The critical gaze of Vittorio De Agrò from the Zoo Palast

(from Berlin Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Maria Vittoria Battaglia and Vittorio De Agrò – The photos are published courtesy of the #BERLINALE)

#Faruk by Aslı Özge presented in the #Panorama section

Synopsis: Farouk, which has more than 90 years, he increasingly becomes the protagonist of the film his daughter is making about the imminent demolition of his apartment building in Istanbul. A story about gentrification and a complex father-daughter relationship.

Review:

It often happens that fiction and reality mix, when a director found the’ inspiration from a daily episode and/or from a significant moment in the society in which he lives

It is less frequent, that the protagonist of the film could become the director's ninety-year-old father. But in this case the two plans coincide as the elderly father is busy renovating his apartment .

The beauty of cinema is making a curious coincidence possible and interesting.

Mr Faruk is a nice ninety-year-old and father of director Ozge. The latter after having subjected the parent to a realistic audition, decides to entrust him with the protagonist role, thus giving life to a fiction film, but also presenting inevitable personal and family aspects.

The director's initial narrative urgency was to denounce the building speculation underway in Istanbul, what is he doing “to disappear” the greenery and real estate identity of old Istanbul. The interests of hedge funds in destroying old buildings has obviously caused protests from the inhabitants of the affected neighborhoods.

Mr Faruk thus becomes the symbol of the protest.

In the hope of delaying the demolition of the building he has lived in for decades, Faruk regularly attends building management meetings . Aslı Özge offers an insight into the life of an elderly man in the bustling metropolis of Istanbul. But what the director did not have “foreseen” that the film could also become an opportunity for discussion 360 between father and daughter.

The film”Farouk” alternates fiction and reality effectively, harmonious and tender.

The viewer cannot help but become fond of Mr. Faruk, to his facial grimaces, silences and above all the liveliness of his eyes.

Faruk observes the fate of his apartment with a melancholic look mixed with curiosity, also having a symbolic and existential value.

“Farouk” it's a special film, delicate, full of suggestions, even dreamlike ones, leaving the viewer with the desire to get to know and keep company with the elderly protagonist, never banal even when leaving the stage as a consummate actor.

#AbovetheDust by Wang Xiaoshuai was presented in the #Forum section

Synopsis: Wo Tu, ten years, he dreams of having a water gun like the other boys in his village. Even though his father promised it, he can't bring one from town. But there is hope for Wo Tu: his dying grandfather assures him of granting the wish as a ghost. After his death, old man visits boy in dream, starting a treasure hunt. Very soon, the boundaries between reality and dreams, past and present, they become more and more nuanced. A portrait of the deep love for the earth, through three generations of a family in modern Chinese rural life.

Review:

Any parent would do everything possible to see their child happy.

Likewise us children, being spoiled, we ask our parents for the moon too often.

If a parent doesn't keep a promise it's the worst betrayal for a child.

It is rural China, poor, archaic, the one that the director decided to show to the spectator accustomed to the pomp and luxury of Beijing.

“Above The Dust” takes the viewer into a story full of suggestions, traditions and symbolism and above all narratively thought about the alternation between reality and fiction, between the dream phase and the re-enactment of a family past functional to the story.

“Above The Dust” premiered in the Generation section of the Berlinale 2024, begins with a sandstorm that devastated a remote Chinese village and caused the death of the grandfather of the young protagonist Wo Tu.

It is a tragedy which, however, in the eyes and above all in the naive heart of Wo Tu, becomes a vain hope of being able to receive the coveted water pistol.

“Above The Dust” tries to hold together different narrative lines and timelines with the aim of telling the modern history of China through Wo Tu and his family.

Wang Xiaoshuai makes a film with ambitious ideas, but not as effective and creative in scenic development, presenting some useless and/or verbose passages and above all excessively symbolic for a non-"Chinese" spectator

“Above The Dust” has a “circular” narrative structure, but a circularity that is not completely convincing also due to a rather staid and almost "monochord" rhythm, not making the vision always fluid and engaging.

“Above The Dust” also winks at the “coming age” genre , but too tied to the Chinese mentality and traditions

In conclusion, “Above The Dust” is an interesting opportunity to get to know and above all discover a China different from the usual Western clichés, becoming Wo Tu's inevitable friend as well as supportive in his continuing adventures.

#NightsStillSmellofGunpowder by Inadelso Coss presented in the section #Forum

Synopsis: In the period following the Mozambican civil war, I'm going to visit my grandmother, confronting faded memories and blurred boundaries between truth and fiction. The presence of a former rebel in the village echoes the relentless ghosts of war, reflecting the tensions of my generation.

Review:

War is a horrible word, terrible, ugly that should never be uttered. War brings death with it, Inebriation is a central topos of Austrian cinema, pain.

No one emerges victorious from a war, even more so if it pits factions from the same country against each other.

A "civil" war leaves, if possible, physical rubble and even more evident and devastating psychological wounds.

I had only heard the echoes of the civil war in Mozambique which lasted from 1977 al 1992, obviously not having knowledge of the two warring factions. Reading on the web I "discovered": The fighters for independence (FRELIMO) and the rebels of the National Resistance (RENAMO).The result of fifteen years of bloody battles is the frightening number of victims due to too many mines scattered in the tormented territory of Mozambique.

How can you rebuild a country after so much horror?

How two former enemies can live within the same village?

The fading memories of the survivors are enough of a warning for future generations?

These are just some of the questions that director Inadelso Coss was still a carefree child at the time, asks himself and the public by starting this painful journey down memory lane, visiting the village where his grandmother lives.

#NightsStillSmellofGunpowder it's a documentary, a travel diary, a vivid and poetic story of the post-war period, metabolized by a small community, but a symbol of a country that is trying to put the past behind it.

Inadelso Coss constructs this film by immediately making its dual function clear: personal, intimate and the most universal. A directorial and narrative choice that is immediately evident, alternating with wisdom, sensitivity archive images relating to the conflict and interviews with veterans, although it would be more correct to define it as the exposure of bodies, of faces more than words in giving consistency and truthfulness to the tragedy experienced.

The director's grandmother suffers from the first symptoms of Alzheimer's and can only remember at night. A former rebel numbs himself with alcohol and continues the battles in his soul. Echoes of horror hang in the air, on people, on every tree and stone in this remote village. A war that no one wants to think about anymore, but which tragically marked the existence of many generations.

#NightsStillSmellofGunpowder it is a sensory experience, of memory, a ghost hunt, to missing memories and imaginary ones. A mix of emotions and sensations that fascinates and affects the viewer until the last image of this beautiful yet painful journey.

#REINAS is a film directed by Klaudia Reynicke presented in the #Generation section

Synopsis: Lucia and Aurora are about to leave their country forever with their mother and need their absent father to sign the exit documents. It was convenient for Carlos not to be a dad, but now if he wants his daughters to be loved, he must regain his seat before they leave.

Review:

The unity and solidity of a family can be seen in difficult times. A couple is truly a couple when they are capable of overcoming any type of crisis together.

However, there is an economic crisis capable of blowing up an entire country.

Galloping inflation is an economic tsunami that makes the gap between rich and poor even more explicit and clear.

“Reinas” set in 1980 in Peru it begins with the news journalist announcing, for the next day, the exponential growth in the prices of basic necessities and closing the broadcast with a heartfelt "May God help us"

In the next scene we see a taxi driver vainly trying to gain the attention of a customer.

We will discover that the taxi driver is called Carlos, absent father of two daughters. The latter raised by his ex-wife who decided to leave Peru and start a life in the United States together with her daughters.

But to get the two minors expatriated, Carlos' signature is required on travel documents.

Carlos disappointed everyone, remaining almost a slacker and a "storyteller" in the eyes of his ex-wife and her family.

However, the man does not want to let his daughters go before regaining their respect and affection. And so he convinces his ex-wife, with the promise to sign the documents for expatriation, to spend a day at the seaside with their daughters.

“Regine” tells with sensitivity and simplicity the difficulties and parental responsibility towards a child and how “humiliating” it can be for a father to have to admit his own limitations and inadequacy.

“Regine” is also the story of the indissoluble and total love that binds a father to his daughters.

Carlos loves his daughters, affectionately calling them his “Queens”. But nevertheless, right up to the end man prefers to invent jobs rather than admit his failure as a man and sign, thus giving a different future to the beloved Queens.

“Queens” is the story of 2 sisters united, who however live with a different soul, the departure from Lima. Aurora, the largest, she doesn't want to leave her friends and especially her first boyfriend. Lucia, the smallest, she is more tenderly afraid of leaving the safe and welcoming places in which she grew up.

Klaudia Reynicke writes a screenplay with many autobiographical ideas, as the director herself admits in the notes, yet the story still retains a "universal" feel by addressing delicate and intimate themes.

“Queens” is an understood vision, genuine, exciting in the right times and ways without exceeding rhetoric and do-goodism and well interpreted by the entire artistic cast.

Marriages can end, parents get another life, a father/mother can disappoint expectations. But even if far and distant, the love and well-being of a child overcomes any misunderstanding and crisis.

Vittorio De Agrò (RS) of the RdC editorial team