FIC Xixón 2010

Last week I could enjoy one more edition of FIC Xixon, the Independent Film Festival that has been held in my town for 48 editions, and that for me is one of the few interesting things happening here in the whole year.
I attended to a good amount of films (11) and still missed a few rather promising ones that either overlapped with the others or didn't suit my schedule.
This year I was not interested in any of the retrospectives that the Festival devotes to important independent directors, but the other sections of the Festival had some really appealing films. I would like to praise in particular "Europe, what Europe?" and "A certain idea of cinema, Berlin School"



Here it goes a listing of what I watched and my impressions:

• Falscher Bekenner (Low Profile), Berlin School section.
  Well, nothing too interesting, just entertaining. An 18 years old German guy pressured by his parents is trying to find a job while living a secret life.



• Schläfer, Berlin School section. Pretty good film. A few weeks in the life of two scientifists is used to convey a story about friendship, state paranoia, suspicion, jealousy and selfishness



• R, Rellumes ((Asturian for Sparkles) section.
  Really tough Danish film. One prison, two wings, each one worse than the other, one full of Danish criminals and the other full of Arab criminals. Of course each section hates (and does business with) the other... A new guy ends up in this hell and will have to strive to survive. Absolutely recommend it (if you're not a too sensitive person)



• Animal Kingdon, Official section.
  Another harsh film, this time from Australia. Mum dies of a heroine overdose and her 18 years old only child moves to live with granny. Problem is that she and the rest of the family living under the same roof, make up one of Melbourne's worst maphias, and moreover, they're in middle of a war with the police. I absolutely love the last 10 minutes.



• Until the next Resurrection, Llendes (Asturian for Borders) section.
  One more hard experience, a Russian documentary about people walking the thin line between dragging through life and resting in death. The worst part is that focused on some beautiful Slavic young women selling their bodies to buy their death (heroine), wasting their lives waiting for the next heroine rush. Horror gets amplified when confronted with beauty... There's no hope, there's no future, there seems to be nothing in post Soviet Kaliningrad...



• Putty Hill, Rellumes section.
  Probably the less interesting film that I watched in this edition. A druggie youngster commits suicide and the director tries to find an explanation by asking friends and relatives. The idea sounds great, but the development is not that good. I think the best part is when a friend dedicates a graffiti to him, and the after funeral party, that at least in this part of Europe, is absolutely unthinkable (thought I think the idea is great, it seems pretty pagan to me :-)



• Der Räuber (The Robber), Official Section.
  Pretty good Austrian film based on a true story. Prison has not managed to change the obsessions of the main character, running marathons and robbing banks. The latter will end up destroying the life that the former could have set for him. Not as intense as depicted by some reviews, but anyway a pretty good film.



• Jerichow, Berlin School.
  Three characters with different problems establish an odd relation that will end up sinking them even more. Though one of them is Turkish, don't expect something similar to Fatih Akin films, as the German-Turkish identity conflict does not play a role here.



• Eastern Plays, Europe, what Europe? section.
  Buff, probably my winner for this edition, as soon as I read the synopsys I highlighted it in my brochure as essential, and this time I was not wrong. Nowadays Bulgaria, awful housing states, two brothers (one teenager and one thirty something), live and awful life from which the first one tries to escape joining a Neo Nazi gang, while the second one tries to run away from his initial escape, heroine. Their lives and those of others collide, but from the initial crash some hope seems to arise. The main character is basically playing himself, and sadly died short after the film was shot. I'd like to highlight this great song by this interesting Bulgarian band, Nasekomix, and the excellent aesthetic depiction of current Neo Nazis gangs (no more military boots and bomber jackets, but more of a Metal-Hardcore look)



• Plato's Academy, Europe, what Europe? section.
  Rather good Greek tragicomedy that pretty well fits in this section that tried to dig into the problems of nowadays European "nation-state". You're Greek, and Greeks hate Albanians. That's an easy norm, no questions, just blind obedience, no questions until the day you find that your mother is an Albanian emigrant and your whole world seems to crumble. Deals with such an important matter as identity in a nice, intelligent way. What's your sense of belonging? your parent's land, your birth place, the place where you grew up (that's my identity for me)... and in the end, are we that different?



• Im Schatten(In The Shadows) Berlin School.
  Raw German crime film. Not much more to say, it's not something new, but it's damnend well done.

Once said that this has been another brilliant edition, it's time to state some complains. Like in previous editions, the Festival also included some extra activities, like art exhibitions, parties and concerts. My taste in music is far from conventional, and I wouldn't expect Terror EBM, Crust or Black Metal bands to be included in the post screening activities... but there are some really good Asturian "Avant-garde" bands that I think would raise the quality and heterogeneity of these activities, bands (or individuals) such as: DaRobotz, Arma X or Xera.

Finally, a list of films that seemed rather interesting but for whatever reason (well, mainly I need to work for a living...) I couldn't watch:

• Worlds Apart (To Verdener), Danmark, Niels Arden Oplev


• Videocrazy, Erik Gandini


• Aurora, Cristi Puiu. Well, I had many doubts about this 3 hours Romanian thriller, it could be a masterpiece or be absolutely unbearable, my good friend Solsticiu has confirmed my worst expectations


• Morgen, Marian Crisan


• My Perestroika, Robin Hessman


• How I ended this summer, Aleksei Popogrebsky