June: Filmatique Talents II (2020)
June: Filmatique Talents II, FLMTQ Releases 190-194
During the month of June Filmatique will host the second edition of its Talents initiative, a spotlight on first and second features from emerging filmmakers across the globe. Curated from hundreds of submissions, Filmatique Talents 2020 is an online film festival wherein selected projects join Filmatique's current releases in a month-long showcase, streaming for audiences in the US and Canada often for the first time.
Pierre-François Sauter's second documentary Calabria is a humanizing and often humorous portrait of immigration and deracination, as two morticians journey from Switzerland to Southern Italy to deliver a folk singer to his final resting place. Ena Sendijarevic's ebullient first feature Take Me Somewhere Nice similarly explores the legacies of trans-generational displacement as Alma, a young Dutch woman born in Bosnia, travels to visit her ailing father in the land of her birth, and is soon swept into an unexpected roadtrip with her cousin through a country she hardly remembers. Two debut films survey the effects of late-stage capitalism on their respective milieux—Park Hee-kwon's eerie and atmospheric Dust and Ashes follows a masked young woman through a bureaucratic labyrinth in Seoul, South Korea, as she seeks to redeem her late mother's life-insurance claim, while Milos Mitrovic & Fabian Velasco's dry and offbeat Tapeworm weaves loosely-interconnected portraits of a hypochondriac, a stand-up comedienne, and a lonely gamer in Winnipeg, Canada, emphasizing the irreconcilable gulfs between people. Featuring an impressive leading performance by newcomer Monika Naydenova, Sister, the second feature from Bulgarian filmmaker Svetla Tsotsorkova (Thirst), explores the doldrums of small-town existence as a young ceramist prone to falsehoods stumbles upon a stunning revelation from her mother's past.
Comprised of five features and sixteen shorts—including works from regions diverse as Nepal, Colombia, India, Turkey and Mexico—Filmatique Talents 2020 brings visibility to underseen works from some of contemporary world cinema's most compelling new voices.
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Calabria, Pierre-François Sauter (2016)
Calabria, Pierre-François Sauter / Switzerland, 2016
Jovan and José are two undertakers at a funeral home in Switzerland. They go about their days in near silence, receiving and processing the dead while families make arrangements for their burial. One day, an immigrant passes away; his body need be returned to the small town of his birth, in southern Italy. Jovan and José, who are themselves immigrants, embark on this journey together—Jovan, a gypsy who was a singer in Belgrade, believes in life after death, while José, a Portuguese who is passionate about culture, believes only what he sees. Together, they face the trip's contingencies and surprises, their meandering conversations and shared moments in a hearse traveling south ultimately a celebration of life itself.
Offering a nuanced, balanced account of one man's repatriation to his homeland from the perspective of two men who have left theirs, Calabria is a humanizing and often humorous account not only of the complex fabric of contemporary Europe, but of the individuals who comprise it. Pierre-François Sauter's second documentary film premiered at Locarno Film Festival, DocumentaMadrid, Yamagata IDFF, MoMA's Doc Fortnight; Doclisboa, where it won Best International Film, and Visions du Réel, where it won a Special Jury Mention.
Dust and Ashes, Park Hee-kwon (2019)
Dust and Ashes, Park Hee-kwon / South Korea, 2019
Hae-su works at a factory on the outskirts of Seoul. Returning home from work, she makes a phone call that goes to voicemail; nearing her residence, another phone call comes in, but she doesn't pick up. Inside the house is her mother's body—she died from mysterious circumstances. A knock on the door goes unanswered, but when a plainclothes police officer arrives, Hae-su lets him in. An exchange of documents, uncertain glances. With Hae-su and her tempermental brother the only attendants at her mother's funeral, there are more questions than answers.
Suspended in an uneasy atmosphere of mystery, intrigue, and narrative minimalism, Dust and Ashes doubles as an intelligent thriller and an insidious critique of hierarchies of power and privilege in South Korea. Park Hee-kwon's feature film debut premiered at Tallinn Black Nights.
Sister, Svetla Tsotsorkova (2019)
Sister, Svetla Tsotsorkova / Bulgaria-Qatar, 2019
Rayna lives in present-day Bulgaria with her mother and sister, Kamelia. Their father is nowhere to be seen; to make ends meet, the three women run a ceramics studio, hustling their wares to tourists who pass their residence, which lies at a local intersection. Steeped in the doldrums of small-town existence, Rayna often tells lies to make her life seem more interesting. But soon she gets trapped in a web of her own making, undermining her sister's burgeoning romance with Milo, a scrap dealer in the community. When trouble ensues, Rayna unwittingly discovers a long-hidden truth about her mother.
Galvanized by a mesmerizing lead performance from Monika Naydenova, Sister gently navigates societal undercurrents of sexism and precarity in one of Europe's newest member countries. Svetla Tsotsorkova's second narrative feature premiered at BFI London, Göteborg, Thessaloniki, San Sebastián Film Festival, where it won a New Directors Award - Special Mention, and Warsaw, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.
Tapeworm, Milos Mitrovic & Fabian Velasco (2019)
Tapeworm, Milos Mitrovic & Fabian Velasco / Canada, 2019
A man pulls over on the side of the road. The gas station restroom is occupied—nature is calling, so he sets off into the surrounding forest, where he encounters two stoners making love by a river. Returning to his unhappy marriage, he suspects his wife is cheating on him. Meanwhile, a comedian performs local gigs, but none of her jokes land; one day she falls ill, and a social worker becomes her sole companion. On the other side of town, a young man plays video games all day, indifferent to his mother's existential turmoil.
Steeped in bleak, bone-dry humor, Tapeworm burrows into the lives of so-called "losers" to reveal the banality and emptiness of modern life. Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco's debut film premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights, and Slamdance.
Take Me Somewhere Nice, Ena Sendijarevic (2019)