FIC Xixón 2012

Well, before I grabbed the program for this year's festival I felt rather negative and unmotivated to this edition. I was pretty angry with the very odd decision taken early this year to lay off the director, Jose Luis Cienfuegos, the man that transformed this festival from a provincial event into one of the most respected (among its kind) festivals in Europe. The thing is that after leafing the programme, my suspicions started to banish, as I could feel the selection of films seemed excellent, much more diverse (and more in my line) that in previous editions. I'd like to particularly praise the inclusion of a small section dedicated to the New French Extremity (ok, yes, it would have been more "revolutionary" if it had been done 3 years ago, now I have to admit it's not really unveiling anything too new) and the excellent "Géneros Mutantes" section.

So, without further ado, here it goes the list of films (it was 10 this year) for which I could make it to the showing:

• Después de Lucía, by Michel Franco, Mexico, Esbilla section (Saturday 2012/11/17) I may sound like a grumpy old man, but I have quite a disdain for nowadays teenagers. Not that I think that my generation was nothing too especial, but current generation looks in a high percentage like a bunch of idiotic, selfish, egocentric, brainless, unfocused fuckers that don't give a shit about anything but their own pleasures, with a willingness to fulfill their desires by all means. So, this film is about how a bunch of middle class Mexican teenagers bully . The film has some really cruel moments, a cruelty that is born from the realization that what the main character is suffering could be happening to many other kids right now. I would say it's pretty good in conveying (same as Miss Bala did in last year's edition) the terrible violence inherent to Mexican society.
• Masks, by Andreas Marschall, Germany, Géneros Mutantes section (Saturday 2012/11/17) The review in the Festival hand program was not much descriptive, but hopefully this trailer made it clear to me that it could be a pretty interesting work. Well, it didn't cheat me, "Masks" is an impressive terror/thriller film, with a rather original plot that unfolds with intensity over 112 minutes. It has elements that deeply remind me of Dario Argento, and in particular of Suspiria (the astonishing, hypnotic soundtrack clearly plays its part in creating this link) and maybe also some elements of the "French extreme thing". I won't say more, just rent, download or whatever is your thing.
• Livide, by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, France, Géneros Mutantes section (Sunday 2012/11/18) The film is directed by the guys behind L'Interieur so it was a must see proposal for me. The setting, an old mansion in a coastal village in Bretagne is really promising, but the development is nothing too special. The plot seems like too fantastic to me, and it reminds me of all the boring modern USA horror films. However, the aesthetics, though in that same line, are really good, and make the film worth seeing.
• Seven Acts of Mercy, by Gianluca De Serio and Massimiliano De Serio, Italy, Esbilla Section (Monday 2012/11/19). The film is as enigmatic as its title. Nothing is explained about how the immigrant tough girl (as the film unfolds we find that she's Moldovan) got to Turin, why that dirty gipsy family is exploiting her and what she's planning. The same goes for the other main character, the old Italian man. Mixing the lives of both mysterious beings shows to be a good choice to portrait the pain and difficulties of human existence.
• Children of Sarajevo, by Aida Begic, Bosnia/Germany/France/Turkey, Official Section (Tuesday 2012/11/20). I saw the title in my first glance at the program and I immediately checked it as a must see. I've got sort of an obsession with the Balkan Wars, it's been the last large tragedy in that almost continuous war between brothers that has been the history of Europe, it was so nearby and so far away at the same time... and it's made me thought so many times how my life would have been if I had been born just the same day, but in Sarajevo or Belgrade instead of in peaceful, boring Xixón...
  I was certainly right, this is a beautiful film. It tells us a story of survival in a city and country that try to hold tightly to that threat from which they still hang. A personal story that is wisely used to slap our faces with harsh fragments of the social mess in a postwar land: mafia politicians, a war torn economy being finished off now by privatizations, the barriers between those that lived the horror of the siege and those who somehow didn't, the different attitudes towards religion, identity and recent history... These barriers are masterly presented to us in the shape of an item intended for celebration, firecrackers. Our main character (by the way, her performance is outstanding), a young "born again Muslim" woman who lived the horrors of the war is terrified by the firecrackers with which others happily celebrate the New Year, for her those bursts just bring memories of war and suffering. This film has made me feel like watching again that other extraordinary portrait of that same broken land, Grbavica

• Shadow Dancer, by James Marsh, UK/Ireland, Official Section (Wednesday 2012/11/21). An excellent fictional story set in the 90's, in the middle of the bloody Irish conflict. A catholic/republican family broken by the painful conflict serves to help us understand how torn apart that whole land was. The story is quite hard as it touches difficult topics like loyalty, trust, revenge... with a rather unexpected outcome. The film made me ask me and ponder over a few things, made me question some of my assumptions, and that's always I deeply appreciate. However much I support people's struggle to decide what state they want to belong to, when that struggle causes so much pain, and the control exerted by the "occupiers" is not that oppressive, is that struggle really worth? Hopefully, the 2 last armed struggles for independence in our continent seem to have come to an end. In the Basque case, I really think maybe in 20 years we'll be welcoming a new state to a "United States of Europe" (well, I'm day dreaming a bit), in the Irish case I guess it's quite more complicated as the population is so terribly divided... well, time will tell...
• Bathory, by Juraj Jakubisko, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, UK (Thursday 2012/11/22) This is the most expensive Czechoslovak film to date (hey, sure I know Czechoslovakia is just a faded memory of the cold war... but the film is a Czech and Slovak production, so it's cool to unearth that historical term :-) and the visuals are beautifully well done. It tells the alternative story (that now seems to be much more accurate than the myth of the blood thirsty duchess) of Elisabeth Bathory, where she ends up being a victim rather than a monster. An interesting depiction of a time of where art, lust, cruelty, religion, illiteracy and beauty danced together while Eastern Europeans died in battle against the Ottoman invaders to guarantee the future of our beloved Europe. It's well worth the 150 minutes that I spent in front of the screen.
• Inheritance, by Hiam Abbass, France, Israel, Turkey, Official Section (Friday, 2012/11/23) I didn't have this film in my list of "must see" films, but it turned up to be an excellent choice, and very appropriate considering that this week war has been raging again in that condemned corner of our planet called Israel, Palestine or whatever. The life of a Palestinian family is used to show us both the many difficulties of living in such a contested territory, and the problems inherent to any Muslim family where some of its members are breaking away from the chains and restrictions imposed by Islam and tradition. In that sense, it can remind us of some films by Fatih Akin (sure Arabs and Turks are different human groups, but both peoples need to struggle to get rid of similar oppressive cultural traits).
• Le fils de l'autre, Lorraine Levy, France, Enfants Terribles section (Saturday, 2012/11/24) This exceptional film deserves a longer separate review.
• Our Children, by Joachim Lafosse, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Esbilla (2012/11/24). Not much to say, entertaining enough for not making you feel like leaving the screening, but fails in achieving anything more creditable. After having watched and felt several really harsh and dramatic stories over the previous days, the supposed drama the main character seems to be going through seems pretty light, indeed, rather than feeling any empathy for her, I had more of a sort of "idiot, wake up, it's all your fault" feeling. I have to admit though, that the brutal end of the story will manage to remember an otherwise quite unremarkable film.

As usual, there's a good bunch of films for which I couldn't make it to the projections, but that seemed pretty interesting (so I'll have to resort to bittorrent with the hope of them showing up there), these are some of them:

• City of Dark
• God Bless America
• The Whisperer in Darkness
• Snowtown
• California Solo
• Approved for Adoption

Not sure if in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Festival, or because of new ideas from the new guys in charge, or maybe both, there was a nice and simple exhibition on the promenade that leads to the main theatre in town: posters advertising some of the films in this edition, and huge "stickers" on the floor listing the winners of previous editions of the Festival. I rarely pay any attention to the decisions of the jury, as I assume my tastes will have little to do with those of the smart, educated folks that make up the jury, so I was rather surprised (and delighted) to see that one of my all times favourite films, Liljia 4-ever was the winner of the 2002 edition (at that time I was scarcely interested in the festival).

As a negative note, I'm compelled to voice here that during the first days of the festival, the small paper handed out for free was missing the regular section in Asturian Language. Hopefully this outrageous mistake was rectified on the following days.

Finally, I can't conclude this post without giving my overall verdict:
this has been excellent edition (for me, the most excellent so far) of a festival that for a few days manages to bring something interesting to this lost corner of a second class European state, helping us to escape from the 25% unemployment rate, the social cuts, the gratuitous beatings of "rebellious" citizens by the riot police... and so many other miseries of our crumbling capitalist societies...