From Matthew Rankin’s psychedelic take on Brian Mulroney to an aging blues musician facing eviction, these films explored politics, displacement and identity from unexpected angles The 45th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) featured some high-profile titles, including Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut,” which has been generating awards buzz for star Julianne Moore, and Martin McDonagh’s closing-night black comedy “Wild Horse Nine,” starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell. Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky” took home the Audience Award in the Special Presentations category. Yet beyond the marquee titles, VIFF’s lineup spanned 76 countries and offered plenty of discoveries from established auteurs and emerging filmmakers alike.
From Matthew Rankin’s experimental take on Brian Mulroney to Tizza Covi’s portrait of an aging blues musician facing eviction, these eight narrative and documentary films approached familiar subjects from unexpected angles or offered a glimpse into lives rarely captured on film. As he says goodbye to his home and possessions — which include vintage blues records, memorabilia and an out-of-tune piano — he ponders the prospects of a new beginning elsewhere, even as he’s firmly in the last chapter of his life. Rankin forgoes talking heads entirely, instead remixing archival footage, animation, and music to trace Mulroney’s rise to power in what feels like an experimental vintage fever dream.
Rather than examine the late Canadian prime minister’s political impact and legacy, the film explores how his image was built and how his party transformed along the way. After targeting the wrong mark, he finds himself entangled in a dangerous situation with a crime family and is forced to race against a clock to save his disabled wife. Segan uses the crime thriller genre to tell a deeper story about the nature of progress and how the world moves on, leaving certain people behind along with the shared values, ways of life and technologies they once trusted.
With its melancholy jazz score, it’s an elegy to a New York that’s slipping away. As they struggle to adjust, many deal with insecurity, shame, trauma and discrimination. The school works to give them confidence, purpose, meaning and a sense of belonging, while also helping them understand what their parents fled.
For a number of students, the full story of their family’s escape is revealed for the first time on camera. When Gleb discovers his wife’s infidelity, it sends him on a particularly dark path, with moments of morbid humor intertwined. In the background, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is on-going, and the military is scrambling for recruits.
The town’s mayor pressures Gleb and other executives to hand over employees for the draft. His household becomes a microcosm of a broader societal moral decay, fuelled by detachment, indifference, corruption, complacency and the pursuit of comfort. A Cannes Festival Grand Prix winner.
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