PUBLISHED September 22nd, 2015 04:00 pm | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 02:41 pm
This is the fourth year we’re covering Perspectives Film Festival (PFF), and every year, the organizers surprise us with the films curated for the festival. This year is no exception; with a theme like Transition, we expect to step into the unknown and go on an adventure with the films. Forking out the time to watch all seven films is near impossible, so we’ve picked three that we’re definitely catching:
Mommy (2014)
As much as PFF 2015’s opening film sounds like a low-budget horror flick, this award-winning (Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival 2014) work by Xaviar Dolan is a technical masterpiece. Shot in 1:1 aspect ratio, the tight screen space and edgy dialogue might be jarring, but it creates greater intimacy with single mother Diane and her estranged son Steve as they reconcile when the latter is expelled from a group home. With tempestuous waves of affection and angst playing out after befriending their hermit of neighbour, Canadian filmmaker Dolan once again smashes barrier with Mommy.
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
The first film shot in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Bahman Ghobadi’s account of international conflict features real-life child refugees and actual scenes of destruction. The leader of a band of orphans along the Iraqi-Turkish border is a boy named Satellite. With an uncanny knack for technology, he organizes the work of clearing land mines, developing a side business for undetonated mines along the way. While eagerly awaiting the arrival of American troops, stuff happens (no spoilers), and he loses any illusions he had about American intervention. Winner of the Peace Film Award at Berlin International Film Festival 2005.
Ballad of Narayama (1958)
Nominated for the Golden Lion of Venice Film Festival, Ballad of Narayama by Keisuke Kinoshita tells a story of startling cruelty. The elderly in a remote, mountainous village in Japan embark on a pilgrimage in search of death, as per tradition. Although 70 year-old Granny Orin is still going strong, who is she to break the society’s tradition and mores?
Against a backdrop of warm colours, maternal love, and death, Ballad of Narayama is a reflection of loving and letting go; a transition across the temporal nature of family and kinship. If you need another reason to catch this, the film is also a classic of the golden age of Japanese cinema in the 1950s.
On top of the seven films that will be screening, festival goers can also look forward to a ticketed animation masterclass by Martin Rosen (director of Watership Down) and a free talk by Michael Bremer on how to learn from the best at Cannes International Film Festival.
Perspective Film Festival 2015 is happening 15-18 October 2015 at National Museum of Singapore. Single-film admission tickets are priced at $12 and festival passes (for all seven films) are priced at $48.