REVIEWS


DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT


3 Reviewed by Lee Marshall


Uruguayan director Pablo Stoll Ward made a name for himself around a decade ago as the co-director of whimsical waster comedies 25 Watts and Whisky with the late Juan Pablo Rebella. After a stint as a producer, he is back at the helm with this layered, observant but overlong family dramedy, which keeps suggesting that it is about more than just the feelgood reunification of a splintered Uruguayan family — but never quite decides what that some- thing else might be. Strong on character but low on tension, laughs


or thematic resonance, 3 is a surprisingly weary slog for the audience, given the lightness of touch


The Pirogue Reviewed by Dan Fainaru


Given the dearth of African product on the interna- tional market, The Pirogue is bound to be courted assiduously by every single film festival and event. Neither the theme nor its treatment are new or original, but it is compact, well shot and put together effectively, successfully combining West- ern story-telling with plenty of local colour. And if theatrical audiences may balk at yet another film on immigration to Europe, television will certainly not remain indifferent to such a timely subject. The plotline is familiar. A group of 30 Africans,


picked from different ethnic origins to underline Senegal’s multinational profile, embark on a pirogue (a small, flat-bottomed boat) that has to take them from the coast of West Africa, through the Canary Islands, to Spain. Part of an ongoing African exodus, driven away


from their homes by misery and unemployment, they leave their wives and children behind, hold- ing on to dreams and promises that usually do not materialise. They refuse to believe that Europe in crisis could possibly be worse than their own country, convinced that in a year or two they will either bring their families over to join them or start sending money home to build their own mansions. An experienced seaman, Baye Laye (expressively


played by Souleymane Seye Ndiaye), agrees reluc- tantly to lead the journey after the smugglers organising the trip offer him a considerable sum of


n 14 Screen International at Cannes May 23, 2012


of Stoll Ward’s earlier Moretti-esque comedies. Spanish-speaking territories may rise to the bait, but elsewhere this genre-defying product is likely to be a tough sell. Refreshingly sparing with exposition, the script


presents the family at the centre of the story in sepa- rate storylines that intersect only in the space of the apartment where Graciela (Bessio) lives with her daughter Ana (Palfy). Ana’s father, Rodolfo (De Var- gas), a portly doctor, lives with another woman whom we never see in a flat that differs only slightly from the one lived in by Ana and his former wife (the director keeps the viewer uncertain about inte- rior spaces, which at times seem to merge into one another, though the trick never really leads any- where exciting). Ana is a moody teen rebel with an almost per- manently smug, provocative expression. She is


UNCERTAIN REGARD


Fr-Sen. 2012. 87mins Director MoussaTouré Production companies Les Chauves-Souris, Astou Films, Arte France Cinéma, Appaloosa Films, Royal Pony Film, Studio 37 International sales Memento Films, www. memento-films.com Producers Eric Neve, Oumar Sy, Adrien Maigne Screenplay Eric Neve, David Bouchet, based original story by Abasse Ndione Cinematography Thomas Letellier Editor Josie Miljevic Music PrinceIbrahima Ndour Main cast Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Laity Fall, Malamine Dramé ‘Yalenguen’, Balla Diarra, Salif ‘Jean’ Diallo, Babacar Oualy, Mame Astou Diallo


Uru-Arg-Ger. 2012. 120mins Director Pablo Stoll Ward Production companies Control Z Films, Pandora Film Produktion, Rizoma Films, Kine International sales Wide Management, www. widemanagement.com Executive producers Agustina Chiarino, Fernando Epstein Screenplay Gonzalo Delgado Galiana, Pablo Stoll Cinematography Barbara Alvarez Editor Fernando Epstein, Pablo Stoll Production designer Gonzalo Delgado Galiana Main cast Humberto De Vargas, Anaclara Ferreyra Palfy, Sara Bessio, Nestor Guzzini


bright but in trouble at school as she keeps playing truant or giving teachers lip, and she is not above stealing money from her adoring father (who over- looks it, bizarrely, as a harmless peccadillo). She is also beginning to use her burgeoning sexuality as a bait and a weapon. Worn out by life and work, the strained Graciela is rarely at home, as in the eve- nings she visits an ailing aunt in a local hospital. It is here that she meets Dustin (Guzzini), a fellow carer with New Age tendencies, who seems in build and character to be a stand-in for Rodolfo, or per- haps a reconditioned model that she hopes will work better. Meanwhile, Rodolfo himself — a sadsack who


feels sidelined by life — tries to inveigle his way back into his two women’s lives, spending time in their flat (to which he still has a key), indulging his obsessive-compulsive tendencies by tidying up, doing some plumbing and eventually getting in the painters and decorators. If 30 minutes had been cut from the script and


Rodolfo’s return to the nest had been foregrounded, it would have made for a better film. As it is, 3 loses itself in too many inconclusive narrative meanders and digressions that do not give us enough extra character insight or do much for the dramatic struc- ture of a serious comedy whose trajectory is, in the end, a simple line from disunity to reconciliation. There are some neat ideas in here, nevertheless:


for example, the use of musical tracks from the par- ents’ and the daughter’s generations to reflect and comment on the story, together with other texts, from TV soaps to Dustin’s self-help books. But none of it is quite enough to cause many bumps in 3’s dramatic flatline; and in a film whose main strength is the delineation of believable characters doing believable things, the story-led happy finale does not quite ring true.


money for the job. The journey itself is marked with the typical list of predictable hardships, from claus- trophobia and sea-sickness to minor skirmishes between the passengers. A stowaway woman is also discovered whose presence may be a bad omen, and they encounter another pirogue, adrift, that they cannot help, short of endangering their own trip. This all leads to a climactic storm that threat- ens to put an end to all their hopes and dreams. In between the incidents, the all-too-familiar


plans of each individual come up one after the other, from the humblest to the fanciest, from


working the fields in Andalusia to joining a band in Paris or becoming a football superstar. The down- beat ending clearly suggests how faint the chances are that any of these things will ever happen. While the script does not venture much into


characterisations and is mostly happy with instant labelling, intelligent casting has managed to fill the screen with performers whose strong facial features and physical presence compensate for an occasional lack of acting ability. An experienced European crew provides high technical standards throughout The Pirogue.


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