Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2011, Side 24

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM
Icelandic art through the ages. Phase one.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigurðsson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.
24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2011
For me, the last two weeks of September
were all about RIFF. A lot of great films
and a few boring ones, a lot of running
through down town from Háskólabíó to
Bíó Paradís and back; short nights at
RIFF parties chatting with international
filmmakers and journalists over one too
many whiskeys. Two weeks of RIFF are
damn exhausting but at the same time a
lot of fun. I'd like to focus on this year's
main category, New Visions, including
the film ‘Twilight Portrait.’ I also unfor-
tunately have to bitch a bit about the
professionalism in the execution this
year's programme, or lack thereof.

THE MAIN COMPETITION: NEW
VISIONS
This year's New Visions category was
selected by a new programming di-
rector, Giorgio Gosetti, who focused
more on realism than the formal cin-
ematic experimentation spotlighted
last year. RIFF’s 2010 selection fea-
tured outstanding films like ‘Mandoo’
(Ebrahim Saeedi, Iraq), which is shot
consequently through the eyes of one
main character; ‘Flowers Of Evil’ (David
Dusa, France), which mixes film with
YouTube videos; and the winning film
‘The Four Times’ (Michelangelo Fram-
martino, Italy) did not feature any dia-
logue at all.
Aside from the experimental avant-
garde films ‘Follow Me’(Johannes Ham-
mel, Austria) and ‘Adalbert's Dream’
(Gabriel Achim, Romania), this year's
competitors for the Golden Puffin, fo-
cused on strong social or personal
problems narrated in a very realistic
fashion. Films like ‘Breathing’ (Karl
Markovics, Austria), which portrayed
an 18-year old delinquent serving his
time in a juvenile detention centre; the
Icelandic contribution ‘Volcano’ (Rúnar
Rúnarsson, Iceland), which tells the
story of a grumpy old man who needs to
take care of his wife after she suffers a
stroke; and ‘Oslo, 31. August´’ (Joachim
Trier, Norway), featuring a recovering
drug addict who is deciding whether to
kill himself. All of the aforementioned
films accomplish intense portraits of
people facing some of the most difficult
situations life can give you.
From an artistic point of view ‘Habi-
bi’ (Susan Youssef, Palestine) was
disappointing. In a very literal fashion,
without any room for interpretation or
subtleness, ‘Habibi’ tells a love story of
two people from different backgrounds
that reside in Palestine. The remarkable
thing is, that director Youssef made the
first Palestinian film in fifteen years,
shooting her footage in Gaza and the
West Bank. She even managed to get
sponsorship from a Kuwaiti phone
company to sponsor a film that features
a naked woman bathing! A documen-
tary on Youssef making this film would
definitely have made for a better view-
ing experience.
Two films made my ‘most interesting
discovery’ category. Both were special,
not due to any visual or aural experi-
mentation, but because of their un-
predictable storylines and the opacity
of their main character's actions. The
eponymous character of ‘Martha Mar-
cy May Marlene’ (Sean Durkin, USA)
spent a few years in a very strange cult
before running away to with her sister.
She has unlearned how to behave in
normal society and, along with her sis-
ter, the viewer is surprised by her every
action. The second film, ‘Twilight Por-
trait,’ won The Golden Puffin Award.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR:
‘TWILIGHT PORTRAIT’ (ANGELINA
NIKONOVA, RUSSIA)
Three policemen are driving around
at dawn. They spot a vagrant woman
at the side of the road and proceed to
rape her, as if that were an everyday
routine of theirs. Marina, a well-off
social worker, suffers from a streak of
bad luck—her heel breaks, her purse is
stolen and then she ends up being the
next victim of these three policemen.
Beside a blood curdling description of
a corrupt police force and an indifferent
community, ‘Twilight Portrait’ explores
Marina’s ways of dealing with the situ-
ation. Without spoiling the story, I can
tell you that she reacts in an unbeliev-
ably unpredictable manner, befriending
one of her rapists. ‘Twilight Portrait’
leaves a lot of questions unanswered,
but this is not a bad thing. It is thrilling,
hard to witness and leaves one speech-
less, in a very positive sense.
PROFESSIONALISM (OR LACK
THEREOF)
I know that mistakes can happen, and
they do so at every festival and every
cinema. Usually I take such incidents
as charming human flaws and forgive
them quickly. But if they accumulate,
as they did at this year's RIFF, it gets to
you; it feels unprofessional and lack-
ing in ambition. After the first days of
the festival saw movies starting with
the lights in the theatre still on, films
spliced together in the wrong order
and sound problems, my patience wore
thin, and then it wore out.
In addition to these technical prob-
lems, there were other, non-technical
ones. Going to see 'Le Havre,' I arrived
at the theatre on time (the time listed in
the programme, and also on my ticket),
but the film was already twenty minutes
in, because “there were some changes
with the schedule.”
The low point was reached, when I
went for a second viewing of ‘Twilight
Portrait’ at RIFF's closing night. I saw
the first very shocking and intense se-
quence of a woman being raped (as I
remembered from the first time) twice
in a row for some reason—once in very
pink and green colours (but with audio
intact), and a second time with the cor-
rect image, sans sound. I mean, come
on RIFF, this is really annoying! It dimin-
ishes the cinematic experience, and my
chance to remember this year’s RIFF in
bright and positive light as I would like
to. Instead, my memories are sort of in
twilight.
Film | Festival
A Twilight Portrait Of This Year's RIFF
WIEBKE WOLTER
HVALREKI
Check out our fancy blog for lots and lots of comprehensive articles on films outside
of the main category, like screenings by honorary award winner Béla Tarr, and other
fun things that happened during RIFF, like Couch Fest Films (which apparently no
one attended but myself).
Some afterthoughts on the Reykjavík International Film Festival,
Awards Awards Awards
The jury, led by Danish actor Ul-
rich Thomsen, awarded Russian
director Angelina Nikonova’s film
‘Twilight Portrait’ the Golden Puf-
fin, which honours a director’s
debut or second film as discovery
of the year. The jury awarded this
film “for the extremely inspired
use of cinematic language and
storytelling while depicting an
intriguing and provocative sub-
ject matter with unsettling, realist
sensibility.”
Italian director Andrea Segre’s
‘Shun Li And The Poet’ and Nor-
wegian director Joachim Trier’s
‘Oslo. 31. August’ were honoured
with a special mention by the jury.
Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnars-
son's ‘Volcano’ was awarded
with two prizes: The International
Critic’s Award FIPRESCI and The
Church Of Iceland Award.
The RIFF Audience Award is tabu-
lated by using admissions and
taking into account the size of the
screening rooms and the number
of screenings. It went to Aki Kau-
rismäki’s ‘Le Havre.’
Irish director’s Risteard Ó Dom-
hnaill’s ‘The Pipe,’ a story of a
small Irish community divided
by the prospect of a oil pipeline
that will bring economic gains
(but also destroy their way of life)
was awarded with the RIFF Envi-
ronmental Award. Trish Dolman’s
‘Eco Pirate: The Paul Watson
Story,’ a documentary on whaling
was specially noted as well.
Börkur Sigþórsson’s `’Skaði’
(“Come To Harm”) won the Ice-
landic Shorts competition and
Haukur M. Hrafnsson’s ‘Ósýnileg
mæri’ (“Invisible Border”) got a
special mention.
Pictured:
Jónsi, singer of Sigur Rós at the Riff
premier of Sigur Rós's new film, Inni.