Melancholy is the common theme of todays’ two premieres. Israeli director Ofir Raul Graizer, who succeed in Karlovy Vary with his sad drama The Cakemaker five years ago, has a second film included in the Crystal Globe Competition. His new film America is not devoid of nostalgia either. This time, a swimming coach returns to his native Israel, unwittingly triggering a chain of events that will shatter the seemingly firm relationships. This visually intoxicating homage to old films attacks the audience with subtle yet all the more powerful weapons.
The screening at 8:00 p.m. at the Grand Hall is a reminder that the Greeks are still weird. The ‘Greek Weird Wave’ caused a stir on festivals a few years ago, and Christos Passalis starred in several of its films, such as Dogtooth. For his directorial debut, Silence 6-9, Christos Passalis also wrote the screenplay and portrays the lead role of a man growing close to a similarly lost soul in a disturbingly empty city. The melancholy of a world where many things don’t make any sense is surprisingly close to the ours…
