The circus is about to judder to a halt. As the 38th Rotterdam Festival reaches its final weekend, Festival director Rut-ger Wolfson reflects on his second year at the helm – and explains why he some-times feels as if he’s in search of a five-legged sheep. By Geoffrey Macnab

“It has been very good; much better than last year because I felt more comfortable in my role,” Wolfson says. At last year’s event, he had only been in the job

for a few months and wasn’t sure whether or not he would be staying. This time round, he is firmly en-sconced. (He is now signed on for a four-year stint as general director.) Speaking on Friday morning, he was in upbeat mood about what he and his team have delivered in Rotterdam over the last 10 days. Attendance figures remain steady (he predicts they’re likely to match the 355,000 figure from last year). Despite the recession, festival-goers have been turning out in the same numbers as usual. “We didn’t fear [a decline] and it didn’t happen. People really want to come to this festival. If people have to economize, they might be economizing on something else, and not on tickets for the festival.” For Wolfson, the high point has been introduc-ing Tiger premieres to sold-out theatres. “It sounds almost sentimental but it is wonder-ful to be there with a first-time filmmaker who is having a premiere and has a full-house… you really sense the audience is almost hungry for these films. If you exaggerate, it is almost as if you are not at a cinema but at a rock concert. ”

DiveRsiTyHas Wolfson now put his own stamp on the fes-tival? It is a question he is asked constantly but claims to find bizarre. “It’s a bit of a strange ques-tion because it is such a big festival. How do people imagine you would put your own stamp on it? But

I strongly believe in the ability of the Festival to set an agenda.” He cites the way the media and Rot-terdam audiences picked up on Size Matters as an example of Rotterdam provoking debate.Wolfson was delighted with the presence of Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Moroccan-born Dutch politician holding dual citizenship who last year became Mayor of Rotterdam, at the opening film. “He sees the Festival as a very important export product for the image of Rotterdam. He knows what its value is for the city.” However, the Rotterdam festival boss acknowledges that the film festival’s audiences don’t always reflect the ethnic diversity of Rotter-dam. “Obviously, we would like to have that more [diversity]. At any festival or museum, you always see that it is the more educated, the more affluent people who can afford and are interested in cul-ture. It’s not something that is solely an issue for this festival. That’s a fact of life, I guess.”There are, at least, hints that broader audiences are coming to IFFR films. Wolfson cites the screening of Mahmut Fazil Coskun’s Tiger entry, Wong Ro-sary. “I was introducing the director and I was look-ing into the auditorium. I saw maybe eight Dutch-Turkish ladies with headscarves sitting in a row. At the end, I heard, they came down to the director with tulips. I thought that was a great thing. Tulips are a Turkish flower in origin, but they are a symbol of the Netherlands as well.”

NeW sCHeMesLooking forward, Wolfson points out one or two areas of potential future concern. The festival will hold on to all its screens for next year’s edi-tion at least, but the planned redevelopment of Cinerama may cause logistical problems further down the line.The Festival may also be affected by the decision of the VSB Fund, the largest private donor to arts events in the Netherlands, to reduce its spending on culture in the wake of the credit crunch. IFFR spends the money it receives from the Fund on non-theatrical screenings, live performance exhi-bitions and lectures. Whatever happens with the VSB Fund, Wolfson is determined to ensure that this part of the festival continues. “We’re going to fight for it really hard. We really believe this is what makes the festival interesting and sets it apart from other festivals.”Wolfson and his team are busy hatching new schemes to boost distribution of IFFR films. He won’t yet disclose details of what form this distri-bution initiative will take. “What I can say is that we’re looking at different strategies, one more geared toward the traditional way of making and distributing films and one looking at other possi-bilities,” he says.

(continues on page 3)

DAiLy TiGeR

38TH iNTeRNATiONAL FiLM FesTivAL ROTTeRDAM #10 sATURDAy 31 JANUARy 2009

NeDeRLANDseeDiTieZ.O.Z

seTTiNG THe AGeNDA

Tiger meet: eleven of Rotterdam’s fifteen VPRO Tiger Awards Competition 2009 directors pause for a pack shot ahead of the announcement of the three winning films yesterday in the Schouwburg. From left: Yang Ik-June (Breathless), Caspar Pfaundler (Schottentor), Alicia Scherson (Turistas), Leon Dai (No puedo vivir sin ti), Ramtin Lavafipour (Be Calm and Count to Seven), Henry Bernadet (A l’ouest de Pluton), Mahmut Fazil Coskun (Wrong Rosary), Myriam Verreault (A l’ouest de Pluton), Armagan Ballantyne (The Strength of Water), Peng Tao (Floating in Memory), Naito Takatsugu (The Dark Harbour). See page 3 for full story.

photo: Bram Belloni

Rutger Wolfson photo: Bram Belloni

338TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAMWWW.FILMFESTIVALROTTERDAM.COM

The Tigers are out! At Friday’s award ceremony in the Schouwburg, the winning fi lms of the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam were an-nounced. The three VPRO Tiger Awards were given to the Hubert Bals Fund-supported fi lm Be Calm and Count to Seven (Aram bash va ta haft beshmar) by Ramtin Lavafi pour (Iran), Breathless (Ddongpari) by Yang Ik-June (South Korea) and Wrong Rosary (Uzak ihtimal) by Mahmut Fazil Coskun (Turkey). The fi ve-strong Jury featuring Marlene Dumas, Yesim Ustaoglu, Park Ki-Yong, Kornél Mundruc-zó and Kent Jones, was full of praise for the win-ning fi lms. ‘We were extremely impressed by the artistry and vigour of the fi rst fi lm – the level of craft and cin-ematic intelligence on the one hand, the dedica-tion to rendering the reality of a particular way of life on the other,” the Jury enthused of Be Calm and Count to Seven. “For us, this fi lm did what all fi lms strive to do: it represented and dramatized a way of life in terms that were at once specifi c and universal, not to mention unfailingly vivid.’Breathless, meanwhile, was described by the Jury as “A powerfully rendered and acted fi lm with a keen sense of reality in its portrayal of a situation that has been seldom seen in cinema. We were also surprised to see an extremely troubling subject matter treated with a welcome sense of warmth and humor.” Finally, Wrong Rosary was called “a uniquely crea-

tive fi lm of the most eloquent simplicity, a fi lm built from a feeling of immediacy, moment by moment, breath by breath; a fi lm that builds an absolutely unique form of suspense; a fi lm that stays true to itself from beginning to end.” Each VPRO Tiger Award comes with a prize of €15,000 and guaranteed broadcast by Dutch public television network VPRO. The NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) award went to The Land (Dadi) by He Jia (Chi-na, 2008). A Special Mention was awarded to Agrarian Utopia by Uruphong Raksasad (Thailand, 2009). The FIPRESCI Jury gave the International Critics’ Prize to Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (Babi buta yang ingin terbang) by Edwin (Indonesia, 2008). The winner of the KNF Award is Tony Manero by Pablo Larraín (Chile/Brazil, 2008). Earlier in the festival, The three Tiger Awards for Short Film were granted to A Necessary Music by Beatrice Gibson (UK), Despair (Otchajanie) by Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov (Russia) and Bernadette by Duncan Campbell (UK). Meanwhile, the MovieSquad Award, given by The Rotterdam young people’s jury, went to Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan (United Kingdom, 2008). On Saturday, the KPN Audience Award and the Dioraphte Award for Best Hubert Bals Fund Supported Film 2009 will be an-nounced. GM

TIGERS FOR BE CALM, BREATHLESS, ROSARY

Agoraphobian UtopiaAttending IFFR for The Hollywood Reporter, Tribune and Jigsaw Lounge (www.jigsawlounge.co.uk), 2006 Fipresci juror Neil Young re-fl ects on Rotterdam’s architectural hazards As all Daily Tiger readers will know, great fi lms – such as those we may well encoun-ter at Rotterdam – are one of the things that make our lives worthwhile. But from my perspective, I reckon that it’s been the worst fi lms – and even IFFR’s staunchest admirer may concede that one or two dodgy potatoes sometimes fi nd their way into this vast smor-gasbord – which have actually served to pro-long my occupation of the Earth. The reason: after stumbling out of some dire cinematic experience, whether it’s a mainstream mul-tiplex rom-com or a misguided example of severe arthouse experimentation, I’m conscious of the fact that I take much more care in crossing the road for hours – or even days – afterwards. Call it superstition, but I’d hate to expire knowing that the very last of the countless thousands of fi lms I saw was some kind of dud. The odds of my receiving a newspaper obituary are extremely long, but I’d be mortifi ed if any such article concluded with the info that “Young was run over by a ten-ton truck after a press showing of (let’s say) Bride Wars.”Such morbid thoughts often pop into my head on my trips to IFFR during my regular, perilous traverses of the Schouwburgplein (when racing from De Doelen/Pathé area to the Cinerama or vice-versa). This is the fu-turistic square in front of the Pathé cinema, largely metal-paved, and even the slightest frost renders it one of the slippiest surfaces known to man. Back home in Britain, the government’s much-mocked ‘Health and Safety brigade’ would have had the whole thing cordoned off within weeks of its open-ing. Rotterdam, of course, is Another Coun-try, and they do things differently here. And it’s not just foreign visitors who risk life and limb. A local journalist of my acquaintance told me how, just a couple of weeks ago, he suffered a head-injury after taking a wrong step on the Schouwburgplein. Investigating this marvel of modern urban-planning, I discovered that the culprit – sorry, architect – was one Adriaan Gueze, whose stated aim in constructing the square was apparently to evoke “a sense of agoraphobia” in its users. Add to this the inevitable “basiphobia” (fear of falling over) which accompanies the win-ter months, and – voila! – you have an experi-ence which, in terms of terror, puts the IFFR Haunted House well and truly in its place. So, like they used to say in Hill Street: let’s be careful out there!

GUEST COLUMN

The 2009 VPRO Tiger Awards Competition win-ners join an esteemed group of 43 past Tiger fea-ture winners over the past fourteen years; a group that includes an Oscar winner, some of the world’s top contemporary auteurs and even one Hollywood heavyweight. Malaysian writer/director Liew Seng Tat, one of last year’s winners for Flower in the Pocket, says the Tiger win was enormously helpful in the festival world. “Winning is always nice and it certainly helped,” he says. “After the Tiger, there were a lot more festivals chasing the fi lm. I didn’t have to knock on doors, they came to me, and that’s a good thing.” The fi lm went on to more than 40 festivals after IFFR, and Liew was then selected for a Cannes Cinefondation Residence. Yet he’s practical about the fact that even an important win can only do so much – “an award is an award, it doesn’t mean you get automatic funding for your next feature!” Another of last year’s winners, Wonderful Town director Aditya Assarat also felt a boost after his Tiger win. “It gave me confi dence. Wonderful Town was my fi rst fi lm so to receive an award was like someone saying ‘Keep going, make another fi lm, I think your work is promising.”He continues: “There are so many fi lms made eve-ry year, maybe thousands. So winning an award makes people notice you, which helps when you’re going to make the next fi lm.”The Oscar winner is Stefan Ruzowitzky, who won a Tiger in 1998 for The Inheritors (Die Siebtelbauern) and went on to make The Counterfeiters (Die Fäls-cher), which won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2008. Of course, Rotterdam’s cineastes don’t judge a fi lmmaker’s success on box-offi ce returns, but it is notable that Christopher Nolan, who won a Tiger in 1999 for Following, went on to make such hits as

Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and current Oscar nominee The Dark Knight, which has taken nearly $1 billion at the box offi ce worldwide. There have been more critical festival hits. Lee Kang-sheng, a Tiger winner in 2004 for The Miss-ing, later made Venice competition title Help Me Eros and Hong Sang-soo has shown in Cannes com-petition twice since he won a 1997 Tiger; from the class of 2000, Pablo Trapero competed at Cannes last summer with Leonera and Lou Ye stirred up controversy there in 2006 with Summer Palace.

TIGERS FOR LIFEAnd it seems that winners join the Tiger pack for life. Chinese director He Jianjun was one of the fi rst class of Tiger winners, way back in 1995 with Postman, and he came back this year with the Eu-

ropean premiere of his latest fi lm, River People, in Spectrum. Many other directors have enjoyed a long relation-ship with this festival as well. In just some of the ex-amples this year, Kelly Reichardt, 2006 winner for Old Joy, screened her lauded Wendy and Lucy; Tan Chui Mui from Malaysia won a Tiger in 2007 for Love Conquers All and has a special programme of shorts, All My Failed Attempts; Bodhan Slama, who won for 2002’s Wild Bees, is back with The Country Teacher; Zhang Yuan who won in 1996 boasts his tenth fi lm to screen in Rotterdam, Dada’s Dance, as well as pitching his next fi lm, Executioner Garden, at the CineMart. Pablo Stoll, who with Juan Pablo Rebella won a Tiger in 2001 with 25 Watts, also at-tended CineMart 2009 with his Dysfunctional Fam-ily Drama 3.

TIGERS WITH A TAIL

The VPRO Tiger Awards winners 2005 photo: Bram Belloni

Neil Young photo: Ruud Jonkers

Wendy Mitchell surveys a select and illustrious group: past Tiger winners

Continued from page 1

NEW FUND HEADHe doesn’t yet know when a new head of the Hubert Bals Fund, IFFR’s fund for support-ing fi lmmakers from developing countries, will be appointed. (Current boss Bianca Taal is shortly to leave for a new job at the Binger FilmLab.) It’s unlikely a new head will be in place for the next application round. “We’ll have to fi nd a temporary so-lution, but there are plenty of very experi-enced people who read for HBF. I am sure we can manage.”

EXCITEMENT When the Festival began (what now seems a small eternity ago) with Michael Impe-rioli’s The Hungry Ghosts, some questioned whether this was an appropriate choice as opening fi lm. The argument went that a US fi lm featuring actors and a director from The Sopranos was too mainstream for a fes-tival priding itself on its edginess. Wolfson sighs as he contemplates the vexed question of choosing the perfect opening fi lm. “You can’t go right! In Dutch, we say ‘you’re look-ing for a sheep with fi ve legs!’ But I really like the fi lm. It’s a debut and we are about discovering new talent. You need a bit of an accessible fi lm for an opening night be-cause there’s a large crowd. And, yeah, the fact that there was some genuine excite-ment that the actors and director were there was nice.”What are his feelings as the festival draws to an end? Wolfson admits to a mix of exhaus-tion and exhilaration. “I am very happy. I think it was a really good and successful edition of the festival… I’m just tired – and happy!”

The 39th IFFR will run from 27 January to 7 February.

Be Calm and Count to Seven Wrong Rosary Breathless

538TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAMwww.FILMFESTIVALROTTERDAM.cOM

More IFFR titles were picked up for distribution as the Film Office winds down. By Nick cunningham

The Film Office’s Jolinde den Haas confirmed yesterday that the Dutch Filmmuseum has picked up Dutch theatrical rights for Edwin’s Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly and Peter Liechti’s The Sound of Insects – Record of a Mummy. She also confirmed that Benelux rights for Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds went to Cinéart, and that Belgian distribution outfit Brunbro picked up Benelux rights for the Hubert Bals Fund-backed Teza (Haile Gerima). De Haas expressed her satisfaction with the Film Office operation this year. “The Film Office and all its services is becoming a cen-tral hub for the industry, where they can re-ceive advice on all aspects of their business, from the screenplay to translations to prints. It is placed centrally with immediate access to all festival activities. What’s more, I think that the importance of the consultancies that we provide will increase in the future.” Consultant Mary Davies estimates that she and her colleagues met 230 or so filmmakers during the festival. “We met filmmakers of all levels of experience, such as people who haven’t been to a festival before, some people who haven’t been to Europe before, and vet-erans of festivals who maybe have a film that they are not quite sure what to do with,” she pointed out. “We are intermediaries. What we do is to put the filmmakers in the right direction, orient them on arrival towards the film services that the festival provides. There is very comprehensive information on the professionals who are here, along with their contact details, and we help the filmmak-ers to find a pathway through the festival towards the people who could make a differ-ence to them and their films.”

It’s a busy IFFR for Bangkok-based film-maker and distributor Pimpako Towira. She talks to wendy Mitchell about her new projects

Pimpako Towira is in Rotterdam with several hats on: she’s the producer of world premiere Bright Fu-ture title Agrarian Utopia, she’s a distributor scout-ing for new titles, and she’s also a director looking for finance for her next feature. Extra Virgin, the Bangkok-based company she runs with Mai Meksawan, has spent a year finishing Uruphong Raksasad’s Agrarian Utopia (which had a Hubert Bals Fund digital grant) and she’s pleased with the film’s reception here at IFFR. “I was wor-ried because it’s his second film; people here would have certain expectations that it would be a straight documentary, but this is more unconventional. It turns out people were impressed by the film. You have to see it on the big screen,” she says. After its selection in Rotterdam, other festival invites are starting to pour in now. Towira’s next directorial project will be the €390,000 feature The Island Funeral, which she de-scribes as “a road movie about a young Muslim girl from Bangkok going to the southern part of Thai-land.” She and co-writer Kong Rithdee are finishing

the final draft now. That film has received a Hubert Bals Fund development grant and some other small funding, but they are pulling together the rest of the finance now and plan to shoot in 2010. And in early stages, there is another documentary she will co-direct and co-produce. Towira’s past films as a director include 2003’s One Night Husband and IFFR 2008 selection The Truth Be Told: the Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong, about a trainee journalist who takes on government and big business. Towira was also in Rotterdam last year to contribute to the Black Air installation initiated by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.As for distribution, Extra Virgin has recently suc-cessfully released two Thai titles in local cinemas – her own The Truth Be Told and also Aditya As-sarat’s 2008 Tiger winner Wonderful Town. Now they want to acquire other Southeast Asian titles for Thai release and have had several meetings at IFFR to discuss pick-ups. “Yes, you have to compete with mainstream films in cinemas, but people need options,” she says.

AgrAriAn UtopiAUruphong raksasad

Cinerama 2 Sat 31 Jan 10:00

ROTTERDAM UTOPIAFILM OFFIcE POINTS UP PIck-UPS

Steve Holmgren from US sales agent Cactus Three is looking forward to Tony Manero. Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s film about a man obsessed with John Travolta’s char-acter from Saturday Night Fever set against the brutal backdrop of Pinochet’s 1978 San-tiago. “I saw it at the New York Film Festival. There were walkouts from some who found it slow and depressing, but I haven’t been able to get the film out of my mind. It builds up to a truly amazing climax.”

tony MAneropablo Larraín

Luxor Sat 31 Jan 17:00

I’LL BE wATcHINg…

pimpako towira photo: Daniëlle van Ark

Sandra Reid of the New Zealand Film Festival com-mented yesterday on the strategic importance of IFFR for both her festival and New Zealand’s film professionals. “We’ve been coming here for almost as long as the festival has existed,” she claims. “And for a long time, Rotterdam has been our link to Asian cinema. We don’t go to Pusan or any of the other Asian festivals, so the strong Asian line-up is very important to us. It’s the best place to discover these very interesting films.” Five New Zealand Films were selected for IFFR 2009, including Tiger competitor The Strength of Water (Armagan Ballantyne). “I’m really thrilled to see that this film meets with the great approval of Rotterdam audiences, and it’s always interesting to note how local films seem to have a universal rel-evance to people.” “There’s also Vincent Ward’s very good Rain of the Children, a strong CineMart project [Tama by Taika Waititi] and there’s been a large contingent of New Zealanders attending the Rotterdam Lab,” she con-tinued. “There is a such a strong link between the New Zealand industry and Rotterdam. It’s very beneficial for us come and experience a festival like this.” NC

the Strength of Water

kIwIS SwOOP ON ROTTERDAM

The temporary altar created by Vietnamese film-makers Nguyen Vinh Son and Nguyen Minh Hien as an installation for the Haunted House exhibit at this year’s IFFR will be spared from the garbage bin at the end of the festival. This is thanks to the initiative of Nguyen Thanh Hung, who intends to save the exhibition about the afterlife and give it

a “second life”.This Sunday, after the show closes, the installation will be packed up so that it can be used for Vietnamese new year celebrations, art ex-hibitions and musical events, and in a Vietnamese pagoda. Haunted House curator and IFFR programeer Gertjan Zuilhof told the Daily Tiger, “This is a

Dutch-Vietnamese initiative to keep the room in Holland. It is not so much a money transaction as the need to keep some authentic Vietnamese culture in Holland for Dutch Vietnamese People. I guess the value is not so much economic or even artistic, but cultural – if not religious, it is a tem-ple after all!” SH

VIETNAMESE gHOST ROOM PRESERVED

Mary Davies photo: Daniëlle van Ark

nguyen Vinh Son and nguyen Minh Hien’s altar installation in the Haunted House photo: Felix Kalkman

738TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAMWWW.FILMFESTIVALROTTERDAM.COM

Je veux voir sends Catherine Deneuve to South Lebanon to provoke questions about the media representations of the 2006 war there. Its directors talk to Edward Lawrenson

Although based in Lebanon, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige were in France during the Israe-li army’s bombing of South Lebanon in July 2006. “We were spectators,” Hadjithomas says of the confl ict. “When you are in a war, there are dangers and practical diffi culties. But when you are outside the war zone, you just follow everything, through TV and blogs. We really were hurt by the images – because they were really strong and spectacular, but they didn’t change anything.” The pair’s ambivalence about the coverage of the confl ict was the inspiration behind Je veux voir. The fi lm begins with Catherine Deneuve in a Beirut ho-tel declaring she wants to see the sites of devasta-tion in the south of the country. Followed by a fi lm crew, Deneuve and Lebanese actor Rabih Mroué drive to the Israeli border, witnessing the ruins created during the fi ghting. There was a practical point in taking Deneuve: “having a star allows you to shoot in places that we’d ordinarily struggle to fi lm in, like the border with Israel” Joreige says. “We wrote to her and she accepted immediately,” adds Hadjithomas. But the main reason for involving Deneuve was to use the star’s iconic image to provoke questions about representation: “We wanted to ask what cin-ema can do after wars like the one in Lebanon; and we thought about addressing this by asking De-

neuve to have this experience,” says Hadjithomas. “When you put her in a situation, you have to ques-tion yourself: is she actually in Beirut, is she actu-ally going to the south. Everything is fi ction and everything is documentary at the same time.” The fi lm’s probing blend of documentary and fi c-tion (the movie is scripted and it’s day-long du-ration took almost a week to fi lm) makes for an intense and unsettling account of the legacy of 2006, notably in the eerie scenes of masonry from bombed villages being ground down and dumped into the sea by Lebanese demolition workers. It’s a far cry, Joreige says, from the formulaic way news depicts such confl icts: the fi lm, he continues is meant “to re-introduce some of the complexity of the situation, because the world is now too di-vided and simplifi ed. On the news ten years ago, a subject like this would get fi ve minutes – now it’s 35 seconds.”Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are also in Rotterdam with Khiam, a 2008 work that imagina-tively revisits a documentary they made in 2000 (screened at IFFR in 2002), about a detention camp in South Lebanon.

JE VEUX VOIRJoana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige

Pathé 7 Sat 31 Jan 19:15

KHIAM 2000-2007Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige

Venster 2 Sat 31 Jan 09:45

SEEING IS BELIEVING

LUCKY NUMBER SEVENIn between features, Tan Chui Mui made seven short fi lms in quick succession to remind herself of why she wanted to be a fi lmmaker. By Wendy Mitchell

The shooting of Helen was a calculated risk that paid off, co-director Joe Lawlor tells Edward Lawrenson

“It was an incredibly brisk shooting schedule,” Joe Lawlor says of the production of Helen, the feature debut he made with Christine Molloy. The logistical challenges were striking: shot in just fourteen days in Newcastle, Liverpool, Dublin and Birmingham, the fi lm combined a large cast of non-professionals and boasts a remarkably accomplished visual style, shot in 35mm scope in mostly long takes by direc-tor of photography Ole Birkeland. The tale of a lonely 18-year-old woman whose par-ticipation in a police reconstruction of the fi nal days of a missing girl prompts her own identity cri-sis, Helen would not have been possible were it not for the experience Lawlor and Molloy developed on their short fi lms (including last year’s Joy, on which Helen is based, and which won the Prix UIP at IFFR 2008). “In our shorts, we shot in long takes and were able to complete two big scenes each day; it was a method-ology we used for the feature,” says Lawlor, “[Shoot-ing Helen] was a calculated risk but we were clear you just couldn’t walk off the street and do it.” Lawlor and Molloy have a background collaborat-ing with often deprived British communities on art pieces, particularly theatre work. It was experience

they applied to Helen. Commissioned by various city-based arts organizations in the British Isles, Lawlor and Molloy cast non-professionals from community groups in Newcastle, Liverpool, Bir-mingham and Dublin. As with its haunting and elegantly achieved visuals, the acting style in Helen owes more to the tradition of European arthouse cinema that Lawlor and Molloy admire than to British screen naturalism. The performances are restrained and pared down, an aspect of the fi lm some critics have found mannered, although Law-lor insists the choice is deliberate. “We work in quite a minimal or theatrical way, like Carl Dreyer or von Sternberg. We collaborate with non-professionals over a relatively short pe-riod time and are constantly trying to keep things at a kind of amateur level if we can. We didn’t want any emoting, because if you’re working with non-professionals they might not have that acting range. Which can be a problem but it’s also a god-send if you’re not looking for an actor to show off their technique.” Released in the UK in May by New Wave, Helen’s international sales are being handled by New York-based Visit Films.

HELENChristine Molloy and Joe Lawlor

Cinerama 6 Sat 31 Jan 14:30

By Yoana Pavlova

Film festivals get people together – not only in cinema theaters or at cocktails, but also in real life. It was on the festival circuit that Maryna Gorbach (from Ukraine) and Mehmet Bahadir Er (from Turkey) met. They have now been married for one year and are presenting their fi rst feature, Black Dogs Barking, at IFFR. Both directors are well known for their shorts, so they managed to get fi nancial support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and from a script fund. Gorbach acknowledges that they would not be able to shoot the movie without the help of local cinema equipment companies as well. Er wrote the script with his own Istanbul district in mind – he even makes a cameo appearance – so all the characters are vividly authentic. The dynamic

cinematography and editing match perfectly the dog-eat-dog plotline about two young and naive friends, Salim and Çaça, whose small-scale plan to earn money turns them into victims of the state-protected mafi a. Black Dogs Barking immediately stands out from the other YT (Young Turkish Cinema) titles. As Er explains, “If you see only four or f ive Turk-ish movies, you immediately get the impression that all directors use Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s calm auteur style, but Istanbul is actually more like an anthill.” When questioned about whether the young Turkish f ilmmakers inf luence each other, Er says, “No, even though we act like a commu-nity,” while Gorbach admits that there is a cer-tain synergy. The directors of Black Dogs Barking are still dis-cussing various distribution options. Even though they aim at the mass audience, they were sur-prised by the response at the Rotterdam festival. As Er notes, “It is amazing that our Çaça charac-ter, played by Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu, turns out to be so popular. After the screenings, we spoke with people from Japan or Latin America – they all said that they fi nd him familiar and even sympathet-ic.” Their future plans include another movie, this time in Ukraine, and developing their own pro-duction company, Kara Kirmizi Film.

BLACK DOGS BARKINGMaryna Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er

Pathé 6 Sat 31 Jan 17:45

COMMUNITY PRACTICE

THE ANTHILL MOB

Helen

Malaysian director Tan Chui Mui already has a Tiger Award under her belt, for her 2007 debut feature Love Conquers All, and she has two more features in development. But to keep herself stimu-lated creatively, she set herself a challenge: to make a new short fi lm each month. “It reminds me of why I wanted to be a fi lmmaker,” Tan says. “They were mostly short and simple so it wasn’t that crazy an idea.” Because of her travels, she made a total of seven, not 12, fi lms – ranging in style from charming narratives to a documentary about chicken farming to an experimental horror. “Sometimes I would have a script, sometimes just an idea,” she explains. “I would just get friends or colleagues together and see if we could shoot for a weekend. With a feature, there’s a lot of pressure for you and for others and with shorts you can have more freedom.”Tan says some are more successful than others, and some feel “more fi nished,” but that’s part of the ex-perience. “You fail and you keep trying,” she says. “The idea is not to do a perfect one, but just to try one a month.” Her favourite of the seven is Everyday Everyday, “somehow to me that feels like a fi nished story,” she says. Making the fi lms was possible due in part to her col-laborators in Da Huang Pictures (which also includes Amir Muhammad, James Lee and Liew Seng Tat).

“There was always this group of people there, if you want to use them as an actor or a cameraman or an editor,” she says. “It’s nice when you can just call your friends.” And after seeing the works projected here, they don’t seem perhaps as “failed” as she fi rst thought. “When I fi nally saw it on the big screen, I realised it’s not as bad as I was worried about,” she says with a laugh. She was also in Rotterdam serving on the Tiger shorts jury (she won a Tiger Cub herself in 2005) and this year marks her fi fth time at the festival. “They’re not only showing my fi lms, they have also given me fi nancial support,” she explains. “When-ever I meet a new fi lmmaker, I always tell them to go to Rotterdam. For me it’s the best festival.” When she returns to Malaysia, the plan is to spend February fi nishing the screenplay for Waiting For Snow in Kuantan, her next feature. The original idea for the story is about a girl in her hometown of Kuantan, Malaysia, who loses her memory. She hopes to commence shooting that fi lm in June, and also will still continue to develop another feature, Living Quietly.

ALL MY FAILED ATTEMPTSTan Chui Mui

Lantaren 2 Sat 31 Jan 09:45

All My Failed Attempts

Black Dogs Barking

938 TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAMwww.FILMFESTIVALROTTERDAM.cOM

SMOkE ScREEN

Out in the cold: smokers at IFFR photo: Bram Belloni

The Netherlands, including Rotterdam, has been smoke-free since July 1 – which makes this edition of the festival the first non-smoking IFFR. How have the fes-tival’s tobacco fiends coped, wendy Mitchell asks

Thus far it doesn’t seem to be having a big impact on attendance or overall opinions on the festival. “No, there haven’t been any official complaints,” says Festival Director Rutger Wolfson. Even last year, for instance, delegates could smoke in De Doelen bars and cafes and sometimes near the press and CineMart desks.As of July 1, 2008, the Netherlands enacted a to-bacco smoking ban in cafes, bars, restaurants, shops, convention centres and nightclubs – follow-ing the general European trend. Workplaces and public buildings have been smoke-free since Janu-ary 1, 2004 and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport went smoke-free on Jan 1, 2008. Non-smoking film lovers are of course rejoicing. Ven-erable US critic Howard Feinstein has severe asthma and tries to always seek out non-smoking venues at the European festivals. “That’s why I’m here,” he says about the smoking ban. “It’s wonderful.”Non-smokers can breathe easier and everyone’s coats smell a little nicer each morning. And for Wolfson, a special bonus: “Personally it’s quite good, because if I’ve had a beer I tend to bum a ciga-rette. So I’ve been quite a good boy,” he says.

PORTAbLE ASHTRAyEven enthusiastic smokers don’t blame IFFR. Veteran Dutch journalist Peter van Bueren says “It’s a prob-lem in general, and Rotterdam is just a part of this.” He proudly reveals a portable ashtray in his pocket but notes that he’s not breaking the rules – anymore. “On opening night, I had a cigarette and this little boy from security came and said, ‘Put it away.’ And I just said, ‘Let me finish!’ But then the next day I had a cigarette [in De Doelen] and someone from the festi-

val came up to me and explained that the festival had signed this important contract with De Doelen. And of course I don’t want to hurt the festival so I haven’t smoked in De Doelen again.”

cOOL kIDSCineMart head Marit van Elshout said that most of the industry attendees took the ban in their stride, and the only problem could be from cold air rushing in while smokers opened patio doors. Businesses face fines of €300 to €16,000 (and even-tually losing their business license) if the Food and Wares Authority catches them disobeying the ban. Businesses can build specially-ventilated smoking areas, however. The festival’s nicotine-needing crowd is now found on the outdoor terrace of De Doelen or mostly by the front revolving doors. Other options are light-ing up in Tin Tin’s cigar bar near the Schouwburg or adding to the thick clouds of smoke at late-night hangout Bar Centraal. Another Amsterdam-based industry guest doesn’t mind going out into the cold doorways, because it’s a way to meet interesting fel-low smokers. “It’s like the cool kids on the back of the bus,” he said.

SPARkING DEbATEYet van Bueren gets tired of going out into the cold air. “In a big building like [De Doelen] it’s stupid not to have a smoking room somewhere,” he says. “If I go to Asia, I can be on a plane for 12 hours and I have no problem not smoking. But it’s more the psychology of smoking at a festival. It’s the idea of it. These rules are too strict. And it’s hypocritical to say this is because of health. If that was the case you should first forbid driving cars.” He’s not alone in his displeasure. In November, Dutch café own-ers marched on the streets of The Hague to protest against the ban. Wolfson says: “The smoking ban in Holland did spark an interesting debate, with this populist movement who think that the politi-cians in The Hague have lost touch.”

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De Tijgerpas nog voordeliger! 10-15.-

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