PIFF Report: Part 11
Our report from the 34th Portland International Film Festival continues.
Of Love and Other Demons (Del Amor Y Otros Demonios)
Costa Rica / Spanish / 35mm (1.85:1) / 95min / Directed by Hilda Hidalgo
Filmmakers have had a tough time translating the work of Gabriel García Márquez to the screen. But that was before Hilda Hidalgo. For her impressive first feature, Hidalgo adapted Of Love and Other Demons, Márquez’s story of forbidden love between a priest (Pablo Derqui) and a young girl with fiery red hair (Eliza Triana) thought to be possessed by the devil. What makes Hidalgo’s adaptation superior to other efforts, I suspect, is that her reverence is not fixated on faithful, word-for-word translation, but rather on boiling down the soul of the original material. From what I remember of the book, Hidalgo has trimmed quite a bit, but her film feels like a Márquez story brought to life. A feat no other filmmaker has accomplished.
The Man Next Door (El Hombre De Al Lado)
Argentina / Spanish / 35mm (1.85:1) / 109min / Directed by Mariano Cohn & Gastón Duprat
Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s The Man Next Door is an odd combination of mild Hitchcockian tactics and satirical class warfare. The film opens with an ingenious split-screen shot of a sledgehammer punching a hole through a wall. The hole is the beginning of a window being put in by Victor (Daniel Aráoz), an imposing man whose visage would fit right into any Leone western. The problem is that Victor’s planned window happens to stare straight into the home of Leonardo (Rafael Spregelburd), a wealthy and somewhat spineless upscale chair designer. Leonardo blusters and fumes over privacy concerns—which is absurd given that his home is an architectural landmark that is constantly being photographed—but Victor insists that the window will cause no harm. The two go back and forth. Victor, in his enigmatic (and vaguely threatening) way, feels they’re slowly reaching a compromise while Leonardo is losing his mind from all of Victor’s “friendly” intrusions. And just when you think a resolution might be reached . . . the film takes a startling left turn.
Cohn and Duprat also lensed the film and their hovering, voyeuristic camera creates an impressive sense of building paranoia and tension.
When We Leave (Die Fremde)
Germany / German & Turkish / 35mm (2.35:1) / 119min / Directed by Feo Alada
There’s enough piled on tragedy in Feo Aladag’s When We Leave to give Shakespeare a run for his money (if only the film had Titus Andronicus’s satisfying zeal for vengeance). The film opens with a young man pointing a gun at a woman. We’re left to dread the arrival of this scene until the film’s conclusion. The woman, we learn, is Umay (played by the exceptional Sibel Kekilli), a mother who has taken her son and fled an abusive marriage. She seeks asylum in the Berlin home of her conservative Muslim parents. Fearing dishonor and social ostracism, her father insists that she go back to her husband: “He is your husband. The hand that strikes also soothes.” Umay spends the rest of the film fighting to keep her son and her independence, as well as fending off violent attacks by her older brother.
Despite a cringingly melodramatic third act, When We Leave is an effective depiction of very real abuses. I must be honest; stories like this drive me mad. Blame it on being raised by a single mother, but watching any woman abused and/or treated like a second-class citizen by their own family due to this or any culture’s archaic religious and social practices causes me to lose all sense of perspective. Jingoistic chunks start to rise in my throat and I begin fantasizing alternate scenarios wherein Captain America busts through the door and anyone who laid a hand on any woman is subsequently beaten to death with his shield. And while I would loudly applaud during these awesome executions, I would later feel very guilty for nullifying the film’s important message.
I was unable to find any theatrical or home video release information for Of Love and Other Demons. The film deserves to be seen, so keep your eyes open for it. As far as I can tell, The Man Next Door has no stateside distribution, either, so I can’t say when it’ll be viewable here. When We Leave has already begun a limited theatrical run in the US, so check your local listings. A German region-free Blu-ray is currently available, as well.
