July: Filmatique Talents III (2021)
July: Filmatique Talents 2021, FLMTQ Releases 248-252
During the month of July Filmatique presents the third edition of Filmatique Talents, an online film festival that spotlights emerging filmmakers across the globe.
Sebastián Lojo's Los Fantasmas (The Ghosts) weaves a composite portrait of the underground economy in Guatemala City, as a young and attractive grifter confronts the inherent violence of his surroundings—Siamak Etemadi's Exarcheia-set thriller Pari accompanies a middle-aged Iranian mother through the streets of the Greek capital in search of her missing son. Filming the interactions between her mother and brother, an imminently humanizing portrait of addiction emerges from Paloma Sermon-Daï's documentary Petit Samedi, while Pietro Castellitto's The Predators mines the relations between class and family to darkly comic effect. Christopher Kahunahana's Waikiki explores the gritty realities of life on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu, a space of mesmerizing natural beauty where dispossession and intergenerational trauma continue to define the native experience.
Comprised entirely of debut feature films from regions diverse as Guatemala, Greece, Belgium, Italy and the United States, Filmatique's third Talents edition delves into urban, psychological, and political geographies. Common threads include the liminal existence of those living at the margins of society, no matter their origin, and the ties that bind individuals to the collective—be it one's family, nation, or community.
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Los Fantasmas (The Ghosts), Sebastián Lojo (2020)
Los Fantasmas (The Ghosts), Sebastián Lojo / Guatemala-Argentina, 2020
Handsome and charming, Koki lives in Guatemala City. By day he acts as a tour guide; by night, he lures men back to a cheap hotel room, where they are subsequently robbed. Carlos, the hotel's middle-aged manager, cuts Koki in on the hustle—he also moonlights as a wrestler, painting his face in thick hues before entering the arena where he is beaten and bloodied to the amusement of amateur spectators. When Carlos betrays Koki, however, Koki comes face to face with the reality of his dispensability, pushing him even further into the shadows.
Employing stylized noir aesthetics to examine themes of marginality in a liminal urban landscape, Los Fantasmas (The Ghosts) presents a nearly disembodied experience of violence and its consequences. Sebastián Lojo's feature film debut premiered at IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam, Santa Barbara, Cartagena, Havana, and Guadalajara.
Los Fantasmas (The Ghosts) streamed on Filmatique from July 1st - August 1st 2021 as part of Filmatique Talents III. Coming soon as a rental.
Pari, Siamak Etemadi (2020)
Pari, Siamak Etemadi / Greece-France-Netherlands-Bulgaria-Switzerland, 2020
Pari and her husband arrive at the airport in Athens on their first trip abroad. Strangely, their son Babak is not there to meet them; taking a cab to his apartment, they find no one at the given address. Each new clue as to his whereabouts turns up a dead end. The city gleams with threat and chaos—tensions simmer as Pari's husband, who sees no other choice than returning to Iran, blames his wife for letting Babak pursue education abroad in the first place. Armed only with stilted English, and a mother's determination, Pari traces ever more perilous footsteps in search of her missing son.
Featuring Melika Foroutan in an incendiary performance, Pari delves into the dark corners of a city burning with protest and anarchy, as the titular character is forced to step out of her husband's shadow and into the light. Siamak Etemadi's first film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, São Paulo, Thessaloniki, Zagreb, and Geneva.
Read an exclusive interview with Siamak Etemadi
Pari streamed on Filmatique from July 8th - August 8th 2021 as part of Filmatique Talents III. Coming soon as a rental.
Petit Samedi, Paloma Sermon-Daï (2020)
Petit Samedi, Paloma Sermon-Daï / Belgium, 2020
Damien is the youngest of the Samedi brothers, living in the small Walloon village of Sclayn, near the River Meuse. His mother, Ysma, lives close by—she makes sure he comes over for lunch, helps him build his résumé. Damien is good-natured and hard-working, but unable to hold a job, having spent the past two decades battling a drug dependency. Ysma's devotion and matter-of-fact tone keep Damien grounded, as he seeks to face his demons and live his adult life day by day.
Shot in stunning fixed compositions and dwelling in precise, insterstitial moments of devotion between mother and son, Petit Samedi evokes an imminently humane portrait of one man's struggle with addiction. Paloma Sermon-Daï's first feature documentary premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, Edinburgh, IDFA, Bilbao, True/False, Docaviv, and Athens, where it won Best Documentary.
Read an exclusive interview with Paloma Sermon-Daï
I Predatori (The Predators), Pietro Castellitto (2020)
I Predatori (The Predators), Pietro Castellitto / Italy, 2020
Claudio is the brash, boorish patriarch of the Vismara clan, working for his uncle in the illegal gun trade for a living. Federico is the eldest son of the Pavone lineage, a mercurial spirit best suited to winding soirées and the vicissitudes of Nietzsche. During a traffic accident in Rome these two families collide—one working-class and fascist, the other intellectual and bourgeois—revealing the economic and cultural fissures deep in the heart of the Italian capital.
Riotous, incisive, and steeped in black humor, The Predators is boldly nihilistic in its outlook, suggesting that nothing, and no one, are quite what they seem. Pietro Castellitto's first feature film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay - Orizzonti; Toronto, Thessaloniki, and Busan.
Waikiki, Christopher Kahunahana (2020