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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 MARCH 2016 31 This Week Rotterdam throws a Hard Eight nian Icon Mohsen Namjoo, he is not out to save the world from a crises, but rather, simply trying to get air- time for short stories, even if it means doing a radio spot for another Persian pizza place, or a carpet salesman. Ticket holders for the IFFR can also create their own award by vot- ing from their seat after each movie. By means of hear say, this short list be- comes a program in itself. It is a rather arbitrary ballot, but one that speaks about the typical visitor who, striving to keep their sanity intact, can only watch about three or four from about five hundred or so titles. The final votes for the Warsteiner Audience Award fluctuated between The Idol (by Hany Abu Assad), and Land of Mine (by Martin Zandvliet) – two stories that depend on a tradi- tional 'hero's journey' with universal values and its young romantic at the helm. More often than not, this award goes to a heartfelt narrative, and comes at a stark contrast with the FIPRESCI Choice and the Special Jury Award. FIPRESCI is a network of critics devout to find a great young turk, a phrase that reaches back to the origins of Cahiers du Cinema and the daring auteur. The IFFR exhibits a similar taste for radical cinema and extended the Hi- vos Tiger with a Special Jury Award for a bold debut by Pablo Lamar, La última Tierra. His direction is a piece of pure mov- ing image. The scenario takes us back to the jungle, and in its silence, the life of an elderly couple is shot to the last moment. Left to breathe on its own, the jungle also conjures a certain depth, one that verges between a por- trait and a still life. La última tierra is his first feature, but Lamar is already a familiar face in Rotterdam. Over the past few years, The Tiger Shorts competition al- lowed Lamar to gain exposure next to long-time favourites like Ben Russel. Having won the confidence of its market, Lamar applied for the Hubert Bals Fonds, and found support for this feature with the application of a single line: 'A man buries his wife', fol- lowed by a blank page. Alongside The Hivos Tiger, the Audience Award and the Bright Future section are clearly pointing to the politics of identity and its crises. This is reminiscent of Bero Beyer's own breakthrough with Para- dise Now in 2005. Barring the full weight of the direc- tor's legacy at the IFFR is Manu Riche with Problemski Hotel, a Christmas story about an asylum centre in Brus- sels. The plot centres around a young man known as Bipul, and his role as a trilingual messenger for the bureau- crats of migration. At best, it is a series of sketches where an array of national stereo- types meet, clash, and that minor cul- tural indifference, intricate as it may be, bares a cheap laugh. Pushing the political backdrop aside, Problemski Hotel veers around the same plot hole as History's Future, a film by Amster- dam based artist, Fiona Tan. Riche presents Mr Bipul as a poet, who, once conveniently struck with amnesia, cannot but direct a plot to a cyclical end. In contrast to the indif- ference of Mr Bipul, Fiona Tan's lead character, Mr MP (short for Missing Person), starts to relish this idea, and goes on to celebrate language and the bastards of European culture. It has a good hook, an intriguing character, and indulges in politics with a per- sonal sentiment. This is the perfect pitch, one that you can discuss over lunch without too much nausea. Best of all, it is part of what has become a genre in its own right. The story of a lost migrant is now easy enough to identify at any festival, as much as on the street in the next day on this little circuit. Let's face it, festivals are ridiculous. We are plagued with an abundance of standard stories and a few gems. Of course, Bero Beyer takes pride in this risk. In an oversaturated program, he selects eight contenders for the Tiger. Each of which has what it takes to be a finalist, and in practice, the compe- tition turns into a Semaine de la Cri- tique for start ups. Along with a solid platform for the long tail, the festival includes live streaming, online distribution, and fresh meat for old producers. Make no mistake: the IFFR is a small festi- val, and like all small festivals with a niche market, it's a filmmakers haven for ideas but it also has to try hard and compete with the business of Cannes, Venice, and the shining star of Berlin. Of course, this is only an observa- tion for the privileged, a list that includes the press, the i n d u s t r y , and about 900 volun- teers on deck in the city of Rotterdam. If all else fails after the first quarter of the next 90 minutes, like any other Tiger Friend (the loyalty card holder), it's best to follow the legacy of the founder, Hu- bert Bals. That is: trust your intuition, and make a necessary walk out to the next hall. From the IFFR's Lime Light pro- gram As Mil e Uma Noites (Miguel Gomes, 2015) Gomes found his break in Rotterdam with a strong debut, and right after, made the circuit to Cannes with Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto (2008). The director had played him- self, a doubting Thomas who is stub- born enough to make a documentary without a clear plot. His latest movie follows a similar labyrinth, and opens across central Europe this month. Once again, the director runs away from a production and instead, turns a series of candid shots into a fabula, As Mil e Uma Noites. It is an ambi- tious project that adapts the original voice of dear Scheherazade as a nar- rator to the crises of modern day Por- tugal. In her own struggle to survive, the princess tells story after story to her captive, 'and fell silent every morning' in yet another wake before her death. Gomes chooses to confabulate. On the shores of modern day Portugal, the princess becomes fond of the un- employed. Their personal testimony, rumours, and conversations, leak into the fan- tasy of a trapped mistress and envel- op the impact of European Austerity into the main culprit: The Men with a Hard- On in Volume 1: O inquieto. In essence this is a document about poverty but as a filmmaker, Gomes delivers something along the lines of his prologue to Tabu (2012), when, just before the voice of a bitter prin- cess like Aurora takes over, he discov- ers his calling as the explorer of love, loss, and magic. From the Lime Light program As Mil e Uma Noites (Miguel Gomes, 2015) Miguel Gomes found his break in Rotterdam with a strong debut, and right after, made the circuit to Cannes with Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto (2008). From the Bright Future's program, The Dork, the Girl and the Douche- bag (Okuda Yosuke, 2016) Okuda Yosuke's story pivots around two outlandish characters, and comes at a sharp remix between genre. Unlike the stylistic pretension of fa- miliar names like Nicholas Winding Refn, Yosuke unabashedly switches between slapstick, and the suspense an old school street fight with an overzealous gangster and the girl's hipster boyfriend. From the Lime Light program, The Idol (Hany Abu Assad, 2016), which follows a Palestinian boy who escaped the homeland to make his mark as a singer on Egyptian television. Coupled with a tragic childhood, and TV clips from his road to star- dom, it is difficult to not fall for such a historical moment in the struggle for recognition and the defeat of Pal- estine. The director, much like many other filmmakers today, uses found footage to attain a sense of real- ism. This comes at a stark contrast, or better yet, 'a relief' to the plot of Tra- ditional Hero's Journey. On to the SOUND//VI- SION programme Film- werkplaats & KANG. 2016 Filmwerkplaats is part of the city's extended program of structural film. The artists in resi- dence are focused on the manipulation of film, projection, and sound art. On the closing night of the SOUND//VISION se- ries, a piece of 16mm was projected twice over, and it played against a triptych of hand cranked images on the side. The trademark synchronic- ity one has come to expect between the regular feedback of screen at a cinema breaks down into a series of magic lanterns. KANG (aka Ji Youn Kang), a sound artist from Korea, sits amid the audience, and compliments this trade off. She conducts the scene as a whole with a personal cacophony. From the Community Camera Pro- gram: The Lost Arcade (Kurt Vincent, 2015) Kurt Vincent and Irina Chin have made a compelling and honest documentary by presenting three characters from the background of Chinatown, New York: The owner of an arcade game shop, his ad hoc engi- neer, and the homeless barman. The Arcade shop takes on the role of a fos- ter home, one that segments kids into fighters, the rhythm dances, shooters, boy racers… you name it. Once the pretentious intro is over, the director makes it clear that this is a coming of age story, one that skims over the death of arcade games, and tells the story of its community as a whole. Miguel Gomes stars and directs 'Arabian Nights': a winding and loose adaptation of Scheherezade's tales set in recession-rocked Portugal The Land of the Enlightened The Lost Arcade