Week three of Whānau Marama: The New Zealand International Film Festival, including humanist vampires, a Grand Prix Cannes winner, and a monstrously good Tilda Swinton.
All We Imagine As Light
All We Imagine As Light is an incredibly dreamy film set in monsoonal Mumbai, where central characters Prabha, Anu and Parvati work together in a big hospital. Prabha, played by Kani Kusruti, is a gentle and capable nurse, slightly bemused by her husband moving to Germany and stopping calling her. She’s a compassionate roommate to Anu (Divya Prabha), a younger nurse who is controversially in love with a Muslim boy, and whose quick efficiency – prescribing birth control pills to a worried patient, for example – is offset by her love of sauntering around Mumbai, trying on sunglasses and kissing in the rain. Prabha and Anu work together to help their colleague Parvati, a cook, move after a lack of documentation means she is forced from her home by property developers. As the characters shift between speaking Malayalam, from their home state of Kerala, Marathi and Hindi, the film investigates what women’s freedom looks like in contemporary India, and how there is space for playfulness and intrigue even within restrictive social codes. With lush shots of monsoon downpours, apartments at night and beaches, the movie has a total confidence in the beauty of the world. It’s by far my favourite film from the festival this year, and if the packed out Civic is anything to go by, lots of people agree. / Shanti Mathias
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Move over Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, for mine eyes have never seen two faces better suited to an adolescent vampire movie than Sara Montpetit and Arnaud Vachon in Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. When reluctant vampire Sasha (Montpetit) realises her unusual streak of empathy is going to make feasting on random strangers untenable, she starts to explore other options. What transpires is a quite sweet and sometimes sad teen rom-com about two misfits finding each other in the literal and metaphorical darkness. There’s also an incredible shot which looks exactly like when Natalia Kills and Willy Moon swept through Auckland International Airport after suit-gate. Adored it. / Alex Casey
Problemista
Problemista is magical, chaotic, hilarious and moving. It follows Alejandro, who moved to New York from El Salvador following a dream to become a toy designer. Having not heard back from Hasbro about his application, he works at FreezeCorp, a company which cryogenically freezes people in order to reawaken them in the future, if they ever develop the technology, that is. It is here that the meek, dorky immigrant meets Elizabeth, the highly strung wife of an artist (frozen) who exclusively painted eggs. Elizabeth, played by Tilda Swinton, is a magnetic monster pulling Ale into her obsessive orbit around her husband’s work. If we’re talking about its stars we also have to say Ale is played by the writer and director of the film, Julio Torres, who apparently has too many talents. Then there’s also Craigslist, brought to life by Larry Owens. The costuming and characters are recognisable, if exaggerated. Parts of this reminded me of Michel Gondry films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. Another new favourite! / Gabi Lardies
Dìdi
There’s a delicious banquet of great coming-of-age films in the festival, but Dìdi is easily the most hyped and the very best I’ve seen from the genre since I sobbed my way through Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? last year. Set in 2008, when your Myspace top eight was the defining social strata and YouTube was a place for skate videos and lo-fi parody songs, Taiwanese-American kid Chris is flubbing his way through friendship and family drama. Although its a classic case of being caught between worlds – the cute kid brother making videos with his grandma at home and the suave skater boy trying to woo his crush online – this movie firmly resists falling into cliche and stereotypes. Instead, it manages to be surprising, deeply moving and hilarious while still feeling kinda downbeat and low-key. Also is a really strong rendering of the primitive social media age, and a treat to be a part of a firmly millennial crowd gasping at the gravity of receiving a <3 instead of a :) on your flip phone. / AC
Read our week one reviews here
Read our week two reviews here
Click here to see the full programme from Whānau Marama: The New Zealand International Film Festival