FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews film scholar Wang Yao.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Wang Yao is a 360 degree film scholar: a critic, researcher, curator, writer, lecturer, collector and so on. He wore many hats at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival, including as a curator of an exhibition of Romanian film posters, brochures and various other memorabilia from China, all of which came from his personal collection. This gives us the lead into an outline of the film relations between China and Romania over the years, and Wang Yao gives us insightful information about the little-known history of why old Romanian films were so popular in China. We also talk about the China Focus that took place at this year’s TIFF, and included such events as a special cine-concert of the Chinese 1934 masterpiece The Goddess by Wu Yonggang, along with other more contemporary works.

The post Wang Yao #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Syllas Tzoumerkas, director of the film The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Having met Syllas Tzoumerkas after the premiere of his latest film, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, earlier this year at the Berlinale, we catch up with him again on the occasion of this feature’s screening at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival. This is an important work in Tzoumerkas’ oeuvre, as it marks a shift from that of his previous titles. In this interview – including three spectacular location changes – we discuss this transition, as well as the influence of dreams on The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, his familiarity with a small village setting, the importance of such aspects as age and gender in the movie, and much more.

The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea: In a small town in the west of Greece, two women live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. Elisabeth is a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens ten years ago and now living a joyless, hung-over life; Rita is the quiet, mysterious sister of a lounge singer in the local disco. When a sudden death upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who had been ignoring each other’s existence begin drifting towards each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviours.

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The post Syllas Tzoumerkas – The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Simon Jaquemet, director of the film The Innocent.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

An interview with director Simon Jaquemet, who presented his latest film, The Innocent, at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. The film revolves around a woman working in a research facility involved in head transplants for monkey, and is marked by themes of religion, science and morality. We talk about these themes at great length, even asking Jaquemet whether he believes in God, and whether ge believes that religion does have an important role in life and the world at large. He also talks about the connection his film has with dreams, seeking a subjective response from the viewers of his movies, and much more.

The Innocent: Ruth works in a neuroscience research lab, as much as she’s part of an extreme traditionalist and conservative Christian family. She suddenly finds herself facing her own past when her former lover reemerges after disappearing twenty years in jail, putting into question her feelings, her life and soon her faith.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Mihály Schwechtje, director of the film I Hope You’ll Die Next Time .

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Director Mihály Schwechtje talks with us about his film, I Hope You’ll Die Next Time , screened at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The film was part of the Hungarian film showcase strand named Hungarian Day. I Hope You’ll Die Next Time is a drama: its protagonists are vulnerable teenagers and its main topic is cyberbullying. Schwechtje talks with us about how he researched on this topic, why he chose to see it from both the perspective of the victim and the bully, and whether he believes the internet has made things worse for teenagers.

I Hope You’ll Die Next Time : 16-year-old Eszter is secretly in love with her English teacher, while Peter, also 16, is hopelessly in love with Eszter. One day the teacher announces that he will leave the school and will move to London. On the same day, Eszter gets a special farewell e-mail from the teacher…

The post Mihály Schwechtje – I Hope You’ll Die Next Time :-) #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Nora Fingscheidt, director of the film System Crasher.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Having met filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt after the premiere of her new film, System Crasher, earlier this year at the Berlinale (where she was awarded with the Alfred Bauer Silver Bear), we meet her again on the occasion of the screening of the film at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. Still completely shaken and stirred by the power of the film, we ask her to tell us more about the making of the film but also how System Crasher could contribute to the discourse of child welfare. Fingscheidt talks with us about her research in several institutions, a painstaking four-year-long writing process and meeting the Helena Zengel, the young actress who plays the lead role of nine-year-old girl Benni, who is simply a force of nature. But celebrating it also as a work of powerful cinema, our conversation touches on influences, tone and rhythm, with passing reference to the legendary Francois Truffaut, whose works from The 400 Blows to Small Change to The Wild Child and beyond did much to tell real stories that mattered about children.

System Crasher: She is small, but dangerous. Wherever Benni ends up, she is immediately expelled. The wild 9-year-old girl has already become what child protection services call a “system crasher”. And she is certainly not looking to change her ways. Because Benni has one single goal: to be back at home with her mommy! But Bianca is scared of her own daughter. Mrs. Bafané from child protection services is trying her best to find a permanent placement for Benni. She hires the anger management trainer Micha as Benni’s school escort and suddenly there is a seed of hope. Will Micha be able to succeed where all others despaired?

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Luke Lorentzen, director of the film Midnight Family.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

An interview with Luke Lorentzen, director of Midnight Family, screened at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival, a documentary about a family running a for-profit ambulance in Mexico City. In our conversation, he talks with us about the origins of the subject and the intensity of filming and being in the midst of some real, dramatic moments. We also talk about his working method, shooting as a one-man crew, when he knew he had enough material to wrap up the shoot and more.

Midnight Family: The Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance in Mexico City, competing with other EMTs for patients in need of urgent help. While making a living in this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from jeopardizing the people in their care. When a crackdown by corrupt police forces the family to try legitimizing their operation, their desperate financial situation pushes them into questionable practices…

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews José Esteban Alenda, co-director of the film Not the End.

An interview with José Esteban Alenda, who co-directed with his brother César Esteban Alenda the film Not the End, presented at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival. This time-traveling drama is about a socially awkward man trying to rewrite the tragic fate of his romance with his girlfriend. The director talks with us about the interest in the time traveling element from which the film was born, and the challenges but also benefits of the self-imposed limitations that he and his brother placed on themselves in the making of this film and that they regularly place on themselves in the making of all of their movies. He also reveals to us that the film was shot in 24 days, gives us some details of the working method of his collaboration with his brother and more.

Not the End: When the shy, socially-awkward Javier meets vibrant, outgoing and fun-loving Maria, it’s the start of a beautiful romance. But fifteen years later their relationship is more than sad. Javier realizes he must travel back in time to rewrite their destiny and avoid the miserable existence they’re living. Together, they reminisce and relive the magic of the first day they met, fifteen years earlier…

The post José Esteban Alenda – Not the End #TIFF18 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Dorottya Zurbó, director of the film Easy Lessons.

Filmmaker Dorottya Zurbó talks with FRED about her new documentary, Easy Lesson, about a Somalian teenage refugee as she adapts to life in Hungary. The film was screened at the 2019 Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj, Romania. Zurbó talks about meeting her protagonist, whose name is Kafia, and provides us with an overview of her trials and tribulations within the film. She also discusses such topics as the camera as a tool for interaction between filmmaker and protagonist of the film, i.e. as a means for communication.

Easy Lessons: Easy Lessons is the poetic journey of Kafiya, a beautiful girl who on the brink of adulthood breaks up with everything she grew up with in Somalia. Cultural values, taboos and dogmas fall apart in the most casual situations as she tries to adapt to a new life in Europe, Hungary. Her Mum helped her escape her fate, but how can Kafiya explain the changes she lives through to her most loved one? She wants to do it for a sense of duty, but how… This inner struggle becomes the film itself and maybe the only possible form of confession.

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PODCAST | Cristiana Palmieri interviews Tonia Mishiali, director and screenwriter of the film Pause.

Tonia talks about mixing drama and humour with reality and dreams throughout the film, and how she strikes the right balance to keep all these ingredients in the precise proportion.

Pause: Cypriot director Tonia Mishiali’s striking debut feature centres on a working-class housewife going through menopause and suddenly fed up with the everyday oppression of domestic servitude. Stella Fyrogeni is marvellous as the subdued, tragically stifled Elpida, who chafes at the exhausting drudgery and emptiness of her life and actively fantasises about violence against her brutishly uncaring and frequently cruel husband. Spiked with black humour, the banality of this domestic drama escalates to a satisfying final twist.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Tonia Mishiali – Pause #SydFilmFest appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Cristiana Palmieri interviews Marianna Economou, director of the film When Tomatoes Met Wagner.

Marianna talks about her motivation to make the documentary and how meeting the people in that tiny community made a huge impact on her, both at professional and personal level.

When Tomatoes Met Wagner: Aleco and Christo are cousins who run an organic farm in rural Greece, growing tomatoes with the help of some hard-working old ladies – and classical music blasted across the fields. Packing their lovingly grown produce as expensive specialty meals for overseas consumers, they struggle to compete in a trendy market. Marianna Economou’s documentary is an engaging, funny and melancholy study of hope amidst financial crisis.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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