It’s a challenging time of the year, what with having to remember to write 2016, and desperately trying to hold onto that relaxed, holiday attitude you made a resolution to maintain until at least March. Add to this summery evenings, and it’s easy to forget the time and miss films you’d meant to see. To make life a little easier, Wednesday evening is now encore night, offering you the chance to catch the film that screened on the previous Saturday evening in Rialto Channel’s Official Selection.
So if you missed Escobar: Paradise Lost on Saturday, then don’t panic – catch it on Wednesday at 8.30pm.
Here are a few highlights for the week:
It’s a challenging time of the year, what with having to remember to write 2016, and desperately trying to hold onto that relaxed, holiday attitude you made a resolution to maintain until at least March. Add to this summery evenings, and it’s easy to forget the time and miss films you’d meant to see. To make life a little easier, Wednesday evening is now encore night, offering you the chance to catch the film that screened on the previous Saturday evening in Rialto Channel’s Official Selection.
So if you missed Escobar: Paradise Lost on Saturday, then don’t panic – catch it on Wednesday at 8.30pm.
Here are a few highlights for the week:
A Second Chance …Monday 25th January, 8.30pm
Fans of foreign-language Oscar winner Susanne Bier (In A Better World) and Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau can check out their 2015 collaboration A Second Chance this week. A little like Lullaby (mentioned below), the subject matter in this Danish drama-thriller is challenging as Bier and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen tell the story of a how far a grieving father will go to replace his dead baby. In this case, policeman Andreas (Coster-Waldau) makes a rash decision when his son passes away suddenly to steal a baby from a violent, drug-addled couple who neglect it. It’s a far fetched premise, one that’s clearly set out for us until a final twist, but that doesn’t stop the cast that includes Ulrich Thomsen as Andreas’ partner on the force, and Maria Bonnevie as his wife, giving this scenario all they’ve got. It’s a film filled with life changing moral decisions, which is what you expect from Bier and Jensen who also worked together on Brothers and After the Wedding, and even though it’s not their best work, it’s still a solid, well crafted drama.
Sweet Mickey for President … Thursday 28th January, 8.30pm
This award winning documentary tells the rather extraordinary story of how second-generation Haitian-American, former Fugee’s rapper Pras Michel, endorsed and supported controversial local Haitian singer, Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, to run for President in the Haiti elections in 2010. As we discover in this documentary, produced and written by Pras, Haiti’s political history is one of great change; a mix of violent military overthrows, dictators and democratically elected rulers. After the devastating 2010 earthquake, Pras Michel thought his spiritual homeland needed a leader who could inspire, and bring people together. He felt Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly was the man to do it. Sweet Mickey for President works thanks to the incredible access director Ben Patterson gets to both Martelly and Pras. It’s fascinating watching Martelly go from a pop star dressed in a diaper to a burgeoning statesman, and Pras deal with the surprise announcement by his former band mate Wyclef Jean, that he too is joining the race. As interesting as Pras and Martelly’s story is, Sweet Mickey for President also quietly reminds us Haiti is a country in turmoil, and still recovering from the deadly earthquake of 2010. The screening of this film is apt, as Martelly, banned constitutionally from being elected again, is currently overseeing the election for the next President of Haiti – an election that’s been postponed three times already due to violence and unrest.
Lullaby … Saturday 30th January, 8.30pm
Lullaby features a splendid cast doing their best with a tough subject; assisted suicide and the right to die with dignity. Lullaby is the directorial debut from acclaimed painter, sculptor, and photographer Andrew Levitas, who wrote the film as a means of sorting out some of his own feelings on the issue. Partly autobiographical, Lullaby was inspired by the death of his own father 12 years ago, and while the subject conjures up all kinds of emotions, Levitas sees his film as a launch point to talk about these issues rather than offering all the answers. As I mentioned, the film is exceptionally well cast, and while Levitas was determine to present characters and a film that represented reality as opposed to Hollywood’s sugar coated version of life, some of these characters, regardless of how well they’re portrayed, are hard to sympathise with. However, the general conversation about freedom and ones right to die with dignity does well to cover varying points of view on the matter.