THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO ALL THINGS OSCARS FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE I NOVEMBER 2018

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE OSCAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE RACE

CAN STEVEN YEUN HELP SOUTH KOREA FINALLY LAND AN OSCAR NOMINATION?

FOREIGN FILM STAR GALLERY PLUS, DO THE OSCARS HAVE AN ASIA PROBLEM?

ContentsFOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE I NOVEMBER 2018 “I was scared not to be believable as DEPARTMENTS the character, and not to do 4 AWARDS BEAT her justice”

Once again, we’ve got new rules —Girl star Victor Polster, left, with to analyze co-star Arieh Worthalter 6 BY THE NUMBERS The foreign race, now & through the years 18

8 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK Meet the Academy’s first-year foreign- language co-chairs

10 FESTIVAL FAVES Film-fest programmers tell us about their picks to click

72 OSCAR’S BACK PAGES Remembering (and explaining) a big Oscar upset FEATURES

12 BURNING LOVE Steven Yeun and Lee Chang-dong hope their film goes where no Korean film has gone before: to the Oscars

18 PASSPORT PHOTOS A special portfolio of notable actors from the foreign contenders

24 WORLD PARTY TheWrap’s annual guide to every one of this year’s 87 entries, region by region—plus, interviews with Alfonso Cuarón, Pawel Pawlikowski, ON THE COVER Nadine Labaki, László Nemes, Steven Yeun was Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, photographed by Elisabeth Caren at the Hirokazu Kore-eda and more Toronto International Film Festival

THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO ALL THINGS OSCARS FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE I NOVEMBER 2018

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE OSCAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE RACE

CAN STEVEN YEUN HELP SOUTH KOREA FINALLY LAND AN OSCAR NOMINATION?

FOREIGN FILM STAR GALLERY PLUS, DO THE OSCARS HAVE AN ASIA PROBLEM? FRONT & CENTER / Editor’s Letter

Fourscore and Seven Films to Go After watching all 87 films, Oscar voters will know that this year’s contenders make up one of the strongest, deepest fields the category has ever seen

ere at Best Foreign Language Film and TheWrap, Best Picture. we’re always We put Roma on the cover excited about of our accompanying The Race the foreign- Begins issue (I told you we’re Hlanguage Oscar race, which year excited about foreign-language after year brings us many of the films) and opted for Lee Chang- best films nominated in any cat- dong’s meditative powerhouse egory. But this year’s race feels Burning for the cover of this like something special: While issue. But we’ve also devoted the field didn’t set a record space to every single one of for the number of competing this year’s contenders, the most films—it numbers a paltry 87, comprehensive guide to the down by five from last year’s Oscar foreign-language race record of 92—this just might be that you’ll find anywhere. Dive the most competitive year ever in and take a trip around the in the category. These fourscore globe with us—and if you’re and seven entries contain a in L.A., come see the films and huge number of very strong hear from the filmmakers at our competitors, including three Foreign Language Screening THE WRAP MAGAZINE movies from directors whose Series. (That’s me with Woman EDITOR-IN-CHIEF films recently won in the cate- at War director Benedikt Sharon Waxman Erlingsson, right.) There are no gory: The Lives of Others’ Florian AWARDS EDITOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR Henckel von Donnersmarck walls or borders here. Steve Pond Ada Guerin

with Never Look Away, Ida’s DEPUTY EDITOR Pawel Pawlikowski with Cold Steve Root War and Son of Saul’s László VICE PRESIDENT, SALES Caren Gibbens Nemes with Sunset. You’ll also SALES find two more from directors Brit Grant who were recently nominated ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR (Rithy Panh’s Graves Without a Ryan Ward

Name and Ciro Guerra’s Birds CREATIVE ASSISTANTS of Passage), a dozen more that Jane Go, Tatiana Leiva have made big noise on the STEVE POND, AWARDS EDITOR DISTRIBUTION international circuit and one, Kensie Krompier Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, fighting

to become only the sixth movie © 2018 TheWrap

in history to be nominated for TED SOQUI

2 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION • BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OFFICIAL SELECTION • COLOMBIA

“FEW FILMS HAVE CAPTURED QUITE SO POWERFULLY THE TENSION BETWEEN THE ” OLD AND NEW WORLDS. PETER DEBRUGE,

“ “ AN ABSOLUTELY FASCINATINGLY LAYERED... MOVING TO THE DRAMATIC AND FOLKLORIC EXTRAORDINARY FILM... RHYTHMS OF A CULTURE WE RARELY SEE, REMINDS US THAT NO MATTER HOW MODERN BIRDS OF PASSAGE MORE OR LESS PICKS UP WE ARE, THERE ARE ANCIENT SONGS WHERE EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT OUR FOREBEARS KNEW WHOSE MELODIES LEFT OFF.” STILL RUSH IN OUR BLOOD.” JUSTIN CHANG, JESSICA KIANG,

A F I L M B Y CRISTINA GALLEGO A N D C I R O G U E R R A

FROM THE FILMMAKERS OF THE OSCAR®-NOMINATED EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT

FOR MORE INFO VISIT AWARDS.THEORCHARD.COM

PUBLICATION: THE WRAP TRIM: 8.375" X 10.875" BOP WRAP_FP_FINAL REV 1 ISSUE DATE: 11.16.18 BLEED: 8.875" X 11.375" DUE DATE: SAFETY: .125" FRONT & CENTER / Awards Beat The New Rules, 2018 Edition Once again, the Academy has changed the voting rules in the foreign-language category—here’s what it means BY STEVE POND

ast year in this issue, we gave films in the first round of voting (the some of the smaller films might be seen you the rundown on a variety “general committee”) were separated by only a couple dozen. But it won’t be a L of new rules designed to open into three color-coded groups, with disadvantage to be seen by fewer voters, up Oscar voting in the Best Foreign each group assigned to watch a spe- because this isn’t a category where the Language Film category. But that cific selection of films. While the color nominations ballot asks you to pick your was then and this is now. As Larry coding was eliminated last year, each five favorites; instead, a voter scores Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann voter was still assigned a “required every film he or she sees on a scale of 6 take over leadership of the Foreign viewing list” of 15 films that he or she to 10, and the six films with the highest Language Film Award Executive was expected to see. average score advance to the shortlist, Committee from longtime chair Mark This year, there won’t be any joined by an additional three films Johnson (see interview, page 8), the required viewing. Instead, voters will selected by an executive committee. process is once again changing. And be given the screening schedule—87 once again, the bulk of the changes are screenings on 44 different weekday A lower bar designed to open the process to more nights and weekend days between Under the old system, a member voters and to make it easier to partici- October 15 and December 10 in the typically had to see about 17 or 18

Created by rama pate. Here’s a rundown. Academy’s theaters in Beverly Hills contenders (65 percent of the filmsfrom the Noun Project and Hollywood—and will be free to see in his or her group) to qualify to No more required viewing anything on the list. vote. This year, the number has been For years, the Los Angeles-based That could mean that, say, Roma lowered to 12, dramatically reduc- volunteers who screened and scored could be seen by hundreds of voters and ing the time commitment it takes to

A TOUGH RACE AT A GLANCE

The frontrunners From directors From directors who’ve Mexico: Roma who’ve won before been nominated before Poland: Cold War Hungary: Sunset Cambodia: Graves Without a Name Lebanon: Capernaum Germany: Never Look Away Colombia: Birds of Passage

4 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 become a voter. (FYI, the Academy says resulted in a strong slate of nominees—but the average foreign-language voter sees because the hand-picked Phase 2 commit- about 30.) tees were typically closer in sensibility to The lower bar means that a member the executive committee than the general who may be out of town for most of the committee, the executive committee’s screenings could still see enough films three “saves” were usually well represent- to qualify in a week or two of dedicated ed in the final list of nominees. viewing. (Most weeks will feature six or But as more members of the general seven nights of screenings, which means committee take part in Phase 2, the 12 or 14 films.) And members outside sensibility could skew back toward more L.A. who go to lots of film festivals could populist films. That could be good news conceivably see enough films also, as long for the kind of crowd-pleasing movies that as they see them in theaters—in this stage, make the shortlist but are not nominat- watching via streaming doesn’t count. ed—a list that in recent years has included The King’s Choice, The Fencer, Labyrinth of More power to L.A. This year, in L.A., all members who Lies and The Liberator. The second phase of nomination voting, saw 12 films as part of the Phase 1 general in which members see the nine short- committee will be invited to take part in The bottom line listed films over a period of three days Phase 2 as well, as long as they watch all More people will vote in Phase 1.

Created by rama and choose the from the Noun Project five nominees, used to nine of the shortlisted films. (Those who’ve (But only a few more, if early reports be restricted to 40 members, 20 in Los already seen some or most of the shortlist- from the screenings are accurate.) Angeles and 10 each in New York and ed films will only need to watch the ones Significantly more will vote in Phase 2. London. (Half the L.A. members were they haven’t seen.) Fewer general-committee voters will randomly selected from the general This should eliminate the grumbling complain about being disenfranchised. committee, but the others in all three from general-committee members who More mainstream films might be nomi- cities were hand-picked by the exec feel as if they do most of the viewing but nated, which could increase the chance committee chair and the Academy.) Last get cut out of the process when it’s time to of critics and cineastes howling about year, the Academy opened Phase 2 vot- determine nominees. Depending on how oversights and safe choices. Foreign vot- ing to any members who wanted to par- many general-committee voters choose ers will continue to have lots of clout in ticipate in San Francisco, New York and to participate in Phase 2, it also has the determining who advances. And given

Created by rama London, with internationalfrom the Noun Project members potential to change the look and feel of the quality of this year’s field, some very also invited to take part via streaming. the nominations. The old process typically good films will be nominated.W

From directors who’ve Festival sensations Possible crowd-pleasers Potential dark horses been nominated before South Korea: Burning Denmark: The Guilty Kenya: Supa Modo Cambodia: Graves Without a Name Japan: Shoplifters Norway: What Will People Say Romania: I Do Not Care If Colombia: Birds of Passage Belgium: Girl Israel: The Cakemaker We Go Down in History as Sweden: Border Paraguay: The Heiresses Barbarians Italy: Dogman Spain: Champions Ukraine: Donbass Turkey: The Wild Pear Tree Egypt: Yomeddine Croatia: The Eighth Commissioner United Kingdom: I Am Not a Witch

ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN TAYLOR FRONT & CENTER / Do the Math

OSCAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE RACE BY THE NUMBERS

Record for First-time Films in largest number participants: contention of contenders, Malawi, Niger 87 92 2018 2

Shortest running time, in minutes 6 DAYS, 71 Wonderful Losers: A Different World (Lithuania) 11 HOURS, Longest running time, in minutes 20 MINUTES 197 …And Suddenly the Dawn (Chile) Total running time of all entries

20 FEMALE DIRECTORS in the Oscar foreign-language race this year 9 Documentaries Ruth Beckermann, Sophie Dupuis, Kay Nguyen (with Tran in the race: The Waldheim Waltz Family First (Canada) Buru Loc), The Tailor Eldorado, Ghost Hunting, (Austria) Cristina Gallego (with (Vietnam) Graves Without a Name, Aida Begić, Ciro Guerra), Birds of Rungano Nyoni, I Am Not a Ruben Blades Is Not My Never Leave Me (Bosnia Passage (Colombia) - Witch (United Kingdom) Name, A Son of Man, To B e and Herzegovina) Kaouther Ben Hania, Alexandra Latishev Continued, The Waldheim Anucha Boonyawatana, Beauty and the Dogs Salazar, Medea (Costa Rica) Waltz, Wonderful Losers: Malila: The Farewell Flower (Tunisia) Mouly Surya, Marlina A Different World, Yellow Is (Thailand) Iram Haq, the Murderer in Four Acts Forbidden Pietra Brettkelly, What Will People Say (Indonesia) Yellow Is Forbidden (New (Norway) Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo, Zealand) Rahmatou Keïta, Take It or Leave It (Estonia) Yasmine Chouikh, Until The Wedding Ring (Niger) Blerta Zeqiri, the End of Time (Algeria) Nadine Labaki, The Marriage (Kosovo) Rima Das, Capernaum (Lebanon) Darya Zhuk, Village Rockstars (India) Dora Masklavanou, Crystal Swan (Belarus) Polyxeni (Greece) Animated0 films in the race 26 FEMALE DIRECTORS in the race last year

6 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM 91st ACADEMY AWARDS® OFFICIAL ENTRY FROM INDONESIA "AN UNWAVERING SLOW BURN... Surya gives Marlina a stark, steady, captivating look that keeps you engaged." — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“Kicks Ass” — Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter

"INTOXICATING! The dark, wry, feminist neo-Western Tarantino only wishes he created...” —Andrew Wright, The Stranger

SPECIAL SCREENINGS SCREENINGS AND Q&A FOR AMPAS AND PRESS MEMBERS WITH DIRECTOR Thursday, November 8th at 6:00pm The Envelope Screening Series Tuesday, November 20th at 7:00pm Wednesday, November 28th at 7:00pm Wednesday, December 5th at 4:00pm The Landmark Sunset Screening Rooms 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 9006 8730 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90069 Thursday, November 29th at 11:00am RSVP: Four Seasons, Beverly Hills [email protected] or 323-424-7332 300 S Doheny Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90048 For media and publicity enquiries The Wrap Screening Series please contact: Thursday, November 29th at 7:00pm JOSHUA JASON PUBLIC RELATIONS / JJPR The Landmark [email protected] 10850 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 900644

Badan Ekonomi Kreatif Indonesia Ori inals FRONT & CENTER / Meet the New Boss(es)

CHANGING OF THE GUARD The new chairs of the Oscar foreign- language committee talk about why they love foreign films and why Academy

members should, too BY STEVE POND

or almost two decades, Academy voters and Oscar lovers have known whom to praise and blame for the system that Fproduced nominees and winners in the Oscars’ Best It’s an Foreign Language Film category: Mark Johnson, an Oscar-winning producer (Rain Man) who over- extraordinary saw the Foreign Language Film Award Executive category, Committee for 17 of the last 18 years and was one of the architects of the three-step process by which but it has you’ll get hooked. I think there’s always been a barrier nominees are selected. But Johnson opted to step suffered in of “Oh, I’ve got some obstacles, I have to see things down this year, and Academy president John Bailey on Wednesday night, I don’t know if I’m in the blue (who is very passionate about the category) named past years group or the green group…” This is just, “Come see the screenwriter Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The from not movies.” And I think once you start coming, before People v. Larry Flynt) and Participant Media docu- you know it, you will have seen six films and you’ll be mentary chief Diane Weyermann to replace him. enough involved. They spoke to TheWrap a few minutes after their people first meeting as new bosses who, Weyermann said, One of the reasons for assigning people to different are coming in to “try a few different things.” participating” groups and asking them to see films in their group was to make sure that every film would be seen You’ve eliminated the required-viewing - Diane Weyermann by a good number of voters. Do you worry that an films and lowered the number of films a member open system will lead to lots of voters going to see needs to see in order to vote. Why? the same big movies, with small turnouts for more WEYERMANN Clearly, one of the objectives is to obscure films? engage as many people within the Academy as we WEYERMANN I think that was the rationale, to can to participate. It’s an extraordinary category, make sure that a certain percentage of the members but it has suffered in past years from not enough participating had to see every film that was people participating. I think one of our tasks as submitted. That was a great objective, but measured co-chairs is rallying our colleagues and getting against that being a barrier to participation… people excited. Obviously, our hope is that people will continue to KARASZEWSKI Our feeling is, and John shares go to see films out of curiosity and interest, whether Mark Johnson

this, that if you come to screenings once or twice they’ve heard a lot about the film or not. Wawrychuk/AMPAS Todd

8 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 that, to be able to see these films with a group of peers in a cinema is an extraordinary experience. But streaming is the future, and I’m sure that will be an ongoing conversation.

Allowing streaming for international voters last year in Phase 2 led to a big increase in the number of overseas voters in that round of voting. But the title of the category is Best Foreign Language Film, which presumes that it is being given by a group of English- speaking voters. As you bring in more and more voters for whom those “foreign” languages aren’t foreign, does that change the dynamic? WEYERMANN I don’t really see it as a category that would be voted on by English speakers. The Academy has really done a lot to expand its international membership and embrace cinema internationally. And this award is called foreign language, but to my mind it’s really the award for international film. So I think it’s really imperative that people working internationally or living abroad are able to participate.

Over the years, what foreign-language films have meant a lot to you? WEYERMANN I had parents who loved foreign films, and they would bring me in. I lived abroad for a while when I was a kid, and also when I was in college, and I traveled a lot. They were just a part of my life. And then after film school I worked as a film and arts and KARASZEWSKI I’m just the opposite of the person culture officer for the Open Society Institute, and I you describe. Of course I see the high-profile movies, was spending more time abroad than I was in the but my joy on this committee and these screenings States. I did a lot of work with the European Film is going to see movies I know nothing about. It’s Academy, and met Krystof Kieślowski and people like

the joy of discovery. I remember one of my favorite Larry Karaszewski’s that, who are my idols. It’s really in my DNA. experiences was a movie a few years back called Corn favorites as a KARASZEWSKI I was very lucky to grow up in the Island. I knew nothing about it, it was the second film foreign-language early ’70s, when foreign films were such a part of the voter have included on a Friday night, and the title says, “You’re going to Giorgi Ovashvili’s discussion. Even though I was growing up in Indiana, have trouble staying awake.” But it was fantastic. Corn Island and I could still go to the theater and see Amarcord, or Fernando Meirelles’ a Bergman film. That was the era of the director City of God, while It feels as if streaming is inevitable at some point Diane Weyermann as star, and these were name-brand people. The in this category. Are you committed to theatrical was thrilled to meet movies would play in my small town— sometimes screenings of all the eligible films? idols like Three Colors dubbed, sometimes subtitled. I actually have more director Krystof KARASZEWSKI Probably at some point you’re Kieślowski of an affection for dubbing than most people do. So correct. This is the march of the future. I think at the second I could be on this committee, I was. And I this point, though, the Academy really wants to think the very first Academy screening I went to was encourage seeing films theatrically. So we are firmly City of God. I was like, “This is great! Every night’s committed to people seeing these movies in theaters. gonna be City of God? That’s fantastic!” WEYERMANN We’ve obviously started the streaming internationally in Phase 2, which was a Of course, the foreign language voters that year widely embraced and, to my mind, very welcome took a lot of flack for not nominating City of God. addition, because it gives the people whose films are KARASZEWSKI Yes! I learned that lesson right

Todd Wawrychuk/AMPAS Todd in play the opportunity to participate. Having said away, too. W

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 9 FRONT & CENTER / Festival Fever

PROGRAMMERS’ PICKS Programmers at five top international film festivals who track the best of global cinema all year long tell us about their favorites from this year’s race

DAVID ANSEN The Cakemaker, Israel Lead programmer, Palm Springs A German pastry chef goes to Jerusalem International Film Festival in search of the wife of his late lover. Remarkable performances ground an Roma, Mexico emotionally complex film directed with Alfonso Cuarón’s exquisite black-and- exceptional tonal control by Ofir Raul white memory film—inspired by his Graizer, and the ultimately elevating upbringing in Mexico City, and the indige- resolution reminds us that grief is often nous housekeeper who held the splintered the price of great love. (And there are family together—casts a spell that I didn’t amazing cakes.) want to wake from. This is filmmaking at the highest level: its virtuosity inseparable from its humanity. Shoplifters, Japan Border, Sweden Hirokazu Kore-eda is at the top of his The strange looking protagonist of Ali game in this story of a makeshift family Abbasi’s bold, unsettling movie works as a of petty grifters struggling to survive in border guard, literally sniffing out trouble Tokyo. The relationships he creates on with her uncanny olfactory powers. The screen are so intimate and lived-in they film itself is on the border of many genres: can break your heart. It won a well-de- horror and sci-fi, love story and social served Palme d’Or in Cannes. fable. Whatever you call it, its freakish images will stay in your head forever, like it or not. JANE SCHOETTLE International programmer, Toronto International Film Festival Jirga, Australia An Australian former soldier’s return Capernaum, Lebanon to Afghanistan in search of redemption Powerful, honest, compassionate with- makes the year’s most compelling case out being manipulative, Nadine Labacki for cross-cultural understanding and utilizes nonprofessional actors to take us forgiveness. With a production backstory into the slums of Beirut, where childhood as compelling as the adventurous narra- without innocence (or birth certificates) is tive itself, Benjamin Gilmour’s beautifully the norm, and grinding poverty rules. Still, shot insight into little-known aspects of a productive anger and triumphant spirit Afghani culture should be seen by every- are the spine of the film, and I’ve remem- one this year. bered every frame since I saw it.

10 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 CARA CUSUMANO DREA CLARK Director of programming, Head programmer, U.S. fiction, Tribeca Film Festival Los Angeles Film Festival

Cold War, Poland The Guilty, Denmark Pawel Palikowski’s followup to his Oscar- A thriller told in real time, Gustav Möller’s winning Ida is a stunning black-and-white film is tense and relentless as story beats epic love story of two people ripped apart and character revelations unfold in rapid and reunited repeatedly in late-20th- pace—all the more notable in a film set century Europe. As a metaphor for post- entirely around one man in a single loca- WWII European fracturing it’s effective, tion, talking on the phone. That it continu- and as a tragic romance it’s devastating. ally manages to surprise, while crafting an unexpected and rich antihero in its lead character, makes it a thrill to behold. LANE KNEEDLER Director of Programming, AFI Fest The Heiresses, Paraguay Instead of the comfortable later years that What Will People Say, Norway the privileged life with her partner has While Iram Haq’s powerful sophomore prepared her for, Chela (Ana Brun) finds film sounds on the surface like a standard herself cast into unexpected waters when coming-of-age, teenage rebellion story, the debts they’ve racked up in sustaining Haq skillfully outlines the constrictive their lifestyle catch up with them. Chela’s boundaries of cultural norms that not only growth while finding her own footing is cross borders but stretch across time and graceful in Marcelo Martinessi’s explora- space. Sixteen-year-old Nisha struggles tion of class, sexuality, and independence, with the same things that have frustrated and Brun’s performance is an intricate teenagers since time immemorial, but master class. Haq’s masterful framing pulls this story up to a higher plateau of discourse. It Yellow Is Forbidden, New Zealand was an incredible year for female film- A character study, process doc and snap- makers in the wider field of world cinema, shot of our global economy at work, Yellow and this is a prime example. Is Forbidden is a rare documentary to be included on this list, and for good reason. The work of the designer at its center, Guo Pei, is visually spectacular, and the film’s stunning cinematography and director Pietra Brettkelly’s attention to detail make it feel fully cinematic.

Note: Last year’s programmers’ picks included six of the nine shortlisted films and four of the five nominees, including the winner.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 11

BURNING, LEE CHANG-DONG’S QUIETLY MENACING DRAMA ABOUT RAGE, IS TRYING TO BECOME THE FIRST KOREAN FILM TO GRAB A TICKET TO THE OSCARS—AND INTERNATIONAL STAR STEVEN YEUN IS HERE TO HELP

BY STEVE POND PHOTOGRAPHED ELISABETH CAREN t doesn’t seem right that South Korea has never been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but director Lee Chang-dong and actor Steven Yeun are But Burning comes to the race riding plenty not the types to raise a fuss about it. “I’m not of acclaim. While the film was shut out by sure how interested Academy members are this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury, which in Korean film at this point, but I also think it gave the top prize to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s isn’t too far out of their view,” said Lee mildly, Shoplifters, it was not only the best reviewed despite the fact that his slowly simmering movie at this year’s festival, scoring a 3.8 drama Burning is trying to end that streak of I know what average (out of a possible 4.0) in Screen Daily’s futility. “With everything, the most difficult critics’ poll, it was the best reviewed movie in part is opening the first door.” it means to the history of Cannes—or, at least, the 21-year Yeun, who’s watched his country of birth history of the poll, where its score beat the get shut out from the vantage point of the U.S., traverse two previous champ, Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann. where he’s lived since the age of 4, added, “I (That one didn’t win anything from the jury, don’t know why Korea hasn’t been nominated. cultures, but either.) I don’t know if it’s timing or overthinking. I A very loose adaptation of Haruki know that Korea sometimes would submit the you realize Murakami’s short story Barn Burning, the film that isn’t gonna get nominated over the film is a character study that turns into a one that probably had the best shot of being that neither love triangle that turns into a tense mystery; nominated—namely, every Lee Chang-dong it’s a measured and placid film until, very film that’s ever been made, in my opinion.” side wants to suddenly, it isn’t. Ah-in Yoo plays Jongsu, a Lee did represent the country twice before, shy aspiring writer from a rural town who with Oasis in 2002 and Secret Sunshine in accept you” becomes besotted with Haemi (Jeon Jong Seo), 2007, but he’s only one of a large crop of a free-spirited but mysterious young woman acclaimed South Korean directors who’ve he knew as a child. But Haemi takes a trip - STEVEN YEUN been ignored by the Academy. (This seems to to Africa and comes back with Ben (Yeun), a be part of a curious institutional disregard for casually cocky city dweller with a perfect look, Asian cinema; see sidebar, page 17.) a perfect Porsche, a perfect apartment and, Ben

14 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 or another, regardless of nationality, religion or class.” Yeun felt that way, too—and in the past, he’d turned to the work of director Lee to help him understand it. “I saw [1999’s] Peppermint Candy, and it explained the inexplicable rage you feel as a Korean man that you can’t explain to yourself,” he said. “Especially as an emigrant with no context for why you would feel that way. My home life was great. Why was I feeling this angst and rage? And I realized it’s just inherited trauma from gener- ations. I was able to contextualize it through that film.” But the actor found that the character of Ben spoke to him for different reasons as well. “I think all three of these char- acters explore loneliness in their own ways, and I know that feeling,” he said. “I know what it means to be cosmopol- itan, because I’ve been able to traverse through these two cultures. And the thing that you realize is that neither side confesses one night, a habit wants to accept you fully, for whatev- of occasionally burning er reason. You can be angry and go to down greenhouses for the war against that, or you can accept that thrill of it. that’s actually life. We are people with But is he telling the no country. We’re all alone, but we’re all truth? In the story and Newcomer Jeon Jong-seo, together because we’re all alone. That the movie, the audience doesn’t know if Ben top, plays a young woman who was something that I identified with about comes between an aspiring burns down the occasional greenhouse or if writer from the country played Ben that was interesting.” he only talks about it—or if he actually does by Ah-in Yoo and an urbane Yeun came to Burning almost a decade something much worse. city dweller played by Steven after hitting it big as former pizza delivery Yeun, above “I was very interested in that small piece boy Glenn Rhee on six seasons of The Walking of mystery in the story,” said Lee through an Dead. After being killed in the opening episode interpreter. “I thought I could expand that of Season 7 in 2016, he worked with Korean small mystery into a larger sense of mystery director Bong Joon-ho on the 2017 Cannes about the world we live in and the lives we entry Okja, which directly led to his new film. lead.” “I was in London, sleepless at 3 a.m., not The film is lyrical and languid but also knowing what to do, and all of a sudden I got increasingly tense and puzzling, with a phone call from director Bong,” he said. “He moments—notably a topless sunset dance to was like, ‘You gotta call me right back—direc- Miles Davis by Hae-mi—that TheWrap’s Ben tor Lee Chang-dong wants to talk to you.’ And Croll called “the most accomplished displays of I was like, ‘What?’ Apparently director Lee cinematic poetry since…The Tree of Life.” But at had been made aware of this interview I did its heart, the director insisted, is darkness and in Korea for Okja, where they asked me who anger. “I wanted to do a project on rage,” he I wanted to work with and I said Lee Chang- said. “These days, not just in Korea but all over dong. I didn’t ever think anything would hap- the world, people seem enraged for one reason pen, but then I got the phone call, and then I

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 15 got the script, and now here I am talking about These days, not the film we made. It’s really insane.” just in Korea Making his first movie in the Korean language was trickier than Yeun anticipated, but all over even though he’d spoken it at home growing the world, up. But the defining aspect of his character was not his impeccable style of speaking—it people seem was his air of mystery, his ability to simulta- neously come across as a cultured young man enraged for and a potentially cold-blooded killer. some reason” “Steven and I talked a lot about this charac- ter, but we never really came to a conclusion on whether Ben is actually a serial killer or - LEE CHANG-DONG if he’s just a nice, young, rich man,” said Lee. “For this movie, we really had to maintain the ambiguity of this character until the very end. So after each scene we talked about all the details in order to maintain that ambiguity. But for an actor, ambiguity isn’t enough for them to act. For every detail they need inner emotional motivation.” So Lee told Yeun to work out for himself whether Ben was harmless, or an occasion- al pyromaniac—or, as Jongsu begins to suspect after Haemi disappears, whether his talk of burning down green- houses is simply a metaphor for something darker and actually there, but at the same deadlier. “As an actor, I think time look at it from an out- it helps to know the truth sider’s perspective,” he said. of that,” he said. “And that’s “That scene may not be part of the grace that director Lee reality. In the movie, as soon gave me. He said, ‘You’re the as Jongsu starts writing his only one that will know, and novel, you see the perspectives you’ve got to make that choice for yourself.’ change. So the last scene might just be a scene Ah-in Yoo, above , plays an And nobody knows but me.” aspiring writer from the from the novel he’s writing.” Jongsu’s slowly simmering resentment country who comes to feel As for Yeun, he’s not about to reveal what and anger toward Ben gradually builds hatred and suspicion for he thinks really happens. And he’s not about Steven Yeun’s character toward a shocking, sudden climax—but just to attribute his roles in this film and in Okja to as Lee wants viewers to question the nature a master plan to work with Korean masters on of the storytelling, he wants them to also the heels of his Walking Dead exit. “When I got wonder whether they can trust what they the opportunity to work with director Bong see on screen. and director Lee, it wasn’t me going, ‘I want to “I wanted the audience to feel as if they’re try a Korean film,’” he said. “It was more like,

16 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 DO THE OSCARS HAVE AN ASIA PROBLEM?

hile South Korea is one of the more striking examples of a country whose acclaimed filmmakers have been unable W to land an Oscar nomination, it is far from the only country in that boat. And the further east you go, the more the Academy’s foreign-language voters seem to have difficulty with foreign cinema. Over the last 20 years, more than half the nominations that have gone to countries in Asia have been for Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Israel and Palestine. If you focus on East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, the picture is sobering: Two nominations and one win for Japan, one nomination each for Cambodia, China, India, Nepal and Taiwan and nothing for Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The grim total: 20 years, 17 countries, 228 submissions and just seven nominations, during a period when Europe had 59 nominations and North America, a continent with only two eligible countries (Canada and Mexico), had nine. The list of esteemed international auteurs who’ve been bypassed by Oscar voters in that time includes South Korea’s Kim Ki-duk (Pieta) and Bong Joon-ho (Mother), Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows), Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao- hsien (The Assassin and Flowers of Shanghai), Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai (The Grandmaster, which was shortlisted but not nominated) and Johnnie To (Life Without Principle), China’s Chen Kaige (Caught in the Web) and Zhang Yimou (The Flowers of War) and Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle these two auteurs are willing to give me a Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). shot. I’ll go anywhere to get that shot. You might be able to blame part of this on the curious sub- “I don’t have an objective,” he added. missions made by Asian countries, which often seem to play “I’m just trying to go with it, whatever it is. politics or try to second-guess Oscar voters in their choices. And But I will say that I think the industry and Asian representation in the Academy itself has been woefully America still perceive me through the lens small over the years, with an estimated 250 members in 2016, of The Walking Dead, because it’s such a augmented by a substantial number who’ve been invited to join powerful force. And I’m ready and willing to since then. Even so, the 8,000 current members likely include continue to make strides for people to see fewer than 500 Asian Oscar voters. me differently.” And there’s more to it than that. “European films are just a And if one of those strides puts him in the lot more comfortable for the voters,” said one Academy member first Korean film to land an Oscar nomina- who has attended many of the members’ screenings. “Unless it’s tion? “It would be cool,” he said with a small something like The Grandmaster or Departures [a 2008 Japanese grin. “I really would love for the Western film which gave that country its only win], voters just never world to get a real good download of director seem to connect to Asian cinema.” —SP Lee and his work. Because he’s been telling it like it is for a while.” W

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 17 foreign film star gallery ACT GLO BAL SOME OF OUR FAVORITE PERFORMANCES THIS YEAR HAVE COME IN FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILMS

LYinterviews by Steve Pond and Sharon Waxman Gutter Credit TKTK Credit Gutter TKTK Credit Gutter 18 / THEWRAP / MONTH 00, 2015 SOME OF OUR JOANNA KULIG FAVORITE PERFORMANCES Cold War

THIS YEAR HAVE COME IN Director Pawel Pawlikowski has called Kulig his muse and used her in three of his films:The Woman in the Fifth, Ida and FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILMS now Cold War, in which she plays a singer in a story inspired by the relationship between Pawlikowski’s parents. “I saw his mother’s photo, and she was small and blond,” said Kulig, who is both of those things (and quite pregnant, too). “But my biggest inspiration was Lauren Bacall. If something didn’t work on the set, Pawel said, ‘Joanna, now Lauren Bacall.’”

Photograph by MATT SAYLES FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 19 Hair: ANDY LECOMPTE Makeup: JO BAKER Gutter Credit TKTK Credit Gutter TKTK Credit Gutter Stylist: JEANANN WILLIAMS FOLIO TITLE TK / 19 gallery star film foreign

JULI JAKAB Sunset

“I got used to it very quickly—I had to,” said Jakab of filming László Nemes’ Budapest-set period drama Sunset, in which her character, Iris, appears in virtually every frame. “Of course it was very exhausting to be in the middle of everything all the time. But being Iris 12 hours a day somehow gave me energy and helped me get through those 54 days of shooting.” Gutter Credit TKTK Credit Gutter TKTK Credit Gutter 20 / THEWRAP / MONTH 00, 2015 Photograph by ELISABETH CAREN foreign

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VICTOR POLSTER Girl

Polster was a 14-year-old aspiring dancer who’d never acted when he auditioned for a small role in Lukas Dhont’s story of a transgender teen dancer—but he landed the lead role instead. “I was scared that I was going to get injured, because I had never danced in pointe shoes,” he said. “And I was scared that I wouldn’t be believable as the character of Lara. But the role didn’t scare me—I think I would have been scared whatever film I did.” Gutter Credit TKTK Credit Gutter TKTK Credit Gutter FOLIO TITLE TK / 21 Photograph by ELISABETH CAREN gallery

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TOM SCHILLING Never Look Away

Schilling’s audition for director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck didn’t get him the part of an aspiring German artist searching for his voice during three tumultuous decades before and after World War II. After all, he’s a self-described terrible auditioner. “I had to write Florian a letter in which I talked about all my failures auditioning,” he said. “I was so insecure about whether [the letter] would hit a good spot in him or not. He could have said, ‘Sorry, that’s crazy, get lost.’” 22 / THEWRAP / MONTH 00, 2015 Photograph by ELISABETH CAREN OSCARS® Best Foreign-Language Film, Taiwan Entry , HSIN-YAO HUANG

"...safe to expect he (Huang) will join the ranks of Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang in carrying the torch for New Taiwanese Cinema.”

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USC, Ray Stark Family Theatre (SCA) , 108 Arena Cinelounge 11/29 7PM (Q&A) 11/30-12/5 (DAILY, Q&A on 11/30) AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

ONE OF THE DEEPEST AND BEST AROUND OSCAR FOREIGN-LANGUAGE RACES EVER MAKES GLOBETROTTING A PLEASURE. HERE’S THEWRAP’S THE GUIDE TO THE ENTIRE FIELD, WORLD REGION BY REGION. IN BY STEVE POND

WAY S

24 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 Top to bottom: Graves Without a Name, The Wild Pear Tree, Dogman, The Great Mystical Circus, Capernaum AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

Family First

Canada, meanwhile, is looking to get back to the streak it had between 2003 and NORTH 2012, with one winner, five nominations and two more shortlisted films in a 10-year stretch. This year, it’s represented by AMERICA Family First, Sophie Dupuis’ family drama in hould we start with the surest bet which the family is involved in organized of all? That would have to be the crime and the setting is the working-class Mexican entry, Alfonso Cuarón’s Verdun borough of Montreal. SRoma, which is a strong contender to become the first film to be nominated both for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture since Michael Haneke’s Amour turned the trick in 2012. A love letter to a nanny who helped raised Cuarón and his siblings, the luminous black-and-white drama based on his childhood memories was one of the biggest hits of the fall festi- vals, and Netflix will be giving it a big push

in all categories, not just foreign-language. Roma (But everybody is assuming it’ll be nomi- nated there.)

26 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FAMILY FIRST First-time feature director Sophie Dupuis tells the story of a young man in a rough Montreal suburb trying to protect his volatile younger brother and escape the family trade of drug dealing.

What was the starting point for your Why set that story in the world of what you’re seeing when you watch script? drugs and crime? the movie. I’m an only child—I don’t have any I heard the story of a mother who had brothers or sisters—and that kind a great relationship with her son, and There’s a rich cinematic history of mov- of love I will never experience is one day she found out that he was ies about families involved in crime, fascinating to me. It’s hurting people to get them to from the Godfather films to Mean always there when I’m pay their drug debts. And I was Streets to recent films like Animal King- writing, which was one fascinated by her capacity to dom. Were you thinking about those of the reasons I did this SPOTLIGHT close her eyes to this reality, and when you were making your film? film. And the other was to to ignore the values she believed I love Animal Kingdom, but I’m mostly do a family story, because in in order to keep her relation- just following my instincts. I think those intense relationships are really ship with her son. the relationships in my movies are interesting to me. I wanted to make And I also wanted to do a movie more based on relationships I saw or a movie about a family where you with a character who is bigger than heard about in my life. I’m interested feel trapped. And to do that, I made life. I wanted [the younger brother] in the psychology of that life, but I’m a character who feels responsible for to be explosive, to be very energetic. working from instincts more than I’m those other people—and if he leaves That’s something that will always be referring to classic films. It’s hard for to save his own life, he doesn’t know part of my filming from now on—this me to name films that have had an if they will survive. kind of energy where you can’t believe influence on me. —SP

the shot. Somebody might film, which is very person- ROMA say, “Wow, why are you al and emotional, is shot in Alfonso Cuarón’s black-and-white family story is based on changing that shot? It was a very detached way. his own childhood memories, but is shot in a restrained way amazing.” “Yeah, but that It’s a very objective way that doesn’t use zooms or subjective camera moves. was not mine. That was of shooting an experience. another director’s. May- There’s an objectivity, but be a better director, but I also an emotional attach- Did you ever feel as if the commit to doing some- have to do it differently.” ment. I wanted the camera restrictions of making thing with a film, you Now, like any filmmaker, to be more like a ghost of a movie based on your have to honor it. It was cinema is in my DNA. the future that is just wit- specific memories got the same thing when I Even if I’m consciously nessing those events. —SP in the way? That if you decided that I could not trying not to do any refer- could change this or that, be referential. If I would ences, I’m sure there are More of TheWrap’s inter- it would make for a better catch myself doing a shot references just by the fact view with Cuarón can be story? that I recognized was a that I’m doing it. found in the accompanying That was always the reference to something, I The Race Begins issue. temptation, but once you would completely change It’s fascinating that this

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 27 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

Ruben Blades Is Not My Name

Of this year’s Central American submissions, the highest profile is Abner Benaim’s Ruben CENTRAL Blades Is Not My Name, a documentary about actor, musician, political activist and occasional politician Ruben Blades, who has been Panama’s AMERICA most popular star around the world for years. Costa Rica’s submission is Medea, a drama about a bored college student whose new relationship is ew countries in Central America or threatened by her secret pregnancy, from director the Caribbean have submitted many Alexandra Latishev Salazar. films to the Oscars over the years, Although some press reports said that Cuba F with only Cuba and Puerto Rico ever submitted Sergio & Sergei, the Academy never receiving nominations—and beginning in received an official Cuban entry. That means 2011, the latter was disqualified for being that the only Caribbean country to submit this a U.S. territory and is no longer eligible to year was the Dominican Republic, whose entry is submit. (A group of Puerto Rican filmmakers Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias’ Cocote. The film told the press that they appealed to the is about a gardener who is pushed both to avenge Academy to reconsider this year, but AMPAS his father’s death and attend religious services says it never received an appeal.) that conflict with his evangelical Christianity.

28 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 The Heiresses

SOUTH AMERICA

n this century, South America family, and the first film in more than A Son of Man and Muralla, respective- has only sporadically landed a decade from Carlos Diegues, who ly. The former, starring and directed Oscar nominations, though has represented his country in the by Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador I Argentina won for 2009’s The Oscar race six times since 1976, more under the name Jamaicanoproblem, Secret in Their Eyes and Chile is the than any other director. follows Fernández-Salvador and his defending champion for Sebastián Ciro Guerra directed the first estranged son on a hunt for Inca Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman. While Colombian film ever nominated for gold; shot in mountainous jungles Lelio has moved on to make a couple an Oscar, 2015’s Embrace of the largely with drones, it also qualified of English-language films, Chile Serpent, and he’s back in the race for the Oscar documentary race. The has submitted ...And Suddenly the with Birds of Passage, which he Bolivian entry is Rodrigo Patiño’s Dawn, the first film in more than a co-directed with his ex-wife, Cristina thriller about a soccer player who decade from director Silvio Caiozzi, Gallego. Their film starts out as an gets involved in human trafficking in who previously represented the examination of the old customs of the an attempt to raise the money for an country in the Oscar race in 1990 Wayuu people of northern Colombia organ transplant for his son. (The Moon in the Mirror) and 2000 in the 1970s, but turns into a blood- Paraguay, which is submitting (Coronation). His new film, which is soaked chronicle of the ways in to the Oscars for only the third more than three hours long, deals which the drug trade transformed the time, has gone with Marcelo with a writer who returns to his country. Crime also figures in Gustavo Martinessi’s The Heiresses. Ana hometown after being away for Rondón Córdova’s Venezuelan entry, Brun won the Silver Bear for Best decades. In Argentina’s entry, The Family, which deals with a father Actress at this year’s Berlin Film El Ángel, director Luis Ortega tells and son who are forced to go into Festival for her performance as a the story of a real-life serial killer in hiding in Caracas after the 12-year- middle-aged gay woman who falls Buenos Aires in the 1970s, a charm- old boy runs afoul of a local gang. on hard times when her longtime ing but amoral young man who was Peru, which landed a a surprise partner is sent to jail for fraud. dubbed “the Angel of Death” because nomination in 2009 for The Milk of And Uruguay has submitted Álvaro of his angelic looks. Sorrow, submitted Eternity, which Brechner’s A Twelve-Year Night, a Like Chile, Brazil has also gone is set in a remote village high in the fact-based drama about the 12 years with the return of an esteemed Andes, where an elderly couple are that future president José “Pepe” auteur: The Great Mystical Circus is waiting for a visit from their son. Its Mujica spent in solitary confinement the magical-realism-spiked story of neighbors to the north and south, under the military dictatorship that five generations in the life of a circus Ecuador and Bolivia, have entered ruled the country from 1972 to 1984.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 29 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

BIRDS OF PASSAGE Ciro Guerra, whose Embrace of the Serpent was nominated for the Oscar in 2016, co-directed with his ex-wife Cristina Gallego for the first time on this story of how the drug trade enriched but nearly destroyed the traditional Wayuu tribes in northern Colombia in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

SPOTLIGHT

What about this story spoke to the It’s a different representation of the special, very strong women. They two of you? Colombian drug trade than the Pablo lead their families through a very CRISTINA GALLEGO We knew about Escobar-style stories we usually see. tough life in a very harsh landscape, these people, the Wayuu, from taking CIRO GUERRA We feel that there and they are sort of the keepers of journeys in that part of the country. has been a glorification of criminals, tradition—they are the ones who are But when we started to hear about which has been really painful for our in contact with the spiritual world, the history from when this film is set country. It’s very hard to see Pablo the ones who dream. But also the in the ’60s, it just blew up our minds. Escobar become a hero to a genera- ones who are involved in politics. The question was, Why we didn’t tion, because his process was really GALLEGO But all the history is writ- know anything about this history? a process of destruction—the moral ten by males. All the history of the In this region, where they have this destruction of our whole country. narco trafficking was written by men. code of behavior, rules that are very And this story has been told from We started asking what happened strict, many families killed each other outside points of view, so we wanted with the women in the period, and one by one, over 300 members of to give our take, from a Colombian we found that we were going to hear families. point of view. We felt that our story these histories not in the lobby or the We saw that period as a big was a different perspective, and there living room—we go to the kitchen to gangster movie that hasn’t been told. was no glorification. know the truth. Normally, when you And as we started to develop, we go to visit some tribes, the males are found out that it was a matriarchal The female characters have a fasci- telling the history, but that is the his- society, so we wanted to tell the story nating dynamic—they are the leaders tory that we already heard. We found through the eyes of a very strong in some of the old rituals but they that the history that we wanted to woman. We decided at that point we are also making decisions about this tell was behind those stories. It was should direct together, that the film new revenue stream as well. silent history told by the women. needed my point of view. GUERRA Wayuu women are very —MATT DONNELLY

30 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPHED BY STEVEN GERLICH FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION FRANCE’S OFFICIAL SUBMISSION BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM ® 91ST ACADEMY AWARDS ® ®®® “POETIC, AMBITIOUS & GRACEFUL.”

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THE WRAP Trim: 8.375 x 10.875 Version 2 - FINAL ISSUE DATE: Tuesday, November 16, 2018 Bleed: 8.875 x 11.375 Client: Music Box Films DUE DATE: Wednesday, November 7 Live: 8.125 x 10.625 Title: Memoir of War AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

The Resistance Banker

WESTERN EUROPE

ver the last 10 years, 20 percent of the Oscar activities in the German army during World War II nominations have come from countries in came to light during the campaign. By extension, the this region, with Austria and Belgium pick- Waldheim story examines Austria’s whitewashing O ing up two nominations each and France and of its complicity during the war, which makes it a Germany three each. (But they only have one win in bold choice for that country to submit. that time, for Austria’s Amour.) Another Western European documentary, This year, four of the Western European entries Switzerland’s Eldorado, examines the price of that deal with World War II in various ways. France’s country’s stance of neutrality, intertwining the entry, Emmanuel Finkiel’s Memoir of War, is based stories of the Italian child whom director Markus on a Marguerite Duras novel about a young wom- Imhoof’s family took in during the war and the an (Mélanie Thierry) whose husband is arrested by current plight of today’s European refugees. Imhoof the Germans in occupied France during the war. The was nominated for an Oscar for 1981’s The Boat Is Netherlands’ submission, The Resistance Banker, is set Full, a drama about WWII refugees that was also at the same time in the occupied Netherlands, telling inspired by his family’s experience. the story of Walraven van Hall, a banker who defraud- German director Florian Henckel von ed the Nazis to funnel money to the Dutch resistance. Donnersmarck was responsible for the brilliant And one of the two documentaries submitted from Cold War drama The Lives of Others, which scored the region, Ruth Beckermann’s The Waldheim Waltz, an upset Oscar victory over Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006. mostly takes place in 1986, but it follows the Austrian His 2010 English-language debut was the disastrous presidential campaign of Kurt Waldheim, whose Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie vehicle The Tourist,

I Am Not a Witch

32 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 but Donnersmarck is back on firmer ground with this year’s German entry, Never GIRL Look Away. The film, which The first feature film from was shot by Caleb Deschanel young Belgian director Lukas and premiered in Venice, Dhont won several awards in explores life in Germany Cannes, including an acting from the 1930s through the prize for teen Victor Polster, 1960s through the story of a who plays a transgender girl young boy who becomes an with ambitions of becoming accomplished artist. Luxembourg’s entry, a ballerina. meanwhile, has nothing to do with the war. In Gutland, a scruffy German drifter arrives in a small Luxembourg town hoping SPOTLIGHT to lie low—but everybody in town (including Vicky Krieps, who made a splashy This film started with a news story, to include trans talents in the bigger Hollywood debut last year didn’t it? picture. in The Phantom Thread), It’s based on someone very close to me. For this role, we started casting a notices him, and it turns out In 2009, I was confronted with a news year and a half before we started shoot- that they are hiding plenty article in a Belgian newspaper about a ing. We saw 500 young people. We saw of their own secrets. 15-year-old trans girl, Nora, who wanted young trans girls, we saw young boys The sleeper in the group, to change classes in her classical dance and we saw young girls. You needed though, may be first-time school, from the boy’s class to the girl’s someone of 15, and not everyone of 15 Belgian director Lukas class, and her school didn’t allow her to has the maturity to play this. But you Dhont’s Girl, which won the do that. I contacted her, because I had need someone who is able to do that, Camera d’Or as the best first an immediate admiration for her as a and then you need someone who is film at this year’s Cannes person. I was 18 at the time, and she able to dance the classical level of dance Film Festival, as well as the was an example to me of someone who that is on that screen, which is also Queer Palm as its best LGBT was able to choose the truest version of really demanding. And then you need entry. Featuring a remark- herself. I wanted to shoot a documenta- someone who can act and stay natural able performance by Victor ry about her, but she did not want to do in front of a camera, and can represent Polster, the understated that at the time. She was going through that identity in an elegant way. but wrenching film follows transformation and she was also in a At some point, we thought that an aspiring ballet student school where the situation was kind of combination of things was impossible undergoing hormone therapy complex. But she did agree to start the to find. And then Victor came in. For and awaiting gender confir- writing of a fiction script. our team, we just felt that this was the mation surgery. Another film first person in such a long time who to watch is the U.K.’s entry, Hollywood has been criticized could do this. And I talked to Nora for Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not recently for casting cisgender actors a long time about how she felt being a Witch. The Zambian-born in trans roles, and you did that by represented by Victor, and she was just writer-director visited actual casting Victor Polster, a young danc- like in awe of him. And then I felt, ‘OK, camps for “witches” before er, as Lara. What was your casting let’s do this.” making this satirical, magical- process like? When I see this film, it proves to me realist take on a young girl First of all, I think it’s important for that the biggest quality of an artist is accused of having supernatu- me to say that we’re not part of the empathy, whether that be in an actor ral powers. Hollywood system. Also important to or director. It’s empathy, and Victor has say that I do think the dialogue is vital that. —SP

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ELISABETH CAREN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 33 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

SPOTLIGHT NEVER LOOK AWAY Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck covers three decades of German history, from the eve of World War II to a divided country after the building of the Berlin Wall, in his story of an artist (Tom Schilling) looking to find his voice.

We see your main character before World War II, then after the war in East Berlin, and eventually in the West. Why did you want to tell a story that spanned that much time? I felt it was impossible to look at these episodes isolat- ed from each other. Each was a reaction to a previous event. And I thought it was interesting to take an artist who was shaped by the atrocious art philosophy of the Nazis and then the almost-as-atrocious art philosophy of the Communists, and then flees to the West and has nothing left to rely on. Everything that he’s learned is of no use in this society where art is completely free. I thought it would be interesting to watch the journey of this person toward freedom across some of the least free times that history has ever known.

In this movie, as in The Lives of Others, you’re looking both at large changes in society and at small effects on the people in that society. [Milan] Kundera, who wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being, said the big novels and the truly exciting stories that have relevance for our time are written where history has recently happened and you can feel the effects of history. Our county, Germany, has been at the center of every craziness, of every madness, of every abomination of the 20th century. And in a miniature form, it lived through all the big changes. The whole world was divided into an Eastern and a Western bloc, and our country was actually as a country divided into an eastern and western bloc. In a way, we lived with the effects of that, and we live with it to the present day. That’s part of the message of the movie. Great art that is about the personal trauma that is tied to the trauma of an entire country and of the world. —SHARON WAXMAN

34 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPHED BY ELISABETH CAREN SPOTLIGHT Getty Images Getty

ELDORADO When director Markus Imhoof was a child in the 1940s, his family took in a young Italian girl, Joanna, who was fleeing the dangers in that war-torn country; in Eldorado, he mixes Joanna’s story with up-close accounts of today’s refugee crisis in Europe.

Did you set out to weave together Normally people say don’t shoot today’s refugee crisis with your with children or animals. But it’s family’s story from World War II? much more difficult to shoot with When I asked for permission from the government. They don’t want the Italian navy, I told them the to be visible. But the navy had been story of Joanna to tell them my under fire from the right wing motivation. But I never thought it saying, “You are running a taxi for would be a part in the film. Then refugees,” so they had been interest- I had a meeting in Berlin with my ed to show what they really do and producers after we had shot on the how hard it is. sea about how to go on. I told them I had to sign that I would show about Joanna and started crying. them what we shot. I showed them The producer and my assistant said, only the scenes on the boat, but “Why didn’t you tell us this?” It was they didn’t know the point of the an intimate story, so I hesitated to film, so they forced me to show tell it to them. But I am happy they them the whole film. But mean- asked that I make it part of the while it was a big success at the movie. Berlinale festival, so they couldn’t say no to the film. It would have How difficult was it to shoot where been ridiculous if they had tried you did on the Mediterranean? to. —SP

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All three countries have submitted films with some contemporary urgency. Denmark has gone THE with Gustav Möller’s The Guilty, a thriller set entire- ly in a single room as a police officer demoted to desk work tries to track down a kidnaped woman without NORDIC leaving his post. Norway opted for Iram Haq’s What Will People Say, the story of a teenage girl whose immigrant parents ship her back to relatives in COUNTRIES Pakistan when they find her with a boy in her room. enmark, Sweden and Norway are among And Sweden has gone with one of the sensations of the most successful countries in recent this year’s Cannes: Ali Abbasi’s Border, a creepy and Oscar history, with Denmark landing one disturbing film about a customs agent with the ability D win, five nominations and one other short- to smell people’s feelings; it’s either an allegory about listed film in the last eight years and Sweden coming how we treat outsiders, a movie about trolls having into this year’s race with two consecutive nominations sex or some combination thereof. and three shortlisted films in the same span. Norway, Finland and Iceland have not been as successful at meanwhile, has one nomination and one shortlisted the Oscars as their Nordic neighbors, but they tend to film in that time. submit imaginative and challenging films. This year,

WOMAN AT WAR Benedikt Erlingsson is back with a wry but passionate film starring Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as a middle-aged eco-warrior.

I love how your heroine is accom- Yeah. It comes from this anxiety panied by a little onscreen about climate change, this band that plays the score apocalyptic scenario that to her life. is coming closer and closer. That is not a new idea. It And governments are not goes back to the Greek cho- SPOTLIGHT reacting—it’s criminal. We rus, I think. And of course are the last generation as a storyteller, this is a who can do something very useful tool to show an inner about it, so it’s a crazy challenge. struggle. It has many functions, but it’s an agreement that I make with How do you get from wanting the audience. And they seem to be to make a movie about climate buying it. I wish they would do more change to a lone woman shooting of this. Imagine Tom Cruise with a at power lines with a bow and band, saving the world. arrow? A protector of the earth, savior of How did this film start? You want- the wild and innocent. How do you ed to make a film about climate come to this? I thought in a way

change, and this is what came out? this was really complicated, and it Moller Soqui / Moller: Nikolaj Ted Erlingsson:

36 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 Finland has chosen Teemu Nikki’s Euthanizer, a dark morality tale about a mechanic who has a side job killing old and sick pets for much less than THE the vets charge, though he does so only after lecturing the owners on GUILTY Director Gustav Möller’s how they’ve failed the animals. And Iceland has gone with the new film film is a thriller that takes from Benedikt Erlingsson, whose place entirely in one room, brilliantly weird Of Horses and Men as a police dispatcher tries represented the country in 2013. to deal with a panicked call Woman at War is a twisted comedy from a kidnaped woman about a mild-mannered middle-aged while never leaving his desk. woman who roams the Icelandic SPOTLIGHT countryside taking down power lines with a bow and arrow, and is the work of a director with a great eye and a great fondness for silliness. You’d just come out of film school, you big kicker was the fact that you and were making your first feature and you me, listening to this call, would see two chose an idea where the concept gave different women in two different cars you big limitations as a filmmaker. Was on two different highways. That was there any sense that maybe you should the starting point, to make a film that have started with something simpler? would play out in a different way for I don’t think I would want to spend two everyone watching it. or three years on something simpler. Then I would get bored. I like a film to be If you’re restricted to a single location a challenge or an unanswered question. for the entire film, how do you keep And with this film the question was, things interesting visually? “Can we pull this off? Will this work?” We shot the whole film in chronologi- Suspense is the main tool in this film. cal order, ranging from 5-to-35-minute And I think it’s always hard to make takes. And we shot the whole thing suspense work for a full 90 minutes. with three cameras, because I wanted Looking at it from the outside, it’s clearer a real-time sense in the acting. If we that a one-location film poses that diffi- had a good five minutes of acting, I culty, but I think it’s always a challenge. wanted to be covered. had many gray areas and many ideas. And from there, me and my DP So the challenge, really, was to make The film was inspired by a real 911 call, broke down the script into eight an accessible, mainstream, blockbuster wasn’t it? parts, so we would shoot the film in film about this. An art-house block- The call was a clip I found on YouTube. eight takes. And we would look at buster on a very complicated issue. In a way, it was similar to the one in where the main character was men- Is that even possible? Or to make a the film: a kidnpped woman calling tally. At the start of the film, he was feel-good film about an apocalyptic 911, sitting next to her abductor and more distant and in control, so we scenario. So this is really what we speaking in code to the operator. It was shot it with long lenses, a static cam- played with. a 20-minute call, and I was hooked. era. And as he gets more involved we Aristophanes, the great play- It was fascinating to me that a phone start using Steadicam, we start using wright in Greece, told us you can be call could be that exciting. And after hand-held. It was always important really deep and philosophical at the I listened to the call, I really had a for us to have the main character’s same time you can be brutally light. sensation of having seen this woman psychology determine how we should The joke can also have big wisdom in and the car she was riding in. And the shoot the film. —SP

Erlingsson: Ted Soqui / Moller: Nikolaj Moller Soqui / Moller: Nikolaj Ted Erlingsson: it. So that is the challenge. —SP

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BORDER Adapted from a short story by Let the Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist, Iranian-Swedish director Ali Abbasi’s Border was one of the sensations of Cannes this year, both for its oddly tender story about a customs agent who learns she isn’t human and for a scene of troll sex that made audiences squirm in their seats.

Did you grow up in Iran and then outsider, it’s move to Sweden to make films? a universal I grew up in Iran, and when I was 20 experience. or 21, I just wanted to see the world. Even if you’re I was thinking I would maybe settle a white, down in Germany or in Austria, but I middle-class ended up in Sweden after a while and person, you studied architecture there. And then would still I started making some shorts, and at feel like an some point I decided to apply to film outsider if SPOTLIGHT school. I kind of felt like, “I have to see you were put how the real professional film world in a situation works, because I come from a very that doesn’t different background.” appeal to your values. When I saw the film in Cannes, That experience must have had an But having said that, for some during the troll-sex scene the audi- impact on Border, which is at least reason I always had a passion for ence was laughing, cringing, groan- partly about the way we treat people characters who are on the fringe or ing. Did it take a while to figure out we perceive as being the Other. the edge of society—people who are so how far you could go with that scene? People ask me if that has to do with extreme in their values that they’re Not really. For me, that scene is pretty my background, with my being an on the verge of falling off the edge normal in the context of the movie. outsider. And sure, I’ve been an out- of civilization. Sometimes it takes so It’s normal because it’s normal for the sider, but I don’t think it takes much to little to show how thin the layer of characters. It would be strange if they be an outsider. Being a minority or an civilization is, when things crack. were fucking on a sofa with a whiskey in their hand. What I thought about the scene before shooting it was, “OK, we just have to have enough material.” Like every other sex scene, there would be an animalistic tendency or impulse, and then a tender, more intimate one. All the sex scenes I’ve seen, they balance between those poles. I was just trying to get a take that was more intimate, more poetic, more gentle, and then from there we would crank up the animal impulses and see how far makes sense. And once we did that, I had the range and could find the sweet spot. —SP

38 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPHED BY ELISABETH CAREN FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OFFICIAL OSCAR® ENTRY – INDIA

“Deeply satisfying in a completely unexpected way...”

“Pluckily optimistic and unsentimental to a fault…the picture’s rustic charm and “You go, girl!” attitude should rock the house.”

AMPAS & HFPA MEMBERS PLEASE JOIN US SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18 • 1:00PM • RODEO SCREENING ROOM • 150 S RODEO DR #140, BEVERLY HILLS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19 •7PM • LANDMARK THEATRE • 10850 PICO BLVD, LOS ANGELES MONDAY, DECEMBER 3 •7:30PM • MAX PALEVSKY THEATRE AT THE AERO • 1328 MONTANA AVE, SANTA MONICA PLEASE RSVP TO: [email protected]

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS / THE WRAP (FOREIGN ISSUE) FP BLEED Trim: 8.375”X 10.875” Bleed: 8.875” X 11.375” SAFE: 8.125” X 10.625” Run: 11/16 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

Polyxeni

SOUTHERN EUROPE

outhern Europe is home to directed the acclaimed 2008 film One of the most successful movies the country with more Oscar Gomorrah,which caused a minor ever in its home country, the film wins than any other, Italy; furor when it did not make the is a comedy about a basketball Sthe country third in wins Oscar foreign-language shortlist. coach who has a meltdown and is with four and third in nominations Spain also looked past a sentenced to community service with 19, but none for the last in the form of coaching a 13 years, Spain; the country team of disabled amateur that holds the record for the players. Portugal, meanwhile, most submissions without a went with João Botelho’s nomination, Portugal; and Pilgrimage, an adaptation Greece, the country that land- of the best-selling novel by ed four nominations in its first Fernão Mendes Pinto. 10 submissions but has only And ever since the surreal been back to the Oscars once Dogtooth became an unex- since 1978, with the 2010’s pected Oscar nominee, Greece aggressively weird Dogtooth. has alternated between Italy bypassed Alice Pilgrimage submitting similarly offbeat Rorhwacher’s Cannes screen- films and more conventional play winner Happy as Lazzaro ones. Dora Masklavanou’s in favor of Matteo Garrone’s Polyxeni belongs in the more Dogman, the story of a small-town high-profile film, Asghar Farhadi’s straightforward camp, focusing on dog groomer and part-time drug Penélope Cruz/Javier Bardem dra- a 12-year-old girl who is adopted by dealer who has violent encounters ma Everybody Knows, in favor of a family in Constantinople after the with a local thug. Garrone also Javier Fesser’s huge hit Champions. death of her parents.

40 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OFFICIAL OSCAR® ENTRY - ROMANIA

“I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS” written and directed by RADU JUDE

“‘Barbarians’ is a fiercely intelligent, engaging and challenging wake-up call, a film that leaves you smarter at the end than when you went in.”

AMPAS & HFPA MEMBERS PLEASE JOIN US WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7 • 5PM • DICK CLARK SCREENING ROOM • 2900 Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13 • 9:45PM • TCL CHINESE - Theatre 4 - Theatre 6 • 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14 • 7PM • TCL CHINESE - Theatre 5 - Theatre 6 • 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 • 11:00AM • THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL • 300 South Doheny Drive, Los Angeles THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15 • 7:00PM • LANDMARK THEATRE • 10850 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17 • 1PM • LAEMMLE, MONICA FILM CENTER • 1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica PLEASE RSVP: [email protected] OFFICIAL AMPAS SCREENING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 9:30AM • SAMUEL GOLDWYN THEATER • 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills

IDNC / THE WRAP (FOREIGN ISSUE) FP BLEED Trim: 8.375”X 10.875” Bleed: 8.875” X 11.375” SAFE: 8.125” X 10.625” Run: 11/16 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

DOGMAN Marcello Fonte won the best-actor award in Cannes for his performance in Matteo Garrone’s film about a mild-mannered dog groomer (and part-time drug deal- er) who finally gets tired of being bullied by a local gangster.

You shot the film in the same town where you shot some of Gomorrah 10 years ago. Why do you keep going back? I also shot a movie called The Embalmer there in 2002. It’s a place that I love. For this movie, I was looking for a place for a sort of modern Western—a village on a kind of frontier, where the community can be very important in SPOTLIGHT the life of the main character. But at the same time, it’s a place that is metaphorically abstract.

Dogman starts out fairly light By the end of the film, Marcello, your and even comic. Was it tricky main character, has done what we’ve to calibrate the move to a dark- been wanting him to do all along: He er and more violent mood? stands up to the bully and makes sure For me, that’s the most difficult that he won’t be mistreated again. part. I like that I can laugh in And yet the town doesn’t embrace a movie, and at the same time him for that, and as an audience we I like that I can cry in a movie. feel ambivalent too. And it’s difficult to control the Exactly. At the end, we are talking tone. If there is too much of the about two victims. It’s the story of a comic aspect, then the drama can be weather helped us in this direction. man who is losing his innocence. He less strong. We knew that the first part When we were shooting the first part, remains trapped in a mechanism of could be more light and comic, and the there was a lot of sun—and when we violence, but he’s not violent. It’s about second part, where he falls in a sort of were shooting the second part, it start- a human being and how he fights in hole of his mind, can be darker. ed to rain and to be cloudy. [Laughs] this society to remain himself and to And we were lucky, because the The place loves me. be loved by the people. —SP JOHN PHILLIPS/GETTYIMAGES

42 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 SPOTLIGHT

CHAMPIONS Javier Fesser’s film, a huge hit in Spain, finds a hotheaded professional basketball coach sentenced to community service working with a team of mentally disabled players, all of them played by nonprofessional actors.

What led you to this story? entire screenplay using the personalities of the Three years ago, I read the screenplay and fell in people, their experiences, their real lives. love with the characters. Not with the story, with the characters. It was the first time that I felt I am In the movie, the coach has to impose a discipline the right person to tell this story. on his players that they’re not used to. In the shooting, did you have What was the casting to do the same thing process like? with your actors? It was more than a I felt a lot of times like casting. We spent more the coach in the story, than four months yeah. When you’re meeting people, with working with actors, the amazing help of you do a take and an- associations and bas- other take and another ketball teams for the take. You can modify disabled. For me, the and change things. But casting was the way in this case, in every to know deeply their take there is some bril- lives, their families, liant thing that it is not their thoughts. Usu- possible to reproduce. ally in casting, you are looking for the perfect I had to put my level very, very high. The things actors to play the roles that you already wrote. that happen in front of the camera are often very In this case, it was the opposite. After the casting touching, very beautiful things, and you have to be was closed, the original author and I rewrote the at that level to catch them. —SP JOHN PHILLIPS/GETTYIMAGES

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wo of the Eastern European entries love as they meet in different cities at different come with choice pedigrees, because times. If Ida was a movie of the spirit, Cold War is they’re from directors whose last one of the flesh. T films won the foreign-language Os- The Second World War also haunts Slovakia’s car, Hungary’s László Nemes and Poland’s Pawel entry, Martin Šulík’s The Interpreter. A road Pawlikowski. Nemes won with 2015’s harrowing movie about two elderly men, one the son of a Holocaust drama Son of Saul, and he uses a sim- Holocaust victim and one the son of a Nazi killer, ilar approach—with the camera seldom leav- it stars Toni Erdmann’s Peter Simonschek and leg- ing the face of his lead actor, in this case Juli endary Czech director Jirí Menzel. And the Czech Jakab—to tell the story of a young woman who Republic’s submission, Olmo Omerzu’s comedy works in a hat shop in Budapest in 1910. Sunset Winter Flies, is a different kind of road trip, this one taken by two teenage boys in a stolen car. Belarus, meanwhile, makes its first Oscar submis- sion in 22 years with Darya Zhuk’s Crystal Swan, about a club kid and aspiring DJ who is desperate EASTERN to escape the squalor of her homeland for the promise of America. Between 2010 and 2017, five of the eight EUROPE Russian Oscar submissions dealt with aspects is a challenging film that plunges its heroine of WWII—but the country’s two nominations in and the audience into a chaotic environment, that time, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan and using the hat shop as a prism through which to Loveless, were more contemporary stories. Russia explore a Europe that is crumbling on the eve of has nonetheless gone back to a war story with World War I. Sobibor, Konstantin Khabensky’s drama about Like Nemes, Pawlikowski uses a style that is the Jewish Soviet soldier who led an uprising in a similar to the film for which he won an Oscar. His Nazi prison camp. new drama, Cold War, is shot in black and white Ukraine, meanwhile, has submitted a brilliant- in the 4:3 aspect ratio, as was his Oscar-winning ly urgent and vicious film that casts the coun- 2013 film Ida—and like that film, it is ravishing try’s struggles in a harsh light: Sergei Loznitsa’s and haunted. Its lead characters, a couple loosely Donbass, which is part black comedy, part cry of based on the director’s parents, move through a rage over the violence and corruption that runs divided post-World War II Europe, fighting for rampant in the country.

Winter Flies

44 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 SUNSET László Nemes’ last film, Son of Saul, won the Oscar for its harrowing depiction of a World War II con- centration camp; his follow-up goes back 30 years to an elegant but turbulent Budapest a few years before World War I.

give, I think, the audience a possibility to have their own personal journey. So in this case, I wanted to experience things through the eyes of one woman.

Why put her in a glamorous hat shop? It was an instinctive choice. I was inter- ested in the hats as being a symbol of a very sophisticated society and style of behaving. A whole industry was based on that. It’s a sort of ritual and a coded system that showed something of the il- SPOTLIGHT lusion of the world that they were living in, the optimism. I think that the hats are now seen as something very superficial, What led you to set your new film in the early but at that time they were central to so many peo- 1910s? ple. And when you think of Juli [Jakab] in Son of After I made Son of Saul, I really wanted to go back Saul, this young woman broken by a concentration to something before that period. It’s a very opulent camp, and put that beside her image in Sunset as a world, a world full of sophistication and promise sophisticated woman framed by a beautiful hat, it before the Great War. I wanted to explore that. tells you so much about how the 20th century went How did the people live? What happened at the wrong, in a way. —SP beginning of the century in the minds of the people that led them into the craziness and destruction of the first and second world wars? That was my focus.

You use a similar filming technique to Son of Saul, where almost every shot is either on the lead char- acter or from her point of view. I’m interested in going back to certain periods of time and experiencing them as an individual would experience them. Just experience the time and space with them. This immersive filmmaking can

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ELISABETH CAREN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 45 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

COLD WAR Pawel Pawlikowski’s first film since his Oscar-winning Ida spans a decade and a half of post-World War II Europe to tell the story of a pair of musi- cians drawn together and torn apart by a tempestuous love.

SPOTLIGHT

The story is loosely based on or at all the changes in their relationship again black and white, but a different least inspired by your parents, isn’t it? and in time and place as well, I could kind of black and white from Ida. This The main couple, their relationship remove them from any resemblance to is much more contrasty and dynamic. is kind of inspired by my my parents, who were not musicians. And also, I added more elements like parents and their rather volatile camera moves and a different sort relationship. Coming together and Why tell the story in black and of framing—the camera was placed separating, coming together again, white, the way you did with Ida? a bit higher so there was much more leaving each other to go to other The story had been with me for happening in the background. I wanted countries and ages, and I to relate their story to the epic back- marrying didn’t even grounds of Berlin, Paris, Poland. other people, think of how getting to shoot it. It You also take jumps in time that together was only after rely on the audience to fill in the again, I finished Ida blanks. quarreling that I started The more I wrote and rewrote, the again... The thinking, “How clearer it became what bits were too kind of do I turn this boring and literal. I always wanted couple that into a film?” to tell it elliptically—I didn’t want to can’t stay Then questions make something that resembles a together, but started to biopic with all these scenes that are who realize in the end that they emerge. How do I tell it without being there to get you from A to B. I want- have no one but each other. literal and boring and have a cause- ed to have a film made up of strong But my parents’ lives were more and- effect plot? How do I make it scenes which are visual and sugges- messy and chaotic than we see in the imagistic? What sort of images and tive, where the image and the body film. I reduced the timeline to 15 years colors do I use for Poland of the ’50s, language tells the story, in which instead of 40 years so that I could have which was gray above all? you can condense a lot of things. I two actors play it. And once I intro- I wanted the film to have a bite, to did that at the risk of losing some duced the element of music, which be visually dramatic and expressive. audience, but surprisingly people brings them together and reflects And the most obvious way to do it was seem to go with it. —SP

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The lead character in this film is a combination of your experiences and… DARYA ZHUK And the experiences of my friends, yeah. I grew up in Minsk, and after the fall of the iron curtain in 1991, there was a push to get out. The flood- gates were open, and we had a huge brain drain in the mid ’90s. A lot of my friends live all over America and Europe, so it seemed like a very relevant story to tell.

What were the particular dangers of shooting it in Belarus, which is now considered a repressive dicta- torship by most international observers? They let us do what we wanted to do, but it wasn’t without problems. The distributor did ask me to make certain adjustments just to make it a little more palat- able. And closer to the Oscar deadline, one producer wrote an open letter to the president saying, “You just submitted a very liberal picture, how could you have done it?”

The film has a lot of humor and a wonderfully light touch, but toward the end there’s a scene of sexual violence that changes the tone and casts everything in a darker light. SPOTLIGHT It’s like, that just could not not happen to this character in this particular circumstance. It’s such a common problem that in a way it also made the film for me. It is about this very individualistic character being taken down by her environment. You can have big dreams, but just because you want it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. There are so many forces that are working against you, and things you don’t control. But there is hope, absolutely. I do firmly believe that change is possible. —SP CRYSTAL SWAN First-time director Darya Zhuk’s drama is set in the early 1990s and stars Alina Nasibullina as a young DJ desperate to get a visa and head to the United States—just as Zhuk herself did when she secured student visas to study in the U.S.

48 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 DONBASS The war in eastern Ukraine between the government and the Russian- backed Donetsk People’s Republic is the subject of Sergei Loznitsa’s acidic and episodic film, part black comedy and part tragedy.

SPOTLIGHT

I understand the film was Because in all situation where The tone varies from tragedy to inspired by YouTube videos. I would like to be, what kind comedy to farce, but underneath For the script, I did use some of person could be witnessing it all is a real sense of anger at the YouTube videos which I have all these situations? Only a violence and corruption that has seen. Or propaganda videos on bird. So that’s why I just forget enveloped this region. the news. The rest are different about protagonist. Situation is Yeah, yeah, it’s true. It’s also episodes I heard from my friends protagonist. very strange, from where this who were there, who humor comes from. All escaped from that this grotesquerie, the territory. And many of carnivalization of this the people who played situation, comes from in my film have a situation itself. There are connection—they were in Russian soldiers lying about that region and are now who they are, lying and refugees of that war. playing a role. It reminds me of Molière. And this kind of Why did you make role-playing and hypocrisy it so episodic, with applys a lot in recent politics. stories that don’t really Our politicians try to hide connect? who they are, and what It’s simple: I stole this idea they do is a performance. That from Buñuel. He made this Or Ukraine is the protagonist? happens all around the world—in film, The Phantom of Liberty. I Not Ukraine. This kind of America, in the election in Brazil. wanted to describe society and disease. It’s not everywhere They elected a man because he describe the situation, and for in Ukraine, this disease. was giving a performance, and that description I either have a This kind of destruction and that allowed him to say the kind of protagonist who is a journalist, dehumanization, where the things you could never before say or I don’t need a protagonist. human becomes an animal. in a civilized society. —SP

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 49 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

THE BALTIC STATES

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have learns that an ex-girlfriend is about dren chosen to be a cross-section of combined for 36 Oscar submissions to give birth to his child, which she the country in location, background since 1992, with the region’s only doesn’t want to keep. and income. And the Lithuanian nominee being Estonia’s 2014 film Latvia and Lithuania have both selection, Arunas Matelis’ Won- Tangerines. This year, that country submitted documentaries, albeit derful Losers: A Different World, has entered the race with Liina on very different subjects. Latvi- chronicles the Giro d’Italia bicycle Trishkina-Vanhatalo’s Take It or an director Ivars Seleckis’s To Be race from the vantage point of the Leave It, about a 30-year-old con- Continued was produced for the cyclists at the back of the pack and struction worker who is faced with country’s centenary and spends the medical teams who attend to a life-changing decision when he two years following a group of chil- fallen racers.

Take It or Leave It THE BALKANS

hile films from the Balkan states have historically either dealt with or been haunted by the conflicts that beset that W region in the 1990s, most of this year’s entries are more contemporary. But Montenegro’s sub- mission, Gojko Berkuljan’s Iskra, finds a retired detec- a disgraced (but framed) politician who travels to a re- tive going back to work when his daughter, a journalist mote island without phone or internet. His mission is to investigating the disappearance of political figures in oversee the island’s first fair and valid election, though the ‘90s, suddenly disappears herself. And Radu Jude, a string of predecessors have failed at that task. And who represented Romania in the Oscar race three years veteran film and television director Dejan Zecevic is ago with the exceptional Aferim!, is back with a film representing Serbia with Offenders, a drama about three that looks to an earlier conflict: I Do Not Care If We Go university students dedicated to testing their professor’s Down in History as Barbarians, a blackly comic piece “Tetris” theory that human nature will always move about a modern theater director trying to stage a work from order to chaos. about the 1941 massacre in which Romania allied with More personal stories come from Macedonian director the Nazis to kill tens of thousands of Jews in Odessa. Gjorce Stavreski, whose Secret Ingredient deals with Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted Aida Begić’s Never the repercussions of a son’s decision to steal marijuana Leave Me, which focuses on three young Syrian refu- from drug dealers and bake a cake for his father, who gees living in a mythical Turkish city, Sanliurfa. Bulgaria has cancer; Slovenian director Janez Burger, whose Ivan entered Iliann Djevelekov’s Omnipresent, which deals is the story of a young mother who is torn between her with the owner of an advertising agency who gradual- newborn son and the man with whom she is having an ly becomes obsessed with watching his family, friends affair; and Kosovo’s Blerta Zeqiri, whose drama The and employees via spy cameras. Election meddling and Marriage is about a couple whose wedding plans are crooked politics come into play in the Croatian entry, interrupted when when the groom-to-be’s former gay Ivan Salaj’s The Eighth Commissioner, a comedy about lover arrives in town from abroad.

50 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OFFICIAL OSCAR® ENTRY–CANADA

A FILM BY SOPHIE DUPUIS

“A knock-out fi rst feature.” - La Presse “What a powerful punch.” - Medium Large

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THE MARRIAGE The first feature from award-winning shorts director Blerta Zeqiri is a love triangle of sorts between a couple who are about to be married and the groom-to-be’s gay lover, who returns to Kosovo and stirs up old but repressed feelings.

SPOTLIGHT

When we spoke in 2013, you said Why did you want to make a film matter a secret almost until the that you and your husband were about this subject? time we put the film in theaters. writing a film about gay rights in It didn’t feel right to me that people Kosovo. Is this that film? were not really allowed to love And what was the reaction like Yeah, it took us this many years each other freely here in Kosovo. when you did show it? to write it because I wanted to The story started with a friend of Something completely unexpected. do the film with improvisations, mine who was married and had We had all these plans about how to the way I work in my short films, two children and then realized take care of ourselves if somebody but nobody would give us money that her husband was gay—and at threatened us, but then nothing to work like that. So we had to the same time, I had a very close happened. I still can’t understand it. do all the improvisation before. friend who was gay himself, and The film was sold out the first two We took three and a half years he came to the point where he weeks, and people loved it. We didn’t to work on the script—we would was saying, “Either I have to get receive any threats, nothing at all. write a first draft, which would married and do what is expected We even had nice comments from not be good, and then bring the of me, or I have to leave.” people who were not supporters actor in and do readings and We still didn’t have gay people of gay rights. It definitely gives me improvisation for several days. that could live openly in Kosovo hope—and I’m confused, because we We’d film those, and then go when we started to make this film, expected to have problems. [Laughs] back home, see what we like and and we had to be very cautious Kosovo is a very interesting place,

change the script. making it. We kept the subject let’s say. —SP Nart Zeqiraj

52 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN were hidden in the schools and in the public IN HISTORY AS discussion in the late ’80s and the early ’90s. And when I discovered them in the few BARBARIANS books from the few historians that dealt with Director Radu Jude’s film uses the story of a theater director them, I became interested in this dark part of to delve into the massacre of thousands of Jews in Romania in Romanian history as a citizen, not a filmmak- the early years of World War II, when the country was initially er. But after many many years, this research aligned with Nazi Germany. stayed in my head. And at some point I started to make films dealing with what I had learned. One of the topics that interested me was the participation of Romania in this massacre of Jews in Romania in the Sec- ond World War, but I didn’t know how to deal with it from an artistic point of view. I don’t have any idea how one can deal SPOTLIGHT directly with this kind of event. And then a few years ago I was a witness to a his- torical re-enactment. I didn’t know these things existed, but when I saw it I felt like I had found a way of dealing obliquely with this topic. How would you discuss this kind of history in cinema? That was the prob- lem, and my solution.

Anti-Semitism, racism and nationalism seem to be on the rise in both the United States and Europe. Was that one of the rea- The film is about an historical event, but also about a direc- sons you wanted to make the film? tor trying to make art about that event in the face of pres- It would be insincere to say yes, because sure not to do it. the original idea of this film was four or I think that the film deals with two things in the same time. One five years ago when things were calmer in of them is the historical perspective, and the other is the neces- that respect. Somebody said to me, “Why sity or the relevance of so-called political art, including mine. It make such a film when that doesn’t have is of course a very complicated thing. One makes political art, any meaning today?” But all of a sudden it and it’s very clichéd to say, “I’m doing it for political reasons” became meaningful and timely. And some- and very self-congratulatory to say, “I make the film to make how the connection with the United States the world better.” So I wanted to also be critical, with a degree of was even more direct than I could imagine, pessimism. I wanted to say, “You can make political art, but that because one of the leaders of the Charlot- political art is questionable in itself.” tesville riots had a T-shirt with a picture of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, who was one of Why did you want to deal with the massacre of Romanian the leaders of the fascists in Romania when Jews in 1941? the massacre took place. All of a sudden The starting point has to do with the fact that I belong to a this idea reaches across the ocean from generation that grew up with these things hidden from us. They Romania. —SP

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 53 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

The Journey

Lebanese entry is Nadine Labaki’s based on a real-life suicide bomber Capernaum, the wrenching story and takes place entirely in and of a young boy in a Beirut slum around a Baghdad train station THE who sues his parents for bringing over the course of one night. In him into the world; the film won March, the film became the first MIDDLE a 15-minute standing ovation in Iraqi production in 27 years to Cannes and was awarded the jury screen in cinemas in its home prize (essentially, third place). And country. EAST the Egyptian submission, Abu An intriguing entry comes from Bakr Shawky’s Yomeddine, began Palestine, which submitted Raed his region has supplied life as an NYU student film but Andoni’s Ghost Hunting. The doc- eight nominees and ended up in the main competition umentary finds a group of former two winners (both from at this year’s Cannes, a rare feat Palestinian prisoners re-enacting TIran) in the past decade, for a first-time director. The sweet their brutal interrogations at the and several of this year’s Middle drama follows Beshay, a man who hands of Israeli security forces. Eastern entries figure to be major has lived in a leper colony since Andoni, himself a former prisoner, players in the race. Israel’s The his father left him there as a child, won the top documentary award Cakemaker, from director Ofir and a young orphan who tags at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Raul Graizer, is set in motion when along on Beshay’s quest to find his Finally, Yemen submitted a film Oren, an Israeli businessman, dies family. to the Oscars for only the second unexpectedly, and his death brings Iran, which has won twice in time. Amr Gamal’s 10 Days Before his widow together with Thomas, recent years for films directed the Wedding is the first film shot a German baker with whom Oren by Asghar Farhadi, chose Vahid and screened in Yemen since the had a secret relationship. The film Jalilvand’s No Date, No Signature, conflicts that devastated much of already had an art-house release the story of a forensic patholo- the country earlier this decade— in the United States. gist who is torn over whether he and it uses the impending but Lebanon and Egypt both chose contributed to the death of a child. long-delayed marriage of a young films that made a splash at this And Iraq submitted Mohamed couple to explore the continuing year’s Cannes Film Festival. The Al-Daradji’s The Journey, which is repercussions of that 2015 war. Gutter Credit TKTK Credit Gutter

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NadineCAPERNAUM Labaki’s searing drama, which won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, focuses on a young boy who sues his parents for bringing him into a world where he’s forced to fend for himself on the streets of Beirut.

How did the idea come to you? if I’m not going to be loved, if I can’t I think the whole refugee crisis eat when I’m hungry, if I’m going to be around the world, the economic crisis beaten or abused or raped?” around the world, has made the The extent of neglect that these problem of neglected children on the kids go through is beyond imagination. street something that everybody is I was a bit reluctant to show every- facing every day. I was wondering, thing, because it’s too shocking and “How did we get to this point? How people will not handle it. And this is did we get to where we allow this what I’m seeing as a reaction to this kind of injustice toward film—they say it’s too much, kids who didn’t even ask but it’s nothing compared to to be here?” They are the reality. punished for our stupid conceits and stupid gov- SPOTLIGHT Do you have secrets for ernments and stupid deci- getting those remarkable sions. They are paying the performances from kids who highest price without knowing why. I assume were not actors? This question has always been on my They’re not. There’s no real recipe. If mind, and I decided to do something you want me to tell you one word, it’s with my anger toward this injustice. time. Just spending time with people who don’t have any experience in act- So how did you proceed from that ing. And the initial intention, the igni- point? tion to the process is love—just being I just wanted to know more, it was in love with the characters, being simple as that. I started researching in love and wanting to show what’s more and talking to a lot of kids. And inside their soul. I’m fascinated by most of the time I asked them at the them, they’ve been through so much. end of the conversation, “Are you I was learning from them every day, happy to be alive?” And 99 percent and this love drives me to film them of the time the kids said, “No, I’m not and capture every moment. And there happy. I don’t know why I’m here. Is was no acting for me. I have a problem my purpose only to be punished?” It’s with the word acting. I just wanted this anger of thinking, “Why am I here them to be who they are. —MD

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ELISABETH CAREN

56 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018

AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYSIN AROUND THEWORLD 58 THEWRAP who comes into her world hiding her about late asecret husband. Ophir Awards an about Israeli owner and bakery man the German Cakemaker thatstory would into turn The Ofir RaulGraizer student film was a when he encounteredfirst the CAKEMAKER THE film. this storyandmake itmy firstfeature I thoughtalotabout how Icouldtake does that say about theirrelationship? to herandmanipulated her, sowhat loss, andthenshefindsouthelied an, herhusband isdeadandit’s ahuge Iwas by struck thisstory—thiswom- about thedoublelife. of theemailthat shehadfound out happened, butIwas sure from thetone had died.Idon’t know exactly what his wife tellingmethat he time, Igotanemailfrom touch withhimfor along men. AfterIhadn’t in been double life andhewas with and Iknew that hehada in Italy. Wewere friends, job, hewas themanagerofamuseum three children andavery respected he hadadoublelife. Hehadawife and a longtimeago—10,12years ago—and Yeah. It’snotmine,butIknew aguy rience, didn’t it? expe camefrom apersonal - story This NOVEMBER 2018 THE WORLD... AROUND

SPOTLIGHT , awinner of Israel’s ey, like $70,000,from onefilmfund, es camefrom that. Wegotalittlemon- It was mostlyfunding.Allthechalleng- thefilm? ing What wasmak- thebiggestchallenge ow, andIputmy own life intoit. friend’s storyandtheofhiswid- the closetwhenIwasmy 16.SoItook these two worlds. I’mgay, came outof mother issecular, soIgrew upbetween baking. Myfather isreligious andmy All ofit.Ihadthesynopsisintwo days. mediately theentire storycametome. guy ridingonabicycle, andthenim- day Iwas ridinginabusandIsaw this self staying there for nineyears. One to Berlinfor andIfound aproject, my - WhenIfinishedmy studies,Iwent love andalove for food for salem andBerlin.Ihave a into that.- Thesetting,Jeru ery, andIputmy own life the death andthediscov- woman andthelover and thebasicideaof I took

bus. first synopsisIwrote aftertaking that is that itwas sosimilartothevery realized whenIwatched thefinalcut Butintheend,what Ieasier toshoot. I triedtomake itmore condensedand changed andchanged.Icutcharacters, and allthat timethescriptchangedand eightyears Ittook tomake thefilm, $90,000 for postproduction. rough cutwe managedtoraise another the firstrough cut,andbasedon that week afterweIhad finishedshooting my houseandwe shotitin20days. A We raised another$15,000,Ipawned convinced themthat we coulddoit. and we withthismoney. will shoot We us that they willgive usthis$70,000, film fundandthey madeadealwith in theendwe went backtothefirst andFrance.and Germany Andthen lettersfrom filmfundsinIsraeljection manage toraise more. Wehad19re- this $70,000.Insixyears we didn’t another $300,000or$400,000toget but thetermswere that we hadtoraise —SP

Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

Gutter Credit TKTK FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION • BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM • OFFICIAL SELECTION • ITALY HHHHH “A movie with incomparable bite and strength.” - Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN HHHHH “One of the best Italian films of recent times.” - Geoffrey Macnab, THE INDEPENDENT HHHH “A well crafted gem... the kind of Aesop’s fable Scorsese would tell his kids.” - Phil de Semlyen, TIME OUT “Marcello Fonte gives an expert performance.” - Owen Gleiberman, VARIETY

FESTIVAL DE CANNES BEST ACTOR MARCELLO FONTE

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YOMEDDINE A rare debut film to be accepted into the Cannes Film Festival’s main competition, A.B. Shawky’s road movie follows a man searching for the family who left him in a leper colony decades ago, and the young boy who accompanies him on his trip.

This film began as a short documentary star student, I didn’t have short films The main character is an actual resident that you made in film school, right? that did really well at festivals, the of the leper colony—he still lives there Yes, I made it 10 years ago at producer was a first-timer, too, there and had never been in front of a camera undergraduate film school were no stars, it’s set in Egypt before. And neither had the boy. It took in Cairo. I’d heard about in a foreign language... There us four months. I workshopped them a leper colonies when I was a were things that didn’t make lot, spent a lot of time preparing them kid. I visited and heard all investors jump on board. about what it’s like to act and to stand in these stories of people who SPOTLIGHT I wrote the screenplay in front of the camera. Especially the main were left by their families graduate school at NYU, character—he’s used to people staring at as children, and I thought, and they gave me a stipend him, but I had to make him comfortable “There’s a good road movie in there.” A and helped me get a $100,000 private in front of a camera, not feel exploited. couple of people told me they would like grant, and then I did Kickstarter and And he doesn’t read and write. So we to see their families again, and I thought approached a lot of private investors, did a lot of rehearsing, and as much that would be a good story to tell. people who weren’t in film at all. I made memorizing as they could do. For the a business plan, said, “This is what I’m boy, we recorded a lot of the scenes and Raising the money must have been trying to do,” and showed them that I he just listened to them. For the main difficult. was able to do it. character, it took longer to shoot with It was. All the usual things that make him, but we were able to get it to where investors click weren’t really there. I How did you work with two main he was comfortable and was saying the was a first-time filmmaker, I wasn’t a actors who were non-professionals? lines the way he would say them. —SP

60 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 PHOTOGRAPHED BY TIMOTHY KALDAS FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OFFICIAL OSCAR® ENTRY SOUTH AFRICA BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

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after attending school in France. Chouik, did the same with Rachida. Among African countries that The other African submissions are always submit films, South Africa Kenya’s Supa Modo, director Likar- went with Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s ion Wainaina’s feel-good film about Sew the Winter to My Skin, which a young girl who wants to become AFRICA tells the story of John Kepe, a a superhero in spite of her terminal frica typically has only real-life Robin Hood who operated in illness; Morocco’s Burnout, in which limited participation in the South Africa in the early days of apart- director Nour-Eddine Lakhmari tells Oscar race, but this year heid, stealing livestock from white several different stories that together A its slate of contenders is colonialist farmers and giving them to create a portrait of the different social beefed up by two countries submitting impoverished indigenous communities. and economic classes in Casablanca; for the first time. Malawi submitted And Algeria chose Yasmine Chouikh’s and Tunisia’s Beauty and the Dogs, Shemu Joyah’s The Road to Sunrise, a Until the End of Time, which deals a 2017 Cannes entry from Kaouther drama about two prostitutes looking with a recently widowed woman who Ben Hania about a college student who for freedom from a life of exploitation, falls into a romance with a gravedigger finds herself in a nightmarish system while Niger went with Rahmatou Keï- in the cemetery where her husband stacked against women when she ta’s The Wedding Ring, which follows has been buried. Chouikh is repre- reports a rape. a young woman who returns to her senting Algeria in the Oscar race 16 traditional, superstition-bound village years after her mother, Yamina Bachir

SUPA MODO A small village bands together to shoot a superhero movie starring a young girl dying of cancer in Likarion Wainaina’s affecting drama, which is set in a place where a local entrepreneur supplies enthusiastic narration as he screens martial-arts films for rapt audiences.

SPOTLIGHT on Saturdays I’d run away from home and go to movies from the morning to the evening. The first movie I remember seeing that way was Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master—I saw that and said, “I have to make movies.” How did you come to this particular story? The original story was supposed to be based on my life growing I don’t imagine that the area where you were shooting would up in Kenya, going to the movies in the same way the character have had any of the facilities you would normally need to in the film does. But while we were developing the story, we shoot a feature film. spent a day visiting some kids in a hospital, and the entire story It was insane. We shot in a remote village near Limuru, and changed. Cancer hasn’t really been accepted in our country—it’s most of the people there didn’t know anything about cinema. So considered a white man’s disease, and people don’t talk about it. we were living exactly what we were shooting, because we were So we thought it would be good to talk about. shooting a movie about a community trying to make a movie when they don’t know anything about cinema. It was so meta So you grew up watching movies in makeshift theaters where for us to be teaching them cinema and getting a performance a local supplies impromptu narration? from them at the same time. But I think we learned more from Yes! We sometimes had movie nights at home, but I got really them than they learned from us. We were making a movie interested in cinema by going to those makeshift cinemas and about a community coming together, and they were the ones small shacks. I would save my allowance during the week, and who taught us about that. —SP

62 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM BEST ACTRESS BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING SWEDEN’S OFFICIAL SUBMISSION at the 91ST ACADEMY AWARDS ® EVA MELANDER GÖRAN LUNDSTRÖM & PAMELA GOLDAMMER

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“THIS FAIRY TALE IS SIMPLY UNMISSABLE.” AWARDS DAILY

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1 • BORDER • THE WRAP L 11/16 • FP4C (8.375 X 10.875) AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

WESTERN &

CENTRAL Ayka ASIA

he heavyweight contender in Western Asia chosen Spitak from director Aleksandr Kott, who is clearly Turkey with The Wild Pear Tree, is best known for making five movies in the Yolki a typically lyrical, talky and slow-paced comedy series. Here, though, he deals with a man T drama from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. searching for his wife and daughter in the aftermath This is the fifth time that Turkey has been repre- of the devastating 1988 earthquake in Armenia. sented by a film from the acclaimed auteur Ceylan, With Kyrgyzstan not submitting an entry this though none of the others were nominated and only year, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan are the only Three Monkeys made the shortlist. The Wild Pear central Asian countries represented in the race. Tree focuses on an aspiring writer and recent college Afghanistan has entered Jamshid Mahmoudi’s Rona graduate who seems destined for failure; TheWrap Azim’s Mother, about an Afghan refugee living in called it “a narrative of disillusionment.” Iran and trying to care for his aging and ailing moth- Georgia is looking for its second nomination 22 er, while Kazakhstan has gone with Ayka, a dark years after going to the Oscars with its first submis- drama for which Samal Yeslyamova won the best sion, 1996’s A Chef in Love. Zaza Khalvashi’s drama actress award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Namme is a myth-based film that focuses on a girl her performance as an undocumented woman who who is entrusted with guarding a mountain spring abandons her baby in Moscow in the dead of winter. reputed to have healing powers. And Armenia has

The Wild Pear Tree

64 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 espite a prolific film film selected by India to compete of a crime during the Panchayat era industry in Southern at the Oscars. Bangladesh entered of self-governance. Asia, led, of course, by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s No Bed Pakistan has submitted one of D India, countries in the of Roses, which stars celebrated In- the country’s most adventurous region haven’t had much success at dian actor Irrfan Khan as a famous productions, Asim Abbasi’s family the Oscars. India has submitted 51 director whose family is torn apart drama Cake. The film concerns two films to the Oscars since 1957 and by scandal; the film stirred up some sisters, one who moved to London received three nominations in that controversy because it is based on while the other stayed in Pakistan, time, but none since 2001’s Lagaan; the real case of a prominent author who reunite when their father falls Nepal was nominated for its first and director from Bangladesh. And ill. The film ends with a continuous entry in 1999, but hasn’t been se- Nepal went with Shivam Adhikari’s 10-minute single-take shot, while a lected since then; and Bangladesh Panchayat, a historical drama that five-episode web series that serves and Pakistan are still looking for is set in the 1930s and stars Saroj as a prologue was also made for their first nomination. Khanal as a village leader accused YouTube. This year, India has chosen Village Rockstars, the story of a young girl from a remote village in Assam who yearns to buy a guitar and start a rock band; director SOUTHERN Rima Das enlisted her niece, Bhanita Das, to play the lead role. It is the first Assamese language ASIA

No Bed of Roses

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 65 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS Rima Das’ lyrical film plays out like a less raucous version of The Florida Project transplanted to the small Indian village of Chhaygaon, where kids carve musical instruments out of Styrofoam and dream of stardom.

SPOTLIGHT

How did you come of this story? I grew up in that village. For a couple of years, I was living in Mumbai, and when I was back in my village shooting my first film I met these Das Ayush children in the village. And they taught me how to unlearn. They helped me discover the beauty in ordinary things. They have nothing, but they are celebrating life, performing like a rock band with Four years? Isn’t that tricky when you’re dealing these fake instruments. And that inspired me. with kids who are growing up? I was wondering, “How did they have so much Yes, it was tricky. Two years was fine, but later EAST joy?” I started spending more and more time with on it became difficult. The main girl’s face didn’t them and thought I should tell their story, because change, fortunately, but she became very tall. So they showed me true then I shot more closeups, and ASIA happiness. They are in a I managed. Since I was editing little remote village, but also, I shot almost everything that doesn’t matter— from the editing point of view. they can dream. But it’s not advisable to work with children for four years. The movie plays out [Laughs] very casually—we’re just following these kids, You directed the film, but you without a big plot line also produced it, wrote it, shot driving the story. it, edited it, did the production When I started watching design… Why do so much? movies, I liked that realistic approach. The story in this I made my first feature film with a small crew, and movie is fictional but I didn’t want to compromise in the I was not happy with that experience. I thought I way I presented the way they are living. I didn’t have needed more time, more freedom. So on this film, I any storyboards—I mostly followed them for four years. made a conscious decision to do it the way I wanted I became one of them. I wanted the audience to feel the to do it with no outside pressure. And I think that beauty and the freshness that I felt in that village. helped me a lot. —SP

66 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 The Great Buddha+

lthough only Japan has had much success from this region with Oscar voters, East Asia’s entries include two of the most acclaimed films in the competition. A Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, the South Korean entry, EAST is a slowly unfolding drama about a love triangle, and a film that topped all the critics’ polls at this year’s Cannes Film Fes- tival. (See cover story.) And Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters, ASIA Japan’s submission, won the Palme d’Or at the same festival for its patient, elegant depiction of a tightly knit family living in poverty and making ends meet through petty crime. If Burning and Shoplifters are both quiet films, the entries from China and Hong Kong are anything but. The former

Operation Red Sea submitted Jiang Wen’s Hidden Man, an action comedy about a spy seeking revenge and the third in a series of films that began with Let the Bullets Fly and Gone With the Bullets. And Hong Kong went with action director Dante Lam’s Operation Red Sea, a war film inspired by the evacuation of Chinese citizens and foreign nationals during the 2015 Yemeni Civil War. The action epic has made almost $600 million world- wide and is the second-highest-grossing film ever in China. Taiwan, meanwhile, submitted Huang Hsin-yao’s The Great Buddha+, a black comedy about two security guards in a Bud- dha statue factory who get more than they’ve bargained for when they start looking through security-cam footage.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 67 AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 WAYS AROUND THE WORLD...

SHOPLIFTERS On his seventh trip to the Cannes Film Festival, Japa- nese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda finally won the Palme d’Or for this slow-paced, humanistic drama about a household bound not by blood but by the variety of petty crimes they commit in order to survive.

SPOTLIGHT

What led you to make this film? timing is quite important to me. In the within society, and where those two con- This whole idea started when I finished beginning, it’s almost like I’m creating nect. What kind of tension occurs at that Like Father, Like Son and started exploring that tension within myself. I’m not going point? And that makes it more difficult—it the ties of family. I thought that next I to tell the audience, but how much do is easier to do a family drama. But I like wanted to explore a family that has no I reveal? How much can the audience the friction at the point where family and blood ties. What would that look like? come along with this family until the society meet. If they’re not tied by blood, what would point where the reality comes out and it connect them? What if they were con- starts to fall apart? The film was criticized by some in Japan nected through crime of some sort? That’s the tricky part, but that’s the for showing a side of society that they Because of the ongoing depression in interesting part as well. It’s not like a didn’t feel should be put on screen. Japan, and also the economic disparity, Hollywood movie with lots of things That was from a group of people who many things were in the news. And going on, so you really have to be aware are very nationalistic about Japan—they one of the things that caught my eye of that tension. started criticizing it, and it got very big. was pension fraud, how some children But I think that wouldn’t report it after the parents What were the sector exists in every had died and would continue to collect biggest challeng- country right now. pensions. And the other thing was that es in this film? At the awards in some families would shoplift as a family For many years, Cannes, [jury presi- as a whole. These two things gave me I focused on dent] Cate Blanchett the idea of the kind of crimes I wanted to family drama, talked about how connect the family. on what was many of the films happening inside in this particular For much of the film, we don’t really a deeply emo- festival were about know the story of this family—that tional but narrow making the invisible comes very slowly, over a long period scope—looking at the small events that people visible. I think there are many of time. happen inside a family. But with my segments of every society that prefer I had that concept from the beginning, last film, The Third Murder, and this film, that they remain invisible. And so I think that it would go a long time before you I’m opening up my vision and not only that making them visible is very mean- would find out what was happening. The looking at the family, but also the family ingful. —SP Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures of Courtesy

68 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 SOUTHEAST ASIA

Graves Without a Name

hen Rithy Panh’s The Missing Indonesia’s Marlina the Murderer in FourActs, Picture was nominated for the directed by Mouly Surya, is part spaghetti West- foreign-language Oscar in 2014, ern, part grindhouse revenge tale, part Indonesian W it was both a big surprise and drama about a woman who takes action against a richly deserved honor for a quietly wrench- a group of robbers who rape her and try to steal ing art piece that used clay figurines to tell the her livestock. And Singapore’s Buffalo Boys, from story of the Khmer Rouge’s murderous regime in director Mike Wiluan, is a Western-inspired, mar- Cambodia, which took the lives of many of the tial-arts-heavy revenge tale set in the time when director’s family members. Graves Without a Java was a Dutch colony. Name, the third Cambodian entry to be directed Both Thailand and Vietnam have submitted by Panh, continues to tell an intensely person- films with lavish looks. Anucha Boonyawatana’s al story of loss and grief, with the filmmaker Malila: The Farewell Flower, the Thai entry, is searching for the burial site where his family the story of a gay relationship between a farmer members were dumped after being killed. and an artist who creates floral arrangements Other Southeast Asian entries include the but is dying of cancer. And Buu Loc Tran and Philippines’ Signal Rock, a drama from Chito S. Kay Nguyen’s The Tailor, from Vietnam, focuses Roño that was inspired by real events and is set on a young girl in the 1960s whose family owns on a remote island where it’s only possible to get a a celebrated tailoring house; the film jumps cell signal atop a group of strange rock formations; through time but celebrates the era of ao dai, or and two of what you might call Eastern Westerns. traditional Vietnamese long dress. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures of Courtesy

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 69 70 THEWRAP70 AUSTRALIA AND NEW NOVEMBER 2018 ZEALAND THE WORLD... AROUND Afghanistan andFrance. asfarshot outsidetheirborders, afieldas countrieschosefilmsthat wereboth largely entry, A , has been nominated. Thisyear,Tanna, hasbeen

time, onlythe2016Australian entered sixsince2011—andinthat since 1996andNew Zealand has ustralia hassubmitted12films a MarieAntoinettetheme. she prepared for a2017Paris show with fashion designerGuoPeion Chinese as IsForbiddenTruth in2016.Yellow focuses race withherdocumentaryAFlickering also represented thecountryinOscar Pietramentary director Brettkelly, who entered inthat country.shoot AndNew Zealand the scriptandwithdrew permissionto after thePakistani secret serviceread Afghanistan indangerous conditions a manhekilled.Thefilmwas shotin to seekforgiveness from thefamily of istan andwhoreturns tothecountry inAfghan- by hisactions who istortured our’s TheAustralia entry, BenjaminGilm- Jirga, follows anAustralian soldier Yellow IsForbidden from docu- Jirga

Courtesy of Pietra Brettkelly Courtesy of Pietra Brettkelly ple didsay, “Pleasedon’t cometo When Icalledhersalon,peo- made abouther. have anxiousto amovienot be doesn’t know popculturemight whoOn theotherhand,somebody who Rihannais?” pop culture—how couldshenotknow industry that knows celebritiesand a woman inthefashion industry, an I thought,“How interesting. Thisis she didn’t know whoRihannawas. Met Galain2015,and one ofherdresses tothe about how Rihannawore I heardabout GuoPei, I’m anobserver ofpeople. interested infashion! But And I’mnotparticularly designer working inParis. amoviemaking aboutaChinese is: afilmmaker from New Zealand how race international thisOscar You’re aone-woman illustration of haute Paris. in couture attempts to accepted be by the guardians of of Chinese fashion Pei Guo asshe designer different direction this with intimate portrait Truth Flickering A Afghanistan-set the race with film Oscar who represented New Zealand in the 2016 Brettkelly, director Pietra Documentary FORBIDDEN IS YELLOW , goes in acompletely SPOTLIGHT me upsometimes.Wewere inher doesn’t stopme.Butitdoescatch biases don’t stopme,language I don’t speak,andIlove it.Gender I make allthesefilmsinlanguages spoken by your subject. times, notknowing the language difficultatBut itmusthave been appealed toher, andshesaid yes. in what you do.” AndIthinkthat butIcanseetheartistry Chinese, ion andIdon’t speak midable. Iflew toChina, I have anidea,I’mfor- documentary.” Butwhen and willnotwant a

about fash- know nothing hour. Isaid,“I to herfor an and talked to hersalon went straight very private she’sChina, got itthat time.—SP white girlfrom New Zealand really to have for lunch.[Laughs]Sothe that they were arguingabout what we gotittranslated, itturnedout translated for months.Andwhen have themoney togetthefootage but Ithinkit’sbig!”Butdidn’t going, “Idon’t know what this is, and Iwere at eachother looking ed yelling. Mycinematographer - salon oneday start andeverybody FOREIGN LANGUAGE ISSUE 71 OSCAR’S BACK PAGES / Rules of Engagement

The Way We Were A rule that no longer exists was instrumental in the

Oscar wins of a number of Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, foreign films, notably The shown winning for 2007’s The Lives of Others Lives of Others in 2007 back in the race this year, is with Never Look Away BY STEVE POND

t was a simple rule: Until the show, the foreign-language Oscar appropriate a winner as Pan’s would 2013, Academy members seemed destined to go to him as well. have been. And so it won. couldn’t cast a final vote in the But it didn’t matter that Pan’s That year, the rule worked to expose Best Foreign Language Film Labyrinth had won those three Oscars, a hidden gem. In subsequent years, it category unless they could or that it had made more than $30 often helped lighter, friendlier films Ishow that they’d seen all five nominees million going into the Oscars, while beat more challenging ones: Departures in a theater. But that little rule caused over The Class in 2009, The Secret in more than a few upsets, including one Their Eyes over A Prophet and The particular 2007 shocker. White Ribbon in 2010, In a Better World That year, German director Florian over Biutiful in 2011. So when the rule Henckel von Donnersmarck had was changed in 2013, and Academy come in far less known than one of members were sent screeners of the his competitors, Guillermo del Toro. nominated films and put on the honor Donnersmarck’s film, his feature debut, system, there wasn’t much outcry. was The Lives of Others, a quiet drama Since then, the winners have been about a Stasi agent who becomes formidable: The Great Beauty, Ida, fascinated by the theater director and Son of Saul, The Salesman, A Fantastic actress on whom he’s eavesdropping. Woman. Perhaps The Broken Circle Del Toro, meanwhile, had his dark The Lives of Others had grossed less Breakdown or Mustang or A Man Called fantasy hit Pan’s Labyrinth, which was than $1 million. If you had seen Ove would have had a shot under the CLASSICS PICTURES : SONY OTHERS OF LIVES nominated for five other Oscars in Donnersmarck’s film, as all the foreign- old rules, but you’d be hard-pressed addition to Best Foreign Language Film. language voters were required to to say they would have been more And when del Toro’s film won the first have done before getting the ballot deserving. Still, it’s hard not to look two awards of the night, art direction in that category, you knew it was back with a bit of fondness at the rule and makeup, and then added a completely gripping. Instead of being that forced voters to actually watch all

cinematography win halfway through a big underdog, it was every bit as the movies they’re voting on. W / AMPAS DONNERSMARCK:

72 THEWRAP NOVEMBER 2018 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION • ICELAND’S OFFICIAL SUBMISSION BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM • 91ST ACADEMY AWARDS ®

“NEAR-PERFECT. A MATURE CROWD-PLEASER. Is there anything rarer than an intelligent feel-good film that knows how to tackle urgent global issues with humor as well as a satisfying sense of justice? Look no further.” JAY WEISSBERG, VARIETY “IMPRESSIVE. THRILLING AND MOVING. A skillfully crafted, surreally told tale of man and nature — or in this case, woman and autre — but one with more emotional depth and sharper political undertones.” JORDAN MINTZER, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

A FILM BY BENEDIKT ERLINGSSON STARRING HALLDÓRA GEIRHASDÓTTIR

PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE FOLLOWING SCREENINGS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18 AT 5:45PM SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25 AT 2:00PM LAEMMLE MONICA FILM CENTER RODEO SCREENING ROOM *Q&A TO FOLLOW WITH 1332DIRECTOR 2ND BENEDIKT STREET, ERLINGSSON SANTA MONICA n SEATING IS AVAILABLE ON A FIRST COME, FIRST150 S. SERVE RODEO BASIS DRIVE, n PARKING BEVERLY VALIDATION HILLS WILL BE PROVIDED Please RSVP with preferred screening date to [email protected]

1 • WOMAN AT WAR • THE WRAP 11/16 FOREIGN ISSUE • FP4C (8.375X10.875) “★★★★ A powerful story.” awardswatch

“A beautiful portrait of humanism and authenticity. It has the power to not just change lives but reinvigorate your belief in cinema.”

WINNER WINNER GOLDEN CAMERA UN CERTAIN REGARD Best Actor - Victor Polster

WINNER SAN SEBASTIÁN WINNER WINNER FILM FESTIVAL LONDON ZURICH Audience Award FILM FESTIVAL FILM FESTIVAL Best European Sutherland Golden Eye Film Award Best Film

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