{"id":60057,"date":"2025-03-10T19:52:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T23:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/?p=60057"},"modified":"2025-03-10T19:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T23:52:22","slug":"reflections-on-self-discovery-and-our-ruthless-world-at-first-look-festival-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/2025\/03\/10\/reflections-on-self-discovery-and-our-ruthless-world-at-first-look-festival-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Self-Discovery and Our Ruthless World at First Look Festival ’25"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roger Costa<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BONJOUR TRISTESSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seductively shot and transpiring art in every frame, this beautiful and elegant adaptation of the 1954 classic continues to raise questions with its provocative perspectives on morality, power and manipulation, sexual desire and female awakening. The camera lushly moves around its central characters, exploring their emotions and anxieties, creating an uncontrollable sexual tension throughout the complex and unpredictable narrative: a young woman (a deeply intense breakthrough turn by Lily McInerny) exploring her identity and hormones while on a sunny vacation with her father and his love interest, becomes attached to an unexpected guest (the extraordinary Chloe Sevigny) a mysterious woman bringing along some past secrets and unsolved matters. With a charming and literature-inspired cast, first time director Durga Chew-Bose conceives a visually stunning, unique and melancholic romantic tale, an ode to the feminine universe, its challenges and quest for fulfillment. No wonder she scored the Directors to Watch Award at this year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

(Screens Wednesday, March 12 with director Chew-Bose and star Lily McInerny in person)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WINDLESS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bulgarian rapper Fyre delivers an impressively heart-moving performance as a man returning to his roots in order to rescue the sense of belonging, identity and also to clear his mind from past memories. He plays a tough immigrant who worked many years in Spain and returns to his hometown in Bulgaria where he connects to family members and friends while emptying out the apartment left by his recently deceased father. An unconventional meditation on male discipline, displacement, redevelopment and memories, director Pavel G. Vesnakov urgently imprints poetry and lyricism to the story, giving us access to a poignant and slowburn portrait of family importance.<\/p>\n

(Screens Sataurday, March 15)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

TATA<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most impactful docs you’ll see this year, directors Lina Vdov\u00eei and Radu Ciorniciuc’s personal and intimate chronicle on family abuse, regret and forgiveness delves deep into the emotional turmoil experienced by Moldovan journalist Lina, who turns the camera to herself and her father to investigate the sources of domestic violence and abuse within her family and her country. For such, she must travel to Italy where her father is enduring severe working treatment, putting his own life at risk as his aggressive boss constantly picks on him. As she goes to defend his working and humanitarian causes, she reveals that he hasn’t been always the victim: she opens up about her anguish and tragic memories of an abusive childhood where all she can remeber is being afraid of her own father. She digs deep on the beatings and lack of support or understanding from her father, putting facts in front of the camera, while we witness her quest for forgiveness from the past and the process for justice in the present. It is also a chance for both to reconnect and analyse their behavior and reactions. Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 2025 Trieste Film Festival, this is an alarming, powerful tale of resilience and the consequences of emotional trauma.<\/p>\n

(Screens Saturday, March 15 with co-director Radu Ciorniciuc in person)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A FROWN GONE MAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Set in a beauty salon in Beirut, consisting of close ups in the Botox-filling table, documentarian Omar Mismar crafts an eye-opening, disturbingly truthful tale on modern society’s reckless quest for eternal youth. As the cosmetic specialist chats with her patients, making them feel comfortable enough to ease the painful process, Mismar captures urgent yet ordinary revelations about the war zone and its consequences as well as the harsh reality of people going on with their materialistic instincts while juggling a crisis. Insightful and empathic, this is as exciting as it disturbing, an investigation on the human condition, its ambitions, priorities and limits, a shocking and very bloody body-horror reality flick like nothing before.<\/p>\n

(Screens Saturday March 15 with director in person)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

DICIANNOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian director Giovanni Tortorici’s ambiguous coming of age story brings a revelatory performance by newcomer Manfredi Marin as a young man pursuing his literature passions while going through a self-discovery challenging time. Stylish and gorgeously shot, this is one of this year’s most anticipated films, a triumphant tale of youth in transition.<\/p>\n

(Screens Sunday, March 16 with Director Giovanni Tortorici in person, followed by a reception)<\/p>\n

(Presented by the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, the 14th First Look Festival runs March 12-16 with professionals in attendance and special events. Go to https:\/\/movingimage.org\/series\/firstlook2025\/<\/a> for details and full schedule)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roger Costa BONJOUR TRISTESSE Seductively shot and transpiring art in every frame, this beautiful and elegant adaptation of the 1954 classic continues to raise questions with its provocative perspectives on morality, power and manipulation, sexual desire and female awakening. The camera lushly moves around its central characters, exploring their emotions and anxieties, creating an uncontrollable sexual tension throughout the complex and unpredictable narrative: a young woman (a deeply intense breakthrough turn by Lily McInerny) exploring her identity and hormones while on a sunny vacation with her father and his love interest, becomes attached to an unexpected guest (the extraordinary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"views":1096,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60058,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60057\/revisions\/60058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brazilianpress.com\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}