Category: Foreign

The Promised Land

GoMovieReview Rating: ★★★★The Promised Land

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Nikolaj Arcel

Screenplay Written by: Nikolaj Arcel, Anders Thomas Jensen

Based on the Book by: Ida Jessen

Produced by: Louise Vesth

Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg, Gustav Lindh, Kristine Kujath Thorp.

‘God is chaos.  Life is chaos.’

‘I don’t agree.’

Opening in 1755, the heath of Jutland cannot be cultivated.

For decades the king has sent men to tame the heath but it cannot be tamed; until single-minded Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) seeks permission, his reward a noble title, manor and servants.

The Royal Treasury betting on the captain being unsuccessful, they agree, not realising the determination of Kahlen, a gardener’s boy turned decorated captain, serving 25 years in Germany.

Kahlen hacks at the heath, harrowing by hand as the seasons pass with snow, sun, rain and mist.  With the help of a minister, Anton Eklund (Gustav Lindh), he finds husband and wife, Johannes Eriksen (Morten Hee Andersen) Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin), runaway farming tenants to keep house and farm in return for shelter and food.  But no wage.

It’s the best deal they’ll get, on the run from their master, Frederik De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg), Khalan’s powerful neighbour, the scars running across Johannes back telling the tale of Schinkel’s brutality, symptomatic of the nobility shown to care more for politics than the value of life, servants treated like slaves, raped and whipped and boiled alive.

Schinkel decides the heath is his land.

Uncultivated land is the king’s land.  But if Khalen is successful, the land will be settled, bringing people, making Khalen a noble and therefore competition for power.

The film follows Khalen as he fights for his dream, digging deeper into his past as he builds his life with the people who share his work, the outlaws and the young darkling, Anmai Mus (Melinda Hagberg) bought and sold and cheeky.

There’s a David and Goliath theme, and what Khalen’s willing to sacrifice to succeed.

Director and screenwriter, Nikolaj Arcel states: ‘I wanted to tell a grand, epic tale about how our ambitions and desires will inevitably fail if they are all we have. Life is chaos; painful and ugly, beautiful and extraordinary, and we are often helpless to control it. As the saying goes, “We make plans and God laughs.”’

At times, The Promised Land hard to watch because I became emotionally invested in the characters, the hard choices, the evil of power – it’s a dark tale but there’s also light.

Like the endless fields of heather, it’s a vast feeling, watching the earth turn over, the soil running through Khalen’s hands, so the film becomes a story about what to hold onto in life and what to let go.

 

Cairo Conspiracy

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★ Cario Conspiracy

Directed by: Tarik Saleh

Written by: Tarik Saleh

Produced by: Kristina Åberg and Fredrik Zander

Starring: Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram J. Khoury, Sherwan Haji, Mehdi Dehbi.

WINNER – BEST SCREENPLAY
Cannes Film Festival 2022

‘Don’t forget where you’re from.’

When Adam (Tawfeek Barhom) is granted a scholarship to study at the Al-Azhar in Cairo, he’s worried his father won’t approve.

But his father, a fisherman who is a strict disciplinarian, says not even a father can stand in the way of God’s will.

Al-Azhar is the centre of power in Sunni Islam, and it is here that Adam arrives to open his world to the teachings of the Qur’an.  Instead the fisherman’s son becomes the centre of a power struggle between the State and religious leaders when the Grand Imam passes away.

Director and writer Tarik Saleh (The Nile Hilton Incident (2017)) states, ‘One of the Egyptian revolutions, the one that brought Field Marshal Sisi to power, was seen as a military coup, although it was actually supported by the people. Once he became President, Sisi, who has ruled Egypt for eight years, decided to confront the Al-Azhar institution directly. His first decision was to visit the University on the Prophet’s birthday. His speech said in essence: “Either you contribute to the problem or you contribute to the solution. We need to fight terrorism, which you have not done so far. There are even books in your institution that promote terrorism and this must stop.”’

What surprised Tarik Saleh as he was writing the script for, Conspiracy in Cairo is that what he had written started to happen in reality.

The conflict between state and religion is the driving narrative of the film when the State decides it will do anything in their power for the replacement of the Grand Imam to be on the side of the president.

Enter State Security Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares).

At the behest of his boss, Ibrahim uses the students as informants within the Al-Azhar, known as Angels, to pass back information to influence the decision making in favour of the State’s priorities.

Echoing the implied statement of President Sisi in real-life Egypt, “I am the new leader of Egypt, you had better fall in line”.

And the then Grand Imam, Sheikh el-Tayeb: “I am only the Grand Imam, my only privilege is to give recommendations from the Qur’an. You, Sissi, make the law and I do not interfere with that.” The President wanted the Qur’an to support his proposed laws. The Grand Imam replied that he could not because it is impossible to change the Qur’an.”

What we see in the film is how Adam, once recruited as an Angel, navigates the power struggle while staying hidden from those he’s informing on and also keeping alive by passing information to State Security that, as his predecessor and fellow student, Zizo (Mehdi Dehbi) found out – being a loose end is just as dangerous.

Weaved through-out the delicate yet deadly politics are the teachings of the Qur’an, where, ‘right is right, sin is sin.  God will guide you.’

It’s a quietly menacing film about ‘books that scare tyrants and kings,’ and scholars who quote the words of the Qur’an to find their way to a Truth.

This is a political intrigue set in the modern-day world of Islam in Egypt so the tone is unique as the familiar politics of State seek to control the power of religion, where Adam has to decide if the obstacles put in front of him come from God, or fate or man.

‘This life is but a game.’

It’s a struggle, finding that balance of power between, ‘Two Pharaoh’s in the land,’ because one false step detected by the people of Egypt could very likely lead to civil war.

Conspiracy in Cairo is an absorbing story (there’s a reason the film won Best Screenplay at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival), quietly told, from the cold but honest work of a fisherman working from a small boat on the sea, to panning to a flock of birds drifting between the spires of the Al-Azhar, to the weave of Brothers snaking their way to find and punish any against them.

Thought-provoking, intriguing with moments of beauty – this is a balanced film that gets you thinking.

 

Official Competition

Rated: MOfficial Competition

Directed by: Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

Written by: Andrés Duprat, Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas & Oscar Martínez.

Viewed in Spanish with English subtitles.

‘What a wanker.’

It’s Humberto’s (José Luis Gómez) 80th birthday.  His life summed up in the presents laid out before him: a massage chair, a Virgin Mary under a glass dome, a rifle set in its casing.  A painting of a sad clown.

He’s a millionaire who feels like he has money but no prestige.

He wants to be remembered, differently.

He decides he wants to build a bridge.  Or a movie.  Yes, fund a movie.  A good one.  Only the best.

Enter award winning director, Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz).

Humberto buys the rights of a Nobel Prize winning novel to base this, only-the-best movie on, and having failed to read it, he asks Lola what it’s about.

She explains its about a rivalry between two brothers.  She has the two actors in mind to build on that rivalry for the film:

Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez): a teacher, an academic, an actor of integrity and respect.

And, Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas): popular, multi-award winning and arriving at rehearsal in a Lamborghini pashing his latest.

Let the butting of egos begin.

Official Competition is a movie about making a movie, most of the set in an expansive, minimalist house as Lola pulls the actors into the minds of their characters.

Kinda sounds boring, but it’s brilliant watching the techniques used to get the ego’s of these two actors into a place so Lola gets the tone she needs for each scene.

‘I want the truth,’ she demands.

Have to say, Penélope Cruz as Lola looks amazing as the sensitive, brilliant and dedicated director, Lola.  She is the wild, red curly-haired, sensitive and very aware puppeteer.

The film is about how very different these two actors she’s chosen to play the parts as brothers, are; to then realise, they’re as vain as each other.

Iván at one point is seen to be accepting a pretend Academy Award in the mirror, after denying he’d ever lower himself to the popularist farce, and of course not speaking anything but Spanish, to announce in his pretend speech that he was only attending the ceremony to formally reject the award.

Meanwhile, Lola looks incredulously at an online video of Félix making a plea to save the pink dolphin.

I just kept bursting out laughing.

It’s hilarious, all set to Lola’s tricks, using big screens in the background of monologues, rocks suspended over their heads during rehearsal, the sound of kissing while surrounded by microphones, a meat grinder used to signify transition but also showing the edge of Lola’s destruction.

Even Iván’s wife, Violeta (Pilar Castro) an academic hipster who’s written a children’s book is shown as vain as Iván shares a new piece of discordant music where she comments on the brilliance of the tribal drumming.  But no, that’s just next door banging on the wall, again.

This is one of those quietly clever films that seems like it’s not about much but then gives you a tickle when the cleverness of a layer reveals itself.

The whole film’s about ego so in the end the film finishes with a forced clever ending with an ego all of its own.

Great acting, unique and clever story and a good laugh.

The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

Rated: MA15+The Worst Person In The World

Directed by: Joachim Trier

Screenplay Written by: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Produced by: Thomas Robsahm, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar

Executive Producers: Dyveke Bjøkly Graver, Tom Erik Kjeseth, Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørneby.

Viewed in Norwegian with English Subtitles

“You need to be completely free.”

Julie (Renate Reinsve) stands smoking in a black cocktail dress with the city in the background.

The Worst Person In the World follows Julie as she figures out life.

She starts off studying to be a surgeon, then psychology then photography.

Moving from one thing to the next, she never quite finishes anything.  But she lives and loves.

The film is set out in 12 chapters, with a prologue and epilogue.  This is the analytical part of the film and something the character Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) would appreciate.  He’s a comic creator that analyses everything.

Julie loves him.

But doesn’t love him.

Aksel tells her, You need to be completely free.’

That’s the first time she realises that she loves him.

Until she meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum).

In an interview with director and screenwriter Joachim Trier, he’s asked to talk, “more about the very literary way the film is broken into chapters?”

“We had this idea early on when writing: to show fragments of a life and that the space between the chapters was as important as what we actually see. This is a coming-of-age film but for grownups who feel like they still haven’t grown up. To find a structure of covering several years in a life, from when Julie is in her mid-twenties to her early thirties, we found the humour of a “literary” framework to help us tell that story. The almost novelistic form also reflects Julie’s longing for a grand literary destiny, almost as if she unconsciously wishes her life to have a literary form.”

I’m trying not to think too deeply about the explanation of, coming-of-age film but for grownups who feel like they still haven’t grown up.  I related to this character, Julie, as she tried to figure out what she wants or why she feels the way she does.

But more than relating to the feelings of how to navigate love while remaining independent and free (yes, am still thinking about the film a week later), the way the film’s put together adds to that feeling of running towards what’s right.

That moment when everything else ceases (literally frozen in the film) as Julie runs through the streets to imagine that feeling of being in the right place.  And then going for it.  It’s hard not to get swept up into it all.

There’s something refreshing about seeing all those silent thoughts shown in a clever way so the film is more than a romance or a drama, there’s a quiet that’s absorbing.  Like the silence is there to allow reflection.

Colours are used to introduce the film: yellow and blue to black and are then circled back to later so there’s this sense of completion, like Julie reaches another layer, like it’s that layer she’s been searching for all along.

And the dialogue adds another element, the, ‘Intellectual Viagra,’ comment.

And, ‘She’s just shy.’

‘That’s what you say about boring people.’

Again, silence used when Aksel says, ‘Kids are intense.’

To which Julie replies by taking a large sip of red wine.

It’s a journey that ended up in places unexpected – sexy, clever, sad and poetic.

If you’re not usually a fan of romance, this is one of the good ones.

The County (Héraðið)

Rated:The County

Directed and Written by: Grimur Hakonarson

Starring: Ardís Hrönn Egilsdottir, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, Hinrik Olafsson, borsteinn Bachmann.

Icelandic with English subtitles

The Co-op grocery store.
The back-stop of the community.

In true farming fashion, Inga (Ardís Hrönn Egilsdottir) pulls a calf from a cow’s womb.
The calf looks up. Healthy.
Inga sits back, proud.

This is a woman who takes pride in her work. Not pride, exactly. Appreciation, of the everyday.

Her husband, Reynir (Hinrik Olafsson) snuggles close to her as Inga works in bed on her laptop, writing.

Seems like an ordinary life – a farm in The County, surrounded by snow on heather; there’s tractors and drinking while watching the game.

Then it starts.

First with a man from the Co-op bailing up a painter for buying his paint from elsewhere.

Then Inga wonders why they can’t buy fertilizer cheaper from a different distributor.

Why should the Co-op decide where they purchase their goods?

Why?

Because the Co-op will take the land from under the farmers if there’s debt.

And how do farmers get out of debt when they’re forced to pay more from the Co-Op?

They can’t.

It’s what Inga calls, ‘The Co-op mafia.’

And she’s not afraid to post articles about it.

The County is a slow burn drama (not really a comedy) that follows Inga as she uncovers the wrong that so many others in the community turn a blind eye to because of the hold one company can have when they’re the only option.

But there’s more to the story then a bent company.

This is a slow tear tracing a cheek as the snow falls.

This is about grief. And letting go.

I like the message here and seeing the strength of character – a woman standing up for what’s right; to free herself.

Quiet in the telling, this is a countryside drama without any thrills, just a good quality character study without flash because Inga wouldn’t need it.

Better to see the truth.

The Mole Agent

Rated: GThe Mole Agent

Directed by: Maite Alberdi

Produced by: Marcela Santibáñez

Executive Producer: Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, Julie Goldman

Featuring as Themselves: Sergio as the Spy, Romulo as the Private Detective, and the Residents of the Nursing Home: Berta “Bertita” Ureta, Marta Olivares, Petronila “Petita” Abarca, Rubira Olivares, Zoila González.

Spanish (Chilean) with English subtitles.

“Elderly man needed. Between 80-90 years old.”

Job: spying on old folks and staff in a nursing home for three months.

Well, to report back about target, Sophia Perez because her daughter is concerned that Sophia’s being mistreated.

It took me a moment to realise the film was a documentary as, The Mole Agent begins with this light-hearted tone of jazzy soundtrack featuring classic moments of eighty-plus-year-olds being taught to work mobile phones; the successful candidate, 83-year-old Sergio being shown how to call via Facetime, leave voicemail messages via WhatsApp to make his, ‘Deliveries’ or pass information to private investigator Romulo to then translate back to the client.

The older generation tying to figure mobile phones always leads to some amusing moments.

But Sergio gets it, kinda.

It was when the cameras filming the documentary were shown via a mobile camera as Sergio’s being taught to use the device that the film turns from comedy spy-movie to documentary.

Then we see Sergio enter the nursing home, one resident seen holding her walker with one hand, a hose to water the garden in the other and I realise this is a different kind of documentary.

Sergio begins his mission:

‘Did you meet the new man?’ One resident asks another.

Sergio causes quite a stir.  He’s lucid.  And a gentleman.

Director Maite Alberdi states that the team got authorisation from the nursing home with the understanding that the film was a documentary about the elderly (not following an unknown ‘spy’ reporting back to a private detective everyday while being filmed by the crew).

The production team were given permission to film for three months with 300 hours of material captured, plus the material filmed by Sergio himself using a spy pen – very clever, if not a little obvious.  Particularly when other residents try to take the pen from his shirt pocket.

So the cameras are seen in the film and explained to the residents with the line about a documentary about the elderly so when new resident Sergio enters, it’s only natural the crew would take interest in the most recent addition.

At one point a resident sitting out in the sun points out to another gran, ‘They’re supposed to be filming a movie, not spying on us.’

But Sergio manages to continue his investigation about the treatment of Mrs Perez without getting busted.

There are many sweet moments: the thieving Marta with her quick hands, always asking when her mother’s going to take her home; there’s the poet Petita reciting her beautiful thoughts, the random resident cats and the surprise birthday celebrations.

There’s Berta who has a crush on Sergio saying she would consider giving God her virginity.  Through her future husband (Sergio).

But realising the film is documentary and not a spy comedy, although there are some funny moments, makes the film that much sadder.

The Mole Agent is like a homage to the isolated and lonely elderly, left and abandoned by their families.

And the depth of sadness felt by these old folks as they try to buck-up and be positive but are really grieving about their lives lost in sacrifice to children who never visit them…  It’s a bit of a heart-breaker.

Over time, instead of spying on the old folks, Sergio befriends them.  And they absolutely love him for it: ‘Thank-you for the company you give us,’ says Zoila.

Even the camera crew were missed, ‘and we missed them!’  The crew reports.

The audience is shown how life is lived in these homes, getting to see behind the closed doors as the cameras become part of the landscape.

The Mole Agent is sweet and very sad; completely different to what I was expecting and truly unique.

When Alberdi was asked, “What do you hope audiences take away and learn from The Mole Agent?”

Alberdi replies, “I would like people who watch this movie to leave the movie theatre wanting to call their parents or grandparents. It is an invitation to look within yourself and ask what you can do better.”

Deliver Us From Evil (Daman Ak-ehseo Guhasoseo)

Rated: MA15+Deliver Us From Evil

Written and Directed by: Won Chan Hong

Produced by: Chul Yong Kim

Starring: Jung Min Hwang, Jung Jae Lee, Jeong Min Park.

Korean with English subtitles.

‘You don’t need to go this far.’

Deliver Us From Evil is the sort of gritty crime-thriller I hope to come across and will be going on my, ‘Best Thriller Movies,’ recommendation list.

Starting in Tokyo, In-nam (Jung Min Hwang) is an assassin for hire.

He has one last job, then he’s done.

‘You got a job.  A big one.’

Then it’s time to dip his toes into the ocean.

In-nam doesn’t look like a knife-wielding assassin. But when there’re shots fired in the dark, we see his blood splattered face – shh… shh… he says, as the life drains from his target.

Cut to Bangkok and the kidnapping of a young nine-year-old girl.

His daughter.

Enter Ray-The-Butcher (Jung Jae Lee).  Blood brother to his last target.  A man In-nam should have killed a long time ago.  A man who won’t stop.

In-nam is an assassin with a history.  He doesn’t get to just leave.

The story has several threads chasing In-nam (it really does feel like he’s hunted by the narrative): he wants to retire, he’s running to escape his past and people with scores to settle; but more than anything, he wants to save his daughter.

He makes contact with people in Bangkok, leading to lady-boy Yui (Jeong Min Park), his guide.  So there’s all the action of the backstory of his daughter’s kidnapping while In-nam and now Yui are chased by this mad-dog gangsta, The Butcher.

It’s non-stop set on the streets of Bangkok all captured by cinematographer Kyeong Pyo Dp Hong (he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on, Parasite) – non-stop action filmed using a stop motion technique so the hand-to-hand combat in hotel hallways or the confined space of a lift are all captured in detail for the audience to appreciate.

And then there’s the scenery from Japan to Korea to Thailand with the film captured in Bangkok immediately recognisable with the heat of burnt orange streets and a machine gun fight from the back of a took-took.

The film isn’t this superficial or flat feeling killing spree – there’s also these moments of humanity: the sweetness of a young girl and the assassin with dead eyes coming alive to save his daughter.

I couldn’t look away from the visceral carnage yet got teary because there’s a good story at the foundation of all the action.

And there’s care taken with the filming: a fleeting shadow, the slowing of a scene to the jolt of a car crash.  There’s nothing held back except holding off from a complete gore-fest so I was able to keep watching – a fine line between gross and gritty artfully kept so torture, stabbing and child organ farming are all part of the story but instead of sickening, the grit adds to the suspense.

Brutal, but if you’re a fan of a gritty crime-thriller, you’re in for a treat.

The Audition (Das Vorspiel)

Directed by: Ina WeisseThe Audition (Das Vorspiel)

Written by: Daphne Charizani (screenplay), Ina Weisse (screenwriter)

Produced by: Pierre-Olivier Bardet, Felix von Boehm

Starring: Nina Hoss, Simo Abkarian, Serafin Mishiev, Ilja Monti.

Viewed in German with English subtitles (released as part of the German Film Festival).

“I’m sorry it’s all so complicated right now.”

The Audition follows Anna (Nina Hoss): a violinist, a teacher, a wife and a mother.

She watches young Alexander (Ilja Monit) audition for tutorage at the school where she teaches.  She sees talent. She wants him to be her student.

We watch Anna with her husband, a French violin maker, Philippe (Simon Abkarian).  He loves her.  He understands her, her discomfort, anxiety.  He doesn’t mind swapping tables, swapping plates.

He knows something is wrong just by listening to her play violin.

At first, The Audition feels like it’s about the music, about the protégée, Alexander.  A protégée, but also a replacement for Anna’s lack of success on stage.

But this is a nuanced film that explores the slow twist of relationships to what really matters to Anna: the desperation to succeed.  Her son’s need of a mother’s love.  A mother’s need for her son’s attention.

This is a film about the effect of a son pulling away from his mother.  How it turns her life to seek fulfillment from an affair with another man.  To see her ambition projected onto her young student so she pushes and pushes, eventually setting her own son up in competition against her protégée, Alexander.

This is about how she seeks comfort from the warmth of a hairdryer blown under her jumper.

But more than from her son or lover or husband, Anna needs fulfillment because something’s missing.

The more I write the more I understand the slow reveal of this character, Anna: her mother dying when she was young.  Her father tough with his life lessons.

It’s a carefully constructed narrative, a character study set to the sound of the violin.

This is a bittersweet piece of a person’s life: her successes, her failures and ultimately her need above all else.

It’s a slow burn with layers of music and the language about music, but it’s the undercurrent that’s shown in a look or gesture, the unspoken that speaks the loudest – that’s what the film is really about.

The Audition is a difficult movie to review because it’s a subtle one, a cerebral thought-provoker and a film I’ve enjoyed pulling apart and thinking about after the credits have rolled, almost more than the actual viewing.

La Daronne (Mama Weed – The Godmother)

Rated: MLa Daronne (Mama Weed - The Godmother)

Directed by: Jean-Paul Salomé

Based on the Book by: Hannelore Cayre

Script Written by: Hannelore Cayre, Antoine Salomé

Produced by: Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Kristina Larsen

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Iris Bry, Hippolyte Girardot, Kamel Guenfoud, Liliane Rovére, Rebecca Marder, Farida Ouchani, Yasin Houicha, Rachid Guellaz.

French / Arabic with English subtitles

Patience Portefeux (Isabelle Huppert) is having an existential crisis.

She’s working for the narc squad, translating Arabic to French, where she spends a lot of time listening to small-time dealers talk crap as they incriminate themselves and end up being put away for 3kg of hash.

But this one’s a big one: 1.5 ton.

So when the stash is lost, Patience sees an opportunity to finally make some money.  To look after her mother in care (Liliane Rovére) and her two daughters.

To live the good life.

It’s like watching Patience evolve backwards in time.  Back to the carefree girl in her father’s boat, fireworks patterning the sky ahead.

The film starts as a recording of voice like an electronic expression, Patience like those little green bars rising up and down as she turns one sound into another.

Her neighbour and building manager say the other tenants call her the ghost.  Or they used to.

As Patience seizes her opportunity, she lifts, her colour rising with her confidence.  She starts to wear red lipstick.  Philippe (Hippolyte Girardot) her boyfriend and now chief of the narc squad comments that she might look like a small fragile woman, but her new confidence and strength makes him see her like the dealers he puts away.  Little does he know.

La Daronne, AKA Mama Weed is a character study without getting too deep, more a message of, ‘I just like it when life finds its path.’

There’s a sweetness and I can relate to that disillusion when life suddenly reveals itself.

There’s some humour – Patience named because, as her mother says, she stayed in the womb for ten months.  That requires patience.  And there’re some thrills as, Mama Weed goes about trying to off-load 1.5 ton of hash.  But it’s light-hearted as she deals with guys nick-named Scotch and Cocopuff.

And that consistent light-heartedness gets trying with the, I’m-an-older-lady-with-a-sharp-tongue, so these small-time dealers do whatever she wants?

But more than anything, La Daronne is a movie about a hardworking lady with a past, doing what she can because in the end, you can’t escape who you are.  Or you can try.  Patience?  She turns around and embraces it.

Wishlist

Directed by: Álvaro Díaz LorenzoWishlist

Produced by: Álvaro Díaz Lorenzo

Starring: Victoria Abril, María León, Silvia Alonzo

It’s time for the curtains to open on the Australian premiere of Wishlist: La Lista De Los Deseos, the off the wall comedy headlining the 2021 Spanish Film Festival.

When Eva (María León), a twenty something vet, and Carmen (Victoria Abril), a woman in her early middle age, develop a strong bond during a series of chemotherapy sessions, it lays the groundwork for a madcap road trip heading south from Seville to Morocco via Cadiz while the women await the results of their treatment. Joining them is Eva’s best friend Mar (Silvia Alonzo), a teacher nursing a broken heart and feeling utterly disillusioned by love following the breakup of a long term relationship.

In the opening scene, the trio have managed to land themselves behind bars and the police are at a loss as to how to handle them. It’s the culmination of the women’s time away. ‘A week to fit an entire life into,’ with each ticking off, ‘The three things they always wished they could do and couldn’t,’ from their communal chalkboard. Although, for all three to be locked up together, it did require some ingenuity and a nicely timed dropping of undies. The two strapping officers in charge of the arrest thought they had things under control. They had no idea.

In its advance billing, Wishlist has been frequently compared with the 1990’s hit movie, Thelma and Louise and, while both films feature women resolutely staring down their fate, in some ways, this film is more a mirror image of the earlier one. Thelma and Louise are two friends taking some time away to party as they set out on a fishing trip together. What begins as a light hearted excursion soon descends into darkness as the pair find themselves trapped in the grimy underbelly of small town America.

On the other hand, the women in Wishlist, already facing a dark reality, decide to retaliate. Each feels that they have nothing to lose, so there is absolutely no filter on their behaviour. And that means mayhem. Do not be the one to cross these wayward women and definitely do not steal their parking spot if they happen to be holding a container of chocolate milk. Unless a decent splash of chocolate is the one thing that has missing from your attire. That was Mar’s gleeful contribution to the ‘Me Too!’ movement.

For me, Wishlist is more akin to Pedro Almodovar’s runaway success of the early 90s, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with its fast pace and delightfully absurd humour.  While this film at its core takes on a tough subject and doesn’t underplay the experience, it handles it with warmth and lashings of misbehaviour.

By the time the end credits were rolling the audience were applauding and I had the feeling that the last 103 minutes of my time was very well spent. Not in spite of the subject matter, but because of the sensitive but utterly mischievous way it had been presented.

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