Compared to previous editions, you could almost call the choice of opening film that kicks off the Rotterdam Film Festival tonight almost un-Rotterdamian. No wild young debut, exotic Asian or artistic crossover this time. The French book adaptation 38 Témoins, which has its world premiere in Rotterdam tonight, is the seventh feature by Walloon actor/director Lucas Belvaux and has already been acquired for distribution in the Netherlands, so it's not really a new discovery either.
Having established this, we should nevertheless also note that Belvaux's analysis of the aftermath of a brutal murder may not be a cinematic statement, but it is a sublime dramatisation of a well-known and disturbing phenomenon. Namely, that bystanders are rarely inclined to intervene when a crime is committed before their eyes. The title refers to the 38 residents of a New York flat who failed to call the police while in their street 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was gruesomely killed.
This infamous historical incident inspired Didier Decoin to write the novel Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent?, which was then adapted by Belvaux into the port city of Le Havre-situated 38 Témoins. We see the events more or less through the eyes of a 39th witness, a young woman who discovers on her return from a trip abroad that someone has been murdered in her street. Her partner claims he was not at home and so did not notice anything, and other neighbours were fast asleep, but it gradually comes to light that these stories cannot be true after all. How strong must fear and shame be to ignore a victim's icy cries of distress? And what does it mean to have to live on with a conscience as a time bomb? With exemplary self-control, Belvaux sidesteps the melodramatic and politically correct pitfalls and turns it into a haunting, strongly acted and nuanced drama that lingers long after.
Until 5 February, the programme will again fan widely as usual and fans of typical Rotterdam idiosyncrasies (sex and trash from Brazil, for example) or the new Miike Takashi (Ace Attorney) are once again in their element. There is current work by more or less underground Chinese artists, including Ai Weiwei, there is a look at what is brewing in Syria and Egypt, and those who feel like it can take a look under the guidance of the unsurpassed Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind) to become filmmakers themselves for three hours. There is new work from acclaimed auteurs like David Cronenberg, Alexander Payne and Aki Kaurismaki, and so much more that you would almost overlook the 15 quirky fledgling pieces in the Tiger Competition.
Leo Bankersen
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