A World of Kino 38 | The St Andrews Film Festival

What’s this in the title? Why, if it isn’t my very first film festival for this blog! My town just hosted a film festival, and like the good cinephile I am, I attended everything I could. I managed to get through most of the features, but there were like 50 short films, so I didn’t manage to see all of those. Also, amusingly enough, the film that won Best Feature is actually the film I disliked the most! Still, I have loads of great stuff to share with you today (I’m cutting out the trash), so this episode will be purely dedicated to these festival films – which, now that I think about it, you probably have no means of watching for yourself… but oh well.

Beginning at home in the depth of the Scottish winter, Charles Scott’s film debut Seeking Glass is a remarkable achievement.

A bludgeoned body outside an old church unravels a dark mystery surrounding Saint Columba’s glass book.

A dark mystery full of ominous suspense, always dangling a carrot in front of you to entice you further into its enigmatic world. For a film of this type, the directing is really impressive. Scott clearly loves the candlelight aesthetic, and for good reason because it looks beautiful. He infuses it into almost every single frame, giving the film a gorgeous orange glow. The acting could do some work, since it was rather stilted, especially when tackling the pseudo-religious stuff; and it would have been nice to have more dialogue so as to give energy to the plodding detective plot. But Scott’s directing is undoubtedly remarkable, so he shows a lot of promise as an up and coming filmmaker.

A documentary on Mark Cousins is not something I expected to find at this festival, but it was decent.

An intimate film on the creative daily life of Mark Cousins.

For those who don’t know, Cousins is most well known for making a great documentary called The Story of Film (the book is better though), which explores the entire history of cinema as a global phemonenon rather than purely euro-centric, shining the spotlight on filmmakers who have undeservedly remained in the dark. It’s certainly quintessential viewing for all cinephiles.The Flowers the Fish and the Cockerel is definitely not of the same caliber however, in both substance and style. The filmmakers have a youthful spirit to experiment and learn, but as they themselves say, they’re not yet entirely comfortable with their craft. Which is fine, because this film is simply looking to capture what it’s like to spend a few days with Mark to learn about him from a perspective that isn’t common for filmmakers. Cousins is a very interesting figure, so the film shined the most when he was allowed to just riff on life.

From Scotland all the way to India (yes, this was a proper international festival), I give you Parcel.

A doctor starts receiving mysterious parcels with photographs of her, putting her marriage in jeopardy. 

I just love how it started with children beautifully playing violins. The music seriously hit me, priming me for the gorgeously emotional journey that was no doubt about to come. But after that shockingly amazing beginning, the film sadly wasn’t able to keep me enganged. It’s probably my own fault, since this is my fourth feature length film today (two of which I haven’t written my review on yet since they annoyingly aren’t on LB). But while my experience was definitely hampered by me pushing my luck today, The Parcel is nevertheless incredibly slow paced – much more so than Tamaran Hill. It’s frustrating, since it’s objectively very well made, with incredible mise-en-scene and an expert handling of the camera. I just couldn’t get engaged by the lackluster drama, which while built on the back of an intriguing premise, seriously relied too much on hysterical overreactions.

Now for the film that got hyped up for the entire week in the lead up to its premiere: Man of God.

Exiled unjustly, convicted without trial, slandered without cause. Man of God depicts the trials and tribulations of Saint Nektarios of Aegina, as he bears the unjust hatred of his enemies while preaching the Word of God.

This had so much potential to be a masterpiece, but it ultimately fell flat. Yelena Popovic gives a truly impressive directorial debut, with excellent framing and a brilliant ability to draw out the right emotions from each scene. I’m not a fan of the washed out colour palette, but she still managed to elevate the otherwise drab aesthetic with some rather lovely cinematography. It’s the narrative that sadly lost me. Plodding along with barely a semblance of progression, while still not ruminating enough to craft something deep and meaningful. I do like films that grapple with faith and unjust persecution, but this film never manages to become as poignant as something like Scorsese’s Silence. Aris Servetalis is certainly fantastic in his role though, giving an immensely complex performance as his piety is tested, but Man of God simply never manages to hit its stride even as it arrives at that melancholicly beautiful death.

These next films are the ones that I found to be with nary a flaw, made all the more impressive by the fact that most are their director’s very first outing into film! Let’s begin with the first film I watched from the festival: Metamorphosis in the Slaughterhouse.

Shadi’s parents have been killed by villagers seeking revenge for the alleged murder of a girl, so she must now face the problems that the people of the village caused her.

I sadly couldn’t find any parallels with Kafka’s Metamorphosis as I was hoping based on the title (that would have made for a very different film), but Javad Daraei’s filmmaking style definitely evokes Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, with a multitude of arid shots lingering on solitary figures as they elicit a wealth of emotions through the most miniscule of movements. The blatantly fake crying doesn’t detract in the slightest from this quietly tragic drama, slowly marinated in ramping tension and a tremendous lead performance from Sarina Yousefi (who even won the award for best actress!) to exponentially heighten the power. Every time the film shows dangers of feeling tacky, Daraei always makes sure to revamp the energy with a subtle explosion of colour – especially of a lovely minty flavour that I never really get to see in film – or by breaking his otherwise steadfastly refrained cinematography with erratic camera movements amidst chiaroscuro lighting. And who knew I could ever be made to feel so emotionally attached to a hen of all things? Seriously powerful stuff!

I think we’ve spent enough time in the east, so allow me to bring us back to Europe with this Italian film: Est.

A few weeks before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Pago, Rice and Bibi leave the calm city of Cesena looking for adventure: a ten-days-long holiday in Eastern Europe, in those places where the Soviet regime is still alive.

A road trip with near Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara levels of comedy and chemistry between its trio, only paired with a tense, Soviet-style political thriller rather than Bollywood romance. The three leads won a joint award for best actor, which was well deserved because they truly are what makes this film so enjoyable to watch. Intercutting between archive footage of Romania under dictatorship with its amusingly Pulp Fictionesque obsession with a suitcase, Est manages to expertly balance a fun plot with its heartfelt tone. This is a solidly constructed film from start to finish, with great writing and superb music.

We have now arrived at my three favourite films from the festival. Taking home the bronze is All on a Summer’s Day.

On the way to a final gig before she joins the rat race, Nicky’s car breaks down on a quiet country lane off a motorway locally known as the Highway of Tears. When a Samaritan stops to offer help, she is unsure whether to trust him.

It’s rare to see an already established actor make an appearance in such a tiny film, but Antonia Thomas really does outshine every single other actor in this festival. From her expressions of utter contempt at the start, all the way to her unhinged terror as the film delves into horror, Thomas goes through such a powerful, tear-stricken transformation. She honestly deserved to win best actress more than Yousefi, but the competition was certainly tough. At the very least, she more than makes up for Avril Russell’s rather strange directing decisions, because while its shot and edited well, the CGI towards the end was seriously rough. But Jamie Sives is also deliciously creepy, striking a fantastic state of uncanny kindness that derails All on a Summer’s Day into extremely uncomfortable – yet wholly gripping – territory.

In second place is the winner of best cinematography: Tamaran Hill.

Hinako comes across the novel “Tamaran Hill” and immediately starts reading it with delight, as “tamaran” (intolerable) happens to be her father’s favorite swear word. She soon imagines herself inside the book’s story, which also deals with someone intrigued with that particular word, and even meets the real-life author Senji Kuroi there.

This is by far the most sophisticated film I’ve seen in this festival! Well, aside from the film in first place, of course.Tamaran Hill feels heavily inspired by Yasujiro Ozu’s films, which is weird to say since I haven’t actually liked any Ozu films myself, so perhaps I’m finally becoming attracted to them, because I was utterly engrossed throughout. 

The very basic premise is that of a girl learning about her own past in tandem with the past of where she lives. In reading a book about how Tamaran Hill came into existence – the reading part of which is shown in intricate, almost excruciating detail – the film starts to flourish with the most subtle of emotions. Tadasuke Kotani pairs the narrative of the hill with a heartbreaking personal story, performed with a gorgeous level of melancholy by Hinako Watanabe. There’s something quite quaint about exploring the etymology of a hill, and Kotani explores it beautifully. It seems like such a boring endeavour – and Tamaran Hill is certainly a very slow-burning piece of quiet contemplation – but this seemingly innocuous hill is teeming with a wealth of history. It makes one wonder about what fascinating stories are contained within every individual street, and what more films can capture that visceral connection to ones home.

This next one won the award for best short film, and incidently is the only short film that I will be displaying. It’s not that the rest weren’t good, it’s just that most of the short films I watched simply weren’t substantial enough to review. But believe it or not, The Back-flow Rain is my absolute favourite film from this festival.

Legend has it that city Sa witnesses a back-flow rain falling from the ground to the sky on every summer solstice.

You know a film is going to be amazing when it starts with a long take. But not a boring long take where the camera sits still on a scene of two characters talking (like so many novice filmmakers do). Oh no, this long take tracks the main character through the house while they narrate the theme of the film (broken families); before panning outside of the house as her parents return, have a conversation, then walk inside – which, might I add, gorgeously changes the colour palette from warm oranges to cold blues; before then somehow becoming a crane shot that moves us up to the balcony where the mother is crying, slowly closing up on her; before going through the window to focus on the main character again, who then listens to her parents argue from down the corridor through a crack in her door; ultimately ending with an explosive exit and the main girl collapsing on the balcony. 

That’s just the first scene, and at no point during the modest half hour long runtime does the filmmaking ever decrease in sheer excellence. In fact, the emotions keep ramping up, with superb performances from the two Zhangs (who I assume actually are mother and daughter), delivering such poignant dialogue that elicits my favourite kind of melancholic rumination. Yudan Yang’s mastery of the camera is unlike any other, with a screenplay that is laced with such mature sorrow. How she has been able to craft something so beautiful as her very first film is beyond me. To spark my love for the film further, she even said in her acceptance speech that she felt the film was too immature! Nothing could be further from the truth, but if that’s a sign of things to come, then mark my words this girl is going places. I simply cannot wait to see what she makes next.