Emma Stone and Joe Alwyn in ‘Kinds of Kindness’, photo by Atsushi Nishijima, courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
And it features the latest works from Yorgos Lanthimos, Karim Aïnouz, Ali Abbasi, David Cronenberg, Paolo Sorrentino and Francis Ford Coppola, to name a few — phew!
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A still from 'M' by Yolande Zauberman, with Menahem Lang on the right
As I sat for breakfast this morning with Meredith Taylor, a fellow writer, she said something that struck me, because it's so true.
"Before I started coming to Locarno, I would look at their yellow and black logo and think, it must be a chic and exclusive festival for true film lovers." I paraphrase a bit but you get the message. In fact, coming personally to the Locarno Festival for the first time last year, I too felt that they constantly and continuously impressed me with the quality of the films they select, but also the incredible devotion the festival has to the cinematic art. It's true, it is chic -- I mean just look at Meg Ryan in her white dress against that backdrop on this website's Homepage -- it is exclusive, yet totally democratic and wonderfully interactive. The only thing that is requested for you to join this club too is a love, a true passion and devotion to cinema. Wow. What's there not to love in a festival like this?!
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Filmmaker Mani Haghigi and Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick
Photo courtesy of Berlinale
Thankfully, at this year's Berlinale, there are a couple of films in Competition which go against everything that a "competition film" should be. Whatever that definition is. I applaud the festival organizers for having had the courage to show them, and their continued support of indie voices.
One such film is Mani Haghigi's 'Pig' ('Khook') a wild colorful, humorous, dark and fresh ride through the Iranian film industry. Now wild and colorful, with women protagonists who run the show is hardly a definition one would typically associate with Iranian cinema and yet Haghigi manages it all.
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COURTESY OF THE LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL
A still from Rana Eid’s ‘Panoptic’
It is not often that a film journalist like me gets to experience the stuff hard core news are made of in first person, up close. I mean, I’ve been privy to some great cinematic history in the making and yes, I lived in NYC at the time of the attacks of 9/11 so I watched unmentionable horror unfolding before my very eyes, but in Locarno I feel part of another narrative that will affect the world as we know it.
I’m talking about the sudden decision by UN war crimes Special Prosecutor Carla del Ponte to quit her post, because she feels that Syria is now “a land without future”. Appointed to a three-member panel set up in August 2011 by the Human Rights Council to monitor the al-Assad regime and the unfolding civil war in Syria remotely, del Ponte represented the one slight hope for justice and yet today, that hope seems gone. Having previously sat on tribunals that investigated atrocities in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, del Ponte is most famous for putting Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević on trial at The Hague. And for having stood up to Sicily’s La Cosa Nostra and won, by simply walking away with her life. Now that’s a hero of a woman right there!
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COURTESY OF THE LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL
My third day at the Locarno Film Festival started with the mind-blowing, wonderful directorial debut by actor John Carroll Lynch, which made me feel ‘Lucky’ all day long. It’s that good and if Harry Dean Stanton doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for playing the title character, I’ll go on a hunger strike — albeit one where I exclusively drink milk and diner coffee just like Lucky. If you haven’t kept up with the Diaries, you can read my thoughts on the film here.
The day went from great to better when I got to interview filmmaker Nadir Moknèche and his lead actor Tewfik Jallab about their film ‘Lola Pater’ on the patio of the Hotel Belvedere — a stylish place overlooking the Old Town that required a brisk walk up a steep hill in the midday heat and humidity to access. After the initial huffing and puffing, I realized that everything which goes up must come down, and the walk back into town after the inspiring conversations with two men who simply make the world better by being in it was soul soothing. I loved being an invisible witness to Locarno daily life, the man who watered his garden unaware of my presence to the left, the band rehearsing at a club a bit further down the hill on the right. There is a wonderful human aspect to the festival and that walk back into town made me reconcile with the world, for a few precious moments.
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COURTESY OF THE LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL
Noémi Lvovsky and Luce Rodriguez in a still from ‘Tomorrow and Thereafter’
The city of Locarno, located on the Lago Maggiore, is reached by crossing a tunnel through a mountain that felt like it was a dozen kilometers long. It’s moments like those, in the darkness and echo of an eerie place deep into the core of a solid rock formation that I feel smallest on this earth. But also in awe of the grandness of my fellow humans, who could envision such a project before its inception and managed to dig a passageway where it must have seemed impossible. Perhaps the perfect example that even a journey of a thousand miles begins with one, single step.
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