Interview: The Director of Israel's Oscar Submission ‘Cinema Sabaya’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

The winner of Israel’s Oscars, the Ophir Awards, automatically goes on to become the country’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature. This year, that film is Cinema Sabaya, which has an encore screening at the Other Israel Film Festival in New York City this Sunday after showing at last year’s festival. It’s also the feature directorial debut of Orit Fouks Rotem, who was kind enough to speak with me about her approach to this engaging movie about making movies...

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Interview: 'Mars One' director on Brazilian politics, representation, and hope

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Gabriel Martins' Oscar submission Mars One tells the story of a working class Brazilian family on the brink of the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. The family is composed of a father working at a high-rise, a mother dealing with trauma, a daughter on the verge of coming out to her family, and a young boy who dreams of going to Mars. The film is a beautifully restrained examination of contemporary Brazil through the lens of class, race, and gender.

Mars One is Brazil's contender for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In our interview, writer/director Gabriel Martins discusses the development of his film coinciding with the rise of Bolsonaro's divisive politics, how the long-gestating journey of the film helped him shape the final output, and how recent developments in Brazilian cinema have given him hope...

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Interview: 'Goddamned Asura' director Lou Yi-an on his multi-layered crime drama

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Inspired by a 2014 real-life killing, Goddamned Asura explores the lives of six people involved in a ramdom shooting in a night market, including the perpetrator - a troubled teenager named Jan Wen. The film follows not only the lead-up to the shooting incident, but also the aftermath of the characters as they face the repercussions of the actions of Jan Wen.The result is a somber exploration of class, isolation, and violence that is unfortunately still timely and universal.

Goddamned Asura is Taiwan's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In this interview, co-writer and director Lou Yi-an expounds on the origins and themes of the story as well as explaining some terms with their cultural context compared to their English translation...

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Interview: Director and star of the essential new film 'Happening'

by Nathaniel R

HAPPENING French poster (left), Actress Anamaria Vartolomei and Director Audrey Diwan in Venice (right)

Last year The Film Experience had two teammates in Venice for the first time. The Power of the Dog emerged as the buzziest title given its legendary director and a never better star. Another legendary director guided his celebrated muse to a Best Actress win with Parallel Mothers. But the revelation of the festival, since no one saw it coming, proved to be the intimate drama Happening from French writer/director Audrey Diwan. Elisa and I both raved about it in our festival coverage. When the festival came to a close Happening triumphed taking home the top prize, the Golden Lion. It's finally in US movie theaters courtesy of IFC Films. You shouldn't miss it.

The film, based on Annie Ernaux's memoir, is about a young gifted student who experiences an unwanted pregnancy in the 1960s. She doesn't know who to turn to for help or what can be done (abortion was then  illegal in France). The filmmaker Audrey Diwan also came, initially, from the world of literature "I know this character. I've been reading about her forever since Annie Ernaux's work is always autobiographical." Diwan's own journey as an artist wasn't as clear to her at first. "I told myself I had to take my time in order to figure out exactly what matters to me and what I have to say." That patience and her clarity of vision has served her well in her breakthrough feature. I recently sat down with her and Happening's 23 year old tremendous leading lady Anamaria Vartolomei for a chat about their movie...

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Interview: Peeter Rebane on the gay romantic drama "Firebird"

by Nathaniel R

Writer/Director Peeter Rebane (left) and his narrative feature debut "Firebird"

Sometimes timelessness is a curse. We don't neccessarily want period pieces about forbidden oppressed gay romances to feel especially resonate in the now. Neverthless that's what's happened with Firebird. Peeter Rebane's narrative debut, which recently opened in select cities, tells the true story of a gay soldier and his clandestine romance with a fighter pilot in a Russian airforce base in Estonia during the Cold War. The film has been in the works for ten years but in the interim Russian culture has become more virulently anti-gay (stoked by homophobic 'strong-man' Putin) and aggressive about it; please see the tremendous documentary Welcome to Chechnya if you haven't. At the moment Russia is also waging war on Ukraine which adds yet more unexpected charge to the film since one of the two leads playing Russian military men, Oleg Zagorodnii, is Ukrainian. 

When I sat down with the director Peeter Rebane, we talked about all this, as well as co-writing with his openly gay leading actor (Tom Prior), directing sex scenes, and homophobia in former Soviet countries... 

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