European Film Festival 2021: virtual and free of charge

“We are deep into our second year of confronting the threat of Covid-19, both in terms of our lives and our livelihoods. It has been difficult … everyone is affected. This year’s European Film Festival has been inspired by overcoming difficulty and challenge. Its theme, Healing Journeys, seems rather appropriate for our times. I take this opportunity to invite you – irrespective of whether you are a repeat or a first-time viewer –to join us on this year’s exciting cinematic, and healing, journey,” says                                                            EU Ambassador Riina Kionka.

DIANE DE BEER

European films have become quite a rarity locally, so when the European Film Festival 2021 announced that this year’s festival would again be virtual and free of charge following the success of last year’s first virtual outing, I was elated. It will be happening from 14 to 24 October, so make sure and tune in.

It was obvious from the first film I watched that, as always, the European film sensibility is very different from that of the rest of the world. Not only is their’s a very distinct identity, but each contribution comes from a different country with a very distinct flavour.

For some of us, certain countries will be more familiar than others and some of the films I selected to watch were determined by my curiosity about the unknown, while others had a familiar actor (Gerard Depardieu) or perhaps an issue which I have a particular interest in.

That’s one of the points of interest of European movies  ̶  the stories they decide to tell. It deals with a contemporary world and the things that might be going right or wrong. That in itself is already fascinating. Which stories would feature strongly in this year’s festival?

A selection of 18 films, 13 of which have been directed by women, will be screened free of charge, providing a window onto what is fresh and new in the film industries of the respective countries, states the organisers.

 Four new participants – the Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland and Ukraine – will complement those from last year: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, along with the return of Portugal.

Healing Journeys is this year’s theme, which runs through many of the films in fascinating fashion. And if there is something we need more now than perhaps in any other time in our lives, it is exactly that. That is perhaps also why women feature so strongly. Not only are they more in touch with their emotions (generally speaking), but as mothers and usually the more available parent in most families, they would be the ones who are most in touch and familiar with healing in society.

Because of the pandemic I suspect, the emphasis on mental health, for example, from a variety of sources has been more visible than previously. It is as if the  severity of  Covid 19 has given people permission to speak their minds about their personal circumstances. Think Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles.

Healing – be it mental, physical, spiritual or societal – is vital to the human condition, to our humanity, to our existence, according to the organisers.  This applies both in South Africa and in Europe, they believe, where despite our different contexts and histories, there exists common experience and a mutual need for healing.

They explain that the films on show will present, through the lenses of European filmmakers, a snapshot of experiences of re-establishing oneself after sometimes traumatic and possibly cathartic experiences. They deal with journeys that include organic growth, transition, and processes of self-discovery.  Many include a healthy dose of humour, bringing some possibly much-needed laughter into our lives. Much of the humour is of a more cerebral nature … films that make you smile and think at the same time. 

In conclusion they note that these films present stories of hope, humanity and thought-provoking intrigue, showcasing new work by some of Europe’s most accomplished filmmakers alongside exciting new talent.

The Films:

Here are a few of my picks, as well as some links to more details on the viewing process and the full programme. Nearly all of the films have won awards, with the newer films also certain to do so:

France (Robust):

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I couldn’t resist picking this one starring Gérard Depardieu, paired with the little known Déborah Lukumuena. Robust is the debut feature by Constance Meyer and it deals with an aging film star and a young security guard who has been tasked with taking care of him. 

He is old and white with a huge ego (it seems), while she is young and black and busy training for a wrestling championship. They couldn’t be more different, but as these things work, despite their differences, they form an unlikely friendship.

With the inequality of their positions not only because of age but also because of the society they live in and the colour of their skin coming into play, it’s an intriguing watch. It’s subtle yet caring with a great sense of humour and humanity and the best from Depardieu in quite a while.

Germany (Mr Bachmann and His Class):

Citizens-in-the-making was the clause that caught my eye. That and the fact that it was a documentary. I didn’t realize that it was more than four hours long and that is quite a commitment, but I found it totally gripping for many reasons.

Mr Bachman is the teacher we all hoped for and wish our children could have. This ever-patient individual uses unconventional methods to inspire young students, all in the process of preparing for tuition in their next phase of learning, the equivalent of our high school.

They are all immigrants, in other words outsiders, and he is determined to give them an identity and a sense of belonging. And the way he tries to give these young students a healthy outlook on the people around them and in the process, wipe out prejudice, is quite extraordinary. What he is doing is giving his young charges life, showing the possibilities and the way we should treat everyone around us. It’s a good one to watch with the whole family and I’m sure you can probably watch it in bits. It is described as Maria Speth’s life-affirming documentary and I fully agree.

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Ireland (The Bright Side):

Breast cancer and stand-up comedian is probably not two phrases that fit easily together. What makes it a perfect fit here though is one knows that most stand-ups use their platforms to talk about their lives. Whether they say it or not, or it’s as explicit as that doesn’t matter, but they are used to speaking their minds.

And if one knows anything about cancer and its treatment, it is that the mind plays an important part.

Ruth Meehan’s The Bright Side is a moving and surprisingly uplifting story especially because of the mindset of the lead character.

She’s not into this cancer cure stuff and while she is persuaded by her family to go for the treatment, the thing she didn’t expect was the people who would be doing chemo with her and thus play a huge role in her life.

We all know that the pandemic has had a massive impact on our lives and, perhaps more than anything for some, it’s about not taking anything for granted. In the past, probably the big C was the thing most of us feared most – but now we know there’s much more out there which could harm us. Looking at films that might impact on how you face life, dealing in blackly comic jokes and exit strategies, can be more entertaining than you thought.

Switzerland (My Little Sister):

This one is perhaps a harder sell. Not because it isn’t well made, but it is harsher and more disturbing, which is perhaps more than most of us can deal with now.

Writer-director duo Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond’s My Little Sister is an intimate, personal tale about sibling love in which a sister gives her all to support her ailing twin brother, and inspires herself at the same time.

It looks at how a family copes when one individual turns her full attention to the person who might be losing their life. And what that does to the rest of the family.

Ukraine (Stop-Zemlia):

This was the film I was most drawn to, especially because of its country of origin. Apart from the Russians’ intimidating presence in that part of the world, it’s not really familiar to me – and especially with a story about young people, who are always quite a fascinating barometer of a country, I find.

Reading some theatre scripts recently, a young voice said she was writing the play because it was what she wanted to see. And this film feels similar. Kateryna Gornostai’s Stop-Zemlia deals with young adults on the cusp of making that leap. At the centre is an introverted schoolgirl and her classmates and how she navigates what she feels is becoming quite a fraught world. But I really liked the young lass and how she was dealing with everything around her – and in the end, I realised, people are people are people wherever they come from. A nice one for a family with teenagers. Should make for some interesting discussions.

United Kingdom (After Love):

In Aleem Khan’s ground-breaking feature debut After Love, Joanna Scanlan is quite extraordinary as a white, English Muslim convert uncovering secrets after the death of her husband. It’s something completely different as she discovers that he had another family.

How do you deal with a life once the person you have dedicated yours to, has left and you discover he is not who you thought he was?

Special Co-Production Presentation (Quo Vadis Aida):

It was the extraordinary collaboration that drew me to this co-production between nine European countries. That and the topic they were dealing with – refugees. And with the recent disastrous US flight from Afghanistan, the story is particularly relevant.

Also we’re dealing with an atrocious war which is seared into our memory because it was one of the first following the establishment of 24-hour news channels.

Oscar nominee Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis Aida? hones in on a UN translator is caught between doing her job and trying to help local inhabitants and her own family when the Serbian army takes over the small town of Srebrenica.  

If your country collapses and you can’t stay, what does your life turn into. If we had asked this question a few decades ago, it would have felt like something that could never happen. No more, the number of refugees who have still not found permanent homes and who are constantly shunted from one border to another is ongoing all over the world. It’s terrifying and this film captures that horrific moment in people’s lives.

Please note that the films are geo-blocked for viewing in South Africa only.  For film synopses, trailers and how to watch, please visit www.eurofilmfest.co.za

It’s the beginning of Spring and the arts are taking a leap of faith as three of our Afrikaans festivals launch theatrical and cultural fests which offer a smorgasbord of theatre, art, books, dance, music and conversations as light or intense as you could wish for. DIANE DE BEER gives you a roadmap (in three sections) beginning with AARDKLOP:

It’s time to catch some theatre with the Aardklop gang as they gather their artists with plays and music to entertain the Gauteng crowd deprived of regular live theatre and song.

There’s something old, something new, something for the young – and even something for those of us who too often feel blue.

Running from September 28 to October 3, it will be presented at  Atterbury Theatre, the Voortrekker Monument and Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool.

Theatre is chosen with care to appeal to a wide range of expectations, with Sandra Prinsloo, Marion Holm, and Dawid Minnaar all returning with old favourites.

Prinsloo tells the heart-wrenching story of Oskar en die pienk tannie, which showcases the relationship between a carer and her young ward who is dealing with his own trauma.

It is magically written and performed.

Minnaar also takes a look at an unusual friendship in Monsieur Ibrahim en die blomme van die koran directed by Philip Rademeyer. Crossing cultural, religious and age barriers, it’s a story that is gently balanced between sentiment and sensitivity. And how we have to be open at all times to receive lessons life wants to throw at us.

Marion Holm isn’t exactly doing an old show, but she has gone scratching around and taken another look at stories she told long long ago – which might be reworked and return in dark times while shining a light on our blessings. But more than anything I know, this performer, even in these times, doesn’t know how to stop the laughter. She’s funny when she starts talking.

Frank Opperman knows how to perform solo and hold the attention. He’s back and this time he’s performing in an adaptation of Zirk van den Berg’s award-winning adult fairytale Ek Wens, Ek Wens. It could have been written with him in mind. Seb is a grey little man with a rather sad life. He’s an undertaker. Until one day when he meets an angelic child, Gawie. This magical meeting raises the question about his life and what he would wish for if he had only one chance. The book on which this solo performance is based won the WA Hofmeyer Prize as well as the kykNET-Rapport prize. And then for those double pairs:

First there’s Brendon Daniels and Deon Lotz in Kamp, which is perfect festival fare as they go camping and discover on their first night that they’re not quite as prepared as they should have been. No matches? And that’s only where it starts. It’s all about bonding in nature when you find yourself outside of your comfort zone. The acting combo is stunning and as the boys bond in this buddy genre, it’s much more about the fun and games than wilderness weirdness.

Brendon steps in again and this time he is partnered by the talented Tinarie van Wyk Loots in Opdrifsel, written and directed by Philip Rademeyer. A married couple is dealing with the heartache of losing a child and hope to focus on reclaiming their lives and recover from such an overwhelming tragedy.

In conclusion, Nataniël will be performing as part of the Aubade series at Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool on October 3 at 11am and 3pm as the narrator with Charl du Plessis and Megan-Geoffrey Prins (both on piano) and a chamber orchestra presewnting Karanaval van die Diere (Saint-Saëns) and Pieter en die Wolf (Prokofiev).

Both of the texts have been rewritten by Nataniël (in Afrikaans, one translated from a previous English text also written by the artist) and he underlines that while these were originally created with children in mind, neither he, his texts nor his clothes will appeal to children in any form. “No one under 15 should even consider attending,” he warns.

Spirare (meaning to breathe) is the talk show series of the festival. Here are some of the highlights:

First off, there’s an invitation to write a long WhatsApp about the Voortrekker Monument, which will be followed by a discussion lead by Kabous Meiring with guests Gielie Hoffmann, Fransjohan Pretorius and Henk van der Schyf about this still-dominant Pretoria historical site.

Meiring will also take the topic in a more general direction by looking at all monuments, statues, town, city and street names. Joining her are Prof. Anton van Vollenhoven, Lindie Koorts, Lyntjie Jaars and Danie Langner 

The head honcho of Aardklop, Alexa Strachan, with guests Christo Davids, Chris van Niekerk, Deon Lotz and Brendon Daniels will focus on Festivals and discuss the accusation that they are freak shows.

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Supper met die Sotte gathers some of our country’s top comedians (Schalk Bezuidenhout, Shimmy Isaacs, Rasdien and TJ Strydom) to attack everyone and anything with humour and satire.

Cornelia Faasen and her guests Dr Theuns Eloff, Lizz Meiring, and Dr Ismail Mahomed are given the title Wie Stook Watter Kool en Wie Blus die Brand. They will be looking at the responsibility of artists to stoke, stir or stroke the populace.

Municipalities are caught in the headlights with Lourensa Eckard and guests Theo Venter and Theuns Eloff talking about local government and the solutions to the current breakdown all around the country. Is it the turn of the citizenry to take control of their lives?

Political and social commentator Heindrich Wyngaard asks whether South Africans get angry about the right things? Why do they get so angry about certain topics and others they simply ignore? Should we pay attention to everything and shift our focus around? Or are we getting what we want and need?

And perhaps now is the best time to talk about swotting and whether drama is still an option. Many careers have been hard hit during the pandemic and the arts, because it is so reliant on audiences, more than most. And often artists are so busy trying to survive, they don’t have time to sharpen skills, which could see them through tough times. Tinarie Van Wyk Loots, Christo Davids and Sandra Prinsloo speak their minds.

For more detail, bookings and shows not mentioned here, check out the website on https://aardklop.co.za/category/nuus/opwipfees/ or go to their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/aardklop.

It’s almost like experiencing a command performance when speaking to Nataniël about his momentous week at the beginning of October. DIANE DE BEER explains:

Being who he is with all his talents on display, it’s a busy time, even though Nataniël complains that none of his hard work is paying dividends at the moment. But we know it will. If there’s one thing he knows how to do without thinking about it, it’s being creative.

Hardly a thought crosses this uber-active mind without its generating some future event. Most people would collapse just listening…

It starts with two concerts which conclude the Aardklop Opwipfees as part of the Aubade series at Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool on October 3 at 11am and 3pm with Nataniël as the narrator and and Charl du Plessis and Megan-Geoffrey Prins (both on piano) with a chamber orchestra for Karanaval van die Diere (Saint-Saëns) and Pieter en die Wolf (Prokofiev).

Both of the texts have been rewritten by Nataniël (in Afrikaans, one translated from a previous English text also written by the artist) and he underlines that while these were originally created with children in mind, neither he, his texts nor his clothes will appeal to children in any form. “No one under 15 should even consider attending,” he warns.

He also points out that while he isn’t allowed to interfere with the music, he will. “It is deceptively difficult and I’m sure I will have something to say at rehearsal!”

People should book because tickets are limited to 250 – and you don’t want to  miss this one!

“And” says Nataniël, “if you’re an adult and you’re not fond of the classics, there are always rusks.”

Or, perhaps you might want to pop in just to see how he solved the problem of reading the text on stage. “No one knows about my reading glasses and I’m not going to buck that trend,” he says.

Bookings at ticketpros.co.za.

The following day is the launch of his latest television series Terwyl Ek Wag, which for him is the logical follow-up to his Nantes series in which he travelled to this historical university and cultural city to investigate and explore his roots.

This time he plays inventively and imaginatively, as he does, with the arrival of the Huguenots. The stage is set on the original farm of one of the four Le Roux families (from Normandy and not his own). It is a place he discovered many moons ago and at the time wished he could do something there. Now’s the time.

 “It’s a farm that looks like a farm, not a shopping mall,” he says pointedly, referring to the over-developed wine farms he loves to hate.

What they do in the series is to explore the skills of the time, like soap-making but also appreciate the artistic tendencies of the current family who returned to their ancestral farm some time ago. “They’ve tried to respect the past and, for example, maintained and restored some of the old buildings and pursue things like gardening,” he says. You might even find fairies if you look carefully.

And for Nataniël there is something about starting a second life. “If I had to do that now, I want a bed, a  gas flame and table for cooking, and an art gallery,” he says. He rejects all the frippery and trappings in this new life and names it antique minimalism.

Focussing on the food for the series, he hoped to create dishes that look as though they had their origins in a painting. “I like food that appears to be quite rough and ready.” Anything from the garden with lots of flour and which resembles pictures from children’s books, appeals to him.

It’s not historically researched as such, but what he made had to come from an old-fashioned farm – that’s the feel. The crew (of which his sister Madri was a part) ate everything he made.

As always, he emphasizes that he isn’t a chef. “I have zero technique,” he says, but lots of inspiration from chefs like Topsi Venter and Rachel Botes. (The recipes will appear on  his blog in English after the broadcast of each programme.)

 The series, which is broadcast on kykNET (144), is 13 episodes long and they also have an astonishing documentary, which will be screened at the end of the year about the making of the soundtrack.

In past seasons he could find appropriate music for his French series but this time he decided to compose everything himself – and this is what the documentary spotlights. “The music is as dramatic as the series,” says the drama genius.

“Everything in my series is curated,” he says and anyone who has seen this producer at work knows that what he says is what he means – EVERYTHING. And you can see that from the costumes to the cuisine.

We’re speaking French Huguenots; think collars and creativity. Fashion looms large, from the signature opening scenes to the final curtain.

And for those who are waiting for his annual stage show, even with the harshest of Covid restrictions, he is determined to step on stage with all the pomp and splendour his audiences love. “I don’t care how many see this one.”

One gets the feeling, indulgent or not, this one is for him. And if he is the audience, I want to be there – even if he feels that as actors they have been denied audiences – stupidly. “Our audiences are intelligent, don’t scream or chat, they’re silent, socially distanced as required and masked.” But to make a living, 50-strong audiences didn’t even cover the costs. Fortunately this has changed to 250, hopefully in time.

Titled Moscow and, luckily for Pretoria, staged at the Atterbury Theatre from October 5 to 10, the show will feature full costumes, full band and full lighting. But more than anything as always, it will be about the content and the chanson.

He feels this isn’t a time of laughter and frivolity but rather an exploration of chaos and order, insight and inspiration and, of course, a celebration of the most beautiful month of the year  ̶  October.

But even in his most philosophical mood, this storyteller is someone who views the world in a way that few can match   ̶  and whether he tries to make you laugh or even when it’s not that funny, the way he describes even a disaster will have you in stitches.

And there’s the music, original compositions and selections from old songbooks with the music of Dusty Springfield and the Mills Brothers, for example.

And even if you don’t like dramatic music or costumes … “there will be rusks”. That’s a promise.

Bookings at www.seatme.co.za

Also on display, before and after the show, will be the collection of his unpublished Kaalkop columns, 107 Kaalkoppe, which he advises you to buy and read, one story a day. “There’s a specific rhythm involved in a book like this. Like a column, you shouldn’t read three or four at a time! Savour each one and do one a day   ̶  or even a week.”

He promises loads of fun and bookends the collection with an introductory and concluding story. And for those who want to hear him chat about his Kaalkop journey, he will be part of the Woordfees festivities on Channel 150 (DStv) from 1 to 7 October (see details on website later). Or check it out at Woordfees link, supplied below.

What more could you possibly want.

Possibly rusks?

https://www.facebook.com/woordfees/