Darin delivers a special dish

FILM ... with Tim Milfull

Chinese Takeaway (M)
Writer/director: Sebastián Borensztein
Stars: Ricardo Darin, Ignacio Huang
Stars: 4/5
93-minutes, screening from 30 August

In the small, but vibrant Argentinean film industry, Ricardo Darín must be close to attaining the status of a god; after all, he seems to be the face of Argentinean cinema – and what an oddly compelling and strangely endearing face.

With almost 60 credits to his name on television and the silver screen, Darín is one of the most talented and successful South American actors.
His latest film, Chinese Takeaway (above) , continues what is almost typecasting, with Darín playing yet another loner. This time, he has been cast as a cranky hardware store owner, of all things, and a misanthrope at that. Roberto is the kind of proprietor who could do without customers.

In fact, there are a several moments in writer-director Sebastián Borensztein’s film when Roberto chases a fearful customer from his store demanding that they never return.
After one particularly irksome afternoon, Roberto makes his regular escape to the local airport to watch planes land and drink beer, when he notices an irate cab-driver ejecting his passenger from the car before speeding off.

The flustered passenger, Chinese tourist, Jun (Ignacio Huang) cannot speak a word of Spanish, and against his better judgement, Roberto takes Jun under his wing. After a sustained comedy of miscommunication, Roberto grudgingly decides to help Jun in his quest to track down a long-lost uncle.
This simple premise hides a much more complex story about two men coming to terms with loss and re-engaging with society, and Borensztein’s subtle script delivers a sweetly subtle resolution to both of their heartaches.
Chinese Takeaway was one of the favourites at the 2012 Spanish Film Festival, so it’s nice to see a wider theatrical release for such a special film.

Israel on show at Palace

The Australia Israel Cultural Exchange is touring the Israeli Film Festival around Australia, and will visit Brisbane’s Palace Centro Cinemas from the end of August through the first week of September. I was fortunate to preview a number of the 20 films on offer.

Lorraine Levy’s touching film The Other Son asks what might happen if two babies – one Israeli and one Palestinian – were inadvertently switched at birth. Almost 20 years later, a routine blood test reveals the mistake, and the families of Joseph (Jules Sitruk) and Yacine (Mehdi Dehbi) are forced to complete re-evaluate their lives and how they consider each other’s culture.

A similar dilemma is addressed in My Australia, from writer-director Ami Drozd, who recounts his own very personal story of growing up in a viciously anti-Semitic Polish ghetto in the sixties, and discovering the Jews that he despises are actually his own people. Featuring an outstanding performance from young Jakob Wróblewski as the main character, Tadek, this is a surprisingly confronting and touching story.

Also very emotionally exhausting is Dolphin Boy, a documentary about post-traumatic stress made by Dani Menkin and Yonatan Nir. Documenting the recovery of Arab teenager Morad after being kidnapped and tortured, Menkin and Nir follow the therapy recommended by psychiatrist Dr Ilan Kutz, who has regularly sent patients to a dolphin sanctuary in southern Israel. Watching Morad’s gradual healing process is remarkable.

But my favourite preview was an occasionally very unsettling ghost story called My Lovely Sister in which the very bitter matriarch Rahma (Evelin Hagoel) can only find a resolution to two decades of heartache after her estranged sister Marie (Reymond Amsalem) succumbs to cancer. Blending the real and the surreal, Marco Carmel’s film is a wonderful story of forgiveness and reunion beyond the grave.• For more information about these and other films screening at the AICE Israeli Film Festival 2012, please visit: http://www.aice.com.au/iff-s-welcome.php

THE BINGE

A frenetic celebration of violence

The Raid (MA15+) now available through Madman

Bad Ass (MA15+) available through Pinnacle from 5 September

Café de Flore (MA15+) available through Icon from 12 September

The Hunger Games (M) now available through Roadshow

If you get the chance, search YouTube for Lee Hardcastle’s three-minute ClayCats homage to Welsh ex-pat filmmaker Gareth Evans’s martial arts epic The Raid. It’s surprising how accurately little piles of plasticine can evoke such bloodshed. Of course, nothing beats the real thing – and Evan’s film is a frenetic celebration of violence and the boundaries of what the human body can withstand.

While Bad Ass might not be as well made – actually, Craig Moss’s film is unforgivably awful at times – it’s entertaining to see veteran Hollywood character Danny Trejo step into the shoes of another lead role as the eponymous Bad Ass. Nicknamed for his performance in a YouTube video filmed on an LA Transit Authority bus, Trejo’s senior citizen Frank Vega becomes a folk hero in a city overrun by violence. This movie is only really for the hard-core Trejo fans.

I found Jean-Marc Vallée’s puzzle film Café de Flore a wonderful distraction a few months back, and welcomed the chance to unravel its complex strands on DVD. Set on two continents in two different decades, the film tells two apparently disparate stories about a famous DJ and a struggling single mother. The delight in this film comes in connecting the carefully placed clues throughout the text.

And riding on the success of a series of young adult novels, the latest film from Gary Ross (Seabiscuit & Pleasantville) brings The Hunger Games to the big screen. In post-apocalyptic near-future, a despotic government demands tribute from its provinces in the form of teenagers who must fight to the death in a gladiatorial battle. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is now the latest in a long line of refreshingly confident female role models, and it will be interesting to see where her adventures battling fascism might take her.