Page 14
February 21, 2018
World Cultures Resonate at PIFF
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a cartel. As she describes her or-
deal in aching detail, director Ta-
tiana Huezo presents images of
other faces and scenes meant to
suggest Miriam’s inner life--fear,
loneliness, recognition that she,
too, could turn into someone like
her brutalizers. She intersperses
Miriam’s story with that of Adela,
a circus performer who bit by bit
finds words to express the unthink-
able reality that she is still looking
for her daughter ten years after
she was kidnapped, apparently
by members of the federal police.
Adela’s story is told with images
of her and her family members,
and Huezo unfolds both stories
with great patience. Each is almost
unthinkably painful -- certainly
for the women themselves -- and,
given the corruption that underlies
each, the imagery and the words
themselves convey a sense of the
women’s vulnerability and also
that their stories could randomly
happen to anyone in Mexico. The
film plays on Sunday, Feb. 25 and
Thursday, March 1.
Four Acts,” the work of Indone-
sian director Mouly Surya, puts
the American western genre to
satisfying feminist use. Though
critics refer to this as a female re-
venge movie, it isn’t really that;
the murders in question occur
when the protagonist, a widow
living alone on the sparsely pop-
ulated island of Sumba, is beset
by seven men who steal all of her
livestock and demand that she
cook for them while they banter
about past rapes in anticipation
of their planned post-dinner en-
tertainment. Marlina’s response
doesn’t actually seem out of
proportion to the circumstances
-- and even less so as the film
unfolds the intensity with which
patriarchy functions in her world
to render it every bit as lawless as
the American west. In the tradi-
tion of many of Western heroes,
Marlina’s actions are revealed
to be about what is available to
refuse to submit to violence that
would otherwise be treated as her
due. Even the women and girls
in the film don’t seem very sur-
prised or even curious about Mar-
A poignant and truthful film about children and loving adults
processing trauma is captured in the film ‘Summer 1993,’ which
plays again Saturday, Feb. 24 and Thursday, March 1 at the
Portland International Film Festival.
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“Summer 1993,” inspired
by director Carla Simón’s own
childhood experience, meditates
on a pivotal time in the life of a
six-year-old girl, Frida, who goes
to live with her uncle and aunt
in the Catalonian countryside
after her mother’s death from
AIDS-related complications. It’s
a very promising first feature;
Simón avoids the sentimentality
common to films about children
and instead captures a very natu-
ral sense of how a child and lov-
ing adults process trauma, mostly
without words. The relationship
between Frida and her younger
cousin (and now sister) feels es-
pecially authentic, as do the por-
trayal of extended family mem-
bers still in shock themselves
but doing the best they can, and
the wobbly adjustment Frida and
her new family unit make to each
other. This poignant and truthful
film has inspired awards notice
(though not from the Academy,
which passed on it for flashier
films) and makes Simon a direc-
tor to watch. It plays on Feb. 24
and March 1.
“Marlina the Murderer in
lina’s actions; one senses it is not
hard for them to imagine an oc-
casion where violence would be
necessary to survive. This smart
(and violent) film plays again on
Feb. 25.
“Western” follows a group of
German construction workers on
a job to build infrastructure in
a remote part of Bulgaria. It’s a
slow burn of a film, and anoth-
er in the tradition of American
westerns, with a loner protago-
nist named Meinhard who stands
apart from the other men, and
ventures alone into the local vil-
lage to make friends with some
of the distrustful locals. Partic-
ular distrust builds between him
and the crew boss, Vincent, who
harasses one of the local women
and functions like a colonizer.
The film is not big on plot; rath-
er, its female director, Valeska
Griesbach, is interested in the
winding power struggles of the
men, and the ambiguities around
what signifies goodness and what
is really just a convoluted way of
grasping influence and resources.
There are also some interesting
observations here about the im-
provement efforts that western
Europeans undertake in eastern
Europe. This observant film plays
again on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
“Vazante” tells a story set in
the 1820s, shortly before Brazil
gained its independence from
Portugal, and six decades before
slavery was abolished there. Its
director, Daniela Thomas, set
out to depict the time in a way
that avoided the sensationalism
and extreme violence of the few
American films to depict slavery
themes, but instead to portray
the banality of evil, in Hannah
Arendt’s terms—the way that
slavery and oppression of wom-
en actually felt normal, partic-
ularly to the oppressors, but
even, to varying degrees to the
oppressed. I read about her inten-
tions after seeing the film—but
actually acquired a sense of them
while watching the film, which
is less plot-driven and more
sight, sound, and sense-driven. It
doesn’t sugar-coat the oppression
it depicts, but makes it feel con-
crete and lived in, helping us to
imagine how it could feel normal
to a white man and slave owner
to treat virtually everyone around
him as though they all exist for
his benefit. It’s an art film, requir-
ing some patience, but it left me
with a lot to think about. It plays
on Feb. 25 and 28.
“Zama” is based by a rather
famous Argentine novel that most
people in the U.S. likely haven’t
heard of, exploring the excess-
es, racism, and absurdity of co-
lonial life through a functionary
named Diego de Zama. Director
Lucrecia Martel captures a sense
in which power of this kind is
all smoke and mirrors: Zama’s
power in a remote location seems
pointless; he spends most of his
time angling for a different post
while being outmaneuvered by
others; and even the black and
indigenous people below him in
the social hierarchy seem more to
be stifling an eye roll rather than
fear. The film isn’t driven by plot
so much as a languorous mood
that suits the material; I wouldn’t
call this film entertaining but it is,
in its way, enlightening. It plays
a final time on Feb. 21.
Four additional films that have
completed their PIFF runs will
find their way to theaters soon.
“The Death of Stalin,” which
played on opening night, is a bril-
liant satire of the kind that fans of
writer-director Armando Iannucci
(“In the Loop” and “Veep”) have
come to expect. Here, inspired by
the depiction of these events in a
graphic novel, Iannucci and his
collaborators set out to capture the
chaos that ensued as Stalin’s vari-
ous henchmen jockeyed for power
after his sudden death. The stellar
cast are all British and American
C ontinueD on P age 19