Impressions from Edinburgh International Film Festival 2009

My Year Without Sex , Wide Open Spaces , Sin Nombre , Friday 26. June 2009, 16:14

Last weekend I came to visit my friends in Edinburgh. The date of this visit has been carefully planned because on July 18th the EIFF 2009 started. Belowe you'll find a few impressions from the festival which I attended for the first time.

I managed to watch three movies during the weekend. I booked the tickets a week in advance but it was too late already and I missed two films that I wanted to see (No Greater Love by M. White and the set of International Animation). But it wasn't too bad.

The first (and best) movie I saw was "Sin Nombre": http://filmaster.com/film/sin-nombre/. This picture is going to make it big. A great story about illegal immigrants trying to find their way from Honduras to The U.S. More traditional than "City of God" (but the comparison is intended and makes sense), not as nervous camera and not as violent, but very touching... or even romantic. The director did his research and created a very true picture that I think everyone (especially those of you cursing the Central Americans making it into the US) should watch.

Director Cary Fukunaga was present on the screening and I managed to film some 2 minutes of his speech about the making of the movie (forry for the poor quality though):

Same day in the evening I watched something much more lightweight, an aussie comedycalled "My Year without Sex": http://filmaster.com/film/my-year-without-sex/. The interesting part of this movie was the fact it was so ordinary. Nothing spectacular really happened although it might have and there were many occasions for it. Neat observation of life of regular folks. This is how I picture Australia. Worth seeing, but not mandatory.

The only movie that I saw the second day was "Wide Open Spaces": http://filmaster.com/film/wide-open-spaces/, an absurd Irish comedy about two folks building a Famine Theme park for some dodgy local businessman. Some montypythonish jokes and romantic (no, not really) adventures of wanna-be-artist losers. It failed to be funny but tried hard. Might become a cult movie for some (I'm not among them). I only wish this one has been directed by Petr Zelenka or some other Czech filmmaker who are simply the best in the world in creating absurd movies of this kind.

I wish I could have seen more and stayed more. I especially wish I have seen the picture by Shane Meadows, but I guess it's going to be shown in British cinemas anyhow. The good thing is that I'll probably have a chance to see some of the movies I missed in Edinburgh in July when I'm going to visit Wroclaw, Poland for its great annual New Horizons festival. The full programme can be found here if you are curious: http://www.enh.pl/lista.do?edycjaFest=9&typ;=cykl&indeksAZ;=%96&rodzajTytulu;=2&idCyklu;=0&tytul;=

And if were in Edinburgh at the same time and have been wondering who this strange looking Polish guys was, waering Filmaster.com t-shirt, wonder no more:

Yep, that was me, in front of Filmhouse, one of the crowded festival venues.