The Nightingale

Jennifer Kent is best known for her controversial horror film The Babadook. Her latest film is set in Tasmania during the convict era and centres around Clare an Irish convict who has served her time, got married to another Irish ex-convict, had a baby but can't leave the tiny settlement she lives in until the lieutenant in charge writes her release letter. She works as a servant and singer and the whole garrison, from Lt Hawkins down, openly lusts after her. Clare is near the bottom of the social pecking order, constantly at risk of harm to her and her family, while trying to insist on her right to be treated as a free person. A visit from a more senior officer starts the chain of events that brings down an avalanche of violence on Clare. With nothing left to lose except her life, Clare sets out to into the bush with Billy (a reluctant Aboriginal tracker) to get revenge on the Lieutenant (who left with a small contingent a few hours earlier). The film follows the two groups through the bush to Launceston. While initially a backdrop to Clare's story, the war against Aboriginal Tasmanians becomes the second theme of the film and Clare's initial attitude to Billy is no different to the soldiers' attitude. As Billy explains his history, Clare slowly begins to see him as a fellow victim.

The Nightingale doesn't shy away from violence and the body count here rivals a Quentin Tarantino film. The film is a rollercoaster with each rise in fortune followed by a crashing fall. This isn't a happy story, it is one that asks us to understand the use of violence and whether violent revenge puts an end to the original violence or just creates a cycle and an excuse to continue with violence.

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Ian's rating 4/5

A white white day

When someone you're close to dies, maybe you go through a "process",  or the seven stages of grief, or maybe grief is different for everyone. A white, white day is a depiction of a grief-stricken man named Ingimundur. He's an retired policeman (or maybe he's on extended bereavement leave - it's hard to tell), and he's recently widowed. On the surface, he's doing everything right.  He has a project  (converting a rural building into a house), he spends meaningful time with his grand-daughter, he catches up with his old colleagues, sees his friends and his brother and plays football. He goes to weekly grief-counselling, organised by the police.

Unfortunately, he discovers that his wife was being unfaithful, and this leads to,  firstly, a period of detective work, and secondly to a period of madness where he attempts to deal with the discovery.

During the period of madness, Ingimundur attacks his old work colleagues and puts them in the cells which has to be one of the most amazing fight scenes I've watched. And he kidnaps the man he thinks his wife was having sex with , and makes him confess at gunpoint. He reduces his eight-year old grand-daughter to tears more than once. By the end of the film, there's been true catharsis but surprisingly,  I was left with the sense that Ingimundur will be ok, and that no-one will hold his madness against him.

Ingimundur is on the screen practically every moment, and his grand-daughter Salka is on it about eighty percent of the time. They're both completely convincing and compelling. The film is a great watch, and there's an incredible tension,  created by wondering how far over the edge Ingimundur is going to go.

An added bonus is seeing cute Icelandic ponies, and some completely dreadful Icelandic children's TV.

Anne's rating 4.5/5 Ian's rating 3.5/5

The Insult

Two political Lebanese courtroom dramas in one festival sounds like more than a coincidence.

The Insult opens with a Christian Phalangist Party rally celebrating election victory. Tony Hanna, who owns a car repair garage is a keen party follower. The next day he gets into an altercation with Yasser the Palestinian foreman/engineer doing renovation work on the apartment building, which quickly escalates into Tony smashing a new drain pipe and Yasser calling him a "fucking prick" (or some Arabic equivalent). The situation escalates between the two stubborn and proud men leading to a worse insult ("I wish Ariel Sharon had wiped you all out"), a punch, court cases and a national political drama, with rock throwing and burning tyres.

The court case is a device to provide not only more tension between the two sides but also allows explanation of the past (including Black September and  the Damour massacre). Tony's lawyer, in particular, is an even more ardent supporter of the Maronite Christian cause than Tony is. He resents that Palestinian suffering at the hands of Zionism shelters them from criticism and sees the case as yet another opportunity to undermine their reputation (to what end is unclear as there is no way that Lebanon can ever get rid of Palestinians, since that depends on the Israelis).

The Insult makes the point that what we identify with gives us strength but also makes us a target. Also that emphasising one difference prevents us from seeing what makes us similar in other ways. It does a good job of explaining a small part of Lebanon's history. The personal tension between the two men is very well depicted with Yasser smouldering quietly and stiffly while Tony's agitation is more physical. Similarly the legal dispute is in the long tradition of cinematic courtroom tactics.

As the lawyers wrangle over the case the two men at the centre of it begin to feel left out and try solve their differences outside the courtroom. At about this point there are a couple of scenes that don't fit with the plot and how Yasser and Toni appear to feel at that moment. Both scenes have dramatic appeal and from that point of view I can see why they are in the film, but both feel jarringly out of place at that point. One, involving the President of Lebanon, might have fitted better earlier in the story and the other involving a car that won't start perhaps nearer the end.

Politics in Lebanon is a high tension game. A country which divides its electorates not only geographically but also between 18 religious groups. Where political parties have militias. A country which has had a civil war. On top of that Lebanon has hosted refugee camps for 70 years and where at the moment 1 in 3 people are refugees from conflicts in neighbouring Syria, Israel or Palestine. Neighbouring countries that show no sign of accepting their refugees back. There is no lack of bitterness and no lack of causes to join. Despite that The Insult is a hopeful film. There are an abundance of peace makers among the minor characters: Yasser's boss and his wife, Tony's pregnant and photogenic wife (played by Rita Hayek) and the President of Lebanon.

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Ian's rating 4.5/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5

Mega Time Squad

Mega Time Squad is a slightly fanciful tale set in Thames. Antony Tennet plays John, the feckless employee of local crime boss Shelton. John is prevailed upon to stage a heist against the local triad, and he agrees in order to impress Shelton's sister. A Chinese bracelet stolen along with a tyre-full of money gives John the ability to duplicate himself and travel backwards in time, and this leads to many a comic moment and general silliness. There are car chases, guns, violence and swearing but this film  comes across as benign and life-affirming.

Mega Time Squad was sequestered in the incredibly strange section of the film festival programme, which seems like a potentially audience-limiting decision. While not as main-stream or high budget as, say, Sione's Wedding, it was at least on par with How To Meet Girls From a Distance and shared many qualities with both those films - especially how the characters talk, behave and interact. A more accurate description than incredibly strange would be fast-paced , off-beat comedy. Despite the film festival's categorization, it's coming out on general release later in the year.

Director/Writer Tim van Dammen says "Mega Time Squad celebrates Kiwi-ness, particularly the way Kiwis speak" and that was a very enjoyable aspect of the film. The scenario of the self-confident obnoxious individual who surrounds himself with  self-effacing conflict-averse characters is one we're all familiar with  and Jonny Brugh does an excellent job playing the obnoxious Shelton.  I liked the escapist element and the recognisable setting. We've spent a lot of time in Thames and it's always fun to see somewhere you're familiar with on screen.

It's fair to say I loved Mega Time Squad. I really can't think about it without smiling

Anne's rating 4.5/5. Ian's rating 3/5

And Breathe Normally

Social commentary through drama is the sort of film we expect from Ken Loach. But And Breathe Normally is by Ísold Uggadóttir and therefore set in Iceland, which probably looks pretty bleak for much of the year and where buildings and other trappings of human life tend to look out of place.

Lara is trying to improve her life. A life which comes with baggage, including tattoos, debts, people she is trying to avoid, a flat she can't afford and a 4 or 5 year old son. She is just starting a job as border guard at Keflavík International Airport. Anxious to impress on the first day on passport control, she notices an imperfection in a French passport of a woman heading for Canada. The woman, Adja from Guinea-Bissau, is also a solo mother with a daughter in Canada and completely out of her comfort zone in Iceland. She is sent to a prison, and then to a downtown boarding house for people awaiting asylum decisions or deportation. Meanwhile, Lara has a major crisis of her own, which leads her to cross paths with Adja again.

Some suspension of belief is required here and there in order to take the plot seriously and to engineer the ending that Ísold Uggadóttir is aiming for, but And Breathe Normally is none-the-worse for that.

And Breathe Normally champions the cause of those on the fringes of society and those who feel they have to break rules when those rules are designed for the benefit of others. There is also a sly, casual promotion of the sisterhood and a super cute kid.

Ian's rating 3.5/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5

Shoplifters

Shoplifters is the most popular film in Japan so far this year. It also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

The Shoplifters are a family that supplements their menial jobs with petty crime. One night they come across a little girl who is cold, hungry and apparently abandoned. They notice her bruises and decide to informally adopt her without involving the authorities who might ask awkward questions about their criminal activities. For a while things work. Summer arrives, the family goes to the beach. Everything looks good until the wheels fall off and the police get involved.

Shoplifters is a gentle comedy that humanises a bunch of people at the margin of society. It helps that it stars two very cute little children. It also raises an awkward question about what should authorities do with a child that has been illegally adopted or stolen but brought up very well by parents who acquired the child illicitly. What is the best for that child?

I noticed that the Society to Prevent Shoplifting is mentioned in the credits.

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Ian's rating 4/5 Anne's rating 3/5

Beirut

So far this is the most gripping film of the 2018 NZIFF. A spy noir. Unusually for an American spy movie, Beirut is more John le Carré than Jason Bourne. This is the movie where you don't want to miss a line of dialogue. Working out everyone's motives and relationships is important.

Beirut sets the scene in 1972 at a party thrown by American diplomat Mason Skiles at his mansion in the hills above Beirut. The party is gatecrashed at the front door by the CIA and Mossad and at the back door by gunmen and his wife is killed. Jumping forwards to 1982 and Skiles has left the diplomatic service and is working as a negotiator in a labour dispute and is reputed to be an alcoholic. But an American has been kidnapped in Beirut and Mason is asked to come out of retirement and negotiate with the kidnappers. Mason arrives in a very different Beirut, the Lebanese Civil War occurred while he was away and everyone thinks that Israel is about to invade. Mason not only has to work out what the kidnappers want and what he needs to do to get the kidnapped man released but also deal with factions at the U.S. Embassy who have their own priorities, which include encouraging the Israelis to invade.

This is a movie that may reward a second viewing as I am not sure I picked up on all the minor plot lines, particularly for characters who suddenly reappear after being absent for much of the film. There are no flashy stunts, our hero knows what to say to achieve something rather than how to leap between tall buildings.

The has-been that everyone has written off but gets to make a comeback is a staple lead character in Hollywood movies. It is a way of getting sympathy with the hero and separating them from the other characters in the story.

That said this film is not without faults. There are at least 9 significant characters, some of whom don't get much screen time. So most of the characters are pretty thin, but it is their motives that are important rather than their personality. All but 2 of these people work for governments (or the P.L.O.), so their personal stories take back seat while they do their jobs. For a film set in Beirut there are no significant Lebanese characters and in typical Hollywood-fashion Arabs are portrayed as violent, uncivilised characters always out for revenge and to be killed with impunity. While the Israelis are not the good guys in this film at least they get some minor parts, and there is disillusionment with the American government.

Beirut was filmed in Tangier, Morocco. Which apparently has a significant number of half-demolished buildings.

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Ian's rating 4.5/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5

Leave No Trace

Will and Tom live off-the-grid in a forest outside Portland, Oregon. Or you could say they are camping or you could say they are homeless. Will is a war veteran who is either not keen on being around people or prefers living indoors (or both), which puts him offside with "the authorities". Tom is his "home" schooled teenage daughter. Their idyllic lifestyle is upset when the park rangers and police arrive and they get processed by the "System". The Oregan Social Services are a benign, thoughtful and considerate outfit (WINZ could learn a thing or two), but despite their efforts, it doesn't work out and the two are soon on the move again. They run into an endless series of helpful people, which make Will's reactions increasingly difficult to sympathise with.

Apart from the strong hint that helicopter noise is a trigger to send Will to his dark place, we don't learn anything about his or their backstory. The story tends to focus more on Tom than Will, showing both her love, devotion to her father and her adaptability to both their current lifestyle and to the alternatives on offer. Tom is also growing up and becoming less dependant on Will. A cynic might say that Tom is the idealised teenage girl: beautiful, well behaved, passive most of the time, resourceful, thoughtful, caring, hardworking, eloquent when necessary, not the least bit selfish and with no sign of a cellphone.

Leave No Trace tries to take no sides between people on the edge of society and modern society itself. It also shows that those at the edge of society are there for different reasons, do it in different ways and don't always get on with each other. It is also a feel-good story, which like a fairy tale, takes us a little beyond the edge of darkness but brings us safely back. As Wikipedia is keen to point out, it has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Captain Fantastic covered a similar situation in 2016, but concentrated more on the contrast between the backwoods lifestyle and modern American life and played it more for laughs.

Don't think too carefully about how Will manages to keep his crewcut looking so fresh while living outdoors.

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Ian's rating 4/5, Anne's rating 4/5

In the Aisles

In the Aisles is a gentle, slow-moving love story set in an East German supermarket. It's much larger and more dimly lit than we're used to in New Zealand and fork-lifts and power jacks (which feature prominently in the story) roam the aisles along with the customers.

Christian is a new recruit, and assigned to work in beverages with Bruno, who might be twice his age. Keeping the customer-level shelves stocked is a key element of the job and so is retrieving pallets of good from the stacks above the shelves (think Pak'n'Save on steroids) and attaining competence with the departmental forklift is key.

Christian falls in love with Marian, who works in sweet goods and the romance unfolds slowly along with the minutiae of Christian's days at work. Taking fifteen (which equates to taking a break) with Bruno and sometimes with Marian provides opportunity for the narrative to develop.

 In the Aisles is about the redemptive power of work, and how powerful the support of your co-workers can be. Everyone who works at the supermarket is tolerant, slow to judge, happy to help  and kind. There's really only one character who's a figure of authority, (although presumably there's a whole layer of management from "upstairs" that we never meet) and he is a guy who believes everyone is allowed to stuff up at least once.I think I'm making the film sound unfashionably Polly-anna-ish but it doesn't come across that way. It certainly emphasizes that it's "not all about you". You can provide support to a co-worker even if you're at a low point in your own life.

In the Aisles has likeable characters, excellent music and great visuals and is worthy of your viewing time, unless you're in an impatient frame of mind

Anne's rating 3.5/5

A Date for Mad Mary

Mary is getting out of jail just in time to be maid of honour at her best friend's wedding. Mary has a take-no-nonsense, never-back-down, have-a-good-time attitude to life and she really misses her best friend Charlene. But while Charlene has organised a fast food job for Mary, she is super busy organising her wedding and has no time to go drinking with her buddy. Everyone also assumes that because Mary has been in jail and has never had time for boyfriends, that she won't be bringing a +1. Mary is of course outraged that people including her best friend assume she won't have a +1 in time for the wedding.

A Date for Mad Mary is an Irish romcom set on the wrong side of the bus shelter. Mary (known from a safe distance as Mad Mary) lives with her mother and grandmother. The latter giving us a clue to the origin of Mary's personality by dropping the line "even a sniper wouldn't take you out" into casual conversation.

The film is punctuated by Mary writing and rehearsing her maid of honour speech about Charlene which provides the only clues to what their relationship was like before Mary went to jail. Which is necessary as there are no signs of the inseparable good-time-girls now, with most communication done by text message and voice mail.

If A Date for Mad Mary was only about the ever more desperate attempts to find a man to go to the wedding with her and pretend to be her boyfriend, or her attempts to get past the bouncers at her favourite night club it would be funny but there wouldn't be any character development. Though Mary is happiest dancing to loud music while drunk she has also been tasked with wrangling the somewhat unreliable wedding photographer, who unwittingly sets Mary on a path of self discovery.

Ian's rating 4/5 Anne's rating 4/5

Una

Una has never come to terms with the end of her first love affair which was brought to a sudden and unexpected halt. Years later she comes across a photo of her ex-lover and tracks down where Ray now works to confront him. He is shocked by her unannounced arrival at his workplace and the subsequent confrontation takes all day (though it is interrupted by a meeting he has to go to etc).

Una is not only looking for answers, she is also needy and very angry with Ray and as the day wears on increasingly vengeful. Ray is initially defensive but gradually they talk though most of unresolved issues between them in a way that the professional help has been unable to resolve for Una.

Rooney Mara portraits Una as a highly believable mercurial woman who is damaged goods. Ben Mendelsohn probably has the easier job as Ray. A man with a secret who is hiding from things.

Una is not an easy film to like because the love affair that is the genesis of the film is one between Ray and Una when she was 13 and he was the man you lived next door. We are not supposed to think of such a relationship as a love affair but as child abuse. Both Ray who spent 4 years in jail and Una who had professional help once the police were involved have been schooled to regard it as child abuse but film suggests that neither completely believes this. 🎥

Ian's rating 4/5

The Nile Hilton Incident

Set in Cairo but mostly shot in Casablanca, The Nile Hilton Incident is a noir police procedural written and directed by Egyptian born Tarik Saleh.

Q: How does a corrupt police force investigate crime?

A: They chase the money.

Police detective Major Noredin is assigned by his boss (and uncle) to investigate the murder of a very beautiful young woman in a room at the Nile Hilton. The investigation quickly leads to the top of Egyptian society and Noredin soon gets told that the case is closed. But, whether it is curiosity or the scent of opportunity, he keeps investigating. Meanwhile the only witness (a Sudanese hotel maid) is trying to keep one step ahead of the bad guys (police included). It is 2011 and on TV screens there are protests elsewhere in Cairo.

The almost chain smoking Noredin is an anti-hero, with only residual professionalism as a policeman, he pockets a wad of cash from the victim's handbag but also follows up on a photo processing slip he pockets at the same time. The Nile Hilton Incident includes most of the noir elements usually associate with America: corruption, the baddest guys usually win, a night club, a femme fatale, smoking, fatalistic behaviour, the veiled threats, and sudden reversals. The missing element is the dark rain swept streets.

You need an invitation 

You don't want to see my invitation

Made with Swedish, Danish and German money and only partly filmed in Cairo. It is vaguely based on the murder of Suzanne Tamim. I don't think that The Nile Hilton Incident will get shown in Egypt because of the negative depiction of the Egyptian police and government and the sex scene.

Ian's rating 4/5 Anne's rating 2/5

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is not based on Shakespeare's Scottish Play. It is an adaption of a Russian novel (Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District) reset in rural Yorkshire. It is a Shakespearean style tragedy, where the protagonist takes action to escape from a bad situation but then feels forced into a series of increasingly worse actions culminating in their ultimate doom.

Katherine finds herself in an arranged marriage to colliery owner, who lives in a country house with his domineering father. She is dismayed to discover her husband is not interested in having sex with her, while her father-in-law blames her for the lack of a grandson. Both father and father-in-law command that she stay in doors despite her protestations that she likes fresh air. We are expected to sympathise with Katherine. Opportunity arrives when both her husband and father-in-law are away on business and she gets to meet the male outside staff and finds mutual action in Sebastian, the groom. The return of her father-in-law leads to the next fateful decision as Katherine asserts herself further. At some point we begin to question our initial sympathy!

Shot in a limited set of locations with high production values (except for an out of character staircase that gets repeatedly used) and with a smallish cast this feels a bit like a play rather than a film. There are a couple of weak plot points to be glossed over but overall while the pace is slow the action when it happens often packs a punch.

Ian's rating 3.5/5

Wind River

Wind River is a thriller, a western set in the snow, a detective story, a morality tale, a slice of life on an Indian reservation and an examination of life and death. It packs a huge emotional punch. It's the best film of the festival so far, but it does involve a rape which is not only unpleasant but does have terrible consequences and the contrast between how the victim's evening started and how it ended is particularly stark.

Set on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, the story revolves around Cory Lambert, a local hunter, who discovers a  young native american woman's body in the snow and Jane Banner, the FBI agent who is called in from Nevada to investigate. It's quickly  apparent that the woman was raped not long before her death. Aided only by one of the reservation police, Jane asks Cory to help investigate, and he does.

The process of solving the case showcases life on the reservation. We meet the victim's family, we see the local drug culture and we see the oil rig that her boyfriend worked on. We meet Cory's ex-wife  (also a Native American)  and we learn that they had a daughter who died in her teens. We learn about surviving  harsh weather,   a violent culture and grief.

Like a good Western, there are some impressive and shocking gun battles. And like in a good Western, the baddies get their come-uppances delivered with panache, but not with malice. The survivors are scarred emotionally and physically but they remember to be kind.  The relationship between the hunter and the FBI agent is positive and generous. And as the credits roll, we're reminded that many native american woman aren't even reported missing, let alone have the crimes committed against them investigated and punished.

Anne's rating 4.5/5 Ian's rating 3.5/5

Kiki, Love to Love

Some people are turned on by the oddest things. Other people prefer to come up with fancy names for such paraphilia. Kiki, Love to Love is a Spanish comedy composed of a number of short stories about people coming to terms with their or their partner's kinky quirks.

Of course sexual hangups are a staple of comedy and it seems that the Spanish are as reticent as English speakers when it comes to talking about sex. Some of the characters know what their kink is and just need to find some way of indulging it, others find out that they are kinky during the film. For instance, only when someone dies does one woman find out how much she is turned on by seeing her husband crying (Dacryphilia). She spends the rest of the film trying to make him cry again.

Despite the subject matter, the choice of kinks is unlikely to make most people squeamish and the body exposure doesn't go beyond young firm breasts and implied nudity. Overall the message is it is OK to be kinky and the final fiesta scene emphasises this.

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Ian's rating 3.5/5

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

In the early 21st century the easing of mortgage criteria led to bigger mortgages and a housing bubble. Massive lobbying by the finance industry to ensure banking deregulation, lack of enforcement of remaining banking regulations, bonus payouts to reward of risk taking, lack of consequence for failure, the reselling of sub-prime mortgages as high credit rating investments, overrating of investments and banks by ratings agencies, insurance policies on these investments, fraud and sub-prime ethics in banking and finance industry led to the financial crisis of 2008. A lot of the largest companies involved declared bankruptcy. These companies were considered too large to fail and were bailed out by the US government. 🎥

Many people were expecting those companies that broke the rules and regulators that failed to do their jobs would be prosecuted. In 2012 New York prosecutors indited a bank on fraud charges relating to mortgages, the only US bank prosecuted in relation to the global financial crisis. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail is the story of that prosecution.

Abacus Federal Savings Bank was formed in 1984 by Shanghai born lawyer Thomas Sung, who arrived in New York in the early 1950s. After a successful legal career, he saw a gap in the market where existing banks in New York were reluctant to lend to Chinese people. In 2010 Abacus fired a loan officer for asking for large tips for processing a mortgage application. They uncovered other falsifications on loan documents and reported to the banking regulator. The New York District Attorney's Office brought charges not only against the loan officer but against many other staff from the loan office and the bank itself. The investigation lasted 5 years.

This film is more than a story of a legal case about mortgage fraud. It is a family film. Two of Thomas Sung's daughters worked at the bank and another worked for the New York District Attorney's Office. The whole family has strong opinions about the case, which they often voice at the same time. They took the fight seriously and many of the interviews are with the family as they ate takeaways at the office or at local Chinese restaurants.

While the film is from the point of view of the Sung family and Abacus the prosecutors including Cyrus Vance Jr give their points of view as well.

Ian's rating 4/5

Tanna

Our last film of the 2016 film festival, Tanna was one of the best. It's a Romeo and Juliet style love story filmed on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. Tanna is famous for its live volcano, Mount Yasur, and for still having some villages where the traditional lifestyle is practised. The inhabitants are self-sufficient, live in huts and  women still wear grass skirts and the men just penis sheaths.


In the village of Yakel, our Juliet is an attractive teenager named Wawa. Dain is our Romeo. Their romance is mostly in secret, although it doesn't escape the notice of Wawa's little sister Selin  Wawa is just coming of age, and is expected to marry someone of her parent's choosing, although she maintains she wats to marry someone she loves. The villagers have a long-running feud with a neighbouring tribe,the Imedin. Dain's parents were killed by Imedin many years before. In the film, Dain's grandfather (the vlllage shaman) is attacked by the Imedin because they think he made their crops fail. Dain itches for for revenge.

Since inter-tribal relations are at an all-time low and killing and violence are making everyone's life difficult, a council meeting is scheduled  Pigs are exchanged and dialogue takes place. Imagine Dain's dismay when Wawa is offered as a bride to the Imedin and they accept. The Imedin leave the meeting, to return tomorrow to collect the bride.

Unable to contemplate a separate future, Dain and Wawa escape overnight. Like Romeo and Juliet, they enjoy a brief period together while they are pursued both by Wawa's family (who eventually catch up with them) and the Imedin,. Seemingly persuaded to comply with the tribes' wishes they commit mutual suicide by eating poisonous mushrooms while camped out on Mount Yasur,

Despite the tragic ending, this film is so worth watching A convincing romance is always heart-warming and Wawa and Dain's enthusiasm for each other's company is endearing. A glimpse into a lifestyle completely different to our own is fascinating - it seems a very physical existence and the characters raced through the forest and up the volcano at the  drop of a hat, seemingly without raising a sweat. The children were a  particular pleasure to watch as they  played games in the forest and in the waterhole and they seemed happy, carefree and cute.

Selin

Selin is a delight and her parents struggle to get her to do what she's told, The scenery is lovely and was nostalgic for us since we've been to Tanna, climbed Mount Yasur and been to a kastom village. Take a break from your life and experience what it's like to be on Tanna - we recommend it.

Anne's rating 4.5/5 Ian's rating 3.5/5

The Clan

The Dirty War in Argentina started in the late 1960s or mid 1970s and lasted until 1983 when the military lost power in Argentina. Thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of people were killed / "disappeared" during the period. There were also 340 concentration camps. Such an operation required lots of people. So what do those people do when the new government no longer requires their services? Arquímedes Puccio was one of those people. He and a couple of ex-colleagues decided to continue kidnapping people, this time for ransom. They kept their victims in the Puccio family home in a middle class suburb of Buenos Aires and two of Arquímedes's sons were part of the gang. To avoid the victims giving information to the police the Puccio gang routinely killed their victims once the ransom had been paid.

The Clan is a fictionalised story of the Puccio family and their kidnappings. It centres on the relationship between Arquímedes and his rugby star son Alejandro. Each needs the other. The son is a vital part of the gang and also knows too much to be allowed too much freedom away from dad, while Alejandro's life style and rugby career is facilitated by his dad's money and connections. The film contrasts family life, Alejandro's rugby career and his love life with the kidnappings and killings. The effect is to show that evil people can seem normal and live normal lives.

Guillermo Francella's impassive face and his pale blue eyes fixed on the world make an obvious villain and domineering father. His self confidence in what he is doing as father and criminal is convincing. Contrasting with him is curly haired Peter Lanzani with his lopsided grin playing Alejandro as the obviously popular rugby star son.


Arquímedes's wife and daughters seem oblivious to what is going on around them, and it would have been interesting if the film had explored their side of the story to some extent.

Arquímedes Puccio died in 2013 at age 83, having been released from jail a few years earlier.  Alejandro died at 2008.

Ian's rating 4/5

The Daughter

Ibsen is the world's second most performed playwright (after Shakespeare). Such is the NZ education system, that he could have been a tennis player or Harry Potter character for all I knew, until I was researching for this review. The Daughter is based on the Henrik Ibsen play: The Wild Duck.

Henry Neilson (Geoffrey Rush) owns the sawmill that is a small Australian town's main employer. He lives in a huge, country house, shoots duck, has servants and is aloof. He looks out of place in modern Australia, clearly a character from an old story. Despite his failing business (he is being forced into closing the sawmill) he is planning a grand wedding to Anna (Anna Torv) his beautiful and much younger fiancee (and ex-housekeeper). His son, Christian, arrives back from USA with an American accent on a rare trip home. He has a huge chip on his shoulder and an aim to cause trouble and get up almost everyone's nose. After an initial swipe at Anna he runs into Oliver, a school chum and from then on the two of them are almost inseparable. A parallel story line involves Oliver's teenage daughter Hedvig (Odessa Young - who also starred in Looking for Grace) and Oliver's dad (Sam Neill). Eventually Christian's destructive urge goes completely nuclear.

While some characters (especially Henry Neilson) don't fit in the 21st century and Christian seems almost unbelievably vindictive, the film is still effective. The acting is superb and the plot (particularly in the second half) is like watching a train wreck looking for somewhere to happen. I couldn't tell you how closely the film sticks to the original play but while it still looks like a film of a play it is a much better adaption than most play-to-film adaptions I've seen.

I've never seen Australia looking so wet and cold.

Ian's rating 4.5/5 Anne's rating 3/5

The Handmaiden

The Handmaiden is a film featuring deception, betrayal and control amid opulent elegance and plenty of sex. Set in 1930s Korea and concentrating on high production values, most of the action is set in the country mansion of a Korean mine owner, who is an old man pretending to be Japanese to further his social climbing (Korea was a Japanese colony at the time).

The Handmaiden starts with a plot by a young con-man to swindle Lady Hideko, the niece of the old man's dead Japanese wife, who is the heiress to a fortune in Japan (confused yet?). This con job requires an accomplice (a Korean pick pocket called Sook-Hee) to take up the job as maid to the heiress at the mansion. The first part of the film is told from Sook-Hee's point of view. This deception is not the only one operating in the film and all four leads are striving for control over one or more of the others. Sex also plays a big part in the film. The old man's hobby is collecting old Japanese pornography and holding readings for fellow fans followed by an auction of the relevant book. The young man is trying to seduce the heiress. The women also have sex. In fact the relationship between heiress and her new maid is the core of the film with the men hovering around and trying to control them.

Director Park Chan-wook enjoys playing with the audience, leading us up the garden path, undermining our expectations and drawing out the sex scenes longer than some audience members will be comfortable with. Despite the abundance of sex, Park Chan-wook also includes some of the violence and gore that he is famous for.

Trailer

Ian's rating 4/5