Sundance World Cinema Preview

by Murtada Elfadl

Sundance is primarily a film festival for American independent films, however in the last few years it has made a concerted effort to include more titles from around the world. As the festival starts today in the snowy mountains of Utah, I thought I’d shed light on a few interesting international titles...

Jumbo (France/Luxembourg/Belgium)

How do you follow up your big international breakout in a much loved auteur driven romance? For Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) you do it by choosing another romance with a female director (Zoé Wittock), only this time your character falls in love with an amusement park ride. Jumbo is a beautifully shot empathetic look at a small town eccentric. It’s one of those movies that dares you to believe in magic and unexplained enigmas but if you lose yourself to it, you’ll have an excellent time. Merlant is so compelling that she might make us all believe in romantic possibilities with inanimate objects.

Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness (Iran)

A real time, ticking clock thriller about survival in which the lead character might be condemned to death or be forgiven. Is this The Hunger Games of Teheran? Not exactly.  Iranian law allows for a murder victim’s family to forgive the prepetrator so Maryam, a young woman who’s killed her much older husband goes on a TV game show to ask for mercy from her daughter in law. This one location heightened thriller takes you places you’d never expect, and the fraught situation of familial secrets and shifting loyalties shows a director - Massoud Bahkshi - who can mix tense thriller elements with nuanced character exploration.

Summer White (Mexico)

Another thriller about a knotty family situation. In director Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson’s film we follow a 13 year old who’s world is utterly shaken and disrupted when his divorced mother, with whom he lives, starts a serious relationship with a seemingly nice man. This taut smart story keeps shifting perspectives and allegiances and in so doing becomes highly watchable.

Luxor (Egypt / UK)

As someone who speaks Arabic and loves Egypian movies I was thrilled to find a movie set in the historical Egyptian city, Luxor. Writer/director Zeina Durra takes full advantage of Luxor’s beautiful archeological sites in crafting this wandering love story about a reunion between a British surgeon (Andrea Riseborough) shell shocked by war and the Egyptian archeologist (Karim Saleh) whom she loved and lost many years ago. The chemistry between the actors and the gorgeous locations make this a perfect choice for Sundance.

This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lesotho/South Africa)

Some of the things I crave in movies; Lush colors, deeply felt heightened emotions, and a story I have never seen before. All of these elements are in abundance in Writer/director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese vivid meditation on life and death. Mary Twala Mhlongo is the sort of actor you can’t take your off, and here she plays  an 80-year-old widow who’s not afraid of staring death in the face while fighting to stop her village’s resettlement because authorities want to build a dam right through it. It’s a unique and gorgeous story.

More Sundance 2020:
Sundance Jury
Promising Young Woman Trailer
5 Films to Get Excited About