UPDATE 25/8 And now the end is nigh... (Edinburgh International Film Festival)

Member Name: x_elff_x

Product:	Edinburgh International Film Festival
Date:	10/08/01 (525 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Fun, Fun

Disadvantages: Your daddy may take your guitar away

--Cool and Crazy added 25/8--
--The Anniversary Party added 22/8--
--Cineworks added 22/8--
--McLaren Animation 3 added 17/8--
--La Ville Est Tranquille 16/8--
--La Fille de Son Pere 15/8--
--Amores Possiveis added 13/8--
-- Fabrique en France added 12/8--
--McLaren Animation 1 added 12/8--
--Tears of the Black Tiger added 11/8--
--Antanarjuat, The Fast Runner added 10/8--

I noticed that the only opinion in this category concerned last year's Film Festival, so I thought I would tell you a little bit about this years. I will include a little bit of background and history in a moment, but I am going to view this op as a bit of a work in progress.

I have been lucky enough to secure a press pass for this year's fest and have also had the opportunity to see some of the films and documentaries on preview tape, so it is my intention to post reviews of films which I have seen here, along with details of where and when they are playing. I hope this is useful. In the long term, I may split the op up if the individual films show up in the Movies Category. Happy viewing.

---The Festival---

The background, then... the Festival begun way back in 1947, when it was dedicated exclusively to documentaries, but it has certainly come a long way since then, with this year marking the third time that it has received lots of lovely additional funding from FilmFour. This year marks the final festival for Artistic Director Lizzie Francke and she is certainly going out with a bang, with over 100 films and documentaries on offer between August 12 and 26.

The Festival this year has been split into the following sections (the bits in speech marks are the Festival's own description):

Gala - 'An exciting array of International and UK premieres with a sprinkle of glitz and glamour!' - Featuring the Coen brothers' latest, The Man Who Wasn't There, and the Thora Birch's new
film, Ghost World, amongst others.

British - 'A snapshot of the year's film production from the UK' - Some not quite so well-known people in here, but This Filthy Earth by director Andrew Kotting should be a winner an the film Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise surely warrants a watch for the title alone.

Late Night Romps - 'Revel in late night energy and high-octane cinema' - Featuring the MykReeve-tipped Battle Royal.

Rosebud - 'Showcasing films from first and second-time direcotrs, the creative and spiritual heart of the Festival' - sounds good huh? Everything in here from the first ever film in Innuit, Atanarjuat (of which more later) to Kirsten Sheridan's screen adaptation of Disco Pigs, this should be fun.

Eyes of the World - 'New work from international directors with a particular, independent vision - Chockful of premieres, including everything from the French thriller, Nightshift, to the Cannes sensation Eureka - a tale of spiritual malaise.

Documentary: Imagining Reality - Does what it says on the tin and my top tip is to try to get tickets for The Natural History of the Chicken (reviewed below) which is absolutely clucking brilliant.

Retrospective: Werner Herzog - An homage to the celebrated filmmaker, focussing on his documentaries.

Other categories include Mirrorball - showcasing pop videos and the like - Persistance of Vision, Animation, Short Films and Reel Life.

--Practicalities--

Tickets to the big premieres may be tricky to come by but don't be put off trying. You can see a full timetable at www.edfilmfest.org and order on 0131-623 8030 or minicom 0131-623 8035 - online booking no longer available.

Tickets will cost anywhere between four and seven pounds each but two for one offers and standby discounts will be advertised daily at Festival venues, The Hub and on the website. Some special offers are also available wit
h a City of Edinburgh City Card, Young Scot Card and Euro<26.

Box Offices are at the Filmhouse, 88 Lothian Road and UGC Cinema Fountain Park.


Hope I haven't bored you to tears yet, have an intermission icecream or a box of popcorn.....


--Reviews--

As I say I hope to add to this daily(ish) and certainly tomorrow as Atanarjuat is on my work computer...ooh a quick note, these reviews will also be on www.insideout.co.uk but I promise they are all my own work).

Runaway

Dir Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini

UK, 85 mins

Mon Aug 13 Filmhouse 2, 8pm
Wed Aug 15, The Lumiere, 6.30pm
Price: £7 (£4.50)

Previously responsible for the thought-provoking documentary Divorce Iranian Style, Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir Hosseini return to the country for this eye-opening account of life in a Tehran women's hostel.

The runaways in question are Iranian girls (all under 20 years old) who have fled their homes to escape abuse and restrictions faced at home.

Atena, for example, is 18, already twice divorced and forced to run away when her stepfather attempts to rape her and her mother's response is to try to set her on fire. Despite all this, however, she is desperate to return home. Setarah, on the other hand, was raped as a child and has no home to go back to.

The hostel negotiates with the familes on behalf of the girls attempting to reconcile them and, if this is impossible, helping them towards a hard-to-come by independence by arranging accommodation and jobs.

By simply recording the day-to-day activities of the hostel, rather than quizzing the girls individually, Longinotto and Hosseini have created an honest and open account which leaves us to draw our own conclusions. We are able to see the girls playing with one another and the problems they face when attempting to return home and the

You are struck by the difficulties which
women face daily in Iran just to gain freedoms which we take from granted. However, this isn't a totally depressing film as you are also reminded of the quality of hope which burns brightly within these young women as they make their way in a hostile world. As Setareh says to encourage another girl: 'You see this day. Our future is going to be like that. If you want it, our future can be as bright as that.' Uncompromising but excellent.

4 stars

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The Natural History of the Chicken
Director Mark Lewis
USA 2000, 57 mins

Thursday August 16, Filmhouse 2, 8pm
Sun August 19, Glasgow Film Theature, 6.30pm
Price: £7 (£4.50)

The most consideration the man on the street usually gives a chicken is whether to have leg or breast from the Sunday roast, but Mark Lewis' wry documentary is set to change all that.

In a collection of stories, ranging from the serious to the bizarre, Lewis charts the relationships we enjoy with our feathered farmyard friends. During the course of the 57 minute film we meet a woman who resucitated her prematurely-frozen chicken, another who treats her bantam, Cotton, like a member of the family and hear the story of Mike - a chicken so robust that it lived for years after having its head chopped off (yes, really)- who was fed through the neck with a pippette and exhibited up and down the States.

Shot like an episode of Cluckwatch UK, we are treated to a series of re-enactments of these plucky tales of derring do, which are intercut with sterile images of battery farming and US chicken facts - you may be interested to hear, for example, that the average American eats 80 pounds of chicken per year.

Lewis handles the documentary with a lightness of touch, allowing the intercutting of the various hen homages to speak largely for itself. It is left for the audience to decide whether living as a free-range chuck and being killed by the farmer for hi
s family is, ultimately, a better life, than living in a cage with six companions and watching your eggs speed away on a conveyor belt. This film shies away from the graphic depiction of chicken culling, preferring to concentrate on the quirkier side of this birds' eye view of the world. Absolutely great fun.

5 stars

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<br>
Yellow Asphalt: Three Desert Stories
Director Danny Verte
Israel, 86mins

Sunday August 19, Filmhouse 2, 5.30pm
Tuesday August 21, Filmhouse 3, 6pm
Price: £7 (£4.50)

Unanimously awarded the Israeli Cinema Prize at the Haifa International Film Festival, Daniel Verete's Yellow Asphalt is an uncompromising look at lives of the Bedouin in the Judean Desert and how they are being affected by the increasing encroachment of modern Israel.

Comprising three desert vignettes, Blackspot concerning a Bedouin boy hit by a Jewish truckdriver, Here is Not There exploring the problems experienced by tribes whose members 'marry out' and Red Roofs a tale of love, honour and revenge, the tales have a complexity belied by their seemingly simple plotlines.

But this film is no straight forward diatribe putting the case for one way of life or another, rather it is a careful exploration of what happens when two worlds, so different in history and culture, find themselves on a collision course which both seem powerless to deflect. The stories are poignant and tense, set against the unyielding backdrop of the dusty desert landscape where the people seem little more than incidental to scenery older than them all, and with a haunting score.

The acting throughout is highly commendable and each of the characters thoroughly believable - from the mother weeping for her child, to the Bedouin torn between the Bedouin culture he grew up in and the modern Israel where he works.

Verete's sensitive handling of the stories allows the audience a rare glimpse int
o the workings of the close-knit Bedouin community - but also reveals much about the values of the more Westernised Israeli populace.

<br><br>4 stars

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Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner
Director Zakarius Kunuk
Canada 2000

Sunday August 19, Filmhouse one (sold out)
Tuesday August 21 UGC6 (tickets available)
Price: £7.50 (4.50)


It seems strange, that even today, when world cinema enjoys more prominence than ever before, that this film is the first to be written in the Inuit language of Innuktitut. But it is the trailblazer for this race and it certainly makes for a fascinating - if rather long - watch.

Spanning two generations, this is an epic tale of evil disrupting a small community in the arctic wilderness. The community's discord has its roots in trouble caused by a shaman at the turn of the last millennium, which sees the families of Sauri and rival Tulimaq become embroiled in a bitter feud over food and family.

It is, however, some years later and with the growing of their sons that the bad blood really begins to boil. Tulimaq's offspring Amaqjuag, the strong one (Pakkak Innuksuk) and Atanarjuat, the eponymous fast runner (Natar Ungalaaq), provoke jealousy in Sauri's son Oki (Peter Henry Arnatsiaq) with their superior hunting skills, and when Atanarjuat wins the heart of Oki's betrothed, Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu) sparks really begin to fly.

Oki plots to murder his rival, a scheme which results in some breathtaking cinematography of Atanarjuat running stark naked across the ice floes in fear of his life, a gripping scene, which in itself is worth watching this movie for.

Initially, this film is quite difficult to follow, largely because all the cast are so muffled up in seal skins as to make telling them apart quite tricky, but once the story starts to flow it makes for compelling viewing. Mixing myth and oral tradition, spiritual fears and the
all-too-real worry about the scarcity of food, this film builds a complex picture of the hard life endured by generations of Inuit and their fables designed to teach their young the importance of putting the group's wellbeing above their own.

Mostly performed by a cast of unknowns, this film has a near-documentary feel. Shot in the main from a single camera's viewpoint, this adds to the atmosphere of wilderness and reality and, aided by the wonderful light is probably one of the main reasons this movie won the prestigious Camera d'Or at Cannes. Twinned with a haunting score featuring syncopated drums and choral compositions this is an endearing film, which, while a little long at 168 minutes, is still worth a watch.

3 stars

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Tears of the Black Tiger (Fai Talai Jone)

Director Wisit Sasanatieng
Running Time: 114 minutes
Made Thailand 2001

Monday August 13, UGC, 7pm
Thursday August 16, Cameo 1, 10pm

Picture the scene: a purdy young Miss in a purdy pink frock is walking across a bridge carrying a suitcase and holding a parasol, while lonesome harmonica mourns in the background. It has all the makings of the great start to a good ol' Western.... that is until you realise she is holding the parasol to keep off the rain and is walking over a lily pond to reach a sala.Throw in the super-saturated colours, reminiscent of Dorothy Gale's adverntures in Oz and you just know you're not in Kansas any more.

Where you are, in fact, is just about as far from Kansas as you could get, Thailand. The purdy Miss in question is Rumpoey (Stella Malucchi ), the daughter of a rich city governor, and she is waiting for her sweetheart, Dum (Chartchai Ngamsan), the country peasant boy she met and fell in love as a child evacuee, when he defended her honour. At a chance meeting as students some years later, Dum again finds himself called on to rescue her and afterwards they exchang
e promises to be together no matter what. Matters, however, become complicated by Dum's decision to turn bandit - complete with rather natty turquoise neckerchief - to avenge his father's murder and also by Rumpoey's father, who arranges for her to be betrothed to local police Captain Kumjorn (Arawat Ruangvuth).

This may sound like a classic love triangle tale, but there is little time for romance amid all the wry sideswipes at the Western genre. Killings, of which there are many, take on a comic strip feel. We see bullets whizzing through the air and blood so magenta it drenches the landscape - and amid all this, we find ourselves laughing.

Director Sasanatieng has certainly created an ephemeral, yet engaging film. The heightened colour only adds to the overall verve of the storytelling, carrying you along with even the most fanciful and cliched twists of the plot. Sasanatieng says his colourising and stylistic techniques were inspired by 1950s Thai director Rattana Pestonji, but I really don't think a Western audience who knows nothing of his work, myself included, need to be put off by this.

Rather it is nice just to sit back and let the day-glo colours wash over you, marvelling at the high-spirited energy of it all and thanking the lord that there are subtitles, for surely, we wouldn't understand the actors even if we spoke Thai, their tongues are so firmly placed in their cheeks.

3 Stars

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Title: Fabrique En France

Runtime: 90mins

Made: France 2000/2001

Tuesday August 14, Filmhouse 3, 6pm
Monday August 20, Filmhouse 3, 10pm


Pop videos and commercials have certainly taken on a lot more weight in recent years. With directors such as David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, strutting their funky stuff and then moving on to create innovative big screen successes like Se7en, Being John Malkovich and this year's opening gala fi
lm Amelie, it is safe to say that video and advert directors have never enjoyed so much kudos or had so many role models to emulate.

This new found credibility coupled with the chic for which France has been famous for years means that French directors are at the front of the pack when it comes to glitzy, stylish pop culture. Fabrique en France showcases the hottest of the hot, featuring 17 videos, commercials and short animations.

On the downside, some of the shorts have been shown at Edinburgh previously, including Antoine Bardou-Jacquet's Text City and Geoffrey de Crecy's Les Miserables, and you may well have seen several of the pop videos like Madonna's Don't Tell Me, directed by Jean Baptiste Mondino and Depeche Mode' s Dream On, directed by Stephane Sednaoui on the small screen before.

This isn't simply a rehash of familiar work, however. The best pieces on offer are Loic and Aurelien's AP 2000 - an endearing short charting a battle between bugs and bug-killer on the back of a poodle, which features stylistic nods to films like The Matrix - and Francois Vogel's Faux Plafond (suspended ceiling) - an innovatively shot animation, in which the characters limbs seem to be printed on microscope slides.

Overall this collection makes for 90 minutes of upbeat fun, with some creative surprises.

3 stars

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Title: McLaren Animation 1

Runtime: 80 mins

Tuesday 14 August, 2.30pm Filmhouse 1


There is something quite compelling about animation. It is probably the first type of moving-story medium most of us come across as children and as such is dear to our hearts. In this modern world of special effects and pop videos, animation is increasingly important and, as such, it seems fitting that the Festival should present a selection of British and international shorts.

The McLaren Animation Award programme concentrates on the British contin
gent and is a competition for all levels of animation irrespective of the budget available.

McLaren 1 is certainly an eclectic mix. The showcase features 14 pieces in practically every animated style imaginable. I found the beautifully-rendered watercolour short, The Emperor, by Scot, Elizabeth Hobbs, which tells of a soldier's quest to rescue Napoleon Bonaparte from exile, particularly engaging, as were Rachel Everitt's Lunar jig - a tale of a nighttime soiree of creepy crawly folk - and Bill Elliot's claymation Donor Card - tracing attempts to create a monster bride.

As with any showcase of this type, it won't please everyone all of the time, though, if you find a particular piece is dragging, you can rest-assured it won't last for too long. Overall, this is a reasonably enjoyable look at the up-and-coming talent of tomorrow, but perhaps best recommended to fans only. Oh, and a word of warning, the penultimate piece, Riccardo Iacono's Letters, was very 'strobey' in nature and might cause problems for people sensitive to that kind of strobe-effect.

2 Stars
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Title: Possible Loves (Amores Possiveis)

Director: Sandra Werneck

Brazil 2000

Cast: Carolina Ferraz, Murilo Benicio, Irene Ravache, Emilio de Mello, Beth Goulart, Alberto Szafran, Luiza Mariani, Drica Moraes, Christine Fernandes.

Runtime: 98 mins

Tuesday, August 14, The Lumiere, 6.30pm
Thursday, August 16, Cameo 1, 5.30pm


The premise of Amores Possiveis (Possible Loves) is so simple that I defy anyone not to be familiar with the notion. Director Sandra Werneck simply asks what would occur if just one event in time had happened differently. Carlos (Murilo Benicio) is waiting for his college girlfriend at a Rio de Janeiro cinema and the film interweaves what has happened to him 15 years hence, depending on whether she turns up or not - though how anyone could possibly fail to t
urn up for the drop-dead gorgeous Benicio, is beyond me.

In the first strand of the tale, his date Julia (Carolina Ferraz) inexplicably fails to show and so he goes on to marry Maria (Irene Ravache) and settle in to a tired and childless marriage, only to find a chance meeting with Julia rekindles old flames and makes him reassess his life.

In the second scenario, Julia does show and he goes on to wed and father a son with her, although by the time we catch up with him some 15 years on he has left her for for male friend, Pedro (Emilio de Mello), whom he met at football practice, and is living with him. Much, however, remains unresolved and this strand follows Carlos in his attempts to define his sexuality once and for all.

In the third, and by far the most engaging, incidence Julia fails to make the date and we hook up with him again as a thirtysomething who has never left home and is still playing the field like a student. He embarks upon a serious of crazy attempts to meet Miss Perfect and, through a twist of fate, meets up with Julia, who in this reality is a slightly off-the-wall, ditzy artist. The question is, will he be able to commit himself to her?

This is an enjoyable film, with Werneck carefully intertwining the threads in a convincing manner. This is no Sliding Doors - you won't find contrived situations where the various alternate realities pass by themselves - but like that film it is engaging and likeable.

Ravache plays each of the subtly different Carloses superbly and is as adept at the role of a slightly stuffy accountant as he is in party animal and father mode. Ferraz, too, makes light work of the split personalities she has to adopt. Carlos's mother (Beth Goulart) is also outstanding, managing to be at once immensely likeable, yet still keeping an edge of superiority against which he must rebel.

This film does require you to suspend your disbelief. After all, it is very unlikely that
on the one hand you would come out as a homosexual, yet on the other be seemingly confident in your heterosexuality as to show no leanings in that direction at all - but this is a minor gripe.

Overall, this is a feelgood romantic comedy which, while not played for laughs, delivers several, and manages to be thought-provoking to boot. A consummate piece of directing from a woman of whom I am sure we will hear a lot more of in the future.

4 stars

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Title: La Fille de Son Pere (Her Father's Daughter)

Director: Jacques Deschamps

Cast: Natacha Regnier, Francois Berleand, Fanny Cottencon, Frederic Pierrot.

France and UK 2000

Wednesday, August 15, Filmhouse 1, 9.30pm
Saturday, August 25, Cameo 1, 3.30pm


Henri (Francois Berleand) hasn't got the most enviable life. He may have been lucky in business but his marriage is on the rocks, his daughter barely speaks to him and even his friend Frances (Frederic Pierrot) holds little interest. One day, while he is out shooting deer and the breeze, Frances casually drops into the conversation the news that he has a daughter, Anna (Natacha Regnier), from a fling years previously, whose mother has just died. He doesn't want to get involved but is keen to give the girl some cash and Henri agrees to pass it on to her.

On his return from this errand of mercy, however, Henri discovers his wife's acupuncturist is giving her one more prick than he bargained for and, on the spur of the moment, decides to concoct an affair with Anna's mother and claim parentage himself. Needless to say, this decision breeds on itself and events spiral rapidly out of control.

This, Deschamps' second feature, is a tense exploration of relationships and human frailty, helped immensely by Beatrice Thiriet's wonderfully evocative score.

The acting is superb throughout, although it is a shame there is so much shade in
this movie. It is certainly compelling, but it is rather unremitting in its bleakness and angst. The one or two moments of joviality were such a joy to behold you were left wishing Deschamps had allowed us a slightly longer glimpsee.

The plot suffered slightly from predictability too, towards the latter quarter of the movie, although there was enough originality to keep the audience from getting bored. All in all a neatly directed cautionary tale of love and betrayal.

3 stars

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La Ville Est Tranquille (The Town is Quiet)
Director: Robert Guediguian
Writers: Jean-Louis Milesi, Robert Guediguian
Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Pierre Banderet, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Jacques Boudet, Pascale Roberts, Geraard Meylan
France 2000

Saturday 18, Filmhouse, 9.30pm
Saturday 25, Filmhouse, 7pm


Marseille is a city of opposites. On the one hand it gave its name to the left-wing solidarity song of the workers, The Marseilleise, and, on the other, it has, since the rise of neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen, become a stronghold of the French National Front. Increasingly disillusioned by leftwing government tightening of social spending, disenfranchised by the closure of the docks and angry with the sizeable Algerian populace, workers have abandoned the traditional left in droves.

It is against this backdrop that Guediguian sets this compelling film. And if Jeunet's romance Amelie is the epitomy of Joie de vivre in modern France, then the tale of her near-namesake baby Ameline in the 'schemes' of Marseille is the flipside of the centime.

Beginning with a wide panoramic shot of the city, Guediguian invites us to look at it, but it is only when we become involved with the lives of the many characters he introduces us to, that we truly begin to see.

Michelle (Ariane Ascaride) packs fish each night and, on her return home, faces the reality of a heroin-addicted daughter Fiona
(Julie-Marie Parmentier) and illegitimate granddaughter Ameline, along with her redundant husband, who has abdicated all familial responsibility in favour of taking up residence at the bottom of a bottle.

In another part of town Paul (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), also made redundant from the docks, plies his trade as a taxi driver, while living a lonely life populated only by the fictions he tells his stalwart left-wing parents over Sunday lunch.

In the third strand of the tale we meet Vivianne (Christine Brucher), a music teacher and idealist who teaches special needs children and helps with prison workshops. We watch as she strikes up an unlikely relationship with Algerian, Abderramane (Alexandre Ogou), who is waging his own personal war against prejudice among his own community.

Guediguian combines these and several other plot elements and characters beautifully, weaving a modern tale of disillusionment in a dog-eat-dog world with alacrity. There is love in this story, both familial and romantic, but there is also the seamier underbelly of prostitution and right-wing hatred which mars all it touches. This is a complex film which aims not to show how abhorrent right-wing politics are, but rather how seductive they can sound to a community tearing itself apart from within.

These seemingly disparate people become a part of the same tale, but Guediguian has such a lightness of touch, and each of the characters such individual integrity, that the connections never appear contrived.

Whilst dark in content, Guediguian never loses sight of the light that even the smallest act of kindness can bring and this is conveyed in every scene. You cannot fail to be as moved by a boy playing the piano as you are by the sight of Fiona going cold turkey while her mother and baby look on.

This film, like its excellent score, reaches a stunning climax which cannot fail to leave a mark on an audience. If seeing is believing, then Guedig
uian will have many converts after this.

4 stars
- though am sorely tempted to go five
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I hope you have all had a cornetto and all the jelly babies you can eat, in any event, here is McLaren 3... I feel a bit of the law of diminishing returns with this, as I had already written two critiques on animation (about which I know not enough) however, I have done my best to be informative.

McLaren Animation 3

Sunday 19 August, Filmhouse 1

The third compilation of McLaren animation award winners is engaging from first to last and, as you would expect, an eclectic mix in terms of both media and content.

Included in the mix were dialogue-free, yet evocative like films Blood Flower, by Peter Traynor, Impressions of a Coat, by Anna Douglas - which takes its starting point from a snow imprint and extrapolates from that the events which led up to the marks being made - and Anwyn Beier's vibrant Nightwindows - which allows the audience a voyeuristic fleeting glimpse of what lies behind the windows of a city by night.

Intermixed with these more esoteric offerings, was a range of both funny and thoughtful dialogue films. Fighting in the funny corner was the hilarious Little Bo Poop, who, in a variation on the nursery rhyme heads off to the city in search of her woolly friends, aided in her task by some helpful sheep droppings. This film displayed a mix of animation media including claymation and some lovely travel scenes using chalk and a blackboard.

The Dark, by Gareth Love, was another beautifully-crafted amusing tale of the plight of a bogeyman who is having trouble with modern technology - and we thought that it was only us.

A mention must also go to the colourful and witty Novelty, by Lee Hodgkinson, about a girl growing up with her novelty pair of slippers which have a secret life of their own that only she knows about, and the Terry Gilliamesque Little Big Man, by Jo Neave, re
counting the seven-day creation of a bodybuilder.

And if Neave's frenetic animation leaves you gasping for breath, unable to take in all the details, then Lucy Hudson's Silver Thread should be the perfect counterpoint. Telling the tale of a woman who lives by the sea, this animation shows how she is linked to others by simple silver threads - a story of longing and loss.

Overall, this is a worthwhile watch which ably demonstrates the variety and breadth of British animation and the wealth of talent we possess.

3 stars
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Title: Cineworks

Cineworks is a short film initiative run by the Glasgow Media Access Centre which aims to promote new Scottish talent in the disciplines of drama documentary and animation and this year it has certainly delivered.

The opening film is Wish a moving drama, directed by Rene Mohanda, a film of simplicity and contrasts. It tellls the tale of the blossoming relationship between Fraser (Neil McCormack), a young carer on a Glaswegian council estate and his elderly Japanese charge Miss Kaori (Vasanta Mala). We watch as they share their experiences and romance develops.

This film is full of beautiful moments of poignancy. Each action is imbued with heavier meaning from Fraser's washing of Miss Kaori's feet to the wonderfully memorable scene of him dancing around a muddy alotment carrying her on his back. Mohanda is reported to be focusing on writing and directing full-time now, a move which will ultimately benefit us all.

The second cineworks piece is documentary, Testatika, directed by Sarah Trip. The Testatika is a machine created by the Christian community of Methernitha in Switzerland, reported to work in perpetual motion, producing electricity from an unknown source. In 1989, the community announced this new invention to the world but shortly afterwards closed their doors refusing the world any further access to their work. This documentary atte
mpts to make sense of the Methernitha people's claims and establish the spiritual reasoning behind their actions.

Trip has picked a great topic to document. In a world where we are increasingly concerned about the nature of global warming and dwindling energy sources, the Testatika appears akin to a scientific holy grail. This is a clear, concise piece, neatly explaining the supposed nature of the machine and using Methernitha footage creatively, but not so that it detracts from the thread of her argument. A thought-provoking and educative film.

Best Man, is the writing, production and directorial debut for Becky Brazil and she has certainly made her mark. Focusing on the life of teenager Leanne (Leeann Hogg) and her disconnected relationship with her father, Jim (Erik Barlow), set against the backdrop of his preparations for a wedding speech. Leanne's mother has evidentely left some years previously, and we watch the 13-year-old as she finds herself on the brink of the brave new world of adolescence, caring domestically for her dad while at the same time longing to attract his attentions on a more personal basis. Jim, something of a lost soul, seems totally oblvious to his daughter's need to be loved, ignoring her increasingly desperate attempts to engage with him.

This film has a wonderful feel of realism to it, particularly the wedding party scenes, where Leanne is pictured in contrast to the elderly contingent and the young children, able to connect with either. The inexorable climactic build-up is, like the wedding champagne, a corker.

The penultimate cineworks piece is Anwyn Beier's Nightwindows animation which can also be seen in McLaren 3. A momentary glimpse into a series of nighttime windows, set to a avant-garde jazz piece by John Zorn is evocative and compelling. Each window holds something different, yet strangely familiar to the viewer, from the burnished room of a dinner party to a woman wearing not
hing but a pair of novelty monster slippers, this is a real treat.

The director of the final segment, The Toon Fair, may well be familiar to many in Scotland for his first short film Who's My Favourite Girl, which went on to win a BAFTA. This is a very different piece but equally entertaining.

Centring on the subject of small town gossip, McDowall, picks up on the surreal aspects of everyday life as we watch a simple envelope accident on the day of the town carnival escalate into something far more horrific as the minds and mouths of the town get to work on it. Everything from rabbit betting to adultery comes under the spotlight and the scene where a Catholic and Protestant priest argue the sectarian toss about their parishoners while having sponges aimed at them in a dunking booth, is priceless. The only quibble I have with this piece is that there is the use of subtitles via a slide show which accompany it. I hope that they give the subtitle crew a little more practice before the public showing, as the constant booting up of these subtitles at the wrong times during the other films on offer did them a great disservice.

Often people shy away from short-film compilations, thinking that they are going to get unsatisfying bite-sized pieces, poorly fleshed out and with little character development, but none of these claims can be levelled at Cineworks. Good things do come in small packages.

4 stars
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Title: The Anniversary Party

Dir: Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Written: Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Kevin Kline, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clara Demedrano, Jennifer Beals, Steven Freedman, Morizzela Monterroso, Phoebe Cates

4 stars

Taking place over the course of one eventful night, The Anniversary Party treads on familiar ground, looking at the relationships and lives of a group of friends - Peter's Frien
ds, The Big Chill, anyone? Despite the somewhat familiar plot device, however, this film manages to skirt around most of the usual cliches.

Joe and Sally Therrian (Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh) are getting ready to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary. However, there is more at stake here than mere marital bliss - they are also using the evening to demonstrate to their friends that they have put a year-long separation behind them and are now intent on starting a family. Tensions remain, however, and their choice of party guests exacerbates their difficulties - for this is no suburban household drama, but a tale of film folk, dahlink.

Joe is a writer of a book about their marriage tribulations, and about to direct the film version, while Sally is a thirtysomething actress, bitter at being deemed too old to play "herself". When she discovers Joe has invited beautiful starlet Skye Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow), she is not amused, but parries by informing Joe that she, in turn, has invited their litigious neighbours, with whom they have an ongoing battle regarding their dog.

The evening rolls around along with the rest of the cast, including Kevin Kline, on fine form as Cal Gold, a fortysomething actor still longing to play against young leading ladies, Jane Adams - familiar from guest appearances in Frasier - as the wonderfully neurotic actress Clair Forsyth and Jennifer Beals as Gina Taylor, a photographer and Joe's first love.

Partying ensues and all seems to be going well until Skye produces the unlikely 'gift' of love in the form of ecstasy tablets and the frame of things begins to disjoint.

Strong performances abound in this ensemble piece. Jason Leigh and Cumming are compelling as a couple in love and striving to put the past behind them, and after appearing in such dreadful offerings as Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas, Cumming, in particular, needs a hit.

This impressive acting
show may well have been aided by the fact that Cumming and Leigh wrote the piece with the specific actors in mind, which also leaves you to wonder if there are any autobiographical references hidden in the melee. Certainly, the Kline clan is out in force - wife Phoebe Cates appears and there's a scene in which Kline does a spot of ballet with their daughter, Greta (playing Evie), one that's all the more convincing because of their obvious warmth.

The selection of ecstasy as the designer drug of choice is an interesting one and certainly makes a change from the cliched toking of joints or snorting of coke. Doubtless, some will label the movie 'irresponsible' for its portrayal of casual drug use, but it doesn't glorify the drug in any way. For one thing, there's an implication that some of the partygoers have never used the drug before - rather flying in the face of several other films of this type - and we are spared any arty 'drug trip' interludes.

As a debut piece of direction from both Scot Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Anniversary Party is an enjoyable and witty film, and it is all the more impressive when you discover that it only took 19 days to shoot. It succeeds as a taut exploration of modern marital strife, which gets its mix of laughter and sorrow just about right and resists the urge to neatly package everything up with a Hollywood ending.

4 stars
-----

Coming to the end of the Festival now and just a couple more to add - Martha, Martha which I have left on a different machine (typically) and this lovely documentary from Norway - which has made it into the Best of the Fest and will be shown one more time with feeling tomorrow morning at 11.00 at The Cameo.


Title: Cool and Crazy

Alternative_titles: Heftig Og Begeistret

Certificate: U

Director: Knut Erik Jensen

Runtime: 105 mins

Made: Norway 2001

One_liner
: Norwegian documentary telling the tale of a male voice choir and its members in the remote fishing village of Berlevag.

Keywords: Berlevag, documentary, Norway

Rating: Five stars

The small and frighteningly exposed fishing village of Berlevag has hit the big time care of this endearing documentary about the lives and loves of the Berlevag male voice choir. Since its release in Norway, this slice of life from Finmarka, not far from the North Pole, is a joy from start to finish.

By carefully intercutting a series of performances from the Manschoir with several of the thirty-strong members (ranging in age from 29 to 96) he shows us their love of music, life love and a healthy slice of cod philosophy.

From start to finish this film is full of enduring images. The first shots are of the choir singing in the snow, with the wind, clearly audible, howling around them and the Barents Sea stretching away behind them over the breakwaters, while the footage of their reaction to the ravaged state of the land near Murmansk where they go on tour, will move all but the hardest of hearts.

This gentleman's co-operative are certainly game for anything, singing out of doors in the wildest of weather so that Jensen can show us the full impact of where they live and work. At one point they literally have icicles hanging from their noses, while children toboggan down a slope beside them, but the clarity and beauty of their singing remains undimmed. This is one of the best aspects of the film. Jensen doesn't represent the choir shut away from the world, huddled against the cold, instead he prefers to show them in their element (and in the elements) demonstrating their vitality and lust for life.

The words to the songs they sing, speak of fishing and filleting, frivolity and faith, set against the backdrop of modern day Berlevag, which has suffered from cutbacks in the fishing industry - as one of the choir members
who manages the local job centre wryly observes: 'I employ most of the choir.'

Jensen presents a loving portrait of this beautiful collection of characters, from the wheelchair-bound chain-smoking choir master, to the former amphetamine addict and the 96-year-old whose younger brother - a mere 87 - is also a choir member. Even when they are not speaking directly to the camera, while on their tour bus, Jensen still captures their vigour. The choir's optimism is so pronounced you can almost touch it, as one of the members says: 'Why strive for more when you live a fulfilling life?' and another: 'Once morose, always morose.'

It may be up north but this is a very long way from being grim. The good humour of all those involved - including some of the members wives - is infectious and you can't help but finish watching this film with a smile on your face and the urge to nip out and buy their music. One of the members jokes in Murmansk as he signs an autograph: 'Some day we are going to be very famous.' That day is nigh.

5 stars
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Amelie and Ghostworld will have their day elsewhere, I think.

Summary: