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Back To TopUnder The Radar: 2013 IIFF - The Winners
Posted on Thursday April 18, 2013, 09:56 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
The 32nd International Istanbul Film Festival drew to it conclusion Sunday night with a closing gala and awards presentation at the city’s distinguished Cemel Resit Rey Concert Hall. A capacity 1000-strong crowd were treated to an endearingly non-ritzy production (dress code seemed to be less black tie than dress-down Friday) at which shouty, placard-brandishing outbursts protesting the demolition of Istanbul’s historic Emek movie theater were not met with violent repression (see last report) but positively encouraged. “Now I’ve seen how you defend the things you believe in,” quipped International Jury President Peter Weir, “I’m not surprised we lost at Gallipoli.” Weir was then presented with the IIFF’s Honorary Award by festival director Azize Tan (note to other eminent filmmakers looking to swell the contents of their trophy cabinets: do mention The War.)
Reflecting the extremely high standard and sheer wealth of quality films on offer at thi...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: 2013 IIFF - Lifelong
Posted on Saturday April 13, 2013, 18:48 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
There’s not a lot of glitz and glamour at the Istanbul Film Festival. Paparazzi are thin on the ground, gala charity events are conspicuous by their absence; red carpets remain resolutely rolled up. This is a festival that makes its purpose plain: to announce that cinema as an art form is not only alive and well but positively thriving in Turkey and its environs. The emphasis here is on serious films made by serious filmmakers tackling serious subjects. The fact that contenders for the Golden Tulip Award (top prize in the International Competition) must have an overarching artistic theme or be adapted from a notable literary source could hardly be a clearer statement of intent. And it’s refreshing to be reminded that film not only has the ability to entertain but also to make you think, to confront often uncomfortable truths about the world around us and the vagaries of the human condition.
Take director Ash O[umlaut]zge’s Tulip contender Lifelong for example. Its...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: 2013 IIFF - Peter Weir Masterclass
Posted on Friday April 12, 2013, 18:26 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
Among the many screenings yesterday at the festival, one that struck a particular chord was F Type Film, which is in competition for the FACE Human Rights Award.
Produced by Turkish rock band and political activists Grup Yorum, it’s a compilation of nine short films by ten directors addressing the conditions in Turkey’s notorious F Type prisons (or F-type High Security Closed Institutions for the Execution of Sentences, as they are officially known). The prisons were introduced in the 1990s, substituting individual cells for the old dormitory blocks to house members of armed organizations, drug offenders and those facing aggravated life imprisonment’, which replaced the death penalty in Turkey in 2002.
Director Hu[umlaut]seyin Karabev described how he an other filmmakers worked closely with F Type inmates to expose conditions in the prisons. One audience member, who had served six years in an F Type, thanked Karabev for the film’s accuracy.
The highlig...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: The 2013 Istanbul International Film Festival
Posted on Thursday April 11, 2013, 20:13 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
The Istanbul International Film Festival scores instant brownie points in Empire’s book for two reasons. Firstly, its press welcome pack includes a free tee shirt (far from a regular occurrence); and secondly, it takes place in Istanbul. Despite its nightmarish traffic and crowded, ramshackle suburbs, Turkey’s largest city is a magical place. Straddling Europe and Asia, facing each other across the Bosphorus, it has the raffish air of an ancient port town, the gateway to the East. Its skyline is dotted with modern skyscrapers and the slender minarets of mosques and churches. Teeming with life, it is steeped in history and tradition. It also played host to the jaw-dropping pre-title chase sequence in Skyfall, which makes it ineffably cool.
Celebrating its 32nd year, the IIFF has come on a bit since it began in 1982. Back then it was a minor appendage to the International Istanbul Festival called International Istanbul Film Days. It comprised 36 films shown over the course of a month. It ...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: Dubai International Film Festival 2012: The Winners
Posted on Tuesday December 18, 2012, 16:56 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
The last weekend of the festival was launched in fine style on Friday with a gala charity dinner in aid of Dubai Cares and Oxfam, an annual event that last year raised over $1 million. Held at the Armani Hotel - or rather, on the terrace of the Armani Hotel - at the Burj Al Kalifa, the world’s tallest building and \ jewel in the crown of downtown Dunai’s sci-fi skyscrapers. The event was held under the patronage of UN Messenger of Peace HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Other lumanaries on hand included longtime Oxfam campaigner Colin Firth and wife Livia; Sex And The City star Kristin Davies; Slumdog Millionaire’s Frida Pinto; and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo herself, Rooney Mara.
Items in the charity auction included several pieces of exclusive jewelry, an original oil painting by Nasser Ovisi and an opportunity to see Oxfam ambassador Scarlett Johnan...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: Dubai International Film Festival 2012: Death Metal Angola
Posted on Sunday December 16, 2012, 13:49 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
When you’re leafing through a festival catalogue, trying to decide which movies are worth a look, a title like Death Metal Angola is always going to get your attention. And a good job too. A riveting documentary from director Jeremy Xido it explores, as the title suggests, the vibrant death metal scene in the West African country of Angola. That Angola has a death metal scene - or any metal scene at all - is surprising enough, but what is truly amazing is how extreme rock music is helping to heal the wounds of a devastating civil war and to give a sense of purpose to a generation physically and psychologically scarred by the conflict.
Apart from the musicians themselves, at the heart of the film are Sonia Ferreira and her partner Wilker Flores who founded and run the Okotiuka orphanage in the city of Huambo, the epicenter of the death metal explosion.
Empire spoke to Xido about Death Metal Angola, which has its worldwide premiere in Dubai tonight.
How did you fi...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: Dubai International Film Festival 2012: Wadjda
Posted on Friday December 14, 2012, 10:00 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
Wadjda is twelve years old, and she’s a rebel. She doesn’t drink, she doesn’t smoke, she doesn’t do drugs, she doesn’t make out with boys. She’s polite, a good student and has a close relationship with her parents. The trouble is, Wadjda, the title character in director Haifa Al-Mansour’s brilliant film, wears sneakers, listens to pop music, occasionally forgets to cover her head when she’s out in public and wants, more than anything, to ride a bicycle. Wadjda lives in Saudi Arabia, where such behaviour from a young girl is not just frowned upon but actively suppressed.
Wadjda, which received a red carpet screening in Dubai last night, is the first feature film ever shot in Saidi Arabia. A remarkable feat in itself. That it was also directed by a woman is verging on miraculous. It’s an absolutely captivating film that puts a human face on the indignities and restrictions placed on women and girls in Saudi Arabia. Graced with an outstanding p...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: Dubai International Film Festival 2012: Takashi Miike
Posted on Wednesday December 12, 2012, 10:16 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
An interesting couple of days here on the Gulf. On the film front, Empire was amused and uplifted by Bekas, the story of two Kurdish brothers who, after catching an illicit glimpse of a Superman movie, resolve to travel to America to meet the Man Of Steel in person. Armed with a rudimentary map - the kind you might see hanging on a kindergarten wall - they embark on their journey, full of hope, aboard a donkey named Michael Jackson.
Set in 1992, it’s a whimsical tale given poignance by the fact that the brothers, played by Zamand Taha and Sarwar Fazil, were orphaned during Saddam Huseein’s brutal suppression of the 1991 Kurdish uprising. In Superman, they hope to find a saviour who will rid the world of Saddam and bring their parents back to life.
The film, directed by Sweden’s Johan Holmquist, received its international premiere in Dubai and both Taha and Fazil were there to walk the red carpet. To commemorate the first time either of them had left Kurdistan, Fazil rej...
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Back To TopUnder The Radar: Dubai International Film Festival 2012: Opening Ceremony
Posted on Monday December 10, 2012, 14:26 by Simon Braund in Under The Radar
Were you to travel to the Dubai International Film Festival on Emirates Airlines, one of its principal sponsors, you could be forgiven for thinking you’s seen enough movies for a while. For anyone who remembers the heady early days of Virgin Atlantic and the thrill of an actual choice of movies (plus seat-back screens, the size of a cigarette packet though they were), Emirates’ profusion of cinematic delights will rock your world. The screens are huge, even in Economy, and the selection is mind-boggling - literally hundreds of films, from classics, world cinema and Bollywood to over eighty new releases. You can programme your own personal film festival before you even get to Dubai.
Once you’re there, of course, it doesn’t take long for your movie appetite to return. Now in its ninth year, the Dubai Film Festival is a big one, an important showcase for filmmakers both from the region and around the world. It’s been dubbed ‘the Cannes of the Middle East’ (by ...
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