By Roger Costa
FRANZ
Polish auteur Agnieszka Holland’s transcendental and provocative exploration on the celebrated father of Gothic, novelist Franz Kafka, is a masterclass in narrative and character study. A visually entrancing experience, channeling Kafka’s childhood, his early initiations on writing and identifying inspiration, the traumatic relationship with his father, his secretive bohemian practices and an infamous engagement, Holland conceives an accurate historical project told through modern expressionist and magical realistic lenses. Enhanced by its gloriously stylish, sometimes fantastical, sometimes Kafkaesque imagery and the wonderful, captivating lead performance by Idan Weiss, the result is an ambitious, mind-bending immersion into the mind of the infamous master of disturbing storytelling.
(A Cohen Media Group Release. Opens Friday, December 12th at Quad Cinema NYC).
THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO
Set in the Chilean desert during the 1980’s HIV epidemic, this wondrously intriguing, magical realistic dramedy is an outstanding surprise, an inventive modern fable that feels like an exquisite homage to the world of Almodovar. It also recognizes Queer bravery and resilience as key elements to the narrative. Seen through the perspective of 11-year-old Lidia, a girl coming of age and exploring her identity, it brings a fabulously funny and endearing cast of trans women, as they run a private entertainment club on the margins of a mining town. It is said among the miners that the epidemic is caused by their lusty gazes. Adventurous and poetic at equal measures, efficiently addressing intolerance and prejudice, director Diego Cespedes crafts a delightful tale about family and identity during challenging times.
(Opens Friday, December 12th at Roxy Cinema NYC. Director in person on Friday and Sunday).
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
Tunisia’s Official Oscar entry is the most polemic film of the year. Since its debut in Venice, the film has become the talk of town. Intense and an immersive sonic thriller, it brings the audience to the line of fire in Gaza, as a team of the Emergency Center scrambles to get an ambulance to the location where a 6-year-old girl is surrounded by her family’s corpses and Israeli war tanks. Using the original recordings of the emergency call, the film is masterly crafted and executed as a work of suspense injected by its tragic and utterly uncomfortable realism. There’s a moral discussion to it: are we celebrating cinema as a vehicle of protest and awareness against the horrors of war, or is it just fashion and sort of an intellectual obligation to recognize it as a piece of cinematic achievement? Who’s benefiting from it? Is it only a way for some people to feel good about themselves and their investments? As they run against time, battling bureaucracy, privileges, and the imminent presence of death, the film feels like an open wound, an atmospheric sense of voyeuristic catastrophe about to bleed out. Either way, or even if it feels a bit extreme, the material is sensitive and urgent, it’s like alarming to the world that something must be done immediately. Director Kaouther Ben Hania conceives an impressive, suspenseful, heartbreaking chamber drama, vividly performed by a top-notch cast including Omar Alqam and Saja Kilani. The sound design is impeccable and anchors the aesthetic of the narrative. Winner of the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at Venice Film Festival and Nominated for the Golden Globes for Best International Film, it is devastatingly emotional, gripping and utterly tragic. It definitely is one of this year’s best (and most disturbing) experiences.
(A Willa Release. Opens Wednesday, December 17th at Film Forum NYC).
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