What to catch at the European Film Festival — in cinema or for free online

The ninth European Film Festival is running and this year’s selection of 16 films can be enjoyed either at screenings at The Zone in Johannesburg and The Labia in Cape Town or in the comfort of your home where you can stream them free.

Here are a selection that traverse Europe and offer a range of thoughtful testaments to the healthy state of European cinema in the post-pandemic age.

ALI & AVA (UK)

British social-realist director Clio Barnard offers a tenderly observed, bittersweet portrait of love between two ageing loners in this moving social realist drama. Set in the grey, gritty world of Bradford, northern England, it’s the simple, deeply affecting tale of too-old-to-be-cool wannabe-DJ Ali (A revelatory Bafta-nominated performance from the excellent Adeel Akhtar) and widowed teacher’s assistant trying-to-put-her-life-back-together Ava (the equally formidable Claire Rushbrook) who come together through a chance encounter involving one of Ava’s pupil’s and find a shared bond that seems to offer them the opportunity to reshape their lives.

KLONDIKE (UKRAINE)

Ukrainian writer-director Maryna Er Gorbach offers a timely and quietly devastating portrait of the war in Donbass that, though set in 2014 during the Malaysian Airlines passenger flight tragedy, still has much to say about the ongoing struggles in that region.

Blackly comic in parts and harrowing in others it’s a well-observed drama about the effects of geopolitics on civilians and a tribute in particular to the courage of the many innocent women caught up in the fatal, chauvinistic battles of ignorant men.  

THE GOOD BOSS (SPAIN)

Javier Bardem makes a return to his Spanish comedy roots in this dark-humoured satire of workplace culture in the alienating landscape of late-era capitalism. Directed by Fernando Léon de Aranoa, it’s the simple story of Bardem’s increasingly slippery and slimy “good boss” Blanco, the owner of a family-run  industrial scale-making company whose many different sins and mistakes threaten to bring him down over the course of a week from hell as he and the company prepare to win a (hoped for)  regional business award. Bardem’s layered performance and De Aranoa’s nimble direction make this a dark, cringey, perfectly executed satire of personal ambition and ruthlessness. 

I’M YOUR MAN (GERMANY)

Director Maria Schrader’s romantic comedy with philosophical pretensions offers the latest in a growing line of films dedicated to dispelling the long-held myth that Germans aren't  funny. When uptight, overworked, serious classics scholar Alma (Maren Eggert) agrees to take part in a study to evaluate Tom (Dan Stevens) — a handsome, logical, lifelike love robot — she only does so in the belief her participation will lead to funding for her academic work.

Designed to be her perfect life partner, specifically tailored to her needs and desires, Tom turns out to be less and more than Alma thought she'd need in a romantic partner. The results are funny and touching even if the big questions the film wants to ask aren’t satisfactorily answered.

PETITE MAMAN (FRANCE)

Céline Sciamma follows her 2019 searing lesbian period drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire with this more subdued but equally impressive ode to childhood friendship in the face of grief. When her beloved grandmother dies, 8-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) takes a trip with her parents to the family home in the countryside.

When her mother suddenly disappears Nelly is left to discover the woods in which her mother played as a lonely girl with a vivid imagination, in the company of Marion (Gabrielle Sanz) who is also processing a recent death in the family. Together the two girls form a powerful and singular bond built on their shared grief and powered by their inquisitive and precocious imaginations.

SILENT LAND (POLAND)

There are strong echoes of Austrian modern morality tale master Michael Haneke in Polish director Aga Woszczynska’s understatedly hard-hitting story about a perfectly sculptured blonde couple who, while on holiday in Italy, witness a tragedy.

As they become increasingly racked by guilt and self-doubt and their relationship teeters, the film asks deeply pertinent questions about inequality, moral obligation and how we can try to do something about overwhelming social issues on a personal level — and the consequences to ourselves if we don’t act. There’s so much going on beneath the film’s carefully crafted deadly still frames that if you don’t pay attention you’ll fail to see it for the carefully tailored piece of existential inquiry it is.

THE EMIGRANTS (SWEDEN)

Norwegian director Erik Poppe takes on the sprawling series of Swedish immigration-to-the-New-World novels by Vilhelm Moberg, first adapted in the 1970s by Swedish director Jan Troell. Poppe’s 148-minute adaptation offers an exquisitely realised period drama that, with its poetic interior monologue voice-overs and lushly photographed landscapes, harks loudly to the work of American master Terrence Malick.

Thanks to a solid focus on reframing the narrative from the perspective of its female characters it offers a new take on an old story that has space for relevant reflection through the lens of this moment.

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (NORWAY)

Joachim Trier’s much acclaimed Oscar-nominated romantic dramedy follows four years in the life of Oslo resident Julie (a standout turn from Renate Reisnve) whose failings and inability to make decisions hamper her quest for love and life’s deeper meaning.

Mixing black humour, empathy and a few unexpected shots of hallucinatory terror and imaginative expressions of unbridled energy and joy, it’s an impressive examination of the generation gap and the obstacles to finding love in the modern world that’s anchored by a memorable central performance.  Finally, it expresses a hopeful belief in the better nature of humanity.

• The European Film Festival runs until October 23. Tickets for screenings at The Zone and The Labia can be bought while all films are available to stream free online. For more information visit eurofilmfest.co.za