Film Festival

There has been a film festival in Wellington for the past two weeks. All kinds of films have been showcased, including Crash, 3-Iron, Enron, Inside Deep Throat, and The Lost World. I, being the movie lover that I am, couldn't let the festival leave without seeing some good films, so I spent the majority of this afternoon at the theater.

The first film I saw is called Bride of Silence, and it is from Vietnam. "An evocative and sensual début by the brother-sister team of Doan Thanh Nghia and Doan Minh Phoung, this drama offers a zen-like contemplation of the mystery surrounding the fate of an unwed mother in 18th-century, rural Vietnam." It was very interesting to hear the Vietnamese being spoken. I love watching movies with subtitles. The scenery was amazing. Not amazing like breathtaking-New Zealand-amazing, but very lush and subdued. There was a lot of environmental imagery in the film. It was very solemn, and it has a classical soundtrack.

The second film I saw today is from Argentina. It is called Rolling Family, and it is about as far on the other end of the spectrum as you can get from Bride of Silence. It is about an Argentine family, extended family, who goes on a road trip together in a Chevrolet caravan to a distant relative's wedding. From the website:
"Family chaos takes to the road in this amiable comedy from Argentina’s energetic poet of social realism, Pablo Trapero (El Bonaerense). “Four generations of an Argentinian family hit the road in Pablo Trapero's enchanting and buoyantly funny new movie. An aging matriarch, her frazzled middle-aged daughters, exasperated sons-in-law, hormonal grandchildren, and newborn great-grandson pile into a temperamental camper to travel to a clan wedding far from Buenos Aires."
I just typed "It was so funny" and had to delete it. It really wasn't a comedy. There were some definite funny moments, though. You can't have all those people in a camper, especially in a Spanish film, and not have it be hysterical. I would reccommend this to anyone who has a crazy family. It was a really good film in a different way from the first. The scenery didn't strike me as much in this one; it was more about the social and emotional relationships between the characters.

So, there it is. I didn't let the festival get away from me without being cultured. Amy said that things like this don't often come to Wellington, so I had to take advantage of it. I might go to one more on Sunday, The Queen of Sheba's Pearls. This one is from Sweden/UK where "the hushed, proper and rather sad household of a country vicarage is brought back to life by the arrival of a beautiful, mysterious ‘foreigner’." As the mystery of the foreigner is unraveled, so are the secrets of the household. Should be enjoyable.

One last thought before I leave you for the evening. It is crazy how often people think I am Spanish here. At home, no one would ever think of it. Half the people at home think I am Greek! Here, I have even had checkout people ask me if I am Spanish (before they hear me speak). Today, I was waiting to go in to the second film (which is in Spanish with English subtitles) and an older lady comes up and starts speaking Spanish to me! I was like, I'm sorry? She apologized and was all like, Oh! I thought you were a Spanish-speaker! You look so much like a native!

Apparently, not too many Kiwis have skin as dark as mine. Who knows what will happen when I come back from being in Fiji for 10 days!