What Makes an AFF Film? Five Picks From Our Programming Team
Beyond the acclaimed titles from Sundance, Cannes and Berlin, AFF looks to the fall festivals – from the boutique festival of Sheffield, Karlovy Vary and Locarno as well as the major fall festival of Venice and TIFF to deliver fresh and cutting edge program of titles capturing unique and singular visions.
With 122 films in the program, we know choosing what to see can become a film in itself. So we asked our Programming team for a few titles that get to the heart of what they look for when putting AFF together.
Direct from Lorcano - DONKEY PRINCESS from the Chilean directors of the acclaimed WOLF HOUSE – another truly original film. A princess is forbidden by her father to love and so she chases love across time. A tremendous mash-up of sinister fairy-book animation, horror-fantasy and soapy live action.
Plus the Lorcano’s Crystal Globe Competition winner, FRUIT GATHERING. As men flee war-torn Myanmar, women make their way to the cities as garment workers where they long for what they have lost and discover new desires. An aesthetically beautiful work paying homage to both social realism and classic queer-inspired melodramatic cinema.
Direct from the Sarajevo Film Festival - THE BALKAN COWBOY. In the 1980s. Albanian Muslim Aljus Musli was a local minor celebrity – a photographer by trade but on the weekend as Harry Dsekson he made zero-budget westerns with other local film buffs. A friend of the filmmakers’ father, the director searches for what happened to him during the ethnic cleansing crimes of the Yugoslav wars. The film is a wonderful blend of outsider cinema homage, poignant personal tragedy, and a timely exploration of the scourge of ethno-nationalism.
From competition at TIFF is THE SMELL OF APPLES – a chilling exploration of how a sun-bathed family feeds the mechanisms of apartheid through denial and violence. Stunningly shot with first-class performances and an alluring and compelling evocation of the 1970s through excellent needle drops and production design, the film is an adaptation of a canonical South African coming-of-age novel and is a devastating indictment of how ordinary middle-class people can turn away from great injustice.
From competition in Karlovy Vary – BLACK NIGHTS FOR WHITE NIGHTS - a tragic comedy with a premise worthy of the Coen Brothers. A middle-age Bulgarian couple who has worked the black market to buy her ideal holiday visiting the white nights in Russia, loses it all when the travel agency disappears overnight when the Russo-Ukrainian war breaks out. Their recovery attempts have them falling back on dubious connections, a questioning family and a past full of lies and secrets that may see their entire lives unravel. A humorous work on hubris and dressing for failure.
Take a chance on something unexpected
Film Festivals are a good excuse to get a little curious and see unique stories on the big screen.
And for 12 days, those stories become something we share too.
You sit down next to somebody you don't know. The lights go down. For a couple of hours, you're in it together.
Come be a part of it.