By 
THE JAPANESE DOG ****
There’s an empty space in the hearts of those who wait, longing for a beloved relative who crossed the oceans in search of prosperity. This cloud of sorrow and loneliness seems to be a migration issue, where families are separated by economical purposes. In the Bible story of the Prodigal Child, a father longs for the return of his son and celebrates with a banquet when he finally gets back home after a series of disappointments. In Tudor Cristian Jurgiu’s modern fable, a father also longs for the same reconnection in a rural area devastated by a flooding in Romania. While the residents are picking up the pieces of what’s left from the storm, Mr. Costache is considering selling his property in order to avoid another catastrophe, he’s constantly refusing the villagers’ help or soliciting, and demonstrates mixed feelings when hearing his estranged son, Ticus is coming to visit. Our lonely elderly hero carries the burden of being distant from the world around him: the loss of his wife, the absence of his son, the misguided relationship with the new family, his close friends, neighbors and authorities. Veteran actor Victor Rebengiuc gives a completely honest and raw performance as Mr. Costache, a man willing to fix the broken relationship with his son and attempting to develop one with his grandson, who’s in charge for the family’s next generation. His saddened expression of a father figure waiting to be restored to his son is mesmerizing. Narrated with a melancholic and neo-realistic style, Jurgiu contemplates life and family, as he depicts financial issues and the urgency of forgiveness and human reconnection with this touching story about growing older. (Runs thru May 27th at MoMA, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC)
BRAZILIAN VERITÉ
Charged with an exhilarating sense of truth, André Novais Oliveira’s “SHE COMES BACK ON THURSDAY” is a fusion of non-fiction with improvised material that looks at the daily routine of a Belo Horizonte family and their perspectives on life, love, the country and pop culture, based on the decision of a couple determined to separate after 35 years of marriage. In one striking and revelatory scene, the camera positions in the center of the middle-aged couple’s living room, observing multiple subjects: the TV showing popular soap-operas, the man resting on the couch and the woman searching for a love song on the web; they spontaneously start do dance and their mutual confidence and respect resembles on typical Brazilian aspects of family gathering, sharing and intervention. Richly conceived with natural preciseness and incredible balance between documental reality and storytelling, it’s a nostalgic look on the supportive role of family. (Showing Friday, May 22nd at Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, Queens)
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