FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Daisuke Miyazaki, director and writer of the film Yamato (California) and writer of the film Dark Side of the Light, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Daisuke Miyazaki was present at the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival as the director of his film Yamato (California) and the screenwriter of Dark Side of the Light. The director shares with us his thoughts on the art of filmmaking as well, the various influences of his works (such as history and music), and the ways in which he approaches his film projects. Music, in particular, serves as the main subject of Yamato (California), while Daisuke also shares with us that he his collaboration on film sets as playing jazz: “cinema has everything in it … and it also is a reflection … a director’s reflection of the world,” he says.

Yamato (California): moody teenager Sakura shares a small house with her mother and brother, next to the US military base in Yamato, Japan. Her only dream is to become a famous rapper, but a crippling stage fright makes her unable to perform in front of an audience. Out of the blue, the daughter of her mother’s American boyfriend, Rei, arrives from California to spend some time with them. This unexpected arrival will at first turn Sakura into a state of turmoil but she will soon realise that she and Rei have much more in common than what she initially thought.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Bartosz M. Kowalski, director of the film Playground, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Bartosz Kowalski presented his film Playground at the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival. The film has been deemed as shocking by many, and Kowalski tells us about some of the most surprisingly outrageous reactions that the film has received. Surely, its tale of violence and children is quite shocking. Nonetheless, Kowalski reveals that the origins of his movie can be traced back to a true event that happened in Britain and was written about in newspapers. He also talks about talking about his research process that included talking with child psychopathologists. The stories behind children’s acts of violence are very complicated. Furthermore, there are some decisions that Kowalski took in the making of Playground that he himself is unable to understand. Sometimes, he says, “it feels like the best thing, and we cannot really explain why.”

Playground: final day of school in a small Polish town. It’s the very last chance for a 12-year-old Gabrysia to tell her classmate that she had fallen in love with him. She sets up a secret meeting and blackmails the boy to show up. But what was supposed to be an intimate talk spins out of control.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Dmytro Moiseiev, director of the film Chrysanthemums Time, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Dmytro Moseiev’s film Chrysanthemums Time was presented in the competition of the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival. The film revolves around a woman coping with the loss of her husband – who was not only a husband to her but also the closest person to her in her life. But as Moseiev explains, the story itself is not important. In fact, as he tells us in this interview, he himself was changed after he made the movie. Chrysanthemums Time allows us to discuss some of the themes of the film, from the aforementioned one of loss, to that of the lack of true importance of material things. We also talk about the nature of the film itself, which reflect the words of its director: “we should stop and reflect on the moments […] because what we live in the moment will have consequences in the future.”

Chrysanthemums Time: after losing a close person, Olga is left alone with her grief. With no one to share the loss with, she buys a car and goes on a journey around Kyiv and its surroundings. On her way she meets people who have lost themselves: some through constant lies, others because of a bad choice. Olga helps some of them, but leaves the others in their swamp. Will she ever feel better?

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Francis Lee, director of the film God’s Own Country, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Director Francis Lee presented his film God’s Own Country in the competition of the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival. The film chronicles the blooming romance between two farm workers (one of whom is an immigrant from Romania) in the Yorkshire countryside. The film was inspired by Lee’s own backgrounds, which he talks about in his interview. His commitment to a realistic portrayal of life on the Yorkshire farm led to some interesting choices in the production of the film. As Lee says, “I love details and I love layering … and always pushing deeper for the truth and the emotion.”

God’s Own Country: Spring. Yorkshire. Young farmer Johnny Saxby numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker for lambing season ignites an intense relationship that sets Johnny on a new path.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Thierry Thieu Niang and Marie Balducchi, protagonist and producer of the film A Young Girl in Her Nineties, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

A Young Girl in Her Nineties (Une jeune fille de 90 ans), a documentary directed by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Yann Coridian was screened during the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival. Producer Maria Balducchi and the protagonist of the movie, dance choreographer Thierry Thieu Niang, represented the movie here in Romania, where we met them for this interview. The film originated from the latter’s workshop. Thierry works with all people, and in particular, A Young in Her Nineties follows his process of work with old people with Alzheimer’s. It is through them that we witness the power of dance and the surprising effects that dance has on them. Marie and Thierry tell us about the challenges of making the movie, which even involved convincing that this story was worth telling (the film successfully premiered on Arté shortly before this interview was recorded). We also discuss many other things, such as the aforementioned power of dance, whether there was any concern about crossing a line, and a few comments about the coming together of dance and cinema.

A Young Girl in Her Nineties: in the geriatric care section of the Charles Foix d’Ivry hospital, Thierry Thieû Niang, a famous choreographer, is running a dance workshop for Alzheimer’s patients. Through dance, memories are recounted: regrets, bitterness, moments of joy and solitude. Blanche Moreau is 92 years old. During the filming, she has fallen in love with the choreographer: her illness has simply become lovesickness.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Yaniv Berman, director of Land of the Little People, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Land of Little People marks the fiction directorial debut of Yaniv Berman, and was presented in the competition of the 17th Transilvania International Film Festival. The film doesn’t discuss the war in Israel as much as it looks at the militaristic society in Israel at large – especially, through its narrative, how this society affects children. The themes and story of Land of Little People allows Berman to elaborate on the film’s driving themes of military, war, Israel and the media. We also mention William Goulding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies. Finally, Berman ends the interview by listing a number of surprising ways in which reality and fiction got mixed together in the making of the movie.

Land of the Little People: four young kids who live in a village of military officers families form a small gang. An old abandoned army base turns into their camp. Another war begins in Israel, and most men are drafted to serve their country. The mothers are sitting worried in front of the TV sets, while the kids, with no one to supervise them, return to their camp in the wild. To their surprise, they discover two soldiers who deserted their units, using their camp as a hideout.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Miguel Calderón, director of Zeus, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Zeus marks the directorial feature debut of artist extraordinaire Miguel Calderón, and it was featured in the competition section of the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania. This is where we met the director. In this interview, he reveals that the film is a result of personal influences and, especially, his interest in psychology. In this sense, it is a continuation of the themes from his previous artistic works; as he says: “the study of psychological patterns is what matters to me the most, and then my output is making art.” Before making Zeus, Calderón shot several short films and music videos, so we take the time to ask him what he thought were the differences between the two.

Zeus: Joel masks a sick relationship with his mother by practicing falconry. He meets a down to earth secretary, which leads to the loss of his hawk and as a consequence he has to face reality.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Mehdi Fard Ghaderi, director of Immortality, from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

Impressions of a life. The sequence movie Immortality, made in one lengthy shot, was presented in the No Limits section of the 2017 Transilvania International Film Festival. We spoke with the director of the film, Mehdi Fard Ghaderi. He talks about the challenge of filming Immortality in this way, already a problematic task made all the more difficult by its restricted space – a train. The decision of setting the movie on the train, as we discussed in this interview, also has its own meaning within the context of the story of the film: while the train travels in one direction on its tracks, the multiple plot and characters suggest variations, while other elements (such as the non-chronological order of its structure) openly play with the form.

IMMORTALITY. Immortality is Fard-Qaderi’s first feature film that depicts events happening on a train during a rainy night. It tells the story of six different families on different wagons of the train, gradually unfolding their stories. “When I try to imagine you, I feel kind of immortality; when I call you, I feel kind of immortality; when I look at you, I feel kind of immortality; when I touch you, I feel kind of immortality; when I smell you, again I feel kind of immortality,” the film’s synopsis reads.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, directors of Glory from the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival.

With Glory, their latest work, directors Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva solidify their reputation as one of the most interesting directorial duos in the world. After their critically acclaimed previous work The Lesson, in fact, comes this new movie, which Valchanov and Grozeva define in this interview as the second in a trilogy of events inspired by real life and newspaper stories.

In this interview, recorded at the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival where the film competed for the top prize in its official competition, we talk about the political aspects of the movie, the contrast from which generates all noteworthy art, their choice of working with many of the actors who had appeared in their previous film, and their flexibility as director; they agree that a movie has a life of its own and are open to changes that may alter the original version for the better.

GLORY: When Tsanko Petrov, a railroad worker, finds millions of lev on the train tracks, he decides to turn the entire amount over to the police. The state rewards him with a new wristwatch… which soon stops working. Meanwhile, Julia Staikova, the head of PR for the Ministry of Transport, loses his old watch. Here starts Petrov’s desperate struggle to get back not only his old watch, but his dignity.

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PODCAST | Cristiana Palmieri interviews Nashen Moodley, director of the Sydney Film Festival.

Every year the Sydney film festival creates a time and a space to reflect on what is important, good and bad and scary and hopeful and, well, everything, to everyone, everywhere…hear from the festival director’s own words what the festival has in store for you this year.

For the official website of the film festival, click here.

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