Nine feature films, some of them awarded with prices, from different regions around the world dealing with various fascinating themes will be presented at these years Women's Film Days in Vienna.
From Lebanon is the colourful film of first-time-director (and leading actress) Nadine Labaki, called Caramel. The sympathetic ironic but sensual comedy about five women in a beauty saloon in Beirut was awarded with the audience award in San Sebastian.
Atash Bas – Cease Fire from Iranian star-director Tamineh Milani shows the emancipation of a young wife and sets Iranian marriage on the trial.
Two young women are also in the focus of the US-movie The Other Boleyn Girl. Director Justin Chadwick intended an opulent costume drama, showing the life of the Boleyn-Sisters (Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman) on English Court in the 16th century.
A counterpart to this opulent tragedy is Jellyfish, a light-hearted French-Israeli production about three women, childhood and life, which touches the heart.
Less „light-hearted” is the latest film by star-director Ken Loach: It's a free world shows the misery of our suburbs and the winners and losers of our „free world” on the basis of the fate of a young English woman. This movie, awarded in Venice and Seville, opens your eyes and goes under your skin.
Further feature films are the Canadian psychological thriller La capture by Carole Laure about domestic violence, Hessian film-award-winner Madonnen by Maria Speth from Germany and Tussenstand, a touching family portrait from the Netherlands by Mijke de Jong.
GV/EV - german/english version
ogs/oes - original with german/english subtitles
Tahmineh Milani, Iran 2006
105 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, oes
Tahmineh Milani Iran's leading female director presents this irreverent romantic comedy with saucy dialogue and a pointed insight into modern marriage.
It depicts a struggling marriage between a strong-willed, educated female architect, Sayeh and her handsome, childish engineer husband Yousef. Sayeh attempts to find a divorce lawyer but mistakenly walks into a therapist's office, where she unloads about her chauvinist husband, Yousef. But, the immature Sayeh is not without blame-her constant bickering antagonizes Yousef instead of enlightening him.
Scene after scene we watch the quarrelling couple play childish pranks on each other. The Film Cease Fire marks Milani's first foray into mainstream romantic comedy-Iran's most popular genre.
Nadine Labaki, Lebanon/France 2007
95 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, ogs
A colourful, sensual and fresh film about five women meeting at a beauty salon in Beirut. Each one has a problem, like dating a married man, being lesbian or having lost virginity before marriage.
Director and lead actress Labaki shows with humor and sympathetic irony their efforts to be emancipated, but also the gap between traditions and modern life in Lebanon. Audience award in San Sebastian.
Ken Loach, Germany/Italy/Spain/GB 2007
96 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, EV
Angie, 33, may not have much formal education, but she's got energy, wit and ambition – to take charge of her life herself. So she decides – after a further notice – to use her acquired knowledge and starts her own agency together with her roommate Rose where the two young women recruit cheap foreign labours for British employers.
Angie, however, soon gets into a whirlpool of fraud, unscrupulousness and moral downfall. She disputes with her family and neglects her own son – until she nearly loses him. Finally, her friend and colleague Rose quits the job and so things outgrow for Angie.
Ken Loach's latest film gets under the skin and opens our eyes. Loach shows the misery of our suburbs and the little winners and the many loosers in our „free world”.
It’s a free world was awarded for „Best Screenplay” in Venice and for „Best Film” in Seville 2007.
Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret, France/Israel 2007
78 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, ogs
Batya is a young woman who works for a company catering the wedding of the young couple Keren and Michael. Joy is a middle-aged Filipino caregiver for the elderly who speaks no Hebrew. What ensues is a series of overlapping encounters, some of which take on shades of the surreal.
Jellyfish is a hybrid of the conventional and the mildly experimental, at once playful and deadly serious, and constantly unpredictable.
Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret won the prestigious Caméra d'Or for best first feature at 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
Carole Laure, France/Canada 2007
94 min, Feature Film, Colour, DVD, oes
Rose leads a beautiful and intense life with her boyfriend. But sometimes she is hunted by memories from her past. Dancing legs for instance – but what's wrong here? It becomes distinctly obvious that violence is a part in this. By moving out she had once already escaped the violence, but a visit with her mother brings back trouble to her life. Rose decides to kidnap her father. She wants an explanation, an apology for what she has enliven and also to separate him from her mother. Seeking for an explanation.
A dreamlike and sometimes obscure movie with extraordinary stylistic means. La Capture is especially strong in its symbolic moments.
Official Selection at Locarno 2007.
Maria Speth, Germany 2007
124 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, GV
At the center of this film is a woman who rejects many things, but especially her role as mother and conventional morality. Rita is a kind of mother that is very different from the one symbolized by „Madonna with Child”.
Madonnen was awarded with the „Hessischer Filmpreis” and won the „Best Actress Award Mar del Plata”.
Justin Chadwick, USA 2007
115 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, EF
Anne Boleyn has to leave the basic life on the countryside in her early years together with her siblings Mary and George. They come to the English court to further the family's influence. Anne, however, is unable to win the kings favour, and so she is forced to spend some time at a convent. In the meantime, her sister Mary becomes Henry VII's mistress. When Anne returns, she has become an experienced and assured tactician who wants to reach more than just being a mistress of the king – she wants real power. Indeed she is able to conquer Henrys affection with intelligence and charm and soon she replaces her sister as his mistress. Her passionate ambition leads to the annulation of Henrys marriage to his long-term wife – and Anne to the English throne ... which will finally be her downfall.
The Other Boleyn Girl based on the bestseller of Phillipa Gregory, is a romantic tragedy, a tale of betrayal, passion and love. Europe during the religious changes and the perils of a life on the court are the screen for this sensual portrait of the 16th century - an opulent costume drama, that looks behind the history.
Mijke de Jong, Netherlands 2007
80 min, Feature Film, DVD, Colour, oes
Isaac is 17 and rather than talking to his parents, he escapes to the realities of strangers, sometimes secretly sneaking into their apartments. His parents, Roos and Martin, recently got divorced. Since they are still too caught up in their own communications misery, they're unable to constructively solve the problem of their son. While Isaac wholly quits his communication, they have to figure out new ways to get along with each other.
As distanced, quiet and unmoved, the film-images portray the son, as close and moving are the Dogma-like styled conversations between the parents, who are outstandingly played by Elsie de Brauw and Marcel Musters. With beautiful formality they are repeated in always similar situations. Solely the trying-out of something new, indicated by the visits to various international restaurants, leaves hope for change of the situation, once the crisis of the separation is overcome.
Kutlug Ataman, Turkey 2006
107 min., Feature Film, 35mm, Colour, ogs
Based on the novel by Perihan Magden, Two Girls („