A special presentation at the 66th BFI London Film Festival, Ruben Östlund’s Palme D’Or-winning feature film has spectators still navigating their way out of a triangle of wry humour, the currency of allure, and reflections on that thin line between the cynicism of abuse of power and what a potential re-distribution of power can lead to.
As another successful edition of the BFI London Film Festival has recently drawn to a close, numerous thoughts spring to mind about the most meaningful way to approach editorially the film festival itself and the unique cultural ecosystem it nurtures, both as a concept and curatorial practice promoting film culture in a particular time and place.
Village Rockstars is an Assamese language drama by Rima Das that was released in 2017 to great acclaim. A film purportedly highlighting adolescent aspiration and rural poverty in the beautiful surroundings of a small town in Assam, India, seems contrary to expectations. One expects films like this to contain a predictable structure of obstacles and a stirring climax of transcendence. But it is actually free from the retstraints of plot and dramatic points with some scenes revealing nothing but the tranquillity and inescapability of life in a rural area.
Anyone can choose to hold out for a hero. And anyone can be that hero, until proven otherwise. This interplay between hope, excitement, expectation, and trust on the one hand and a slow drip of ambiguity, prejudice and doubt threatening to gradually undo the entire premise of canonisation of a hero on the other, is central in Asghar Farhadi’s lauded film. Winner of the Cannes 2021 Grand Prix, A Hero is a compelling cinematic work - testimony of Farhadi’s unparalleled filmmaking mastery and his distinct, celebrated take on realist melodrama albeit hereby revisited and slightly open to reimagination.
The narrative starts in a shabby taxi office. Narsingh (Soumitra Chatterjee), a semi alcoholic taxi driver whose wife has just left him is being consoled by a colleague who advises him to move on and join him in a partnership. But Narsingh silently rejects the idea. We later discover it is because he hails from a warrior caste and doesn't want to remain a taxi driver all his life- he has designs on escaping the chains of his creed and becoming a gentleman.
Small Body presents an aesthetically compelling and cathartic folklore tale; a woman’s visceral will to reconfigure the destiny of her child and herself. Emanating the beauty and eeriness of the natural, symbiotic bond between a mother and her child, Samani’s powerful debut feature film unfolds naturally and very fittingly at the backdrop of the stunning landscapes of Northern Italy.
