“We will remember the world through cinema” said Bernardo Bertolucci.
With around 140 titles screened, including feature films, documentaries, and special projects, and 21 films in competition, the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera, sold 103,033 tickets and accredited 13,934 people. Among the first Asian films in competition was Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice,” about workers who are willing to kill each other rather than be fired.
“Cinema doesn’t necessarily have to talk about politics to be political,” said Jim Jarmush as he accepted the Golden Lion. There were several political films, in the broadest sense of the term, at the Venice Film Festival.
A choice that goes beyond the Silver Lion Grand Prix of the Jury, for Kaouther Ben Hania’s film about a little girl from Gaza, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” , which was clearly a compromise solution, not awarding the Golden Lion to this most politically charged and topical film of the entire festival.
Kathryn Bigelow’s “House of Dynamite,” about an impending third world nuclear war, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” about conspiracy theorists, and Olivier Assayas’ “Le Mage du Kremlin” (The Wizard of the Kremlin), about the rise of Vladimir Putin, were all more political films, that were left out of the Palmarès.
Instead, more intimate films were rewarded, such as Jarmush’s “Father Mother Sister Brother,” stories of three families in three episodes, ( with great interpretation of Tom Waits among other) and the Silver Lion, Best Director Award Benny Salfdie’s with “The Smashing Machine” about the pre-9/11 era, when America was more sincere and still believed in dreams. Political commitment and escapism, two visions, two ways of understanding cinema that characterized and divided the Festival audience. The feeling that the discussion within the jury of the films in competition was heated and contentious, with the case of the most applauded film in the history of the Venice film festival (‘26 minutes) “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” was palpable. In this dramatic, tragic, historical moment, it would have been perceived as a political act, so strong as to risk scandal, which a jury timidly avoided. It was a choice to close themselves off, rather than open up to a dialogue with the present we are living (and suffering). The jury was chaired by Alexander Payne, who awarded the main prize and the directing prize to two of his compatriots. Perhaps the Venice Film Festival could rethink its jury system, trying to broaden its gaze beyond the stars and stripes cinema, which celebrates itself with it’s stars above all else.
Our NETPAC jury, composed of Herman Van Eyken (Australia), Donsaron Kovitvanitcha (Thailand) and myself, viewed 11 titles in different competitions, in particular from China, South Korea, Taipei, India, Azerbaijan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Malaysia and Thailand.
Asian cinema, with its many facets, was present, albeit not in a massive way; for twelve days on the screens of the Lido, offering different forms and variations, perspectives that focused on the condition of women (India, China and Saudi Arabia with Iraqi production), alienation in work and politics (South Korea) and exile (Iran). Young directors and established filmmakers such as the master Tsai Ming-liang – who breaks down the boundaries of fiction – immersed themselves in the story of reality, the staging of truth.
Where the news does not reach, cinema does.
Asian film directors have done their job to the best of their ability, opposing resignation with the art of restoring the urgency of global awareness.
It was not easy for our jury to award just one prize, in the films selected for the Netpac Award, as all the films in the selection made a strong impression on us with their deliberate diversity of styles and languages. We therefore awarded a prize to the film ‘Hijra’ by director Shahad Ameen and a special mention to ‘Lost Land’ by Akio Fujjimoto, both young authors who describe journeys of suffering, persecution and hope for peace.
Written by Italo Spinelli.
Italo Spinelli, based in Rome (Italy), is the founder and director of Asiaticafilmmediale – Incontri con il cinema asiatico, a film festival on Asian films which takes place every year in Rome since 2000. He has directed for theatre, movies and television. Among the documentaries broadcast on Italian television, a number concern Asia, its social reality and its cinema, such as Un fiume di Cinema – Sulle tracce di Michelangelo Antonioni (1995), Danzando in Cambogia (1998), and Bernardo Bertolucci Hyderabad (2000). In 2002 he edited the book Indian Summer – Films, filmmakers and stars between Ray and Bollywood, for Locarno Film Festival. He has written several essays on Indian cinema and literature and collaborates with several magazines. In 2005 he programmed the retrospective of Indian films Indian Visions at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome. From 2006 to 2008 he worked as a international consultant for the Rome Film Festival and curated for the Siena Documentary Film Festival (2008) a focus on Iranian documentaries. In 2007 he was responsible for the Asian and African fiction in the first edition of the Rome Fiction Fest. He has taught cinema and theatre at the University of Siena. In 2010 he directed the first Italo-Indian co-production, Gangor presented in many international film festivals. In 2012 he directed and co-screenwritten with Vincenzo Cerami Nuovi Comizi d’Amore (New Speeches of Love), based on the documentary by Pier Paolo Pasolini.