world cinema world cinema
y y
contemporar contemporar
Warriors of Love (Kärlighedens krigere) West of Pluto (a l’ouest de Pluto)
DENMARK
Shot in luminous black and white, this Danish-Swedish coproduction
CANADA
Teenage angst is the same the world around, at least as evidenced
Director: Simon Staho offers an update on the classic tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Ida (Josefin Director: Henry Bernadet, by the way French-Canadian codirectors Myriam Verreault and Henry
Producers: Ljungman) and Karin (Shima Niavarani) are a lesbian couple whose
Myriam Verreault
Bernadet get inside the troubled heads of ten adolescents in a suburban
Anne Katrine Andersen,
relationship is threatened by a long-buried secret: Ida’s father sexually
Producers: Henry Bernadet,
Quebec high school. Employing a mock-documentary style, the film-
Janus Billeskov Jansen,
abused her as a child, and serious emotional scars remain. Now that
Myriam Verreault, Virginie Barret
makers give free rein to the teenagers’ secret crushes, garage-band
Peter Asmussen
it has been revealed, what can these women do to ensure it doesn’t
Screenwriters: Henry Bernadet,
obsessions, and taste for drug-fueled party chaos – without giving short
MS: A to Z
Screenwriters: Peter Asmussen,
destroy them?
Myriam Verreault
shrift to their awareness of the world around them, be it a cheerleader’s
MS: A to Z
il
Simon Staho
Cinematographer: Patrick Faucher
view on Quebeçois secession or, as the title implies, a debate about the
il
Cinematographer:
Against a starkly beautiful landscape of wheat fields, wooded glades,
Editor: Myriam Verreault
demotion of Pluto from planethood.
E F
Harald Gunnar Paalgard
and still lakes, Danish director/cowriter Simon Staho concentrates on the
Cast: David Bouchard,
E F
h Editor: Janus Billeskov Jansen
faces of the troubled lovers, who often gaze straight into the camera as
Anne-Sophie Tremblay-Lamontagne,
h
T
If Gus Van Sant had gone to Canada to make Elephant, or Larry Clark
T
Cast: Josefin Ljungman,
the psychological tension builds. Romantic purists both, Ida and Karin
Alexis Drolet, Yoann Linteau
had drifted northward filming Kids, the result might have been
Shima Niavarani
plot the murder of the father – and more – as the wind rustles in the
2008 / color / 95 min.
something like this: the teenagers here are every bit as awkward and
2009 / b&w / 93 min.
trees and their commitment grows stronger. endearing, cruel and vulnerable, as their counterparts on US indie
movie screens. Although West of Pluto was largely scripted, its plot is
Staho has come this way before: love under pressure is clearly the sub- loose, and enough of the dialogue was improvised to give it a genuinely
hEnrY BErnaDET
SiMon STaho
ject that intrigues him most. In 2002’s Now, he explored the destruction
Henry Bernadet received a DEC
uncensored tone. Wisely, the first-time directors worked with their
Born in Denmark in 1972, Simon
of a marriage in the midst of a homosexual affair, and in Heaven’s Heart
(diplômes d’études collégiales) in
15- and 16-year-old nonprofessional actors for six months before the
Staho is renowned for his work with (2008) he dissected the adulterous urges of two emotionally inter- television production from Cégep de first frame was ever shot, and the result is a completely believable and
a number of critically acclaimed
twined couples. With Warriors of Love, he means to make a categorical
Jonquière and a bachelor’s degree
engaging glimpse into the coming-of-age phase.
actors from Sweden, including Noomi
statement, calling the film “a declaration of war against those who
in film production from Concordia
Rapace and Erland Josephson. His University. After his first short film won
film Day and Night (2004) won the
reject love [and] a tribute to excessive love. To obsessive love. To love
the Vidéaste Recherché-e competition Sponsored by:
Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago
that creates miracle and tragedies.” To be sure, Ida and Karin find them-
in Canada, Bernadet went on to make
International Film Festival, and in selves caught up in just that kind of maelstrom. In the end, the doomed 20 more short films and to become an
2008 Staho was awarded an Ingmar
lovers imagine the afterlife as a place of gold and marble temples along
accomplished television director. West
Bergman Travel Grant.
the Ganges – not fearful but resolute.
of Pluto is his first feature film.
Filmography
Heaven’s Heart (2008) Sponsored by:
MYriaM VErrEauLT
Daisy Diamond (2007)
After earning a bachelor’s degree from
Bang Bang Orangutang (2005)
Université Laval, Myriam Verreault
Day and Night (2004)
went on to work for Radio-Canada,
Now (2003)
making a radio documentary series
Wildside (1998)
recorded in West Africa. She is a
cofounder of the Festival du Film
Étudiant de Québec and of the
Festival de Films de Portneuf sur
l’Environnement.
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