The 19th European Film Festival in Port-of-Spain runs from May 6-19 and from May 13-19 in Tobago.
T&T Guardian columnist, BC Pires, has been writing about film from an informed lay perspective since March 1988.
He served on the first T&T Film Festival jury in 2009 and wrote the Jury's Report.
BC will pick a Film of the Day for every day of the festival. Preference will be given to films screening after normal working hours but other exceptional films will be noted, if deserved. Where the best film of the day is not the choice, that, too, will be noted.
Today's choice is:
My Father's Bike (Piotr Trzaskalski/ 2012/ Poland/ Drama / 90 mins/ Polish with English subtitles / PG-13)
TIME: 8.15 pm
VENUE: MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain
Unusually for multi-generational relationship-driven cinema, the three lead characters in this strong Polish drama are all male, a feature which by itself makes the film worth investigating. The underachieving grandfather, whose wife's desertion is the story's lynchpin, has a difficult relationship with his very successful celebrity musician son, who himself has virtually no connection with his own teenaged son � to whom the grandfather is as close as the father is distant.
From this setup, the filmmaker spins a well-paced, unassailable yarn (apart, possibly, from one plot development directly connected to the grandson). The cinefile or pedant might quibble, too, over the perhaps strained use of the bicycle as vehicle for depicting human relationships because the Italian, American and Chinese precedents (The Bicycle Thief, Breaking Away, Beijing Bicycle) that justify such usage do it better, but, on the whole, this is a warm, rewarding film saying a great deal worthwhile about the difficulties of relationships between fathers and sons.
Best of the rest: *A Gun in Each Hand, 11 am Best Film of the Day
Films start promptly at advertised times.
Starred films have been or will be picked as daily selections
Schedule
Schedule for Week 1 of the European Film Festival, MovieTowne, PoS.
MAY 6
11 am A Gun in Each Hand (SP / 91 mins)
1.15 pm The French Minister (FR / 113 mins)
3.30 pm Gone too Far! (UK / 88 mins)
6 pm Those Were the Days (NL / 90 mins)
8.15 pm My Father's Bike (POL / 94 mins)
MAY 7
11 am Once Upon a Forest (FR / 78 mins)
1.15 pm Age of Cannibals (GER / 89 mins)
3.30 pm The Broken Circle Breakdown (BEL / 112 mins)
6 pm '71 (UK / 90 mins)
8.15 pm No Rest for the Wicked (SP / 114 mins)
MAY 8
11 am Don't Be Afraid (SP / 89 mins)
1.15 pm High Performance (AUS / 100 mins)
3.30 pm School of Babel (FR / 89 mins)
6 pm The Hell of '63 (NL / 105 mins)
8.15 pm Colour of the Ocean (GER / 95 mins)
3.30 pm Shaun the Sheep Movie (UK / 85 mins)
6 pm The Poll Diaries (GER / 125 mins)
8.45 pm On My Way (FR / 113 mins)
MAY 10
11 am Longwave (SWI / 85 mins)
1.15 pm Snowflake, the White Gorilla (SP / 86 mins)
3.30 pm Stations of the Cross (GER / 106 mins)
6 pm Pride (UK / 117 mins)
8.30 pm Soof (NL / 90 mins)
MAY 11
11 am Six Days + A Haircut Story (EU, CYP / 22 mins, 75 mins)
1.15 pm The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (SWE / 114 mins)
3.45 pm No Rest for the Wicked (SP / 114 mins)
6.15 pm Age of Cannibals (GER / 89 mins)
8.15 pm The French Minister (FR / 113 mins)
MAY 12
11 am Once Upon a Forest (FR / 78 mins)
1.15 pm Gone too Far! (UK / 88 mins)
3.30 pm Those Were the Days (NL / 90 mins)
6.00 pm My Father's Bike (POL / 94 mins)
8.15 pm A Gun in Each Hand (SP / 91 mins)