If you’re a secret fan of love triangles but actually an art-house film snob, Paris 13th District is for you. You have your art-house credentials, with Jacques Audiard directing and Celine Sciamma writing, as well as a smooth black and white film. But you also have a light, free-flowing script with lots of sex that doesn’t slow down, making it an easy watch for anyone wanting to tune out.
Paris 13th District isn’t deep. There doesn’t appear to be any hidden subtext to either of the character’s narratives. Some of the scenes even feel a little contrived, particularly the scene in a university lecture hall in which all of the students start watching videos of a chat room girl and making fun of Nora for looking just like her. In an otherwise relatable film of 20-30 somethings, this scene stands out – making you think that the writers might actually be a bit out of touch with the young adult’s reality. But luckily the depth isn’t needed thanks to the lightness of the film. It flows so smoothly that you won’t have time to think about why it was made.
The lightness comes from a range of things. Firstly, there’s the clean simplicity of the black and white film that takes away any noise. This is supported by the simple soundtrack with synth bursts that cleanly separate the breaks between each narrative. Secondly, there’s the free characters. Even though each one has their own problems – Emilie has family drama, Nora is bullied, and Camille has his own grief – they never feel serious. Instead they appear free to do anything they like – each one quickly changes their career as if it were starting a new day. Camillie suddenly becomes a real-estate agent after dropping out of his masters, Nora starts her law degree in her 30’s before dropping out to rejoin a career in sales, and Emilie doesn’t even feel burdened to work. Their free-flowing careers comes across as a bit of a jab at millennials from the older screenwriters of the film. All of them are played as fragile characters that change their mind and lack commitment. However, it does make the film feel lighter – they all live in a city in which their troubles don’t feel that serious and in which they can change their direction in an instant.
So if you’re looking for a light relationship drama with art-house credentials, Paris 13th District is worth a watch. Whilst it’s arguably a bit out of touch, it is an easy watch for anyone looking for a break from the more challenging film festival fare.
Head to our AFI Fest 2021 Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2021.
A Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown after the death of his grandmother. Unlike the urban jungle of New York, his hometown in Michoacán is surrounded by the Monarch Butterflies he studies. His isolation abroad forces him to contemplate his new identity, displayed on screen in vivid magical scenes and memories.
Mendel is fated to test gene editing theories on Monarch butterflies. He’s both named after the father of modern genetics and hails from Angangueo, the main access point for the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. However, the coldness of his job, working in a laboratory in New York, doesn’t match the warmth of his memories growing up at home. The many shots of butterflies under the microscope being picked apart by Mendel’s scalpel removes the majesty of the butterflies and displaces Mendel from his past. At his work, the butterflies are just instruments to test the latest gene editing technology. Whereas, outside of work, they remind him of his home.
As the film progresses, Mendel seems conflicted with how he coldly pulls apart the Monarch butterflies at work. It’s implied that their beauty inspired him to become a scientist and they also appear in some of his happiest memories, as alluded to in the film’s flashbacks. Even in the narrative, he speaks of their majesty and mythology – that they are the souls of the dead returning home, and that they can even perceive mountains that have been hidden for millennia. From the way he dreams and speaks about them, he appears to revere them, instead of wanting to change them. The microscope shots of Mendel dissecting them runs against his thoughts and words.
A few times in the film, the director shoots Mendel in bed with a swarm of butterflies sitting on his body. The image emphasizes Mendel’s affinity for the Monarch butterfly. They like him, travel across imaginary borders to foreign lands before returning home. Their secrets are also hidden, just like Mendel’s buried trauma. These butterflies come to symbolize both his personal past (as the scene pops up when his traumatic nightmares surface) as well as his Mexican identity. Editing their genes perhaps symbolizes how he is also losing his own identity in New York. He’s lost touch with his family and the brother he looked up to and longs for reconnection when he returns home after his Grandmother’s death. At home, he spends his time reliving memories with his friends and family instead of speaking of his new life in New York. When the only colleague he identifies with leaves, he becomes even more lost abroad, which reflects in his attitude – ghosting his white girlfriend and showing no pride in his accomplishments. To regain his self, he has to embrace the butterfly and revere it. So he edits himself to pay respects to the animal that represents home.
Son of Monarchs is a brilliant character study of a Mexican scientist in a foreign land. Like other film’s that focus on the immigrant experience in New York – Lingua Franca, I’m No Longer Here – he doesn’t quite feel at home, and his thoughts are conveyed uniquely through his symbolic relationship with the butterfly. The only distractions are the side narratives whichfeel a bit empty due to the lack of exposition. These include name dropping the Trump presidency and immigrant crisis without development as well as leaving Mendel’s family relationships undercooked. The butterflies and Tenoch Huerta (who plays Mendel) are the crux of this film.
What to Watch Next
If you’re looking for more indie movies featuring the immigrant experience in New York, check out Lingua Franca and I Carry You With Me. The latter also features a lot of jumping back and forth into the memories of the main characters. There’s also I’m No Longer Here, which follows a similar Mexico-New York-Mexico arc with more of a character study like Son of Monarchs.
Or for more small town Mexico films, you could try Nudo Mixteco, an anthology film set during the Festival of San Mateo in Oaxaca, or Kings of Nowhere, a documentary that follows the last few residents of a flooded town in Northwestern Mexico.
Lastly if you want to watch more movies of protagonists identifying with animals – try Awakening of the Ants from Costa Rica or Aronofsky’sBlack Swan.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is an international hub for the presentation and celebration of Indigenous media art. It’s the largest festival of its kind in the world and plays a crucial role in providing a platform for Indigenous artists to reclaim their voices and express their own perspectives (as the vast majority of films about Indigenous peoples are made by non-Indigenous filmmakers). The Festival’s 6 days featured a range of great Indigenous storytelling from stop-motion animation to polished dystopian sci-fi movies. Here are 5 of our favorite films – feature length and short – that we caught for the 2021 edition of the imagineNATIVE film festival.
5 of our Best Films from imagineNATIVE Film Festival
Angakusajaujuq – The Shaman’s Apprentice
Zacharius Kunuk, the World’s most famous Inuit filmmaker, is back with something completely new: his first stop motion animated film. In which, an apprentice travels with her grandmother into the underworld in search of a cure for an ailing community member. The brief glimpse into another realm is on the level of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth with its eery dark spirits. However, we never feel lost thanks to the comforting guidance of the apprentice’s grandmother.
Tote Abuelo
Another film featuring a grandparent-granddaughter relationship is Tzotzil filmmaker Maria Sojob’s Tote Abuelo. In her debut feature, Maria returns to her ancestral home in Chiapas to reconnect with her estranged grandfather. The slow pace of the documentary matches both the slow straw-hat making process, as well as Maria’s patient questioning. Her conversation with her grandfather slowly opens up stories of her ancestors and treatment of her people in Southern Mexico – allowing her to carry on the history of her family.
Hiama
If you love movies which feature school-kids getting revenge on their bullies, Hiama is for you. The star decides to embrace her Hiama (shamanic guardian spirit) in a weirdly empowering horror-filled climax. No settler-colonialists have an answer for this.
Run Woman Run
If you’re looking for a movie that feels like a mug of hot chocolate, Run Woman Run is the most heart-warming film we saw at imagineNATIVE. It follows Beck, a single mum, that sees visions of historic runner Tom Longboat who works to inspire her to get back on her feet following a diabetic coma. Her journey is emotional: she’s recovering from generational and intergenerational trauma to get her family back together. But it’s also full of humor – helped by Beck’s lazy college student attitude – and even has a few rom-com moments.
Night Raiders
Night Raiders is an awesome take on the dystopian sci-fi genre. Like in Children of Men, seeing children in Night Raiders’ dystopia is rare as they’re all considered property of the state and institutionalized into schools to be indoctrinated into the regime. After years of evading the state, Niska loses her 11 year old daughter to the modern reincarnation of the residential schools system and has to team up with a bunch of Indigenous outcasts to rescue her and their community.
For more news on upcoming Indigenous films, follow imagineNATIVE online or keep track of upcoming events on their website. Also for more of our Film Festival coverage head to our Film Festival hub.
In the wake of a viral outbreak throughout Bahrain, a group of middle class strangers try to team up to survive. Only problem is they don’t share much in common so working together doesn’t come naturally.
If you’re looking for a B-Movie zombie movie from the Arabian peninsula that focuses more on bickering vs. actual zombie smashing, this is the movie you’re looking for.
Dead Sands‘ hits a bunch of the zombie movie notes in the opening to establish itself as a horror movie. It starts with a Doctor’s warning to the population on a radio broadcast which is largely ignored by the radio host (the prophecy of impending doom). This is followed by an everyday scene which turns into a zombie attack. A woman and man argue, the man disappears with his dog, the dog squeals (sign no.1), the woman calls out to her friend but receives no answer (sign no.2), before the friend (and later the man who she was arguing with) come back to zombify her. This is classic zombie horror movie 101 and sets the movie up for viewers already familiar with the genre in order to make fun of it.
However, whilst Dead Sands positions itself as a satirical comedy of the genre, it doesn’t fully deliver on its promise. There’s little which satirizes the genre apart from a character flip – the long haired, Rambo-looking hard man is a gentle hairdresser. Instead the film almost forgets that it is a zombie movie as the narrative centers on the arguing between the characters. There’s a lot of character development and very few zombies. The only benefit is that the bickering is where the humor comes from. It’s funny to see a group of people unable to get along for trivial reasons, even in such desperate circumstances.
Maybe the focus on their bickering is a metaphor for their zombie-like reality. They’re all youthful members of a Bahraini middle class stuck in a country that’s too small for them. Half of them spoiled kids that you’d imagine come from the international school systems (speaking English) expecting more to life, and the other half are striving to be on the same social level. They come together as they all attend one of the few social centers available to them. They’re not overly surprised or terrified by the zombies as their social lives are already dead. There aren’t many options in their home country (Bahrain is only larger than Singapore and the Maldives in Asia) and therefore the zombies aren’t much of a change.
It’s entertaining to hear the relentless arguing in a horror movie but if you’re looking for a typical zombie movie set in Bahrain you might be a bit disappointed by the lack of action. Make sure you go into this movie knowing it’s a B-Movie focused on the bickering instead of the action.
What to Watch Next
If you want to go to the root of all today’s zombie movies, watch George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Or if you want to watch more contemporary zombie horror movies featuring ordinary conversations try Attack the Block and Shaun of the Dead.
Or, if you’re just looking for more genre movies from the Arabian peninsula check out Rattle the Cage from the UAE.
The Spy movie genre is dominated by James Bond. The franchise’s one liners, action sequences, campy humor, evil villains and their conspiracies to control the world have become almost synonymous with the Spy genre. But James Bond doesn’t quite have a complete monopoly on the spy film genre. Here are 8 Spy Movies from around the world that share some of the iconic motifs of the James Bond franchise to expand the range of your spy film viewing.
8 Great Spy Movies from Around the World
The Lives of Others (Germany)
Actual Spy, Historical
The Lives of Others definitely doesn’t feature your James Bond style spy. Instead of an attractive womanizing action figure, the lead spy in this film is a balding loner that wiretaps a playwright in East Germany to spy on him for the Stasi (East German Secret Police). He’s the villain of this historical drama, and whilst he’s not a popular character like James Bond, there’s a more in-depth examination of his character and the morality of his work. Plus you’ll also get a realistic portrayal of what life in the former GDR looked like.
The Spy Gone North (South Korea)
Actual Spy, In Disguise, Historical, Conspiracy
Like The Lives of Others, The Spy Gone North, is set within a real historical context. In this case, East Germany is switched for North Korea as one South Korean is hired by the government to infiltrate a North Korean nuclear power plant posing as a money-hungry businessman. The focus in this film is on how the spy builds and maintains his disguise is some pretty high pressure situations as well as the political conspiracy behind his mission. So expect to see more diplomacy and tension and less action than your typical Bond film.
The Killer (Hong Kong)
Stylish Action, One Liners, Romance
You can probably remember the great action scenes from your favorite spy movies. Maybe it’s the crane parkour scene from Casino Royale or one of Tom Cruise’s many stunts from the Mission Impossible series. In The Killer the whole film gives 100% – the action scenes, romantic storyline, brotherhood, and style are all pure over-the-top cinematic entertainment. For all of this and more (every explosion is worth two of those in James Bond movies), The Killer is must see.
Mole Agent (Chile)
Documentary, Actual Spy
This Documentary is the wild card on this list as it features no action scenes, no attractive actors, and no suave comedy. Instead the spy in Mole Agent is a pensioner sent undercover into a retirement home to track the treatment of the other retirees. Mole Agent shows that you’re never too old for a new assignment even if you might not be able to pull it off like James Bond could.
The Bloodettes (Cameroon)
Stylish Action, Conspiracy, Evil Villain
Like James Bond movies, The Bloodettes has some stylish action and evil villains with grand conspiracies. But that’s where the similarities end. Firstly, the two agents in this film are women. Secondly, it looks and sounds like a nightclub with neon lighting and a thumping soundtrack. Plus, there’s also vampires. The Bloodettes is one of the most original films I’ve seen from Africa. It’s Cameroon in the future.
You may be familiar with some of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli animations. But maybe you missed his very first directorial feature, Castle of Cagliostro. Set within an animated whimsical Italy, Castle of Cagliostro follows a thief that stumbles on an evil villain and his castle lair – complete with secret doors and some fantastic machines (a consistent motif in Miyazaki’s work) – to rescue the princess imprisoned there. The villain and his castle are just like Scaramanga’s island hideout in Man with the Golden Gun and breaking into the villain’s castle is just as fun as the breakout.
Ashakara (Togo)
Conspiracy, Evil Villain, Technology
In Ashakara, a French multinational sends a spy to Togo to steal the recipe for a magical cure that has been used for years by a rural medicine doctor. The spy takes a metal case with remote video-calling technology (very futuristic for 1991 when this movie was made) to stay in touch with his ‘evil villain’ boss whilst he treks through the country. The Togolese are no pushovers though as the medicine doctors fight back against the French imperialist intentions and the money-greedy capitalists.
Stylish Action, Evil Villain, Villain's Lair, One Liners, In Disguise
Enter the Dragon is a perfect gateway to Bruce Lee movies, it has his iconic martial arts moves plus a James Bond-esque plot with a few Blaxploitation themes thrown in. In the film Lee is sent undercover to an island to compete at a martial arts competition hosted by a suspected Hong Kong crime lord. Like James Bond movies, he and the ‘evil villain’ engage in mind games leading up to the film’s climax. The ‘evil villain,’ secret hideout, undercover identity, and stylish action, make this a perfect alternative to the early James Bond movies.
If you think we’ve missed a film from the list, please get in touch on Twitter or by email to share some more spy movies from around the world.
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