahead of the curve, showcasing exacting visions & unique perspectives, including: Communion Los Angeles, a visual and sonic reverie of modern-day musique concrète; and the 3-part La Flor series (pictured above, only $22 for the entire series), screening on successive days, October 9th, 10th and 11th, shot over ten years and in almost as many countries, Mariano Llinás’ wildly entertaining 14-hour epic is, according to the programme guide, “more than just the filmic event of the year; it’s a landmark work in South American film history.”
Roberto Minervini proves himself an intrepid investigator of America’s margins with What Are You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?, an immersive study of Black communities left reeling by 2017’s rash of race-related murders, Minervini’s portrait of cultural and community devastation offering an unflinching cinematic essay on the travesties and anguish felt by the black population across the U.S., betrayed by their own country and left fighting for justice and basic human dignity. One of the standout films in VIFF’s Vanguard series, and one of 2018’s most powerful must-see films.
Eight films from Italy, long renowned for the world’s most groundbreaking cinema, comprises the first ever VIFF Focus on Italy series, including Daughter of Mine (pictured above), about which the VIFF 2018 programme guide records …
On sun-drenched Sardinia, ten-year-old Vittoria (Sara Casu), born of alcoholic party girl Angelica (Alba Rohrwacher) but raised as her own by sensible Tina (Valeria Golino), is drawn into her birth mother’s chaotic sphere, despite having no knowledge of the truth of her situation. Says Jessica Kiang in Variety “Laura Bispuri’s sunswept, emotive, and elemental sophomore narrative film… a noble rarity… unfolds with such a barefoot sense of place that you can almost feel the Sardinian sand between your unwashed toes.”
All of VanRamblings coverage of the 37th annual Vancouver International Film Festival to date is available by clicking here.
Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, VanRamblings will take a look at the Gateway / Dragons & Tigers series, as well as the M / A / D (Music, Art, Design) and ALT programmes.
The following weekend, with any luck we’ll present a bit of insight into Sandy Gow’s always superlative International Shorts programme (he’s a bit miffed with VanRamblings for not following through on our interviews with him the past couple of years — having terminal, inoperable cancer [that’d be me] tends to make someone, well … somewhat less than responsible respecting carrying out the prosaic demands of the journalistic life … c’est la vie … not that Sandy didn’t have his own travails, mind you … we take it that he’s now fully recovered from his life-devastating bike accident).
