Shai Avivi as Aharon and Noam Imber as his son Uri, in Nir Bergman’s Israeli/Italian drama HERE WE ARE, one of the films at the 2021 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. Courtesy of the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival.
The soundtrack to Charlie Chaplin’s THE KID opens the father-son tale HERE WE ARE, award-winning Israeli director Nir Bergman’s heart-warming, insightful drama about a father’s devotion to his son, who is on the autism spectrum. Dad Aharon (Shai Avivi) willingly gave up his successful career as an artist to care for his son Uri (Noam Imber). The two are very close and have built a life of reassuring routine that involves Chaplin’s film about a father and son, trips on the train, bike rides, and pasta stars for lunch. But Uri is a young adult now and Aharon’s ex-wife, Uri’s mother, Tamara (Smadar Wolfman), thinks it is time for him to move to a group home with other young people with autism. Tamara supports father and son financially and, further, a judge agrees with her and there is a court-order that allows her to move her son to the nice facility she has picked out.
Aharon resists, insisting Uri is not ready, but eventually he is resigned to the move. The day of the move, Aharon and Uri take one of their train outings in the morning but when time comes to go home and get ready to move, Uri has a melt down and refuses to get on the train. Aharon makes a snap decision to go on the run with Uri, convinced his son is not ready for the change.
The journey takes them through several locations, a road trip that proves to be an eye-opening experience, revealing strengths and limitations of both father and son, aspects obscured before in their quiet routine. Bergman’s beautifully constructed film uncovers these details in masterful style but the power of the film finally rests on the two wonderful performances at the story’s center. Both Shai Avivi as Aharon and Noam Imber as Uri are outstanding, flawlessly portraying nuances of the characters and their close relationship. Bergman brilliantly uses the Chaplin film as a touchstone, another story of a close father and son fleeing the authorities, evoking it through the recurring music and clips and moments in the story.
The film gives a touching and realistic view of the challenges of autism and Noam Imber’s performance shows us a young man who is his own person, not just his diagnosis. Shai Avivi’s performance as the father is moving, touching, filled with love and commitment to his son, and doing what is best for him.
HERE WE ARE is a wonderful, moving film experience, one well worth seeking out. Director Nir Bergman, and actors Noam Imber and Shai Avivi all won Ophir Awards, Israel’s version of the Oscar, three of the four this Israeli-Italian drama won. This human drama touches our hearts, but also offers an honest portrait and true insights on their experience, until the story reaches its satisfying conclusion.
HERE WE ARE is part of the virtual St. Louis Jewish Film Festival 2021, which starts Sunday, June 6, and runs through Sunday, June 13. Tickets are $14 per film, or an All-Access Pass for all 13 festival films, plus a bonus short, is $95. Tickets and passes give viewing access to all members of a household. All films and discussions can be viewed anytime during the festival, except for BREAKING BREAD, which is only available June 6-8. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the festival website at stljewishfilmfestival.org.
A scene from the Israeli documentary BREAKING BREAD, one of the films at the 2021 St. Louis Jewish Film Festival. Courtesy of the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival
The Israeli documentary BREAKING BREAD, which is part of the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, June 5-13, begins with a quote from Anthony Bourdain, “Food may not be the answer to world peace, but it’s a start.”
“Breaking bread,” or sharing a meal, has been a way to bring people together throughout time. This documentary focuses on a unique food festival in Haifa, Israel, which aims to bring together Jewish Israelis and Muslim Arabs over food. The festival was founded by Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, a woman who was the first Muslim Arab to win Israel’s Top Chef contest. The food festival she founded pairs Jewish and Arab chefs to cook traditional fare from the Levant, the area that includes Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. The festival is called the “A-sham Food Festival,” using the Arab term for the Levant, and diners wander through 35 restaurants, sampling traditional Arab dishes on the area. Atamna-Ismaeel chooses less-common Arab dishes from the area, rather than familiar ones, to entice Arab as well as Jewish diners to try them. The idea is to bring people together over something delicious, and focus on the person, not politics or religion.
BREAKING BREAD is a film hope-filled, engrossing film, that is packed with mouth-watering shots of food and entertaining personalities, showcasing the surprising diversity of views and peoples in Israel. But it is really about more than food, it is about crossing cultural divides through cooking – and enjoying delicious dishes. The documentary focuses Nof Atamna-Ismaeel herself, who explains her reasons for founding the festival, and on three sets of chefs, in this case three Arab chefs in the restaurants of three Jewish chefs, as they figure out how to prepare these dishes and build friendships, all culminating the the festival. The documentary covers more than food, and is divided into sections where the participants discuss such topics as variations in dishes, such as hummus and a chopped salad that some menus call “Arab salad” and others call “Israeli salad,” language barriers, cultural differences, and inevitably, politics.
Note that the documentary says Arab, not Palestinian, because some of the Muslim chefs are not Palestinian but from other Arab countries. It is part of the diversity the film highlights, which is true of the Jewish side as well. One restaurant owner is third-generation in his family restaurant, which serves traditional Jewish dishes of Europe. Others serves cutting-edge new Israeli cuisine. Another restaurant is owned by a husband and wife team, where he is Muslim and she is Jewish.
One of the things Atamna-Ismaeel and others in the documentary note is that the area around Haifa is different than Jerusalem and other areas of Israel, in that Jewish Israeli and Arab Muslims live in closer proximity and have more interactions, which makes it easier for this festival. Atamna-Ismaeel herself is an Israeli citizen, and speaks both Arabic and Hebrew, something she wishes both sides did more often.
BREAKING BREAD is a wonderful film, filled with surprising insights on the cultures of the region, packed with delightful, interesting people determined to bridge the divide between them, and mouth-watering dishes that seem to waft off the screen. All come together to bring people to together to break bread in hope of peace.
The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival 2021 is being held virtually again this year, and while it runs Sunday, June 6, and runs through Sunday, June 13, BREAKING BREAD is only available to view June 6-8. Tickets are $14 per film, or an All-Access Pass for all 13 festival films, plus a bonus short, is $95. Tickets and passes give viewing access to all members of a household. All other films and discussions can be viewed anytime during the festival but some have geographical limits, so check the festival program or website if you are outside of Missouri or Illinois. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit the festival website at stljewishfilmfestival.org.
Paula Beer as “Undine” in Christian Petzold’s UNDINE. An IFC Films Release. Courtesy of IFC Films.
A strange, suspenseful tale of love, betrayal and tragedy, UNDINE is a re-imagining of a fairy-tale myth, set in modern Berlin. Director/writer Christian Petzold (TRANSIT, PHOENIX, BARBARA) reunites the stars of his film TRANSIT, Paula Beers and Franz Rogowski, for this tale of mystery and romance, which allows UNDINE to capitalize on the remarkable chemistry between the two actors in that earlier film. UNDINE is a haunting tale with a mysterious aura and a touch of magical realism, beautifully constructed and shot, with gripping, heartbreaking performances.
Mystery, romance and myth mix in Christian Petzold’s UNDINE, inspired by the fairy-tale of the undine, or ondine. an always-female water spirit that lives forest lakes. Like many fairy tales, love and death are intertwined in the various tales of the undine, a supernatural creature who can gain a human soul if she marries a man, but if he leaves her, tragedy follows. The myth of the undine, with roots in Greek and German myths, has been the source of several mythic tales, including novels, operas, ballets and films, and was the inspiration for Hans Christian Anderson’s “Little Mermaid.” Petzold’s re-imagining is quite different from that one but he was inspired by his childhood memories of the dark fairy-tale story and Peter von Matt‘s non-fiction book “Romantic Treachery.”
This re-imagined story does not start with a mythic character in the water, although there is a lake later in the tale, but firmly grounded in the contemporary world. Undine (Paula Beers) is a historian who gives lectures on Berlin’s urban development and architectural history to touring groups and dignitaries, as a city historian in Berlin working for the Senate Administration for Urban Development. She gives her talks in front of a sprawling architectural model, and her lecture touch on politics (something common in Petzold’s films), but only obliquely, particularly on decisions made after the reunification of the city with the fall of East Germany.
The film opens, not with Undine’s work, but a break-up with her handsome boyfriend Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), which takes place at an outdoor cafe next to where she works. She is stunned that he is leaving her, apparently for someone else, and he delivers this blow with a casual, even callous manner, telling her she should have suspected it was coming. When she calmly says “If you leave, I’ll have to kill you. You know that,” he is not surprised, and even is irritated more than anything. The statement is shocking, but it is a reference to the myth and her name, and the way the scene is handled, our sympathy stays with her. When Undine repeats it, more as a statement of fact than a threat, he looks a bit more nervous. She has to go to work but insists he wait at the cafe until her break, so they can talk more.
Water finally enters the story when Undine returns to the cafe, and finds Johannes is nowhere in sight. As she searches for him, she approached by a man who was at her lecture, Christoph (Franz Rogowski), an industrial diver who is now desperate to talk to her. He follows Undine into the inside portion of the cafe as she looks for Johannes, where she pauses when a fish tank with a figure of a miniature diver suddenly catches her eye. An accidental bump topples the fish tank, soaking both her and Christoph when it crashes to the floor.
Christoph’s sudden appearance and the link to the figure in the fish tank, distract her Undine from heartbreak over Johannes. Trying to woo her, Christoph takes her to the lake to show her where he does dangerous diving work repairing and maintaining the turbines under the dam, and where she meets his diving partner Monika (Maryam Zaree). Later, Christoph and Undine go diving in the lake together, exploring the remains of the village that was flooded when the artificial lake was created, something which has a strange effect on Undine.
Director Petzold has a knack for re-imaging stories, something he successfully did with TRANSIT and PHOENIX, both of which transformed WWII historic tales. UNDINE may be Petzold’s most mysterious tale yet, but one that wraps up with a satisfying ending despite not answering all questions.
The scenes between Paula Beers and Franz Rogowski crackle with romantic tension but a sense of unease looms in the background. The underwater scenes are particularly magical, with mysterious, half-shaded ruins submerged by the creation of the dam and its lake. Cinematographer Hans Fromm works magic in these scenes but also adds mystery and romance in every carefully composed scenes. The feeling of myth floats in the background of several scenes, boosted perfectly by touches of magical realism, often suggested by the film’s subtle score. Inevitably, the romantic idyll is interrupted and the film turns darker and suspenseful, with twists and surprises.
UNDINE is a mysterious, magical, haunting film that could serve as a darker date movie but also offers a satisfying experience for anyone who loves fairy tales of the Grimm variety.
UNDINE, in German with English subtitles, opens Friday, June 4, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Dueling Emmas face off in a battle of fashionistas behaving badly, in CRUELLA, in which Emma Thompson’s Anna Wintour-like fashion giant is challenged by Emma Stones’ Vivienne Westwood-like punk designer upstart. CRUELLA is more entertaining that one might expect for the live-action backstory of a Disney villain, Cruella de Vil from the animated classic 101 DALMATIANS. CRUELLA is more entertaining that one might expect. Creative, energetic, dark and spiked with campy humor, CRUELLA is a surprising bit of fun.
CRUELLA is sympathetic backstory that paints the famous Disney villain as a misunderstood underdog, but one of the best things about CRUELLA is that it is not another MALEFICENT. If you liked that Disney villain origin story, you may not care for this one, as CRUELLA takes itself far less seriously. Director Craig Gillespie (I TONYA) makes CRUELLA clever, energetic fun with just enough campy fun and a dark humor twist. Although named for the Disney villain, this film stands on its own, and would be just as entertaining if the central character had a different name.
Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) is a rebellious, brilliant young girl with unusual black and white hair, who arrives in ’60s London after being orphaned when some vicious dalmatians pushed her mother (Emily Beecham) off a cliff. She is taken in by a pair of grifter street urchins, who teach her their trade. In the punk ’70s, grown-up Estella (Emma Stone) has become skilled at the life of petty crime but she is a fashionista with a flare for costumes and disguises, and longs to be a fashion designer.
Her grifter mates Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) help Estella get her dream job at a posh department store, the Liberty, by creating a fake resume that claims she knows royalty. Ambitious Estella hopes to meet her favorite designer, the imperious Baroness (Emma Thompson), London’s top fashion designer, who has a connection to the store. Eventually, Estella does win a spot as an intern with the brutal Baroness but eventually Estella’s rebellious streak puts them at odds. Reinventing herself as an underground, wildly-creative punk designer named Cruella, the two face off on the runway and off.
CRUELLA samples a lot of other films, DEVIL WEARS PRAVDA certainly but also bits of TV’s “Queen’s Gambit,” Roald Dahl’s “Mathilda,” ALL ABOUT EVE, and a number of Charles Dickens novels. There was a team of scriptwriters, Tony McNamara (THE FAVORITE), Dana Fox, Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel and Steve Zissis, whose creative, entertaining script samples a variety of sources. But the mix is melded well and it has plenty of energy and is a lot of fun, with dark edgy vibe and a killer soundtrack of mostly ’60s hits, including the Zombies, Rolling Stones and Animals.
However, if you liked that earlier Disney villain backstory film, MALEFICENT, this one may not be your cuppa. Disney purists probably will be displeased that is really doesn’t explain why the fashionista villain of 101 DALMATIONS would want a Dalmatian puppy skin coat, other than a tragic encounter with some attacking dalmatians, but then again, did MALIFICENT really explain her?
Better to think of this as an alternate universe prequel to the Disney classic, but however you can putting aside those pre-concieved ideas, the more you can just enjoy this wild ride. The story is more a dark, tongue-in-cheek comedy than anything. Emma Stone and Emma Thompson draw on their considerable talents to bring out their best, in a story that is a bit more feminist than might be excepted.
Fans of all things British, and particularly London in the punk ’70s, will find lots to like here, with street scenes and playful references, along with a spot-on soundtrack of mostly ’60s hits, including from the Zombies, Rolling Stones and the Animals.
Both Emma Stone and Emma Thompson are clearly having delicious fun playing these battling bad girls, to the delight of us in the audience. The combination of top-notch performances, with a clever script that samples from a number of sources, and wildly vibrant visuals, all packaged in a fast-paced, high-energy film makes this film a delight. The winning combination evokes both in the director’s previous film I TONYA and co-writer’s film THE FAVORITE.
CRUELLA is surprisingly fun, high-energy, creative romp that spills outside the boundaries of expectations for its premise. It opens Friday, May 28, at various theaters and streaming.
Left to right: Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat at Camp David, in July 2000. Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable the world has seen. THE HUMAN FACTOR focuses on the effort to bring a resolution to that conflict through negotiations mediated by the U.S., but particularly on the human side, the human factor, in that effort. Interestingly, it is also presented from the viewpoint of the guys in the middle, the American mediators, rather than the two sides in the conflict. The result is an engrossing, surprisingly gripping documentary that makes one ache for what might have been.
THE HUMAN FACTOR is also a revealing documentary about the long-running effort to resolve the conflict, that offers up remarkable insights, some unexpected humorous moments, and many fascinating details about the process and the personalities involved. The decades-long peace negotiations spanned two presidents from different political parties, two secretaries of state, and three Israeli prime ministers, and a process actually begun under another American president and another Israeli prime minister. The focus on the human factor gets beyond any dry historical facts, and burrows into the people and the process that came so close, more than once, to a promise for peace in the Middle East.
Directed by Dror Moreh, an Israeli director and cinematographer, whose previous 2012 documentary, THE GATEKEEPERS, took an insightful look back at Shin Bet, Israel’s secret security organization, a documentary that was nominated for an Oscar and numerous other awards. THE HUMAN FACTOR likewise is garnering nominations as it makes its way around the film festival circuit.
Like in Moreh’s previous documentary THE GATEKEEPERS, THE HUMAN FACTOR focuses on the people involved in the process, bringing out a depth that burrows far beneath the familiar history, revealing remarkable insights and unexpected details. The documentary spans the efforts begun under President George H.W. Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker, following President Jimmy Carter’s successful peace negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and continues through President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s efforts the bring together Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and three very different Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Rabin, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. But who knew James Baker, secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, was such crackling personality and master arm-twister, with a sometimes-salty tongue? Or that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was such a “kisser?” Such little personal details and quirks provide a way in to the role the interpersonal plays in high-stakes negotiations. The documentary’s human-focus approach gives us a different way into this knotty issue, and taking the viewpoint of the mediators gives a fresh perspective that avoids simply re-arguing the two sides’ viewpoints. It is about the process and whether these two can agree on a way through the conflict.
The writer/director got unprecedented access to the people directly involved in the negotiations, the diplomats on the ground on a daily basis rather than the famous names in the headlines. Many of the famous names are gone anyway, although the diplomats offer many insights on them as well as the process. The interviewees, who speak frankly, even emotionally, include American diplomat Dennis Ross, Egyptian-born Coptic-American interpreter Gamal Helal, British-born American Middle East analyst Martin Indyk, and American-born fellow Middle East analyst Aaron D. Miller, whose pointed observations are among the most revealing. The interviews give us a fresh behind-the-curtain and in-depth view of both the negotiations, the issues, influential contemporary events, and the personalities involved. This perspective brings new insights into the missteps and near misses along the way, the quirks of the people at the top, and a heartbreaking understanding of just how close they came to succeeding.
The documentary is visually dynamic, which is not surprising given that Moreh is also a cinematographer. Moreh skillfully mixes archival footage and stills, in black and white and color, with the present-day interviews. Mostly, Moreh lets his subjects talk, perhaps asking one question, which allows them to delve into unsuspected background, and focuses on the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that never made it into the papers, as well as offering historical context of other events taking place concurrently.
THE HUMAN FACTOR is a fascinating, beautifully-constructed documentary, emotionally-involving even for audiences who are less familiar with the history of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It is as illuminating a documentary as could be made on the human side of negotiating and diplomacy, not just for this particular negotiation, about the intangibles of the process, the finesse and the delicate touch needed , and the deeply human side of negotiating a thorny, difficult issue, with the hope for lasting resolution and peace. THE HUMAN FACTOR is a must-see, a tantalizing look at what might have been for the Middle East.
THE HUMAN FACTOR opens Friday, May 7, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema
Vikash Bhai (left) stars as “Farhad” and Amir El-Masry (right) stars as “Omar” in director Ben Sharrock’s LIMBO, a Focus Features release. Cr. Courtesy of Colin Tennant / Focus Features
A young Syrian musician and a motley collection of other refugees wait on a remote Scottish island while the British government decides their asylum claims, in writer/director Ben Sharrock’s wry funny, poignant LIMBO. LIMBO paints a dryly comic, often absurdist tale of life in limbo, but it also takes us to unexpected places, just as their journey took to them to this unlikely spot.
LIMBO features excellent direction, a tightly-crafted script, fine performances and stunning photography of the harsh, windswept island landscape. This smart, well-crafted film, both funny and touching, was a BAFTA nominee and a winner at the British Independent Film Awards and the Cairo International Film Festival.
The British government has sent this group of refugees to a distant, sparsely-populated, fictional Scottish island to await their fate. The story focuses mainly on the young Syrian musician, Omar (Amir El-Masry), who is both a comic and pitiable figure with his hand in a cast but clutching the case with his musical instrument as he wanders this windswept island. He joins a group that includes Farhad (Vikash Bhai), an Afghan refugee who is a member of a religious minority as well as a Freddie Mercury fan, and a pair of young men from Africa, Abedi (Kwabena Ansah) and Wasef (Ola Orebiyi), one of whom aspires to be a soccer star. One of the group opines that they were sent to this remote location because they are all the least desirable applicants – single men without families or special skills. Actually, the musician has a special skill – he is a talented musician from a family of famous musicians – but he plays the oud, a stringed instrument much beloved in Syria, although here, no one has even heard of it.
While they wait, the men spend their days attending comically-bizarre classes that are supposed to acclimate them to a new culture. The classes are run by a pair of former immigrants, Helga (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and Boris (Kenneth Collard), who act out scenarios that are supposed to represent potential cultural misunderstandings, skits whose oddness leave the refugees staring in open-jawed disbelief. The instructors’ accents, a weird mix of their original ones and Scottish burrs, adds another bit of comic weirdness.
You can hear the humor potential in all that, and writer/director Ben Sharrock takes full advantage of that, but also uses the characters’ uniqueness to deepen them. Theater of the absurd is very present here, while the storytelling makes uses that to help make its points. In one telling scene, Omar stands on a desolate roadside, stoically listening as a group of Scottish teens berate and mock him for being an immigrant – but then offer him a ride. With little choice, the musician accepts, a perfect metaphor for his whole situation.
Filled with dry humor, LIMBO does not preach about immigrants but merely puts a human face on them by putting us in their shoes, particularly the young musician, as they wait in limbo for a distant government’s decision that will determine their fate. The comic elements are combined with pointed observations about the human condition, not just the plight of these wanderers, and some emotionally searing personal moments.
Omar is in limbo in more than one way. Separated from his family, he broods about his life. Omar’s oud belonged to his grandfather, a famous musician in Syria, and Omar was a rising talent himself before war tore his country apart. His family fled to Turkey but faced hostile treatment there, and Omar decided to take a chance in Britain, thinking his musical ability might give him a chance. His decision to seek asylum was paired with his brother’s decision to return to Syria to fight, a choice that caused a rift between them as well as separating the family, something Omar struggles with.
The photography is stunning, and adds enormously to the appeal of the film. Time and again, cinematographer Nick Cooke frames the action against a back drop of pale, waving grasses and gray skies, and repeatedly transforms a stark landscape into painterly scenes that sink into our consciousness as we follow the characters struggles amid the waiting.
This excellent film uses humor and insightful storytelling to deliver a thought-provoking, unexpected, and deeply human tale that rises above just the issue of immigration to a more universally human place. LIMBO opens Friday, April 30, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema, and Marcus’ Ronnies and St. Charles Cinemas.
Angelo Gagliardi in THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS. Image by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS opens with a camera slowly zooming in on a wooded hill side, with trees twinged with autumn colors as bird sounds filled the air. As we get closer, we see a dog, then two, and finally a man struggling up the steep hill. Their quarry? Truffles.
The poetic, idyllic start sets the tone for THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS, an enchanting, unnarrated documentary directed and photographed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, about older traditional Italian men who have spent their long lives in the forests with their dogs, hunting this culinary delicacy, It is also about the high prices this this fragrant and delicious fungi commands and the growing hunger of the world’s elite for truffles. But it is mostly an immersive descent into a fairy-tale world, a vanishing one of magical forests where dogs with their owners joyfully tramp those woods in search of a rare treasure.
The white Alba truffle, a fragrant fungi that is highly prized as a culinary delicacy, has resisted all efforts to cultivate it, and so must be sought in the wild. The rarity of this delicious fungi and the skill needed to find them are part of the high prices they command, along with growing international demand by restaurants and gourmands, and the shrinking supply of truffles. The white truffle only grows in a small area, mostly in Northern Italy, and including the Piedmont region of where this film was shot. They grow underground only at the foot of certain oak trees and only during certain months. Climate change, particularly drying, and deforestation has diminished the supply of the fungi, at the same time that increasing numbers of people are hunting them and demand for them keeps growing.
The forces of high-powered commerce and the traditions of the truffles hunters clash in this winning, contemplative documentary.
The traditional world of the truffle hunter is a secretive one, where hunters do not even tell their closest friends, even their children or wives, their secret hunting places, and where the dogs that help find them are prized and beloved. Those who live in the Midwest may see parallels to morel mushroom hunters, another fungi that is a highly-prized culinary treat that cannot be cultivated and only grows in certain spots, and whose hunters also jealously guard the locations of their favorite hunting spots and are not above misdirecting fellow mushroom hunters. However, all that is taken to a much higher level by the international demand and astronomical prices truffles command.
The photography is beautiful, and the film is a visual feast, with carefully-composed, painterly scenes taking us through the Piedmont forests, along with lovely images of the truffle hunters at home. The photographic techniques used, combined with the lack of narration, immerses us fully in this vanishing world. Long shots take in the full view of the forest, while interactions between people, or the truffle hunters and their dogs, are often static single shots that allow us to forget the camera and concentrate on people and conversations. In contrast, the scenes of truffle hunting itself are kinetic, as we follow the truffle hunters and their dogs through the woods. At one point, the directors put the camera on the dog, so we can see the hunt up close, at nose-level, which makes for a wild, invigorating experience.
Directors Dweck and Kershaw gave careful attention to sound design as well. Sometimes sounds even dominate over the images, with the ambient sounds of the forest, the snap of a twig or the crackle of a wood stove, foremost. The music helps set the mood too, mostly opera, folk tunes and Italian older popular tunes, plus some haunting original music composed by Ed Cortes
The documentary focuses on four highly skilled truffle hunters, all older men ranging in age from late 60s to late 80s, who hunt truffles according to age-old traditions. All live in small rural villages in the Piedmont area of Italy, and have lives steeped in tradition that seem frozen in time and apart from the modern world. The three oldest men seem to hunt more for the thrill, like sport fishing, than for the money, while the youngest of them seems more focused on truffle hunting as a livelihood, but all are committed to the traditions of the hunt and the joys of days in the field with their dogs.
Truffle hunting is a partnership between dog and hunter, and the bond these men share with their beloved dogs is part of the film’s charm. In some ways, the film is really more about dogs than truffles, and the passionate affection these men have for their dogs and their shared joy out in the woods.
Mischievous and secretive are good words for these unique men. Each is a charmingly eccentric personality in his own way, which makes the film fun as well as insightful. For some of the men, their closest bonds are with their beloved dogs. Funny, lively Aurelio, 84, has no wife and no children but dotes on his beloved dog Birba, whom he feeds from his own plate while he worries who will care for her when he is gone. 88-year-old Carlo has his beloved dog Titina, and despite the pleas of his wife Maria, sneaks out at night to go truffle hunting in the dark with his dog. Sergio, the youngest of the group at 68, goes out to his hunting spots in his beat-up old four-wheel drive truck and his four dogs, including Fiona, and returns home with truffles, singing along with Fiona, to play his drum set to relax. Long-legged, rail-thin Angelo, a poet and a one-time acrobat, is the most staunch traditionalist. A highly skilled truffle hunter who owns prime truffle hunting land and a prized dog, he insists he will no longer hunt truffles, outraged and disgusted over the way money has come to dominate over everything about truffle hunting, and the disregard for tradition.
The dogs are highly-trained, highly-prized, and much beloved. One truffle hunter rejects an offer to buy his dog, as if someone were trying to buy his child. A constant worry for all of them is the people who poison dogs, whether to reduce competition or to keep the truffle hunters off their land.
While the primary focus of the film is on these aging traditional truffle hunters, the film also gives a full picture of the world of truffles, includes the commercial side of truffle hunting. There are scenes with the men who buy the truffles and sell them to the every-growing, wealthy clients in the international market, and an auction for truffles that has parallels to an art or wine auction.
Touches of humor add to the documentary’s appeal, like one scene at an auction of large white truffles, where a string of potential buyers, or even just the curious, walk by and sniff the fragrant but lumpy truffle in the foreground. A truffle buyer/broker haggling with a truffle hunter, who is selling his finds on a deserted street in the dark of night, looks like a drug deal but adds a layer of insight on this hidden secretive world. Earlier, we saw the broker on the phone, under pressure as he tries to meet the demand for truffles from world leaders and other elites. In another scene, a man who judges truffles to set their price for auction, argues with truffle brokers about the value of their wares, rejecting truffles he deems inferior, and the same judge is later shown enjoying a plate of eggs over which a waiter has generously grated his truffle, a scene of pure culinary decadence.
The directors spent three years getting to know the people in this secretive, traditional world and that investment of time pays off, as the subjects are very relaxed in front of the camera, giving us great insight into this hidden world.
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS is a magical, enchanting film that takes us inside an appealing but vanishing world of forests, age-old traditions, and dogs with their owners in pursuit of an elusive culinary treasure.
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS opens Friday, April 16, at the Hi-Pointe Theater.
Judi Dench as Miss Rocholl in Andy Goddard’s “Six Minutes to Midnight.” Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.
A Nazi-run boarding school for girls on the British coast? Sound preposterous but in fact there really was such a school, which is the inspiration for the period spy thriller SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard, and Jim Broadbent headline the film, a Hitchcock-like British historical thriller set in the summer of 1939, just as WWII loomed. The Augusta-Victoria College is a finishing school for German girls at Bexhill-on-Sea on the southeast coast of England.
The film has been a pet project for many year for Eddie Izzard, who grew up in the area., and not only stars in the film but co-wrote the script along with co-star Celyn Jones and director Andy Goddard. The idea sparked when Izzard visited a Bexhill museum and saw the school’s insignia patch, which features a small Swastika along side a British flag.
The school, which existed from 1932 to 1939, was intended for German girls, many of them the daughters of the Nazi elite, to learn the English language and about English culture, as part of a plan to spread Nazi ideology to Britain. Actually, Augusta-Victoria College was one of many international schools in the area prior to WWII, in an area long noted for such foreign-run boarding schools. However, this is a fictional film. While it is it is unclear what, if any, of the story is factual, although it seems likely that British authorities were keeping an eye on the school as tensions rose prior to the Nazi’s invasion of Poland in 1939.
After the mysterious disappearance of the school’s previous English teacher, teacher Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard) goes for an interview as a replacement for the job at Augusta-Victoria College for girls at Bexhill. He is interviewed by the German school’s British headmistress, Miss Rocholl (Oscar-winner Dame Judi Dench), who describes the school as a place to promote understanding between British and German people. She chooses to focus on that aspect of the school rather than its Nazi sponsorship, and is genuinely devoted to “her girls” and their care and education. Although the headmistress is less than impressed with Miller, who has a spotty employment history, she does need to quickly find a replacement to maintain the girls’ English language skills. In the end, she agrees to hire him on a trial basis, swayed in part by the fact that he is half-German and bilingual.
Miller isn’t there just to teach English but to keep tabs on the German school. The school is on summer break and only the other teacher who seems to be present is the physical education teacher Ilise Keller (Carla Juri), who drills the girls in exercise routines and takes them on outings to the beach to swim. On one such seaside outing, they make a shocking discovery – the body of the former English teacher, which has washed up on shore. The discovery sparks tensions at the school, mirroring the tensions rising on the international scene as war approaches.
With everyone on edge, a tale of secrets and espionage begins. There is a distinct Hitchcock flavor to this spy thriller set in the late ’30s, specifically echoing THE 39 STEPS, although the plot is wholly different.
Audiences are used to seeing Eddie Izzard in comic roles or doing stand-up, so seeing him in a straightforward dramatic role is a bit of a shift, yet the actor handles is well. He couldn’t have better supporting cast with Dame Judi, who plays the well-meaning if deluded headmistress, and Jim Broadbent, who adds the comic relief as a colorful, outgoing local bus driver who ends up playing a critical role. Izzard’s co-writer Celyn Jones plays a policeman, a crafty veteran of the last war, who is assisting the local police captain, played by James D’Arcy, in investigating the events around the discovery of the body of the missing man.
Many characters are not what they seem, and secrets, betrayals and chases abound. Izzard’s Miller is very much a Hitchcock character, a man falsely accused of a crime who must go on the run to clear his name, although Miller has his secrets too.
Unsurprisingly, the acting is excellent, particularly Dench’s portrayal of the well-meaning headmistress, whose affection for “her girls” blinds her to what is really going on. Dame Judi gives a touching performance as the headmistress, so devoted to her young charges that she is willing to ignore the glaring warning signs right in front of her. As the spy thriller story unfolds, her position becomes more tenuous and she reaches a breaking point.
The rest of the cast also do fine work, with Celyn Jones and Jim Broadbent particularly memorable in their smaller but pivotal roles.
The whole tale is set in the scenic British countryside, with the stately home that houses the school, the area’s picturesque historic sites, and the lovely rolling hills and windswept coast. The sets and period details are just right, and scenic location setting adds both to the film’s visual appeal and its authentic feel.
Those period details include that Augusta-Victoria school crest, with its unsettling mix of British and Nazi symbols, which so struck Izzard when he first saw it.
SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT offers fine historical spy thriller entertainment, nice performances and a glimpse into a little-known, curious bit of British history. It opens Friday, March 26, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema, and Marcus’ Chesterfield, Ronnie’s, St. Charles and Arnold Cinemas.
Benedict Cumberbatch in THE COURIER. Photo Credit: Liam Daniel. Courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the true-story THE COURIER, an entertaining Cold War-era spy tale told in a pleasingly classic style. Grounded by sterling performances by Cumberbatch and Merab Ninidze, from TV’s “McMafia,” this is a true story about an ordinary British citizen Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch) recruited by MI6 and the CIA to contact a high-level Soviet military intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Ninidze), and who ends up at a courier carrying intelligence back to London as the Cold War heats up, intelligence that proves crucial in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The two men form a unexpected friendship, bonding as family men who both want to avoid nuclear war, something the Russian colonel fears Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is moving towards.
In the long Cold War, the most heated moment was the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war as President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev faced off over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. In the run-up to this crisis, the high-ranking Russian in this spy tale provided crucial information that averted nuclear war.
THE COURIER is done in the style of a old-fashioned spy thriller, the kind they don’t much make any more – an entertaining, satisfying tale driven more by character and tense situations than explosions and chases, although there are a few of the later. But the biggest strength of the film lies in its two central performances, particularly the excellent Cumberbatch, and its true-story basis.
As readers may know, Khrushchev was the Soviet leader who banged on a table with his shoe and later promised “we will bury you” to capitalist Western nations. He might have meant economically but the heated tone was shockingly different from his predecessor Stalin. The Cold War was reaching its most heated period in the early 1960s, culminating in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. THE COURIER gives enough information about that crisis and the Cold War period to make the story work without bogging down the thriller in a history lesson.
Cumberbatch’s and Ninidze’s excellent performances are the major strength of the film, and the tale is built around their friendship, but director Dominic Cooke (ON CHESIL BEACH) keeps the pace and focus just right, working from a script by Tom O’Connor, and supported by moody photography by Sean Bobbitt and a perfect score by Abel Korzeniowski.
There is a lot of fun in the first two-thirds of the film, before the film takes a darker turn towards its end, which does not work as well but is a necessary part of the whole story. At the start, the tone is almost breezy, as British salesman Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch) is contacted by MI6’s Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and CIA’s Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), about a one-time mission to Moscow to contact a high ranking official. Wynne is skeptical and dismissive, even joking a bit about having lunch with spies, and protests that he is unqualified because he is just a salesman. But Franks assures him that is exactly why he can do the job, and then reassures him he will be “perfectly safe.” If there was any risk, the MI6 agent tells him, “you are the last person we would send,” bluntly telling Wynne he drinks too much and is out of shape, which leaves the salesman winching.
Eventually, Wynne agrees to do the job but, of course, it turns out not to be a one-off. After he meets the Russian intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Ninidze), Penkovsky takes an instant liking to him and insists Wynne continue as the courier.
Most of the characters in this true story are based on real people, although Rachel Brosnahan’s CIA operative is a composite. But there were indeed women in MI6 and the CIA at the time, and making the character a woman allows the filmmakers to explore a little bit the challenges of women working in that male-dominated field in that male-dominated era.
It is no surprise Penkovsky likes Wynne, as Cumberbatch’s Wynne is indeed a likable fellow, whether joking with his young wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) and their young son, or in early scenes with the MI6 and CIA operatives, where he can’t help making spy jokes. He is nervous at first about going to Moscow, but quickly falls into his familiar salesman persona, telling the Soviets he is trying to open up a new business partnership with their factories to sell them the kind of scientific and manufacturing equipment the company he works for makes.
Wynne clearly is having a bit of fun playing his dual role, and Cumberbatch seems to be too, and is at his most charming and entertaining in these scenes. There is a lot of wining and dining of Soviet officials in his cover of selling them factory equipment. Early on, Penkovsky tells Wynne that the key to his success with the Russians will depend on his ability to hold his liquor, to which Wynne replies, with a sly smile, that it is his greatest skill.
Wynne and Penkovsky bond as fellow family men and over their shared concerns about nuclear war, an ever-present worry in that era. Indeed, Penkovsky had reached out to the Brits over his concerns about war, and the intentions of the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who seemed to be moving in that direction.
Although the story starts in 1960, this is the Sixties before they began to swing. The period feels more late ’50s and director Dominic Cooke captures that perfectly, with excellent period locations, sets and costumes. As befits these characters, the film goes with muted tones and conservative outfits, which better suit the conservative middle-class Wynne and the buttoned-down espionage pros. The choice works best for a story that is much more John LeCarre than Ian Fleming and his creation James Bond.
Exteriors where shot in London and in Prague, which stands in for Moscow. The action takes place in gray streets and alley, and in often half-lit and shadowed rooms. De-saturated colors and stone buildings emphasize the similarities between London and Moscow rather than the differences. However, there is a flash of period color and show of cultural differences when Wynne and Penkovsky trade cultural experiences in each other’s home cities. They bond over theater when Penkovsky takes Wynne to the ballet in Moscow, and the salesman is overwhelmed by the beauty of the experience. When the Russian visits London, Wynne takes him to their theater district, which instead is filled with modern hit musicals, and they end up in a bright, glittering nightclub.
The film’s breezy fun tone takes a darker turn when the Cuban Missile Crisis heats up and the world stands on the brink of nuclear war, averted in part by information from Penkovsky. As the Soviets search for the leak, Wynne insists on returning to Moscow in an effort to get his friend out. Things don’t go well but what follows is moving, if sometimes hard to watch, and an essential part of the story, demonstrating the inner strength of the real Wynne and Penkovsky, their friendship and common commitment to peace.
THE COURIER is not a perfect film but it certainly a worthy one, grounded by excellent performances and an inspiring story of friendship.
Scene from the opioid crisis thriller CRISIS, starring Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly, and Armie Hammer. Photo: Philippe Bosse. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution.
The crisis at the center of writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s thriller CRISIS is the opioid crisis. The fact-inspired thriller CRISIS runs on three lines – a whistle-blowing scientist, a woman recovering from addiction to prescription painkillers unraveling a tragic mystery,, and an undercover DEA agent trying to break up a drug ring running prescription painkillers across the US-Canadian border. The triple thriller has a lot of threads to keep track of but CRISIS features a sterling cast headed by Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly, and Armie Hammer.
Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly and Armie Hammer all head up separate narrative threads that represent different aspects of the vicious circle of the opioid crisis. Although the Covid pandemic has pushed all other crises off the headlines, this one has continued to grow and will quickly re-emerge in the public sphere. Jarecki tackles the whole of the opioid problem, from the over-prescribing of drugs deemed safe, often rushed to market by large drug companies more focused on profit than careful research, and then their transformation into street drugs.
The Canadian/Belgian production CRISIS tells its tale through three threads, with different individuals battling the tragic situation from perspectives, story lines that alternate throughout the film. Gary Oldman plays Dr. Tyrone Brower, a university biology professor who also does research for a drug company as a way to fund his lab’s other research, but runs into trouble when he uncovers a problem with the company’s latest painkiller, which is on the verge of FDA approval. Brower is under pressure from the drug company whose research he does but also Dean Talbot (Greg Kinnear) of the university where he works.
Armie Hammer plays Jake Kelly, an undercover DEA agent tracing the illegal movement of opioids across the US – Canadian border. Kelly has infiltrated a Montreal-based drug operation headed by gang boss known as Mother (Guy Nadon). At the same time, he is dealing with his own drug-addicted younger sister Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp). Nicholas Jarecki appears in his own film as Stanley Foster, Jake Kelly’s undercover partner, while Michelle Rodriguez plays Supervisor Garrett, Kelly’s boss at the DEA.
Evangeline Lilly plays Claire Reimann, a recovering opioid addiction, whose addiction started with a prescription after an accident, who is racked with doubts and guilt about that as he raises her son as a single parent, When her son goes missing, she is frantic but when the police suggest her son’s disappearance may be linked to illegal drug trafficking, she decides to uncover the truth.
Nicholas Jarecki’s dramatic thriller with alternating, overlapping stories will remind some of 2005’s CRASH and other overlapping-stories films, although not all of the threads come together so neatly in CRISIS. Still, opioid addiction is such a huge and growing problem that has been overshadowed, like everything else, by the pandemic, so the film takes on a worthy topic
The individuals are fictional but the crisis depicted is quite real. The plot explores the opioid crisis through the whole chain that drives it, including drug companies developing the prescription drugs that are later turned into street drugs, the law enforcement battle against powerful drug runners, and the struggles of those who become addicted through prescription and their families. It is a lot of territory to cover in a single film, and Jarecki does sometimes struggle to keep all the balls in the air, not always completely successfully. Still the film’s important topic, and the parts that do succeed, make the film worthwhile as well as involving entertainment, a good combination.
The film alternates between the three story lines in a balanced fashion, and develops into a thriller of sorts as the complications and twists unfold. Eventually, two of the three threads converge but the lack of integration of the third one, perhaps the most significant one, leaves the film feeling a bit less dramatically balanced than it might have been.
The production was shot in Canada and features some scenic dramatic sequences, particularly the opening one in the snowy mountains as law enforcement chase a young man smuggling drugs across the US-Canadian border. Generally the photography by Nicolas Bolduc is nicely done, and he does a fine job keeping the pace up as the drama moves into a thriller mode.
Acting is very good all around. Unsurprisingly, Gary Oldman is excellent as the scientist caught in a murky dilemma between his ethical standards and practical concerns about keeping his lab running. Under pressure between the drug company that funds his lab and the dean of his college, Oldman gives a moving performance and a man who must sort through his feelings, the facts and potential consequences. Evangeline Lilly is likewise effective as Claire Reinmann, a recovering addict who became hooked on opioids after an injury, whose fragile emotional state is shaken when her son suddenly disappears and the police suggest a link to drugs, a situation that Lilly explores with heartbreaking, nuanced sensitivity in her excellent performance. Even Armie Hammer, who is not in the same acting league as Oldman or Lilly, is well cast in his role as the iron-jawed undercover agent, and does well in the part. He handles both the action hero-type scenes and in the ones requiring more dramatic finesse well, including those with Lilly-Rose Depp, who plays his drug addicted sister.
THE CRISIS strikes the mark unerring accuracy in its exploration of the various elements that fuel the opioid crisis, and provides a timely reminder of this expanding crisis, which may have been pushed off the headlines by the pandemic but has by no means gone away. THE CRISIS is available on demand and on digital starting March 5.
