{Those which make up the last: The Woman with the Five Elephants, The Mouth of the Wolf, Lola, To Die
Like a Man, The Wind Journeys, Honey, In the Attic: Who Has a Birthday
Today, Certified Copy, and Kôji Wakamatsu’s Caterpillar.}
In nineteen days, I have seen twenty-eight films. I have sat in five different cinemas and watched 2,739 minutes of film which is equal to 45.65 hours of footage. I have traveled to parts of Turkey, Columbia, Manilla, Japan, Ukraine, Iran and more, and now, this Monday evening, I am bereft that all is over for another year. I have followed in the forest a small boy and his father, and watched them as they gathered honey from hives high in the trees (Semih Kaplanoğlu's Honey). I have journeyed across Columbia on a grey donkey and wished I were a juglar, too, destined to play accordion for all my days remaining (Ciro Guerra’s The Wind Journeys). I have listened to the art of translation, transfixed — "One cannot exhaust an excellent text, and that is probably the sign of the most superb quality.” (Vadim Jendreyko’s The Woman with the Five Elephants) — and I have delighted at the stop-motion marvel of a world drawn with reclaimed items lying in an attic (In the Attic: Who Has a Birthday Today). Provided with more than a chance to see things as others do, but to feel things as others do, and this, for me, is the beauty of a good film, of a good book too. With the heart loaned from a prisoner now free and acquainting self with streets no longer familiar, I saw a Genoa I am unlikely to see when next I travel overseas (In the Mouth of the Wolf). Through vintage footage spliced with that of today, I was privy to an intimate love story.
I miss already not traipsing from ACMI across to the Forum and then up to Greater Union. I miss sweet snacks shared with friends as we waited for the next session to commence. I miss watching the endless procession of people as I queued.
In no particular order, my five favourite films seen this year have been Women Without Men, Honey, Jiří Barta’s In the Attic: Who Has a Birthday Today, Border, and The Wind Journeys. With Street Days, The Woman with the Five Elephants, La Danse: Paris Opera Ballet and Jan Hřebejk’s Kawasaki’s Rose very close by.
"This is the story of a journey," Ciro Guerra begins. "A journey towards the beginning, towards the spirit. Towards our soul. For centuries, we’ve asked ourselves: What keeps up apart? Now it is time to ask what brings us together." (The Wind Journeys)
Thank you, MIFF; it's been swell. See you next year.
+ Thank you, Ritva.
