Wednesday 26 June 2013

Today at Edinburgh International Film Festival

Penumbra takes the viewer to a remote rural area of Mexico to spend a few days with an ageing couple. Adelelmo sets off into the forests to hunt for food, while his wife stays at home and cooks, does the laundry and other domestic tasks.

It is obvious that Adelelmo knows the forest intimately, he gathers medical herbs and follows the tracks of a deer, which he finally traps and kills. Later he and his wife eat the deer.

This is a beautiful, meditative film about living close to nature.

****

The unnamed narrator of The Last Time I Saw Macao is also on the hunt, but this time for his friend, Candy, who is in trouble in the crowded city of Macao, former Portuguese colony and the 'Las Vegas of the East'. The plot of the film fades away half way through and we find outselves on a tour of the city, which certainly has its beautiful areas. It's surrounded by mountains where kites perform their aerobatics and there's a lovely wetlands area, with kingfishers and other birds. Meanwhile the city itself is full of feral cats and dogs who seem almost to be overseeing on the search for Candy.

These two films are showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

Penumbra: 2045, 28 June and 2115, 29 June both at Filmhouse.

The Last Time I Saw Macao: 1830, 28 June (Filmhouse) and 1424, 30 June (Cineworld)

Earlier today I saw Die Welt, which I reviewed here.

Disclaimer, I have a press pass for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and I attended free press screenings for these films.

4 comments:

Draffin Bears said...

Hi Juliet,

Sound like wonderful movies you are watching and thanks for sharing.
I find herbs and plants used for Medicine very interesting. We have been watching Wartime Farms and they have been gathering plants and herbs for medicinal purposes.

Happy week
hugs
Carolyn

Ms Sparrow said...

I think I would be squeamish about watching a deer killed and butchered. Years ago I saw a film called Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. In one scene an old woman casually slits the throat of a beautiful white young goat. It still bothers me.

RG said...

You watch a lot of movies and do a great job of conveying an essence in few words of blogging. Does it get difficult/boring/tiring?

Reading about the movies you have seen generally reminds me why I, personally, don't much care for most movies. I guess I just don't see the point of even having them.

I know, I know ....

Crafty Green Poet said...

Hi Carolyn - medicinal herbs are very interesting and I wish I knoew more about them

Ms Sparrow, I'm squeanish about watching animals killed on screen too!

Rabbits Guy - it gets very tiring sometimes! Three films in a day is my comfortable limit. After that it's too much. It only gets boring if the films are bad or too experimental. I love films though, so for me in general, the opportunity to watch and review all these films is brilliant...