Day 2 – 28th PSIFF -2017

Second day not as satisfying as the first day, and the Polish movies start today. We start with “Clash” -Diab’s second feature (after Cairo 678) is set during the political unrest of 2013, and unfolds largely within the confines of a police van packed to bursting with detainees from different social backgrounds: activists, journalists and bystanders. It’s a vivid microcosm for Egypt’s splintered nation. It is unrelenting as it is illuminating – in countries as splintered as Egypt, of Iraq, or Syria etc where all differences may end up being death struggles, if some form of tranquility, predictability is your goal, then you pick the devil of your choice and give him a strong hand.  On the other hand in the suffocating confines of the endless truck van rides of disparate characters you get a sense of the humanity and the forces tearing them apart in Egypt.  It was educational – entertainment, not so much.

“Sparrows” from Iceland Forced to move back to a village located in Iceland’s remote western fjords to live with his estranged father, 16-year-old Ari has never felt more isolated. A coming-of-age story, with a hypnotic score by Sigur Rós keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Winner: Best Film, San Sebastián, São Paolo, Warsaw.  He is sensitive choir boy, thrust into a macho fishing world – he clearly doesn’t fit in, and may not be the kind of boy his father would have preferred, but maybe they will reconcile, the film give hope but not reassurance.  If you’re looking for a place you may never want to live in, this is a good research movie.

“Like Crazy” – No one does crazy like Italians – in an emotionally overwrought culture it is sometimes hard to distinguish lunatics from spectators. From the director of Human Capital: “Characters and dialogue are the key to Virzì’s  comedy-drama… The film takes two psychologically damaged women and makes them into a mutually supportive duo who surprisingly touch our emotions.” Variety   I have to admit that one of my emotions was for the blondy loony to just shut up – but in the end it was well done, with humour, but not necessarily a comedy.  A good cinematic experience and an ode to Italian humanity.