Reviews and analysis from 78th Venice International Film Festival, Venice, 1.09 - 11.09 2021

Author Roberto Matteucci

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VENEZIA 78

SUNDOWN

Director Michel Franco 

Main Cast Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios, Henry Goodman, Albertine Kotting McMillan, Samuel Bottomley / Mexico, France, Sweden / 83’

“I'm not hiding.”

Acapulco is an amazing location for a relaxing holiday. The brothers Neil and Alice Bennett, with the woman's children, are enjoying the resort with baths, tanning, alcohol, food. In England, they are the managers of the family business, a pig factory. During their stay, their mother dies, they have to run home. Neil finds an excuse to remain in Acapulco alone. He disappears, he does not contact anyone. He has a secret. He dreams of pigs in every place. He is confused, lost. His mind is broken down. However, Neil is not the only one to have sunstroke in the film.

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ILLUSIONS PERDUES

Director Xavier Giannoli 

Main Cast Benjamin Voisin, Cécile de France, Vincent Lacoste, Xavier Dolan, Salomé Dewaels, Jeanne Balibar, Gérard Depardieu, André Marcon, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Jean-François Stévenin / France / 144’

"The newspaper is a liberal so I'm a liberal."

From Balzac's novel, director Xavier Giannoli narrates a story set in nineteenth-century France but very modern. At the time, newspapers, publishing, books, intellectuals and writers were corrupt, biased, liars, false. Positive or negative reviews were written for money, favours, economic and powerful interests.

How is intellectual life nowadays? Are journalists heroes ready to sacrifice themselves to defend the truth? The illusions are lost, not just for Lucien.

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SPENCER

Director Pablo Larraín 

Main Cast Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Sally Hawkins / Germany, UK / 111’

“I am lost.”

Diana Spencer has always lived in wealth, in luxurious environments, in the most sumptuous nobility. Spoiled, she has never worked, cooked, cleaned and, when she drove her Porsche, she got lost. She likes to be a Barbie, and she was treated like a doll, but it is her choice. The film narrates her personality during the three days Christmas meeting of the Royal Family in the Sandringham mansion. Pablo Larraín has abandoned the emotional plots of a historical Chile; nowadays he prefers stories about important women in contrast to their world. For Larraín, Diana had fallen into a crisis of neurosis on the verge of insanity. Is she sick? or are they killing her? Elegant dresses, opulent rooms, impeccable ceremonies. In meantime, Diana is eating fried chicken at KFC.

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KAPITAN VOLKONOGOV BEZHAL - CAPTAIN VOLKONOGOV ESCAPED

Director Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov 

Main Cast Yuriy Borisov, Timofey Tribuntsev, Aleksandr Yatsenko, Nikita Kukushkin, Vladimir Epifantsev, Anastasiya Ukolova, Natalya Kudryashova, Dmitriy Podnozov, Viktoriya Tolstoganova, Yuriy Kuznetsov, Igor Savochkin / Russia, Estonia, France / 126’

“Why are you afraid?”

False confessions, obtained through torture during the Stalinist USSR before the Second World War, were widespread and consolidated. In St. Petersburg, army Captain Fyodor Volkonogov was one of the cruellest perpetrators. They justified it as preventive repression, in fact, it mainly affected minorities. Such wickedness causes a human upheaval in the Captain's soul. He will have to face his sins. So, he wants to ask for the forgiveness of the families of the people killed. However, forgiveness must be earned, only the final catharsis will help him.

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LA CAJA

Director Lorenzo Vigas 

Main Cast Hernán Mendoza, Hatzín Navarrete, Elián González, Cristina Zulueta, Dulce Alexa Alfaro, Graciela Beltrán / Mexico, USA / 92’

“Es mentira.”

The director Lorenzo Vigas, winner of the 2015 Golden Lion with Desde allá, has not yet resolved the relationship with his father. In La caja, the teenager Hatzín has to go to pick up a box, a small coffin, with his father's corpse. Many years ago, he abandoned his son. During the journey, from the bus, Hatzín thinks to recognize him, so he is not dead? Does he still alive? The man denies it, he kicks him out, but the boy insists. Is he really the father? In poor rural Mexico, the exploiters take advantage of the marginalized and immigrants. Hatzín, on the other hand, is looking for a father.

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OUT OF COMPETITION

OLD HENRY

Director Potsy Ponciroli 

Main Cast Tim Blake Nelson, Scott Haze, Gavin Lewis, Richard Speight Jr., Max Arciniega, Brad Carter, Trace Adkins, Stephen Dorff / Usa / 99’

“Who are you?”

Oklahoma 1906. Old Henry and his son Wyatt live on a farm hidden away on a hill, far from everything. A peaceful family, Old Henry counteracts his son's teenage tantrums with authority.

A casual encounter with an injured man, with a bag full of cash, will destroy their peace.

A bunch of cowboys is pursuing him. Old Henry defends him, and he is forced to face them. The shooting obligates him to reveal his secret. The film is a western with lots of firings, action and a final resolution adapted to future changes.

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ORIZZONTI COMPETITION

PILIGRIMAI - PILGRIMS

Director Laurynas Bareisa 

Main Cast Gabija Bargailaite, Giedrius Kiela, Paulius Markevičius, Indrė Patkauskaitė, Jolanta Dapkūnaitė, Ieva Andrejevaitė / Lithuania / 2021 / 92’

"Who do you want me to take away?"

A dramatic murder in Lithuania remains unanswered by the victim's brother and girlfriend. They begin a pilgrimage, an Easter procession in the places where killer and dead stopped on a fatal night. The macabre details, the indifference, force the two guys to resign themselves to finally mourning. It is a Calvary. Linear editing, flashbacks, long pauses, spasmodic waits are the characteristics of the film.

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PUBU - THE FALLS

Director Chung Mong-hong 

Main Cast Alyssa Chia, Gingle Wang, Chen Yi-Wen, Lee Lee-Zen / Taiwan / 129’

"I advise you to stay away from me."

A female student from Taipei is forced into isolation. She was sitting in the classroom near a positive case at Covid. The quarantine is in her house, a beautiful middle-class home. She lives with her divorced mother. The problem is not the virus, but the relationship between the two women. It would seem like a normal generational crisis, in reality, it is an existential crisis. A snake will find the right solution in their love relationship.

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EL HOYO EN LA CERCA

Director Joaquín del Paso 

Main Cast Valeria Lamm Williams, Yubah Ortega, Lucciano Kurti, Eric Walker, Santiago Barajas, Enrique Lascurain, Jacek Poniedzialek, Raul Vasconcelos / Mexico, Poland / 100’

“Posture, punctuality, penance.”

On a Mexican ranch, surrounded by greenery and indigenous villages, there is a Catholic college run by professors intimately involved in teaching. The boys are smart, naughty, bratty, undisciplined, the same as those of many schools. There are bullies and their victims. Their souls are different. They need to relieve their emotional tension. The causes are both school education and hormonal adolescence. Both motivations must find physical and psychological satisfaction even in angry resentment. Violence is the topos of many coming of age stories. The teachers are even fun, like the students. However, they will come out mature and ready to face life.

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AMIRA

Director Mohamed Diab 

Main Cast Saba Mubarak, Ali Suliman, Tara Abboud, Waleed Zuaiter, Ziad Bakri, Suhaib Nashwan, Reem Talhami / Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia / 98’

“Your mother lives half a life.”

A woman marries a man in prison. She has never met him, during the ceremony, she kisses his photo. Another woman is forced to feel ashamed of an unwanted father, others ones cannot speak or are excluded from every decision in life. It is the female universe in Palestine. The plot does not have anything new; as usual: the wall between Israel and the West Bank, the checkpoint, the hate. Only the tragic final catharsis will dispel suspicions and conflicts.

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BODENG SAR - WHITE BUILDING

Director Kavich Neang 

Main Cast Piseth Chhun, Sithan Hout, Sokha Uk, Chinnaro Soem, Sovann Tho, Jany Min, Chandalin Y / Cambodia, France, China, Qatar / 90’

"Do you still dream?"

A dilapidated old white building in Phnom Penh is the setting for a Cambodian drama. Many families have a flat in the building. The construction is damaged and in poor condition. However, in the future, the area will be assigned to rich speculation. Therefore, a construction company offered them money to leave. There is a problem, funds are insufficient to buy a new home. A confrontation will begin between who wants to sell and who wants to stay, a complex human choice. In the background of the white building, there is an already destined family. Will the teenage son be saved?

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EL OTRO TOM

Director Rodrigo Plá, Laura Santullo 

Main Cast Julia Chávez, Israel Rodriguez Bertorelli / Mexico, USA / 111’

“I am bipolar.” “I am ADHD.”

Can a lively and active child be treated with psychiatric drugs? Certainly, it is not the case with Tommy. He lives only with his mother. The father - frivolous and immature - fled to Mexico. Tommy is exuberant, restless, but he is not violent. The superficiality of the doctors is shown by a hasty diagnosis and a cure exclusively of medicine. The mother refuses and starts fighting with the school, with the social workers, with the judges. The solution is identified by the woman: she takes Tommy to Mexico with his father. The parents need psychological help, not the child. Maybe a few healthy slaps would have been enough for Tommy. However, it is illegal, and it is not possible. Society prefers to cloud the minds of children with drugs, this is stupidly legal.

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INU-OH

Director Masaaki Yuasa 

Main Cast animation film / featuring the voices of Avu-Chan and Mirai Moriyama / Japan, China / 98’

"You feel like dancing."

Inu-ho was a fourteenth-century Japanese Noh theatre actor. Inu-ho is a fascinating cartoon, full of rhythm, of original characters: a blind man and a dancer with a deformed arm. The film is a joy for the senses, an energetic plot, a lively script, exaggerated primary colours, rousing rock music. The desire to dance is great.

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ORIZZONTI EXTRA

COSTA BRAVA

Director Mounia Akl 

Main Cast Nadine Labaki, Saleh Bakri, Nadia Charbel, Ceana Restom, Geana Restom, Liliane Chacar Khoury, Yumna Marwan / Lebanon, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Qatar / 106’

“It's all going to be ok.”

The Badri family left Beirut to move to the countryside. It is a beautiful, peaceful, serene, silent place. One day some trucks begin to carry material into the ground below. They want to build a modern and functional landfill. The goal is to resolve the Lebanese capital's waste crisis. Peace ends. Parents and children quarrel with each other. Around, there is only rubbish, toxic fires and a terrible smell. It is no longer possible to live in the valley, leaving is not easy and above all, it divides everyone. Only the little girl will continue to count 1 2 3 4 5 6… to solve problems.

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7 PRISIONEIROS

Director Alexandre Moratto 

Main Cast Christian Malheiros, Rodrigo Santoro, Bruno Rocha, Vitor Julian, Lucas Oranmian, Cecília Homem de Mello, Dirce Thomaz / Brazil / 90’

"I've never slept in a bed."

Four, strong and willing, young people leave the Brazilian countryside to go to work in Sao Paulo. A specialized agency found them a job in scrap recovery. It is a hard tiring task. Therefore, they expect food, decent accommodation, a contract to be respected, fairly paid hours. Instead, they were sold, and forced to live in a kind of prison, and tortured. They must work for free, the workshop is a prison, with bars on the windows and high walls. They have no hope, even the police are corrupted, and they are complicit with the bosses. In a desperate film, the protagonists are without a chance, if they wanted to save themselves, they would have to transform themselves into jailers. There are still many injustices.

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