DOCUMENTARY
THE BOYS FROM BARAKA (Rachel Grady/Heidi Ewing, US, 2005) 84min oooo
A bunch of poor kids from Baltimore have been thrown a lifeline. They‘ve won a two-year scholarship in Kenya — it's a healthy act of social engineering to remove them from pernicious influences at a key moment in their lives. They'll spend their seventh and eighth grades in the remote African countryside where their energy can roam free. and yet at other times be healthily contained for the purposes of study. The parents are generally overjoyed even though they will be on the other side of the world.
REASONS TO GO SEE
REEL LIFE: THELMA SCHOONMAKER
1 She’s the greatest Undoubtedly one of the most talented film editors of her generation, 65—year-old Schoonmaker has been the woman at the desk of nearly every single Scorsese movie since Who '3 that Knocking at My Door (1967). 2 Michael Powell Schoonmaker was last great love and wife of the great British filmmaker Powell, and was also responsible for the revival of interest in his work in the last three decades. Without her there would be no Michael Powell retrospective at this year's ElFF.
3 She’s not American Her father worked for an oil company, so she was born in Algeria. but grew up in Aruba. She did not live in the United States until her teens. 4 Woodstock and The Last Waltz Schoonmaker was deeply involved in two of the greatest concert films ever made.
5 Scotland She loves Scotland. She and Powell used to fill their rucksacks with chocolate and whisky and stroll up munros whenever they had the chance.
I Cinewor/d, 623 8030, 27 Aug, 2pm, £75 (£9. 70).
But is it all too good to be true? Interlaced with hard-hitting facts about the plight of black students in the US (79% fail to finish high school). this is the sort of film George Dubya should get his mucky hands on before babbling on about the free world. (Tony McKibbin)
I Ci'neworld, 623 8030. 27 Aug. 9.45pm and 25 Aug, 2pm, bot/i £7.95 (£5.20).
HORROR
DUMPLINGS
(Fruit Chan, Hong Kong, 2005) 91 min I...
Dumplings started life as a half-hour short that Public Toilet director Fruit Chan made as his contribution alongside those of Miike Takeshi and Park Chan-wook in the compendium movie Three. . . Extremes. This feature- length verSion retains the central thesis of 60-year-old Mei (played by the very yOuthful BaI Ling) selling dumplings filled with a secret ingredient that guarantees those who eat them a youthful complexion. Chan uses the extra time afforded here to bring out more of the nuances of Lillian Lee's novel. from which the film is based. and develop the backstory of Miss Lee (Miriam Yeung) and more notably her gangster husband. played with a sneering swagger by the legendary Tony Leung. The short version centred on the revelation of the magic ingredient. but in this version the gut-wrenching secret is Spilled pretty soon. Instead this is about the lengths and compromises people are willing to make in search of beauty. The strong horror element of this fascinating film is added to by the detached narrative stance supported by the sumptuous colours of Chris DOyle's photography. Eat before you watch. (Kaleem Aftab) I Cameo, 623 8030. 20 Aug. 72.30am, and 27 Aug, 3.30pm, both £7.95 (£5.20).
VOYEURISTIC DRAMA
THE SPECTATOR
(Paolo Franchi, Italy, 2004) 98min 0...
Valeria (Barbora Bobulova) is a young translator living in Turin. She becomes fascmated by 40-year-old Massuno (Andrea Renzr) who lives in an apartment across the way. When she moves to Rome Valeria drops her life and follows him there. As Valerio befriends the woman with whom he's embarked on an affair, what develops is an intriguingly emotional. vaguely Oedipal but never sexual menage a has. The characters' motives — and up to a pomt. their pasts — are kept deliberately vague. but what
42 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 18—25 Aug 200:3
Keane
When Lodge Kerrigan releases a new film you really need sit up and take notice. The writer/director of two near perfect
slabs of austere US independent filmmaking weirdness from the 19905 — Clean, Shaven and Claire Dolan - returns with this Steven Soderbergh produced film about William Keane (Damian Lewis, pictured), a man who spends his days scouring New York’s Penn Station for his lost daughter. Keane has, unbelievably, been hailed by those who’ve seen it as Kerrigan’s third masterpiece in a row. Serious cineastes book now.
I Cinewor/d, (523 8030. 10 Aug. (5.45). 5‘/'.5):3 (523.20). Film/louse. 623 8030. 20 Aug, 4.30. 57.95 (ll-3.20). Gl—“fj 0/41 33’ 8128. 22 Aug. (5.45pm, 57.95 (523.20).
thematically comes through is each character's sense of loss. Despite the slightly obVIous music score. the film plays up our sense of curiosity like a suspense thriller. but backs away from key revelations and allows the tone to remain subtly psychological. lhis is a fine addition to the recent spate of Italian films like The Son's Room. Resp/rt) and ano Arno/e which seem to fall into a genre of 'the cinema of the infinitesimal". Recommended.
(Tony McKibbinl
I Cinewoi'ld. (523 8030. 20 Aug.
7. 4:3p/ii, 57105 (523.20).
DEADPAN COMEDY THUMBSUCKER (Mike Mills, US, 2005) 97min 0...
Director Mike Mills. best kllOWl‘. for his music Videos for French group Air (they even named a song after huh) and his
work as a graphic designer ihe did the legendary graphic package Dolce Visual/s :‘or Mo'Wax records). is a firm festival favourite. His debut feature film ;s a pretty faithful adaptation of Walter Kim’s coming-of-age novel that benefits from the influx of some of Mills' favourite motifs.
Relative unknown l8-year—old Lou Taylor Pucci walked off With the best actor prize at both the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals for his turn as the 17—year-old Justin. who finally stops sucking his thumb when he gets addicted to attention deficit drug Ritalin. Justin goes from shy lad to a brash. confident teenager and the overnight change is felt mostly at home. espeually in his relationship wrth his mother (Tilda Swmton. in dynamite formi. She tries hard to keep a check on her son while troubles in her own