FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Philippe Van Leeuw, director of the film Insyriated.

Philippe Van Leeuw’s new film has just shaken the Panorama’ section of the 67th Berlinale as it represents the horror of Syria’s word by following a family trapped in their own apartment. Its title is Insyriated and its main actress is Hiam Abbass. The idea of the film came to Van Leuw in 2013 and from that time, the war hasn’t stopped and it’s still on so the film keeps being actual. Besides Hiam Abbass, Diamand Abou Abboud and Juliette Navis, all the other actors in the film are from Syria and on their experience Van Leeuw based some of the happenings in the film. The kitchen is the place where they try to hide, we don’t see or can’t see what happens outside but the uncertainty of what future will bring them is written on their faces, their panting, their trying to have a normal life despite the cruelty and killings outside.

Insyriated: trapped inside her house in a city under siege, Oum Yazan, mother of three, turned her flat into a safe harbor for her family and neighbors, trying to protect them from the war outside. When bombs threaten to destroy the building, when snipers turn the courtyards into deadly zones, and burglars break in to claim their dreadful bounties, maintaining the thin balance of routine inside the walls becomes a matter of life and death.

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Philippe Van Leeuw – Insyriated #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Bénédicte Prot interviews Teona Strugar Mitevska, director of the film When the day had no name.

Leading Macedonian director and producer Teona Strugar Mitevska, back in Berlin with another sensitive, nuanced story paired with masterfully suggestive and technically impeccable visuals, tells us more about the true subject of the film (beyond the true story that inspired it). She also reflects on the construction of her group of characters and pays hommage to French DoP Agnès Godard’s conceptual depth and profound understanding of her intentions.

When the day had no name: Based the true story of a yet unexplained multiple murder which shook today’s Macedonia, a country still stifled by inner ethic and religious divisions, with an economy offering little prospects, the film follows the final day of a wandering group of teenage boys, all friends, with their aggression and frustrations, their shyness and unformulated desires, and the lack of guidance and healthy values around them. between glorious country landscapes and dark city walls.

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Teona Strugar Mitevska – When the day had no name #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Bénédicte Prot interviews Pia Hierzegger, actress of the film Wild Mouse.

Austrian actress Pia Hierzegger describes the situation of crisis of her character in Wild Mouse, Johanna, a therapist yearning for a child who is blind to her husband’s breakdown but does feel left alone. She explains how it was to work with Josef Hader as her co-star and director, and why humour is essential to talk about serious issues, and she describes Austrian film landscape as rather family-like.

Wild Mouse: When Georg (Josef Hader), a well-known classical music critic, unexpectedly loses his job at an important daily newspaper, he has a complete meltdown. harassing the superior who fired him and spending his days at a theme park with a former schoolmate (Georg Friedrich), without realising that his therapist wife Johanne (Pia Hierzegger) is not doing too well herself. Austrian actor and comedian delivers with his first film as a director an unbridled comedy, with fantastic visuals, about an upper middle class universe where everything suddenly becomes a out of whack.

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Pia Hierzegger – Wild Mouse #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Thomas Arslan, director of the film Bright Nights.

Fred’s Chiara Nicoletti meets Thomas Arslan, director of Bright Nights, in competition at the 67th Berlinale. After Gold, Arslan decided it was time to explore a more intimate subject and to tell a story on family relationships and the possibility of rebuilding them after a long silence. Bright Nights is essentially a road movie through the streets and highways in Norway and it stars Tristan Gobel and Austrian actor Georg Friedrich. Sometimes we tend to repeat our parents’ mistake, falling into a pattern, a cycle that we can’t seem to stop. Bright Nights investigates on the possibilities we have of breaking a loop, of really choosing another path and another way to be parents or sons.

Bright Nights: Berlin-based engineer Michael must travel to Norway for his father‘s funeral. His sister is unwilling to go, and Michael is left alone with his 14-year-old son Luis, with whom he has always had minimal contact. Michael tries to bond with Luis while exploring the remote region of northern Norway for a few days. But their first trip together is much more difficult than expected. Daily interaction is unfamiliar territory to both, and Luis obviously holds a grudge because of his father‘s negligence. But during these longest days of summer, Michael is determined to break a bittersweet father-son pattern.

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Thomas Arslan – Bright Nights #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Bénédicte Prot interviews Josef Hader, director and actor of the film Wild Mouse.

The well-loved Austrian actor and cabaret comedian Josef Hader tells us more about his first-time experience as a director, the social background he wanted to depict in Wild Mouse, the relationship between the different characters – each with his/her own personal crisis – and the fantastic locations he chose for his exhilarating contemporary comedy.

Wild Mouse: When Georg (Josef Hader), a well-known classical music critic, unexpectedly loses his job at an important daily newspaper, he has a complete meltdown. harassing the superior who fired him and spending his days at a theme park with a former schoolmate (Georg Friedrich), without realising that his therapist wife Johanne (Pia Hierzegger) is not doing too well herself. Austrian actor and comedian delivers with his first film as a director an unbridled comedy, with fantastic visuals, about an upper middle class universe where everything suddenly becomes a out of whack.

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Josef Hader – Wild Mouse #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Agnieszka Holland, director of the film Pokot (Spoor).

Agnieszka Holland is back with a new film, Pokot (Spoor), in competition at the 67th Berlinale. She had wanted to adapt a novel by Olga Tokarczuk for such a long time and with Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead, the times has finally come. The thriller adventures of the book’s main character proved to be perfect for a film adaptation. In Pokot or Spoor, the international title, Agnieszka Mandat is a retired old lady who is an english part-time teacher at the local elementary school. She will eventually become involved in series of crimes happenig in her little city in Poland. Director Agnieszka Holland and her protagonist Ms Duszejko are very similar, according to the director as they are both stubborn, fightrs and animal-rights activists. It is actually very difficult not to identify and relate to Ms Duszejko as this is something Agnieszka strongly wanted to achieve. The film is morally ambiguous and it is set in Poland because it was about time that director Holland would talk about her country’s contradictions, a No Country for Old Women.

Pokot (Spoor): Duszejko, an eccentric retired construction engineer, an astrologist and a vegetarian, lives in a small mountain village on the Czech-Polish border. One day her beloved dogs disappear. A few months later she discovers a dead body of her neighbour, a poacher. The only traces leading to the mysterious death are those of roe deer hooves around the house… As time goes by, more grisly killings are discovered. The victims, all hunters, belonged to the local elite. The police investigation proves ineffective. Duszejko has her own theory: all murders were committed by wild animals…

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Agnieszka Holland – Pokot (Spoor) #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Alexandra Borbély, actress of the film On Body and Soul.

Fred’s Chiara Nicoletti meets Alexandra Borbély, the hypnotic protagonist of On Body and Soul by Ildiko Enyedi, in competition at the 67th Berlinale. “Maria is a lovely weirdo” says Alexandra, who got so involved in this role that she learned how to be Maria, how to embody her rationality, her curiosity, her weaknesses and her ability of loving a man in the purest way possible. Love is recognizing each other’s essence and Alexandra learned a lot from her character. Her performance is the most astonishing we’ve seen so far at this year’s Berlinale, so intense that a Silver Bear would be more than appropriate.

On Body and Soul: the director of an industrial slaughterhouse is suspicious about Maria, the new quality inspector sent by the authorities. Endre thinks she’s pretty, but she’s too formal and keeps too much to herself. He also thinks she’s too tough on grading the beef carcass, but Maria sticks to her standards with the same focused order she tries to run her life. During routine company interviews, a lady psychologist discovers that Maria and Endre are having similar recurring dreams. They are embarrassed by what this implies, as the two introverts know nothing about one another outside of work. The following day, they check again: they had the exact same dream the night before. As they continue to compare dreams, it becomes clear that they meet each night in a common realm: a peaceful snowy forest where they are graceful deer who gently love each other. Maria and Endre hesistantly accept this strange coincidence. They cannot ignore the intimacy they share so effortlessly in their dreams. For two people seemingly not suitable at all for love, it won’t be easy to recreate in broad daylight this harmonious relationship of their lonely nights…

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Alexandra Borbély – On Body and Soul #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Geza Morcsanyi, actor of the film On Body and Soul.

Fred’s Chiara Nicoletti interviews Géza Morcsányi,at the 67th Berlinale to present, in competitioin, On Body and Soul where he’s the protagonist. He is not an actor, he’s a publisher and editor. Despite that, he’s perfect in playing Endre, the director of an industrial slaughterhouse who falls for his new quality inspector, the peculiar and strange Maria. Morcsányi describes its role and its challenges but above all, he reveals how director Ildiko Enyedi managed to find the right ending, so truthful to life. In their dreams Endre and Maria meet and become more attached every day while learning about each other’s weaknesses and emotional or physical disabilities.

On Body and Soul: the director of an industrial slaughterhouse is suspicious about Maria, the new quality inspector sent by the authorities. Endre thinks she’s pretty, but she’s too formal and keeps too much to herself. He also thinks she’s too tough on grading the beef carcass, but Maria sticks to her standards with the same focused order she tries to run her life. During routine company interviews, a lady psychologist discovers that Maria and Endre are having similar recurring dreams. They are embarrassed by what this implies, as the two introverts know nothing about one another outside of work. The following day, they check again: they had the exact same dream the night before. As they continue to compare dreams, it becomes clear that they meet each night in a common realm: a peaceful snowy forest where they are graceful deer who gently love each other. Maria and Endre hesistantly accept this strange coincidence. They cannot ignore the intimacy they share so effortlessly in their dreams. For two people seemingly not suitable at all for love, it won’t be easy to recreate in broad daylight this harmonious relationship of their lonely nights…

For the film page on the festival website click here.

The post Geza Morcsanyi – On Body and Soul #Berlinale appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Elias Grootaers, director of INSIDE THE DISTANCE, from the 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Elias Grootaers filmed Giorgi Shakhsuvarian, a boxing trainer of Armanian descent who grew up in Georgia and currently lives and works in Belgium. The film, INSIDE THE DISTANCE, was presented at the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and we ask Grootaers how he met him and what it was that drew him to him. He defines his documentary as “poetic documentary,” before expressing his disapproval of the term. Nevertheless, this is no ordinary documentary, and it does have a very distinctive and expressive visual style that explores the limit of film. In order to understand it better, we ask him about it and he reveals the emotions he felt upon discovering a video shot years ago in Shakhsuvarian. Grootaers, more generally tells us about his interests, and in his answers, the terms “time and space” keep popping up. What is it about these concepts that attracts him? Find out this and more in our interview.

INSIDE THE DISTANCE. A famous director once said that making a film about a real person is a crime, because you can never do justice to life. So what did Elias Grootaers, who prefaces his keenly observed portrait of an Armenian boxing coach in Belgium with this quote, do? Made a film about a real person.

The post Elias Grootaers – Inside the Distance #IFFR2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interview Caroline Leone, director of PELA JANELA from the 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Caroline Leone’s PELA JANELA (English title: A Window to Rosalia) draws inspiration from many women she met in her life. Her film can also be defined, as she calls in, an “introspective road movie.” It was presented in during the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam. We talk about some of the concepts of the movie, one of its main ones being “coming to face with mortality,” which is a universal theme. She also mentions the role of women in movies, and the way in which in this movie the lead male character and the female one – who are brother and sister – are presented equally. Returning to the “road movie” aspect of the film, we ask her how she prepared to the film, whether it was structured before filming started and whether she was open to the influences from the open road while filming of PELA JANELA was taking place.

PELA JANELA (A Window to Rosalia). Sensitive, heart-warming debut about a journey undertaken by a middle-aged brother and sister. As they set out from São Paulo, the unhappy Rosália is a shadow of her former self. But thanks to her dedicated brother José, during the journey to bustling Buenos Aires she regains the belief that life can be joyful.

The post Caroline Leone – Pela Janela #IFFR2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.