Best of 2006

After a 40 year civil war the government anounces that all war criminals are amnestied. Atim receives orders from his grandfather to kill Nassara, the murderer of his father, a man who now owns a bakery. Atim offers his services to him and Nassara hires him, not knowing that he killed his dad in the civil war. Slowly a dad-son relationship develops between Atim and Nassara. Atim struggles with his conscious and finds it hard to carry out the orders of his grandfather. The movie focuses on the inner thoughts of the main characters and in doing so shows the consequences of a civil war. Not much happens but stil there always is a high tension as U can feel Atim doubting when to kill Nassara. Brilliant Afican movie from Mahamet-Saleh Haroun, a director from Chad!

Very stylish slow paced minimalistic work of art from Argentina. Nothing really happens but U slowly get into the head of the main character, a bodyguard from a top politician. With lots of long static stills and some extreme close ups the director draws an ordinary but very realistic world. El Custodio is about a decicated bodyguard who becomes invisible for his employer resulting in a loss of interest in his job with grave consequences. Very impressive direction. I saw this at the '07 Turnhout Open Doek Festival. It won a Silver Bear for best Director at Berlin.

Shocking and nail biting chronicle of innocent men that were imprisoned and tortured by the Argentinian government during the Junta in 1977. Based on a true story. I've seen this at the Open Doek Filmfestival in Turnhout. Great movie that will also appeal to a mainstream audience.

This one is part of the Romanian new wave by young talented directors that is currently taking place. It was very well received on the 2007 Rotterdam film festival and gets a staggering 8.5/10 on imdb! We follow a pantser unit of internal affairs during the night that Ceaucescu flees his pallace at the Romanian Revolution in december 1989. The soldiers are captured between their hope that the revolution will succeed and their duty to defend the regime. One of the soldiers deserts and participated in the revolution but he gets caught up in the chaos. The story is filled with black ironic Eastern-European humor. Overall I was bit disappointed because of all the hype on this film but I'm sure it will appeal to many.

This Brazilian film caught my attention at The 2007 Rotterdam F. Festival since it's directed by Karim Ainouz, who wrote the scenario Abril Despeçado, Cidade Baixa and Cinema, Aspirines & Vultures. We follow 21 year old Hermilia, who moved back to her boring village because of money problems. She dreams of moving back to Sao Paulo or another big city and in doing so decided to organize a lottery, a night with her is the main prize. She uses the cover name Suely for the lottery. Ainouz basically criticizes the position of women in society. He uses many extreme close-ups. Acting and atmosphere are more important than the plot here. A decent movie but nothing special.