Latino cinema holiday

A POINT OF pride for the World Film Festival of Bangkok has been its Cine Latino selection, something that makes it unique among festivals in Asia.
“It’s my favourite section,” says festival director Kriengsak “Victor” Silakong. “And of all the Asian film festivals, I don’t see them focusing on Latino films.”
This year’s Cine Latino programme includes films from Argentina, Peru, Spain and Mexico.
But the biggest selection comes from Brazil, where filmmakers heard about the success of one of their films at last year’s World Film Fest, “Cine Holliudy”, a quirky family comedy directed by Halder Gomes. It was about a small-town movie-theatre operator and his unique way of entertaiing his audience. Victor says Bangkok was one of the first places in the world “Cine Holliudy” was shown, and the “response was fantastic.
“It encouraged other Brazilian filmmakers to submit their films to us,” he says.
Among the latest crop from Brazil is “Harmonica’s Howl” by Bruno Safadi. Screened at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, it’s a “fluid” love story about “three beautiful, young, affluent people [who] circle each other like floating islands”.
Another Brazilian love story is told in “Jonatha’s Forest” by Sergio Andrade, about a young man who lives in the Amazon and sells products at a roadside stand. He goes against his parents’ wishes and runs off on an adventure in the forest with a visiting Ukrainian woman.
More Brazilians are on the move in “The Moving Creatures” by Caetano Gotardo, three separate stories that deal with a trio of mothers and their sons who are moving on.
And there’s “Neighbouring Sounds” the debut feature of Kleber Mendonca Filho, who won awards at dozens of other festivals. It deals with an affluent seaside community where a private security firm is brought in after a spate of petty crimes.
Other films in this year’s selection were the result of Victor’s visit to the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico, which is considered the most prestigious film festival in Latin America and among the most important Spanish-language fests.
Among them is Argentina’s “Clandestine Childhood”, which won Guadalajara’s prize for Best Iberoamerican Feature for director Benjamin Avila and Best Actor for Ernesto Alterio. He plays Uncle Beto in the fact-based drama, which is set in junta-era 1979 and deals with a family of Montoneros rebels who are living under assumed names.
A couple of films that Victor thinks might strike a chord with Thai viewers are “Workers” from Mexico and “The Cleaner” from Peru.
Dog lovers in particular will like “Workers”, says Victor. It deals with a maid who is charged with the care of her dead employer’s beloved pet canine. “The Cleaner”, meanwhile, takes place during an epidemic, and a janitor who cleans up after the dead finds a lost little boy and tries to return him to his family.
If that’s all too heavy for you, have a look at the Spanish offering, “Cousinhood”, a comedy about a young groom who’s left at the altar. Seeking to turn a page on his life, he joins his cousins on a road trip to a town where he spent summer holidays and where he thinks he might reconnect with the first girl he fell in love with.
More laughs are in store in the Mexican comedy, “The Zebra”, in which two bandits mistake a zebra for a horse as they travel across the country to join the revolutionary forces.
There’s still more south-of-the-border flavour in the festival’s Doc Feast section, with entries from Mexico and Brazil.
Among them is the surreal “Scarecrow” which covers the rare profession of the living scarecrow found in the rice fields of the Morelos, Mexico. With a war cry and the crack of a whip, the men are no straw-filled dummies when it comes to keeping the pesky birds at bay.
Also from Mexico is “Gimme the Power”, about the rock band Molotov, linking the band’s story to the tragicomedy of Mexico’s political history.
And “Helio Oiticica” introduces “the Andy Warhol of Brazil”, a found-footage documentary by the artist’s nephew Cesar Oiticica Filho, in which Oiticica himself narrates his life and expounds upon his art in his own words and through extremely rare archival audio and visual material.

FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL
The 11th World Film Festival of Bangkok runs from tomorrow until November 24 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld.
Tickets are Bt120. For booking, check SFCinemaCity.com.
For the schedule and other details, see www.WorldFilmBKK.com.