Stanislaus

Royal Tiger is a melodrama with a capital M, dominated by the distinctive performance of Pina Menichelli, a diva with a capital D. The story is quite simple at first glance and, in the spirit of the time and genre, is full of almost theatrical performances. On second glance, however, it impresses with well-constructed flashbacks and breathtaking technical execution, especially at the end. It is also the affected acting and the quirky content of the interludes that make Royal Tiger enjoyably humorous.

Great Freedom is another example of the strong LGBT films being made in German-speaking countries (see Free Fall, Sasha, Summer Storm and The Circle). Sebastian Meise's film stands above all on a strong premsise and the performance of Franz Rogowski. Leaving aside the fact that those 23 years don’t quite show in Hans and Viktor, Great Freedom still offers a pretty believable and authentic story about the plight of (not only) gay men in prison in post-war Germany. The film also cleverly plays with the word "freedom", which in the context of prison doesn't always mean just "space outside the bars". Bars can divide, but they can also unite!

Eliza Petkova's ethnographic documentary gives sad testimony to the disappearance of people in the Bulgarian countryside, using the village of Pirin as a case study, while also giving the film a certain magical touch thanks to the legend of a dragon. We follow the fate of a select few inhabitants who are mostly stuck in Pirin, and the only way out is basically "feet first". Despite the weighty subject and a few potentially powerful moments, I was ultimately impressed by the documentary's mediocrity.

Women's bodybuilding is completely foreign to me, so for me Gentle was first of all informative and enriching. But the film also managed to win me over story-wise. I was intrigued by the apparent contradiction between the hefty musculature and the fragile soul at the centre of which was the main character Edina, convincingly portrayed by the non-actress Eszter Csonka. I also liked the portrayal of the exceedingly strange relationship between Edina and Kristian (the monkey imitation was eerily convincing). Gentle is ultimately a sad tale of heartbreak, on a mental as well as a physical level.

Working Class Heroes is a kind of tragicomic probe into the (everyday?) life of Serbian workers and heartless developers. On the one hand, the film entertains with its straightforward setting of a construction site; on the other hand, it gives you chills, considering how a worker-developer confrontation can play out, and what the consequences can be. Of the characters, I was most interested in Lidija and Mali, but also in the Professor. The final third managed to both piss me off and delight me beyond belief. Karma is free!

The Tsugua Diaries certainly impresses with its experimental approach to storytelling, but it's also challenging, even unrewarding, in the first quarter. Once you understand the creative play, the scenes begin to fit together like a puzzle. However, despite the unconventional concept and the efforts to insert many humorous moments into the plot, I did not have as much fun as I should have or expected during the screening.

The makers of Two Ships seemed to be looking at American romantic-drama (personally, it reminded me a lot of Woody Allen) and tried to create something similar in Czechia, in Brno and its surroundings, which they succeeded in varying degrees. If it weren't for the mysterious illness, the film would have glided only lightly over the surface. Better three stars!

(Possible spoilers!) Every year there are many LGBT films, but All Our Fears is not lost among them, if only because of the main character Daniel is a gay man, a believer, a villager and a Pole all rolled into one. The film thus clashes on multiple levels, the most prominent of which are the religious and collective ones. The fate of Jagoda is just a sad but quite real reminder of the ever-present problem of senseless hatred towards sexual minorities. It was interesting to see how the media selects "sensational stories from a village". Despite the serious subject matter, the film has more than a few humorous moments, especially provided by Daniel's spirited grandmother. Still, I was quite sick of the behaviour of many of the characters. This film should be a must-see in Poland.

In his film, Gonçalo Waddington portrays quite convincingly a young man whose (not only) social development from childhood to adolescence was utterly distorted by being kidnapped and abused for many years. On the one hand you can sympathise with him, but on the other, his behaviour is reprehensible. Patrick is a graphic example of a man completely uprooted from a normal life who directs the evil that has been done to him at those around him. Chilling!

After twelve years, I got to see Luis Buñuel's iconic surrealist film again, and my feelings about its scenes remained uneasy. On the one hand, Un Chien Andalou is morbid and perverse, on the other – perhaps unintentionally – quite humorous. The sliced eyeball, the animal corpses dragged on the piano, the omnipresent lust and that "stigmatic tingling", it’s as if you are watching some kind of sick dream that scares (and perhaps subconsciously fascinates) you.