Tag: Pöff

PÖFF’s Critics’ Picks Competition: pick me again

Posted on by Jeremy Clarke

Last year, I was privileged to be invited for the first time by our publisher-editor Victor Fraga to attend the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. This year I’m back again, the major difference being that I have some idea of what to expect. Superb, superfast broadband while I’m there, for a start. Clean air and near- or sub-zero weather conditions (although I confess I haven’t yet checked the weather forecast). And great hospitality.

As for the films, the titles in the Critics’ Picks section were generally an impressive lot, and it grieves me to report that apart from the one British film in there, Carol Morley’s sublime Typist Artist Pirate King – a favoured director as rising star here in the UK and an obvious shoo-in – not one of the other films in the strand has made it into UK distribution. These include Dito Tsintsadze’s superb German / Georgian gangster thriller Roxy and Çigdem Sezgin’s arresting, Turkish feminist drama Suna, both of which some enterprising UK distributor ought to snap up and put out as soon as possible.

I generally dislike writing about films before I’ve seen them: we’ve all seen those films which looked great upfront and turned out to be duds, or films which look the sort to be avoided at all costs which turn out to be masterpieces. With that caveat in mind, the range of films on offer in the Critics’ Picks looks promising.

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A new year

The strand is a little more localised this year, with most of the films from Europe or nearby, including two from Hungary, aside from two Brazilian films, one from Khazakstan, one from India and one French/Israeli production. No Oriental titles in there this year, alas, but one animated film (from Hungary).

The two Brazilian entries are Guel Arraes’ futuristic biker combat action movie Great Sertão and André Ristum’s Nobody Leaves Alive on the disappeared persons of the country’s “Colonia” hospital in Brazil. From India, Arati Kadav’s Mrs. promises a mixture of food porn and a look at the position of women in India. Prolific Greek born, top Hollywood cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (click and look him up!) puts on his directorial hat for Light Falls, a Greek-based thriller about a well-off lesbian couple from L.A. and three Albanian workers.

From Khazakstan, Ardak Amirkulov’s The Land Where Winds Stood Still deals with Soviet genocide and starvation. From Ukraine, Arkasha Nepytaliuk’s Lessons Of Tolerance promises a series of sketches on people of different views and leanings living with each other. Estonia, which is in the European Union, is not that far from Ukraine, which isn’t, and there’s clearly no love lost between Estonia and Russia. There are no Russian films in this section, which isn’t really a surprise.

For the rest, the Czech Republic’s Natálie Císařovská offers Her Body about an injured Olympic athlete forced to switch career to porno actress. In a different bodily emphasis, Maya Kenig’s The Milky Way is an Israeli drama about the commercialisation of breast milk sales. Nicholas Parish’s Brit entry The Old Man And The Land, with Rory Kinnear and Emily Beecham, sounds like another of those interesting, rural, farming dramas the UK is currently producing.

Finally, one of the two Hungarian entries is Szabolcs Hajdu’s weird sounding drama Kalman’s Day about various people visiting a loveless couple in a house by a lake. The other is the Critics’ Picks’ first animated film (hooray!), Laszló Csaki’s Pelikan Blue (pictured at the top of this article), a narrative set in the late 1980s in which three young men decide to take a train from behind the Iron Curtain to the West, in which fun turns to black market enterprise and pursuit by the authorities. The film is based on an idea by Son Of Saul’s producer Gabor Sipos.

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The films below are listed in alphabetical order:

1. Fez Summer ’55 (Morocco, Abdelhai Laraki);

2. Great Sertão (Brazil, Guel Arraes);

3. Her Body (Czech Republic/Slovakia, Její Telo);

4. Kalman’s Day (Hungary/Slovakia/United States, Szabolcs Hajdu);

5. Lessons of Tolerance (Ukraine. Arkasha Nepytaliuk);

6. Light Falls (Georgia/Albania/Greece/Germany, Phedon Papamichael);

7. Mrs. (India, Arati Kadav);

8. Nobody Leaves Alive (Brazil, André Ristum);

9. Pelikan Blue (Hungary, Laszló Csaki);

10. The Land Where Winds Stood Still (Kazakhstan, Ardak Amirkulov)

11. The Milky Way (Israel/France. Maya Kenig);

12. The Old Man and The Land (United Kingdom, Nicholas Parish);

Out of competition:

13. Daaaaaali! (France, Quentin Dupieux);14. Observing (Slovenia/Croatia/North-Macedonia, Janez Burger); and15. Your Mother’s Son (Philippines, Jun Robles Lana).

PÖFF reveals its diverse and scrumptious movie selection

Posted on by victorfraga

TOne of the most diverse, exciting and accessible film festivals in the world celebrates its 25th birthday this year. The PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival takes places between November 3rd and 19th in the Estonian capital.

The breadth and the depth of the event remain as impressive as ever, and particularly remarkable for a nation of just 1.3 million inhabitants. Northern Europe’s only A-list Fiapf-accredited film festival includes a Official Selection Competition, a First Feature Competition (its line-up was announced earlier this week), Critics’ Picks, PÖFF Shorts (which is also competitive), a Baltic Film Competition, a Youth and Children’s Festival, KinoFF (a side event for Russian-speaking audiences), Rebels With a Cause (a strand devoted to experimental and audacious filmmakers), a glitzy opening and closing ceremony in two of the city’s charming concert halls, and much more. The Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event runs between November 13th and 17th. For the first time it will also include Just Film Industry Days taking place on November 14th and 15th. Serbia and Southeastern Europe are the focus country/region this year.

DMovies will cover the action live and in loco exclusively for you, in a partnership that’s now on its sixth year. Three journalists (myself, Jeremy Clarke and Eoghan Lyng) in loco plus a kind helping hand from Paul Risker, remotely from Birmingham, and other writers across the UK and the world.

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A bubbling cauldron of movies

This year’s selection of 20 movies includes 13 world premieres and seven international premieres. Twelve movies come from Europe, with a further five from Asia and the Middle East, and three from the Americas (including a very rare US addition). Spain is the only country that appears as the main production country twice on the list. There are no British films in the main selection this year (let’s hope for better luck in the other sections of the event).

Festival Director and Head of Programme Tiina Lokk reveals the secret ingredients of the diverse selection: “This year’s diverse programme has remarkably high artistic value with sharp social perspective. Each film tackles contemporary and relevant issues with a stimulating, fresh angle. At the same time, our Official Selection aims to connect high-quality narrative films with auteur cinema. Hence, new artistic approaches and cinema languages have always caught our attention”.

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The films below are listed in alphabetical order:

1. Amal (Belgium, Jawad Rhalib);

2. Andrea’s Love (Spain, 2023,l Manuel Martín Cuenca);

3. Bad Actor (Mexico, Jorge Cuchi);

4. Ben-Joe (Japan, Akira Iwamatsu; pictured at the top of this article);

5. Consent (France, Vanessa Filho);

6. Familiar (Romania/France/Taiwan, Călin Peter Netzer)

7. Forever Hold Your Peace (Montenegro/Serbia/Czech Republic/Croatia/North Macedonia/Slovenia, Ivan Marinović);

8. Invisible Windows (India, Bijukumar Demodaran; second image on this article);

9. Misericordia (Italy, Emma Dante);

10. Natasha’s Dance (Netherlands, Jos Stelling);

11. October Metafiction (South Korea, Kyu-jun Cho);

12. Once Again (For the Very First Time) (United States, Boaz Yakin);

13. Oxygen Station (Ukraine/Czech Republic/Sweden/Slovakia, Ivan Tymchenko);

14. Patient #1 (Georgia/Russia, Rezo Gigineishvili);

15. Ten Months (Israel, Idan Hubel);

16. Teresa (Spain, Paula Ortiz);

17. The G (Canada, Karl R. Hearne);

18. The Man from Rome (Netherlands/Germany, Jaap van Heusden);

19. The Magnet Man (Belgium/Luxembourg/France/Netherlands, Gust Van den Berghe); and

20. White Flag (Mongolia/Switzerland/Japan, Batbayar Chogsom).

Solastalgia

Posted on by Paul Risker

QUICK SNAP: LIVE FROM TALLINN

Watching the German hybrid documentary-fiction feature Solastalgia, I found myself thinking about this past summer’s oppressively uncomfortable heat – worryingly the ongoing escalation of the effects of climate change.

It was obviously the roar of mother nature, an unconscious response to the man-made climate crisis. I stress the words “unconscious response” because of how prone humanity is to paranoia. How often have you heard hurricanes or tsunamis spoken of as though they were the actions of a being with free will? If you listen to enough people talk, there’s the belief that nature is out to get us.

Humanity is adept at projecting our own consciousness onto nature. Instead of confronting the crisis that’s accelerating the inevitable catastrophe, that will deny current and future generations a future, we reverse the roles of protagonist and antagonist. We absolve ourselves of our hostility towards the planet, and fail to see the crisis for what it is – a violent act of self-harm. It’s fitting that Munich and Berlin-based freelance director, writer and cinematographer Marina Hufnagel’s film is playing in competition, in the Rebels with a Cause strand at this year’s PÖFF. A vital and urgent film that wears its activist ideology on its sleeve.

The plot sees activist Edda, played by actress Marie Tragousti, seeking refuge on the North Frisian island of Pellworm, the real-life home of Sophie Backsen, a young farmer who is suing the German government for her right to a future. It’s no coincidence that Edda chose this island off the northern coast of Germany. Distressed by the realisation of the inevitable destruction of the planet, she seeks solace or a connection in a place directly under threat from rising sea levels. Archival footage of activist protests, a virtual press conference with Sophie and others are married with Ebba’s fictional presence to create an hybrid and experimental work of documentary and fiction.

Solastalgia is not driven by narrative intentions, instead it’s Hufnagel’s intent to create a space for her audience to enter the film and reflect. The intriguing question that looms over the film is what does Ebba represent? Has she given up? Is seeking refuge on Pellworm a retreat? The answer is that Ebba and Sophie are two sides of the same coin – thought and action. One represents activism through action, the other contemplative and personal activism by initiating change, and honouring one’s ideology.

The narrative threads of these two women seem to disappear and reappear as though we’re watching the tide come in and out over the sand. It’s an impression created by blurring fiction and documentary, where the audience are positioned as a pendulum, in what seems a back and forth motion between reality and fiction. The truth is that throughout it’s a narrative work. Sophie and others sue the German government, and a landmark ruling is a direct result of their efforts. Meanwhile, Ebba’s tense and distanced relationship with her sister offers a familial dramatic arc. Yet the film’s captivating touch is that it transcends an awareness of narrative.

It can be seen as an ethereal experience within the cinematic form, an extension to how reality and narrative are intimately woven together. After all, are activists not the authors of the movement, or the story to protect the rights of a generational future? Hufnagel, herself a former activist, turns to art as a necessary tool to cultivate an informed conversation around the climate crisis. She dredges up uncomfortable truths about the immediate future, reminding us that we’re standing on a precipice. We cannot afford the cost of failure through human ignorance or indifference.

Addressing how the climate package by the German government at the turn of this decade was not enough, and the necessity of an international combined effort with impactful targets, she exposes the irony of the crisis. How can humanity, preoccupied by a fear of death, be so neglectful, and worse still, indifferent?

It’s a question she attempts to answer in Ebba’s voiceover narration, but it’s not so much an answer she offers, as an acknowledgement that compels anguish – a realisation that the planet deserves better than humanity could ever offer.

The heart of the film exposes the detrimental effect of capitalism – the avarice of humanity, and our unwillingness to compromise, to sacrifice the way we’ve lived for a sustainable future. This is emphasised in Ebba’s conversations with and reflections on the relationship with her sister, who symbolises a detachment from the crisis, and the resistance to rethinking how we live to create this sustainable future. In one evocative moment, Ebba is sat against a picturesque backdrop and her voiceover laments, “The 20th century seems like a series of questions to which we have given the wrong answers. We are following “business as usual”, instead of pausing for a moment to figure out what the future could look like. “Business as usual” won’t bring us any solutions. Nobody wants to live like that. At least, I don’t.”

Solastalgia is a treatise on humanity’s orchestration of its tragic demise. A captivating experimental work of art, it’s an equally important warning about the fast expiring choice humanity has to preserve a future. It just premiered in the Official Competition of the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Critics’ Picks: a brand-new film selection hits Tallinn

Posted on by victorfraga

Having admired some of DMovies’ coverage of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival over the last few years and knowing it to be one of our publisher-editor Victor Fraga’s favourite festivals, I am delighted to have been asked to attend and cover a new section at the Festival, not least because I get to see both the event itself and the city of Tallinn first hand.

I don’t know that much about the city – decades ago, I and many others thrilled to the heist movie Darkness In Tallinn (Ilkka Järvi-Laturi, 1993) when it was released here by the now late, lamented UK cinema distributor Metro Tartan, all about criminals pulling off a robbery in a blackout. Hopefully, my visit will be nothing like this; indeed, I’m told that Estonia has the most fantastic, superfast internet – a facility of which I’m looking forward to availing myself.

This is the first year Tallinn have run their Critics’ Picks strand. Festivals can be baffling – you look through a programme and see a bunch of titles which mean nothing often directed by directors of whom you’ve never heard. Sometimes, of course, there’s a good reason you’ve never heard of them, but equally, there may be gems in here awaiting discovery and perhaps directors, actors or other talent at the start of (or maybe well into) impressive careers.

The temptation is to go for names you know – there are new films here by Ulrich Siedl, the late Kim Ki-duk and the UK’s own Carol Morley, the first two being out of competition entries, the latter being an in competition one. Siedl, whose extraordinary Rimini (2022) hits UK cinemas in December, has a follow-up film Sparta (which Victor watched and reviewed a couple of months ago at San Sebastian) about Richie Bravo’s brother. Kim had a reputation as Korea’s enfant terrible of film, and tends to eschew political correctness, so one has high hopes of his dream / fantasy movie Call of God, particularly in my case since I’m fascinated by manifestations of religion, something to which the title alludes. Morley, meanwhile, surely deserves some sort of accolade for the title of her latest film Typist Artist Pirate King which sounds like a feminine road movie involving an electric car looking for a plot.

I shall be looking out for any Oriental, Fantastique or animated titles in there, the dirtier the better. Taiwanese entry In the Morning of La Petite Mort (Wang Yu-Lin 2021) intertwines the lives of a food delivery driver and a sex worker, a building superintendent and a cleaning woman. Pan-European, comedy thriller Roxy (Dito Tsintsadze, 2022) seems to be about a taxi driver and Russian villains – possibly something like Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004). The Chambermaid (Mariana Čengel Solčanská, 2022) is a Slovakian, historical, lesbian, romantic drama. There are also films from the Philippines, Iran, Israel and Canada, among others – a fully international spread which bodes well.

Critics’ Picks – In Competition

Critics’ Picks – Out of Competition

  • Call of God (Kim Ki-duk) ****;
  • Karaoke (Moshe Rosenthal); and
  • Sparta (Ulrich Seidl) *****.

Bonus – Kids Animation Programme

PÖFF’s Main Competition showcases an audacious selection of world cinema

Posted on by victorfraga

One of the most diverse, exciting and accessible film festivals in the world,the PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival takes places between November 11th and 27th in the Estonian capital and also in Tartu, the country’s second largest city.

The breadth and the depth of the event are truly astonishing, and particularly remarkable for a nation of just 1.3 million inhabitants. Northern Europe’s only A-list Fiapf-accredited film festival includes a Official Selection Competition, a First Feature Competition, the Estonian Olympic Committee, Sports Film Programme, PÖFF Shorts (which is also competitive) a Baltic Film Competition, a Youth and Children’s Festival, KinoFF (a side event for Russian-speaking audiences), Rebels With a Cause (a strand devoted to experimental and audacious filmmakers), a glitzy opening and closing ceremony in two of the city’s charming concert halls, and much more. Oh, and this year the Festival features a Critics’ Picks session for the very first time. Meanwhile, the Industry @ Tallinn & Baltic Event caters for industry professionals, with a focus on sustainability this year.

Expect a much bigger, brighter and louder event this year, as the world resumes relative normality after two years of pandemic turbulence (the Festival, however, was held in its full format both in 2020 and in 2021; nothing short of a film miracle). What’s great about Tallinn is that despite the vast number of films and strands, networking and access to talent are extremely straightforward. You can meet both nascent and established directors after the screenings, in the lobby of the Nordic Hotel or at the cosy Naganaga Bar and Restaurant (but pssst; this one is a well-kept secret you don’t want to share with everyone). Did I mention prices too are accessible, and people very kind and helpful?

DMovies has attended the event yearly for five years, and we couldn’t be happier to return in 2022, with three journalists (myself, Jeremy Clarke and Livan Garcia-Duquesne) in loco plus a kind helping hand from Paul Risker, remotely from Birmingham!

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Diverse is the word/world

The films represent the diversity of geography, genre and theme present in this year’s refreshed competition programmes, with films coming from both renowned, multi-award-winning auteurs and returning Black Nights favourites. It includes 18 world and four international premieres, from 22 different countries.The 26th edition of Tallinn Black Nights will introduce one new competition programme, Critics’ Picks, led by critic and programmer Nikolaj Nikitin. Critics’ Picks joins the established Official Selection, First Features, Baltic Competition and Rebels with a Cause programmes. Critics’ Picks was introduced to highlight more arthouse fare in the PÖFF lineup, starting with around 15 features in its first year. This year’s Baltic Competition will exclusively screen fiction films and also considers minority Baltic co-productions. Rebels and First Features competitions will continue to represent their respective niches – experimental works and fiction debuts.For the first time, most programmes also have their own lead curators – with Triin Tramberg handling First Features, Edvinas Pukšta on Baltic Competition duty, Javier Garcia Puerto heading the Rebels programme, Helmut Jänes leading Midnight Shivers and Tiit Tuumalu responsible for DOC@PÖFF.Israel is in Focus country this year, alongside a Showcase of Brazilian cinema.

Below are all the films in the Main Competition of the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival:

  • Hit Big (J.-P. Valkeapää);
  • And Yet We Were All Blind (Béatrice Pollet);
  • Jailbird (Andrea Magnani);
  • Piece Of My Heart (Dana Nechushtan; pictured in the middle of this article);
  • The Fox (Adrian Goiginger);
  • Lucky Girl (Marysia Nikitiuk);
  • Night (Mona Hoel);
  • Bungalow (Lawrence Cote Collins);
  • Cold as Marble (Asif Rustamov);
  • Sanaa (Sudhanshu Saria);
  • Ann (Ciaran Creagh);
  • Sashenka (Alexander Zhovna);
  • Ducks An Urban Legend (Shachar Rozen);
  • Plastic Symphony (Juraj Lehotský);
  • Servus Papa, See You in Hell (Christopher Roth);
  • Stiekyt (Etienne Fourie; pictured at the top of this article);
  • Driving Mum (Hilmar Oddsson);
  • A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes (Gentian Koçi);
  • The Wastetown (Ahmad Bahrami);
  • River of Desire (Sergio Machado);
  • Ginji The Speculator (Ryuichi Mino);
  • 578 Magnum (Lương Đình Dũng); and
  • The Punishment (Matias Bize).

Tallinn celebrates 25 years of showcasing the finest world cinema!

Posted on by victorfraga

One of the most diverse, exciting and accessible film festivals in the world celebrates its 25th birthday this year. The PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival takes places between November 12th and 28th in the Estonian capital and also in Tartu, the country’s second largest city.

The breadth and the depth of the event are truly astonishing, and particularly remarkable for a nation of just 1.3 million inhabitants. Northern Europe’s only A-list Fiapf-accredited film festival includes a Official Selection Competition, a First Feature Competition, PÖFF Shorts (which is also competitive) a Baltic Film Competition, a Youth and Children’s Festival, KinoFF (a side event for Russian-speaking audiences), Rebels With a Cause (a strand devoted to experimental and audacious filmmakers), a glitzy opening and closing ceremony in two of the city’s charming concert halls, and much more. The Industry @ Tallinn & Baltic Event caters for industry professionals, with a focus on sustainability this year.

There are more reasons than one to celebrate in the event’s 25 anniversary. Despite the second wave of the pandemic. PÖFF took place in its physical format and in its entirety in 2020, with the according health and safety measures in place. This was nothing short of a miracle. Expect a much bigger, brighter and louder event this year, as the world resumes some semblance of normality. What’s great about Tallinn is that despite the vast number of films and strands, networking and access to talent are extremely straightforward. You can meet both nascent and established directors after the screenings, in the lobby of the Nordic Hotel or at the cosy Naganaga Bar and Restaurant (but pssst; this one is a well-kept secret you don’t want to share with everyone). Did I mention prices too are accessible, and people very kind and helpful?

DMovies has attended the event yearly for four years, and we couldn’t be happier to return in 2021, with two journalists (myself and Redmond Bacon) in loco plus a kind helping hand from Paul Risker, remotely from Birmingham!

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A worldly selection

The 22 films in the Official Selection (19 movies in competition and three special screenings) are the biggest testament of the Festival’s distinction, and irrefutable evidence that Tallinn is a city of world cinema. Films come from virtually every corner of the world, from countries as diverse as Chile, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Germany, the Philippines and Hungary (the Central European nation shares a remote ethnic and linguistic connection with Estonia, and it’s this year’s focus country).

Highlights include The King of All the World, the latest movie from legendary 89-year-old Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, the nightmarish Russian Captain Volkonogov Escaped, the shockingly violent Belgian Animals, and the politically explosive Chilean A Place Called Dignity. Sadly there are no British movies in the Official selection this year, however there are two UK entries in the First Feature Competition strand.

Festival Director Tiina Lokk explains: It’s vitally important, in these challenging times for the culture business, to make sure film fans continue to visit cinemas and have that essential experience. The best way to do that is surely to show them the very best, most provocative and most inspiring films world cinema has to offer. It’s an honour to have these films join us and a gift to Estonian film fans”

Just click here in order to find out more about PÖFF Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the various film strands, the countless movies and the abundant action.

Below is the list of all 22 films in the Official Selection:

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World premieres:

Herd Immunity (Kazakhstan, Adilkhan Yerzhanov);

Songs for a Fox (Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia, Kristijonas Vildžiūnas);

Perpetuity (Hungary, György Pálfi);

A Place Called Dignity (Chile/Argentina/Germany, Matias Rojas Valencia);

Killing the Eunuch Khan (Iran, Abed Abest; second pictured from the top);

Big Night (Philippines, Jun Robles Lana); and

The Wait (Finland, Aku Louhimies).

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International premieres:

The Wedding Day (Poland, Wojtek Smarzowski; pictured at the top of this article);

No Looking Back (Russia, Kirill Sokolov);

Dear Thomas (Germany, Andreas Kleinert);

What Went Wrong? (Spain, Liliana Torres);

The List of Those Who Love Me (Turkey, Emre Erdoğdu);

The Gentiles (Santi Amoreo; third picture on this article);

Make the Devil Laugh (Japan, Ryuichi Mino);

A Vanishing Fog (Colombia/Czech Republic/Norway, Augusto Sandino); and

Mukagali (Kazakhstan, Bolat Kalymbetov).

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European premieres:

No. 10 (Netherlands/Belgium, Alex van Warmerdam);

Yanagawa (China, Zhang Lu); and

Animals (Belgium/France, DNabil Ben Yadir).

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Official Competition – Out of Competition:

Compartment No 6 (Finland/Germany/Estonia/Russia, Juho Kuosmanen);

The King of All The World (Spain/Mexico, Carlos Saura); and

Captain Volkonogov Escaped (Russia/Estonia, Aleksey Chupov & Natasha Merkulova).

Longing Souls (El Alma Quiere Volar)

Posted on by Redmond Bacon

QUICK SNAP: LIVE FROM TALLINN

The coming-of-age story is mixed with the old wives tale to excellent effect in Diana Montenegro’s debut feature Longing Souls. A slow, quiet and assured effort from Colombia, it expertly examines superstitious women’s lives through careful and clever composition and a great eye for the tiny accretion of detail.

Longing Souls starts with the 10-year-old Camilla witnessing a truly horrific event: her mother being beaten with a belt up by her father. As a result, she is sent to live with her 79-year-old grandmother. She lives with Camilla’s aunts, all of whom seem afflicted one way or another. Soon, the young girl realises that these women are living with a so-called curse, inflicted upon them by their neighbour Felicia.

But perhaps the curse isn’t really from Felicia, but from the men in these women’s lives: who are either unavailable, abusive or literally infirm. Together these women must band together and find a way to live despite their difficulties. Longing Souls really looks at these ladies, providing a feminist portrait that stays true to itself throughout.

While looking on the outset like a kitchen sink drama, this is not your run-of-the-mill arthouse film. Instead director Diana Montenegro imbues the film with a quirky eye for composition; often employing planimetric shots and horizontal pans to give the old house an immersive feel. Yet she is not slavishly devoted to her style, knowing when to cut to a close or medium shot in order to enhance a particular scene. Still we rarely leave this expertly constructed-space, Montenegro draping the entire film in a Beguiled-like atmosphere; filled with white, flowing clothes, billowing curtains and natural candlelight.

This old-timey aesthetic compliments the many superstitious rituals we see throughout the film: from covering your face with oatmeal, rubbing yourself with stones while repeating mantras, saying the name of Jesus Christ 1000 times, and cracking an egg into a glass of water. Montenegro views these strange liturgic moments without judgement, providing a fascinating insight into how Catholicism and superstition can often be so easily interlinked.

Using a mostly amateur cast, the film balances this stylised approach with fine naturalistic and lived-in performances. Montenegro is not afraid to simply let domestic scenes play out, focusing on the bodies of these women and their relation to the space around them. With moments that are alternately sad, funny and often downright strange, we really get a sense of who these people are; leading up to a pitch-perfect final scene that doesn’t betray the carefully laid groundwork of the film’s previous moments.

Scored to a variety of old-school Colombian pop songs, Longing Souls manages to stay dreamy and touching despite its dark subject matter. It’s affirming to see Argentinean legend Lucrecia Martel as one of the film advisors; with her stewardship, there is a real hope that this film asserts Montenegro as a fresh new voice in South American cinema.

Longing Souls plays as part the First Feature Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, running from 13th to 29th November.