Another year in Würzburg, another International Film Weekend. As I did last year, I bought a 10-pack of tickets a couple weeks before the festival took place. Unfortunately, I was only able to find time to use 5 of the tickets to actually see films, but I was happy with my choices. Here’s a quick run-down of what I saw and what I thought about them. There are probably some spoilers.
This is England 
This is England takes place in England during the tail end of the Falklands War. A young, bullied kid gets taken in by a group of well-meaning skinheads. A friend returning from a stint in prison fractures the group and takes it (with the youngster) in the nationalistic, racially-oriented direction that skinheads are generally known for. From here, things spiral downwards before reaching a violent climax.
I really enjoyed This is England, especially the performance by the bullied kid, Thomas Turgoose. The portrayal of the “old-school”, rude-boy influenced skinhead s showed a side of that subculture that isn’t widely known. In contrast, the racist who returns from prisons shows the image of a skinhead that most people associate with the term. The one part of the film that left me cold was the ending, which I felt dragged on a bit too long after the tense climax.
Der große Navigator 
Der große Navigator (The Great Navigator) is a documentary film about a German missionary who is sent to former East Germany to mission to the masses and attract churchgoers and do what missionaries, in general, do. Along the way, themes such as materialism and the role of religion are dealt with.
I enjoyed this film although I think I missed out on a lot of it because I was in the first row and had to crane my neck to see the screen. Add to that the fact that I was blasted by the nearby speakers and you end up with a less-than-optimal foreign-movie going experience. Nevertheless, seeing a new (for me) part of German culture (former East Germany) was fascinating, although I’m not completely sold on the idea that the film couldn’t have been made anywhere else in Germany.
Lastochki Prileteli 
Lastochki Prileteli (Swallows Have Arrived) is about a Russian professor’s fight with drug addiction. It follows his downward spiral to the point where he’s trapped in his house by withdrawal and paranoia.
Aside from watching the film in a sweltering theater, I enjoyed Lastochki Prileteli well enough. It was a bit slow, but that also worked well with the addiction theme in a lot of ways. This was enhanced by the fact that the director didn’t actually show the protagonist using any drugs until much later in the film.
Gymnaslærer Pedersen 
Gymnaslærer Pedersen (Pedersen: High-School Teacher) is a film about a Norwegian high school teacher who gets caught up in the socialist movement of the 70s. Along the way, he falls for a fellow comrade leading to a complementary love plot.
This was a really fun film. Fantastical scene transitions and the imagination of the characters were shown in over the top, humorous ways. The entire film is told as a flashback, which serves to show the difference between students in the 70s and those from the present day. It’s hard to imagine a socialist (or any type, for that matter) rebellion coming from the happy-go-lucky present day students.
Das Erbe der Bergler 
Das Erbe der Bergler (The Legacy of the Mountain People) is a documentary about a group of people in Switzerland that, once a year, go up on the mountains and cut hay for usage/sale in the village. This involves hiking up the mountain (or taking a helicopter if you’re too old to hike because you’ve been doing it for 60 years), cutting hay in alpine meadows on the side of the mountain, and bundling it to be sent down to the valley to be stored until Winter. The bundles are sent by sliding them down a steel cable, which makes a pretty dramatic scene.
This was an awesome documentary about a tradition that is still carried out like it was decades ago: with handmade tools and hard labor. The tools used by the workers were hand-crafted by artisans in the village. When the bundles are retrieved from the barn in Winter, the villagers use sleds also created in the village. Unfortunately, there wasn’t too much dialog, as that’s one of the things that makes Swiss films so fun. Instead, the director let the work of the Bergler speak for itself. The director himself was at the screening and answered questions afterwards, another film festival benefit.
The thesis of this post, if there is one, is that film festivals kick ass. I’ve been to the Würzburg International Film Weekend two years in a row now and not been disappointed. When I lived in Edinburgh, I attended the Edinburgh International Film Festival and had a blast. Most of the films I saw at the EIFF were at Filmhouse Cinema, which is, bar none, the best cinema I’ve ever been to. I spent many hundreds of pounds when I lived around the corner from it. I can only hope that, one day, Grandin Theatre gets it act together and is able to host something as interesting. Midnight showings of the Goonies are awesome, but not exactly intellectually demanding.
