The HEARTBEAT of cinema

AWARD-WINNING and acclaimed films from the Americas, from South to North, are featured in the 12th World Film Festival of Bangkok.
Putting the beat in the fest’s Cinema Beat programme is this year’s top-prize winner from Sundance, “Whiplash”, starring up-and-coming Hollywood leading man Miles Teller as an aspiring jazz drummer struggling under the cruel tutelage of a tyrannical band director (JT Simmons). It’s a “must see”, according to festival director Kriengsak “Victor” Silakong.
Another Cinema Beat “must see”, according to Victor, is “Mommy”, the latest searing effort from provocative Canadian director Xavier Dolan. It shared the Prix du Jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with another World Film Fest entry, Jean-Luc Godard’s “Goodbye to Language”. In French, “Mommy” is also Canada’s foreign-language Oscar submission.
“‘Mommy’ is the film of the year,” Victor asserts, heaping praise on the drama about a widowed mother overwhelmed by raising her troubled, violent teenage son. A mysterious new neighbour steps in to support.
The festival’s Cine Latino line-up is another solid selection, says Victor, with entries from Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. All were “direct submissions”, Victor says, confirming that the World Film Festival of Bangkok is well-known among Latin American filmmakers as an important platform for exhibition of their work in Asia.
Somewhat by accident, Victor says, nearly all the Cine Latino titles are gentle family dramas, among them “Chasing Fireflies” from Colombia. Directed by Roberto Flores Prieto, the story is about a man who watches over an abandoned salt mine, and he’s content to live in isolation amid the natural landscape. One day, a young girl shows up – a daughter he didn’t know about. The two gradually form a bond.
“Chasing Fireflies” will be among the titles that will be subtitled in both English and Thai, and it will be part of the World Film Festival of Bangkok’s touring programme in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Khon Kaen.
Late-life restiveness stirs in “Sofia and the Stubborn Man”, also from Colombia. Carmen Maura from Pedro Almodovar’s “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” stars as a spirited elderly woman who has had enough of her husband and his perennial refusal to take a vacation by the seaside. So she takes off, leaving her mountain village for a trip by her lonesome.
From Mexico comes another road movie, “The Life After”, in which teenage boys are abandoned by their manic-depressive mother, still grieving over the death of her father a decade before. She writes them a note, “I have to leave”, so they head off on a cross-country search for her.
More travel is on tap from Uruguay in “So Much Water”, a coming-of-age drama in which a divorced dad attempts to bond with his two children during a visit to a spring-water resort town. Just as they arrive, endless rain sets in, forcing the family – dad, teen daughter and kid brother – to stay cooped up in a motel.
There’s a mood shift with the Peruvian entry, “El Mudo”, a European-style black comedy-thriller about a government official who has steadfastly refused to have anything to do with corruption. His life takes a turn when he’s hit in the throat by a bullet. Left mute, he believes one of his colleagues tried to have him killed.
Back in the Cinema Beat category, which has entries from Canada, Palestine, Spain and the US, there’s Latin flavour in “Carmina or Blow Up”, a documentary-style comedy that’s the directorial debut by actor Paco Leon. It stars his mother Carmina Barrios, portraying a domineering woman who runs a bar in Seville. She’s just suffered an unusual robbery – the theft of 80 hams – and as she tries to cope, she recounts her life’s various other midadventures.
And there’s a look at a Mexican-American family in the Midwestern US state of Iowa in “My Sister’s Quinceanera”, in which a teenage boy is seeking to break free of small-town life. However, he first has to deal with his younger sister’s debutante party, which is being organised by his frantic single mum.
More family drama comes from Palestine in “Villa Touma”, by first-time director Suha Arraf, co-writer of the screenplay for “The Lemon Tree”. In “Villa Touma”, an aristocratic trio of Christian Palestinian sisters have their secluded lives shaken up by the arrival of an orphaned niece.
And from Canada comes “Three Indian Tales”, a trio of stories set across four seasons, about a new generation of native Americans living on the reservations, who are actively seeking a place in contemporary society.

THUMPITY  THUMP
The 12th World Film Festival of Bangkok runs from October 17 to 26 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.
Tickets cost Bt120. There are 500 special packages offering five movies for Bt500.
The festival will also come to SF cinemas in Khon Kaen from November 7 to 9, Pattaya from November 14 to 16 and Chiang Mai from November 20 to 23.
Find out more at www.WorldFilmBkk.com.