Must-see film festival movies

An eye-popping Cannes winner and a Zoom rom-com are among the highlights of this year’s International Film Festival, finds

New Zealand’s annual feast of global cinema is back. While current Covidrestrictions mean the Wha¯ nau Ma¯ rama: New Zealand International Film Festival has lost its largest audience, Auckland, and Hamilton could still yet succumb, it is still expected to roll out in 11 towns and cities around the nation over the next five weeks.

Reduced capacities and resulting smaller income potential means it is even more important for Kiwi cinephiles to support what is one of the strongest programmes in the past few years. Stuff to Watch has vcome up with this list of a dozen that we believe are worth checking out.

Bergman Island

Mia Hansen-Love’s drama is about a film-making couple making a pilgrimage to Ingmar Bergman’s Baltic island home in search of inspiration. Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps’ relationship comes under increasing pressure, as their time on Faro highlights their differences and provides them with opportunities for separate adventures.

Compartment No. 6

A hit at this year’s Cannes, this Finnish and Russian tale, based on a 2011 novel by Rosa Liksom, follows Finnish archaeology student Laura (Seidi Haarla) on a train journey from Moscow to Murmansk. Seeking solitude, she finds herself increasingly uncomfortable with the confronting behaviour of her mysterious cabinmate Ljoha (Yuriy Borisov). What follows is a tense, compelling trip that offers plenty of narrative twists and turns.

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan

If you’ve only ever associated the former Pogues frontman with Fairytale of New York and his distinctive teeth, then you’ve only scratched the surface of the now 60-something’s rather incredible life. Director Julien Temple, whose previous subjects have included The Sex Pistols, Glastonbury and The Clash’s Joe Strummer, mainly allows MacGowan to tell his much-storied adventures in his own words, bringing it to vivid life via pub-based conversations with friends and family and an eclectic range of thematically appropriate animation styles.

The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

Police Rescue and Wentworth star Leah Purcell wrote, directed and stars in this reimagining of Henry Lawson’s 1892 short story. She plays a heavily pregnant mother-of-four who finds herself in a tight spot when an escaped convict (RFDS’ Rob

Collins) arrives at her homestead while her husband is away shifting their stock.

Flee

Like 2008’s Golden Globe-winning Waltz with Bashir, Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to bring a harrowing tale to life. The story of Amin and his family’s attempted escape to Afghanistan for a new life is full of twists and turns, dangerous situations and potentially devastating setbacks.

I’m Your Man

In Maria Schrader’s sci-fi rom-com, Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens delivers near-flawless German and Maren Eggert fully deserves her Silver Bear (from this year’s Berlin Film Festival) for her role as a scientist road-testing a new line of humanoid cyborgs.

Language Lessons

The best example of pandemic-era film-making I’ve seen so far. Natalie Morales directs, co-wrote and stars in this charming tale about the Zoom-ed relationship between her Costa Rica-based Spanish language tutor and Mark Duplass’ Oaklandresiding student.

Mass

The film that made the most emotional impact on me from this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January. This four-hander is a gripping singlelocation drama, as two sets of parents try to resolve – and maybe even absolve – the hurt that has come between them. Ann Dowd (who is already rightly being touted for an Oscar nomination), Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs and Reed Birney keep you guessing the outcome of their ‘‘discussions’’ until the final frames.

One Second

Veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest drama is a love letter to the power of cinema and feels like his most personal film since 2005’s Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles. Set during the Cultural Revolution, it’s the story of a man desperate to see a particular newsreel, whose plans are placed in jeopardy when a young girl attempts to steal it.

Shiva Baby

Destined to be this year’s Death at a Funeral or Toni Erdmann, this is the edgy, laugh-out-loud comedy anybody who braves it will talk about endlessly. Featuring a breakout performance from Rachel Sennott, writer-director Emma Seligman’s feature debut is the story of a feckless young woman who finds her worlds colliding when she runs into her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend while attending a funeral service with her devoutly Jewish parents.

Summer of 85

Festival favourite Francois Ozon’s (Swimming Pool, 8 Women) latest flick is a French adaptation of Aidan Chambers’ 1982 Southend-set novel Dance on My Grave. The action here is in Le Treport, as young Alex (Felix Lefebvre) becomes increasingly infatuated with the mercurial David (Benjamin Voisin).

Titane

This year’s Palme d’Or winner is certainly not for the faint-hearted. A kind of cross between David Cronenberg’s Crash and Scarlett Johansson starrer Under the Skin, Julia Ducournau’s French ‘‘horror’’ is filled with visceral thrills and imagery not easily forgotten.

At its heart, it is the story of the troubled Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who finds an unlikely new home when taken in by an ageing fire chief (Vincent Lindon), who is convinced the newly cropped young woman is actually his long-lost son.

Wha¯ nau Ma¯ rama: New Zealand International Film Festival is scheduled to kick off in Wellington next Thursday. It will also visit Christchurch, Dunedin, Gore, Hamilton, Hawke’s Bay, Masterton, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Timaru before December 5. For more information, venues, bookings and session times, see nziff.co.nz.