Vancouver International Film Festival winds down with stories to remember

Extraordinary Stories (Argentina)
When you consider that Jorge Luis Borges was not only the greatest Latin America writer but also the greatest writer in Spanish since Cervantes, it’s surprising how little influence this Argentine fabulist has exercised over his cinematic compatriots. Mariano Llinás is a happy exception to this rule. Extraordinary Stories crosshatches three mysterious narratives, featuring three different questers with Kafkaesque letter names, who solve one mystery only to see another open up before their eyes. The key word here is labyrinths (Borges’s favourite), and the film’s protagonists must try to wend their way through them as best they can. Pure catnip for magic-realism lovers.
Pacific Cinémathí¨que, October 15 (6:45 p.m.) and 16 (1:30 p.m.)

 

I Remember (Canada)
What a terrific film! I Remember (Je me souviens), shot in hivernal black and white, begins as a Marxist riff on Mon Oncle Antoine prior to mutating into one of director André Forcier’s patented Rabelaisian celebrations of wild women who don’t follow the rules before concluding on a patriotic note that boosts Irish, as well as Québécois, nationalism. Sex, politics, and Gaelic in Abitibi during the Maurice Duplessis years! Who else could have “thunk” it?
Granville 7, October 15 (7:15 p.m.)

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