Boca do Lixo

2010 Director Flavio Frederico

Boca is a thrilling gangster film based on the real-life events depicted within the pages of the 1977 autobiography of the feared gangland overlord Hiroito Joanides de Moraes, freely adapted by Mariana Pamplona and director Flavio Frederico.

At the age of 21 Hiroito was accused of murdering his father, who was violently stabbed over 40 times with a razor. Hiroito was never charged, however two months after his father’s death, he bought two guns and moved to Boca do Lixo, becoming one of the regions most dangerous criminals.

The biggest problem with Boca is that it glosses over the surface of its storyline, failing to provide a proper insight into the man behind the madness. Hiroito spends the majority of the time on screen, and Oliveira’s performance suggests that he’s up to the task, but key sequences are rushed through, and Boca’s impact lessens with every fleeting glance. Hiroito’s story certainly has potential, and the filmmakers are keen to present him in a certain light, but the viewer is given very little insight into how he became the man he was. Key events take place at regular intervals but we’re just expected to go with it, there’s no rhyme or reason, just continuous forward motion.

Take the relationship he forms with Alaide (Hermila Guedes) as an example. In one scene he is encouraging the new girl on the block to work for him, and in the next he is asking for her hand in marriage. She smiles, job done. It’s hard to care about the characters without any kind of depth or emotional input. People come and go but none of them stick around long enough to make a lasting impression. Frederico spends too much time focusing on the action, whether it be regular sexual escapades or violent run-ins, and too little time developing the characters at the heart of the tale. It’s not like he doesn’t have time to delve deeper, but when a film comes in at just over ninety minutes, I find it hard to believe that anyone can do the full story justice.

The Turin Horse

2011 Director Béla Tarr

This film, in some ways, is the most extreme of Tarr's films and yet the simplest. Co-written, once again, by novelist Laszlo Krasznahorkai, The Turin Horse is a minimalist distillation of Tarr's cinema: little more than a man, a woman, a horse, a house, some wretched weather, and very few words. The narrative content is so slender that it's barely even an anecdote, yet the film has the disturbing resonance of some ancient imponderable fable.

It all begins in darkness, as a narrator intones the apocryphal tale of how Nietzsche went mad – supposedly after seeing a horse beaten in Turin. After this incident, the German philosopher lapsed forever more into silence. The punchline: "No one knows what happened to the horse".
Thereafter, it's as if the film – indeed, the whole world – turns to near-silence. The story is told with few words but strong images, shot in long, sinuously executed takes.

This is a film of uncertainties – and because there's nothing solid to grasp in the narrative, what we cling to is the texture of the film itself. We become attentive to the ritualistic repetition of actions, to the prowling camera moves that map out the contours of this enclosed but oddly elastic universe, and to the eerie sound design – along with Mihaly Vig's creaky, dirge-like score, a ghastly three-note refrain has been mixed eerily into the sound of the wind itself, not just hauntingly but fit to drive you mad.

Shot in ascetically beautiful black and white by Fred Kelemen, this could almost be a documentary about 19th-century peasant life at its most challenging. But there's a mysterious metaphysical resonance about The Turin Horse that makes for the enigmatic numinousness of a Kafka parable. This is cinema so spare and silent it's on the verge of being Trappist cinema – and that is eloquence indeed.

Rebellion

2011 Director Mathieu Kassovitz

This film is something of a comeback for Mathieu Kassovitz, an intelligent political drama, part thriller, part war movie, and informed by something of the anger against established authority that fuelled La Haine.

Rebellion is based with some fidelity on a 1990 memoir by Philippe Legorjus, a captain in the GIGN (Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), an elite unit of the armed forces charged with counterterrorism and hostage negotiation who took part in the brutal repression of an insurrection by inhabitants in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia. Legorjus, a man of probity torn between doing what is right and fulfilling his duty as a military man, is sensitively played by Kassovitz himself. Legorjus's book is called La morale et l'action, the film was released in France as L'ordre et la morale, and both titles are superior to the commonplace one under which it is being shown here.

At times Rebellion brings to mind Apocalypse Now (and, indeed, there are several references to Coppola's movie). It's an exciting, complex story about a government committed to realpolitik and convinced that national interest can justify any kind of sacrifice (including the truth) in order to retain influence. And it's about a man involved in a morally and politically complicated event that is ultimately beyond his control, but from which he doesn't believe he can escape. It's all the more interesting because the incident has been so rapidly forgotten, and indeed failed to become a cause celebre in its time.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

2011 Direcor Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Murder mysteries rarely run as deep as this long, dark night of the soul from Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. He is a master of brooding stories defined by their wry questioning of human nature and often focused on men in crisis. He has an unflinching eye for the worst in all of us and for the black comedy and absurd banalities of everyday life.

For his sixth film, Ceylan has chosen his bleakest canvas yet: a murder investigation that begins in the dark wilds of the great Anatolian outdoors and ends in the cold light of an autopsy room. In tone, it’s Ceylan’s most epic and talky film yet. But don’t be fooled – it’s also his most mysterious and meditative.We meet a group of a dozen policemen, soldiers and others as they drive about on the steppes one night in search of a body with the two men suspected of burying it. It’s an ensemble piece, and for much of its 158-minute running time, the film itself feels like a painful, fruitless inquiry as it seeks themes, subjects and characters to latch on to. It’s a police procedural, yes, but you imagine that’s just an excuse to bring together a varied group of men in the face of a terrible event. It’s very far indeed from a traditional whodunnit and much more like a compelling, masterly journey.

The Arrival of Wang

2010 Director Antinio Manetti

This is a remarkable low budget Science fiction film from Italy, that is not exactly known for this genre. Set almost entirely in one room this could easily be a play.

An interpreter based in Rome, whose speciality is Mandarin Chinese gets a call about a very highly paid but mysterious job for a government agency. The money is too good to turn down, so within 20 minutes she is in a car wearing a blindfold being whisked away to a secret location. She is to work with an investigator translating his questions during the interrogation of a suspect. Such is the secrecy of the operation that the interrogation is to be conducted in darkness so Gaia cannot see the subject Senior Wang. She does not know what Wang is accused of, she does not know what agency Curti works for, and as the interview progresses she suddenly finds herself way out of her depth. Ultimately she is moved to seize an opportunity to take matters into her own hands leading to an ending which has a sting in the tail.

The Manetti Brothers’ The Arrival of Wang presents a challenge for a reviewer. The film has a central conceit that it is probably better not to know too much about. Francesca Cuttica is very good in the film as she has to carry the bulk of it, and does so admirably. Yes, the lack of budget shows and there are tacky moments, but as an overall experience I was both fascinated and surprised by the outcome.

Kosmos

2010 Director Keha Erdem

This is Reha Erdem's sixth feature film.  It is a profoundly imaginative and cinematic journey that bursts with philosophical ideas, mystical subplots and truly surreal moments.

A distressed stranger wanders into a snow swept border town where he saves a young boy from drowning. The insular town folk welcome him into their community, but before long they realise that there is more to this stranger than meets the eye. His abstract philosophical musings are his only way of communicating and his reclusive behaviour soon raise suspicions. With the falling to earth of a satellite his situation spirals out of control.

Filmed in Kars, in northern Turkey, in winter conditions, this is a real tour de force and one that marks this director as a visionary creator of films. Is the hero the messiah or just a hapless idiot? I  guess everyone will differ in their interpretation. But this does not detract from the overall effect.

Potiche

2010 Director François Ozon

Adapted from a stage comedy by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, this film casts a wry eye over the outrageous sexual and political attitudes of the late 1970s and dares to ask whether anything has really changed.

Robert Pujol is the diminutive wrecking ball of right-wing fury who runs his umbrella factory with an iron fist. That is until his surly workforce downs tools and goes on strike and his enemy, pinko local mayor Maurice Babin, is brought in to broker a deal. Under pressure, Robert’s fragile ticker gives up and, as he rests up abroad, his Tinkerbell-like trophy wife Suzanne must take the reins. She injects the ailing business with her own enlightened practices, much to his chagrin.

Simultaneously mocking and revering the look and content of the archetypal ’70s sitcom, ‘Potiche’ succeeds largely due to the fact that all the performers understand the ‘wink-wink’ nature of the material. Ozon evokes the spirit of the era through kitsch, split-screen editing and by filling the soundtrack with old-school Euro chanteurs like Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday, and even tossing in a bit of Boney M.

It’s as light and soft as a pink satin pillow, and a little overstretched, but it’s also packed with bawdy zingers and pointed political barbs.

Hell

2011 Director Tim Fehlbaum

This is Tim Fehlbaum filming debut and is a  tightly crafted post-apocalyptic survival tale. The story of a quartet battling marauders while searching for water on a parched Earth of the near-future pays tribute to "Planet of the Apes," "The Hills have Eyes," and "Deliverance".

It's 2016, and the world is a wasteland following a massive spike in global warming. Those who survive are either resourceful or violent, and sometimes both. A motley crew come together in a sun-shielded car heading to the mountains in hopes of finding water.

Fehlbaum shot some scenes in a burned-out forest in Corsica and others in a Bavarian woodland devastated by infestation, and apart from turning the sky a blinding white, he needed very little effects to achieve the right look. Tension is always in the air and the anticipation will appeal to those primed for this sort of material. The actors give their roles the right amount of conviction. A slightly nervous camera maintains the appropriate sense of apprehension, together with rapid editing in climactic moments. Visuals are stripped of color, suitably ashen for a sun-bleached world.

Hors la Loi

2010 Director Rachid Bouchareb

This film is the stand alone sequel to Bouchareb’s 2006 film “Days of Glory” and is the second in a loosely planned trilogy. The film starts in 1925 and ends in the early 1960’s and deals with lives of three Algerian brothers living in France during the Algerian war for independence. This war was a messy bit of business involving guerilla warfare, torture, and terrorism against civilians and the film immediately sparked controversy when it was released.

The three brothers couldn’t be more different. One joins the military, one turns to pimping as a way to make himself some money, and the other, after being released from jail where he was being held on ridiculous charges, immediately rises to the ranks of a major player in the Algerian revolution. Throughout it all though, even when things are at their most difficult, they stick by one another. As the brother’s lives grow and change they struggle to take care of their aging mother and to keep the lines of communication open on their strained relationships with one another. As the Algerian resistance movement intensifies each one of them must decide how great a role they will play in the movement and their decisions ultimately affect not only their own individual lives, but they way they viewed by their brothers as well.

Hors la Loi is a film that’s strong in all the right places. The acting is wonderful, the script is well written and the pacing works, the visuals are stunning, and the ending, although expected, is still somewhat of a shocker. It does run a tad on the long side however. Interesting for its historical representation of the Algerian war, but perhaps more so for its message of brotherly love, Hors la Loi is a film that’s well worth the effort to seek out.

Point Blank

2010 Director Fred Cavayé

This is fast paced, adrenalin packed ride through the streets of Paris. It continues the Hitchcockian theme that Cavayé started in his debut film "Anything for her". Take an ordinary man place him in extraordinary circumstances and let him loose.

A male nurse unwittingly saves the life of a dangerous criminal only to find his heavily pregnant wife kidnapped to ensure the criminal's escape. A roller coaster ride of twists and turns, subterfuge and misdirection follow that will keep you riveted to the very end.

Superb acting and very intelligent directing make this a must see. Cavayé is definitely a name to watch out for. His work is simple and focused, packing a tremendous story into a only 80 minutes with such precision that you have to pay full attention, not that you'll have much chance to become distracted.