VIFF - Day 6

There must be another reason than "ownable" to qualify something as 5-star. I saw another film today, such as "Buitiful", that shook me up as much but at the same time is so effectively unpleasant that I might not want to own it. That film was "When We Leave", about a young Turkish woman who flees her abusive husband in Istanbul to seek refuge with her family in Berlin, only to find she has brought shame and disgrace to her family in Berlin's Turkish community by doing so. From the start the viewer to sneak preview as to what terrible thing will happen, but the snippet is misleading. The issue is explored from both sides so the pain can clearly be seen by all, and the situation seems hopeless, but it isn't really hopeless until the end when someone takes it a step too far. It left me reeling for a bit. Fortunately I had a break between that and the next film.

The first film of the day was "In The Shadows", a German film about an armoured car heist that goes wrong. A slightly different twist to an old story: 3 stars. The second was a documentary about a B-Boy dance competition in Soweto in 2007. Interesting to see once, and some amazing bodies, but that's where it ends: 3 stars.

After "When We Leave" I saw Stephen Frear's latest, "Tamara Drewe" about a girl who returns to her former hometown (i.e. village) and stirs up all kinds and humour and other shit. 4 stars. The last film, "Chantrapas" from Georgia, was a write-off. I really wasn't into it and only made it one-quarter of the way through. (I should still be there but it was dreadfully boring and trite.) Oh well, maybe I can count it as a 'short'.