Layers of the union

A BRITISH SOLDIER is trapped alone in violence-wracked Belfast, a French teenager joins an all-girls’ gang and the world’s top filmmakers invade the home of one of their idols.

Those are just some of the stories that will unspool in this year’s European Union Film Festival, which brings 18 entries from 14 countries to Bangkok next week. Selections will also screen in Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen.

From Belgium comes “Melody”, director Bernard Bellefroid’s drama about a young woman (Lucie Debay) who wants to open her own hairdressing salon. To achieve this, she agrees to be a surrogate mother for an Englishwoman (Rachael Blake). The two actresses shared a prize at last year’s Montreal World Film Festival, which also awarded “Melody” a special mention.

The Czech Republic recalls the Soviet era with the sports drama “Fair Play”, in which a talented young Olympic sprinter (Judit Bardos) is given performance-enhancing drugs without her knowledge. She wants off the steroids when she discovers the truth, but there’s pressure from the coaches, her peers and from her mother to continue using them. Directed by Andrea Sedlackova, “Fair Play” was a nominee for the Audience Choice Award at last year’s Chicago International Film Festival.

Denmark offers two, the crime drama “Northwest”, about an 18-year-old street hood going to work for a rival gangster in Copenhagen, and “The Hour of the Lynx”, in which a priest counsels a criminally insane prisoner. Both were nominees in last year’s Bodil Awards in Denmark, and “Northwest” nabbed a supporting actor prize.

Another crime drama comes from Finland, with “Concrete Night”, in which a young man from the slums of Helsinki ponders following his brother into a life of crime, even as the older sibling is heading off to prison. Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo, “Concrete Night” won Best Film and six other prizes at Finland’s Jussi Awards and the Spotlight Award of American Society of Cinematographers.

The French entry “Girlhood” has a 16-year-old with few other prospects in life joining an all-female street gang. A nominee for the Queer Palm at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, it’s directed by Celine Sciamma who previously touched on female sexuality issues with such films as “Tomboy” and “Water Lilies”.

Germany has a pair of historical dramas. “Beloved Sisters” has the aristocratic Von Lengefeld sisters competing for the affections of hotheaded writer-philosopher Friedrich Schiller. In “Phoenix”, a woman who has had facial-reconstruction surgery after a disfiguring confinement in a concentration camp. She has revenge on her mind as she searches postwar-wracked Berlin for her estranged husband. 

Dark comedy enters the picture with the Hungarian entry, “Heavenly Shift”, in which a young Balkan War refugee joins a Budapest ambulance crew and inadvertently becomes involved in the funeral business. Directed by Mark Bodzsar, it’s been a hit at fantasy film fests, earning nominations and winning prizes in Brussels, Porto and elsewhere.

More black comedy comes from Luxembourg in “Dead Man Talking”, in which a death-row convict is asked if he has any last words. And boy, does he ever. It was a foreign-film nominee at France’s Cesar Awards and Belgium’s Magritte Awards, where it won for production design.

Also from Luxembourg is an example of the country’s burgeoning animation scene with “Mr Hublot”, in which a fearful man has to deal with a robot dog. Directed by Alexandre Espigares and Laurent Witz, “Mr Hublot” won last year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

From the Netherlands comes an off-beat thriller, “Borgman”, in which a homeless vagrant gradually worms his way into the lives of a well-off family. Directed by Alex Van Warmerdam, “Borgman” competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2013 and won prizes at many other festivals.

Portugal pays tribute to its greatest auteur, Manoel de Oliveira, who died in April at age 106 and was still making films well past his 100th birthday. From 2012 is his last feature, “Gebo and the Shadow”, a family drama based on a stage play and starring Michael Lonsdale, Claudia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau and Leonor Silveira. There’s also a short film, “The Old Man of Belem”, which has Don Quixote and other historical figures having a chat in a garden in the middle of a modern city

More family drama comes from Romania with “The Japanese Dog”, in which an elderly man who has lost his home in a flood is reunited with his son, who ran away years before. He turns back up with his Japanese wife and kid, and they want to take the old man back to Tokyo with them. Directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu directs, “The Japanese Dog” was Romania’s submission to the Oscars last year.

Winner of a special mention prize from the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Spain’s “Beautiful Youth” has a struggling young twentysomething couple deciding to make pornography.

Sweden offers “Trespassing Bergman”, in which famous film figures, including Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Michael Haneke, Robert De Niro, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Takeshi Kitano, Francis Ford Coppola and Claire Denis, visit the remote Faro Island stronghold of director Ingmar Bergman, and reflect on his legacy.

And the hot ticket will be the acclaimed UK drama “’71”, in which a young British soldier in violence-wracked Belfast is accidentally abandoned by his unit. Somehow, he must survive the night and find his way to safety. Jack O’Connell stars and Yann Demange directs, making his feature debut. It was a major nominee at last year’s British Independent Film Awards, where it won Best Director. It also won the Bafta Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.

 

 

EURO VIEWS

>>The European Union Film Festival runs from July 10 to 19 at SF World Cinema at CentralWorld, Tickets are Bt120, available at Booking.SFCinemaCity.com.

>>In Chiang Mai, the festival runs from July 24 to August 8 at SFX Maya, where tickets are Bt80. The fest also runs from August 7 to 9 at SF Cinema City, CentralPlaza Khon Kaen, where tickets are free.

>>All films will have original soundtracks with English and Thai subtitles.

>>For the schedule and other details, check SFCinemaCity.com or www.Facebook.com/EuinThailand.