Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

It’s been a real pleasure publishing the Rotterdam diary of The Last Lizard this year, and we can’t wait for him to return next year. For now, here’s his final fistful of reviews for you:

Hey Harry/Mori,

Well, this year’s festival has come to an end. In a last-minute upset, Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles can fly (of which you can read a review below) snatched the audience award, leaving Susanne Bier’s Brothers and Hans Weingartner’s The edukators empty-handed. It’s a deserved win, and hopefully, a sign of future international recognition of the film.

DAY 9 (5 February)

Goddess (dir. Renata Litvinova) (2 out of 5)

This vanity project of actress/model Litvinova grabs the award for “biggest pile of pretentious crap” of the festival. Purposefully obscure dialogue, empty symbolism and iffy acting (which might well also be on purpose) keep this film uninteresting from the first frame to the last.

Goddess tells the story of Faina, a police detective who is working on the case of a missing girl. In her dreams, she is visited by her dead mother, who tells her that she too must soon die. Faina cannot love, and that is what makes her life so miserable. The additional characters are all unhappy in love, too, and this gives rise to monologue after monologue of what is meant to be deep and poetic soul-searching.

There’s some nice photography here, and the soundtrack is brilliant (although Nick Cave’s Red right hand is somewhat overused), but if you want some meat on your cinematic meal, look elsewhere.

Kammerflimmern (Off beat) (dir. Hendrik Hölzemann) (3.5 out of 5)

Kammerflimmern is about Crash, a paramedic who lost his parents in a car accident when he was 9 years old (hence the nickname). He still feels guilty for having survived the accident, and does everything to help others, but neglects his own needs, and pushes people away when they get too close(there’s a certain thematic connection to A blue automobile, which I saw earlier this week). One day he meets November, who is eight months pregnant and just witnessed her boyfriend and the father of her child die of a heroin overdose. They instantly fall in love, but Crash first has to deal with the skeletons in his closet before they can live happily ever after.

Though Kammerflimmern is slightly too melodramatic at times, it is saved from mediocrity by its actors, its sense of humour and its beautiful symbolism. The characters of the story are mostly very likeable, and especially Crash’s wonderfully wry colleague, Fido, keeps the story from going down in a sea of sorrow.

Unfortunately, the love story the film is predicated on is criminally underdeveloped, and as a consequence rather unbelievable. The ending of the film, while nicely symbolic, doesn’t quite work because the events that unfold are all a little too unlikely.

Turtles can fly (dir. Bahman Ghobadi) (4+ out of 5)

This beautiful drama from Kurdistan is even better than Ghobadi’s last film, A time for drunken horses. Once again the story revolves around some young Kurdish kids. In Turtles can fly the protagonists are Satellite, a young leader figure, who uses his contacts and leadership skills to improve the life of the children in a refugee camp in Iraq, at the Turkish border. He is the go-to guy for almost anything: even the adults and elders of the camp listen to him, as he can provide them with a satellite dish and is the only one who speaks (a bit of) English. The other main character is Agrin, a young girl who comes to the camp with her armless brother Henkov and their kid brother. Satellite falls in love with Agrin, but she wants nothing to do with him; all she seems to be interested in is moving on with Henkov.

These kids live in very, very bleak conditions, but Ghobadi sets an upbeat tone: Satellite has a cheerful, can-do disposition and provides for the children that work for him (digging up mines and selling them). There’s a lot of humour, especially in the scenes that show how much power Satellite has: he’s actually the closest thing to a leader the settlement has.

But of course, reality comes calling: nothing Satellite can do can prevent tragedy from unfolding. When the US Army arrives to liberate Iraq, it’s too late; and besides, the Kurds have no hope for a better life under American occupation either.

Turtles can fly is fantastically acted, especially considering the fact that the young performers had never acted in their lives before. They’re children from the region, who probably call on their own war experience to help them in their roles.

With the more narratively focused Turtles can fly, Ghobadi has outdone his previous film and deservedly wins the audience award.

Electric shadows (dir. Jiang Xiao) (3,5 out of 5)

Yet another well made but extremely predictable melodrama, Electric shadows is China’s answer to Cinema paradiso. When Dabing, a young man who absolutely loves film, crashes into a wall of bricks with his bike, a young girl who saw it happen smashes him on the head with one of the dislodged stones. When, just out of hospital, he confronts the girl, she offers him her apartment. He finds her life story there, and begins to read. The girl turns out to be called Ling Ling, and her childhood was also dominated by the love of film. Dabing finds out there might be some connection between him and Ling Ling.

Once again (see also The overture in my coverage of Day 8) this is a well performed, beautifully photographed, but overly sentimental and utterly conventional film. And, as is part and parcel of the genre, the resolution of the story depends on too many coincidences.

I was eventually moved by the film, but that’s more the result of manipulation of the heartstrings than a realistic story. First time director Jiang Xiao has a bright future ahead of her as a genre filmmaker, but I’d like to see her break away from convention a little more for her next film.

That’s it! That was the last film of the last day of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2005. I’ll just quickly give you the top 5 films of the festival:

1. Land of plenty

2. Dead man’s shoes

3. Primer

4. Three… extremes

5. Turtles can fly

Well, thanks for reading and Harry and Mori, thanks for posting! I’ll be back next year with another nine days of sleeping, eating and drinking film.

Until then, this was

The Last Lizard, signing off.

Excellent work, m’friend. If I ever make it to that fest, I’ll buy you a beer.

"Moriarty" out.