Introduction to European Cinema - Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh

16
Introduction to European Cinema (continued)
THE KING IS ALIVE KOKTEBEL TIMES AND WINDS
VENDREDI SOIR
The King Is Alive
Wed 7 Mar at 6.00pm
Kristian Levring • Denmark/Sweden/USA 2000 • 1h50m
35mm • English and French with English subtitles
15 – Contains strong language and moderate sex
Cast: Miles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, David Bradley, Jennifer
Jason Leigh, Bruce Davidson.
This second feature by Dogme co-founder Kristian Levring
is a cerebral yet unfl inchingly passionate meditation on
the incongruities of human nature. Eleven tourists are
travelling by bus through the barren North African desert.
Hopelessly lost, they eventually fi nd themselves stranded
in an abandoned mining town. Its only resident, the
grizzled Kanana, informs them it’s a fi ve-day walk over
endless sand dunes to the next town. One passenger, Jack,
offers to take the journey. The others wait anxiously for his
return, and, to pass time and stave off panic, elect to put
on a desert version of ‘King Lear’. But, fuelled by the bleak
situation, their passions are ignited, and noble sentiments
give way to envy, lust and the struggle for power.
Koktebel
Wed 14 Mar at 6.00pm
Boris Khlebnikov & Aleksei Popogrebsky • Russia 2003
1h47m • 35mm • Russian with English subtitles
12A – Contains one scene of moderate violence
Cast: Gleb Puskepalis, Igor Chernevich, Yevgeni Syty, Vera
Sandrykina, Vladimir Kucherenko.
A portrait of imperilled boyhood that recalls Ratcatcher for
its emotional sensitivity and stunning cinematography. A
father and his 11-year-old son are travelling to a relative’s
home in Crimea, where they hope to fi nd a better life than
the one they have left in Moscow. The unnamed boy is
smart, stoic and loyal, even if he is increasingly wary of his
father’s limitations. Sure enough, this journey by foot and
freight train is interrupted when Dad gets distracted, fi rst
by booze, then by a woman, but the boy fervently clings
to his dreams. Beautifully scripted and directed by fi rst
time directors, Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky,
the simple account of the journey is given added strength
through the use of unusual subjective viewpoints and an
imagery and observation that is genuinely poetic.
Times and Winds Bes vakit
Wed 21 Mar at 6.00pm
Reha Erdem • Turkey 2006 • 1h52m • 35mm
Turkish with English subtitles • 15 – Contains strong language
Cast: Ali Bey Kayali, Ozkan Ozen, Elit Iscan, Selma Ergeç, Bulent Yarar.
With this beautifully photographed, pastoral portrait of the
life, rhythms and seasons of a remote mountain village, Reha
Erdem adds his name to those of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and
Fatih Akin in the list of directors heading up the impressive
recent revival of Turkish cinema. The confl icts of Turkey’s
poised situation – at a crossroads between Asia and Europe,
tradition and modernity, secularism and religion – are
refl ected in the lives of its three pubescent protagonists
– Omer, Yakup and Yildiz – as we experience the hardship
and strictures of rural life through their variously troubled
and subtly handled rites of passage. One hates his father,
or believes he does, and schemes to kill him. Another is
hopelessly enamoured of his attractive young schoolteacher.
Vendredi soir Friday Night
Wed 28 Mar at 6.00pm
Claire Denis • France 2002 • 1h30m • 35mm
French with English subtitles
15 – Contains strong language and moderate sex
Cast: Valérie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Hélène de Saint-Père,
Hélène Fillières, Florence Loiret Caille.
Claire Denis’ poetic exploration of the pleasures and
discontents of modern sexuality follows the night-long
odyssey shared by a woman and a stranger she picks up
in a Paris traffi c jam. This is wonderfully alert fi lmmaking,
vividly alive to the constant by-play between inner longings
and everyday surroundings.