Login / RegisterLife, death, sex, and magic vie for views at the Vancouver International Film Festival
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Snap (Ireland)
At first, this brutal Irish descent into abuse feels like a stagey actor’s exercise. In one of the film’s many structural contrivances, a documentary crew has come into Sandra’s home for an interview and she is dramatically, bile-spittingly recounting her side of a hideous incident that has turned her into a media pariah. But that story—about something that her teen son did to a toddler, eventually revealed in flashback—goes to places that no one can be prepared for. And snap! You’re hooked. Granville 7, October 4 (6:30 p.m.) and 5 (12 p.m.)
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Snow White (France)
Unfortunately, the big screen is the only place Vancouverites are ever going to see a ballet this lushly staged. In French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s dark and erotic version of the fairy tale, dwarves rappel down walls, mirrors come to life in orgiastic ecstasy, and the king and queen rise eerily on suspended thrones. The dance is classic, but the fresh take is avant-garde (complete with costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier). For balletomanes who can’t cough up the fare to Paris. Vancity Theatre, October 1 (7 p.m.) and 8 (11 a.m.); Granville 7, October 6 (6 p.m.)
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Tainted Love (International)
Sick, twisted stuff abounds in this alternately funny and disturbing collection, which emphasizes shorts from down under, the U.S., and Central Europe. Highlights include Hungary’s wistful “Model”, about beauty and illness, and the Czech Republic’s “Love Birds”, about the sacrifices lovers sometimes have to make. The squeamish are advised to leave right before the final “Recollection”, a bit of gory serial-killer nonsense obviously made as an industry calling card. Granville 7, October 7 (9:15 p.m.); Pacific Cinémathèque, October 9 (3:30 p.m.)
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Transfer (Germany)
A clever idea is badly executed in this futuristic tale, which finds rich people harvesting the (still living) bodies of poor Africans in order to extend their own neocolonial lives. The best part has two couples, young and old, increasingly aware that they are inhabiting the same space. But lousy dubbing and a weak resolution rob Transfer of any real impact. Granville 7, October 6 (9:15 p.m.) and 7 (1:15 p.m.)
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Turn it Loose (U.K.)
Sixteen guys, 12 hours of B-boy battling in Soweto. The dance action, with the stylized slo-mo and angles, would make this record of the international Red Bull BC One competition recommendable on its own. But the stakes are so high for the competitors—an Algerian immigrant from the ghettos of Lyon, a Senegalese breaker who practises in a derelictindustrial building—that the documentary is engrossing on a human level, too. Off the hook. Granville 7, October 5 (1:15 p.m.); Pacific Cinémathèque, October 8 (7 p.m.)
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Two Indians Talking (Canada)
This well-named item never strays far from its theatrical roots, and the palaver between two cousins—one college-educated, one stuck on the rez—is considerably smarter than the boy-girl stuff that happens briefly in the middle. In any case, the young actors are excellent and the insights well-considered. Granville 7, October 6 (9:15 p.m.) and 8 (12:40 p.m.)
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