Montreal Film Festival 2007
Anthony Kirbi reports this year's Montreal Film Festival (23rd August–3 September 2007, Canada)

The broad spectrum of this year’s festival was reflected in the diverse distribution of awards. Switzerland’s Jacob Berger won Best Director for his 1 Journée. Best Artisitc Direction went to Teresa: The Body of Christ from Spain’s Ray Loriga.

A special Grand Jury Prize went to writer/director Ayelet Menahemi for Noodle, the story of a flight attendant’s efforts to return a six-year-old Chinese boy to his deported mother.

Best actor was shared by Brazilians Filipe Duarte and Tomás Almeida for A Outra Margem, the story of a friendship between a transvestite performer and his mentally disabled nephew. The Jury’s Award for innovation went to Issa Serge Coelo of Chad’s Tartina City, a condemnation of dictatorial regimes.

First time director Nic Balthazar’s Belgian film Ben X was a highlight of the festival. Every screening of Ben X played to full houses and an extra scheduled date sold out. About a mildly autistic Flemish teenager who finds solace from bullying through devising a video game, the film won three awards, including the Ecumenical Award and the extremely important Public Award (voted by ticket buyers). Guy Marchessault, president of the Ecumenical Jury praised Ben X, saying ‘This is a very now story of the human spirit.’ Balthazar shared The Grand Prix of the Americas (Montreal’s most prestigious award) with veteran French director Claude Miller’s Un secret.

Festival vice-president Daniel Bouchard was impressed with the quality of the 17 first feature offerings. The jury for Zenith First Feature Fiction Film awarded Spain’s Juan Carlos Falcón La caja gold, silver to Mexico’s Simón Bross for Malos hábitos, and bronze to Jian Yi of China for Dong Sun. Liam O Mochain’s quirky feature WC and fellow Irishman P.J. Dillon’s short Deep Breaths were both well received.

There were also several other noteworthy films screened. Directed and produced by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, War Made Easy, is an overview of how the US Government has handled media relations from 1953 to the present day. This documentary played to standing room only audiences at the festival.

‘Truth is the first casualty of war’ – Aeschylus. Rapid-fire clips illustrate how vivid, misleading terminology spreads like wildfire from its administration source. Catch phrases like ‘ending tyranny’, ‘supporting the troops’, etc. become prejudged fact to the under-informed citizen.

A major focus is on the White House agenda-setting that flooded all media post-9/11 emphasising links between Saddam Hussein, WMDs and Al Queda, and how the liberal media failed to question these justifications for invasion until long after the fact. Demonstrations worldwide were ignored and dissenting critics silenced. War sceptic Phil Donohue’s firing from MSNBC despite his high show ratings is a case in point.

The rise in civilian war casualties throughout history – 10% in World War I, 65% in World War II, 76% in Vietnam and presently 90% in Iraq – is underlined through graphs and gory footage of maimed children. Less polemic than Fahrenheit 9/11, this film deserves worldwide attention.

Three veteran directors Jirí Menzel, Paolo & Vittorio Taviani and Nicolas Roeg made welcome returns to the festival. I Served the King of England, directed by Menzel, follows the history of Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1963. Seen from the point of view of a pint-sized restaurant/hotel waiter with gigantic ambitions, the film is light in tone and shows the director of Closely Watched Trains in vintage form. The film’s playful take on seismic upheavals will prompt comparisons with Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful. However, Menzel’s tale is less emotional and is suffused with Slavic fatalism.

The Lark Farm, directed by Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, tells the story of the Avakian family. Aram is a landowner living in rural Turkey. His brother Assandour, a doctor, lives in Venice. It’s the summer of 1915 and the brothers plan a family reunion in Turkey, but they are overtaken by events. Italy enters the war on the Allied side, while the Turkish Empire remains committed to the axis powers. Even though they’ve lived in Turkey for centuries, Christian Armenians are seen as infidels by the Muslim state and the government orders their expulsion. The military discover Aram and his family and the men are murdered, the women and children forcibly deported. This march should mean death, but the women find a protector – Aram’s daughter falls in love with an officer. He sees that they are not subjected to any more suffering, but the women still have much to endure. With excellent performances by a mixed Italian and Armenian cast (especially Spanish actress Ángela Molina and Arsinée Khanjian as Aram’s wife), the film is an eloquent plea for an end to hatred.

Made partly with money from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board, Nicolas Roeg’s Canadian/British production Puffball, is to a degree a remake of his 1973 film Don’t Look Now. A young British couple decide to remodel a shell of a house deep in the Irish countryside. While the architect (Kelly Reilly) has got tired of the London grind and sees the house as a safe haven, her long-time partner is still on the fast track. Though welcomed by local inhabitants, they’re seen as foreigners, especially by an elderly woman (Rita Tushingham) who’s something of a witch and once lived in the house. Despite taking precautions the architect becomes pregnant. Her partner is in the US on business and though initially reached by internet is later incommunicado. Alone and despondent, she frantically attempts end the pregnancy. Following some potion mixing and chanting by the eccentric elder, the pregnant woman ends up collapsing in unbearable pain and bleeding heavily. She’s discovered by the daughter of her nearest neighbours (Miranda Richardson and William Houston) who are desperate to conceive a son. Performances by Richardson and especially Tushingham are mesmerizing, especially in conjunction with Nigel Willoughby’s mystical score. Given Roeg’s reputation one hopes the film will find a public.

‘This film shows how religious programming can give the rationale for acts of violence.’ – Jon Voight at a press conference promoting his latest film September Dawn. Directed by Christopher Cain (Young Guns), this film is a graphic retelling of a horrendous event near Cedar Coty, Utah in 1857. A group of settlers en route to California by wagon train seek the help of local ranchers. Major Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight), a Mormon bishop, grants them hospitality. Samuelson and his followers are uneasy as their prophet Joseph Smith has been murdered in Missouri by ‘Gentiles’. Their governor Brigham Young (Terence Stamp), fearing a takeover of the territory by President Buchanan, has warned church members to use every means possible to turn back interlopers. Thus the stage is set for tragedy. Almost unwatchable at its climax, the film is a searing indictment of fundamentalism.

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