Tiger of many stripes - International Film Festival Rotterdam

Extra Tiger
The screenings have taken place, the
discussions are over, and the awards are
finally in. This year’s VPRO Tiger Awards
jury, chaired by Toronto International
Film Festival director Piers Handling, took
an unusual decision to award the VPRO
Tiger Awards to four films, rather than the
usual three. Last night in de Doelen, Tan
Chui Mui’s LOVE CONQUERS ALL, Pia Marais’
THE UNPOLISHED, Claudio Assis’ BOG
OF BEASTS and Morten Hartz Kapler’s
AFR, were honoured by the 36th IFFR. To
reach their decision, the jury saw 15 Tiger
films by first or second-time directors. An
impressive eight of these were world premieres,
four were international premieres,
three European premieres, and two had
received HBF support.
LOVE CONQUERS ALL, a disturbing romance
from Malaysia, is one of the two
HBF supported films. “Classical in style
and structure, it is a film which speaks to
Rebel yell
Sandra den Hamer Photo: Bram Belloni
farewell rotterdam
Tigers 2007 Photo: Bram Belloni
the heart,” said the five-person jury in a
joint statement. The jurors commended
Marais’ THE UNPOLISHED “for its nuanced
portrayal of a young girl trying to find
meaning in a society that has lost all sense
of direction.” BOG OF BEASTS was praised
for its “crudeness, energy and visual
strength,” while AFR impressed because
it was a “well-crafted polemical film
which utilizes a conceptual approach that
comments on the blurring of reality and
fiction”. Usually, each VPRO Tiger Award
comes with a prize of €10,000 and guaranteed
broadcast by Dutch public television
network VPRO, but BOG OF BEASTS and
AFR will this year split the €10,000 award
between them.
Other awards announced last night
included the NETPAC (Network for the
Promotion of Asian Cinema) award,
the FIPRESCI award and the KNF (Association
of Dutch Film Critics) awards.
A true celebration of creativity and individualism,
the International Film Festival Rotterdam,
which draws to a close Sunday, has been awash
for ten days with some of the world’s more
original, inventive and eccentric individuals.
Enter Khavn, a Filipino rock musician/poet/filmmaker
who shoots his ‘day-old flicks’ in sometimes
a matter of hours; or Kiko Goifman, an
anthropologist/experimental filmmaker who
makes films on CD-ROMs. Then there’s Morten
Hartz Kaplers, who glides through the building
in a smart, velvet jacket, outraged enough
by his country’s government to compare it to
the National Socialists; or fellow Tiger director,
Aneta Lesnikovska, who considers another Danish
institute – a sales company that shall remain
nameless – in no less favourable terms.
“I received a curt rejection email, and sent them
one straight back asking how new filmmakers
were supposed to break into the business, when
this is the response they get?” she says. “We
need rebels in the film business.”
Welcome to the world of IFFR, where the young
and experimental brush shoulders with an older
guard of established auteurs, who huddle in
discussion amidst the daily crowds. Think Jafar
Panahi, Bahman Ghobadi, Otar Iosseliani, Johnnie
To or Jia Zhangke, who were among the 300-
NETPAC chose Hirosue Hiroyama’s tense
psychological drama FOURTEEN, citing
its “insight into psychology and generational
barriers, and its bold analysis of a
complex culture”. FIPRESCI selected Rafa
Cortes’s YO, quoting its intense depiction
of one man’s struggle to acquire an identity.
The KNF (the Dutch film critics’ jury)
chose US filmmaker Nina Davenport’s
OPERATION FILMMAKER, a documentary
film which follows an aspiring film
director from Baghdad. “The director is
constantly challenging herself and the
viewer to reconsider Western opinions on
cultural differences,” the KNF jury stated.
The award enables the winning film to
be subtitled in Dutch to help it achieve
distribution in the Netherlands.
The festival’s final award, the KPN Audience
Award, will be announced tonight
before the screening of the closing film
(at 9pm in de Doelen, Grote Zaal).
plus directors who attended this year.
“That’s what I love about this film festival, there
is no class system,” adds Lesnikovska.
It’s a tradition of accessibility and openness that
Festival Director Sandra den Hamer is very much
a part of. As Den Hamer wanders through the
directors’ café for a final Daily Tiger interview,
a young filmmaker approaches with a book on
Eisenstein, which she graciously accepts.
“I get a lot of presents,” she says, sitting down
at one of the café’s tables, and casting a long
glance around the room. “I give them all out on
Sunday night to the volunteers.”
Den Hamer is somewhat tired, but in good
shape after nine days of the marathon event,
which includes hundreds of screenings; a key
industry confab (CineMart); and welcoming
the weirdest, most avant-garde and original of
filmmakers, not generally known for being the
easiest people to manage. Think sensitive souls.
“I’m very satisfied and happy with how the
festival went,” Den Hamer says. “Although we
still have three days to go, the numbers and
box-office figures are already on a par with last
year’s. There were a few technical hitches, which
is a shame. But you really are managing a live
event.”
The ubiquitous First Lady of Rotterdam has
Filmmaker
in Focus
To date, IFFR Filmmaker in Focus Abderrahmane Sissako has made
three features. All three are concerned, in different ways, with
the role played by the West in the African countries in which he
grew up. Born in Mauritana, and raised in Mali, Sissako moved to
Moscow in 1983 to study. But he always returns to Africa in his
films, to the places where he spent his youth.
In his most recent film, BAMAKO, international financial institutions
such as the IMF and the World Bank are put on trial, in the
courtyard of Sissako’s parental home in Bamako, the capital of
Mali.
“Here, when I was young, I had long discussions with my brothers,
my sisters and my father; about politics; and about the situation
in Mali,” he says. “In Africa, if you talk about the problems of
one country, you will soon end up discussing the problems of the
whole continent.”
“The location is partly a tribute to the memory of my father, who
would have really enjoyed working on this project,” he adds.
“Above all, however, the location is a way of placing these institutions
in an everyday context, away from the offices of Washington
and Geneva. So they can see who the people are behind the
statistics.”
At the same time, the strange location – in someone’s home, is also
a clear indication that this ‘trial’ of the IMF and the World Bank
is not for real. “It’s very important to stress this, because I am not
creating a trial, but a film. A trial takes weeks, months. A film takes
two hours. The form of a trial gave me the opportunity to express
the questions in a very direct way. My aim is not so much to point
the finger at the guilty, but rather to give these institutions a more
realistic impression of Africa. Africa is more than poverty, war and
starvation.”
(continues on page 29)
Abderrahmane Sissako Photo: Ruud Jonkers
taken it all in on her daily rounds, which have
seen her pop up everywhere from the premiere
screenings of films to late-night industry parties.
Among the highlights this year for Den Hamer
were many of the speeches.
“What was really special was the introduction
by Abderrahmane Sissako,” she says. “Your
Filmmaker in Focus is, of course, your guest of
honour. I’m a big admirer of his work, anyway.
And it was a really moving moment to hear the
statement he made on film and on the state of
Africa.”
“If I look back to the opening night speech
about the Hubert Bals Fund and the financing
situation,” she says, “I am very happy about
the response. There were questions asked in
parliament and a lot of people picked up on the
story. It’s the one time of the year you really
have an opportunity to make a statement, not
only about cinema but this time, the financing
behind it, and the Hubert Bals Fund.”
Equally important to Den Hamer were the Tiger
directors: “I also enjoy the presence of the Tiger
directors, especially when they are presenting
their first films,” she adds. “It’s an emotional
and moving moment. And it’s really the heart of
the festival where new filmmakers are finding
their audiences.” Liza Foreman
36 th International Film Festival Rotterdam
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