ABOUT THE FILMS
RIFKIN’S FESTIVAL (OS – Woody Allen) PATRIA (Official Selection – Aitor Gabilondo) CAMINHO LONGHE (Zinemira – Josu Martinez, Txaber Larreategi) AKELARRE (Official Selection – Pablo Agüero) CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MACGOWAN (Official Selection – Julien Temple) EL GRAN FELLOVE (Official Selection – Matt Dillon) HIJOS DE DIOS (Zinemira – Ekain Irigoien) SUTEMOSE/IN THE DUSK (Official Selection – Šarūnas Bartas) TODOS OS MORTOS (Horizontes Latinos – Caetano Gotardo, Marco Dutra) SENTIMENTAL/PEOPLE UPSTAIRS (RTVE Galak – Cesc Gay) ARZAK SINCE 1897 (Culinary Zinema – Asier Altuna) THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (Culinary Zinema – Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw) RIZI/DAYS (Zabaltegi – Tsai Ming Liang) CORRESPONDENCIA (Zabaltegi – Carla Simón, Dominga Sotomayor) NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (Perlak – Eliza Hittman) ATARRABI ET MIKELATS (Zinemira – Eugène Green) NUEVO ORDEN/NEW ORDER (Perlak – Michel Franco) RIOT POLICE (Official Selection – Rodrigo Sorogoyen) LOS CONDUCTOS (Zabaltegi – Camilo Restrepo) SPAGAT/GRAND ÉCART (New Directors – Christian Johannes Koch) DEATH KNELL (New Directors – Imanol Rayo) SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES (Horizontes Latinos – Fernanda Valadez) EL ESTADO CONTRA PABLO IBAR (Zinemira – Olmo Figueredo) COURTROOM 3H (Official Selection – Antonio Méndez Esparza) SUPERNOVA (Official Selection – Harry McQueen) EL OLVIDO QUE SEREMOS (Official Selection – Fernando Trueba) THE SALT OF TEARS (Zabaltegi – Philippe Garrel)
A FEW WORDS ON THE FESTIVAL AT LARGE
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About the films
I’ve spent my first days of the festival in the context of Basque culture. RIFKIN’S FESTIVAL (OS – Woody Allen) introduced me to the city as a tourist and gave me a sightseeing tour from a totally outsider point of view. The city was captivating enough but Wallace Shawn hardly gave me any chance to enjoy his company as his massy acting left a dispirited aftertaste and lacked any kind of ease – in this case Woody Allen’s character was hard to imagine without Woody Allen himself. I was rather disappointed with the portrayal of the festival life, as it was meant to be a funny and critical commentary but remained hollow, full of clichés and cheap references. The remakes of some remarkable moments of film history were also astoundingly uninventive, the director really did not take any advantage of the unlimited creative possibilities that this idea would have opened up. Despite all this, I must admit I really enjoyed the film because of the urban landscapes and my affection to Woody Allen’s humour. It was an ambiguous starting point to the festival.
After that, PATRIA (OS – Aitor Gabilondo) gave me a more detailed insight on the Basque country. The furniture, the flat interiors and objects made a strong impression of the atmosphere and how life was in the late Eighties in the region – to understand a culture it seems essential to have this kind of knowledge of people’s surroundings, habits and behavioural reflexes. Apart from the personal interest, I found many more engaging aspects of this film. Particularly ordinary faces become extraordinary in their casualty as each character’s story gets explored with great depth, which allowed audiences to empathize with diverse viewpoints. All of them were shown with acceptance and love to a certain degree, never judgmentally, always critically. Regarding the structure, it was more than a story told from several perspectives. Some moments were emphasized by repetition, new information was dosed with the perfect timing and these tools dutifully helped the circular storytelling. This circularity expressed the unimportance of the main character’s, Bittori’s motivation – sometimes other characters become the motor of her investigation, and eventually, facing the past was crucial for the entire community. Some of Patria’s virtues definitely come from Fernandu Aramburu’s novel, yet I would have appreciated this series only for the atmosphere and the cast.
Watching PATRIA made me more curious about the near past of the Basque Country. In spite of that, CAMINHO LONGHE (Zinemira – Josu Martinez, Txaber Larreategi) was rather a disappointment for me. The visually uncertain images reflected the depthless exploration of the subjects – so many extremely exciting topics were brought up and still, none of them were told about. Alfonso’s integration in Sao Tomé and Principe, his relation with the mother of the boy he recognized like his son, Kristiane’s role in the ETA and the couple’s retrospective picture of those times were barely mentioned. Moving home meant continuous complaining about being in Africa or returning home, which missed any kind of facing with the past. Yet Alfonso and Kristiane as a couple were funny and likeable enough to raise empathy, so the story as a whole, with all its weaknesses, was somehow captivating. Maybe, I would have to reconsider the nature of my curiosity, question if it is still honest interest or a viewpoint of a tourist looking for extremity.
As another perspective to the Basque culture, AKELARRE (OS – Pablo Agüero) was a nice experience for me, especially after the films mentioned above. Although Pablo Agüero has found a very particular topic, witch-hunting, I saw the film focused more on the nature of imagination and fantasy. In this uncanny tale all the shapes of these two are combined – be it powerful creativity, naive credulity, religious belief or perverse desire, the questions of the movie arose from this source. How much do you believe in your own fantasies? How is fantasy a power? To what extent do you get involved in other’s imagination? Can you dominate your mind? The basic energies of this vibrant movie were dynamically captured by Javier Aguirre, supported by the songs and dances. These communal forms of expression were always spontaneous, outlining the origins of a conflict between the inquisitor and the girls. Their witchcraft is their playful and common imagination, which is evidently frightening for those who only know restrictive and limiting kinds of fantasies.
Despite Irish culture being the centre of attention in CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MACGOWAN (OS – Julien Temple), the general sense of being oppressed resonated with the Basque films. MacGowan is a rebel, proud of being Irish and his motivation is to enrich Irish music. While I found the present figure of Shane MacGowan quite engaging, I would have been excited to see still photos or longer takes of archival footage in a less abrupt way. The visual eclecticism of the movie with animation, stirring photos and quickly varying archive footage did not give the audience time to watch and listen to MacGowan’s gestures, movements or music, which is certainly a great loss. Artistic ambitions overruled the point to share a few rounds with Macgowan to get closer to him. Even more than the speedy editing, the most disturbing visual tool was the reenactment part of the childhood – too romanticised to match this harsh personality, not extreme enough to be absurd.
Another homage to an exceptional performer was EL GRAN FELLOVE (OS – Matt Dillon). The approach of the movie was truly appealing to me – to outline the complexity of one’s identity with presenting their surroundings and company. Unfortunately, in this case the filmmakers put so many names, faces and stories in the film, that it was hardly possible to put together the pieces of Fellove’s persona. The listing of this scenery’s performers covered a rich subculture alright but it’s unlikely that the audience had any insight beforehand and it was too much, too quickly to catch up.
Watching HIJOS DE DIOS (Zinemira – Ekain Irigoien) reminded me of CROCK OF GOLD to a degree. Both portrayed alcoholic people, who live their life independently and sometimes stubbornly. The homeless people highlight the luck MacGowan had even more vividly, surrounded by a loving family and – as it was said in the film too – a particular cultural, political situation. One of the main characters of HIJOS DE DIOS is willing to complain about the lack of a supporting family and this comes to be the most fascinating part of the film. The impossibility of his conversations, always being interrupted or depreciated is a per se relevant phenomenon, which is more than enough for a film to be interesting. Despite the inappropriate music and the use of shallow depth of field, which deprived the audience of the street atmosphere, this film is really worth seeing.
The approach of SUTEMOSE/IN THE DUSK (OS – Šarūnas Bartas) was to outline a complex political situation within a very personal framework, that of a Lithuanian boy in the countryside after World War II. I was taken with the presentation of his character, as much as the way partisans were captured in this film. This young boy, contradictious to the general tendencies, does not grow up due to the wartime, cannot be tempted by extremist ideas or does not become revengeful. His actions in certain dangerous situations, his passive, contemplating behaviour, as opposed to a reckless, initiative one, felt like a representational yet rarely realized approach of portraying a child in such a situation. Another surprisingly impressive motif of the film was that the partisans were depicted rather as hopeless miserables stuck between two ways of self-slaughter than warrior heroes. This exceptionally smart relation to these situations and characters made me forget about all the shortcomings the film had, and I enjoyed this slow, low-key story.
Among the disturbing and boring aspects of TODOS OS MORTOS (Horizontes Latinos – Caetano Gotardo, Marco Dutra) the scenery and costumes were the most disappointing for me. To have a unique relation to the settings they choose – or create – is an essential directorial skill, even more, if the story is set in an imaginary, magical-realistic world, which was the case of this very film. In spite of that, the furniture was everything but special, the characters’ portrayal was extremely generalizing and the whole atmosphere was created without the slightest sign of imaginative power. I am not suggesting that each director should have as genuine vision of film sets as Joanna Hogg, Rainer Werner Fassbinder or Éric Rohmer – to take some as examples from Tabakalera’s most recent offerings – had, but at least the directors should have had to take their own intentions into consideration. Other than that, the film depicted slavery, the remembrance of it and intellectual life in clichés, without having anything to add to the issue in its complexity.
As long as the message did not overcome the characters’ coherence, SENTIMENTAL/PEOPLE UPSTAIRS (RTVE Galak – Cesc Gay) was a great chamber comedy about the relationship of a middle-class couple. Julio being the barely exaggerated prototype of the middle-aged intellectual was the motor of the everyday fights and he was accompanied by Ana, the wife, in a less whirling but still pleasing way. Javier Cámara as Julio kept the comedy alive, leading and dominating the conflicts, but unfortunately his character starts to lose its sharpness with the arrival of the neighbours. Despite having some hilarious moments even after that, the surprise effects weaken and the psychological moonshine begins to take itself seriously, so the whole situation becomes shapeless. All in all, the best comedy I have seen in the festival.
Reading through the festival catalogue I got especially interested in the section called Culinary Zinema.As gastronomy is an essential part of the culture of this region it matches the local side of the festival. Besides I really appreciate any kind of section based on a thematic similarity, gathering a variety of approaches to a certain topic. The comparison of different tools and aspects might be more inspiring for the audience and this way it is more likely that films will evidently outline each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Enthusiastically, I watched two films of the Culinary Zinema category – the first one was ARZAK SINCE 1897 (Culinary Zinema – Asier Altuna). This documentary had some cultural aspirations but the most exciting part for me was about the Arzak family, when father and daughter were presented together. Without judgement or unnecessary complaining, the film shows a man who is proud of what he has achieved, a conflicted personality who is also truly adorable and has a nice relationship with her daughter. We only get hints on Mr. Arzak’s weaknesses or the daughter’s professional hardships caused by the expectations of her father. These don’t get much spotlight but they are there to be fair. A nice and simple approach – everyone would deserve a film in homage to their own oeuvre.
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (Culinary Zinema – Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw) is an emotional story with fabulous characters, beautiful pictures and engaging storytelling. Unlike EL GRAN FELLOVE this movie could present a community and its members with a lot of love and sensitivity. For these people living in Piedmont, hunting truffles with their dogs means absolute happiness – even if in some cases they do not have a family or just have to face aging. Without extreme plot twists, this film simply tells about the encounter of the emotional and professional approach to these people’s calling, and the intimate relation between man and dog. In addition to that a slight critique of capitalism came up, but fortunately it did not dominate the film so it remained diverse, with the truffle hunters’ community being at the focus. While I found the entire film great, one of the festival’s freshest moments for me was getting the dogs’ point of view. I have only seen the use of GoPro cameras in LEVIATHAN (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel – Sensory Ethnography Lab, 2012) with such creativity and this film also gained a lot from this technique. Merging the documental, avant-gardish and banal aspects of the images made by a camera on a dog, these minutes stood out and inspired me to imagine a film based entirely on this concept.
I was compensated with Tsai Ming Liang’s masterpiece, RIZI/DAYS (Zabaltegi – Tsai Ming Liang), for all the moments in the festival when I really missed the time to deepen in a story or in a take. If I had to choose the best take of the festival, it would definitely be the second one from RIZI, the bathing scene of Kang. As all the shots in Tsai’s movie, it made me feel and smell the elements, I almost physically experienced the surface of the water. After being taken over by the immersive and hypnotic power of the scenes, I discovered that even if I considered Tsai’s films challenging, their effect is more like a visceral impression. Likewise, its humour is based on simple visual enigmas or the Chaplinesque moving of a character, which is much closer to me than a concept with intellectual ambitions. These visually and emotionally catching scenes showed two characters – Kang, a wealthy man who is marked by his recovery process and Non, a poor guy, who always has a professional approach to work, be it peeling vegetables, washing his own face or giving a massage to a man. Tsai portrays dependency through the characters. Their scenes follow each other in a dialogical form, and then, as the emotional peak of the film, Kang gives a music-box to Non. At this point the film starts to tell the story of these men’s relation, and being less lyric actually helps the audience to get ready to leave this captivating world of everyday peace, love and beauty.
CORRESPONDENCIA (Zabaltegi – Carla Simón, Dominga Sotomayor) had an extreme emotional impact on me, especially the first letter about the death of a grandmother directed by Carla Simón. The gesture of writing a letter and writing a letter on a moving image together created an intimate atmosphere for the expression of loss and love. Presenting the personal objects, furniture and home of the grandmother was a sentimental moment of the film implying several emotions. First of all, the simplest practical things represent one’s inaccessible remembrance and have a descriptive and indicative nature at the same time. Furthermore, the grandchild as a filmmaker also brings up some crucial aspects regarding the grandparents’ personal belongings. One of them must be the grandchild’s personal relation to these objects – the temporal distance and the evident closeness are both essential aspects from a young person’s perspective. Besides it is an exceptional situation to make a movie about a grandparent, as it is rare for a filmmaker to act before the death of the beloved one because of the age gap – which is to say that a grandparent’s presence is mostly vivid throughout childhood and not when the person acquires a profession, filmmaking let’s say. It might sound like a banal observation, still, for me it seems to be a natural and tragic fact behind the commemoration with lifeless objects.
In advance, I feared NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (Perlak – Eliza Hittman) would be an alternative take on 4 LUNI, 3 SĂPTĂMÂNI ŞI 2 ZILE (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) and expected a film that would follow its generic critique of the system. Fortunately, it surprised me a lot. While presenting the procedure of the abortion with mandatory steps, exact rules and established protocol practices, it concentrates more on the teenager’s relation to all that. Watching the movie, I could not help but thinking of ROSETTA (Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 1999), as I thought that there is an evident similarity among the characters and the mission-like flow of the story – but I was wrong again. Autumn is a way less controlling character than Rosetta, actually this makes her vivid and touching. She accepts the turns of her journey, as she has to, as she might have always had to. The inability of articulating her problems is underlined and balanced by her affinity in singing – both of her performances have a bitter but elevating sense in the film.
One aspect of cinema I like the most is the chance to listen and watch people speaking thus I love the directors who share my affection for it. The act of speaking is even more enjoyable for me if it is controlled by some inner rule. An example for that might be THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) when the characters’ communication is mannered and exaggerated in a way. Another way of starring speech is favouring redundant conversations, unnecessary talking, which is an essential part of everyday communication as well, but in such an excessive way this banal aspect becomes an original signature – as it happens in PAULINE A LA PLAGE (Éric Rohmer, 1983). At the festival I found ATARRABI ET MIKELATS (Zinemira – Eugène Green) immensely catching from this aspect. All the characters had an original, own way of speaking, kind of a leitmotif, which resonated with their personality and defining quality as well. In this movie, it was the main source of humour and the special attention on the verbal expressions of the characters created an intimate atmosphere for this mythical story.
The first pretentious minutes of NUEVO ORDEN/NEW ORDER (Perlak – Michel Franco) instantly isolated me from the flow of it. Suffering presented in hip images repulses me, especially if the film wishes to tell about the nature of the revolt of the poor in general. With the pretence of telling about something socially important, this pointless aggressivity reminded me of the intellectual level of THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT (Lars Von Trier, 2018). Anyway, there is an enormous difference between showing groups of people – be it political groups or social classes –, as they react to each other embedment into a social, political or cultural context, or simplifying the group-conflicts to gestures of revenge and aggressivity. An example for the former way might be THE CONFRONTATION (Jancsó Miklós, 1969), where the camera movements, the folk songs and group motions are constantly reflecting on the general aspect of the story, the fact that individuals can only be part of it as members of a group, while the experience and knowledge of the individuals puts the story into a specific context. By contrast, NUEVO ORDEN generalizes the nature of rebellion and the putsch situation as the film was built up from the usual situations and images of aggression, nightmare-like scenes of oppression and one-sided characters. It misses the most interesting part of group behaviour, the complexity in which it can be born, the past and present of the given society with political background or cultural roots. Without telling anything in particular about a political situation like this, the film remained a weak attempt of provoking, an empty sketch, a smart-alecky critique of society.
After watching so many films in the festival – and in general – which favoured close-ups, RIOT POLICE (OS – Rodrigo Sorogoyen) was a refreshing experience for me. Although close-ups were dominant in this series too, there were some wider compositions and the events definitely had a strong relation with space, which was very atypical to other films presented in the festival. Some tensions and suspense were built on the parameters of the room, especially the key action of the film, when the upcoming tragedy already could be felt with the demonstrators being dragged out to the tight corridor. Besides, I appreciated the presentation of the masculine police culture – while it was depicted from a critical point of view, it also left a chance to empathize with the characters.
While the description in the catalogue was promising, LOS CONDUCTOS (Zabaltegi – Camilo Restrepo) turned out to be an annoying set of hip images. Even so I have to admit that I got easily impressed by the visual ideas of the film, but retrospectively it’s more like accomplishing a simple exercise, gathering the ideas of the filmmaker. Unfortunately, these arty-crafty ideas were not filled with substance, they did not add anything to the story or the necessary tension of an escape movie. After reading about that the initial idea was based on the past of the actor and that the director offered a helping hand in shape of a movie, I got even more disappointed, as the final product is superficial, telling the evidences about being strung along, living under the influence of a potent, impressive, intoxicating person.
SPAGAT/GRAND ÉCART (New Directors – Christian Johannes Koch) was instructive for me as an experience, as it clarified the importance of having a focus when telling a story. The storyline was empathic in its complexity, showing various perspectives, relations and conflicted desires. Still, I felt that Christian Johannes Koch did not become interested in them. The relation between daughter and father, the married couple or the two teenagers have hardly been touched, not to mention the institutional system concerning the case of the Ukrainian immigrant. Although these stories remained superficial and unsynchronized, Marina, the mother was more subtle to me, and her true, juvenile passion for Artem was an authentic and vivid thread in the film.
Incomprehensible storyline, boring close-ups and a lot of pain on both sides – while challenging the characters’ courage, DEATH KNELL (New Directors – Imanol Rayo) also challenged the audience’s patience.
We must not forget about cinema’s power to report from different parts of the world, inform the people and make them interested in topics which otherwise would remain hidden. This aspect of film has to be rediscovered from time to time, and SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES (Horizontes Latinos – Fernanda Valadez) impressively reminded me of that consideration. While I did not find anything aesthetically original or fascinating in the film added to what I found extremely improper or didactic – for instance when the child’s silhouette is shaping the devil – I got involved by the simple fact that a massacre like that actually happened in Tamaulipas. Telling this horror from the perspective of a determined and distraught mother was a likeable directorial decision.
EL ESTADO CONTRA PABLO IBAR (Zinemira – Olmo Figueredo) had the same value, I have to admit that I have never heard of Pablo Ibar and his complicated case. As a series, the most stirring part of it for the audience was the archive footage from TV shows, and this was thought provoking for as well. For a Basque person this movie must have been way more interesting, as it evokes personal relations to the case and illustrates the changing of Spanish media throughout the years. This approach successfully emphasizes the length of elapsed time since the beginning of the case.
Courtroom protocol and the lawyers’ creativity defined COURTROOM 3H (OS – Antonio Méndez Esparza). These child custody cases are unsettling as the films do not present personal stories, backgrounds or subjective descriptions of a particular situation, we are closed to the courtroom and having access to the public hearings we get the judge’s perspective. After those, comes the Trial, the second part of the film and we get a deeper insight on two cases through the defenders’ strategy. All the pressure of the courtroom concentrates on these people – the judge’s protocollary kindness and the creative presentation of the facts on the defenders’ part gave a special atmosphere to the film, complicating the judgements of the audience. This movie demonstrates a great sense for selection and dramaturgical structure by Antonio Méndez Esparza, whose intelligent approach to this topic and his ability to find focus made this film an exceptional experience in the festival.
I felt kinship with SUPERNOVA (OS – Harry McQueen),which makes it hard for me to take a critical standpoint. Exceptional landscapes, intelligent humour and the everyday life of a couple in love – I could have enjoyed this movie without having a specific story. However, it had, and in several cases, it was not for the better. Some situations were extremely out-talked, too gentle, slowly circling around the tragedy but avoiding to enter reality of grief and loss. The movie did not let the audience feel pain, facing the process of losing one’s self is the most unfair situation a person has to bear but it is absurdly compensated by the beauty of Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, soft lightning and tender music.
The first black and white takes of EL OLVIDO QUE SEREMOS (OS – Fernando Trueba) frightened me a lot – another story of an irritating young intellectual whose flat personality is based on the compulsive desire for appreciation from his father. And then came the colour part which immediately overwrote my attitude to the film. I could not identify the exact reason why, but I easily got involved into the lovely daily routines of the family, and the father-son relationship was unexpectedly filled with emotions and life. The organic flow of the family life was broken by the music video-like scene showing one of the sisters dying, it really did not fit in the film for me. Then the black and white pictures of present tense made me feel distracted again, but after getting to know, and actually like the characters presented in the past, I was more open to the story. The atmosphere that emerged in the cinema hall assisted the sense of empathy growing in me, as most of the audience were crying out loud. I consider it a major skill to impress people to that degree. All in all, it was a moving story with nice characters which overcame my partial repugn.
The mastered Garrel topic, father-son relationship was slightly channelled in the storyline of THE SALT OF TEARS (Zabaltegi – Philippe Garrel). The son, Luc is a rather unusual character as he is not the melancholic guy, we’ve known from Garrel, but a curious young person seeking love. Being the basis of the son’s personality, the presence of the father is permanent. Luc defines himself relating to his father, becomes a carpenter following his example and wishes to find love in hope of similar warmth and depth he shares with his father. While Luc definitely had some surprising characteristics, the major weakness of the film was that the three women he had an affair with, were much more interesting. Djemila, the open-hearted young girl, Geneviève, the desperate ex-lover from high school and Betsy, the regular lover presented entirely different universes, while in the father-son relationship the father was much more impressive than Luc. The special humour and the dramatic scenes were also connected to these women – the absurdly funny moment when Djemila reappears pregnant, the emotionally rich friendship between Geneviève and the father or the father’s betrayal by Luc while being with Betsy were the most engaging emotional turns for me. After all, I always get so easily involved in Garrel’s world that all these issues have started to preoccupy me days after watching the movie.
A few words on the festival at large
As you can see from the list below, I had to miss three sections completely, Movies for the kids, Nest and Made in Spain. From Made in Spain, only MY MEXICAN BRETZEL (Nuria Giménez) has raised my interest and not having seen Nest I regret the most, as I would surely find some fresh experience among the students’ works. After a few days I felt deprived of awaiting freshness or surprises, which was a frustration and my general problem with the festival. Without having an insight into Spanish and Latin American films, I knew what to expect from superstars like Tsai Ming Liang, Philippe Garrel, Eliza Hittman, Eugène Green or Woody Allen, and my expectations were roughly right, but I had barely known anything about the other filmmakers. This would have been the perfect situation for me to be impressed, but unfortunately in addition to the directors mentioned above I could hardly choose a film, which had the same inner coherence, original style or flow.
From the Official Selection, both of the series were definitely outstanding, and I would like to express my affection again to the idea of having a Culinary Zinema selection. I am tired of the idea that the story and the subject of the film would be something artistically inferior, which is best not to have but if a film had it after all, we should avoid it. I believe most films are inspired by a story, a community or a sense, and Culinary Zinema stands for that. Moreover, it is a nice gesture towards the audience as well, as it orientates them without suggesting anything vague about the artistic concerns of these films, just fairly marking the topic, on which they can easily base their decision. Both films I saw in this section were pleasing, THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS even surprised me and was my best experience in the festival.
Zinemira, Zabaltegi and Perlak I found rather predictable, in both the positive and negative sense of the word. Still my biggest disappointments were the New Directors and the Horizontes Latinos sections. I honestly hope I chose the worst films.
Babos Anna 