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Watch out if you walk around the Finnish capital on September 20th
– 30th! Riots of crazy cinema lovers are expected to take the most important
theatres and fight for the best seats to enjoy one more year one of the best
film festivals in Finland:
Rakkautta ja Anarkiaa (Love and Anarchy).
And as the old proverb says, if you cannot beat them, join them. The
20th edition of the festival offers an overwhelming good quality of films for
all kind of tastes. Cinema from all over the world gathered by a team of
organizers who truly love the seventh art, giving you an opportunity to enjoy all
kind of products, from the last and new hot releases from Hollywood to some
exotic Asian and European films that otherwise would be almost impossible to
see in the big screen. And do not worry if your knowledge of foreign languages
does not allow you to understand fluently Japanese or Korean, because all the
films in the festival will have English subtitles. Since the catalogue of films
grows year after year, this time there will be six different cinemas in Helsinki featuring
screenings: Bio Rex, Maxin, Kinopalatsi,
Andorra, Koff
Screen Dubrovnik and Kino Engel. Cultural events or just sharing a drink with
other cinema lovers and participants in the festival will be held in Andorra.
The festival also counts with a very useful and accurate web page with texts
in Finnish and English where you can find information about all the venues,
screenings, schedules, most awaited films voted by the audience, etc. There you
can also buy in advance festival catalogues and tickets. All design around
R&A is exhaling a youthful and fresh touch with funny illustration and
pictures that try to transmit the real spirit that links to all the visitors:
the love for good cinema.
Since going to all the featured films must be an impossible task for
most of you, we offer here some hints about what the programme of Rakkautta ja
Anarkiaa can offer:
{sidebar id=20}This is England
(Great Britain, 2006. Director Shaun
Meadows)
An approach to the harsh reality of England during Thatcher’s government
through the eyes of Shaun, a bullied child that joins a group of skin-heads
trying to find attention, respect and comprehension after his father’s death in
Falkland war. Great interpretations by
the child Thomas Turgoose and Stephen Graham as Combo.
Friday 21.9. 18:30 Kinopalatsi 7
Saturday 22.9. 16:30
Kinopalatsi 8
Sunday 23.9. 21:00 Kinopalatsi 8
Control
(Great Britain, 2007. Director Anton
Corbijn)
One of the most awaited films of the festival. Joy Division
became a cult band after its singer, Ian Curtis committed suicide in
1980. Dutchman director Corbijn, who is also known as a top rock
photographer, offers a monochromatic dark film based on the book Touching
from a Distance, the memories of Curtis’s
widow Debbie, exploring as well the triangle of love and
relations with Curtis’s Belgian lover Annik
Honoré.
Aachi & Ssipak
(South Korea, 2006. Director Joe
Bum-Jim)
When a responsible person from the festival told me about an anime movie
focused on a gang that tries to control “Shit City” my reaction was like…”wow…I
must see this!”. But far from just curiosity, I found myself totally immersed
in one of the most entertaining, exciting and funny anime movies I have ever
seen. There is a tribute to action cinema history all around the script, from Mad
Max to Robocop, Akira, Indiana Jones… you name it! But the
final product is not just a simple remix of old clichés; it is an explosive,
sarcastic and clever movie that mixes the best of eastern and western animation
cinema traditions. You must not miss this one if you love anime!
Persepolis
(France and USA, 2007.
Directors: Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi)
Teherán 1978. 8 years old girl Marjane dreams of changing the world, but
later she will discover that the Islamic Revolution did not bring all what she
expected. Persepolis
hits the screen based on the acclaimed comic saga with tones of irony by Marjane
Satrapi. Iranian government seems not to share the excitement of French
public about the movie, and officially protested against it during its
introduction in last Cannes Festival in France. Well known actresses as Catherine
Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni collaborated lending their voices to
the characters.
Suely in the Sky
(Brasil, 2006. Director Karim
Ainouz)
Brasil is football and samba, but also hides a darker side of poverty
and difficult conditions for the population. Far from the stereotypical views
of Copacabana beach or from the extreme violence in the “favelas” shown in City
of God, Brasilian director Karim Ainouz takes us to a small
population where the shadow of prostitution hangs over Hermila, a young mother
whose idea for making a living and escape to a better life is to make an
auction among the men being the prize…to spend a night “in paradise” enjoying
her body. Drugs, alcohol and frantic sex for young people trying to find the
meaning of life in the middle of nowhere, but the film also shows a glimpse of
hope.
Monday 24.9. 16:30 Kino Engel 1
Tuesday 25.9. 21:00 Kino Engel 2
Tales from Earthsea
(Japan, 2006. Director Goro
Miyazaki)
At present times when the topic of loss of balance in Earth is becoming
so hot (and not without real reasons to be worried…) Japanese director Goro
Miyazaki, son of worldwide famous anime director Hayao Miyazaki,
makes his debut in anime cinema with Tales from Earthsea, based overall
on the third book of the saga; a wonderful reflection about the fear of death,
the guilt, the friendship and the dark side of corruption and power. For those
who expect anxiously action here goes a warning: the philosophical dialogues
are the backbone of a film beautifully drawn.
I am a Cyborg but that's ok
(South Korea,
2006. Director: Chan-wook
Park)
South Korean director Chan-wook
Park has become one
of the favourites for the Western spectators after great hits like Sympathy
for Lady Vengeance or the ultra-violent and visually shocking Olboy.
But this time Park offers a different approach and a new register as a
director, far from his previous obsession about feelings like hate and
revenge, with a love story settled into
a sanatorium. Tender feelings mixed with madness (and some action shooting
scenes “made in Park”) in a story that step by step that will make you feel
bounded to the sweetness of the two main characters (as a matter of fact the
male actor, Rain, is a real celebrity not only in Korea but in the whole Asia).
The personal vision of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest through the eyes
of Park will definitely not let you indifferent.
Saturday 22.9. 21:00
Kinopalatsi 6
Sunday 23.9. 16:30
Kinopalatsi 8
Tuesday 25.9. 22:30
KesäKino Engel
Thursday 27.9. 21:00
Bio Rex
Doghead (2006, Spain.
Director: Santi Amodeo)
Amodeo belongs to this generation of Spanish directors with a brilliant
present and even better future and international projection that keeps
reminding the spectators that there is life in Spanish cinema after Almodóvar
opened the doors to the exportation of national cinema abroad. The film’s main
character is a young teenager whose head works in a different frame than the
rest of the people. And what a better option that to have chosen for the role
to Juan José Ballesta, who shows film after film that is probably the
most talented young actor in Spain
nowadays. If not, take a look to his previous works in El Bola, Planta 4ª
or 7 Vírgenes.