The new Orlando Cinema in Tel Aviv, located in ZOA House, goes bold and edgy with special limited screenings of some of the more challenging offerings in contemporary cinema.
The program will start on March 15, with screenings of the following films at the second showing (21:30): Kynodontas (Dogtooth), Hunger, Revanche, and Celda 211.
Kynodontas (Dogtooth) – Greece, 2010, 94 min, Greek with English and Hebrew subtitles. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the film won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards.
Film synopsis: The father, the mother and their three kids live at the outskirts of a city. There is a tall fence surrounding the house. The kids have never been outside that fence. They are being educated, entertained, bored and exercised in the manner that their parents deem appropriate, without any influence from the outside world. They believe that the airplanes flying over are toys and that zombies are small yellow flowers. The only person allowed to enter the house is Christina. She works as a security guard at the father’s business. The father arranges her visits to the house in order to appease the sexual urges of the son. The whole family is fond of her, especially the eldest daughter. One day Christina gives her as a present a headband that has stones that glow in the dark and asks for something in return.
Hunger – UK, 2008, 96 min, English with Hebrew subtitles. Written by Enda Walsh and Steve R. McQueen, who also directed, the film won the Caméra d’Or prize at Cannes. Dramatizing the 1981 hunger strike at the Maze Prison in 1981, the film stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who led the second IRA hunger strike and participated in the no wash protest (led by Brendan “The Dark” Hughes) in which Republican prisoners tried to regain political status when it was revoked by the British government in 1976.
Revanche – Austria, 2008, 121 min, German with Hebrew subtitles. Written and directed by Götz Spielmann, the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, winning the “Europa Cinemas Label” as Best European film, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Academy Awards.
Film synopsis: A nature scene. Late summer. A small lake in the woods. No people. Silence. Not far away, a newly built house inhabited by a couple: Robert (Andreas Lust) and Susanne (Ursula Strauss). They live an ordinary life like so many other people. Meanwhile in Vienna. Nightlife, red light district, the world of prostitution. Here money rules. Most people have jobs that barely let them scrape by. Like Alex and Tamara (Johannes Krisch and Irina Potapenko). She is a prostitute from Ukraine; he, the boss’ errand boy. They are lovers, but they have to keep it a secret. Employees aren’t allowed to engage in amorous relations. They want to escape this life, but they need money first. Alex devises a plan to rob a bank in a little village out in the countryside. Tamara wants to come along, and he reluctantly agrees. Everything is going exactly as planned until a policeman happens to walk up: Robert. He fires a few shots at the getaway car as it speeds off and hits the young woman.
Overcome with despair, Alex leaves the body behind in a forest clearing. He lies low at his grandfather’s place. The old man lives on a desolate farm at the edge of the woods. Silent and withdrawn, Alex begins the task of chopping the firewood for the approaching winter. He is consumed with pain, grief, and the hate he harbors for the man responsible for Tamara’s death. A lake in the woods, this is where Robert goes to be alone. Now he comes here to try to sort out what happened. Alex observes the policeman, spies on him, follows him as he goes about his daily routine. And he meets Susanne, the policeman’s wife. The lives of all these people will change as a result of Tamara’s death – more radically than they suspect. And autumn comes, just like every year.
Celda 211 (Cell 211) – Spain, 2009, 113 min, Spanish with Hebrew subtitles. Directed by Daniel Monzón, and starring Luis Tosar. The Spanish prison film is adapted from the novel by Francisco Pérez Gandul and has won 8 Goya awards in Spain, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Luis Tosar) and Best Adapted Screenplay. A new prison guard, eager to make a good impression, is injured while touring the facility. When a riot breaks out he is trapped and tries to pass for a prisoner in order to survive.
Orlando Cinema, ZOA House, 1 Daniel Frish Street, 03-5402845.
