Catalogue International Film Festival Rotterdam 2013 by International Film Festival Rotterdam

Spectrum

Bellas mariposas Pretty Butterflies Salvatore Mereu

Pablo Larraín

THE BIG SCREEN AWARD COMPETITION

Chile/France/USA, 2012 | colour/b&w, DCP, 118 min, Spanish Prod: Juan de Dios Larraín, Daniel Marc Dreifuss | Prod Comp: Participant Media, Fabula Producciones | Sc: Pedro Peirano, based on a play by Antonio Skarmeta | Cam: Sergio Armstrong | Ed: Andrea Chignoli | Prod Des: Estefania Larraín | Sound Des: Miguel Hormazabal | With: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antónia Zegers, Luis Gnecco, Marcial Tagle, Nastor Cantillana, Jaime Vadell, Pascal Monteiro | Sales: Funny Balloons | Distr NL: Filmfreak Distribution Public SCREENINGS Sun 27-1 19:00 DJZ Mon 28-1 19:00 PA1 Sat 2-2 21:30 PA7

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Press & Industry SCREENING Wed 30-1 15:30 CI5 [e.s.]

The third film by Pablo Larraín about the Chilean Pinochet dictatorship, which lasted from 1973 to 1990. After portraying life under the dictatorship (Tony Manero, 2008, KNF winner in Rotterdam) and how it started (Post mortem, 2010), he now shows the deathblow for Pinochet’s regime: the pro-democratic ‘No’ vote in a referendum held in 1988 under international pressure. This time, Alfredo Castro, the protagonist of Tony Manero and Post mortem, has an important supporting role, while the lead is for Gael García Bernal, as a commercial advertising man who encourages the gloomy opposition to fight a cheerful and optimistic ‘No’ campaign. After the highly stylised design and black-comic tone of his two previous films, Larraín now uses a reportage style in which original news and advertising images have been integrated seamlessly into the film, thanks to the use of old U-matic video cameras. Also see Prófugos in Signals: Changing Channels.

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Italy, 2012 | colour, DCP, 102 min, Italian Prod: Elisabetta Soddu | Prod Comp: Viacolvento s.r.l. | Sc: Salvatore Mereu, based on a story by Sergio Atzeni | Cam: Massimo Foletti | Ed: Paola Freddi | Prod Des: Pietro Rais, Marianna Sciveres | Sound Des: Valentino Gianni, Stefano Sabatini | With: Sara Podda, Maya Mulas, Davide Todde, Micaela Ramazzotti, Luciano Curreli, Maria Loi, Rosalba Piras | Print: Viacolvento s.r.l. | Sales: RAMONDAParis Public SCREENINGS Tue 29-1 18:45 PA5 Wed 30-1 16:30 PA1 Thu 31-1 18:45 PA5 Sat 2-2 18:30 PA7 Press & Industry SCREENING Mon 28-1 13:15 PA2

V tumane

Ai to Makoto

The western frontier of the Soviet Union in 1942; the local partisans are offering fierce resistance to the German occupiers. Two partisans are ordered to kill a local man who is suspected of collaborating. Sushenya, as the man is known, tries desperately to prove his innocence, while he is taken into the forest by his comrades. In the Fog is based on the book by the White Russian writer and social activist Vasil Bykov (1924-2003). The Ukrainian Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy) aptly portrays the ambivalent, heavyweight war drama in an infinite number of shades of grey. Co-produced by the Dutch company Lemming Film, with the support of the Netherlands Film Fund, In the Fog was a CineMart project in 2011. At the Cannes festival, this intriguing moral tale was awarded by FIPRESCI, the federation of film journalists. Also see Letter in Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films.

Miike Takashi’s versatility needn’t really surprise us, yet the great contrast with Lesson of the Evil, Miike’s other film at the IFFR this year, is sharp to put it mildly. Blood, bullets and screaming have given way to the song and dance of the exuberant For Love’s Sake, in which love reigns supreme. The story is inspired by a popular manga from the 1970s by Ikki Kajiwara: The Legend of Love and Sincerity, which you could call the Japanese West Side Story. The respectable rich girl Ai falls for the hooligan Makoto, a boy from the lower class who saved her when she had a skiing accident. Ai does everything – almost as a slave – to help him climb the ladder, but you can’t tame a wildcat. The impossible love unfolds in a richly designed setting filled with choreographed fights, slapstick violence, campy musical numbers with Bollywood dance and an animation here and there. Old-fashioned enjoyment. Also see Lesson of the Evil in this section.

In the Fog Sergei Loznitsa

Germany/Russia/Belarus/ Netherlands/Latvia, 2012 | colour, DCP, 128 min, Russian Prod: Heino Deckert | Prod Comp: ma. ja.de fiction GmbH | Sc: Sergei Loznitsa, based on a novel by Vasil Bykov | Cam: Oleg Mutu | Ed: Danielius Kokanauskis | Prod Des: Kirill Shuvalov | Sound Des: Vladimir Golovnitski | With: Vladimir Svirski, Vlad Abashin, Sergei Kolesov, Vlad Ivanov, Julia Peresild, Nadezhda Markina | Sales: The Match Factory GmbH | Distr NL: Contact Film | www.inthefog-movie.com Public SCREENINGS Thu 24-1 16:15 PA3 Thu 31-1 21:30 PA2 Fri 1-2 15:30 PA2

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Caterina (11) lives in a sombre, povertystricken neighbourhood of Cagliari, capital of Sardinia. She has a tyrannical father and a horde of brothers and sisters, most of whom are up to no good. And yet the girl is in a good mood. She talks openly – occasionally straight into the camera – about her love for Gigi, the boy next door, and her bond with her best friend Luna. Pretty Butterflies, based on a story by Sergio Atzeni, follows a day in Caterina’s life: the day on which she fears for Gigi because her brother Tonio has just threatened to kill him, and discovers that Gigi is in love with the local slut. But it is also the day when Caterina and Luna go to the beach, eats lots of ice cream, giggle and swim. In the best Italian tradition of films like Brutti, sporchi e cattivi and the recent Gomorrah, Salvatore Mereu shows poverty and misery, but thanks to Caterina’s gaze, the film is also a contemporary version of Zazie dans le métro – filled with youthful recklessness and unruffled optimism. Nominated for The Big Screen Award.

42ND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

For Love’s Sake Miike Takashi

42ND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

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