"White God" (Hungary 2014)

White God (Hungarian: Fehér isten) 

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó

Starring Zsófia Psotta as Lili; brothers "Bodie" and "Luke" as Hagen

Look at that pack of rampaging canines in the picture above: they are just a fraction of the more than 200 mixed breed dogs that run amok in the deserted streets of Budapest during the climactic scenes of "White God." All 200 of them are trained actors, and they are a delight to watch in this gripping and thoroughly entertaining Hungarian 'fable' (I have also heard it described as a 'parable') of an oppressed minority fighting back against its oppressors. A more accurate description is a "revenge fantasy" along the lines of "Inglourious Basterds" -- and it has the same winking humor while depicting bloody scenes of violence and cruelty that is a hallmark of Quentin Tarantino. (Unlike QT, much of the violence and cruelty takes place offscreen).

The story follows two 'outcasts' -- 13 year-old tweener Lili, too young to be accepted by the older kids in her student orchestra, shuffled between divorced parents, smart and with a smarter mouth; and her mutt "Hagen", abandoned under a bridge by Lili's uncaring father when he refuses to pay the mongrel tax for owning a mixed breed. That part of the plot is never fleshed-out, but no matter, it is just a plot device anyway.

Equal time is given to each character as they struggle to survive in a new and hostile environment. As poor Hagen is passed from one sadistic 'owner' to another, and trained to become a fighter, one is also reminded of "Amores Perroes." Fortunately, Hagen makes his escape after only one fight. Any animal-lover will find satisfaction in the film's extended and strangely cathartic finale (he gets his revenge on everybody!), for the 'White God' of the title is us (humans), and we deserve this wake-up call for the way we treat the animals we share the planet with. On another level, because this is the product of a formerly-Communist country, the political subtext is inescapable. That said, the movie would not connect with an audience without the empathy aroused by the sad, loyal, confused countenance of the protagonist -- Hagen -- and his lovable cohorts throughout his travails. (Look at the pictures below: he's that good!). The young actress Zsofia Psotta is also quite believable and sympathetic as Lili.

A headline writer for the New York Times captured the essence of the movie best: "Man Bites Dog, Dog Bites Back." The film won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The dogs in the film were also awarded the Palm Dog Award. I saw it on the Closing Night of the Sarasota Film Festival, where it won the Narrative Feature competition. The film was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated (yet another glaring snub by the Oscars in a year full of them. Hagen, sic 'em!)

Good Hagen

Bad Hagen

Hagen's bestie

Best Foreign Film Oscar Recap, Part Dos

WILD TALES

"Relatos salvajes"

(Argentina 2014)

Directed by Damián Szifrón

Now I get to the second worthy nominee for Best Foreign Film, Argentina's entry "Wild Tales," Second only the eventual winner (and my #3 movie of the year) "Ida" from Poland, and on-par with two films I saw earlier in the year (that were far superior to Mauritania's nominee "Timbuktu") -- namely, my #6 movie of the year, "Two Days, One Night" (Belgium) and my honorable mention "Force Majeure" from Sweden -- the entry from Argentina is a brilliant dark comedy directed with visual flair by veteran Damian Szifron. [I would say 'Tarantinonian,' but that is too much of a mouthful.]

Like the Swedish movie, "Wild Tales" turns an unblinking eye on one of man's less honorable traits: in "Force" is was Cowardice. Szifron uses six separate stories to explore a different one: Revenge (with a healthy dose of greed throw-into two of the episodes). Both film's explore these foibles with humor (we are all in the same boat, after all), which makes for a relatable, hilarious, yet often uncomfortable, two hours. 

The visual comparison to the animal kingdom that accompanies the opening credits is sly -- for as much as we may tell ourselves these characters are behaving like animals, the behavior exhibited in each vignette is uniquely human. What is refreshing -- and rare -- in such an anthology, is that there no weak link to these short films. My two favorite episodes: one involves a case of extreme road rage, and the other features a Bride-zilla from Hell that ends the movie on an adrenaline high. The script, acting and pace are spot-on throughout.

I must warn you, however, that the vignette that opens this 2014 release, which takes place on an airliner in mid-flight, while certainly the equal of the other episodes in execution, is forever ruined for me since I saw the movie after the tragedy of the German Airwings flight crash in the Alps in 2015. No one could have predicted such a horrible event, naturally, but the timing of it with this movie's U.S. release is unfortunate.

Best Foreign Film Recap, Part One

This is the time of year when all the foreign films submitted for an Oscar nomination last year slowly trickle into theaters around the country, giving us between-the-coasts critics a chance to see if the foreign branch did their job correctly. This year, they failed in one instance (glaringly so, IMHO). I have not seen Estonia's nominee, "Tangerines," and I missed the one-week window to see Russia's "Leviathan," but of the three other nominees I did see, only one was undeserving: Mauritania's "Timbuktu" (directed by a Malian--I don't know how they skirted the academy's strict rules on that one).

It is not surprising it made the cut, given its topicality: the story of a jihadist take-over of the Malian town of Timbuktu and its effect on the everyday lives of its citizens (based on actual events). The film is heavy with symbolism, bloated with metaphor (the first scene is a tip-off), and weighed-down by what I can only call a Western style of filmmaking (artfully-composed but artificial scenes, travel channel panoramas, an intrusive musical score that cues the audience on how it should feel during every scene).

I suspect the director, Abderrahmane Sissako (from Mali!), did not learn his craft indigenously. There is an artificiality to the scenes in the town itself--I never got the sense that any of the residents actually lived there, but were props placed into a staged and scrubbed environment. I'm not suggesting it was too clean to be Africa -- it simply wasn't lived-in. That, with the confusing storylines and two ludicrous set-pieces (see next paragraph), diminished the truly potent scenes in the film: a brutal whipping and stoning straight out of the Dark Ages, and a tense, insightful back-and-forth in an interrogation room between the protagonist Kidane (played by a fine, natural actor), his jihadi jailer, and their interpreter.

But I have to mention the two scenes that sent me over the edge: 1) kids playing soccer with an imaginary soccer ball (because the jihadists outlawed sports) -- the only thing missing was a flashing subtitle that read "STATEMENT"; and 2) one of the jihadi officals, in a private moment, doing an interpretive dance in front of a crazy Haitian woman's house. Please! (and while I am ranting, what was a Haitian woman doing in the middle of Africa, anyway?). One of many confounding details in this confounding film.