A smaller, compact Hivos Tiger competition as IFFR's main innovation this year. Eight titles that should show what the festival stands for. According to festival director Bero Beyer, the Tigers do not have to be perfect, but they must be filmmakers with their own voice, something Rotterdam wants to nurture. Is the Tiger roaring again? Were we surprised, confused, touched, shocked?
The Dutch Tiger History's Future by Fiona Tan did not disappoint in any case, as here already described earlier. A daring film adventure about the search for our destiny, philosophical yet feeling, whimsical yet throbbing, sat watching with eyes wide open.
The Land of the Enlightened
Also The Land of the Enlightened, the first feature-length film by Belgian photographer Pieter-Jan De Pue is at times bloody beautiful, but in a very different way. Photoreports in Afghanistan put De Pue on the trail of children surviving under harsh conditions in that shattered country. The Land of the Enlightened is a hybrid of documentary and fiction, wandering back and forth between US soldiers and a gang of children dealing in opium, gemstone and excavated landmines. This is set against a backdrop of mythical tales and breathtaking landscapes. Leans rather on the kind of exoticism we also know from other films shot in such regions, and a slightly stronger narrative line wouldn't have hurt, but nevertheless: a mature debut made under often difficult circumstances.
La última tierra
It is actually in many ways the antithesis of La última tierra, a co-created with Dutch money Paraguayan depiction of death and mourning that unfortunately gets too bogged down in its rigid choice of form. Pablo Lamar employs a compelling minimalism that in theory could put the viewer in a meditative mood, but the opposite is also quite possible. An old man sits at his wife's deathbed, washes the body after her death, sticks a spade in the ground and, after a long delay in emotion, will finally surrender to his grief. This is still a powerful final image after a long exercise in patience with not particularly appealing shots averaging about two minutes. Uncompromising and daring no doubt, but also an arthouse cliché that, as far as I am concerned, draws too much attention to itself, no matter how serious, important and human the subject is.
Where I Grow Old
Then I enjoyed Maríla Rocha's considerably more Where I Grow Old (Brazil), a charming, sensitively and precisely made slice of life about two young women who cross paths in life in Brazil. Using the warm and vividly portrayed city of Belo Horizonte as the tone-setting location, Rocha draws out their doubts, expectations and idiosyncrasies for us. Appealing and true-to-life, without too much drama or explanation. That Rocha has a documentary background is evident, but also that she does nice things with non-professional actors. A modest film that we shouldn't make bigger than it is, but from a talent that deserves to be given more opportunities.
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