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Our first voyage through the Best International Feature contenders took us to the films of the latest Oscar champions: South Korea, Mexico, and Chile. Now, we shall turn our attention to nations that haven't been nearly as lucky with AMPAS. The entire African continent, in fact, has been chronically ignored by the Academy ever since the genesis of this award. Shining a light on the African cinema in contention this year, we find the first-ever submissions from Lesotho and Sudan, as well as a deadpan comedy from Morocco…
THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT'S A RESURRECTION (Lesotho)
In a small country village, 80-year-old widow Mantoa waits for the return of her son. However, what arrives is news of his end, a body to be interred alongside those of the matriarch's husband, daughter, grandchildren, and ancestors. Mouth bitter with the taste of Death, Mantoa regards God and Nature with contempt, wishing for her passing, an end to all the pain. However, when the land she regards as an Eden and a graveyard is threatened by outside forces, grief becomes the fuel that feeds the fires of defiance. If she has to sacrifice herself to galvanize her community, so be it. Mantoa knows, as we also come to discover, that Death may tear apart, but it also unites. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, a cinematographer turned director, shoots her story as an ancestral pageant complete with repetitive rites and symbolic costumes, folkloric storytelling, old beliefs, primordial fears. It's a picture like none other, a brilliantly unique piece of filmmaking whose beauty is impossible to overstate, each of its images branding itself in the audience's mind with disquieting violence. How can one forget the luminous blue of Mantoa's resting place or the mournful spectacle of ashes rising from the earth, carried by the breeze like snow falling upwards? Lead actress Mary Twala died in July of last year, leaving behind a masterful final film and a powerhouse performance whose silent strength is awe-inspiring. A-
THE UNKNOWN SAINT (Morocco)
From its opening moments, Alaa Eddine Aljem's The Unknown Saint announces itself as a comedy of the absurd whose sense of humor is as bone-dry as the desert vistas that dominate its frames. With the police on his heels and a car that's giving up the ghost, a messy-haired thief buries his loot in the barren land, fashioning his hiding place as an unmarked grave. Years later, after completing his sentence, the same criminal returns in search of his treasure, only to find a shrine erected around the fake grave honoring an unknown saint. As the narrative unravels, Aljem's camera drifts from the dumbfounded thief to the villagers who live near the monument, lovingly documenting their idiosyncrasies in rigidly composed tableaux whose long duration brings out the humor in the seemingly mundane. Colorful details like the vexing abundance of misspelled signage or televised nature documentaries that verge on snail erotica paint a whimsical picture with a heart steeped in cynicism. Still, while Lilian Corbeille edits the film to the rhythm of a steady metronome, the stone-faced nature of the comedy asks for a swifter narrative structure. As it stands, The Unknown Saint is an austere delight that overstays its welcome despite some chuckle-inducing gags and an insightful reflection on the role of faith in everyday life. B-
YOU WILL DIE AT 20 (Sudan)
Adapted from Hammour Ziada's short story Sleeping at the Foot of the Mountain, the first Sudanese Oscar submission's the tale of a man whose death at the age of twenty was predicted by a sheik upon his birth. From then on, young Muzami's existence becomes a waiting game, a half-life lived in darkness and fear. Religion offers him solace, but the pull of desperate hedonism is too seductive, like two mighty forces fighting for a condemned soul. While this happens, Muzami's mother, Sakina, goes through her painful transformations. Haunted by ominous dreams and terrified by her child's fate, she dresses in perpetual mourning as if the boy's already six-feet-under. Director Amjad Abu Alala, winner of the Best Debut award at Venice, explores matters of belief and need for purpose, for paternal love, through this story. Nonetheless, his characters struggle to emerge as more than meat puppets in a conceptual exercise. Muzami's particularly nebulous, while the strength of Islam Mubarak's performance does manage to make up for Sakina's narrative undefinitions. The advent of sexual assault near the end highlights the troubles of characterization, revealing the problematic nature of an unfocused perspective on Muzami's arc, his actions, his choices. What impresses most and manages to elevate the film is its formal splendor. From Sébastien Goepfert's painterly cinematography to Amin Bouhafa's melancholic score, You Will Die at 20 is a marvel of austere craft. B-
Judging by its Visionary Award victory at Sundance and near-universal critical acclaim, Lesotho's This is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection feels like the safest bet from this trio. However, The Unknown Saint's got a good reputation too as well as connections to Hollywood. Woody Allen's one of the many people who gave notes to Alla Eddine Aljem when he was workshopping the screenplay. Despite its gorgeous images, You Will Die at 20 seems like the likeliest one to be ignored by AMPAS despite being the only one of these already released in the US.