77° Venice Film Festival - 2.09 — 12.09.2020
77th Venice International Film Festival, Lido di Venezia, 2.09 - 12.09 2020 ©www.popcinema.org
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Review and analysis of the 77° Venice Film Festival
Author Roberto Matteucci
DASHTE KHAMOUSH - THE WASTELAND
Directed by Ahmad Bahrami
to build a wall it takes bricks
A remote brick manufacture factory produces bricks in an ancient way. Many families with different ethnicities work in the factory and the boss seems to hold the key to solving their problems. Forty-year-old Lotfollah, who has been born on-site, is the factory supervisor and acts as go-between for the workers and the boss. Boss has Lotfollah gather all the workers in front of his office. He wants to talk to them about the shutdown of the factory. All matters now to Lotfollah is to keep Sarvar unharmed, the woman he has been in love with for a long time.
KHORSHID - SUN CHILDREN
Directed by Majid Majidi
Every boy searches a treasure
This is the story of 12-year-old Ali and his three friends. Together they work hard to survive and support their families, doing small jobs in a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast money. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find a hidden treasure underground. He recruits his gang, but first, to gain access to the tunnel, the children must enroll at the Sun School, a charitable institution that tries to educate street kids and child laborers, close to where the treasure is located.
LA TROISIEME GUERRE - THE THIRD WAR
Directed by Giovanni Aloi
Starring Anthony Bajon, Karim Leklou, Leïla Bekhti
Just war can save France
Fresh out of basic training, Leo lands his first assignment: a surveillance operation that sees him roaming the streets of Paris with nothing to do but remain alert for potential threats. Given the task of securing the borders of a massive anti-government demonstration, Leo finds himself plunged into the heart of a raging crowd. All the pressure and impotent fury that has built up over weeks is about to explode...
MEEL PATTHAR - MILESTONE
Directed by Ivan Ayr
Thieves with uniforms
As soon as veteran driver Ghalib’s truck touches the 500,000 kilometers mark—a record at his company—he is struck by a sudden pain in his back. He decides to go home, where he finds a letter at his doorstep. Ghalib visits his village to defend a compensation claim made by his late wife’s family. When the village council rules against him, he is given 30 days to determine an appropriate compensation. As Ghalib struggles to recover from his back injury, he is asked to train a young new driver, at which point Ghalib begins to fear that his job and life are slipping out of his hands. Like any milestone, Ghalib’s record too has come at a price.
NAK-WON-EUI-BAM - NIGHT IN PARADISE
Directed by Park Hoon-jung
Revenge is a woman.
Tae-gu, the ace of a criminal gang led by Mr. Yang, tries to clean up his life for his sick sister and nephew. Then one day, his sister and nephew are killed in an accident by someone who aimed for Tae-gu. Tae-gu decides to take revenge in shock. In the end, he removes the boss of another gang, and runs away to Jeju Island. Without knowing that his gang has already abandoned him, he meets Kuto and his niece, Jae-yeon who look after Tae-gu. Jae-yeon is dying from an illness, while Tae-gu intuitively feels the danger coming close. Things are getting tangled up, and Jae-yeon and Tae-gu, who have no desire to live, start to feel pity for each other.
SAINT-NARCISSE
Directed by Bruce LaBruce
The evolution of narcissism
When a young man who thought his mother was dead discovers that she may still be alive, he goes on a quest to find her. His journey takes him to a remote cabin in the woods where his mother lives in exile with a mysterious young woman.
THE DISCIPLE
Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane
Music is life
Sharad Nerulkar has devoted himself to becoming an Indian classical vocalist, a lifelong quest in which few succeed. Initiated into this centuries-old tradition by his father, he follows his dream with sincerity and discipline, committing himself entirely to his artistic journey. As he strives to attain the highest level of his craft, Sharad traces his way through the hallowed mysteries and rituals of past musical legends. But as the years pass, Sharad will be forced to negotiate between the complex realities of life in contemporary Mumbai and his chosen path, leading him to find his true voice in music and in life.
THE DUKE
Directed by Roger Michell Starring Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren
Stealing a painting is not a crime
In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history.
Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly - he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television.
What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge - Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage - how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale.
THE FURNACE
Directed by Roderick Mackay
If your roots are very distant, take someone else's
The Furnace, set in the 1890s gold rush of Western Australia, is an unlikely hero’s tale, navigating greed and the search for identity in a new land. This film illuminates the forgotten history of Australia’s ‘Ghan' cameleers, who were predominantly Muslim and Sikh men from India, Afghanistan, and Persia, who traversed the nation’s vast desert interior, forming unique bonds with local Aboriginal people.
To escape a harsh existence and return home, a young Afghan cameleer partners with a mysterious bushman on the run with two 400oz Crown-marked gold bars. Together the unlikely pair must outwit a zealous police sergeant and his troopers in a race to reach a secret furnace - the one place where they can safely reset the bars to remove the mark of the Crown.
1897, Western Australia.
THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
Paint my skin please
Sam Ali, a young sensitive and impulsive Syrian, left his country for Lebanon to escape the war. To be able to travel to Europe and live with the love of his life, he accepts to have his back tattooed by one of by the World’s most sulfurous contemporary artist. Turning his own body into a prestigious piece of art, Sam will however come to realize that his decision might actually mean anything but freedom.
