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Aurora Borealis: Északi fény[/caption]
The 2018 Stony Brook Film Festival presented by Island Federal Credit Union presents films of great diversity this summer, both in their themes and their settings. The
schedule for the ten-day Festival, held at Staller Center at Stony Brook University from July 19-28, is available
online at stonybrookfilmfestival.com.
Alan Inkles, founder and director of the Stony Brook Film Festival, comments, “Films from nineteen different countries, from Scotland to Spain, Argentina to Afghanistan, and coast to coast across the United States, promise to take filmgoers on an extraordinary journey. We have carefully curated this Festival to give patrons a great mix of the best in new independent films. Many filmmakers and actors are coming to the Festival to represent their films and will take the stage for questions and answers. It’s a highlight of the Festival to hear from them.”
This year the Stony Brook Film Festival travels from a war-torn past to an embattled future, from light-hearted comedies to heart-stopping thrillers, and from modern class struggles to sexual abuse stories that feel straight out of the #MeToo movement. Some of the films take place over decades, while others unfold in real time. There are social-media addicted mobsters, Shakespearian partygoers, and a shoe-stealing soccer prodigy.
The opening night film,
Shelter, is an international spy thriller from returning filmmaker Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree, Zaytoun) that follows an Israeli agent protecting a Lebanese informant in Germany, and features actress Golshifteh Farahani (best known to U.S. audiences from Paterson, and to Stony Brook audiences from My Sweet Pepperland and About Ella) as well as acclaimed Israeli actress Neta Riskin. (Thursday, July 19 at 8:00 pm)
The closing night film, Aurora Borealis: Északi fény, was directed and co-written by the incredible Márta Mészáros, who—with 65 directing credits to her name going all the way back to 1954—is one of Hungary’s most accomplished female directors. A film that is part mystery and part war-drama, it not only uncovers atrocities during the Soviet occupation of Hungary, it also confronts secrets from the past and the measures people will take to protect those they love. (Saturday, July 28 at 8:00 pm)
Premieres at the Stony Brook Film Festival
The World Premiere of Dean Darling on Saturday, July 21st at 4:00 pm is an ambitious, coming-of-age drama created by local, Long Island talent and shot entirely in Smithtown and Coney Island on a miniscule budget. The film was written and directed by Calogero Carucci and features Douglas Towers, Joel Widman and Allison Frasca.
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The Etruscan Smile[/caption]
Acclaimed actor Brian Cox returns to the Stony Brook Film Festival in the U.S. Premiere of The Etruscan Smile, in which a rugged, old Scotsman who has reluctantly left his beloved Scottish Isle for medical treatment finds his life transformed by a new-found bond with his baby grandson. This gem also stars Thora Birch, JJ Field, and Roseanna Arquette, with several of the actors planning to be in attendance at the 9:30 pm screening on Saturday, July 21st.
Other U.S. Premieres include Octav, a nostalgic, life-affirming story from Romania (Saturday, July 21st at 7:00 pm), Outdoors, a captivating film about a city couple building a home in the country from Israel (Tuesday, July 24 at 7:00 pm), Growing Up, a riotous, romantic comedy from Spain (Friday, July 20 at 9:30 pm), and
A Dysfunctional Cat, a quirky story about two Iranians navigating their arranged marriage—and a very bizarre cat—while living in Germany (Wednesday, July 25 at 7:00 pm).
Female Filmmakers at the Stony Brook Film Festival
Fourteen films are by female directors, with Growing Up written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Clara Martínez-Lázaro, and A Dysfunctional Cat, written and directed by Iranian-German filmmaker Susan Gordanshekan. Another female-helmed feature,
The Tale, has writer and director Jennifer Fox recounting her personal story of sexual abuse at a very young age in an intense, unnerving and cathartic work starring Laura Dern, Elizabeth Debicki, Ellen Burstyn and Isabelle Nélisse (Friday, July 27 at 7:00 pm).
Other women filmmakers include writer and director Isabel Coixet, whose film
The Bookshop was adapted from the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald about a widow who puts her grief behind her and opens a bookshop in a small, seaside town in England (Friday, July 20 at 7:00 pm). Virna Molina, who co-wrote and co-directed Symphony for Ana, recounts the struggle of high school students during the bloodiest coup d’etat in Argentina (Thursday, July 26 at 7:00 pm). Writer and director Samantha Davidson Green, whose Thrasher Road is a big-hearted father/daughter road trip, screens on Sunday, July 22 at 9:30 pm. Skye Borgman, director of the documentary
Abducted in Plain Sight, recounts the absolutely bizarre double-kidnapping of Jan Broberg in the 70’s (Sunday, July 22 at 4:00 pm). Female-directed short films have been chosen that will stretch boundaries and touch hearts– shorts by Amy Wang, writer/director/actress Ashley Grace, Tesia Walker, Jackie L. Stone, and Helen Crosse.
Films with Heart and Films with Guts
Other selected films include My Brother Simple, a heart-warming and humorous story about a young man trying to take custody of his mentally-handicapped adult brother, screening on Sunday, July 22 at 7:00 pm.
The Guilty, an edge-of-your-seat thriller from Denmark that takes place entirely in an alarm dispatch facility, screens on Monday, July 23 at 9:30 pm. Trauma, an intense documentary about the medics and pilots of a US Black Hawk medevac unit in Afghanistan screens on Tuesday, July 24 at 9:30 pm. Wednesday, July 25 at 9:30 pm showcases
Funny Story, a dark comedy about a womanizing former TV star trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. The emotional journey of
A Boy, A Girl, A Dream unfolds in real time against the backdrop of the 2016 Presidential election on Thursday, July 26 at 9:30 pm.
Other shorts include stories about a young woman with cerebral palsy falling in love, an Israeli patient finding out she has an Arab doctor, a foreman protecting her workers from the Department of Labor, and a law school student trying to explain a rather dire situation to police detectives.
Images credit:
The Etruscan Smile (Rosanna Arquette and Brian Cox pictured), photo credit: Po Valley Productions
Aurora Borealis: Eszaki feny (Closing Night feature, Franciska Töröcsik pictured) photo credit: The Hungarian National Film Fund
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Whatever Happens Next[/caption]
14 films, including six full-length fiction and four documentary films, will compete for the Kompass-Perspektive-Preis, endowed with 5,000 euros, at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival. In addition, a neighborhood film project that focuses on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin will be a guest at Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2018.
Sure, you can always take off. Soon. Right now. Or later. You could just be gone, just steal away from a fully furnished life. But then what happens? Everyone has thought about it but very few actually do it: leave their intended path. It’s risky, it’s exciting, it’s brave and whimsical. Paul Zeise (Sebastian Rudolph) goes for it in the debut film Whatever Happens Next (produced by The StoryBay, Salzwedel) by director Julian Pörksen. Paul travels across the country crashing funerals and parties, moves in with off-the-wall Nele (Lilith Stangenberg) for a while, and generally floats around in the wonderland we call life. A short film by director Julian Pörksen was presented at Perspektive Deutsches Kino in 2012. Whatever Happens Next is his first feature-length fiction work.
Director Susan Gordanshekan is also returning to Perspektive Deutsches Kino with her debut feature Die defekte Katze (A Dysfunctional Cat, produced by Glory Film, Munich). The film tells the story of an Iranian couple who only begin to get to know each other after entering traditional marriage, and then fall short of success when faced with the challenges of life together in Germany. The story is about liberating oneself from different lifestyle ideals and giving love a second chance.
The debut film Verlorene (Lost Ones, produced by VIAFILM, Munich) by Felix Hassenfratz takes us deep into provincial Baden, where everyone knows everybody and the siblings Maria (Maria Dragus) and Hannah (Anna Bachmann) live alone with their father (Clemens Schick) following the death of their mother. Director Felix Hassenfratz is well acquainted with the environment and tells a small town story where fear of the unknown is just as strong as a yearning for it.
The horror/love story Luz is the graduation film by director Tilman Singer and production designer Dario Méndez Acosta from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Luz, a young taxi driver from Latin America, stumbles into a police headquarters with the last of her strength. She’s being pursued by a demon, who is determined to finally be close to his beloved. Tilman Singer describes the work as an erotic 16mm thriller that plays with audience perception.
Three more documentary films have also been selected for the Perspektive program. In The Best Thing You Can Do With Your Life (produced by Zita Erffa, Petruvski Films, in Tegernsee, with co-production by the HFF Munich), director Zita Erffa asks her brother László about his motivation for entering a Legion of Christ monastery. Eight years after his departure, she can finally visit him and ask why he left her alone in her family. For both, the camera functions as a catalyst to find harmony. The political documentary Impreza – Das Fest (Impreza – The Celebration, produced by DREIFILM, Munich) also takes a highly personal approach. Her aunt’s 50th wedding anniversary is an opportunity for director Alexandra Wesolowski to visit her family in Poland. But instead of being about the party, the conversations she documents soon focus completely on politics. In Überall wo wir sind (Everywhere We Are, produced by Veronika Kaserer) director Veronika Kaserer follows a family after the death of one of its members – the parents who lost a son and a sister who lost a brother. In the organisation of daily activities and the narratives of the protagonists, battling or grieving, we see the “pact with death” become a “pact with life”.
The 22-minute fiction film Kein sicherer Ort (No Safe Place, produced by Filmmagnet, Munich, with co-production by the HFF Munich) by director Antje Beine supplements the mostly mid-length program with one more young protagonist. Through the eyes of 10-year-old Marie (Lucia Stickel), we see what it means when you’re not allowed to be a child in the place you call home.
The series Film Wanderungen (Film Walks) completes the Perspektive Deutsches Kino program. The project was invited to Perspektive 2018 as a guest. What does “neighborhood” mean? And what is “home”? In the summer of 2017, 140 residents of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz area in the Mitte district of Berlin were interviewed. On the second Berlinale weekend, audiences are invited to take a trip through the living rooms of those residents to watch films together, and engage in conversation.
On Berlinale Publikumstag, February 25, 2018, Perspektive Deutsches Kino will present the winning work in the fiction film competition “Max-Ophüls-Preis 2018”, and the winner of the documentary film competition First Steps Award 2017 (Ohne diese Welt, directed by Nora Fingscheidt).