Kuma (2012)

Directed by: Umut Dag
Country: Austria

Movie Review: “Kuma” showcases the life of a firmly integrated Turkish family, where marriage, love, and motherhood, end up in false hopes, disagreement, and deception. The story begins with the wedding of Ayse (Begum Akkaya), a meek 19-year-old country girl, and Hasan, who lives in Vienna with his family. The uncomfortable atmosphere surrounding the wedding, especially among Hasan’s sisters, lets us foreseen that something is wrong. In fact, Ayse is on her way to Austria to be the second wife of Hasan’s father, in a scheme arranged by Fatma (Nihal Koldas), family’s matriarch who was diagnosed with cancer and wanted a substitute to take care of her husband and children. When her death was expected at any moment, the plot gives a big turn in multiple fronts, striking us with its shocking effects. The film was superbly shot and keenly photographed, whereas the dashing direction by debutant filmmaker Umut Dag, gave excellent indications for the future. The notion of women’s duty is very present, as well as the bitterness of a society that opts to close the eyes to domestic violence or homosexuality, instead of facing it. The final half hour was very expressive in letting come out pain, shame, and constraint. “Kuma” revealed to be a beautiful, biting, and overwhelming film, with so much going on at the same time, yet organized and structured in a very compelling way. Actresses’ fantastic performances also deserve mention.

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The Wall (2012)

Directed by: Julian Polsler
Country: Austria / Germany

Movie Review: A fantastic surprise coming from Austria, “The Wall” is a poetic and very human essay on isolation and survival. It was based on Marlen Haushofer’s novel with the same name, and directed by Julian Polsler who gives here his first step out of the TV scope. A woman (Martina Gedeck) gets mysteriously trapped in a delimited mountain area that became surrounded by a transparent, preventing her from any human contact. Assuming the rest of the world is dead, her only companies were animals: Lynx, a dog that belonged to her compulsive collector friend, Hugo; Pearl, a cat that appeared in a rainy day; and Bella, the cow that helped her to survive with its milk. Her concern for the animals took a considerable weight from her back, since she didn’t think so much in herself or in the abominable situation she was. In order to help her state of mind, she decided to create a kind of report where she annotated all the relevant occurrences that might happen. Her voice and occasional excerpts of Bach’s classical music were the only break of the forest’s heavy silences. Efficiently narrated and acted by Martina Gedeck, and dazzling us with its sharp cinematography, “The Wall”, created a prison that made me feel frustrated rather than claustrophobic. I was absorbed during all the film, which only came to an end when the paper was over and Gedeck was forced to stop writing. This lyrical mystery tale, winner of Ecumenical Jury’s prize at Berlin, comes with the stamp ‘required watching’.

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Paradise: Hope (2013)

Directed by: Ulrich Seidl
Country: Austria / others

Movie Review: Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise Trilogy comes to an end in great style with “Paradise: Hope”, the most interesting and balanced film of the trio. It starts with a gymnastics teacher preaching discipline to the teenager newcomers of a diet camp, a place to learn how to eat healthily and do appropriate exercise. Our eyes then turned to Melanie, a girl who gained a crush on the camp’s doctor after her first medical examination. All tension comes from this relationship, carrying a strong sexual component at first, but changing tone for the last half-hour. Will the doctor follow his voluptuousness in some circumstance? Melanie’s psychological background is shown through conversations with her dorm mates about their parents’ absence and sexual experiences. It was interesting to find that despite being at a very strict place in terms of rules, the girls easily fell into improper conduct, which includes alcohol, cigarettes, and striptease games. Visually, “Hope” is presented in the same line of the two previous parts, “Love” and “Faith”, adopting the same cleanliness, tidiness, and pale colors in the well-composed images. The major difference was in terms of plot, which was more consistent, and less shocking or forced. A connection with the first part of the trilogy is established when Melanie tries to reach her mother on the phone; as you may remember, she was looking for love and sex in Kenya. As usual, Seidl takes a cold look into a degrading society whose values and moral are called into question.

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Museum Hours (2012)

Directed by: Jem Cohen
Country: Austria / USA

Review: “Museum Hours” mixes fictional story and documentary in a stupendous way. It tells the story of a beautiful friendship between Johann (Bobby Sommer), a guard of Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and Anne (Mary Margaret O’Hara), a Canadian visitor who seemed lost among those immense works of art, and whose main purpose was to reach the local hospital where a childhood friend was hospitalized in a state of coma. Johann, as an inveterate observer (both inside and outside the museum), sensed her despair and offered help. Since that day, both became good friends, spending their free time having agreeable conversations about their lives, discussing art, and strolling around the city, which was depicted almost like a painting. So, you can expect a very artistic and didactic film, in which is almost possible to get acquainted to Vienna, at the same time that we learn detailed aspects and different visions about the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel’s works. Jem Cohen presents us his unique vision through a distinguished screenwriting and remarkable direction, aided by the strong performances of the leading couple. The art contemplation, café conversations, and historical information, ended up establishing a regular, relaxed pace, which can be a setback for many viewers. But don’t be discouraged, since “Museum Hours” has so much to offer in an unpretentious way, that this trip to Vienna comes very much recommended.

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Paradise: Faith (2012)

Directed by: Ulrich Seidl
Country: Austria / Germany / France

Review: Ulrich Seidl’s ability to disturb through psychological aspects is wide known, and the second part of The Paradise trilogy confirms exactly that, this time associated to faith issues. Nothing could have been more convenient than join in the same house a religious fanatic woman, Anna Maria (Maria Hofstatter), who is literally in love with Jesus (really?), to the point of masturbate herself with a crucifix, and her Muslim husband, Nabil (Nabil Saleh), who became paraplegic and returned home after an absence of two years just to realize that his wife got insane. Beyond this fact, we can follow Anna Maria going door-to-door, carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary and trying to convert immigrant people to Catholicism. Every scene was depicted with a deep mockery associated to its human decadence, and revealing a bizarre side that is quite common in Seidl’s films. Great part of them were ludicrous, with often unintelligent dialogues, and evincing the same tireless urge to shock us somehow. Contrary to what may seem, this religious battle of Anna Maria with herself and with the world, didn’t bring anything significant to be debated, being just an art-house exercise punctuated with enough strong sexual content and profanity. Through confident static shots and an impeccable direction, Seidl shows his admirable technical skills, but there’s not much to take from “Paradise:Faith”, which showed too much degradation to be likable, in addition to its opportune plot manipulations.

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