[ Editor's Note :] According to its publicity material, the Montreal Festival of New Cinema held in October each year presents a distinctly avant-garde focus. Viewers will watch film and video, installations, websites and performances with special emphasis on digital work. The festival has four main sections—Feature Length Film and Video, Short and Medium Length Film and Video, New Media, and Digital Cinema. Reviewer Frederic Eger has selected his top picks to critique.
Day Night Day Night
No one knows what made her a suicide bomber. She could be any North-American Muslim or non-Muslim even. With cute blue eyes, she wears neither a hidjab nor speaks with an accent. But Day Night Day Night takes us through each step as this average nineteen-year-old girl prepares to explode herself in New York's Times Square.
The film focuses on the small, banal details of a young woman who decides to "usefully" use her body for a cause.
Inspired in part by a story in a Russian newspaper, director Julia Loktev says she wanted to highlight meaningless actions such as buying a banana or eating a candy apple before committing one of the most terrifying acts of all: killing oneselves.
Ms. Loktev tried to understand what could motivate a suicide bomber to commit such act. Day Night Day Night sends a subtle message that a suicide bomber doesn't necessarily "look" Muslim. The film follows the young woman during what appears to be her last night in a hotel room, followed by her hesitation to bomb herself in New York.
Luisa Williams is incredibly natural as the suicide bomber. Ms. Loktev brings us to the conclusion that an ordinary person who has not been brainwashed with fundamentalism will find it very difficult to blow themselves up in the middle of the Big Apple.
Though the topic and script might look engaging, the character is so intentionally undefined that the viewer may find it hard to connect or feel concerned by what's happening. This film lectures us on what we should think or what prejudices we should not have about suicide bombers. I'll let the viewer decide.
Day Night Day Night
Written & Directed by Julia Loktev
With Luisa Williams (She), Josh Phillip Weinstein (Commander), Gareth Saxe (Organizer), Nyambi Nyambi (Organizer), Tschi Hun Kim (Driver), Annemarie Lawless (Bombmaker's Assistant), Frank Dattolo (Bombmaker)
Runtime: 94 min
Invisible Waves
This Thai/Dutch/South Korean/Hong Kong collaboration opens with assassin-cum-chef Kyoji (Asano Tadanobu) holding a man at gunpoint. Seiko (Tomono Kuga), the Japanese wife of Kyoji's boss, arrives at Kyoji's apartment to continue their steamy affair. Instead, Kyoji poisons her. The next day, newly-widowed Wiwat (Toon Hiranyasup) closes his Hong Kong restaurant where Kyoji has his day job.
Kyoji then sails Wiwatt to Phuket, Thailand. The boat trip is a sarcastic and philosophical meditation on the never-ending wheel of Samsara. Some logistical situations in the cabinroom lighten the heavy atmosphere and get us through the slow moments.
Screenwriter Prabda Yoon cleverly reveals plot in bits here and there. But the plot resolution where Kyoji commits suicide after surviving an assasination attempt turn the film into one big private joke that the audience is not in on. The the fresh casting of Gang Hye Jung makes some sense of the revenge motive.
According to some sources, she was important to secure distribution in Korea. Music by Hualampong Riddim unifies the film. Cinematographically, this film is interesting but not enough to balance weaknesses in the plot. The story is so predictable that if you don't share the same sense of dark humor you most assuredly will be extremely bored—as I was.
Invisible Waves
Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
With Asano Tadanobu (Kyoji), Gang Hye Jung (Noi), Eric Tsang (Monk), Maria Cordero (Maria), Toon Hiranyasup (Wiwat), Ken Mitsuishi (Lizard), Tomono Kuga (Seiko)
Runtime: 118 min.
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