Festivals : Vancouver : Reviews

Reviews of some of the films showing at 23rd Vancouver International Film Festival.

After The Day Before (Masnap)
Rural life turns out to be anything but idyllic.

Arahan
Comedy chop-socky with serious martial arts moves from South Korea.

Chain
An agit-prop study of consumerism and teenage despair in the US heartland of the big sell.

Childstar
Pre-pubescent movie brat grows up.

Checkpoint (Machssomim)
The interaction between Palestinians and Israelis at one of the only points of contact between the two communities, the Israeli army checkpoints.

Control (Kontroll)
A bizarre fictional insight into the idiosyncratic lives of Budapest’s underground train inspectors.

Dead Man's Shoes
An ex-army man strolls into town, seeking revenge on his disabled brother’s assailants.

Dear Frankie
Mother of a nine-year-old deaf boy pays a stranger to be dad for a day.

Dutch Light
Investigation into whether Holland's famous light has changed since the age of the Dutch Masters.

The Five Obstructions
Lars von Trier asks Jorgen Leth to make five films by his rules.

Flower and Snake
Celebrated tango dancer is raped and tortured by secretive society.

Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
The short, violent life of The Symbionese Liberation Army.

The Green Hat
A hard-edged drama about dysfunctional relationships and man’s need for acceptance and love.

Hari Om
Beautiful rich tourist falls out with boyfriend and takes roadtrip through india with moto-rickshaw driver.

The Island
Simple things mean a lot to the children of fishermen on a Sicilian island.

The Last Train (Posledniy Poezd)
All quiet on the Eastern Front.

The Last Victory
A documentary that takes you to the heart of a small Italian community, by way of their near hysterical passion for an annual horse race.

The Machinist
Christian Bale lives in the subconscious of a mentally frail insomniac.

Machuca
Allende's Chile, as experienced by two boys from different social backgrounds and a vivacious girl.

Memoires Affectives
Amnesiac hit-and-run victim tries to remember who ran him over.

The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios De Motocicleta)
Coming of age drama based on the writings of a young Che Guevara.

Los Muertos
An ex-convict's journey up river in deepest Argentina.

The Other Side of AIDS
Documentary maker suggests HIV-positive people can live better life without the meds.

Passages (Lu Cheng)
a young couple, disillusioned with student life, take off on a search for special mushrooms that could land them a fortune.

Quiet as A Mouse
German do-gooder takes it upon himself to clean up the streets.

Taipei 21 (Taipei Er Uo)
Twentysomething couple struggle with their relationship in modern Taiwan.

Time of the Wolf
An apocalyptic scenario as lived by a one parent family in the French countryside.

What Remains of Us
Tibetan exile returns to homeland with video message from Dalai Lama.