49th edition Film Festival Rotterdam opens with Mosquito - history as a fever dream

In the trailer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, which kicks off on 22 January, film images crumble into abstract shapes and colour patterns. It has to do, I understand, with the wonder of the irrepressible urge to make stories. Once, a cave dweller put a painted hand on the rock face. In the digital age, we conjure stories with coloured pixels.

The 49th edition of the IFFR, we read in the programme paper, celebrates this urge for expression with free, relevant, artistic cinema in all its forms. Films made by individuals and collectives, each of which interprets our humanity in its own way.

Mosquito

Compared to these richly elusive words, the opening film is Mosquito by Portuguese filmmaker João Nuno Pinto almost reassuringly accessible. An imposing historical drama that immerses us in colonial Africa towards the end of World War I, which was also fought in that corner. A lone Portuguese soldier, initially full of patriotic ideals, is transported to Mozambique. After being temporarily felled by malaria, he embarks on a long walk in a dutiful attempt to reach his regiment.

What is at first sight a relatively conventionally filmed adventure slowly turns into a strange fever dream. A war film without war the festival catalogue calls it. At times I was briefly reminded of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but Nuno Pinto has loosely based it on his grandfather's experiences. Powerful images of the wide, foreign country go hand in hand with the close-up, personal perspective of the increasingly lost Portuguese boy. The structure with many flashbacks also enhances the feeling that we are inside the soldier's head. Notable in this context is the fact that the confident African women who temporarily capture the soldier are not subtitled. A pity perhaps, though that would have broken the illusion that we are crawling into the soldier's head, as it were.

Thus, this calmly filmed but heavy-handed coming-of-age becomes something else at the same time. A kind of metaphor for colonialism. See immediately the sobering opening. When the ship with soldiers anchors off the coast, a large group of black Mozambicans already come running through the water. Not for a warm welcome. Only to take those pale skinned men on their shoulders and carry them to land so they don't get their feet wet.

Window on the world

But why is this relatively traditionally set story, set in a remote corner of our history, the ideal IFFR opening? We ask artistic director Bero Beyer, who is transferring to the Filmfonds after completing this edition.

"First of all, it is a very fine, strong film, made from an authentic personal point of view. A film that shows a piece of history that has been swept under the carpet in Portugal. This brings us to the second and most important reason. The film ties in with ongoing discussions, for example on the historical canon: what should we know about the past."

Beyer argues that while this is a personal look at a forgotten piece of Portuguese history, it is not that difficult to see a parallel with our own colonial history. For a film festival that also wants to be a window to the world, it is nice if it is opened by a film that can provide discussion. Two years ago, there was a similar choice. Then we saw how the refugee story suddenly took on a new face with Jimmie, in which a Swedish boy is forced to flee south.

Film collectives

That window on the world is also reflected in a number of festival themes. Highly topical is the Ordinary Heroes: Made in Hong Kong. Old and new films expose the political, social and economic tensions now tearing the city apart.

The largely short-film component Sacred Beings ties in with current discussions on gender. We have a persistent idea that liberating queer culture is a western product that is still stigmatised in Asia. But now let this stigmatisation there be precisely a relic of colonialism. Before then, transgender and intersex people were often given a special place within religious practices.

While cinema at IFFR is often a celebration of individual creativity, this edition also pays special attention to the work of film collectives. Synergetic is called the extensive programme of work by groups that often oppose the mainstream. From the contrarian cult work of American Eyeslicer-project to the Australian Karrabing Collective. That's an activist media group emerged from the native Australian population. I even see When the rats are king popping up. From Barbara den Uyl, one of members the illustrious Amsterdam City News in the 1970s.

African heartbeat

Three media groups in Africa received an invitation to create new work especially for IFFR. Angolan group Geração 80 comes with Air conditioner, in which, enigmatically, the air conditioners in the Angolan capital Luanda fall off the buildings. Thus begins a delightfully jazzy ramble in search of the heartbeat of the capital.

At Kmêdeus by Cape Verdean collective Negrume brings together the story of a mysterious wanderer and a modern dance project. A search for the origins of one of the oldest Creole communities in the world.

Kmêdeus is shown in combination with Tapi!, a short documentary from Kenya about the clash between a ritual healer and the Christian church. Tapi! was created by the Nest Collective, a group of inspired Kenyan artists who not only make films, but also engage in fashion, music and visual arts. And do not shy away from tackling sensitive topics, as in 2014 with Stories of Our Lives. Banned in Kenya itself for allegedly promoting homosexuality. Two years ago, the Nest Collective was also in Rotterdam with an inspiring presentation.

Drama Girl Dutch Tiger

Central part of the festival, as always, is the Tiger competition for budding, boundary-pushing creators. The Dutch Tiger candidate is Vincent Boy Kars with Drama Girl. An intriguing experiment. Not only because of the mixing of documentary, fiction and account of the making process, but also as a kind of therapy experiment. The main character is a young woman who is given the chance by the director to reenact difficult moments in her life with well-known actors (Pierre Bokma, Elsie de Brauw, Jonas Smulders). Discomfort is not shunned. Rather fascinating, sometimes surprising, sometimes giving the impression that the set-up is more interesting than the result. But also an enterprise that comes across as honest and courageous.

Crash

A special (one-off) event promises Crash Live Score to become. David Cronenberg's cult classic Crash, about a group of people sexually aroused by car accidents, at de Doelen provided with a live score by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

To conclude, the festival chose, perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, the feel-good film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. A contemporary fairy tale full of clever inventions about the encounter between the widely loved creator of a preschool TV show (Tom Hanks, Oscar-nominated) and a cynical journalist who becomes profoundly confused. From Marielle Heller, who previously surprised us with the engaging Can You Ever Forgive Me?. The performance of A Beautiful Day is dedicated by the festival to the recently deceased Aart Staartjes.