av Ciro Guerra En episk road-movie i eselfart fra ... - Klapp Media

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COMPETITION
Freedom – so close,
but still so far away
Arash T. Riahi (born in 1972 in Iran)
is an award-winning Austrian- Iranian
filmmaker who has lived in Vienna
since 1982. He started work for the
Austrian TV channel ORF after graduat-
ing filmstudies and in 1998 established
the production company Golden Girls
Filmproduction. Riahi has directed
documentaries, commercials, animation
films and music videos. For a Moment,
Freedom is his first feature film.
Selected filmography
For a Moment, Freedom 2008
Exile Family Movie (short) 2006
FOR A MOMENT, FREEDOM
Ein Augenblick Freiheit
Money changes hands and we follow a trek
through snow-covered landscapes. When the
Iranian refugees at last have crossed the Turkish
border they do not know that only half
of the journey towards freedom is done. The
winner of the prize for Best Debut Film at the
Montreal World Film Festival depicts people
fleeing, with everything this entails of hardship,
but does not show tragic destinies. For
a Moment, Freedom also portrays friendship,
love and dreams of a better life. Three stories
are interwoven as the struggle to achieve
refugee status begins, a struggle it is far from
certain that any of them will succeed in.
The director has created a humorous, engaging
and bittersweet story about an important
subject, showing us how people‘s destinies
are governed by politics. The story is never
reduced to a one-sided demonstration of human
suffering, but shares the good moments
with us as well, even those that arise in the
worst imaginable of situations. With impressively
powerful performances from everyone
involved, especially Swedish-Lebanese Fares
Fares, this is a film you should definitely not
miss. tlå
Turkey, Iran, Austria, France 2008 Director Arash T. RIAHI Script Arash T. RIAHI Camera Michi RIEBL Cast Navíd AKHAVAN, Pourya
MAHYARI, Payam MADJLESSI Prod. Les Films du Losange, Pi Film, Wega Film Sales Les Films du Losange, info@filmsdulosange.fr
Language Turkish, English, Persian Subtitles English Duration 110 min Format 35mm
THE GIFT TO STALIN
Podarok Stalinu
In this humanist historical drama, the
grown-up Sashka thinks back on the summer
of 1949, when as a boy he was saved from
certain death on the way to a gulag by a group
of good-hearted Kazakhs. The film‘s title
refers to the fact that the Soviet dictator Stalin
turned 70 that summer, and every child was
encouraged to give him a gift. This innocentlooking
version of subtle propaganda stands
in stark contrast to the picture director
Abdrashov paints of oppression and abuse of
power from both the Soviet military and local
Kazakh police, which together turn the film
into an emotional experience.
Abdrashov shows how different cultures
and religions – here a Jewish boy, Moslem
men and Russian-Orthodox Christians –
functioned together locally during the Soviet
era, while the various beliefs and local colours
were subjected to violent oppression from
central authorities. The film is told through
extended flashbacks with the grown-up
Sashka‘s highly emotional voice-over, while
an exquisite flute music and a tender use of
string instruments lends the film a nostalgic
and melancholy soundscape. Abdrashov also
shows us the Kazakh steppes in all their glorious
and pastoral power, lending the film an
epic visual form. lab
Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland, Israel 2008 Director Rustem ABDRASHITOV Script Pavel FINN Camera Khasan KIDIRALEIV
Cast Nurzhuman IKHTYMBAYEV, Dalen SHINTEMIROV Prod. Aldongar Productions Sales Aldongar Productions
Language Kazakh, Russian, Hebrew Subtitles English Duration 97 min Format 35mm
COMPETITION
Emotionally engaging
humanist drama from
Soviet era Kazakhstan
Rustem Abdrashov was born in 1970
in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He studied
scenography at the film school in
Moscow, and worked for several years
as a scenographer for the company
Kazakhfilm. Abdrashov‘s feature debut
was Rebirth Island, which became the
first Kazakh film to win a FIPRESCI
Award, when it was met with critical
acclaim at the 2005 goEast festival.
Selected filmography
The Gift to Stalin 2008
Patchwork 2007
Rebirth Island 2004
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