Film: EU Film Festival

Reviews of screenings from The 2011 European Union Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.

Once again the local consulates and cultural associations of European Union nations got together to throw this festival. With free screenings at The Royal, it's a true gift to our city. In a dark hour of financial insecurity, it's good to have a reminder of the continent's abiding cultural wealth.

Lapland Odyssey (Napapiirin sankarit) (Finland, 2010, Dir: Dome Karukoski, 92 min.)

A. picked this one, and I admit I was a little dubious going in, as the blurb made it sound like a pretty insubstantial bro-down. And cross-cultural comedy sometimes just doesn't translate (about which, more anon).

But right from the opening suicide montage, this film had an undercurrent of black comedy that I appreciated. (Bonus points for having a hockey gag therein, too.) Set in the snowy reaches of northern Finland, this film certainly felt like it was taking place in real winter, something that movies so rarely get right.

The film is also set against the backdrop of hard times. Protagonist Janne's business went under a few years back, but he's having a hard time getting motivated to find a new job — assuming there's anything to be found. His girlfriend Irina is getting tired of his slacking ways, and asks him if he's not going to get anything else done, could he at least get out of bed and go buy that new PVR so they could watch a movie together when she gets home from work? Failing in that simple task leads to an ultimatum and the titular odyssey: if Janne doesn't come back by morning with a PVR, Irina plans to move out. Given that he spent the money she gave him for beer, he'll have to come up with some cash, too.

That sets up an all-night roadtrip with buddies Kapu and Raisanen that turns out to be a very loose re-telling of the Homeric epic. Along the way there's a Suitor to be dealt with as well as Sirens to avoid. But also blizzards, mysterious Russians and reindeer. The direction of the plot is pretty predictable, but the gags are well-done and there's a lot of laughs here. The characters are a little thin, but the acting solid and by the final deus ex machina I had laughed far more than I was expecting. Recommended.

Return of Sergeant Lapins (Seržanta Lapina Atgriešanas) (Latvia, 2010, Dir: Gatis Smits, 90 mins.)

This film should not have been on the big screen.

The festival's site doesn't tell us what format they were projecting it in, but it looked like a poorly deinterlaced third generation videotape that wasn't quite properly converted to NTSC — a blurry mess when blown up on The Royal's screen.

I didn't like the film itself at all, either. A light farce about a PTSD-afflicted former soldier, there was an awkward tone throughout, with the broadness of the characterizations feeling entirely at odds with the unaddressed underlying serious issues. Plus, the movie didn't so much have an Idiot Plot¹ as take place in an Idiot Version of Latvia. (I'm sure the real place is far more charming.)

It's too much to describe here. At the film's outset Lapins, traumatized by his experiences as a peacekeeper, discharges himself from the hospital, refusing all "chemical" treatments on the advice of rehabbing celebrity Alise, who sets him up with an apartment in Riga, planning to join him later. This leads to a series of misunderstandings with the landlord, complications with Alise's tycoon ex and a would-be gumshoe taxi driver. Oh, and a couple of police officers, one of whom is cheerfully relaxed about the rules and his straitlaced young partner who nevertheless has some police brutality issues.

Trying to set things up, the film employs an unnecessary flashback structure, and then winds things up to a cavalcade of goofy farcical happenstances. I'm guessing there's some cultural commentary wound into all this, but it's really lost in translation and the jokes fall flat in a series of loud thumps. Production values and a music score on a par with '80's TV just add to the general air of shoddiness, meaning this was ultimately painfully unfunny and a chore to get through. This one was my pick, and it didn't go well: A. came out for this one and lasted about an hour before bailing.

The Other Side of Sleep (Ireland, 2011, Dir: Rebecca Daily, 88 mins.)

"I think I've been sleepwalking again," Arlene tells a friend. This might explain the predicament that she finds herself in at the film's outset — waking up in a forest beside a dead body. It doesn't help her to understand how she got there, or, more worryingly, What She Might Have Done.

The film follows Arlene through her waking hours — we never see her on her nocturnal excursions, just the bruises and sense of dislocation that follow afterwards. "Closely follows" would probably be a better phrasing here, as the camera is tight on actor Antonia Campbell-Hughes throughout, often tracking her with Dardenne-like intensity. And slowly, the circumstances of that opening scene start to become clear to us.

Director Daily is admirably patient in letting it unfold, drawing us into Arlene's world, which is slowly coming apart — her worries soon reduce her to virtually sleepwalking through her days as well. How do the web of relationships in her village work? What's the nature of Arlene's strange relationship to the dead woman's younger sister?

The key element in pulling us into her general dissociation is the sound design, the film's strongest element. Background noises buzz and overpower the voices around her — to the point where we're no longer sure if some of the noises are in her head or not. The effect brings to mind Lodge Kerrigan's excellent Clean, Shaven — though not taken as far as that film.

The movie was atmospheric and engrossing, and not overly-concerned with its plot, which can be a turn-off for some viewers — and a deal-breaker when it's not done well. But this is well worth seeing.

Afterthought: At this festival, the film was presented with subtitles, which are unnecessary — the accents and local jargon might muddle a few lines, but it's comprehensible on its own.

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¹ Idiot Plot: Any plot containing problems which would be solved instantly if all of the characters were not idiots. (source).