AIFF 2005: Ellektra

A weird movie with a weirder set of character and their travails. The one thing that stood out though was the cinematography and the slick editing.

Score - 3.6/5

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AIFF 2005: Mirage (Ilusija)

A beautiful, well narrated and well shot film by the young Macedonian director, Svetozar Ristovski. The protagonist of the film is a 10-11 year old young boy fighting his own way in to life in the newly liberated former Yugoslavian province of Macedonia.

Like the new country, struggling to find its place, with hopes of a better future maybe in a faroff time, Marko - his hopes, ambitions and tribulations is a representative of his people.Incredible performance by the young boy who played Marko aided by a superb script.

Score - 4.3/5

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AIFF 2005: Araguaya

Araguaya - A Conspiracy of Silence, the Brazilian film directed by Ronaldo Duque tells the story of the leftist uprising in the late sixties and seventies in the poor impoverished villages of Amazon Delta from the perspective of a French priest. The rebels are young city bred intellectuals who take up guns and live amongst the villagers while planning an uprising against the ruling military junta at the time.

Score - 4.1/5

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AIFF 2005: Trona

Another movie about a dude bored out of his life in present day USA, who finds himself in the middle of a desert one fine day. His interactions with the locals and the views he takes in form the background of the movie.

Score - 3.9/5

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AIFF 2005: Eighteen

Pip is a teenager who leaves home after an accident(caused by inadvertently by his own father) causes the death of his gay brother. On his eighteenth birthday he gets an audio cassette from his now-deceased grandfather describing his WW2 memoirs, himself a teenager of eighteen at the time. It is like parallel stories in two different war zones - one is a world war that changed the course of the world and the life of his grandfather and the other is Pip's lone battle, his experiences as a street kid finding a way out in the urban jungle of contemporary life.

Score - 3.5/5

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Station agent

An interesting indie from Thomas McCarthy. The protagonist in the movie is a dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage, who is a loner with a passion for trains. He moves to a train station in rural New Jersey left to him by his best friend when he dies.

Moving in, to the train station, some other people come in to his life, who are as lonely as he is, with their own personal troubles and losses. The dialog is natural, free flowing and unintentionally witty. The photography is unassuming, yet speaks stories through the shots and the three characters - that of Peter Dinklage, then the Cuban American hot dog vender, all lively and chatty played by Bobby Cannavale and the lonely divorcee played by Patricia Clarkson are perfect for their parts. Human and touching without being over the top sentimental - it is a movie about ordinary lives shot in ordinary light.

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AIFF 2005: Bitter Dream(Iran)

Khab'e Talkh (Bitter Dream)is a contemporary Iranian film directed by Mohsen Amiryoosefi which deals with the black comedy of death through the final days of a grave keeper, Esfandiar, in the historic Iranian town of Sadeh. It's out of the box subject, where a keeper and preserver of the dead bodies become concerned about his own death in his final days is both comic and meaningful in a mortal sense. The film also provides a glimpse in to the Islamic traditions of death and burial in Iran and the social interactions in their society. Starting off like a documentary with a TV camera crew, the film unfolds in a slow but steady pace and is taut throughout.

Score - 4.2/5

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Get On the Bus

Spike Lee's films are a breath fresh air - usually about 'brothers' with a capital B. An African American director turning his camera on his own community and culture is indeed refreshing in the same way Chris Eyre does through his films for Native Americans.

Most of the movie is shot inside the bus, but that does not restrict its scope - analyzing a wide range of issues confronted by the present day African American society, like gangs of SouthCentral LA, homosexuality, Republicans vs Democrats, crime and punishment, so on and so forth. It has a surefire script that can give valuble material for quotes and bumper stickers and some pretty good charecterization.

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AIFF 2005: Far Side of the Moon

Far Side of the Moon is a film by the French-Canadian director Robert LePage about the influences on growing up in the age of the space-race, 1950,60s & early 70s and the relationship between two siblings, now in the forties. Their mother's death(obviously a suicide) is the incident that brings the two brothers in to a single frame. The film is peppered by small but observant nuances on ordinary life, like the comment about gays having it all, ("but like most gays I know he's carefree, rich and lucky")the scenes at the gym and the visual language used by the director is intriguing.

Score - 4.1/5

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AIFF 2005: Dr.Ravi and Mr.Hyde

A comedy about an Indian(not as in Native American)physician with a good practice in Pittusburg, afflicted with a mid-life crisis which in his case manifests as a wild dream of making a movie. The film pretty much follows how the doctor tries to achieve his dream.

Score - 3.2/5

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AIFF 2005: The Coat Room

About a guy bored out of his life who takes a up a job in the coatroom of Philadelphia Mueseum of Art, where his collegue, the daring Miss.Claire with her pluck and sarcascm breathes a new life in to our hero.

Score - 3.3/5

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