Most Promising International Filmmaker nominations announced for UWPG Film Fest
Family and identity tie noms together in strong field
Jason Pchajek, staff writer
What is a more important question than “who am I?”
Whether it’s a story about a young drag queen in China, or a girl tracing her family’s history through a country they were forced from, or a successful self-help author dealing with the failing of her own life, the nominees for Most Promising Filmmaker at the 2020 UWPG Film Festival have impactful stories to tell.
Action – Russia
What would you sacrifice for your dreams? For your passions? Then, what happens when no matter how hard you try, others do not see this passion, this drive, this goal. Even your own daughter.
Action mixes comedy and drama, following a father – Gena, played by Andrey Polishuk – trying to finally breakthrough as an actor, when his career has already cost him his marriage. After a lifetime playing small roles in a tiny theatre, he is in the big city, with a chance to finally take the spotlight, but not if others get in the way.
The camera work in this film alone makes it worth the watch, tracking through scenes, following action in long uninterrupted takes. This mixed with the superb performances of the cast really make this film shine.
Alina Kikelya is part of a deep and incredibly talented pool for female directors in this year’s festival, but her eye for beautiful cinematography, and the way she gets the most from her actors, even those who sit on the side like Gena, makes her something to watch.
This film is authentically Russian, and you will absolutely adore it.
Heimat Europa – Germany
Isabel Jansson’s mid-length film is perhaps the longest film you’ll see at the festival, but it is worth it. Heimat Europa is a triumph in every sense of the word, as Jansson interlaces two storylines separated by over 70 years to tell a powerful tale of immigration, self-discovery, and the female experience.
Part period drama, part coming of age film, Heimat is a technical marvel. Beautiful environments and more beautiful performances create a pleasing experience. The bleak, grey-tinged framing of war-torn Poland is juxtaposed with the clear, colourful modern timeline, while Minna follows a family journey on her way to discover herself.
The film is a masterful portrayal of womanhood in Europe, and how it transcends time itself. No matter which timeline, the same experiences bleed through, the same concerns, the same pains, but also the same lights. Jansson knows what it means to be a woman and shows it.
So too is the experience of refugees, whether it be Amar, trying to build a new life in Europe, or Minna’s ancestors, forced to flee for Germany, chased from their homes by Polish partisans. Jansson perfectly captures these experiences, and it will be amazing to see what she does next.
not everything has to work out – Argentina
Here’s probably the most obvious sentiment ever spoken: life is hard.
In an anxious world marred by a pandemic, changing roles in a society that looks like a poor imitation of what it once was, and the reigns of that society being passed from one generation to the next, we all need a film like not everything has to work out, just so we don’t feel so alone in it.
We are all cursed to grow up, but there is nothing anyone can do to prepare you for what that will be like. There is no manual, or book, or YouTube video that can explain the finer points of being an adult. Yes, we can learn to pay taxes, get a mortgage, navigate insurance, find work, and put together Ikea furniture.
But what about the other stuff? Finding love, starting a family, taking care of your aging parents, or simply being happy when it feels like your entire world is falling apart. When is it enough?
That is possibly the best component of this brilliant piece coming from Argentina. An author of best-selling self-help books, who you would think has all the answers – she writes about them right – but is drowning. Unable to communicate with a father who himself is struggling with his own life problems, crushed by her own inability to find what she wants most, her success is all a mirage.
It’s a smokescreen.
She may have fame, money, and power, but what really is it worth when the house is built on cracked foundation? And here comes a venomous reporter to be the personification of all her doubt and pain.
The dialogue is sharp, the camerawork superb, the performances wonderful, and the directing masterful. Evoking the best of Aaron Sorkin and Bennet Miller, this directing duo prove that more eyes need to be on South America.
Peacock – China
“Do you know why peahens adore peacocks? Only peacocks have the beautiful shining feathers, peahens look like quails, not pretty at all. So, the pretty peafowls are always the male one.”
This film oozes meaning. Not a single line, not a single frame, not a single moment of silence, is wasted in the pursuit of its goal.
How stifling must it feel when the world doesn’t accept you. When you’re made to feel wrong for the clothes you wear, told to leave out the back door so nobody sees you, made to feel like a lowly peahen when you want to be a beautiful peacock.
All a boy wants is the approval of his father. To be seen and accepted. But when you know that the person you are, the things you do, the things you love, will not be accepted, you feel crushed. It is isolating.
Every time something bad happens, all Shaojie wants to know is if his father has been told. Losing his job because people find out he’s a drag queen or being assaulted after an argument, his father finding out is the only worry on his mind. Such is the life of sons who fear they won’t be accepted by their fathers.
But in the end, it is the grandfather, the older man from an older generation many would assume is less tolerant, that will cheer him on.
Do yourself a favor and watch this film. Watch it twice. Yunrui Li turns in a masterwork and is just getting started.