Audiard's Dheepan no Match for Rust & Bone

Indian actress Kalieaswari Srinivasan seduces Dheepan

A Sri Lanka Liberation Tamil Tiger Warrier, Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) teams up with phoney wife, Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and phoney daughter, Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) to acquire dead family's passports and head for France.  In fact, he did arrive in France with fake passport in 1993.  That was after trip to Thailand, where he was jailed with no papers.  And after he flew to Czechoslovakia with fake Malaysian passport but was deported to Bangkok. 

This film is set at conclusion of Civil War (1983 - 2009) between majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils, in which SL Military defeated Tamil Tigers after 26 years.

Dheepan was a firmer Tamil Tiger soldier.  He burns his Tamil Tiger uniform at start of film.  They end up in housing project in Le Pre-Saint Gervais, NE suburb of Paris.  The new home turns out to be new conflict for him.

Abu Nowar'sTheeb Explores 1916 Bedouin Arabia

Stunning location work in southern Jordan has the grandeur of Monument Valley, is the backdrop for story of young Bedouin boy, Theeb ("wolf") who outwits potential enemies.  Film supported by Abu Dhabi's Sanad fund and Doha Film Institute.  Recently orphaned brothers Hussein (Hussein Salameh) and Theeb (Jacir Eid) meet up with British soldier and escort, asking to be guided to Ottoman train tracks so as to destroy them. The two men are ambushed and killed.  Soon Hussein dies as well.  The young boy Theeb witnesses his beloved broother's death.

Kelly Reichardt's Murder Mystery Wihout the Murder

Kelly Reichardt's first feature film (1994) "River of Grass" is a love story without the love, a murder mystery without the murder, and a road movie that never gets on the road.  Cozy (Lisa Bowman) spends whole film thinking she killed innocent bystander while pool hopping, only to learn later that she did not, much to her chagrin.  Which she resolves in final scene. 

Sebastião Salgado follows same trajectory as Leni Riefenstahl

Wim Wender's hauntingly beautiful documentary traces Sebastião Salgado's evolution from social photographer, a witness of the human condition, to nature photographer.  This is a motion picture director making a film about a still photographer, such an interesting dynamic.

Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's photographer followed the same trajectory, disenchanted with propaganda films, she devoted her life to studying African native cultures and at age 71 was certified as a scuba diver in Malindi, Kenya just about when I was there snorkeling.  Her coral reef books capped her amazing career.

Salgado loses his faith in mankind, as extraordinary witness, yet his wife acts as a silent partner offering a kind of in absentia companionship.  

Chloé Zhao Walks Thin Line Between Documentary and Drama in "Songs my Brother Taught Me"

The directorial debut of Chinese-American filmmaker Chloé Zhao, Songs my Brother Taught Me,  can easily be mistaken at first as a documentary of the Lakota Indians on Pine Ridge Reservation in the South Dakota Badlands. Until the first kiss.  This film is about isolation and the challenges of breaking away from home.

Nonprofessional actors mumble dialogue that sounds improvised.  First-time native kids populate this film, lending it an authenticity that would be missing in a tighter screen play.  You pick up information as the film proceeds, which can impede comprehension.

This style calls to mind the Taiwanese film The Assassin, Hou Hsiao-Hsien (2015), much more obscure yet filled with breathtaking panoramic cinematography like this film (Joshua James Richards).

horseback riders dwarfed by landscape in The Assassin

horseback riders dwarfed by landscape in Zhao film

Hou's Assassin Caught Between Creed and Conscience

mirror reflection of water

Lady Tang views mirror

Princess Jiacheng plays the zither.  Voiceover follows - The King of Kaphen's bluebird failed to sing for 3 years.  One day the Queen remarked birds sing only to their own kind.    Set the bird before a mirror! The King heeded her advice.  The bluebird saw its own image, and sang of its sadness, and danced, until finally, it expired.

   

Princess-nun Jiaxin delivers Yinniang to her mother Nie Tian

Nie's mother presents jade to Nie

Jade was given to Princess Jiacheng when Nie was betrothed to marry Lord of Weibo, a gift from the Emperor to secure Weibo.

Nie left jade amulet for Lord Tian to discover her identity.  Huji, concubine, at his side.

landscape from Hubei province

Yinniag's mother Nie Tian and father Nie Feng commiserate about exiling daughter

Lord Tian informs Lady Tian not to meddle in exile of Tian Xing

mirror polisher tries to stall melee before Yinniang arrives

Silver birch forest in Inner Mongolia provides extraordinary parallax effect, Lady Ti'an (AKA Jing Jing) sports gold mask.

Tian Xing tends to Yinniang's wounds from the masked assassin

Sorcerer Kong Kong with voodoo dolls in cahoots with Lady Tian, ultimately csasts spell on Huji causing her to miscarry

Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 2015 film is certainly beautiful to watch on 35mm film.  It won best director Cannes.  Cinematography by Mark Lee Ping Bing is sublime in places like Shennongjia district in northwestern Hubei province.  But Hou gives away little plot-wise and the impenetrable nature of the film makes even seasoned cinephiles feel like Philistines.  He joins a growing list of filmmakers embracing wuxia, the medieval sword-fighting genre.

During the Tang dynasty, kidnapped at age 10 in the year 809, Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi) is taught to be an assassin by Princess-nun Jiaxin (twin sister of princess Jiacheng), to kill corrupt officials.  Jiacheng sends her on a mission impossible to her hometown Weibo (Hebei province, bordering Inner Mongolia), to kill her cousin the governor Lord Tian Ji'an (first love to whom Nie was once betrothed as her intended husband). It is a case of provincial rebellion against the Tang court imperial authority.  It is interesting to contemplate the relation of Weibo to the Imperial court vs. Taiwan to the PRC.  Her indecision is construed as a mark of power, able to dictate her own destiny.

At the end of the day, Yinniang couldn't do it, empathy cannot be obliterated, the assassin's creed bows to the pangs of conscience.

Let's go back to the bluebird tale.  Yinniang reveals that this applies to Princess Jiacheng , no one like her in all of Weibo.

Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang Channels Truffaut's 400 Blows

Window bars reminiscent of 400 Blows iconic image

Turkish film director Deniz Gamze Ergüven has made a beautiful film reminiscent of Truffaut's 400 Blows.