Europe on Screen 2017

My EoS 2017 booklet and ticket stubs
(one stub was missing)

Hi!

Time flies damn fast, it's been a year since my first introduction to Europe on Screen.

What is Europe on Screen actually?
Europe on Screen (EoS) is an annual European film screening. The films played in EoS are mostly festival films, those that are not usually played in cinemas. So, this is a great chance for me because the films give me a glimpse of life Europe and also I got my interest on the languages haha so yeah I could 'channel' my that interest (?)
EoS is held in several cities in Indonesia, such as Jakarta. Bandung, and Bali. Most of EoS venues are cultural centers of EU countries like Erasmus Huis (the Nederland), Institut Français d'Indonésie (France), and Goethe Haus (Germany). Usually EoS is held in the middle year, like April to May.
Films in EoS are divided into several categories:
1. Xtra
Films with extra flavours, winners of well-known film festivals, such as Oscar and Cannes, starring famous actors and actresses.
2. Discovery
Discover-able films, meaning they are starred by less-known actors (the booklet said that).
3. Docu
Documentary films
4. Retro / Focus
Mostly are black-and-white films since they are ooold films, from 1929 to 1970
5. Open Air
Mainstream European films showed in open-air theaters
And one more interesting thing from EoS is that they have several Q&A sessions with film makers, directors, or actors. Typically, tickets for screenings with Q&A sold out quickly and the screening room would be sooo full. All performance in EoS is FREE. Just come one hour before the screening to get its limited tickets.
For more info, just check europeonscreen.org out.

Last year was my first time watching European films at EoS, and back then I was a volunteer. It gave me a good impression and I couldn't wait to have another EoS!

My wish granted this year.

This year I am no longer volunteering since I'm working now -- do not have free, available time to be a volunteer :(. So I came to EoS as a mere audience who just watched and expected my ticket stub number would be called to get a doorprize haha. This year, I 'only' watched nine films, which is far below my target because I couldn't watch many of them :(
I spent last year EoS mostly at IIC (Istituto Italiano di Cultura), but this year I watched most of the films at Goethe Haus. Idk why. That made me 'marking' the golden seats, which are *spoiler* the middle seats in the first row. They give me a great view in watching the films and the leg room is extra wide, compared to the other rows.
OMG what's the point of explaining golden seats.

In this post, I'm gonna give my amateur review of films I've watched. I will show them chronologically. So, here they are:

Goodnight Mommy (Ich Seh Ich Seh)

Austria, 2014

Director: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz

Cast: Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz, Susanne Wuest

This film is about two twin boys (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) who were suspicious of their mother (Susanne Wuest) who just came back from cosmetic surgery that made her should wear bandages all over her head. The twins thought the woman with bandages was not their mother. They tried things (LOTS of things) to prove whether she was their mother or not.

That's the main story of this film. And I tell you what, this is a kind of film which made me drop my jaw after watching it and sweared a lot HAHAHA. The whole story was twisted only by one single line.

What I like:

• Place setting. Their house was located in a remote area. However, their house was not that kind-of-traditional house. It was a rather-modern house. One kind of house that I'd like to have someday haha. Imagine a great house by a lake and pine forest.
• The way the twins did to prove that the woman was their mother. Unexpected!! And made me cringe a lot!
• Though its genre is thriller, it still had a sense of humor tho. Like the two red cross grannies scene haha.

What I don't:

• Several minor (well, I don't think they are really minor) aspects were left unexplained, and they were mostly about their mother's identity, such as (OOPS THIS COULD BE SPOILER) why she liked to be naked, why she walked into the pine forest and looked like she got possessed (?), what was the significance of the picture of two women the twins found.
• Blood! 

All in all, as an opening of EoS (for me), this film is worth to watch, especially for you who likes thriller and Saw-like films.

Rating: 3.6/5

Our Kind of Traitor

UK, 2016

Director: Susanna White

Cast: Carlos Acosta, Radivoje Bukvic, Stellan Skarsgård

An English couple (Perry and Gail) had a romantic holiday to Morocco and met a head of Russian mafia (Dima) at a restaurant. Later on, the couple were invited to Dima's daughter birthday party. There, Dima asked Perry to bring something to be given to MI6. It turned out that Dima was being targeted by a new Russian prince who no longer supported Russian mafia operation, and he was surrounded by the Prince's people. Therefore, he wanted to save his family by flying them out to the UK by asking MI6 to cover them all. The British MI6, in return, asked him account numbers of the Russians who money-laundered their money in the UK. 

Well, this is not a kind of film that I usually like. It is more likely to be watched by my dad haha. No special impression left after watching it, to be honest. One point I got from this film is the way a father does to protect his family. He'd do anything. Hiks  :")

What I like:

• The story turned out not that complicated as the synopsis told. Initially, I thought it'd be a serious movie with a hard-to-understand plot. 
• DIMA! Whenever he appeared on the screen, he made the audience lightened up because of his attitude. He radiated joy.
• Place setting. Again. The story's setting traveled from place to place in Europe and Morocco. The one fascinated me the most was the Alps :")

What I don't:

• Some scenes made me sleepy.
• The ambiguity left in the ending. The ending was, Perry gave a gun to an MI6 member. Idk exactly what did that mean and in which side the MI6 member belonged. Or was it me who was unable to comprehend it? :"

Not a special film, yet not a waste. 

Rating: 2.5/5

Toni Erdmann

Germany, 2016

Director: Maren Ade

Cast: Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischeck, Michael Wittenborn

Reading its synopsis, I thought it would be a father-and-daughter-tear-jerking film. Moreover, when it told that the daughter is a busy worker. Wow, very my age haha. I expected that kind of film. But looking again at its genre, well, I also expected I would laugh and cry at the same time. In addition, when I saw in the EoS booklet that it won Best Film at the European Film Awards 2016. Wow, my expectation grew bigger

What I got?

In two hours and forty-two minutes, my expectation was not fulfilled. It was not that tear-jerking and not that laugh-making as I expected :( though the message of "as you grow up, your parents grow old" was delivered well. I kept looking at my watch, waiting for the film to end. Not a good sign of a good film tho. Hu.

What I like:

• The message of the film, which I've mentioned before.
• The randomness of  Winfried (the father) sometimes made me smile widely, sometimes made me drop my jaw and silently muttered, "Whaaaaattttt..."
• It gave me an insight of a life of a female worker. How it is in Europe, tackling with gender issues etc. It turned out that it still happens there :( for example when Ines, the daughter, was ignored by her male client (I forget his name).

What I don't:

• The duration is sehr lange (very long)
• There was no significant change in Ines. Well, I couldn't see a visible change in the relationship between Ines and his father. Until (almost) the end of the movie, I didn't see that their relationship improved.
• There were several scenes that are not significant, and made the duration even longer.

Well yea, my expectation towards this film is not fully fulfilled :( oh ya, (SPOILER!!!) there are rated-R scenes in the film, including full nudity (which made many audience left hahahaha).

Rating: 2/5

Son of Saul (Saul fia)

Hungary, 2015

Director: Nemes László

Cast: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn

This was not a film I put a big expectation on. I just watched it merely because of parent-child relationship written in the synopsis in the EoS booklet. But it turned out to be one of my favorite films in EoS 2017 :" The story revolved around Saul, a Hungary prisoner in a concentration camp, who was trying to bury his dead son properly. Just that. However, the things Saul did to find a rabbi and to bury his child in an appropriate manner, was tear-jerking. Along the movie, you'd see how a concentration camp works in Sonderkommando system. Made me cringe a lot. You'll see dead bodies and dead bodies and dead bodies:" For me, the most memorable scene was the opening scene, when Saul led the Jews to enter a chamber gas. It depicted vividly how it worked. The prisoners were told that they are going to take a mass bath, so they had to take their clothes off. The guards even told them to remember their hook number where they hung their clothes. After that, they entered the bathroom/chamber gas and locked from the outside. Saul and other guards were told to keep the door locked. The sound of the door banged and screaming and shouting from people inside was clearly heard, and the guards waited until there was no more sounds from inside. Meaning, they're already dead :( omg writing this really heaves something inside me up.  

What I like:

• The way the film depicts concentration camp situation that day VIVIDLY
• Makes me thinking that in the camp, bodies are that unworthy, as they treat it like pieces of meat :(
• Watching Saul's effort to bury his son and its ending is unexpected, but it makes me satisfied tho :")

What I don't:

• The shaky camera (?) 

I could relate it with Jakarta situation today hahah, but still in what-if condition. It could happen that way, nevertheless :( before watching this, actually I knew a little of guiding the prisoners to the chamber gas by telling them to have a bath, from Life is Beautiful film. Then this film adds more visualization of it. Ah :( no more wars, please.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Paradise Suite

The Nederlands, 2015

Director: Joost van Ginkel

Cast: Anjela Nedyalkova, Boris Isakovic, Erik Adelöw

In the synopsis, it is written that the story is about many people with their own story but somehow they're interconnected. I like this kind of film, so I decided to watch.
The story took place in Amsterdam, where the main characters meet. Each of them had their own story. Three girls who came to the city with the hope of being a model but then it was just a scam, a father who was a well-known conductor and his son who was a middle school student getting bullied, a black immigrant who wanted to help his neighbor from being expelled from their apartment, a middle-age woman trying to find proof of a criminal, and a new father who had a secret job. They meet in unexpected ways and their stories intertwined.
I think I shouldn't expect anything before ya, because this film is soooo good! The characters and their stories are combined well, and the ending is unexpected. Quite a memorable one.

What I like:

• The way their stories linked
• Opening up a new perspective of Amsterdam, a city I initially thought as a "good" city

What I don't:

• ... *thinking* *cannot find one*

A great film to be enjoyed while snugglin'.

Rating: 4.3/5

--- from this point, I am writing this review, like, three weeks after the last time I wrote the Paradise Suite review since I work on weekdays and do not have a proper time to continue this *excuse*. As I have proper free time right now, I will continue this piece of writing. I hope I still remember impressions from each film haha ---

Room

Ireland, 2015

Director: Lanny Abrahamson

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers

Adapted from a novel with the same title, Room told about a mother, Ma/Joy (Brie Larson), and her son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who lived in a "Room". The story started by Jack's fifth birthday. He turned five and he thought he was much older that day. And it actually did. From that day on, his curiosity grew bigger, making Ma thinking again about escaping. Actually, the so-called Room where they lived was actually a shed where Ma/Joy had been kept for seven years. She was kidnapped by an unknown man they called Old Nick, who impregnated her. Joy and Jack made a plan to escape and they did it. For Jack, who had been living in the Room his entire-five-years life, the real world outside seemed new and foreign. From that point, both Joy and Jack tried to rebuild their life in the real world.

Whoa, I actually put a big hope on this film by reading its synopsis. On first minutes, I guessed it was a kind-of dystopian film since the film showed they only lived in a narrow space, Joy wore a beeping watch which I thought indicating something other than time, and they had special terms, such as Sunday Treats, skylight, etc haha. I really enjoyed this film from the beginning till the end, especially when life in the Room was explained in the first parts.

What I like:

• The way Joy treated Jack so that he grew like a normal child 'outside'. In such squeezing space, Joy tried to build a universe for Jack by drawing him things he could see outside, doing things that are usually done outside, for example doing a workout session, and even cooked him a birthday cake.
• The film said that the real world outside was new for both Jack and Joy, though Joy had been there before, but it was different from seven years ago, the last time she was there. It was like her world seven years ago paused and now she continued it again with different situation.
• Cheerful atmosphere in the beginning of the film brought by Jack :)

What I don't:

• Scenes after Jack and Joy got saved went a little bit slow

A great great film to watch! :)

Rating: 4.4/5

Carte Blanche

Poland, 2015

Director: Jacek Lusinski

Cast: Andrzej Chyra, Urszula Grabowska, Arkadiusz Jakubik 

Taken from a true story, telling about a high school teacher, Kacper (Andrzej Chyra) who lost his sight little by little while dealing with his newly-bloomed lover and his rebellious student. He tried to conceal it and make up his impairment with 'other' things so that everything still runs normally, even after he completely lost his sight.

I got interested when reading the synopsis. Moreover, it is from Poland. Last year, I heard that Poland films back then were great, but unfortunately I didn't watch any of them because they were not screened at the venues where I volunteered. In addition, on this screening, there was a Q&A session with the lead character, Andrzej Chyra. Furthermore, there was also an extra-grandprize on that screening, which is a branded watch. Driven by those reasons, I queued patiently to have a Carte Blance ticket.

The film was great in its first half, but after I left it a while to did Maghrib prayer, I didn't  get interested anymore. The only thing I put my interest on was when the camera tried to portray Kacper's sight that loosened slowly :( from only little black spots to a total darkness. However, the ending was quite satisfying and able to make me shivered.

What I like:

• The way the camera shows how his sight was
• Quite pretty pictures
• The scene when Kacper chased his lost student in an abandoned building. Thrilling!

What I don't:

• Language barrier. Yeah I know there was subtitle ofc. Nevertheless, it was my first time listening to Poland language. It seemed weird for me and got me distracted. I mean I tried to focused more on the language than the film itself. 
• Idk in the middle it got me bored

Fun fact! I heard sobs after this film ended. Meaning they really absorb the story of Maciej Bialek, the teacher whose story was adapted into the film. The Q&A was fun, though. Andrzej was humble and  tried to answered all of the questions wholeheartedly even though his English was not really fluent. 

Rating: 3.8/5

Julieta

Spain, 2016

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao

I just realised the last three films (Room, Carte Blanche, and Julieta) are adaptations from other media! Well, the three of them were screened on the same day at Goethe Haus. 
Back to Julieta, it is an adaptation of Alice Munro's stories, "Chance," "Soon" and "Silence", which I read as an assignment back then in literature class. I was quite surprised to know that, so I was curious enough to see it.

You can read the synopsis here as I am too lazy to retell it ha ha.

As I have read the novel, I knew several parts that the other audience may not realize, such as **SPOILER** the opening scene was actually the answer of all Julieta's questions throughout the film. Then the film turned out to be not as boring as the novel version! Maybe because it is a motion picture ya, not steady letters -_-

What I like:

• It is in Spanish! My first Spanish film in EoS 2017! I can recognize some words and phrases hahaha.
• Though the story in the novel is boring af, the film is not. It depicted the story well without making audience feel bored.
• The Alps! (again)

What I don't:

• The story seemed running so fast. Well it was because it told about Julieta's life from she was young until she was middle-age.
• At first, I thought it was just narcissistic/selfish to have a film in which 95% of the duration only revolved in one person. But then I reminded of Son of Saul he he.

If I hadn't read the novel, would I recommend this?

Actually not really. I'd suggest this to my juniors who had an assignment to read this so that they have a clearer picture of the story.

Ah ya, this film is truly 18+.

Rating: 3/5 

Last but not least,

Blackmail

UK, 1929

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast:  Anny Ondra, John Longden, Sara Allgood

Ex and existing EoS volunteers talked about this much. It was Alfred Hitchcock's, it was from 1929, and it had live music score by the Trinity Youth Symphony Orchestra from Sjuman Music School.

I myself put more interest in the live orchestra actually. I wanted to see how a film's music score is played in front of my eyes haha. Luckily, I got front seat! Yeay! Not really front, but the second row from the front. I could see the orchestra clearly.

I feel drenched in cultural atmosphere when entering Goethe Haus Auditorium haha.

So, how about it?

AWESOME! The music was lively, and I didn't feel like watch a silent movie and live music, but watching a sound movie with great music score. Chills ran down my spine when they played it. Felt so real. The film itself? Well, so-so. Moreover, there was no subtitles and the actors' dialogue was not heard well. So I just enjoy the music for 85 minutes.

Such a new experience for me!

Rating: 4/5

So, that's all from me about this year's EoS! I hope I still can make it to watch great European films at EoS next year!

Happy watching and enjoy the screening :)

This is EoS 2017 trailer, played before a film screened. Along the trailer, frequent audience would guess the trailer's fragment is a part of what film haha.