Rotterdam calling2010-02-16
From Rotterdam to Krakow
The most important section of the Rotterdam festival is the Tiger Awards competition. This year, 15 features from all over the globe, mostly first or second films, participated in it. The Jury, with Jaenne Balibar (who was a star of an acclaimed documentary – “Ne change rien”- presented in Rotterdam) as a head, decided to give the awards to the three movies. Golden Tigers went to “Aqua fria de mar” from Costa Rica, “Mundane History” from Taiwan, and Mexico's “Alamar”. The first picture, directed by Paz Fábrega, is a mysterious story of a little girl whose life is interwoven, under strange circumstances, with one of a woman who’s preparing to get married. The Jury awarded the film for the fact that “ it takes the audience on a journey through wild nature, which in a magical way, relates with people.” Anocha Suwichakornpong’s“Mundane History” tells a story of a bitter relationship between a young disabled man and his new caregiver, with political commentary on the situation of Thai society in the background. The Jury was amazed by the perfectly organized interactions between totally abstract ideas and images and brutal reality. And finally “Alamar” by Pedro González-Rubio, is a story of a sea journey that a father and a son set off on together, a journey that is supposed to help them regain their now-lost closeness. The Jury emphasized here that the director managed to tell the truth about complicated family matters, while avoiding sentimentality.
"Yo, también" - audience favorite
The audience’s favorite, chosen from all the movies shown at the festival, turned out to be Alvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro’s “Yo, también”, a film where a boy with Down's syndrome falls in love with his colleague. The FIPRESCI award went to Ben Russell’s “Let Each One Go Where He May”, a fascinating reflection on the issues of forced migration and cultural differences.
Apart from the Tiger Awards Competition, the most important sections of the Rotterdam Film Festival are Bright Future and Spectrum. The main aim of Bright Future is to introduce to the audiences young, talented filmmakers, who certainly will be acclaimed worldwide in the near future. Works that particularly drew the attention of OFF PLUS CAMERA programmers were “Hunting&Zn” by Sander Burger of the Netherlands, and a Belgian-Dutch coproduction, Dorothée van den Berghe’s “My Queen Karo.” There was also a Polish movie presented within this section, Paweł Borowski’s “Zero”. On the other hand, Spectrum presents the latest movies from well-known and acclaimed directors from all over the world who create the international film culture. It is worth saying that there were two Polish features shown here – Jacek Borcuch’s “All that I Love” and Robert Gliński’s “Piggies” – right next to the latest pictures from such masters as: Todd Solondz, Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola and Francois Ozon.
This year’s Rotterdam Film Festival introduced numerous interesting, often experimental movies to its international audience. And OFF PLUS CAMERA’s programmers had a tough choice to make: which, out of all the inspiring productions, to show to the Polish audiences in Krakow at the upcoming edition of our festival, which takes place between 16 and 25 April.
G. Stepniak
