GULL, directed by Kim Mi-jo ***

A sixty-year-old woman of little education has spent over 30 years working in a fish market. She is raped by one of the workers, but no one will attest to it to help her when together with her daughter they go to the police. The comment made by her drunken husband about rape reflect as repulsive attitude about rape in Korea. The men in this film are drunk and vulgar. A touching but disturbing film.

EMPTINESS, directed by Paul Venegas ***

Lei and dozens other hide in a shipping crate traveling from China to Ecuador. Her dream is to get to New York. She is taken into the care of a good man, but a very bad man from China has other plans for her and her friend. She has even paid for her final destination to her dream city.

He uses them as a mule and gets them their ticket to New York. They plan a ruse to foil the plan, but sadly, the end shows that migrants’ dreams don’t always happen the way they wish. Non-actors make this film so real. The refugee plight is harrowing.

THE NEW PLASTIC ROAD, directed by Angelos Tsaousis, Myrto Papadopoulos ****

Davlat is a Tajik merchandiser and a humble yet ambitous father of three children. A well-respected businessman in the Pamir area, a mountainous region southeast of Tajikistan in the borders with China. His life has been transformed since the opening of the Tajik-Chinese border and the reconstruction of the old Silk Road: A road full of surprises and new experiences for Davlat and his family. The driving is long. The film documents his present life aS he speaks to the camera. He also speaks about his childhood - his favorite time of life. His life prospers, until his health with a bad back and leg caused by a car accident long ago in his childhood on route to China, now stops him from enjoying life. Traders have opened up China to the remote region in Tajikstan.  I loved this film.

 

TAR, directed by Aaron Wolf **

There’s a pit left open at a small out door area showing the La Brea tar pit prehistoric animals in LA. In 1976, archeologists dug a pit and went down to explore. They never came back. The tar monster got them, and though a man on the street tells the story of the monster and what happened, no one believes him. A father and son who just don’t get along work together next door, but they have to move to make way for a new development. The father doesn't think the son will ever amount to much, but guess what? Not true. This is a tar-tamed spoof of an urban horror flic, full of pretty women with big busts (one in particular), so I'm sure you can guess what happens.

 The tar monster is after them all because that area was built over this prehistoric tar pit area. Lots of guys and gals get tarred. This film has no surprises.

Blind Spot, directed by Pierre Trividic, Patrick Mario Bernard **

 

 The oddest film. A black man can make himself invisible. It started when he was a baby in the cradle. A crazy premise without feeling much for any character at all, the plot - it would seem that what we see is not always the truth, and the truth is hidden. I won’t say more about the film other than it holds our attention, but having the hero walk around nude most of the film to show he is invisible was just wearing. This film needs focus, clarity and editing.

Concerto, directed by Filippo Conz

 

David Zayas as Ray, the detective

A powerful short. A young violinist is caught naked in the kitchen of a detective's house. The young man just slept with the detective’s wife. The detective forces him into his car. He tells the violinist his daughter loves a violin piece, but he doesn’t know the name of it. He forces the young man to walk in the woods and tells him that two girls were found and it was the swimming coach who hid them, then chopped them up to pieces. All the while, that swimming coach had been lying to the detective. At the site where they were chopped up the two men go to. The violinist takes out his violin and plays that piece. Trevor Long as the violinist was superb in his role. It is a great short.

                                                             Trevor Long as the violinist

Comrade Drakulich, directed by Mark Bodszar***

                   

       

Comrade Fabian has come to Hungary and is welcomed by his cold comrades from the 70s. But this sexy comrade looks like he’s in his 30s. Two spies who are actually a couple, named Laci and “Birdy” are assigned the task of finding out about him and why he is so young. He ahs come to sponsor a Vietnamese blood drive, but his real motive is to take all the blood from the drive for his own. He’s a vampire, and by the end of the film, he gets the girl. Ironically was  assigned to only escort him to various events concerning the blood drive. 

But it seems the head of the party wants to gain eternal youth, and so wants Comrade Fabian captured to find out his secret. Blood not gold is the sought-after prize in this entertaining, quirky movie that puts a salacious spin with a lot of spoof on the vampire genre.