Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1
Blancanieves
The Gatekeepers
What to watch at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival this weekend
SATURDAY
BLANCANIEVES
Directed by Pablo Berger. Starring Maribel Verdú, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Ángela Molina, Pere Ponce, Macarena García, Sofía Oria, Josep Maria Pou, Inma Cuesta Savoy, 11am. H
The writer-director Pablo Berger has spent 10 years on this silent monochrome melodrama retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's unfortunate that the ravishing Blancanieves arrives in the wake of two Hollywood reimaginings and the similarly presented Oscar-winner The Artist. Where Michel Hazanavicius's picture was content to make merry with tropes and intertitles, Berger's ravishing, wildly ambitious film celebrates the purity and accessibility of visual storytelling. The writer-director casts angular expressionist shapes and populates the Brothers Grimm tale with matadors, flamenco and travelling freak shows. Fantastic in every sense. TARA BRADY
CLIP/KLIP
Directed by Maja Milos. Starring Isidora Simijonovic, Vukasin Jasnic, Sanja Mikitisin, Jova Maksic, Monja Savic Light House, 6pm. H
Any explicit depiction of life among decadent teens is bound to scare up comparisons with the dubious work of Larry Clark. Maja Milos's disturbing, dizzying slice of Serbian wildlife is, however, very much its own extraordinary beast. The magnetic Isidora Simijonovic stars as a 16-year-old firecracker harbouring a dangerous passion for an older, potentially abusive schoolmate. Milos speaks the kids' language – much of the nihilistic boozing and ugly sex is shot on camera phones – and that connection allows the viewer a degree of empathy with her troubled characters. That's where the Serbian director diverges from Clark. She really seems to care. DONALD CLARKE
TEDDY BEAR
Directed by Mads Matthiesen. Starring Kim Kold, Elsebeth Steentoft, Lamaiporn Hougaard Cineworld, 6.05pm
Mads Matthiesen's adorable drama casts former bodybuilding champ, and star of the incoming Fast and Furious 6, Kim Kold, as a lonely 38-year-old muscleman who lives with his tyrannical mother outside Copenhagen. When his uncle marries a Thai bride, our hulking hero starts to wonder if he too might find love on holiday in Pattaya. But will he ever accept paid companionship over true love? The crowd-pleasing Teddy Bear turns out to be every bit as gentle, powerful and big-hearted as its unlikely, bulky Cinderella. TB
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, PARTS 1 2
Directed by Anurag Kashyap. Starring Manoj Bajpayee, Piyush Mishra, Jaideep Ahlawat, Richa Chadda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui Cineworld, 10.30am: Part 1 screens Saturday, Part 2 screens Sunday
"In Wasseypur," we're informed, "even the pigeon flies with one wing, because it needs the other to cover its ass." Picture the Godfather saga refashioned as a Bollywood musical but with more prison breaks, bloodletting, sex addiction and explosions and hinged by the colourful true-life criminal exploits of the titular Qureshi Muslim factions. The use of slinky classic Bollywood tunes, potty-mouthed Indian folk and the aspirational relationships between the Dickensian-sized cast of characters and the Bollywood movies heats up an already feverish concoction. Gangs of Wasseypur is seldom uneventful or lacking in swear words throughout the epic, five-hour running time. It's an amazing achievement from one of India's most audacious film-makers. TB
SUNDAY
THE GATEKEEPERS
Directed by Dror Moreh. Starring Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter, Yuval Diskin, Carmi Gillon, Yaakov Peri, Avraham Shalom Light House, 6.10pm
Dror Moreh admits that he was inspired to make this tense, engaging documentary, a study of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, after viewing Errol Morris's The Fog of War. Like Robert McNamara, the subject of the Morris film, the six participating former Shin Bet remain cautious of expressing unambiguous regret for their questionable actions. But one gets the same sense of weariness you often detect in, say, former IRA volunteers who have embraced the peace process. "We win every battle but lose the war," Ami Ayalon says. Decorated with a decent ambient score, and utilising well-positioned satellite shots, the film is a deserved nominee at the upcoming Oscars. DC
WHITE TIGER (BELYY TIGR)
Directed by Karen Shakhnazarov. Starring Aleksey Vertkov, Vitaliy Kishchenko, Valeriy Grishkoesley Cineworld, 6.15pm H
When a Russian tank driver miraculously recovers from an attack that leaves his body with 90 per cent burns, the superhuman survivor becomes obsessed with the equally unnatural, and apparently indestructible, German vehicle that caused his injuries. The feeling is mutual: a ghostly German tank channels Moby Dick – a Great White Panzerkampfwagen – in Karen Shakhnazarov's enigmatic, strikingly original second World War drama. Cod Wagner plays as this fine, allegorical picture makes its way to Berlin for a warning from history. TB
* For more JDIFF coverage, see irishtimes.com/screenwriter
