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Jakarta Post

European cities come to life on the big screen

The annual European film festival, which split from the Jakarta International Film Festival last year, has kicked off the year-end series of international-standard film festivals in town

Nauval Yazid (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, October 26, 2008

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European cities come to life on the big screen

The annual European film festival, which split from the Jakarta International Film Festival last year, has kicked off the year-end series of international-standard film festivals in town. Called "Europe on Screen", the second edition of the festival operating independently is drawing on the theme of "City Landscapes and Urban Visions", with the aim of highlighting people's eclectic lifestyles in urban areas of Europe.

The festival is being held in Jakarta from Oct. 24 to 31, and will then travel to Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Bandung, Semarang, Makassar, Banda Aceh and Medan.

As the numbers of immigrants to major European cities increase, the cities are having to deal with ascending crime rates, social and economic intolerance and lack of access to welfare. Still, outside these issues, European cities in their present state offer their own irresistible qualities that still attract us, whether in body or just in mind.

Architectural landscapes are being built using diverse concepts, urban cultures are becoming more prominent in everyday life, and works of art, including music and film, continue to feature a mix of European faces offering their complex views on life.

With these ideas in mind, the festival features close observations of the changes in European societies, as is evident in the festival's opening film, Paris. The classic theme of a dying man trying to make peace with the people around him and seeing his surroundings in a new way is given a colorful treatment by director C*dric Klapisch.

Klapisch is no stranger to films with multicultural themes, having previously directed commercial and critical successes The Spanish Apartment and its sequel Russian Dolls, featuring actor Romain Duris, who is also the leading man in Paris. With another marquee name in the cast -- Juliette Binoche -- and the fact that the film was has been seen by around one million people in its home country, France, since its initial release earlier this year, the film seemed destined to be the festival's opener.

No international stars appear in One Eye Red, the Swedish film that will close the festival, which offers an intriguing look at how far one might go in an attempt to bridge the contrasting worlds of Arab communities and native Sweden society. Mixing comedy and fantasy, the film has drawn critical acclaim and international attention, especially after the film was screened in the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic this year.

Given the theme of urban landscapes, some of the selected films evidently choose to tell multiple related stories in the now familiar way of contemporary films such as Paris Je T'aime or Love Actually. Telling several stories in one film is the approach taken in Turkey's Istanbul Tales and Poland's Warsaw, with each telling five different stories focusing on everyday city life and looking at how the cities define their residents' character.

In another way, some European cities have become hubs of culture-defining trends, as depicted in two documentaries from the Netherlands, Dutch Touch and Hard Times, Good Times, Better Times. The latter focuses on the history of graffiti in Amsterdam from the punk days of the 1970s to the self-conscious 1990s, and the former observes the growing hiphop culture from various viewpoints: a commercially successful rapper, the rapper's underground counterparts and emerging rappers.

Music is another prominent subject used to illustrate the vibrancy of these cities, as in France's Residence Mozart using a comic touch in depicting the struggle of a black rapper in Paris, and the highly anticipated Control, director Anton Corbijn's award-winning biopic about Ian Cutris, the lead singer of 1980s band Joy Division, who committed suicide at the age of 23. Control may be regarded by the band's fans as a tribute to the glowing days of 1980s glam rock, but also cleverly hints at the undeniable mutual relationship between the band and their city of Manchester, which shaped the songs they would become famous for.

Leading the pack of music-themed films is Love, Peace and Beatbox, a documentary about Berlin's beatbox community. Director Volker-Meyer Dabitsch went on tour with some prominent beatboxing artists, resulting in a film that won critical acclaim after its world premiere in Berlinale earlier this year. The artist featured in the film, Mando and his 4x Sample Crew, which won the Beatboxing German championship in 2006, will attend screenings of the film in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta.

With such upbeat treatment, the European cities shown in these films look more hip and attractive than ever.

All screenings in Europe on Screen 2008 are free. The age-classification system applies. For more information, visit http://www.delidn.ec.europa.eu/film or contact europeonscreen@gmail.com.

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