One of the exceptional films of 2017 Western is an incisive, insightful study of masculinity by woman director Valeska Grisebach (Longing). An all-male German construction crew sets up camp in the backwoods of Bulgaria
Date/Time: Mar 20 2018, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Vancouver, Vancity Theatre | Event calendarAge: 19+
Cost: $13.00
Find tickets: here
One of the outstanding films of 2017 (it ranked #5 on Sight & Sound’s end of year film poll) Western is an incisive and insightful study of masculinity by woman director Valeska Grisebach (Longing). An all-male German construction crew set up camp in the backwoods of Bulgaria to work on a hydro project.
Their encounters with the locals - without a common language - are fraught, but one man, Meinhard, reaches out to forge a bond, alienating his coworkers in the process. (The entire film is a master class in watching people who speak different languages trying to communicate… though Meinhard finds more common ground with strangers than with his compatriots.)
Scene-by-scene the tension and potential for conflict builds from numerous angles, but Grisebach is intent on subtle observation rather than sensational showdowns. Indeed, Grisebach’s clever script makes use of some key elements of the Western (the chiselled outsider, the horse, simmering clan conflict, damsels in distress, a hoedown) and either turns them on their heads, or pursues them in a geopolitically astute manner. Western could just as well be called Eastern, and speaks strongly to the social conditions in Eastern Europe today, through one man’s search for home.
"Beautifully complicated, rigorously straightforward… There is no doubting Ms. Grisebach’s filmmaking. Her eye for faces and for nuances of gesture and posture is matched by her ability to capture the beauty and strangeness of the landscape, and to make sense of its intricate geography. Western is as precise as a dropped pin on a GPS map, which makes its sense of mystery all the more powerful." AO Scott, New York Times
"A subtle, awe-inspiring cross-cultural character portrait… Grisebach has populated her unpredictable, slow-burning narrative with flesh-and-blood characters who also function as political symbols. This is a film about ingrained prejudice and the permeability of borders, broached with skillful obliqueness by each and every member of her ensemble" Matthew Eng, Reverse Shot.
"A powerful, deeply human and intricately political drama… reminiscent of Claire Denis’ Foreign Legion cine-poem, Beau Travail." Daniel Kasman, MUBI Notebook
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/2537027
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