CENTRAL AIRPORT THF

Germany, 2018, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Karim Ainouz.

This is an arresting documentary, especially in the light of the migrant movements from Africa and the Middle East to Europe. From 2015, the numbers increased considerably, with Germany leading in accepting a large number of migrants but other Middle European countries closing their borders.

The central airport of the title is Templehof, the Berlin airport.

This film gives a brief history of the airport itself, its being established in the 1920s and immediately becoming too small, Hitler’s ambitions to make it a large airport in the 1930s. Subsequently, it served as a central focus for Berlin, especially with the dividing of the capital after World War II and, particularly with the famous Big Lift of 1948.

Templehof was closed in 2008.

This is a vast space, the arrival and departure areas, the large number of hangers. There is also open land on the outskirts of the airport.

What happened in 2015 was the decision to make the space available for incoming migrants. The area provided an opportunity for people to stay, receive care, be classified for documentation and status.

The director of this film is Brazilian, with his ancestors coming from Algeria. He has a sympathy for the refugees. He also has a background in architecture which makes him interested in the airport itself and its plant.

He accompanies two refugees over a period of a year, telling their stories, all the time photographing the reality of life in the iarport, the dormitories, the rooms, the services, shops, eating areas…

One of the refugees is a young Syrian who turned 18 during his time at the airport, finally getting permission to stay for three years and so to move outside Templehof and to begin some studies. The other refugee is a doctor from Iraq, prevented from officially working as a doctor but giving his time and energies and skills to those who are ill in Templehof.

While the film gives an overview of the airport and this important use for refugees, it is personalised with interviews conducted with a number of the people there but, especially, with the two central subjects of the film.

1. A successful documentary? Brazilian director, student of architecture? Berlin history? Middle Eastern refugees in the 21st-century? Personalised?

2. The history of Templehof airport, origins in the 1920s, too small, Hitler’s ambitions? Its use until 2008? Closure? The size, the empty hangers, the open space, the surroundings?

3. The initial tour, the guests, the guide, the explanations of the history, the audience seeing them? Musical score?

4. The vast area, the use of the hangers, the establishment of the centres, shops, services? The park outside?

5. The coming of the refugees, Germany welcoming so many? The background of Turkish immigrants? The influx in 2015 and the following years?

6. Refugees from Syria, the civil war in Syria, the young man explaining his village, his life, the sufferings? Comparisons with refugees from Iraq?

7. Shops, the groups, the interviews, the services, meals, families, youngsters?

8. The young man from Syria, his story, phoning his mother, documentation, his being accepted for 3 ½ years?

9. The doctor from Iraq, his qualifications not accepted, his helping with medical needs at Templehof?

10. The prospects for the future use of the airport locations? The recreational use for all Germans outside?

CRY OF THE WEREWOLF

US, 1944, 63 minutes, Black-and-white.
Nina Foch, Stephen Crane, Osa Massen, Blanche Yurka, Barton Mac Lane, John Abbott.
Directed by Henry Levin.

This is a brief horror film from Columbia Studios, a variation on the Wolf Man theme so popular at Universal with Lon Chaney Jr. This time the werewolf is a woman.

The film opens with tourists at a museum in New Orleans, with John Abbott as a guide explaining vampires, voodoo and werewolves. The museum was formally a house of a woman who savaged her husband and disappeared.

Her daughter lives in the Gypsy camp, all from Romania, outside the city. She comes to the museum to kill the manager who is investigating the origins of the werewolves and to destroy his manuscripts. In a secret passage in the Museum, she does.

The son of the director of the museum arrives, a scientist, sceptical about werewolves. The director’s assistant is in love with the son but turns out to be the sister of the chief werewolf and at times is possessed by her. There are scenes in the Gypsy camp with Blanch Yurka as the guiding Gypsy for the werewolf.

The guide discovers the body and is mentally disturbed. The police come in, very sceptical, but getting all kind of evidence of wolf hair under the nails of the murdered man, a woman’s fingerprints on the door inside the secret passage, and eventually a confrontation between the werewolf and the son of the manager.

Nina Foch, at the beginning of her career, plays Celeste, the werewolf.

Not so well-known, but an interesting variation on the theme.

LIVE FROM BAGHDAD

US, 2002, 108 minutes, Colour.
Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, Joshua Leonard, Lili Taylor, David Suchet, Bruce Mc Gill, Michael Murphy, Paul Guilfoyle, Hamish Linklater, Robert Wisdom.
Directed by Mick Jackson.

Live from Baghdad was made 11 years after the events it portrays. This was the tension in Iraq after its long war with Iran, oil issues, the invasion of Kuwait, the American retaliation by President George Bush.

The film is also the story of live broadcasting from war zones given the technology in the latter part of the 20th century. It is a story from CNN, from its headquarters in Atlanta, its ambitions to have a 24-hour news service. CNN sends a group to Baghdad to report, giving the background to what was to become the war, an interview with Saddam Hussein, a visit to Kuwait, and the first night of the bombardment with live radio coverage.

The film is based on a book by the producer, Robert Weiner, who also contributed to the screenplay and was a producer. He had been in Vietnam and felt he had missed out on a key reporting story. He accepts the invitation to go to Baghdad, chooses a fellow producer played by Helena Bonham Carter, a technical team with photographer, Joshua Leonard, sound expert, Lili Taylor. At times they are joined by on-air broadcasters played by Bruce Mc Gill as BBC’s Peter Arnett, Robert Wisdom as CNN’s Bernard Shaw and with John Carroll Lynch as John Holliman of CNN, to whom the film is dedicated.

Robert Weiner is rather ambitious, but shrewd. He uses news items with Saddam Hussein and substitutes the word guests for hostages, the word used by the Iraqis. The ethical issue arises about reporting stories and seeming to support the regime or leaving it to audiences to make up their own minds. This is true of the visit to Kuwait and to a hospital where it is alleged the Iraqis abducted babies – and the end of the film points out that this was untrue.

David Suchet is very good as the Minister of information, shrewd, quiet, controlling communications but becoming a friend of Weiner.

The film culminates in the first night of bombardment in Iraq, people fleeing in the hotels, going to shelters, yet a squad remaining upstairs in a hotel continually broadcasting. The other networks, some of whom were present in Iraq and then ousted, give a tribute to CNN as does President Bush himself.

The film was released in 2002 and was almost immediately overshadowed by the events of 2003 and the invasion of Iraq. Nevertheless, this provides very interesting background to those events with the role of Saddam Hussein a decade earlier.

The film was directed by British Mick Jackson whose credits range from A Very British Coup to LA Story and The Bodyguard..

1. Audience knowledge of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, the war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait? The issues of oil, the Americans? President Bush? The attack? The film offering a perspective of a decade later? Audience knowing the events, the memories? And, looking at the film in hindsight after the invasion of 2003, the death of Saddam Hussein, the consequences in the years afterwards?

2. The irony of this film for 2002, the events of 2003? The reporting of them?

3. A film about reporters, CNN, the small company, wanting 24 hour service, the other networks? Atlanta, CNN expansion, international connections? Sending reporters and producers to Iraq?

4. Rob Weiner, his book, contributing to the screenplay and the interpretation of his character, producer? Michael Keaton portraying him? Ambitious, serious, confident – yet with some pathos?

5. The 1998-1990, situation? CNN, the bosses in Atlanta, their personalities, ambitions, decisions, their work? Bernard Shaw as host?

6. The decision about Iraq, Weiner agreeing to go, his wanting Ingrid as co-producer, contact with her in Rome, going to Baghdad, the scenes at the airport, Weiner as a cheeky American, the customs, suspicions? Hostility towards Americans? Presumption about the hotel, bribing the manager for rooms? Other American reporters being ousted?

7. Atlanta wanting him to have judgement and understanding? Being met at the airport by the Iraqi guide, his being guard and censor?

8. Robert and Ingrid, the cameraman, Judy and the sound engineering? The other members on service of rounds and going back to America? The arrival of Peter Arnett, his reputation with the BBC? Ross being sent, his reports, Jewish background, effective – and then going to Israel? John Holliman and his wanting to go to Iraq, his commentaries? The activities, the risks, the dangers?

9. The contacts between Atlanta and Baghdad? The scene with Saddam Hussein and the boy, using the word guest instead of hostage? The report from the CNN group, on-air? The meeting with the other journalists in the bar, their mocking? The issue of the present, Weiner and his discernment? Presenting material and relying on the intelligence of the audience to pick up the truth?

10. The visit to Kuwait, the issue of the babies, the abductions? Allegations? The doctors, the interviews being cut off, the return to Baghdad? The end and the note that this story about abductions was false?

11. David Suchet as Naji? Minister for information, Weiner going to his office, waiting, cups of tea, other visitors and their impatience, mispronunciations? His courtesy, the secretaries telling him to wait, Naji the arriving, the discussions? The desire to have an interview with Saddam Hussein? Others doing this, Naji and the final arrangement? Bernard Shaw coming from Atlanta to do the interview?

12. The personalities, Robert and Ingrid? The journalists and their stories? The other journalists and other networks, journalist like Inky? At the hotels, their lifestyles?

13. The interview with the hostages, the man who spoke frankly, his disappearance, Robert and his regrets, asking Naji and his quietly nodding? The end, the release of the hostages, the man’s relief but barely remembering the interview?

14. Many leaving, the bonds begin to form, the decisions whether to stay or not?

15. The night, the connections with Atlanta, on and off, the descriptions, the tension, everybody involved, the commentary, Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett, John Holliman? The others going to the shelters, the soldiers? Tricking the soldiers, locking them out?

16. Atlanta, on and off screen? The other networks quoting CNN? The phone call and praise from President Bush?

17. The achievement, Weiner and a significant story for his life? His achievement? Ingrid?

18. The aftermath, the 2000s, the search for weapons of mass destruction, George W. Bush and the invasion, the consequences? This film in the hindsight of the subsequent events?

GAME NIGHT

US, 2018, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jason Bateman, Rachel Mc Adams, Kyle Chandler, Sharon Horgan, Billy Magnusson, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Jesse Plemons, Michael C..Hall, Danny Huston, Camille Chen.
Directed by John Francis Daly, Jonathan Goldstein.

This is a popular comedy with serious undertones and overtones. Some have found it hilarious. Others have found it amusing. Most audiences will find their reaction somewhere in between.

The film has a good cast including guest appearances by Dexter’s Michael C.Hall and Danny Huston. Jason Bateman and Rachel Mc Adams are Max and Andy and make a very genial hosting couple. Kyle Chandler is Jason Bateman’s boastful brother. There is a couple, Kevin and Michelle, sweethearts from childhood but suddenly finding out about a momentary lapse – and spending the rest of the film arguing about it, the man in question allegedly Denzel Washington but only someone who resembles him (and, in the cast, referred to as not-Denzel – and is the subject of an amusing post-credits sequence which most audiences rushing out will miss). There is also Ryan (Billy Magnusson) who is not the smartest man in America who brings to the games girlfriends who used to be referred in the bad old days as “dumb blonde is�. However, Ryan is also blonde and he is a “dumb blonde� par excellence (par worst). But, this time, he brings an intelligent Irish working partner, Sarah (Sharon Hogan).

Those who find the film hilarious will enjoy the characters and their characterisations, the madcap situations which eventually emerge when there are real plots instead of just made-up abduction and detection situations. Quite a lot of farce. Those who find the film on the amusing rather than hilarious level will enjoy all of the above but might well enjoy a great amount of the dialogue, some amusing references to a range of movies and actors for those in the know - as well as an unnecessary amount of superfluous coarse language.

It is good to see adults who are not just staying at home or spending their time on the Internet! Each week the couples meet for charades and all kinds of other games. However, Max and Annie have a next-door neighbour, a very serious police officer who has just separated from his wife whom he still holds on a pedestal (although most times he is seen holding his pet dog). He is played by Jesse Plemons who seems to be the unwanted onlooker but who becomes crucial to the plot as it becomes more complicated and is also the subject of an unexpected plot twist.

The key to all the shenanigans is Max’s brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler) who seems to have been a great financial success in Europe, returns to America, wants to host a game night. He has been the bane of Max’s life, tormenting him when they were children, his being the object of Max’s envy – and, when the couple go to a doctor concerned about Annie not becoming pregnant, the cause of Max’s stress and infertility.

While everything seems an amusing game night with role-play and abduction, it turns out to be much more – but not in the way that the audience is necessarily expecting. There are some good sequences – especially when Max is shot in the arm accidentally by Annie and she goes to the pharmacy to buy all the goods for getting the bullet out, uses her iPhone to read the instructions and pours champagne to cleanse the wound… Later, Max will be accidentally stabbed in his bullet wound!

Jeffrey Wright plays an FBI officer who may or may not be real. Then there are some thugs who knock him out who seem to be the real thing. However, the contestants in the game night think this is all part of the play. Max and Annie have a confrontation with the thugs in a bar. Kevin and Michelle are stranded in Brooks’s house. Sarah, telling Ryan, goes to the organisers of the games to get the clues.

Dexter’s Michael C. Hall appears as the Bulgarian who wants his hands on the Faberge egg. Danny Huston has a cameo role as a millionaire who has the egg (and he stages Fight Club bouts in his basement which distract Ryan, though he does find the egg!)

If this sounds enjoyable, there are several twists to come which, in fact, do make it more enjoyable.

1. Popular comedy? Funny? Serious?

2. Homes, the action sequences, the mansions, the fight club, rendezvous on the bridge? The musical score?

3. The idea, Game Night and the variations?

4. The cast, comic abilities?

5. The couples, the weekly meetings, not watching television or the Internet, the variety of games, friends meeting, being competitive, charades and other games?

6. Max and Annie, hosts, their home, Gary as the policeman neighbour, their not wanting him to come? Ryan and the range of his girlfriends? Kevin and Michelle? The long marriage?

7. The flashback, Max and Annie, the competitions, competitive, the proposal, marriage? Issues of pregnancy, going to the doctor, Max and his stress, especially about his brother, the doctor and her being interested in the brother?

8. Brooks, his reputation, Max and his envy, the stories from childhood, Brooks always winning, success? Living in luxury? His arrival, Gary watching, Brooks being loud, giving everything away, the invitation to his house for game night?

9. Gary, the police, always with his dog, separated from Debbie, his home, full of mementos to her?

10. Going to Brooks’s house, the game night, the plan, the company organising the mystery? The FBI agent, his being knocked out? The second group of thugs, abducting Brooks? Everyone believing that this was real?

11. The different responses, Max and Annie, getting in the car, following Brooks? Ryan and Sarah, her deciding to contact the company, go to the office, finding the organiser with the wound in her head? Kevin and Michelle, searching in the office, their being trapped, getting out?

12. Idiosyncrasies of the characters? Kevin and Michelle, the truth or dare, Michel having an affair, Kevin obsessed, pursuing this throughout the film? Michelle telling to 3 the story, thinking that she had met Denzel Washington? Showing the photo and its not being Denzel? Ryan, the male equivalent of the dumb blonde, his ineptness, always saying the wrong thing? The girls, all being same, vanity, slow? Sarah, Irish, more intelligent? Different?

13. Max and Annie at the bar, and in the gun, believing that they were solving the case, Max being shot, the consequences for Annie tending the wound, buying the stuff at the supermarket, getting the bullet out – and its having gone right through? His later being stabbed in the wound?

14. Max and Annie, getting the thugs on the ground – and the irony that they were later revealed as actors? Later the reverse? The Bulgarian, his wanting the egg?

15. Getting the information about false identities? Them all going to Gary, his welcome, the game, Max going into his room, getting the computer, finding out the true identities? His blood dripping on the floor, on the dog, the dog spurting it all over the mementos of Debbie?

16. Going to David Alderton’s house, the basement, fight club, Ryan and his getting enthusiastic about the fights? The others searching throughout the house? The safe, the egg in the safe, Ryan taking it, the chase, everybody throwing it to one another, in the car, the sudden breaking of the egg, finding the secret list inside?

17. The Bulgarian, the rendezvous of the bridge? Going to the plane, Max and Annie in Brooks’s red car which Max coveted, the airport, crashing into the plane, Max dropping into the plane, the confrontation, the gangster going into the engine? Annie and her dropping in and saving the day?

18. Gary, the revelation that he had arranged the overall Gary, the actors, the blood capsule? Their gratitude towards him?

19. The truth about Brooks, fake, his deals, the police, his confession to Max and the truth about their childhood, the keys to his car, his arrest?

20. Months later, the games, friends, Annie being pregnant?

21. The amusing postscript after the credits with Debbie and the not-Denzel?

THE CHINESE BUNGALOW/ THE CHINESE DEN

UK, 1940, 72 minutes, Black-and-white.
Paul Lucas, Kay Walsh, Jane Baxter, Robert Douglas, Wallace Douglas.
Directed by George King.

This is the third film version of the play by Matheson Lane, The Chinese Bungalow. The first was a silent film in 1926, starring Lane. There is also a 1930s version, again with Lane in the central role but with Jill Esmond and Anna Neagle as the women.

This films from 1940, made in England by British Line and directed by George King who worked for them as with The Case of the Frightened Lady.

Paul Lucas had emigrated from Hungary and was very popular in Hollywood films, occasionally romantic hero, frequently. Character actor. He was when the Academy award in three years after this film for Watch on the Rhine. This was also a star vehicle Kay Walsh, a prominent character actor in British films, appearing in This Happy Breed and Oliver Twist as Nancy, directed by her then-husband David Lean.

The setting is reminiscent of some of the Somerset Maugham stories like The Letter which was about to be filmed in Hollywood. The initial setting is Singapore and then moving into the jungles of Malaysia.

The film is somewhat colonial in its screenplay, the focus on to brothers at a club in Singapore, one going to a rubber plantation, glad to see an English woman singing in the club. However, she catches the attraction of a Chinese millionaire banker who also has a plantation. He is played, with some make up and with his broken English accent, by Paul Lucas. He was the young woman and takes her to the plantation where she discovers she will be alone.

The banker is concerned and brings his wife’s sister, Jane Baxter, out from England to be a companion for his wife. In the meantime, she has met one of the brothers at the plantation and begins an affair with him. The plantation brothers other brother, a captain on the boats on the river, Robert Douglas, also becomes involved, a romantic attachment to the sister. The banker, in the meantime, disgusted with his wife, set his eye on the sister.

The matters are somewhat lurid but treated in a 1940s style, rather reticent in the screenplay. However, everything comes to a head when the banker puts poison in one glass but does not see which one, offering a glass to the captain, a game of chance.

As might be expected, the banker is poisoned, praying before the border as he dies.

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT

UK, 1957, 100 minutes, black-and-white.
Tony Britton, Sylvia Syms, Jack Watling, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Fitzgerald, Howard Marion Crawford, Cyril Luckham, Ian Bannen.
Directed by Pat Jackson.

This is a British drama of the 1950s, very much based in its time, British customs and, British legislation. It must have served, even though a supporting feature, as a salutary warning against concealing goods which should be declared to customs – an enormous range of consequences including interrogations by customs officials, been charged by the police, having to find a solicitor at short notice, appearing in court, warmed to plead guilty in order to get bail or a fine, a severe judge with a three-month prison sentence, a threat to an important and well-paid job as a salesman, the risk for reputation and further employment…

Tony Britton is the salesman, buying a watch for his wife’s birthday, concealing it in one of the toys that he has brought back from the Nuremberg toy fair. One of the customs officials (the young Ian Bannon) is fascinated by the toys and the watch falls out leading to the above consequences.

Sylvia Sims plays his devoted wife, formerly model, but having to go back to work to raise the money for her husband’s crisis.

The managing director of the company, Geoffrey Keane, admires the salesman. The company is first told that the salesman is ill and can’t come to work and make his report. Eventually, the wife explains the situation to the managing director. He is under fire from the board, especially the Pres, for concealing this news. The board takes a very severe position against the salesman because of its reputation, not wanting to have somebody with a prison record on their staff.

So-called friend of the salesman is eager to find out what has happened, his as the wife, get some information and she confides in him – only for him to tell everybody in the company.

In fact, the Geoffrey Keane character is quite significant, believing in the salesman, willing to give him his job back, trying to persuade the members of the board, appealing to their compassion, appealing to the fact that they have broken the law and Paps of merely been find instead of jailed.

All the moral lesson of the film is quite sombre, audiences left the theatre with some kind of hope for a future and a belief in some good in compassionate people.

THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY

UK, 1940, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Marius Goring, Penelope Dudley- Ward, Helen Haye, Felix Aylmer, George Merritt, Ronald Shiner, Patrick Barr, Roy Emerton, Torin Thatcher.
Directed by George King.

The film is based on a popular story by Edgar Wallace (later versions in German, in Italian, and a 1980s version with Virginia McKenna).

The setting is a British country estate, in need of repair, with an architect visiting to supervise plans. The lady of the manor is a haughty woman played by Helen Haye. Her son, Lord Lebanon on, is played by young Marius Goring. There is a sinister atmosphere because of two of the servants, often seen in cahoots, frightening lady Lebanon on is secretary, played by Penelope Dudley-Ward?.

There is also a seemingly sinister doctor, played by Felix Aylmer, who has served in India and seems to have been involved in shady behaviour there. 11 on the driver also served in India and is hostile to the doctor. After a local dance where the driver has paid attention to the wife of a local farmer and intends to leave with her, the driver is found murdered, strangled by expensive Indian scarf.

Scotland Yard is called into the case, embodied by a rather large but serious officer played by George Merritt who is assisted by Ronald Shiner in one of those assistant roles, always making mistakes and rushing to judgement, popular in American films such as those of The St and The Falcon.

There are many suspects. Lord Levin on also goes to Scotland Yard to give some information. The farmer, aggressive towards his wife, is interrogated. The Dr is followed but is also found strangled.

In the meantime, the secretary has caught the attention of the architect although Lady Levin on wants her to marry her son and produce tears. The son, however, Ward is the Sec about marrying him.

Lord Lebanon on is an artistic type, musical composition, not interested in marriage – a seemingly gay man in the context of 1940.

The film is quite interesting, well acted by a range of British character actors, Helen Haye particularly strong and haughty. A sealed up room is revealed, mysterious corridors, a story about lady Levin dons husband and his madness.

And, with a shadow on the wall silhouetted, with a scarf, approaching the secretary, there is, perhaps, an unexpected twist. It is a question of madness in the family – culminating in a suicide.

TOUCH ME NOT

Romania, 2018, 125 minutes, Colour.
Laura Benson, Thomas Lemarquis.
Directed by Adina Pintilie.

Touch Me Not won the Golden Bear prize at the 2018 Berlinale.

The director is a documentary maker who also appears in the film herself, seen behind the camera, seen reflected, doing interviews with the central character played by Englishwoman, Laura Benson, and giving her opinions on the making of the film as well is its subject.

This is a film about the human body. It is the major concern for Laura Benson, a British actress in her 50s, often rather inhibited, feeling a great deal of internal anger. This is one of those performances usually called courageous where Laura Benson exposes her complete self, her inner psyche, mind and emotions, sexual concerns and energies, her body.

For audiences there are two aspects for the film. Firstly, there is a certain amount of prurience about the subject, about sexual behaviour, about watching sexual behaviour on screen. Secondly, there is the therapeutic aspect of spending over two hours considering the subject, listening to points of view, agreeing and disagreeing with the points of view, about the behaviour, of observing the naked body, in watching Laura discuss the situation with psychologists, acting out some of her angers, as well as the audience testing their own attitudes towards their own bodies.

While the attention is on Laura and herself and her body, there are some of the women, especially involved in sexual therapy, where there is a great deal of the female gaze, director and actor, on male bodies, beginning with a call boy and masturbation, followed by an Icelandic man, Tudor, who has a particular condition where, at a young age, he shed all his hair who is in group work with a dwarf sized man, full body, ordinary sized head (and distracting large protruding teeth) who is particularly frank about his own urges and his sexual activity.

Audiences can remain rather calm during the therapy interviews with psychologists – although the man, is rather forward in his approach, wanting to touch Laura, to get a reaction from her – which he certainly does, her talking about her comfort zone, feeling uncomfortable, letting out screams.

At one stage, there is a group of naked men and women, a great deal of groping. At another stage, there is a look at some sadomasochistic behaviour.

Ultimately, Laura achieve some kind of self-knowledge and self-awareness, understanding herself better, becoming more comfortable – culminating in her being able to dance naked for herself and in front of the camera.

As has been said, a blend of the prurient and the therapeutic.

JOURNAL DE MA TETE/DIARY OF MY MIND (SHOCK WAVES)

Switzerland, 2018, 70 minutes, Colour.
Fanny Ardant, Kacey Mottet Klein.
Directed by Ursula Meier.

This short film is a contribution to a program called Shock Waves.

The Swiss setting is very attractive, mountainous background, while the action takes place in the town, in a home, at school, in court and in a prison.

The film opens with a young man sitting naked at a desk writing. He is Benjamin, played by Kacey Mottet Klein. He dresses, puts the material which she has been writing in an envelope, goes on his motorbike to post it, then, with a gun, goes to a police station. He appears very odd, there is a struggle and he is handcuffed.

It emerges that he has killed his parents.

The manuscript was posted to his French language school teacher, played by very dignified Fanny Ardant. In the manuscript, he explains all that he is done and his motivations. This is disturbing for the teacher, making her wonder how her classes have contributed to his mentality and to his disastrous actions.

The teacher is summonsed, has to appear before the judges to give some explanation. However, Benjamin’s defence lawyer is hostile to the teacher especially after a visit from a number of the students with the teacher. The students are extraordinarily supportive and wanting to help Benjamin in prison and with his studies and to complete his exams. He tells the teacher that they are not to return.

The question is about his mentality, mentally disturbed, or responsible.

He receives a rather lighter sentence and has permission to have visits outside. His uncle is unwilling to have him. It falls them to the teacher to take him for the outing, bringing him into her home, setting him up in a room, sympathetic but advising him to keep his distance. He visits his parents’ grave.

This continues for several years until his final release when, again, it is over to the teacher to help him. She sets him up in his own house. We can’t guess what kind of future he will have. But the past has a disturbing effect on the teacher, her quitting her job, her asking herself what contribution she made to the young man’s behaviour.

1. Part of a series of films with the title: Shock Waves? The brevity of this contribution?

2. The Swiss setting, the town, the countryside, school, homes, the court, prison? The musical score?

3. The introduction to Benjamin, his sitting naked, writing, getting on the bike, posting the manuscript, with the gun, killing his parents, leaving them, going to the police station? The interrogation? His being odd, the struggle? Going to prison?

4. The role of Esther, her age, the teacher, her influence on Benjamin, his writing for her, literature and influence, yet writing being an outlet for his pent-up anger? Her being summonsed? The effect, the defence attorney and the criticism of Esther and telling her not to visit?

5. The visit, Benjamin’s response, the students, their enthusiasm, supporting him, his not wanting them to come again?

6. The sentence, his accepting responsibility?

7. The court, giving him leave for going out for days, his uncle’s visit to Esther, not wanting to support him?

8. Esther, the only one to help him, taking him out, the interactions, in the house, the groom, his visiting his parents’ grave?

9. The years passing, finally getting out? Esther, still supportive, taking him to his new home, settling him in?

10. The effect on Esther and her life?

KHOOK/ PIG

Iran, 2018, 90 minutes, Colour.
Hassan Majooni, Leila Hatami, Leili Rashidi.
Directed by Mani Haghighi.

This is a very striking title for a film from an Islamic country, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran. It sounds offensive, profane.

It takes a while for an audience to work out what is happening in this film and how seriously it should be taken and how much is satire and parody. In fact, it is a parody – although, the opening sequence sets a tone about social media in Iran, a group of veiled schoolgirls are walking in the street, busy with their mobile phones, with their cameras, taking selfies. Then there is a change as one of the girls sees decapitated head lying in the gutter.

The background of the plot is that a number of significant film directors are being beheaded, their heads left behind and their bodies disappearing. But, the central character, Hassan, a film director who has been banned from filmmaking for several years is quite upset that he hasn’t been murdered. He is quite a narcissistic man, vain, full of self-importance, but one of the scruffiest- looking film directors one will ever see, loud clothes, T-shirts with band logos like AC-DC.

Actually, he is making a commercial and there is a sudden song and dance routine, the women all in bright red. But it is a television commercial for a spray against insects! The director is working on it, clashing heartily with the producer, his daughter also producing.

In the meantime, the Hassan is upset with his favourite actress with her appearing in a film by his rival – some comic touches in the scene of a story of Iranian antiquities.

When the directors continue to be murdered, Hassan is upset, especially when his favourite star is also murdered. In the meantime, he is in discussions with the police. He plays tennis with his best friend but, is eventually arrested on suspicion.

There is a climax in a warehouse where he is setting up a pose with his friend to be photographed to prove his innocence and that he had alibis for the other murders. This has been complicated by young actress taking a video of his confrontation and angry outbursts against his favourite actress and this has had over 1 million hits on YouTube?.

The villain, who has confessed, eventually appears, with a pig mask over his head. There is some mayhem – but the director’s eccentric mother, previously seen with a rifle, comes in and there is some effective blasting to save the day. Wife and daughter are both men busy on social media, putting the video of everything up on Instagram …

Tehran may not seem so isolated as it may have seemed in the past…

1. A perspective on Iran? The atmosphere? The city of Tehran?

2. The plausibility of the plot? Satire and parody? The focus on cinema, celebrities?

3. Tehran, the streets, Hassan and his home, the studios, the performance for the television commercial, the scene in the desert? The warehouse?

4. The musical score, the songs? The commercial? The tone?

5. The opening, the girls, giggling, with their phones, social media, selfies? Finding the decapitated head?

6. The scenario, the attack on the film directors, the deaths, beheading, the bodies lost, and heads found only? The campaign – the revelation of the killer, motivation, ideology?

7. The gallery, Hassan and his scruffiness, observing the pictures, watching Shiva, her talking to the director, his hand, breaking the glass? His rival? The deaths, the funerals, the speeches?

8. The advertisement, the costumes, song and dance? The contrast with his rival and his antiquity film, the costumes, the performances, the interruption?

9. Hassan and his liking to play tennis, his best friend? Their working together – the end, the posing for proving himself an innocent, his friend being shot?

10. Visit to the morgue, identifying the heads, Hassan fainting.

11. His relationship with his wife, at home, estrangement, the role of Shiva, his daughter working production? His mother, the Turkish background, becoming senile, her rifle?

12. Shiva, her role, her death?

13. The scene with him confronting Shiva on YouTube?, the number of hits, the young actress?

14. His arrest, the police and the discussions?

15. His dream sequence, Shiva in the sky, his wandering the desert?

16. Hassan as narcissistic, vain, wanting to be a celebrity, wondering why he wasn’t murdered? The setup, the photography, his friend’s death? The killer with his pig mask, his ideological stances? The mother shooting the Pig? And everybody rushing to get the events uploaded onto social media and measuring the hits and likes?

17. Iranian comedy and satire?