Films from around the world
AMONG the 300 movies, documentaries and short films at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, which opens on July 25 with the Spanish satire I’m So Excited, are several films with Israeli and Jewish themes.
Israeli director Ari Folman’s The Congress is an action/animated film that tells the story of an aging actress (played by Robin Wright) whose career is on the wane.
When her agent (Harvey Keitel) delivers an ultimatum, Wright’s only choice is to sell her identity and undergo a full body imaging to create her digital self.
Plunged into a lurid Orwellian future, she must rediscover herself, with the help of her personal animator and human doctor.
In The Attack, Ali Suliman stars as Amin, a successful Palestinian surgeon happily living in Tel Aviv. However, his life is turned upside down when his wife Sihem becomes a suicide bomber and kills 17 people .
A shocked and grief-stricken Amin plunges into a reckless, dangerous journey to the heart of modern extremism.
The Attack is directed by renowned Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri.
Lovelace is a drama about the life of infamous porn star Linda Lovelace of Deep Throat fame.
It is made by Rob Epstein and his partner Jeffrey Friedman – Jewish filmmakers from San Francisco – who look at whether Lovelace was a porn icon or abuse victim as it follows the star’s scandalous career and tragic secrets. It stars Amanda Seyfried as Lovelace with a strong cast including James Franco and Sharon Stone.
In Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig (who is not Jewish) stars as Frances, a
twentysomething dance apprentice who has plenty of plans but succeeds at few of them.
The comedy follows Gerwig’s character from disaster to disaster, from Brooklyn to Sacramento with a brief stopover in Paris. Gerwig’s parents have cameos as themselves.
Gerwig helped write the script and teamed up with director Noah Baumbach, who has inherited Woody Allen’s mantle of New York Jewish comedic angst.
Controversial Melbourne priest Father Bob Maguire is the focus of the documentary In Bob We Trust directed by Lynn-Maree Milburn, and produced by Richard Lowenstein and Andrew de Groot which premieres at the festival.
For 38 years the priest dedicated himself to his local community at St Peter and Paul’s Church in South Melbourne, but in 2011 he was forced out of his position.
The documentary focuses on this turbulent period in the priest’s life and includes archival footage of him playing chess with broadcaster John Safran.
The festival’s short film program includes Summer Vacation, a 22-minute film by Israeli director Sharon Maymon. While on holiday with his family, a man is reunited with someone from his past, resulting in a complex drama about sexuality and fidelity.
The Australian film Tim Winton’s The Turning will have its red carpet premiere at the festival on August 3. The three-hour feature film centres around 17 interconnected stories set in a seaside Western Australian town and stars Winton.
The festival’s closing film, J C Chandor’s All Is Lost has only one cast member – veteran actor Robert Redford – who runs into trouble during a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean.
The Melbourne International Film Festival screens at various venues from July 25 to August 11. Bookings: www.miff.com.au.
REPORT by Danny Gocs
PHOTO of Ari Suliman helps a boy in Ziad Doueiri’s dramatic movie, The Attack.
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