The main competition of Arsenals 2010 was between 13 films. These included works by such famous film directors as Gaspar Noe, Alex Van Warmerdam, Manuel de Oliveira, Eugene Green, and other young cinematographers. According to the festival’s tradition the best film was chosen through a lottery: a golden button from the vest of Augusts Sukuts, the founder of Arsenals, was found in the glass of the Ukrainian film director Maksym Vasianovych. His documentary Mum died on Saturday in the Kitchen was shown to the audience in Riga. He received the main prize — 10,000 dollars.
Within the framework of the festival a traditional Baltic Film competition, the largest in the Baltic States region, took place. The total of 21 films were presented at the festival, eight of which were animated films. The Best Baltic Documentary award was given to the Latvian film How are you doing, Rudolf Ming? by Roberts Rubins (Latvia); the Best Baltic Animated film award — to the film To Swallow a Toad by Jurgis Krasons (Latvia). The film The Temptation of St. Tony by Estonian director Veiko Ounpuu was unanimously awarded as this year’s best dramatic film. The representative of the FIPRESCI jury panel Dieter Wieczorek acknowledged that this film best fits Arsenals’ standards — it is bold and compelling, remote from the banality of commercial stereotypes, it does not leave you indifferent and even long after the screening makes you reflect about yourself and the surrounding world. The INTERFILM jury praised not only the outstanding quality of image and sound, but also the emotional tension that unites the surrealistic images and brutally absurd scenes of the film, while being very close to everyday reality.
It should be noted that Arsenals has always been full of surrealism. This also transpired in The Temptation of St. Tony with its sad phantasmagoria. It was also seen in other films with great mysticism. We could see, for example, in The Strange Case of Angelica by the oldest film director of the planet Manuel de Oliveira (at the age of 100 he produces one film a year), a photographer who falls in love with a girl after her death. He received an order from the relatives of that girl to preserve her beauty on her deathbed. While taking the photographs, he discovers that beautiful Angelica comes to life. As a supporter of manual labor and roll-film cameras, the director is committed to the old, direct way of communication with the world. He also asserts the possibility of a different kind of love that appears senseless, romantic, and old-fashioned in the eyes of people who discuss the economic crisis at the breakfast. Love from the other world comes to him in his dreams, winks at him from the photos, and finally beckons him to join.
A strange metamorphosis takes place in the film October by the Peruvian film directors Daniel and Diego Vega, with a pawnbroker as the main hero. His soul softens after a little baby appears in his life, and also under the influence of the prayers and charms of his neighbor, who is in love with him. Love and mystical experience is also the main topic of Eugene Green’s film The Portuguese Nun, which was the hit of the festival. A French actress Julie comes to beautiful and mysterious Lisbon to take part in a movie playing a Portuguese nun who is burning with passion for a marine officer. Julie herself is also suffering from unrequited love, just like the heroine she plays. She suffers up until she meets a real nun. Their conversation is half about theological nuances, the nun explains that love is always the same — it is undivided and divine. A new mystical dimension of events opens up. Julie’s angel-like appearance reminds one of paintings that decorate Portuguese churches. Her ecstatic love ends up with loosing consciousness like Saint Theresa. Her adoption of a local boy is associated with the immaculate conception. Should we be surprised when in one of clubs in Lisbon she meets her new love and tells him that he is a reincarnation of Saint Sebastian? She returns to Paris not alone but with a child and promises him that one day he will definitely come to Lisbon, and at that moment she realizes how one needs to love. You start believing the film director that this city, with its strange churches and palaces, is filled with delicate and sad ambiance, and has a special, charming power. The film revels in it this unique atmosphere, there are many things left unsaid, and each gesture has its own magic.
The Portuguese Nun was warmly welcomed by the Latvian audience. After the presentation there was a meeting with the film director. Green has been to the film festival several times. There is a great chance that he might shoot a film about Latvia. Green mentioned this in an answer to a question from the public. In Latvia, just like in Portugal, there are many well preserved unique things.
This year’s special feature of Arsenals was its “Japanese accent.” The festival’s program included three films by the classic of Japanese new wave Yoshida Yoshishige. Unfortunately, the film director himself couldn’t make it to the festival. One could also watch modern films about life in Japan. The main heroes of the film We Don’t Care About Music Anyway… by French directors Cedric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz extract sound harmony from different objects around them and the noise of the immense megalopolis Tokyo. The film Air Doll by Hirokazu Kore-eda tells about a sex toy that came to life and is walking around the city (this film will soon be presented at the Asia-Kino festival in Kyiv). Tokyo Sonata by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, about the unemployed in Tokyo, shows how managers in office suits lining up for soup with the homeless. This film describes the problems of global capitalism, with a special national flavor: a married couple is not able to survive the financial crisis and ends up committing hara-kiri.
The audience’s attention was also attracted by the big hits of other international festivals. Among them are: White Material by Claire Denis featuring Isabelle Huppert, British film Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold about the social bottom of British society — outwardly ugly but very nice on the inside; an animation by Sylvain Chomet, the author of Les triplettes de Belleville, based on the script by Jaques Tati; and the fantastic film by Jaco Van Dormael Mr. Nobody about the vicissitudes of life. Also a new Ukrainian-Georgian film Chantrapas by Otar Iosseliani (popular Ukrainian actor Bohdan Stupka stars in it) and Meteoidiot by Nino Jorjadze, were presened for the public in Riga. A special event of Arsenals was the screening of acknowledged masterpieces of cinematography: Cobra Verde by Werner Herzog with Klaus Kinski playing the main-role and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Tony Richardson.
Cinema fans were happy to hear that from now on Arsenals will take place every year and not once in two years as it used to.
