Telling the truth is a maneuver

So just like last year I found some time to visit the 2011 edition of the Munich Filmschool Festival. There were lots of interesting things to be seen by young and promising directors from all over the world. Here are the one's I've seen (apart from the not so good ones) and a short impression about each one:

Sister Of Mine                                                                           2011

by Oshrat Meirovitch from MSTFA – Israel
7.7/10
This was a very emotive piece about how strict religious traditions (in this case Orthodox) can be to the point of limiting someone's freedom and determine their future. Our main character's only options are to either loose everything or conform and sacrifice her happiness. A small well acted drama finishing with an adequate powerful scene at the end.

Silent River                                                                               2011

by Anca Miruna Lazarescu from HFF/M – Germany
7.5/10
Romania in the 80s and a story about how two men in distrust to each other try to leave the country by crossing the Danube over to Serbia. Proud to announce that this is a fine production from the local film-school here in Munich. You can watch the trailer here.

Maniobra (Maneuver)                                                                2010

by Ricardo Fontana from EICTV – Cuba
8.2/10
This was definitely my favourite one from the first session I went to. It's a very short movie about Cuban military, hierarchic relations and corruption within the system. Despite the director's work getting lost with the action scenes I thought there was an abundance of psychological meanings to be taken from the characters and their attitudes. It's about faults in communication and how telling the truth can turn into a complicated maneuvre. Those were some well acted and rich 11 minutes on the screen.

Wie Immer (The Usual)                                                              2010

by Zubin Sethna from DFFB - Germany
7.8/10
Probably the shortest one I saw but left a very strong message in a quite charming way. A trailer can be seen here.

Miten Marjoja Poimitaan (How To Pick Berries)                        2010

by Elina Talvensaari from SAD – Finland
7.8/10
This is a documentary about... picking berries in Finland. Correct. About how locals are loosing their income and jobs in the jam industry due to cheaper workforce imported from Thailand. I thought the way it was shot to be pretty interesting as it looked more like what you would get from a horror film. It was still a fitting aesthetic concerning the serious subject of the documentary. And lots of beautiful photography as well. But hey, Finland is indeed a beautiful country. You can watch the trailer here.

Geen Weg Terug (No Way Back)                                                 2011

by Shariff Korver from NFTA – Netherlands
8.3/10
My personal favourite would have to be this well directed and acted Dutch drama. It takes place in a refugee centre and our main character, Mark, has possibly one of the worst jobs ever. Being in charge of some of the refugees, who come from the most diverse and tragic backgrounds, he faces a lot of psychological pressure telling them, in the most formal way, that they are going to be deported back. Everything complicates when one of his own friends faces the same destiny putting mark in a moral struggle between external authority and personal intuition.

I can't believe the last time I wrote about cinema was also for last year's edition of the festival. I really should dedicate a little more time to this.