 LIFO 19/04/07
In one of the most festival-like moments,
during 2nd Cyprus International Film Festival
which comes to a close
tonight, the Israeli documentarist expresses his questions and
reservations to
British director Mark Norfolk on the last's film 'Crossing Bridges'.
"Why did
you have to confuse me, you did this on purpose; there are six points
in your
film I don't understand, why didn't you just tell your story from A to
Z?" The
smiling and active British director tries to explain that an
avant-garde art
film does not simply seek to narrate a story from the beginning to the
end, but
to tell a story (or more) in a way that would make the viewer think.
"That was
my intention, to generate a conversation like this one we are having"
he
explains. "So you admit it; you confused me on purpose" the Israeli
insists.
This conversation forced me to go back, in a time when we innocently
asked
questions on films we felt as important, yet couldn't completely
understand.
Once a woman told Picasso: "I don't understand it but I like it". "Ok", he
answered, "You don't understand shellfish either, but you still very
much enjoy
eating them".
Cyprus International Film Festival,
having
Phedon Papamichael as its artistic director and Nikos Koundouros as
head of the
Jury Committee, taking place this year for the second time, aims to
create more
opportunities for investment in the field of film production in Cyprus.
Unbelievable though it may seem, this is the first film event ever
organised in
Cyprus, as CEO Petra Terzi remarked. Producers from abroad have
expressed their
interest, which comes naturally if one considers the warmth and natural
beauty
of the location. It is true that the festival could play an important
role in
the Middle East area (as it will have to compensate for the necessarily
minor
domestic film production, in order to generate a wider interest), by
inviting
films of a significant style. However, it is too soon to make a
judgement and
the festival still deserves to be hosted in a special venue in Nicosia
to help
rise its profile, rather than insisting on Multiplex venues in three
different
Cypriot cities.
Among the festival
highlights were a number of
exclusive premieres of films, such as '10 items or less'; starring
Morgan
Freeman and Paz Vega, which have not been yet presented in Greece, as
well as
the very well-made 'Golden Beach'; by Juri Sillart
from Estonia, which develops
around the -emotional
and filled with secrets from the past- reunion of the members of a
music band.
Still, Norfolk's film marked the most impressive participation at the
festival,
despite the confusion it may caused to the Israeli Tzvika Vloch.
Crossing
Bridges is a combination of many things; it is a frantic ode to
London's 23
bridges; the spiritual trip of the main character Julius Beauregard, a
man who
has lost his job, his wife and his only child; the contradiction
between East
and West within just a few blocks; and, as I saw it, a religious tale
on the
loss of hope. Norfolk urged to correct me on that last remark. He does
not
consider himself as a religious person, as I thought, and is not a
baptised
Christian; yet he included in his film the view of suicide as a sin;
at least
I was correct in that sense. Above all, this film constitutes a special
tribute
to the famous London bridges, which it depicts with affection and
admiration.
As I come to think about it, a bridge is a place for the tourist, the
unemployed and the suicidal type. Excluding the tourist, an unemployed
suicidal
type alone can make the subject of a film. Adding a blonde angel to the
story,
he finds the way to restore his abruptly lost human relationships. Or
is he
just dreaming? In the field of human unconscious, films have yet a lot
to
explore.
By Theo
Koutsogiannopoulos
(Translation by Marianna Kaplatzi)
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