For more than thirty years, New Directors/New Films has brought New Yorkers exciting new works from once-little-known directors like Pedro Almodóvar, Richard Linklater, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Wim Wenders. Recent offerings have included acclaimed documentaries Stories We Tell and The Act of Killing, as well as boundary-pushing works of fiction like Upstream Color, Dogtooth, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Half Nelson. A co-presentation of the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, this year the festival features over two dozen new works from all over the world, all of which are worth a peek, but even in such a strong lineup we think the following five films are truly unmissable.
Tu dors Nicole
Stéphane Lafleur’s delicious comedy follows Nicole (Julianne Côté) a 20-something insomniac who decides to spend most of her summer vacation making plans with her best friend Véronique (Catherine St-Laurent), that is, until their friendship is put to test as Nicole fails to see that with adulthood come certain responsibilities. Shot in gorgeous black and white, Lafleur’s directorial flourishes make this a worthy companion to Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha (perhaps we should call this one Francais Ha?) but while the latter tries to anchor his protagonist in the too-real world around her, Lafleur allows Nicole to escape to a more fantastical universe in which ten year olds have adult voices and a mysterious car driving around her block at midnight isn’t creepy, but an invitation to go on an adventure.
The Tribe
Directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, The Tribe will surely become one of the most talked about films of the year. It tells the story of a deaf teenager (Grigoriy Fesenko) who realizes his boarding school will teach him invaluable lessons in the fields of organized crime and moral decay. Entirely performed in sign language (a title card before the credits reminds viewers that there is nothing wrong with the audio and that subtitles will not be provided) the film challenges audiences who now more than ever are tempted to drift away while watching a film, or commit the sins of texting and checking their phones. Slaboshpitsky’s film is bold both visually and thematically, the horrors shown onscreen are gorgeously shot by cinematographer Valentyn Vasyanovych become exemplary achievements in terms of technical prowess that make us wonder about the importance of sound in our lives.
White God
Kornél Mundruczó’s stunning White God is as if The Birds had been about dogs, but you were rooting for the animals to win in the end. Subverting Hitchock’s approach to animal-provoked terror by making the animals in question the protagonists, Mundruczó crafts the strange, but beautifully told tale of Hagen, a mixed-breed dog abandoned by his owner’s (Zsófia Psotta) selfish father (Sándor Zsótér) who refuses to pay the “mongrel fine” imposed by the government. Left to his own devices, Hagen becomes a canine Spartacus and leads an uprising against their oppressors. Featuring complex set-pieces featuring multiple dogs, White God is certainly impressive from a technical point of view, but Mundruczó did not forget to add substance to go with his style, and the film turns out to be a chilling allegory of the rise in European xenophobia.
Court
Chaitanya Tamhane’s truly impressive directorial debut focuses on the ridiculous trial against an aging folk singer (Vira Sathidar) accused of leading a young man to suicide through his lyrics. The defense attorney (Vivek Gomber) finds himself arguing against the outdated laws being used by the prosecutor (Geetanjali Kulkarni), some of which go all the way back to the late nineteenth century, while the judge (Pradeep Joshi) must remind them one too many times, that they are supposed to behave like adults in court. Tamhane’s biting observations on the ironies due to social injustice in Indian society certainly make the film an important document of the times, but the film isn’t necessarily a grandiose, self important statement, in fact it’s darkly funny to the point where one can certainly obtain a perverse pleasure in watching the characters suffer under the inefficiency of public service, that is, as long as the suffering doesn’t hit too close to home.
Parabellum
The tranquility of a meadow is interrupted by the sudden explosion caused by a missile which pretty much sets the tone of Lukas Valenta Rinner’s morbidly delightful Parabellum. Distressed by the impending apocalypse, a man (Pablo Seijo) escapes the city to attend a survival boot camp in the middle of the jungle, where attendees are trained in the arts of camouflage and self-defense. Soon things get out of control and a few of the trainees go rogue and become killers themselves, perhaps a clue as to what happened to the rest of the world? Perhaps an omen of what is to come for those who survive? Shot with deadpan precision, Rinner’s film is a thrilling love song about impending catastrophe.
New Directors/New Films runs from March 18 to March 29 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. For tickets and more visit the official website.
