Valeria Is Getting Married (2022): Michal Vinik proposes a story of transactional love that finds a lot of room for intimacy. Christina, a Ukrainian national married to an Israeli and living in Israel, convinces her sister Valeria to join her in a match intermediated by Christina’s husband. Things, naturally, don’t go as planned and the spillover is severe. The movie, however, is not. It finds a great balance between the lighthearted awkwardness of an arranged marriage situation and the escalating tensions between protagonists. All the characters stand out in some way, they seem human and flawed, which is why I felt let down by the less than open finale that concludes the story. 7
Brudeferden i Hardanger (1926): One of the first representative silent films made in Norway, The Bridal Party in Hardanger is a generational story of love and social…mobility, I guess. I was surprised by the restrained acting performances, which set this one apart from the other silent films I saw this year, but also by the beautiful restoration of the source material. The movie looks good all around and I saw it accompanied by a dramatic score, performed by a local musician Petre Ionuțescu. All in all, an unexpected experience. 7
Sonne (2022): The definition of a multiculti film from the German-speaking space, this Austrian movie features three friends of varying origins who look to find their paths through usually complex teenage experiences. Focus is on Yesmin, whose religious-cultural demands and family dynamics make for an interesting mix, rife with the bubbling experiences of such circumstances. Kurdwin Ayub’s movie mostly finds that intimate space between its characters and society, but it does take some dramatic artistic license that, I felt, worked against the strengths of Sonne. Still, a distinctive vibe makes this one a standout in the endless offerings of this genre. 7
Barbie (2023): While this might be a global phenomenon, that’s no real comment about the worthiness of the cinema experience. Yeah, it’s all funky (even if it barely leans on the seminal Barbiegirl song) and spending time with a bunch of likable actors will not wear you down. But the movie wavers in its tone, it doesn’t go all out camp and shipping cookie-cutter empowerment messages within this package just doesn’t consistently come across well. It’s not not fun, there’s too much talent involved for that (the Ken’s particularly steal the show), which unfortunately isn’t enough to say that it’s worthy of all the hype. And even some of its really clever moments don’t work because it tries to be too many things at once, it’s too self-conscious. That said, the scenes that do work are quite memorable, with the overall concept, set design and aesthetics gelling well enough to make for a decent time. 6
Carbon (2022): A well-received Moldavian movie by Ion Bors, Carbon takes us back into the early 90s and the Transnistrian war. We follow Dima, a youngster who wants to fight on the frontlines in order to be guaranteed an apartment, and Vasea, a more grounded Afghanistan veteran, trying to keep Dima from being killed. They come upon a carbonized body on their way to the front and it becomes their mission to return it to “its people” and give it a proper burial. It’s very much a movie that feels like it come out of the early days of post-revolutionary Romanian cinema, satirizing the hypocritical, self-serving political class, telling low-key stories of corruption and moral turpitude. So it’s all very light in the end, but the story has some merit and the tone is consistent, with Bors showing more restraint compared to what I experienced in last week’s “Încă două lozuri”. 6
tributary stu 