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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2014)
February 19, 2014 The Portland Observer Black HistOiy Month ississippi Alberta North Portland ~ 7I ... Page 11 ncouver East County Beaverton photo courtesy of M enemsha F ilms Ireneusz Czop (left) and Maciej Stuhr star in 'Aftermath, ' a powerful Holocaust story that was inspired by a true story of a Polish town. The movie plays again on Sunday, Feb. 23 as part of the Portland International Film Festival. The entire festival has been extended to Feb. 26 to make up for earlier cancellations due to snow and ice. Fora complete schedule, visit nwfilm.org. Favoritiest0 Watch It’s the final stretch for Portland International Film Festival The Portland International Film Festival is paving after the town's Jewish cemetery was in the final stretch and, as of this writing, I've destroyed during World War II. seen 17 films since my last post. Here are the It turns out that the headstones are just the ones you can still see in the festival's final tip of the iceberg that Franciszek encounters, days, along with three more of my favorites and part of the achievement of this film is how to watch for in hopes of a theatrical or DVD genuinely successful it is at unfolding a very release (and my ratings on a 10-point scale). suspenseful tale of literally buried secrets. One of my favorite films of the festival was Significantly, the film does a better job than "Aftermath” (9), a powerful Holocaust story most Holocaust films at depicting how great that apparently was quite controversial when evil may reverberate on unwitting successive it was released in Poland. Inspired by a true generations. What drives the two men (one of story of a Polish town, the film involves two whom seems to be anti-Semitic himself) to brothers, the older of whom is returning pursue the truth, how each reacts to the suc home for the first time since immigrating to cessive discoveries, and the reactions of the Chicago 25 years before. Franciszek's return townspeople all are depicted with stark psy has been occasioned by the fact that his chological realism. Full of devastating in brother Jozefs wife has suddenly left the sights. (Plays again on Feb. 23) village and moved to the U.S. with the couple's "Ernest and Celestine" (8) is the best two children and won't say why. Upon his children's film I have seen at the festival, arrival, Franciszek finds that Jozef (and he, which inevitably means it offers much for by extension) are the target of some hostility adults to enjoy also. It's the charming story in the town. With some digging, he traces the of a mouse, Celestine, and her friendship hostility to Jozef s actions in unearthing some with a bear, Ernest. In the world of this Jewish headstones that were repurposed for delightfully animated film (based on a series of French children's books and justly nomi and working in the sales department of a nated for an Academy Award), bears and large Japanese book company, he is tapped mice live in separate worlds, above and be to replace the main editor in the company's low ground, nursing age-old antipathy with dictionary department when the man resigns urban legends about each other. Celestine to care for his ailing wife. Majime (whose and Ernest have artistic souls, which con name means "diligent") naturally exhibits tributes to their outsider status in each cul the painstaking care and love o f words ture, and also provides a basis for them to needed to be inspired by the project of cre bond. O f course, as outsiders, they also ating a "living dictionary" that incorporates share a willingness to carve a path outside of modem words and slang. The work and the convention, which lends a revelatory quality support he receives from the small depart to the world they create for themselves. It's ment of misfits he works with also assist him not a new theme, but it is very well executed in his own work of coming out of his shell here. And something about listening to their (just barely) and learning to communicate dialogue in French makes it all the more enough to woo the quiet chef he meets delightful. (Plays again on Feb.23) through his landlady. The central enterprise of "The Great Pas The Great Passage proceeds at the pace sage" (6.5) is the arduous task of creating an you might expect from people who love words ambitious dictionary (for which the film itself and dictionaries, but it is a gently comic story is named) during the period of change in with interesting characters that feels dis which books are fading in significance and tinctly grounded in Japanese culture. (Plays online resources are on the rise. again on Feb. 19) The film spans a period of 13 years, begin "American Dreams in China" (7), though ning in 1995, and charts the progress of the a bit uneven, offers a window into China's project along with the parallel maturation of perception of how the Chinese are treated by a bookish young man at the center of the continued on page 20 story, Majime. Shy and socially awkward
