The 9th annual Montreal Underground Film Festival is three nights of short experimental films from around the world and one after-fest feature film the following early afternoon. It runs May 22-25 at the Bar Populaire for the Opening Night festivities, then at the microcinema at 6029A Ave. du Parc for the rest of the fest.
Opening Night consists of two short film compilations and will feature animation by Ben Popp, sci-fi by Brian Lonano, an experimental short by Neil Ira Needleman and lots more.
Other shorts blocks of the festival are broken up by subject, such as experimental documentaries, horror(ish) films, personal works, meditations on water, and other intriguing concepts.
Some films to look out for are Lori Felker‘s naturally electric music video, Scattered in the Wind; Dan Browne‘s epic lifetime amalgamation of images, Memento Mori; Joseph Christiana‘s hair-raisingly eerie Meat Cycle; a new collaborative piece between Karen and Jaimz Asmundson,...
Opening Night consists of two short film compilations and will feature animation by Ben Popp, sci-fi by Brian Lonano, an experimental short by Neil Ira Needleman and lots more.
Other shorts blocks of the festival are broken up by subject, such as experimental documentaries, horror(ish) films, personal works, meditations on water, and other intriguing concepts.
Some films to look out for are Lori Felker‘s naturally electric music video, Scattered in the Wind; Dan Browne‘s epic lifetime amalgamation of images, Memento Mori; Joseph Christiana‘s hair-raisingly eerie Meat Cycle; a new collaborative piece between Karen and Jaimz Asmundson,...
- 5/19/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- The world could learn a thing or two about getting along from Esther and Halima, the two ladies in question in Philippe Faucon's nicely observed little film about an unlikely friendship.
In the Moroccan-born filmmaker's Dans la vie (Two Ladies), which screened at Toronto without a distributor, Selima, a young Arab nurse (Sabrina Ben Abdallah) takes a job attending to the needs of Esther, an ill-tempered paraplegic Jewish woman (Ariane Jacquot).
Despite her reputation for being difficult, Esther ends up getting along well enough with Selima--the two both share an Algerian background despite their different cultures and religions--that she also agrees having the young woman's devout Muslim mother, Halima (Zohra Mouffok), come in to cook for her.
So far, so good, but when circumstances require Esther moving in with Halima's family for a month, long-held prejudices on both sides come rushing to the forefront.
Fortunately the elderly women ultimately discover that their similarities outweigh their differences, and, despite what Halima's family and neighbors may think, they find themselves bonding.
Director Faucon, who also wrote the script along with Amel Amani, William Karel and Sarah Saada, has woven this multicultural tapestry with a great deal of warmth and humor, while sidestepping the twin traps of caricature and sanctimoniousness that too often go with the territory.
And what his cast of nonactors may lack in screen experience they more than compensate for in personality and an engaging naturalness that makes this 73-minute film an especially satisfying slice of contemporary French life.
TORONTO -- The world could learn a thing or two about getting along from Esther and Halima, the two ladies in question in Philippe Faucon's nicely observed little film about an unlikely friendship.
In the Moroccan-born filmmaker's Dans la vie (Two Ladies), which screened at Toronto without a distributor, Selima, a young Arab nurse (Sabrina Ben Abdallah) takes a job attending to the needs of Esther, an ill-tempered paraplegic Jewish woman (Ariane Jacquot).
Despite her reputation for being difficult, Esther ends up getting along well enough with Selima--the two both share an Algerian background despite their different cultures and religions--that she also agrees having the young woman's devout Muslim mother, Halima (Zohra Mouffok), come in to cook for her.
So far, so good, but when circumstances require Esther moving in with Halima's family for a month, long-held prejudices on both sides come rushing to the forefront.
Fortunately the elderly women ultimately discover that their similarities outweigh their differences, and, despite what Halima's family and neighbors may think, they find themselves bonding.
Director Faucon, who also wrote the script along with Amel Amani, William Karel and Sarah Saada, has woven this multicultural tapestry with a great deal of warmth and humor, while sidestepping the twin traps of caricature and sanctimoniousness that too often go with the territory.
And what his cast of nonactors may lack in screen experience they more than compensate for in personality and an engaging naturalness that makes this 73-minute film an especially satisfying slice of contemporary French life.
- 9/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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