Written and directed by Aleksey Kozlov, Battle of Leningrad involves World War II’s Siege of Leningrad – in which Nazi Germany blockaded the major Soviet city for 28 months. The situation ranks as perhaps the single most brutal and devastating military campaign in modern history.
Now, the story of horrifying siege told through the lives of people caught in the middle of it in Battle of Leningrad. Produced in Russia, the story began in September 1941. On the Eastern Front of World War II, Kostya, played by Andrey Mironov-Udalov and his fellow Russian cadets tasked with evacuating thousands of civilians out of war-torn Leningrad. The purpose is safety aboard Barge 752.
While Kostya’s commander initially worries that the barge may be too outdated to sail across Lake Ladoga safely, the evacuation completed. Even Kostya finds time to smuggle his fiancé, Nastya, played by Maria Melnikova, aboard the bare to join him on the journey. But tragedy quickly finds them, and the story is about survival.
An unrelenting storm strikes that evening, and Barge 752 begins to break down and leak, threatening to sink. Kostya, Nastya, and the rest of the ship’s occupants are hopeful for rescue the next morning. They find themselves in even greater danger when the first responders are not what they hope them to be — planes to rescue them, but enemy aircraft, geared up for attack.
The film is epic on a grand scale while allowing enough focus intimately on the unique individuals caught up in an enormous tragedy. Kozlov’s movie is similar to Dunkirk, Saving Private Ryan, Stalingrad, and Titanic.
The movie is full of rage with intense circumstances on board the barge with the impending attack plays with remarkable clarity.
The battle scenes are energetic and penetrating along with a dramatic storyline about a time in history that continues to interest storytellers like Kozlov.
Mironov-Udalov and Melnikova bring honesty to their relationship and circumstances. It is through their eyes we experience the horrors of WW II in Russia.
The movie is based on an epic science-fiction poem.
Written and directed by Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja, Aniara is their first feature film. Based on an epic 1956 science fiction poem by Harry Martinson, Kagerman shared the poem with his grandmother while she was in a hospital recovering from a stroke. “Growing up, I was very close to my grandmother. She was extremely playful and interested in literature. We often role-played books we had read, even when I got older,” explains Kagerman. “Together we went to see a theater play of Aniara. The following night she got a stroke. I started to read the book aloud to her at the hospital. As she was getting better, we started to role-play it and pretend that the big hospital was the space ship Aniara. Every doctor and patient its passengers. That’s when the story truly hit me and us, on a very deep level.”
Aniara is the space ship forced off the flight path from Earth to Mars.
Kagerman and Lilja worked with each other for over ten years now. “And since the beginning of our collaboration, we’ve been highly influenced by each other and stolen each other’s interests,” jests Lilja.
The movie is beautiful but heart-wrenching and not a story for the faint of heart because it is sensitively intense. The imagery and story haunt you after the end of the movie because it is intelligent. The movie is not uplifting but more of sociological look at, according to Martinson, where the Earth populace is headed.
The movie introduces one of the many spaceships used for transporting Earth’s fleeing population to their new home-planet Mars. The destruction of Earth occurs, and before the crew and passengers become accustomed to being in space, she collides with space junk and thrown off course. The passengers slowly realize that they’ll never be able to return.
Mimaroben played by Emelie Jonsson.
Mimaroben, played by Emelie Jonsson in her first feature film leading role, runs a room where a sentient computer allows humans to experience near-spiritual memories of the Earth.
As the ship drifts further into the endless void more and more passengers require Mimaroben’s services and stress of the job builds on her as she is the only one who can keep the growing insanity and lethal depression at bay.
In Aniara’s inexorable journey towards destruction, there is a warning that cannot be emphasized enough. There’s only one Earth. It’s time to take responsibility for our actions.
The movie is in Swedish with English subtitles, so finding Aniara in English is not offered. The directors felt the necessity to bring the story to the silver screen. “The apocalypse has already started, hasn’t it? There’s a risk that Aniara might become our future, and the questions the film deals with are extremely relevant today,” adds Kagerman.
Mimaroben has a relationship with another woman.
Though Martinson’s poem is ambiguous on whether the main character is a man or a woman, Kagerman and Lilja felt it essential to focus on a woman while the overall movie centers on females. “It’s not 100% clear what gender the main character has in the book, although it’s probably a man,” explains Lilja. “But we love our female lead and always had her in mind. In the film, she has a relationship with another woman and her best friend, the astronomer, is a woman.”
The movie’s special effects are low-key without extensive CGI or expensive science-fiction sets. Filming occurred on location in shopping malls and Scandinavian Ferries with set design by Linnea Petterson and Maja-Stina Asberg. The directors wanted to create a here and now feeling. “We wanted the ship to feel familiar. If we were to emigrate in large scale to Mars today, we’re pretty sure that the ships will contain both shopping malls, bowling, and spas. But especially shopping malls,” explains Kagerman.
It took the two directors four years to complete the movie with most the time spent in post-production with reshoots to add to the storyline. They shot inserts in their living room and at the farm where Sophie Winqvist Loggins, cinematographer, lives in the south of Sweden.
Aniara won several awards on the film festival circuit including Les Arcs European Film Festival Best Actress for Emelie Jonsson and honorable mention for Kagerman and Lilja. T
Aniara is streaming on Amazon and the usual on-demand platforms available in your region.
Martinson message in his poem is serious as a warning to the people of Earth. The directors want the audience to reflect on the spacecraft they’re already onboard, called Earth and the extremely short period we have on it. “It might sound depressing, but it’s actually the opposite. We are here today. There is still some time,” adds Kagerman and Lilja.
Dogman is an Italian movie in English subtitles. Co-written
and directed by Matteo Garrone, the story takes place at a seaside village on
the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of
the fittest.
The story focuses on Marcello, played by Marcello Fonte, who won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role of playing a slight, mild-mannered man. He divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, played by Alida Baldari Calabria, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bully Simoncino, played by Edoardo Pesce. He is an ex-boxer who terrorizes the neighborhood. Simoncino’ s abuse eventually brings Marcello to a breaking point. He decides to stand up for his dignity through an act of vengeance. The vengeance comes with unintentional consequences.
Marcello Fonte is Marcello a professional dog groomer by day.
The movie opens with an image of dogs in cages and looking
out at humanity. Even though the movie is about vengeance, it also about bullying
– struggle between the strong and the weak. Watching the trailer, the viewer might get the
idea that Dogman is an extreme story with violence.
Garrone puts forward an idea that concerns all of us, and that is the consequence of the daily choices we make to survive. One yes leads to more yeses eventually, like Marcello, he can no longer say no. While watching the movie, I kept thinking that Marcello is a pushover or “too nice” for his own good. He gradually, under duress, loses his innocence.
Nicolaj Bruel effectively shoots the movie with dark undertones,
bright reds, and blues. The locations fit the storyline of a small town.
Marcello Fonte is Marcello.
It is Fonte’s sweetness and his antique face, that brings the story to fruition. How he approaches the dark material while still maintaining his naivete is a unique quality of acting. His interplay with Calabria as his daughter, Alida, are precious moments with Simoncino lurking in the undertones even when he is not in the scenes.
Garrone wrote the story with Ugo Chiti and Massimo Gaudioso. In the production notes, he defines his movie as, “a man who, while seeking redemption after a life of humiliation, fools himself into believing that he has liberated not only himself, but his whole neighborhood, and maybe even the world. Which instead remains always the same, and almost indifferent.”
Directed by John Andres Anderson, The Quake begins in 1904 when an earthquake with a 5.4 magnitude on the Richter scale shook Oslo. Its epicenter located in the Oslo Rift runs directly through the Norwegian capital. Quakes from the rift happen daily. Geologists cannot be sure, but arguments indicate that we can expect major future earthquakes in this area. When the major earthquake happens, nobody can say for certain. The density of people and infrastructure in Oslo is significantly more vulnerable today than in 1904.
The impressive cast includes Kristoffer
Joner,Ane Dahl Torp,Kathrine Thorborg Johansen,Jonas Hoff Oftebro, and Edith
Haagenrud-Sande.
According to Anderson he
realized the facts about the earthquake were true, “The notion of a Norwegian
earthquake movie was immediately somewhat absurd. Norway is actually the most
seismic active area in northern Europe. In 1904 there was a major earthquake
hitting the Oslo-region. This type of incident will happen again. And no one
can say when.”
In 2015, The Wave was proof of a Scandinavia film, even on a limited budget, gives Hollywood competition in that genre. “They’ve had a monopoly and been supreme on the so-called ‘High Concept’ movie,” explains Anderson. “And at the same time also add a bit of Scandinavian flair to it. Even in the most faithful genre film, one should never sacrifice character drama. And neither did we want to with The Quake.”
The Wave and The Quake are produced by the same production company lead by Martin Sundland.
Anderson talked more about the
important of never sacrificing character for drama. He sees them as instrumental
to whether we as audience observe the disaster – or actually experience it. “Because
if you’re not experiencing it, it doesn’t matter how spectacular scenes we
manage to create. While delivering edge-of-the-seat-thrills, the development of
the characters and the ties between the members of our family is always at the
core of The Quake.”
The movie follows Kristian,
played by Kristoffer Joner, a struggling father, trying to come to grips with
what he has been through before this film. His daughter Julia, played by Edith
Haagenrud-Sande, is desperately seeking her father’s care and attention. The
love of Kristian’s life is Idun, played by Ane Dahl Torp. And all of them their
lives completely changed by what Anderson calls “this merciless, brute and
blind force of Norwegian nature.”
The movie is as physical, character-driven spectacle just as Anderson intended. He puts the audience the heart of an Oslo being torn apart, feeling the impact of these forces on the family who are trying to keep it together. The movie takes you on a riveting ride – emotionally, visually and finally full-on thrilling action. .
The movie never lets up, and it
is constant action, harrowing situations with all odds against them, yet they overcome
the obstacles to, yet, face another dire circumstance. Keeping me on the edge
of my seat through the movie is a fantastic and remarkable way to see a movie.
Joner looks familiar because he’s
starred in The Revenant and Mission Impossible: Fall out.
Anderson’s first time as a director, he started as a camera assistant for cinematography legend Sven Nykvist. He worked as a Director of Photography for many years on notable Scandinavian films such as Department Q: Conspiracy of Faith and Buddy.
The movie is in Scandinavian with English subtitles.
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japanese movie Shoplifters is the 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or
Winner and 2019 Academy Award nominee for Foreign Language Film. The movie follows an oddball band of outsiders
on the margins of Tokyo. They demonstrate a fierce loyalty with a penchant for
petty theft and playful ways of making money dishonestly.
The fun and games end with the young son getting arrested. Secrets come to the surface and expose what little stability they did hold below-the-radar existence. They feel strong belief is not the blood that defines a family, but love defines the family. The premise is questioned and discussed throughout the movie
Kore-eda’s credits include Like Father, Like Son and Nobody Knows. Shoplifters movie is similar to these movies as an emotional exploration of the perseverance and tenacity of society’s outcasts and the love that sustains them. It is obvious why the movie won the Palme. The simplicity of the tender storytelling of inviting me to be a part of the imperfect people, showing what an oddball meaning to the family. Perhaps, redefining what a family is by showing a group of misfits similar sharing and behaving similarly to a family connected by blood.
“Shoplifters might be similar to Nobody Knows in the sense that this film also explores closely the sort of ‘punished’ families we regularly see in news reports. It wasn’t my intention simply to describe a poor family or the lower levels of the social strata. I rather think that the family in the film ended up gathering in that house not to collapse there. I wanted to shine a light on such a family from a different angle,” adds Kore-eda.
Like a voyeur, Shoplifters
draws me into their daily lives through various circumstances developed and bonded
together as a way to survive. Centered in the family’s cohesiveness is achieving
their livelihood through petty theft and grifting. The children of the group
are played beautifully and endearing by Jyo Kairi and Miyu Sasaki. I ponder the
director’s uncanny ability to facilitate the actors as a cohesive metaphor to
the brilliance of life itself.
“I started to think about which elements were unfolded and would be examined deeply after the casting was settled. As a result, this film is packed with the various elements I have been thinking about and exploring these last 10 years. It is the story of what family means, a story about a man trying to be a father, and furthermore, a coming-of-age story of a boy,” explains Kore-eda
The movie is worth watching, but it is in Japanese with English subtitles.
Directed by Laura Fairrie,Spiral is a documentary exposing the fact that over the last two decades, a rise in physical attacks and verbal assaults on Jews documented in many countries across Europe. Particularly, Jews in France are forced into a ghetto living condition, while some, are driven to leave France and immigrate to Israel.
At the same time an increasingly fractured world has exposed
deep political, social, and racial division, especially in France. The documentary
is about how a cycle of fear, hatred, and violence has taken hold.
I am not a fan of documentaries because they easily create
an image or vision that twists or skews the facts or truth of a situation. Spiral seems to be a movie about bigotry
with an anti-religious (anti-Semitism) happening in France. Apparently, the government
is doing nothing about it.
According to a conversation with Fairrie, she was approach
by John Battsek, produced One Day In
September, with the idea of investigating widespread reports of rising
attacks and abuse against Jewish people in Europe.
“After an intensive research period I wrote a detailed
document outlining my creative vision and the ournalism at the heart of the
film. Once Cohen Media committed to financing the film,” says Fairrie.
The documentary is about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in
France. The feel throughout the movie is fear with undercurrents of dread and
distrust. Yet, the scenes with the
teacher, François, changed the rhythm of the documentary. He understood the tensions
on all sides. Like he was an insider and knew the cause and effect of anti-Semitism.
Fairrie, somehow, obtained access to Dieudonné, who is a French
anti-Semitist comedian. He is well-known entertainer of African descent, disreputable
for mockery of the Holocaust while jabbing with anti-Semitism in general. Fairrie
got him to talk about his point of view in the matter. I was happy to hear in the movie that a legal
team is prosecuting him.
Some of the stories of hatred are hard to believe, and it’s
hard to confront such a situation in beautiful France. If one religion is being
attacked, then all religions are being attacked. Religious freedom!
The documentary is primarily in French with English
subtitles. The cinematography by Jean-Louis Schuller is beautiful at times and
works with the story of Jewish people in terrible situations. The movie is not entertaining.
The information is disheartening and without a sound resolution.
Co-written and directed by David Mackenzie, Outlaw King follows Robert the Bruce, played by Chris Pine. His life is transformed from defeated noble to a king to an outlaw as he struggles to reclaim medieval Scotland from occupation. Ambushed and reduced to a handful of supporters, Robert resolves himself to strike back against King Edward of England’s mighty army.
Robert is among the Scottish nobles who submitted to the occupying English King, Edward, played by Stephen Dillane. A marriage is arranged between Robert and Elizabeth de Burgh, played by Florence Pugh, a daughter of Edward’s ally.
An unnerving peace seems the only way forward which Robert and his family reluctantly accept. His relationship with his wife is feisty as they get to know each other. But crippling taxes, relentless force, men and boys being coerced under obligations of the feudal system to fight for King Edward only strengthen the rising rebellious emotions amongst the Scots.
Major events trigger a change in the overall climate of Scotland. The death of the family patriarch Bruce Senior, played by James Cosmo, news of the brutal demise of former rebel leader William Wallace, and finally the murder of Robert’s rival John Comyn, played by Callan Mulvey.
With the help of the Scottish Church – including Bishop Lamberton, played by Paul Blair, Robert resolves to become king and try to unify a divided country – many of whom do not want more war and are opposed to him because of their own blood ties.
If you know your Scottish history, you know the outcome of the story. I can give you a hint, though, it is one of the greatest comeback stories in history. “…I couldn’t shake the feeling that the period between 1304 and 1307 was where the most extreme things were happening – and this is what we have focused on. We conflated some characters and events in the interests of drama and time, but we have broadly been very faithful to the recorded history or this timeframe,” explained Mackenzie.
The Netflix produced movie will hopefully turn out to be a movie worth watching. So much of Scotland’s yesteryear events are page turners in historical books.
Scottish director Mackenzie whose body of work includes Hell or High Water and Young Adam is an excellent choice for this epic movie. Here are a couple of clips from Outlaw King. Nothing like the trailer but poignant in terms of key points in the movie’s storyline.
Directed by Rustom Mosafir and co-written with Vadim Golobanov, The Last Warrior is Mosafir’s second movie. The story delivers a brutal and unrelenting narrative filled with treachery and bloodshed against the framework of the turbulent 13th century Eurasia – joint continental landform of Europe and Asia.
The movie imparts a new era beginning in Eastern Europe. Scythians, the proud warriors, nearly all gone and most of the few remaining descendants turned into ruthless mercenary assassins. The story follows Lutobor who is a warrior and becomes involved in a conflict with two tribes. Lutobor sets off on a journey of peril with the intent of saving his family. His guide is a captive Scythian who is his enemy. They brave the treacherous wild steppes – a vast level area of treeless land in southern Europe. They journey toward the last haven of the Scythians. Their journey is fought with what might end up being their demise.
The movie is in Russian or English or in Russian with English subtitles. The cast includes Aleksey Faddeev, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, and Yuriy Tsurilo.
Very little information is available for me to share with you in regards to which actor plays which character and crew listing. The costumes and scenery are fantastical. Mosafir places the camera within the action and drama of the story. The imagery is gruesome and beautiful at times. Though, I don’t recommend the movie for those with faint hearts.
While watching the movie, I kept thinking what it must have been like living in Eurasia during the 13th century, lawless, full of superstitions, ignorance, and illiteracy.
Co-written and directed by Arnaud Desplechin, Ismael’s Ghosts is a convoluted story about Ismael’s life as a filmmaker. His wife Carlotta, played by Marion Cotillard, who ran away twenty-one years ago, returns and is back just as he is about to start shooting his next movie.
Please be patient as I try to explain the movie because it is French and there are so many layers to the movie.
On the other hand, Ismael, played by Mathieu Amalric, has been busy rebuilding a life for himself with Sylvia, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, and working on his next feature film. Ismael’s trials and tribulations open up the story becomes more and more layered with dissociated situations.
The one storyline that I found easy to follow was when Carlotta returns and moves into the beach house with Ismael and Sylvia. Creating an uncomfortable situation far beyond the old saying threes a crowd. Her arrival complicates their lives. I yearned to see this story unfold and be the only story in the movie.
Other situations become apparent with various ghosts from Ismael’s past. The story introduces several characters. One is Ivan, played by Louis Garrel, a diplomat who journeys around the world without understanding it. The same goes for the title character, Ismael. He is a film director who journeys through his life without understanding it either.
Desplechin says the movie is five films compressed into one. Ismael is harried. And yet up in his attic, Ismael tries to hold all the threads of what is happening together. Throughout the movie are twists and turns with each scene raw and brutal.
Gainsbourg is brilliant as Sylvia who teaches Ismael how to live. Her acting career is extensive with Antichrist directed by Lars Von Trier. She won Best Actress, Cannes Film Festival 2009. She played Jane Eyre in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre.
Gainsbourg’s scenes with Cotillard makes watching the movie worth it. Two powerhouse actresses playing off each other is real and heartbreaking. Cotillard’s acting career is just as impressive, though she is in more American movies than Gainsbourg. She worked with several American directors including Christopher Nolan, Robert Zemeckis, Woody Allen, and Rob Marshall. Cotillard won an Oscar, Cesar, and Golden Globe in 2008 for her role as Edith Piaf in the French movie La Vie En Rose directed by Olivier Dahan.
Amalric may seem familiar to Wes Anderson fans because he started in The Grand Budapest Hotel. One of my favorite Anderson movies.
Desplechin career is well-known in France and Ismael’s Ghosts received the honor with 2017 Cannes Film Festival – World Premiere and Opening Night Film.
Julie Peyr and Lea Mysius co-wrote the screenplay with Desplechin. Peyr also worked on the screenplay for Desplechin’s The Golden Days.
Written and directed by Fatih Akin, In the Fade is the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress Festival De Cannes for Diane Kruger’s performance of Katija. Her life suddenly falls apart because out of nowhere her husband Nuri, played by Numan Acar, and little son Rocco, played by Rafael Santana, are killed in a bomb attack. Kruger performance is so believable in these scenes it was hard for me to watch. Any wife and mother will relate to what it must be like to suddenly lose your family.
Katija friends and family try to give her the support she needs, and Katja somehow manages to make it through the funeral. But the mind-numbing search for the perpetrators and reasons behind the senseless killing complicate Katja’s painful mourning, opening wounds and doubts. The mourning is not too long and fits well with the storyline.
Danilo, played by Denis Moschitto, a lawyer and Nuri’s best friend, represents Katja in the eventual trial against the two suspects. The suspects are a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge, but there’s simply no alternative for her because she wants justice.
In the Fade is a political film that throws a lot of punches at the injustice of senseless killings to make a strong statement. Kruger is a strong actress and brings believability to her role. There are situations in the film which explain the injustice but Katija doesn’t buy it and wants justice.
The film is in German with English subtitles. Special features include cast interviews, Behind In The Fade & Inside In The Fade.
