Featuring: Søren Malling, Johan Philip Asbæk, Abdi Rashid Yusuf, Dar Salim
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Writer: Tobias Lindholm
Movie website: www.magpictures.com/ahijacking/

2013-14 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville: 20–25 Jan, 8pm
Joondalup Pines: 28 Jan–2 Feb, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein
Verdict: A superbly crafted and performed character and dialogue-driven psychological thriller

Story:
A Danish cargo ship en route to Bombay is hijacked by Somali pirates. A tense ransom negotiation ensues between the pirate spokesman (Abdi Rashid Yusuf) and Denmark-based shipping company CEO (Søren Malling), with the lives of the increasingly despairing crew hanging in the balance.

Review:
In this most taut and realistic of thrillers, guns and violent coercion announce the battle between the opposing sides when the cargo ship MV Rozen is boarded by Somali pirates wielding automatic weapons and knives. However, the war of attrition that ensues is fought via dialogue over the phone, as the pirate negotiator and shipping company CEO take each other on in a psychologically brutal, high-stakes game of bluff, threat and manipulation.

The movie switches throughout between the plight of the crew on board ship and the shipping company crisis team in Denmark. The ransom negotiations take place over weeks, during which the tension on both sides escalates to combustible levels. Continue reading A Hijacking (original Danish title “Kapringen”) Movie Review →

Featuring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Lupita Nyong’o, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano
Director: Steve McQueen
Writer: John Ridley
Movie website: www.12yearsaslave.com/

2013-14 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville: 13–19 Jan, 8pm
Joondalup Pines: 21–26 Jan, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein
Verdict: Uncompromising and at times hard to watch, this powerful work is surely the last cinematic word on slavery.

Story:
In pre-Civil War America slavery is entrenched in the South, while blacks in the North live in relative freedom. When upstate New York musician Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is abducted, smuggled South and sold into slavery, he begins a life of brutal subjugation. Lost to his wife and children, his freedom, dignity and even his name are taken from him. As the years mount, hope of rescue dims, and his fight for survival exacts an ever-greater toll. Based on the astounding real-life experience of Solomon Northup, as recorded in his biographical writings.

Review:
There have been numerous films set in the slavery period of the American South, but none, at least that I have seen, as uncompromisingly realist as 12 Years A Slave. Director Steve McQueen is unflinchingly committed to confronting his audience with the atrocities of the era resurrected in dramatised form, as unpalatable as these may be. Indeed, to pull back on the horror would be to dishonour the author on whose life story the film is based, and the lives of those who suffered through this bleak period of American history. Continue reading 12 Years A Slave Movie Review →

Featuring: Rita Blanco, Joaquim de Almeida, Roland Giraud
Director: Ruben Alves
Writers: Ruben Alves, Hugo Gélin, Jean-André Yerles
Movie website: www.palacefilms.com.au/thegildedcage/

2013-14 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville: 30 Dec–5 Jan, 8pm
Joondalup Pines: 7–12 Jan, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein
Verdict: Charming, humorous, gently thought-provoking and always entertaining.

Story:
Maria (Rita Blanco) and José (Joaquim de Almeida) live with their adult daughter Paula (Barbara Cabrita) and teenage son Pedro (Alex Alves Pereira) in a modest but comfortable apartment in Paris. Since migrating from Portugal 30 years ago, they have worked hard to establish themselves, Maria as a concierge and José as a builder. When they inherit a family property in rural Portugal, they have the opportunity to realise a long-held dream to return to their home country, but family, friends and work pressures seem to conspire to keep them in France.

Review:
Going by the full house at Somerville on its opening night screening, The Gilded Cage is shaping as one of the hits of the 2013/14 Perth Film Festival. And for good reason. It’s charming, humorous, extremely well performed, gently thought-provoking in its treatment of cultural stereotyping, the sometimes challenging and opposing forces within families, and the need to belong – and always entertaining. Continue reading The Gilded Cage Movie Review →