We continue to cover the events of the main Belarusian film festival. The second day expanded the 'geography' of the main competition, giving three new films at once.
Listapad is picking up the pace. It's becoming impossible to watch all the films: about ten new movies from different programs were presented in one day. We tell you about the main competition, where two films from the Cannes Film Festival were screened.
Streetwise
A young man, Dongzi, from a small Chinese town becomes a tax collector to pay off the large debts of his sick father, who doesn't have long to live. Due to constant conflicts with his father, the boy lost his mother: she died of a stroke during domestic fights. Loneliness haunts our hero until he meets a woman who can change his life forever. Will he find peace on the noisy city streets, or will he be forced to survive on his own until the end of his days?
«Streetwise» (shown at Listapad under the title «The Street») is a Chinese film by young director Na Jiazuo, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival this year and was nominated in the «Un Certain Regard» competition. This is classic festival cinema that Listapad needs to show the culture of a well-known country from a new perspective.
Focusing his gaze on the streets far from Beijing, the director managed to tell quite plausibly about people living out their tragedies daily. The lost heroes of the film, whose souls are full of sorrow, perform a small play on screen, generously packed with little stories: the son must help not only his cruel father by raising money for treatment but also resolve the conflict between warring families because of love for a stranger girl.
I would especially like to note the film's cinematographer, Li Jiangnan, who turns any dialogue between father and son into a verbal duel. For two hours, it's impossible to tear yourself away from the film's visual images, and some shots resemble the recent «Days» by Tsai Ming-liang. The films are also united by one of the central themes — loneliness that remains inside after broken love relationships.
«My Night»
Marion recently lost her sister, which caused depression. Instead of a noisy party, the girl aimlessly wanders the streets, where she meets a young guy, Alex. Together they are to spend an unforgettable night in Paris that will change their outlooks on life.
«My Night» is another debut film that made it into the main competition of Listapad. Young Frenchwoman Antoinette Boulat made a fairy tale for young teenagers that disappoints throughout the entire viewing. Although quite good actors Lou Lampus () and Tom Mercier («Synonyms») were chosen for the lead roles, the film turned out absolutely faceless and capable of getting lost among the same type of dramas about relationships in the city of dreams. Undoubtedly, the film had the makings of something unusual: the romantic meeting of two lovers is interrupted by the guy's disappearance and is also accompanied by sharp headaches in the girl. However, all ambitions disappear after the sex scene, which puts the final point of the film.
What was happening on screen resembled «Sixteen Springs», which begins with similar relationships between a young girl and a young guy. However, while that film touched on an interesting concept of love as a dance of life, «My Night» is a carbon copy of a carbon copy that many will forget the day after watching.
«A Hero»
Perhaps the main premiere of today is the Iranian film «A Hero», which shared the Grand Prix of Cannes with the Finnish-Russian film «Compartment No. 6». The film's director — the famous two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi — seems to be aiming for his third statuette, having made a practically «polished» film that you want to turn off halfway through.
A young man, Rahim, is in prison for non-payment of debts. Unexpectedly, he has an opportunity to be freed: a bag stuffed with gold coins falls into his hands. However, Rahim does not want to get out this way, so he gives the bag to a stranger girl who claims she lost it. For his good deed, Rahim starts being broadcast on TV and invited for interviews. The change in life circumstances contributed to the emergence of opponents of the man's behavior who want to find out the truth.
«A Hero» is a quintessential Farhadi film, possessing all the features of his past works: again a «lost» man falls into a «whirlpool» of conflicts that consumes him until the very end. Perhaps this perfectionism ultimately ruins an interesting work: at first, a local conflict grows to «Oscar» proportions, and then begins to induce boredom. In «A Hero», almost every scene could make it into the «golden reel» of the most striking moments shown before the announcement of the Oscar nominees. But is it necessary if, after an hour of monotonous scenes, it becomes stuffy from the Iranian director's reflections, which towards the end rush towards philosophical sketches?
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