STOMA, directed by Kit Hung ****

 This is a great film, marvelously acted by Sing Lam. The lead character, Alex Lim has one of the rarest forms of cancer that creates tumors in his bowels. he must decide if he will have the operation that will end up with him wearing a stoma all of his life  he goes to Switzerland to have it. Lim is gay and his lover is a man with no support for what Lim has to go through. Though he does meet up with Lim in several places, Andre is basically a sex-obsessed man who's a shallow shadow of a true partner. The film shed great light on people living with an ostomy. It is a hoel through which you can evacuate your feces. Your anus is sewn up. Lim bring gay is deeply depressed about this. His passion for photography renews itself, but not before going on a journey of self-discovery as a gay man living with a stoma. The screenplay for Soma was written by the late cultural icon. Julian Lee. It is based on his long battle with cancer.

TRANSFER, directed by Elias Giannakakis *****-a great film that chronicles Greek tenacity and literary brilliance

 The film’s Greek title is a pun; a word meaning “relocation”, “transfer” and also “metaphor”.

The film develops along three principal lines.
1. The lengthy preparation and ensuing relocation of Greece’s National Library from the old, run-down neoclassical building in downtown Athens into a state-of-the-art complex, designed by Renzo Piano and financed by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, a most prominent organization in Greece.

2. A chronicle of the tense sociopolitical circumstances as reflected upon the events in the heart of Athens, around the Library. Scenes of poverty, protest and street fighting prevail, as the transfer takes place while the country experiences a rough period of depression and the massive surge of refugees. However, within the facilities of the Cultural Center, where the new building is situated, one comes across a completely different reality; tranquility and a sense of security, carefree children playing around, artistic events and music festivals.

3. The History of the National Library, which originated in 1829, well in advance of the recognition of Greek independence from Turkey, and which is closely linked with the city itself and the trials and tribulations it has gone through.

The film employs an approach of systematic, unmediated observation and recording throughout a four-year period, for themes 1 and 2, while the historic aspect is tackled through the use of archival material (both film and photographic) .

There are no staged scenes or interviews since the intent was to achieve the greatest degree of authenticity both in the workings of the National Library and in the city life.

Through this kind of direct recording, emerges the whole universe of the Library, from the Board of Trustees down to the last auxiliary worker. The Library serves as a microcosm that is a close representation of the reality in modern Greece since its Independence; dirty and decadent, cumbersome and plagued by bureaucracy, but with hidden priceless intellectual gems in its otherwise poor and ravaged collections. All that is housed in a magnificent neoclassical building, a direct reference to Ancient Greece and the Democracy of Pericles.

Nonetheless, right outside, on the streets, modern Greece is caught in a state of utter confusion following the sudden bankruptcy, the resulting social crisis and the uncontrollable flow of refugees.

Invoking a glorious past can oftentimes become a curse for a country that tries to discover its identity through the fallacy of being the heir apparent of Plato, Aristotle and Alexander the Great.

Yet, at the same time, Athens is lively and bustling. Despite its obvious extended wounds, there is beauty within the ugliness and while the rest of Europe raises walls, this city generously welcomes large numbers of refugees and turns its gaze upon the future; even with blurred vision.

The very existence of the National Library is inextricably dependent on to the essence of Democracy. Speaking in the voice of an almost two-century-old woman, the National Library sounds at times like a young girl and then again as an elderly lady.
There are moments when she exhibits the wisdom of advanced age and others when she is passionate, protesting, worried, sad, angry, angry, joyful, anticipating.

The film’s components are brought together by a female narrator who identifies herself from the very beginning as the National Library.

The choice of a personal commentary serves as a counterbalance to the matter of fact filming of the relocation process (ridden by adversity and of uncertain outcome), of the social framework of the time and of the introduction of the historical aspect through the use of archival material.
In the voice of an almost two-century-old woman, the National Library sounds at times like a young girl and then again as an elderly lady.
There are moments when she exhibits the wisdom of advanced age and others when she is passionate, protesting, worried, sad, angry, angry, joyful, anticipating.

The National Library could be Athens itself, Greece or each one of us. Near the end of the film, when the transfer is almost completed, the narrator- Library poses a few questions.

In other libraries (national, metropolitan, etc) in New York Paris or Berlin, we can readily recognize a scholarly institution that has secured, pretty early on, its place and its role so that it serves as a customary destination not just for researchers, but for the majority of the population regardless of age, race or creed.

On the other hand, the National Library of Greece is an impoverished, thief ravaged cultural foundation, ignored by both the state (which according to the constitution is responsible for it) and by the public that never thought of it as their own.

For about two hundred years the Library has been trying to get on its feet, to gain momentum, amid bigotry, fanaticism, poverty and the fixation of hereditary excellence, of being the greatest among the peoples worldwide, as many Greeks still sustain. Its collections, as pointed out by the head of the Board himself, late in the film, are terribly restricted.

However, this Library could have been exceptional, not for the collections it currently holds, of course, but mainly for the treasures that could have been accumulated or for everything it could signify...
Until that time comes, if ever, the Library awaits.

The film makes an attempt to put together a large mosaic of stories and emotions, through short scenes and narratives, thus unifying time and space aiming to create a collective existential and psychological profile of a country and a people, through its National Library.

A transfer that, throughout the film, only a few seem to believe will begin and when it does begin in an environment of faction, poverty, and extremity, it is met with public indifference. It might be a transfer that signifies a lot more than than a simple technical process of book relocation.

This is a great artistic documentary that vividly catalogues Greek tenacity and literary brilliance. We witness history in many ways past, present and an uncertain future.

DOWNSTREAM TO KINSHASA, Directed by Dieudi Hamadi ****

 

The genocide of the Six-Day War in Kisangani in Congo during 2000, left thousands dead and many mutilated - living without arms or legs. The Rwandans and Ugandans waged war on the Congolese territory, and now the 12 members who are delegates demanding compensation from the Congolese government take a perilous boat trip to Kinshasa to demand the money; they have rights.

 We follow this group of amazing people who walk into town during the elections in front of the government building, only to be turned away with threats. 

When the new opposition party gets in. We meet these resilient warriors for justice, and they are actually putting on a play that chronicles their plight. In the end, President Lemalema of the country attends. A compelling documentary filmed with the director’s camera in hand that shows all the terrors of their journey including rain storms and more. A powerful film!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

MY DAYS OF GLORY, directed by Antoine de Bary ***

 Lowkey-charming, Vincent Lacoste starts as Adrien Palatine.  An actor who plays de Gaulle in a make shift sketchy production in which he never gets paid. In fact, he is replaced. His luck with girls is nil and he has moved in back with his parents who are getting a divorce. When he loses his apartment due to not paying for it, he takes action that is basically is a dead end. But as the movie goes form light-hearted offbeat quirkiness to real depressive realm, this film aptly combines the duality of a lost young man in search of love and his ability to get an erection. The ending climaxes in every sense of the world.

ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES. Directed by Michalis Konstantatos ***

They are bourgeois secret squatters living at a rich woman’s house in the countryside with their son, without her permission. Aliki and Petros are truly having problems. Something in Athens at work happened that caused her to have a breakdown. She is an anaesthesiologist and there is a hint that a patient died under her care), and Petros is out of work. Their adorable young boy is having fun, but the energy he has does not carry though to his parents. Tension builds in this film, but the action is sparse and barren, An introspective film that has overly dramatic acting segments akin to a Greek drama.

 

OUR LADY OF THE NILE ***

Afghan director Atiq Rahimi views he brewing war between the Hutus and Tutsis in the conflict between elite Rwanda schoolgirls, based on Scholastique Mukasonga’s novel. The setting revolves aroudn an elite girls’ school runs by nuns where Hutus are accepted and only a fraction of Tutsis are. Inside intrigue, including attempting to change the nose of a Virgin Mary statue to a true-like Tutsi nose that the girls pray to every day, sets the ominous turn of events of bloodshed and then full out massacre of war that devastated this country for years.

 

LOVE TRILOGY: CHAINED, directed by Yaron Shani *****

 A low-key family situation tat tightly and subtly turns into a high voltage plot-build-up. It’s a family drama where the central figure – Rashi - a cop - implodes with each day bringing his whoel world down on all fronts. It is hard to believe that Rashi is played by a non-actor, Eran Naim the lead role.

 

He is utterly believable as he delivers his lines that coil around his wife and her 13-year-old daughter’s lives like a cobra who can’t let go. He masterfully plays a controlling sensitive macho cop, father and husband with such suffocating energy that in the end, he loses everything dear to him  His life unravels, starting with being accused of sexual impropriety when doing a strip search  on a young male student -  having hauled him into the station, just because he felt challenged by the young man’s non-compliance to do as asked when Rashi picks on him in the park.

Family life is portrayed in this film as a fragile entity ripe with power struggles. His wife is undergoing IV treatments  but a fetus in her womb does not grow. This foreshadows the break-down that marks his life and negatively affects others he loves.

The acting ensemble is brilliant. His step-daughter, played by Stav Potay was also a force to reckon with in her role as a rebellious teen. He puts an end to her fun all the time. He puts an end to more than one could ever imagine. The climax explodes in the last scene.