Surrogates, based on the graphic comic book series of the same name is a science fiction film set in the not-too-distant future.  In this future people live their lives vicariously through the use of robotic surrogates, which they control with their minds from the comfort of their own homes. This interesting concept was what grabbed my attention and made me sit down and watch Surrogates. It didn’t hurt that the lead guy was Bruce Willis, as he’s watchable in pretty much anything and rarely fails to please.
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This is the day after… Yesterday, I got back from a thoroughly pleasant IFFR experience that went by way too fast. I was planning to do a final update earlier, but due to network problems (that occurred quite often the past ten days), I wasn’t able to post anything sooner.

Traditionally, yesterday the Tiger Award and Audience Award were handed out. Both went to films I have not seen (this seem to happen nearly every year). The Audience Award went to the Spanish drama Yo, también by directors Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro. I heard very positive signals about this film and all I can hope is it will get a release here in the Netherlands.

The Tiger Award for films (co)funded by the IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund this year went to three films (which seems to become common practice): Costa Rican Agua fría de mar, Mexican Alamar and Thai Mundane History.
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In my previous report I had a big rant about the Dutch films shown on the IFFR that I really disliked. I did this for a reason, because there are, in fact, at least two films I would like to mention that are actually really worth the price of a ticket. And that highly contrast with the titles I mentioned two days ago. If you have a chance to go see My Queen Karo I sincerely hope you will undertake the effort. It is a Belgian/Dutch drama about a little girl who moves with her free-minded parents to Amsterdam to live in a community of squatters where free love and chaos prevails. Another Dutch film I’d love to recommend is Hunting & zn (Hunting and son), about a very civil couple facing difficulties when a pregnancy is combined with an eating disorder. Tough stuff, but extremely well executed.

Today’s update includes Korean The Mother, by the director of the critically acclaimed The Host and a review of Romanian comedy Tales of the Golden Age. I also highly recommend both!

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Time for a third update. I have seen some pretty spectacular films, but also some really lousy ones. Unfortunately, two of them were Dutch productions. This is somewhat awkward, since the past couple of years, the Dutch film seems to be increasing in quality. I won’t elaborate too long on these titles I sincerely disliked, I will just restrict myself to mentioning them. Okay and a very fast verdict. First of all try to avoid the kitschy Meat by Dutch directors Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth (the concept was okay, but the execution messy and incomprehensible). Secondly, Shocking Blue by Mark de Cloe needed some serious reworking (Dutch off-focus teenage drama with a incredibly small attention span).

But, that set aside (and written off my chest), the festival DOES have a lot of eye candy to offer, and let’s face it: that is what it is all about. I will discuss two of my favorite films of the IFFR so far: François Ozon’s Le refuge and Swedish The Ape.

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