EuRaw Stories Archives - Page 9 of 12 -

Since Otar Left

SINCE OTAR LEFT
Georgia/France 2005
Drama 103 min

Director: Julie Bertuccelli
Cast: Esther Gorintin, Ninio Khomasuridze, Dinara Drukarova
Awards: Critics Week Grand Prize at Cannes 2003, Best 1st fiction at Cesar Awards, Best Actress (Drukarova) at Acteurs A l'Ecran 2003Since

Otar leaves his home town of Tbilisi in search of a better life in Paris. His mother, sister and niece are left behind, their hopes kept alive by his occasional letters and phone calls.

Documentary filmmaker Julie Bertucelli brings to the screen a deceptively simple story, with exquisitely drawn characters that will stay with you long after the film ends. The three women, Eka, Marina and Ada, who live in a small book-filled apartment in Tbilisi, are closely and tenderly observed. The absent Otar is a constant presence in the plot, and Eka displays a fierce pride and confidence in him. Marina receives news that Otar was killed in Paris and is distraught at the thought of her mother finding out the devastating news.

The wonderful performances make this film stand out, particularly the 90-year old Esther Gorintin (Eka in the film), who started her acting career at 85.

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Half time

We can hardly believe we’re already halfway through our first year. So far we have screened 5 movies, with 5 more to go.

Quite a mix of cultures and film styles, we started with an express trip around Europe, presenting 5 short films on our launch night. Then we went to Romania for a dark fast-talking comedy, and to Serbia led by Emir Kusturica’s effervescence. Russia and Macedonia were our latest stop overs, with two very different, memorable films. Yep, quite a journey we’ve been on so far. And strap on, it was just the beginning.

Thank you all for your loyal presence, your curiosity and your support. We have some incredible films coming up for the rest of the year and we can’t wait to share them with you all.

Spread the word, share the stories!

4 facts and not-so-true facts about Macedonia

We have conducted extensive research (thanks Irina) and came up with 4 true and not so-true facts about Macedonia. Have a guess which ones might be true and which ones not.

Mother Theresa was born in Macedonia
Macedonia has more mountains and peaks than any other country in the world
It won the Eurovision song contest twice
During the reign of Alexander the Great, the Kingdom of Macedonia was the most powerful state in the world.

Don’t miss our screening of The Third Half and go a little further into this wonderful country.

Ready! Steady! Guess!

Don’t miss any of our posts

All modesty aside, we think we put together some pretty lovely and worthy events. And we wouldn’t want you to miss out on any of them, not to mention on any of the behind the scenes bits of facts and musings we dig out for you.

So if your inbox can stand one more email, go ahead and subscribe to the EuRaw Stories feed (right here on the left hand side). That is your guarantee you won’t miss any posts or announcements.

Of course, we’re dying to met you in person too, so if you’re curious about life, love, other cultures and pastimes, then book your pass for our next session now.

AFL, soccer and what brings humans together

When it comes down to sports, you could say there are two kinds of Australians:

AFL fanatics
AFL agnostics.

Whatever category you fit it, The Third Half is the film for you. Here’s why:

AFL fanatics – yes, you are right, AFL is amazing and the greatest sport among all, it transcend everything and everyone. AFL’s European sibling, soccer, can give you a glimpse into what role sport plays in other parts of the world. Spoiler alert: pretty important one!

AFL agnostics – yes, you are right, there is so much more to life than AFL, than sports even. This film is also about much much more, about the things that bring us together and make us human.

Sport lovers and haters alike are invited to attend this wonderful film.

The Third Half screens on 26 June at EuRaw Stories.

Examining human nature with Elena

Andrey Zvyagintsev has only directed four feature films and each of them won him prestigious awards at festivals around the world.

In 2003 he shot his first full-length film, The Return, which was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film and Lion of the Future at the Venice Film Festival – a first for Zvyagintsev and the majority of his crew.

His next movie,The Banishment, received the award for Best Male Role (Konstantin Lavronenko) at Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

Leviathan, his fourth film, won Best Screenplay at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, Leviathan also scored a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for the best film in a foreign language.

This Sunday we are screening Zvyagintsev’s third full feature film, the engrossing noir thriller Elena, which won him the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 2011. Joins us for a gripping afternoon of film and culture. Book your pass now.

Did you miss a EuRaw Story?

Rainy weekend afternoons are made for curling up on the couch with a good film, wouldn’t you agree?

If you have a full year pass and you couldn’t make it to one of our screenings, you can always borrow a DVD from our library. All films are available for hire after they have been screened. We don’t want you to miss out on any EuRaw Stories goodness.

Hire costs only $5 per film with a $25 deposit, reimbursable once you return the DVD in its original condition.

Send us an email if you want to hire any of the films we’ve screened, including the special screenings, and we’ll make it happen.

E: stories@euraw.com.au

EuRaw Stories screens on sundays

For the next few months, we’re screening our films on Sunday afternoons. Just around normal high tea time, but instead of tea and cucumber sandwiches, we are serving our signature dish of Eastern and Central European film and culture. Tempted?

Doors will open at 2:15pm with a start at 2:30pm. Hope to see you at our next screening.

The story of a poster – Elena

The movie poster for Elena is an incredible graphic representation of the film. It’s rare to see such a good story synthesis incorporated into one design. Here is the story of the making the poster in the words of Adrian Curry from Notebook, a sought after and highly referenced movie publication for mubi:

“(…) Sam Smith has become one of the most sought-after designers on the independent film circuit with his refreshingly simple, witty and indelibly striking hand-drawn designs (it doesn’t hurt that he also has a great knowledge of both film history and the history of movie poster design). (…)

Zvyagintsev’s dark and beautiful film premiered at Cannes (…) where it won the Special Jury Prize. For the US (…) release we wanted to emphasise the noirish aspects of this captivating modern Russian crime drama and none of the keyart we’d seen from Europe really captured that aspect of it (though I am quite fond of the Australian poster).

Sam, with his love of Czech posters of the 60s and 70s and their frequent animal iconography, immediately zeroed in on the crow that appears at the start of the film as a linchpin element for his design. One of my favorites of his early comps featured nothing but a thicket of wintry trees silhouetted against a teal blue sky, and, above the title, that ominous bird. But much as we loved it as a piece of art we felt that the poster needed its titular character or it wouldn’t really be telling you enough about the film (unlike the great Czech and Polish designers, we can’t afford to be quite so oblique). However, the title treatment and color scheme were strong enough to survive throughout successive drafts.

Sam experimented with a number of ways to represent Elena herself, some of which made her look a little too babushka-like in our opinion, but he quickly settled on the perfect look for his crow.

After a number of variations Sam hit upon the silhouette that is used in the final design. Windows are a major feature of the film (Elena lives with her rich husband in a modern glass-walled penthouse) so to have Elena looking out of the window, her back to us, ruminating, maybe plotting, fits the feel of the film perfectly and also gives her a hint of Joan Crawford at her most devious. Sam refined his horizon of leafless branches reaching up like grasping hands (one of my favorite elements of the poster), and even created his own stylized laurels for the film’s many accolades.

Early in the process, Sam had shown me a bunch of Penguin crime paperback covers (many of them the work of Polish emigré Romek Marber) that he was looking at as a possible direction for the poster. You can see that a couple of them clearly influenced our final look.

Going beyond the call of duty, Sam also made a smaller, pared-down screenprint version of his design which was printed at Kangaroo Studios in his home town of Nashville, TN. His friend Adrian Cobb has made this wonderful short film documenting the process.

You can see more of Sam’s work on his website, and you can read about his process and see more of his favorite posters and other graphic work on his blog Sam’s Myth.