FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Fred Film Radio had the privilege to talk with Marco Müller, an influential figure in the Italian film industry, at 25th Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival. Marco Müller has played a pivotal role in introducing Chinese cinema to a global audience over the past five decades.

Müller embarked on his cinematic journey nearly 50 years ago when he ventured to China as a film student. Having recently returned to Shanghai as an instructor, he witnesses a growing interest in cinema among the younger generation.

Upon his first visit to China in 1975, Müller noted that despite the long history of Chinese-language movies, the country’s film industry remained relatively unknown internationally. However, his encounters with emerging filmmakers like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige catapulted him into the forefront of introducing their works to the world.

Initially an anthropology student, Müller‘s passion for Chinese cinema ignited through regular screenings of films from China. Xie Jin‘s “Youth” in 1977 left an indelible mark, captivating him with its evolving aesthetics and international resonance within Chinese cinema.

Back in Italy, Müller became a driving force in promoting Chinese cinema globally. His groundbreaking “Electric Shadows” retrospective in Turin in 1981 showcased 135 Chinese films, enlightening critics and scholars about the depth and diversity of the country’s cinematic landscape.

Throughout the years, Müller continued to champion Chinese cinema, contributing significantly to various international film festivals. He co-founded the Pingyao International Film Festival with director Jia Zhangke, cementing his commitment to the global dissemination of Chinese cinematic art.

Now, as a faculty member at the Shanghai Film Academy, Müller reunites with old acquaintances like Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige. He observes a profound interest in cinema among Chinese youth, noting their encyclopedic knowledge and eagerness to explore diverse genres.

Acknowledging China’s burgeoning influence in the global film market, Müller envisions a promising future for Chinese filmmakers expressing unique narratives and personal experiences. He underscores the crucial need for continued support in distribution to propel these distinct voices onto the international stage.

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FRED met with Lina Soualem and her mother the Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass to talk about the former’s second film as a director, the rich, complex, and moving documentary “Bye Bye Tiberias”, in competition at the 20th Marrakech International Film Festival.

“I will always belong there. It feels like even after fifty years, it’s still getting a hold of me, and the fact that Lina brought me back to face all these questions and face all these things, it’s not something new to me: it’s something I’ve lived with all my life, through my work, through my engagements, through all the characters I’ve played… It’s a big cooking thing that keeps going with you: the fire is always lit, it’s always there to have you always think, never stop wondering about the sense of it all.”

“What impressed me is that each of them, in her time, made choices that were kind of vanguard.”

“The thing is, that we are used to talking about this region and Palestinians as a mass, as numbers, they’re totally dehumanised also, and the thing is that there’s such a big contrast between the representation given by the media and what I know of all the Palestinians that I know and grew up with, and of my family. They had so much richness that was totally silenced, and totally shunned, so for me it was really important… I mean it was natural, it wasn’t even a choice: this is what they give, all these images that I have, all these faces, all these moments of sharing, of travelling, of joy that I’ve experienced with my Palestinian family. This is what I’ve known, and I was lucky to have these images because in the context of a story that is silenced and not officially written, each image becomes a proof of our existence, and a proof of our humanity, so having all these images and being able to find archival footage in which we also see all these faces, in the 30s, in the 40s, in a context where officially it is said that there was no one there, when there were actually societies and families, and a life, it becomes precious, it becomes a treasure.”

Lina Soualem: “What I was writing six years ago when I started working on the film are the same things that I’m saying today and that we’re seeing today. It’s not something new, you know. When I was writing, I was already talking about this silenced story, the dehumanisation, the need to transmit these stories before they are forgotten and fall into oblivion, the fact that the memories of these people and the women of my Palestinian family are not existing in the places in which they lived and grew up. That’s why for me it’s vital to keep on transmitting the story, yesterday and today, always. Because it’s a culture that has been erased, people that are not present in our official history.”

Hiam Abbass: “When Lina made this movie and when we decided to come to this festival, it was long before this whole thing happened, and as Lina said, whatever is going on there has been ongoing for so long. So whatever the resonance of the movie is right now [for the spectator…] it wasn’t meant to be, it’s just a fact and it is what it is. But the most important thing I want to say is that it’s incredible, because when you see this movie now, you almost have an answer to what’s happening.”

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Actor and director Simon Baker was back in Marrakech (after the tribute to Australian cinema organised there in 2019) to participate in the In Conversation section.

He tells us more about his “renaissance” as an actor, after dedicating many years to TV shows such as “The Mentalist” and various Hollywood projects, at a time when he felt what he needed was first and foremost to support his family.

The public of Marrakech was also able to discover one of his latest acting endeavours, Ivan Sen‘s “Limbo”, which brought the director back in competition in Berlin this year after winning a Silver Bear there twenty years ago with his debut feature, “Beneath Clouds” (2002), and materialised a collaboration with Sen that Baker had long been wishing for, as he appreciates him as a “true auteur” and a friend. In “Limbo”, Simon Baker sports quite a different look from what we’ve seen before to play Travis Hurley, “a jaded detective [who] arrives in the remote outback town of Limbo to investigate the now twenty-year-old cold case murder of Charlotte Hayes, a local Indigenous girl. As the investigation unfolds, a series of truths is revealed, highlighting the complexities of loss and the impact of the justice system on Aboriginal families in Australia.”

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A lovely evening talk at the iconic Mamounia with actress Camille Cottin about her jury duties in Marrakech, young directors, her very diverse French and international career in comedies and dramas, TV and film, her next project, Ridley Scott, her favourite movies and actresses before she became one.

“It’s a big responsability, because the selection is really excellent. I wouldn’t be able to do anything close to what those young directors at their first or second film have done.  […] It’s about trying to understand what the ambition of the film was, is it close to what the ambition was, but also, it’s all about sensibility, that’s what I notice from our conversations. There’s the analysis of the craft and then there’s sensibility.”  

“When we came out of the movie this afternoon, [fellow-jury member and Swedish director]  Tarik Saleh said:

‘This generation! They’re gonna change it, they’re gonna make it, they’re gonna be able to make a different world!’

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With his first feature, “About Twelve”, director Martín Shanly studied a character who was not behaving up to the expectations people have of a certain age. With his second feature, Arturo a los 30 – About Thirty, where he also plays the lead, Arturo Shanly is again analizying some people’s inability to keep up with society expectations on what and how one should be at a certain age.

Arturo a los 30, in competition at the 41st Torino Film Festival, started its shooting in 2017 but Martín Shanly finished the film only in 2022, with the pandemic crossing the project. The Covid 19’s lockdown sort of affected the film’s process and Shanly  decided it was only fair and natural to include this moment in the representation of Arturo’s path in the film.

Comedy and its tropes are the best way for Shanly to also depicts the sometimes darker aspects of Arturo’s personality and journey, such as grief and depression.

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After her debut feature “Charcoal (Carvão)”, Carolina Markowicz reunites with lead actress Maeve Jinkings to deliver another ‘tale on the elasticity of morality’, selected to compete at the 20th Marrakech International Film Festival.

“Toll (Pedágio)”, set in a Brazilian context where the ordinary working people’s moral compass has long been out of whack, reflects flamboyantly, with exhilaratingly sardonic wit, on a certain ‘inversion of values’ whilst following the story of a loving mother who has unconsciously integrated the hypocritical notions that have pervaded this society (‘It’s very common to hear ”I’d rather have a son who’s a robber or a dead son, than a gay son,”‘ confirms the director), and will do anything to ‘correct’ his very openly gay son’s ‘flaw’ through an innovative (ie. bonkers) form of conversion therapy which isn’t exactly cheap. With the ‘help’ of her shady, cowardly loser of a boyfriend, she will be the one who pays for it.

Carolina Markowicz has written and directed six short films, which have been selected at more than three hundred festivals and have received numerous awards. “The Orphan” (2018), her best-recognised work, had its premiere in the Director’s Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm. Since 2021, Markowicz has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her debut feature, “Charcoal” (2022), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to play at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. “Toll” (2023) is her second feature film. (source : Marrakech Film Festival official website)

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“White Plastic Sky is our answer to the question of what the future of humanity will look like. It was never meant to propose an easy or comfortable answer. What would happen, if for a moment, the human race could think of itself as part of a bigger story? If we could understand that life itself is more important than human life?”

This is the starting point of White Plastic Sky,  first feature animation film by Hungarian filmmaker duo Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó which, after premiering at the 73rd Berlinale in the Encounters section, is screening in competition at the 41st Torino Film Festival.

White Plastic Sky is set in 2123, a (we hope) dystopian future where, in order to guarantee survival for the future generations, every citizen of the world can only live until the age of 50. Once reached that milestone, they will be gradually turned into a tree.

The directors confirm that this is a love story as it talks about a man’s struggle and journey to save his wife who, after going through some very difficult moments in her life, decided to voluntarily sign up for donating her own body before her time.

“Stefan and Nóra, are no heroes. They are ordinary people who happen to have the possibility of a choice” say the directors.  In Torino, we meet the duo again after Berlinale and they talk about their hopes for the future and the film’s reception during their festival journey so far.

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“I think the thing that’s beautiful about being at the Marrakech Film Festival, and being on the jury, is that you get to witness everyone’s first love, so for me, it reminds me of my first love, because that’s the sanctity and the preciousness of that first film: you see what these filmmakers are really passionate about, what they care about, who they are.”

The post Interview with director Dee Rees, member of the international jury at the 20th Marrakech IFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

“I feel embarrassed to describe myself as an actor, because I’m not really interested in interpreting”

A very rich exchange with the brilliant Scottish performer and icon Tilda Swinton where she tells us more about her relationship with Morocco (as a friend of the Marrakech International Film Festival), but also having shot at night in Tangiers with Jim Jarmush), the collective authorial practice she has grown with as an artist and continues to pursue, her first end-of-the-world musical with the genius helmer of “The Act of Killing”, Joshua Oppenheimer, and an essay-film she is preparing about “our capacity to learn” with the Derek Jarman Lab.

Amongst the birds and fountains of the splendid, sun-bathed Mamounia, Tilda Swinton also talks about Béla Tarr, her collaboration with long-term friend Joanna Hogg, the American studio system feeling more experimental to her than her other, admittedly “more confronting” work, her seeing her work as “staying connected”, and a welcome decline in film snobbery amongst the younger generation.

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