CINEMA: Bratislava International Film Festival

Two quality films at the Bratislava International Film Festival deserve to be seen – but still haven’t found distributors. For a complete list of winners, go to the Bratislava International Film Festival site.

Far flung film festivals exist to show films that don’t have big studios behind them. In that way, as San Sebastian Film Festival‘s president Mikel Olacriegui says, some festivals operate as an alternative to distribution. Until VOD gets sorted out, some films won’t get released on a global or regional basis. That means you won’t see ‘Le Quattro Volte’ unless you caught it here already.

What’s the big deal? ‘The Four Times’ has no dialogue – or very little. Also, it isn’t really clear what’s going on. But it does what good art house cinema is supposed to do and that is to show us something beautiful that isn’t ‘Transformers: The Dark of the Moon’. Once you understand that the title – The Four Times – refers to reincarnation – a goatherd is reborn as a kid, a tree and… maybe another tree – the film opens up another world to you – a tableau vivant few of us know, an almost God’s eye view of what goes on in Calabria, a southern Italian town where a goatherd tends his flocks the old fashioned way.

This is film is slow but for a reason: the impact relies on timing. For instance, a religious festival comes to town, complete with fake Roman soldiers. The goatherd’s dog chases the entire procession, and tries to bite Jesus (the guy carrying the cross). The camera’s aim swings up the road to show us that the dog is not a quitter when it comes to disrupting religious processions. This is a scene that’s hilarious because it isn’t set up or rushed.

Several stories sometimes happen across the screen at the same time: at one point, the goats interact with each other (and really, goats are pretty funny) in the lower left hand corner, the procession preparations happen in the middle and the dog races around in the lower right hand corner of the camera frame, making it truly cool to view. Granted, this perky aspect of The Four Times does not run throughout the film. Sometimes you are, yes, just staring at a tree swaying in the wind. (If you lay off the coffee, this is a soothing.)

The Four Times is long. It is arthouse. There are no explosions. But if you do get a chance to see this and aren’t sure you can hold still, just sit on the aisle. Do try to hang around for the religious procession at least because this was something rare in film: an unfolding event seen from an almost objective angle. (There’s also a puzzling and exciting tree celebration in the village, but I don’t want to spoil it all for you – just in case you get to see it.)

Meanwhile, there is one film that really does need distribution, that this is the second feature of Canadian director Daniel Grou. His ’10 1/2′ won the FIRPRESCI Prize (and yes, I was on the jury) as our pick of best feature – and that choice was unanimous. This tough tale of a Quebecois borstal boy is briliantly acted by Robert Naylor (who won Best Actor in Bratislava 2010) in a role that required him to swear, bite, scratch, be charming and be a little shit for 108 minutes. It is a tough film but it is not tough to watch. The fact that it opens with a shot of oral porn, then goes to child-on-child abuse and then into a torrent of swearing probably isn’t going to help it get a distributor. But, for all its shocking points, ’10 1/2′ is a moral puzzle: what do you do with kids like Tommy who are a danger to society? What do you do when they can’t seem to change?

Generally, worthy films put me off, but ’10 1/2′ was truly exceptional in its unpredictable, believeable and watchable treatment of an unwanted kid who hasn’t been taught how to eat at the table and who doesn’t understand that pornography is not real life. This is as satisfying as it is important and well made: Grou works with Naylor in a series in Canadian TV, so their close relationship helped fuse 10 1/2 into a heck of a strong film that still doesn’t have someone to show it on the big screen.