FILM ... with Tim Milfull
In a Better World (MA15+)
Director: Susanne Bier
Stars: Mikael Persbrandt, Markus Rygaard, Trine Dyrholm
Rating: 3.5/5
118-minutes, now screening.
Those who have been paying attention might have encountered Danish writer-director, Susanne Bier, after her film Brothers was remade by Jim Sheridan in 2009 under the same title and starred Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal as siblings competing for the attention of one woman under the shadow of the conflict in Afghanistan.
She later also made the compelling drama After the Wedding starring Mads Mikkelsen, and has consolidated a well-earned reputation as a teller of excellent family dramas.
Bier’s latest film, In a Better World, again unfolds across two continents as she relates the story of two fractured families struggling to deal with the realities of globalism, and the intricacies of interpersonal relationships. Swedish doctor, Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) divides his year between his new home in Denmark, and an increasingly violent refugee camp somewhere in Africa.
Both environments provide their challenges, with his failing marriage traumatising his son, Elias (Markus Rygaard), who also is being bullied at school, and a ruthless warlord terrorising his patients in Africa.
When Elias finds a new friend in Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen), things initially appear to be looking up, until Elias realises that Christian has significant problems of his own.
In this just slightly overlong film, Bier skilfully manipulates all of these narrative threads into a tapestry that slowly builds to a very dramatic climax in both Denmark and Africa.
Her characters are sympathetically and believably created, in particular Anton and his estranged wife, Marianne (Trine Dyrholm), and the two young boys trying to cope with the challenges of adolescence. In a Better World is a complex, thoughtful film that asks difficult questions about how we perceive and behave in the face of conflict.
A summer worth weathering
How I Ended This Summer (M)
Director: Aleksei Poppgresbsky
Stars: Grigory Dobrygin, Sergei Puskepalis
Rating: 4/5
124-minutes, screening from 7 April
Watching the Russian film How I Ended This Summer made me realise that its director Aleksei Popogrebsky has some pretty strange ideas about the concept of work experience for university students.
In the case of the unfortunate Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin), the summer break involves being cooped up on a remote Arctic weather station alongside a taciturn supervisor who actually grew up on the island during the glory days of the Soviet Union.
A man of few words, Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis) is uncompromising in monitoring his charge and has little patience for Pasha’s desire to use his spare time to sit, smoke, listen to his music, and occasionally chat with their only contact with the outside world via shortwave radio.
When Sergei takes advantage of a lull in their work to skip down to a southern bay to do some unauthorised salmon fishing, Pasha relishes his new solitude until a dramatic communiqué from home leaves him struggling to work out how to pass the message on to his colleague. The resulting miscommunication plunges the small weather station’s workers into a dramatic and frightening conflict.
Popogrebsky’s choice to film on location at the eastern-most tip of Russia makes the small island a central character in this gripping story, as Pavel and Sergei work to negotiate their challenging relationship.
The director uses some stunning imagery of former Soviet glory amid this punishing, isolated landscape, and further contrasts the dramatic differences between the elder supervisor and his younger apprentice.
THE BINGE
Audi German Festival of Film screening from 7 to 12 April at Palace Cinemas
Kaboom (MA15+) screening at Tribal Theatre from 7 April
Ip Man: The Legend is Born (M) now available through Madman
A Town Called Panic (PG) now available through Madman
The Audi Festival of German Film visits Brisbane again at the end of the first week of April, bringing 20 films to Palace Centro Cinemas. The festival opens with Goethe!, a whimsical treatment of Johann Goethe’s early adult life as he finds his feet before becoming Germany’s greatest poet.
The rest of the program features nearly all new German films, including Nanga Parbat, a story of the first great mountaineering feat of legendary climber Reinhold Messner; The Poll Diaries (above), an enigmatic story set in Estonia just before the First World War; a quirky road movie in Vincent Wants to Sea, which sees three dysfunctional inpatients uniting toward a common goal; and two moving performances from Bruno Ganz and Senta Berger in Colours in the Dark.
• For more details of the festival’s program, visit http://www.palacecinemas.com.au
Screening from 7 April at Tribal Theatre is indie director Gregg Araki's science fiction drama Kaboom, which was seen recently at last year’s Brisbane International Film Festival. Focussing on the sexual awakenings of college student, Smith (Thomas Dekker), Kaboom quickly veers into some strange and terrifying territory.
Adding to an already long list of films about the mentor of one of martial arts’ greatest proponents, Bruce Lee, Ip Man: The Legend is Born tells the story of the Grand Master of Wing Chun, Ip Man (Dennis To) in the lead-up to his confrontation with Japanese forces during in the Second World War. Now we need to wait for Hong Kong director, Wong Kar Wai to finish his film The Grandmasters in 2012 to cap off Ip Man's story.
And in a little bit of light relief, A Town Called Panic brings a feature-length version of the animated series to screen, as Cowboy, Horse, and Indian screw up an attempt to build a backyard barbeque after they end up with 50-million bricks and have to deal with the consequences.
GIVEAWAYS
Courtesy of Hoyts Distribution, we have two double DVD packs to giveaway, with Dirty Deeds and The Upside of Anger in each. To be in the running for one of the packs, send us an email with your postal address to giveaway@theindependent.com.au and put “dvds” in the message field. All such emails received by 5pm by Friday week 8 April will go into the draw and two lucky winners selected at random will have their prizes mailed out in the following week.
And courtesy of Icon Film Distribution, we have 10 in-season double passes to My Afternoons with Marguerite, a new and uplifting French comedy that opens in local cinemas on Thursday week, 7 April. It’s the story of one of those improbable encounters that change a person’s life: in a small public garden, Germain (Gerard Depardieu), 50 and barely literate, meets Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus), a little old lady passionate about reading. To be in the running for a double pass, email: giveaway@theindependent.com.au to reach us no later than 5pm Friday week, 8 April, put the words “big nose” in the subject field and please include a mailing address.
