Berlinale Forum, 2/12.

Just home from another five-movie day, and with just enough time to jot down a few notes before I hit the big film fest party!

Jennifer Reeves's The Time We Killed is an experimental, impressionistic film shot in high-contrast black-&-white. It is abstract but there is a structure here, a story of a shut-in living in New York City from around the time of the 9/11 attacks to 2003. Through various photographic means, voice-over, poetry and wonderfully experimental sound collage, the filmmaker manages to give a somehow personal, intimate look into the main character's psyche.

Jarmark Europa is a documentary about the Jarmark Europa bazaar in Warsaw, Poland, one of eastern Europe's largest regular bazaars. The film offers a clear-eyed, sympathetic view of two women who travel from their hometown of Penza to sell the goods they've smuggled over the border from Russia. Their lives revolve entirely around the bazaar. I have seen many, many documentaries at the fest and this is definitely the best thanks to the interesting, engaging subjects, director Minze Tummescheit's willingness to truly get to know the subjects, and the focused, evenly paced structure.

Al'lèèssi... une actrice africaine (Al'lèèssi... an African Actress) is a documentary about a very well-known actress in Niger named Zalika. She got her start in the mid-60s, acting in a wide variety of big hits in Niger, but is a cleaning woman today. She's lived a colorful and interesting life, but is a slightly stand-off-ish interviewee, perhaps due to her current work situation. Some of her movies are unintentionally funny when viewed today; for example, Le Retour d'un aventurier from 1966. It is in French (which I don't speak) with no subtitles, so I can't be too precise when it comes to the plot details, but I can tell you that it is a western that takes place on the African plain. Retour features such good old generic western scenes as veil dancing at the pub and roping giraffes (yes, I said roping giraffes).

The fifth and final film for me today was Prawda O Schtschelpach (All the Truth About Schelps). Russian director Alexej Muradow's film begins with three old friends meeting at a morgue to pick up a dead body and continues throughout the rest of the day (and night) as they get more and more drunk and run into more and more unusual circumstances. Parts are quite amusing (albeit not laugh-out-loud funny) but I have to admit that I didn't really understand what was going on most of the time. Maybe it would make more sense if I spoke Russian and knew more about Russian customs, but then again, maybe not. Not a bad film, just confusing.

Until tomorrow, when I have a party report as well as a movie report. Cory.

Posted by dwhudson at February 13, 2004 12:13 PM