TwoOhSix Picks for SIFF 2017 Part 2 - Around the World
25 Films for 25 Days of SIFF!
Over the course of nearly four weeks, the Seattle International Film Festival will feature 400 films from around the world and, since it would be physically impossible to watch them all, I am giving you a starting point with this list of the films that I am most looking forward to watching. The entire roster of films comes from 80 different countries and features 36 world premieres and 20 US premieres screening at venues all around the greater Seattle area.
To help make things easier, I have created four categories and each category gets its very own post.
"The Bar gleefully strips away the veneer of "proper" society to reveal how quickly the fragile bonds of civilization can fray when desperation truly sets in." If the trailer for this film is any indication, this film is going to be one heck of a crazy ride with lots of twists, turns, and moments that will leave your jaw on the floor.
This looks like a darker, grittier version of Taken and without Liam Neeson being a total bad ass. "Revenge is coming for the criminals who have killed the mother of a seemingly mild-mannered Irish farmer in this tense, tough-as-nails thriller including flashes of bloody hilarity and featuring a career-making lead performance from Nigel O'Neill."
This looks like one of those hugely epic war movies that China is known to produce and we get to see Vincent Zhao and Sammo Hung take on an army of Japanese pirates. What more do you want?! "It is a film so enormous that it doesn’t just keep your attention, it demands it."
A lot of people are already picking this "explosive feminist tale of vengeance" to be one of the true highlights of the festival and everything about it looks like it will end up earning all of that praise. From what I understand, it is a dark journey but one worth watching just for how beautifully it is brought to life on screen.
So, this movie is what would happen The Hangover and Spring Breakers had a love child in France and then took it to party for a week in Brazil. I know, right?! "A wild and funny travelogue through the nightclubs, slums, and jungles of Brazil, Going to Brazil is a tense and exciting story of sisterhood in the face of insanity."
"South African director Mandla Dube tells the dramatic and tragically short life story of activist and freedom fighter Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu, a young man from the impoverished Mamelodi township who was beaten and executed by the apartheid regime for a crime he did not commit."
Hirozaku Kore-eda's previous film, Our Little Sister, is a very highly regarded family drama so this follow up, featuring Hiroshi Abe, Yoko Maki, and Kirin Kiki, should be a worthy follow up effort.
SIFF says: "“Silicon Valley” star Thomas Middleditch gives a brilliant, deadpan comedic performance as a man in a downward spiral who uncovers his parents’ secret: They adopted and then gave up a baby girl before he was born. Now he’s on a mission to find his missing sister."
It seems like the science fiction genre rarely gets much in the way of representation at SIFF so I was pleasantly surprised to see this 80's style throwback movie show up in the list of this year's films. Definitely looks like a fun bit genre indulgence and the effects look pretty legit considering it's not a large scale, big budget feature.
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