With over 400 films (long and short), the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) that starts on Wednesday is as lavish as ever. It is just an arbitrary sampling of the offerings symbolised by the new magic ball-like logo. This year, the over-familiar tiger has taken the form of a multicoloured planet.
In addition to the ghoulish humour and sharp observations of opening film Lemon also the horror of the carnal coming-of-age vision Raw and the refreshing originality of the Dutch Tiger candidate Quality Time. Fiona Tan's photo film experiment Ascent Starring a Japanese volcano. Installations by media artist Joost Rekveld. Films we have long been looking forward to (Jackie for example) alongside unexpected surprises such as the Brazilian-surrealist fantasy Beduino. The royal premiere of Double Play, based on the famous novel by Frank Martinus Arion. A comprehensive overview of the Black Cinema, then and now.
How should we take this, we ask festival director Bero Beyer, who is penning his second IFFR this year.
"What makes Rotterdam so unique as a festival, we think, is that combination of public event, industry and filmmaking community. Viewers, makers, Hubert Bals Fund, new ways of developing films, the Cinemart, the press, it all comes together at Planet IFFR. Symbolising the shared experience of cinema. Watching film with an open state of mind, a state of mind in which you surrender to the filmmaker's vision without prejudice."
Parallax
"At Planet IFFR, everyone is welcome, from visitors to filmmakers from casual passers-by to film buffs. Everyone is free to explore the planet in all directions. Explore the caverns, dare to glimpse the valleys, climb the peaks."
The overarching theme this year is Parallax Views. It refers to the phenomenon that different points of view together provide more insight. With one eye you see the world flat, with two eyes you see depth.
Is this theme a counterpart to last year's ID Check? Then we were looking at ourselves, now we are looking at the world?
"With ID-Check, we tried to think about what the huge changes in the world were doing to us. Now we want to take it a step further. We have really had a year of polarisation and dispersed camps. That's what filmmakers are doing too. Just like last year, we try to give extra context to that, let people speak, ask questions to filmmakers. Then you automatically arrive at such a theme. To understand the world, by definition you need multiple points of view."
As examples of films that inspired this theme, Beyer mentions two French titles: Chez nous and Nocturama. The first shows how a dedicated district nurse is won over by the ideas of a far-right party. The second is a provocative and already much-discussed radical action film in which a group of apolitical youths plan bomb attacks in Paris. Beyer calls it a film with prophetic power, because it was conceived long before the Charie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks.
Different way of looking at things
In addition, he also mentions the already award-winning Moonlight by Barry Jenkins, about a boy's coming of age in black Miami.
Did this theme guide how Beyer and his team of programmers selected the films?
"Yes, but the basis is that we always have to be convinced about the film and the filmmaker, the film has to be special enough to show. The nice thing is that we did start looking at it in a different way."
Is the theme also an invitation to the public?
"Exactly. An invitation to be surprised, to react alertly to everything and to think: what have I actually been shown, what do I really think about that."
"Parallax Views as a viewing position runs throughout the festival. In addition, in the Perspectives section, we show precisely with specific examples how filmmakers deal with the fault lines in society."
“Black Rebels is about the fault line white-black, while the films of A Band Apart reacting to the rotten system in an anarchist-punky way. In Criss-Cross we see fun French action films that we might not otherwise have programmed. But when we looked closely, we saw an idealistic slant and rock-hard criticism of the French state, of xenophobia, racism and corrupt power structures."
Is commitment back in cinema?
"You can explain engagement in two ways. Activist or charity cinema, that's not what this is about. But what it is definitely about is that images have a say in media democracy, and that multiple views are essential for a healthy society. That is anything but obvious at a time when the enormous freedom of choice of the internet means that we are actually moving more into like-minded circles."
Taking the time
"Precisely because film is not the most immediate medium, because it takes a few years to make a film, that wave of filmmakers can actually give visibility to certain movements. Just look at what will soon be filming with us. When we look at cracks in the earth's crust now, it's because of deeper seismic movements. You have to try to feel those, you have to take the time for that."
At the 2015 Spring Consultation, shortly before Bero Beyer was appointed director of IFFR, he stated, "I am an idealist. And sometimes I manage to get something done."
How did that turn out?
"I think it is very special that we have been able to build on that combination of festivity and content, so characteristic of IFFR. What I really enjoy is that we have all these master classes, talks with great filmmakers who talk about what animates them and what drives them in society and in cinema."
"That we have Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) could ask: 'OK, tell us what it means to you as a black filmmaker to have your voice heard in the US. That Bela Tarr not only gets an exhibition (at EYE) but comes to us to talk even more about what moves him. That Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama) talks about what animates France today. That Julian Rosefeldt is with Cate Blanchett on the art dogmas of the past century in Manifesto translated to feature film."
Completely goofy year
"It has been a completely goofy year. With Donald Trump, America has never had such a controversial president. We'll be voting soon, too. It's too easy for artists and filmmakers to say, well I'll just make a movie. It always has to do with what is happening in society, with critically looking at yourself as part of problem and solution. I hope the makers who come to us agree with me, that we show images that are important. You can safely call that idealistic."
The 46th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam will take place from 25 January to 5 February. It will open with Lemon, the first feature-length film by director Janicza Bravo, who shuttles between Panama and the US, is a tragicomedy about an actor who has lost his way in life.
Every day, one of the eight films in the Hivos Tiger Competition is given an extra spotlight. It will be kicked off on Thursday by the Bulgarian-Belgian Light Thereafter. An intimate-poetic impression of the restlessness of artistically inspired teenager.
Besides film, there are also exhibitions and installations. Beyer is happy to recommend those.
"It is always incredibly nice when spatial interaction is possible. As with the exhibition Nuts & Bolts, a kind of research laboratory with home-made projectors and shadow games. And for those who want to know what it is like to be in another body, there is the virtual experience of the Gender Swap Machine. Pushing the edges of what film is, that's also part of IFFR. "
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