September 25 -- Vancouver Film Festival preview

Vancouver Film Festival preview

SUMMER movies are usually about little more than empty spectacle, and that was true of this summer more than most. It thus comes as a relief to know that the Vancouver International Film Festival (Sept 25 - Oct 10) is back, to give us a taste of something different and to open our eyes to other cultures.

Fans of Pacific Theatre will probably want to catch See Grace Fly (Oct 5, 8), which stars Jessie Award winner Gina Chiarelli as a schizophrenic woman named Grace who wanders the streets of Vancouver and spreads the word that the Second Coming is on its way. Since Grace seems to have the gifts of prophecy and clairvoyance, her predictions cause both her missionary brother Dominic (Paul McGillion) and her agnostic psychiatrist Kate (Jennifer Copping) to re-examine their beliefs.

It will be interesting to see how audiences respond to this film, which co-stars established Vancouver actors Tom Scholte and Benjamin Ratner and was reportedly inspired by members of Chiarelli's extended family. The film's treatment of faith is sincere but also a little gimmicky, and when the time comes to see whether Grace's prediction is true, the moment cannot help but feel a little anti-climactic. The faith discussions sound like the sort of thing one might hear in one of the more cautious Christian plays, but some Christian moviegoers may be turned off by the language and the sexual tension between Dominic and Kate.

For another look at schizophrenia, viewers might want to check out John Cardigan's People Say I'm Crazy (Oct 6, 7), billed as the first film about the disease to be directed by someone who suffers from it. It's a bit rough around the edges, but Cardigan's self-portrait is a brave, affecting piece of work, and he briefly talks about how his art -- he is also a gifted woodcut artist -- is part of his "search for God".

A couple of films pay special attention to the church's presence in Asia. Christian faith and Indonesian customs meet in Garin Nugroho's Birdman Tale (Sep 25, 27), a film about sexual curiosity, political unrest and spiritual yearning that is set in the mostly Christian province of Papua. The title refers to a teacher of cassowary dance who supports a local independence movement, and who flees into the woods wearing his costume after a military crackdown against his group.

While the Birdman hides, his teenaged son becomes obsessed with a woman who leaves her rosary behind in church and is usually seen crying. The script makes frequent use of the Song of Songs, and there are some heartbreaking moments in the church's confessional. The film, which was actually shot on video, is not especially artful, but as a window into another part of the world, it's worth a look.

A much more tragic story unfolds in The Only Sons (Sep 26, 28), a superbly made 'underground' Chinese film that gets its world premiere at this year's festival. Gan Xiao'er, who also wrote and directed the film, stars as Ah Shui, a poor peasant farmer who badly needs money to bail his brother out of jail and to pay for his sister's education.

The film's title alludes to the fact that Ah Shui, who has begun selling his blood despite the risk of catching the "foreigners' disease" (i.e. AIDS), is also considering selling his soon-to-be-born son on the black market. Meanwhile, the Christian minister who visits his village every week preaches sermons on Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and God's sacrifice of Jesus, but he offers little practical help to Ah Shui.

Alas, this film is about as bleak as a Thomas Hardy novel, and the fact that it begins and ends with 'Amazing Grace' is, I suspect, meant as bitter irony more than anything else. But it's well worth seeing, both for its beautiful scenery and for its indictment of the Communist system, which compels women to get birth permits, bills prisoners' relatives for the cost of executions, and exploits the woes of peasants for the glory of its own officials.

Most films at the festival can usually be seen by adults only, but a handful are sometimes made available to high school students as well. One of these is James' Journey to Jerusalem (Sep 29, Oct 2, 4), an Israeli film about a devout Zulu Christian who goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and, thanks to some jaded immigration officials and a shady, opportunistic boss, is forced to work as an illegal labourer.

The film, written and directed by Ra'anan Alexandrowicz, certainly has a unique sound, since the dialogue slips back and forth between English and Hebrew and both languages are pronounced in a variety of accents. And its satirical take on the allure of materialism is pertinent enough. But the story ultimately feels too artificial, especially when it introduces a hokey subplot involving James's skill with a pair of dice.

And what would a film festival be without at least one historical epic? To Kill a King (Sep 25, 28, Oct 1) is a very modern take on the story of zealous Puritan Oliver Cromwell (Tim Roth) and his revolution against King Charles I (Rupert Everett), told from the point of view of Cromwell's more ambivalent comrade Lord Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott).

Directed by Mike Barker, the film has stirring music and lots of restless camerawork, but it also reflects that modern tendency to think small, to reduce significant social debates to merely personal matters. Unlike the 1970 film Cromwell, which emphasized the theological and political principles at stake, To Kill a King is almost a love triangle between Fairfax, his royalist wife Anne (Olivia Williams), and his fiercely anti-royalist friend Cromwell. A nation and an empire hang in the balance, but in the end, what matters most is whether Fairfax will be 'true to himself'.

Some of the best films at this year's festival are documentaries. The cream of the crop include Bus 174 (Sep 26, Sep 28), about a bus hijacking in Brazil and the dreadful social conditions that encouraged this tragedy; Ford Transit (Sep 25, 28, Oct 2), which looks at the Palestinian situation through the eyes of a public-transit driver and his diverse passengers; Los Angeles Plays Itself (Sep 25, Oct 5, 7), a fascinating if at times debatable study of how films document the rise and fall of neighbourhoods, re-interpret the work of architects, and create misleading myths about our collective past; and The Peter Sellers Story - As He Filmed It (Sep 26, Oct 4, 9), which documents the comedian's sad, spiritually empty life through his own home movies. It is fascinating that someone could be so obsessed with the continuation of personalities beyond the grave, when he himself believed he did not have a personality of his own.

Finally, some films were not available in time for our deadline. Of those I have not seen yet, I am most looking forward to Errol Morris's The Fog of War (Sept 30) and Alexander Sokurov's Father and Son (Oct 1, 4). I am also curious to see Louis Belanger's Gaz Bar Blues (Oct 3, 5) and Samira Makhmalbaf's At Five in the Afternoon (Oct 5, 6), which won the ecumenical jury prizes in Montreal and Cannes, respectively.