Amazonas Film Festival

Kaleem Aftab reports on one of the world's most unusual film festivals.

Nov 28 2006

Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon forest in Brazil, seems a strange place for a film festival. There isn't even a state-of-the-art cinema in the town of two million, so the eight films playing in competition were all shown at the fabulous opera house.

Such a stunning building in the middle of the Amazon brings to mind Werner Herzog's masterful 'Fitzcarraldo' and it's a great reference point, because despite the eeriness and sense of misplacement at the festival, beneath the surface it is full of experiential delights.

While most of the big festivals – Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance etc – get nearly all the column inches, it's often the boutique festivals that are the most fun to attend. For one, there is a manageable amount of films to watch, so instead of rushing from place to place, trying to catch what is inevitably being touted as the next big thing, there is time to savour the films on show and the incredible Amazon forest environment.

Secondly, there is none of the shielding of celebrities that occurs at festivals elsewhere, so I had the admittedly bizarre experience of eating breakfast with Bill Pullman every morning, and talking into the small hours with Matt Dillon at night. They didn't have any movies on show, but Dillon and Pullman, like fellow jury members Barry Pepper, director Renny Harlin and model Audrey Marnay, were there as much for the ride – the picturesque trips up the Amazon river and the Rio Negro – as pontificating about the movies.

As for the eight films in competition, they all fell under the broad heading of films about adventures. Most interesting was 'The White Masai', based on the real life experiences of Swiss writer Corinne Hoffman, who decided to move to Kenya to marry a Masai warrior. Starring Nina Hoss and French newcomer Jacky Ido, it's an enlightening account of cultures clashing. Whereas so many movies posit the joys of multiculturalism, director Hermine Huntgeburth doesn't shy away from the many problems.

The grand prize was won by 'Journeys from the Fall', from first-time American-Vietnamese director Ham Tram. Unfortunately, Tram also doubled up as an editor and some more personal aspects of the story about a Vietnamese fighter who sided with the Americans during the Vietnam War could and should have been spruced. Starting off on the day the Americans leave, it focuses on the re-education camps set up by Ho Chi Minh and the arrival of boat people to the United States, and featured a strange hotchpotch of ideas and inconsistent themes.

Korean Pil-Sung Yim's 'The Antarctic Journal' contained spectacular snowy landscapes. It told of a modern day expedition that has eerie echoes to a failed British trek in 1922. It's a horror film of sorts, but is let down by some poor performances. But by far the best adventure was the one being had by the festival-goers, sampling the enduring delights of the Amazon.

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