European Film Festival

The ninth edition of the European Film Festival is taking place as a hybrid event between 13 and 23 October. Online screenings are free while a ticket price will be charged as usual for the theatre screenings. Each film will be screened once at both Ster-Kinekor’s The Zone in Johannesburg and at The Labia in Cape Town. The theme of the festival this year is “Innocence and Beyond”, and the 16 curated, award-winning films all relate to the concept of innocence either in a legal framing or as a human quality. Here are three of them to look out for during the festival.

Do Not Hesitate 

Online 13 to 23 October. Live screenings on 22 October at Ster-Kinekor – The Zone (Joburg) at 3pm and Labia Theatre (Cape Town) at 4pm

A Dutch slow-burn psychological thriller by Shariff Korver about three young soldiers tasked with guarding a military vehicle on a peacekeeping mission in a desolate mountain range whose encounter with a young local boy marks the rest of their lives. There are no battles in the film but the conflict between the setting of war and the boy’s naiveté provides the tension that defines it.

The Worst Person in the World 

Online 14 to 16 October. Live screenings on 23 October; Ster-Kinekor – The Zone at 7.30pm and Labia Theatre at 8.15pm

A Norwegian, French, Danish and Swedish co-production set in Oslo that received two nominations at the 2022 Academy Awards. It’s a modern psychological comedy-drama that takes place in 12 chapters over four years of a young woman’s life as she searches for purpose and love. Director Joachim Trier describes it as “a coming-of-age film for grown-ups who feel like they still haven’t grown up”.

Olga 

Online 21 to 23 October. Live screenings on 16 October; Ster-Kinekor – The Zone at 5pm and Labia Theatre at 6pm

A Swiss film by Elie Grappe in which a teenage Ukrainian gymnast living in exile in Switzerland grapples with the conflict between her personal and political identity as her mother country is bursting at the seams. Set in 2013, she is preparing for the European Championships, when the Euromaïdan revolt breaks out in Kyiv. The film uses actual footage of the uprising while dealing sensitively with the dilemma she faces in striving towards her dreams while separated from everyone she cares about back home, including her mother, an investigative journalist.

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Netflix

Spiritfarer: 4 October

There’s a fair bit of confusion around what Netflix Games is and how it works, but the basics are that it’s a free service that allows all users access to a catalogue of simple games that can be downloaded on mobile devices. Right now, the collection is fairly limited but Netflix plans to have 50 games available by year’s end. Spiritfarer is a relaxing indie management game about bidding farewell to the dead in which the player is a ferry master for the deceased. It’s a low-pressure game geared towards Zen rather than competition. Build a boat, explore the world, befriend and look after spirits and then finally release them into the afterlife. 

Cabinet Of Curiosities: 25 October

Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Shape Of Water, Nightmare Alley) gravitates towards folklore. His films create intrigue from the freaky and even grotesque. It’s no wonder then that his upcoming horror anthology is named after the showrooms of the 16th century that were crammed with objects of perceived magic, myth and mystery. Del Toro himself serves as host in the eight-episode curated collection of creepy tales (two of which are original stories) that, whether macabre, gothic, psychological or otherwise, challenge traditional horror.

The Good Nurse: 26 October

A restrained, suspenseful slow-burn thriller based on true events and directed by Tobias Lindholm. Jessica Chastain plays Amy, a compassionate nurse who fights the physical toll of her severe heart condition during gruelling night shifts in the ICU. A series of mysterious patient deaths casts suspicion on her close friend and fellow nurse (Eddie Redmayne), compelling Amy to put her life on the line to find the truth and protect her children.

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Prime Video

Catherine Called Birdy: 7 October

Game of Thrones child star Bella Ramsey plays young Lady Catherine (aka Birdy), whose father is fixing to marry her off to the highest bidder to maintain the family manor. Birdy is stubborn and a feminist before her time, and having witnessed her mother’s suffering through several failed pregnancies, resolves to find resourceful ways to scare off each would-be suitor. Paying little heed to the harsh financial realities of womanhood in the 13th century written about in the original 1994 novel by Karen Cushman, this British medieval comedy is more of a feel-good 21st century wish-fulfilment film than a committed period piece. 

The Northman: 11 October 

Robert Eggers’s most recent and biggest film is also his most mainstream, although if you’ve seen his others you’ll know that’s not saying much. It’s still trippy, theatrical and gruesome as you wish, reinventing the glamourisation of Vikings in popular culture. The story is a retelling of the Scandinavian legend that inspired Hamlet. It features a cast of big names including Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård and Anya Taylor-Joy.

The Peripheral: 21 October

Amazon’s biggest release of the month is a dystopian sci-fi drama based on a book about a virtual reality action adventure game. It’s a highly specific premise that’s becoming a subgenre all on its own, but as Flynne (Chloë Grace Moretz) learns more about this simulated world, it becomes unclear whether it is simulated at all or some kind of alternate reality. Based on a 2014 novel by William Gibson and executive produced by Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, hopefully the series has enough experience behind it to stand out from similar shows. 

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Showmax

Minx Season 1: 3 October

A sharp satirical rumination on feminism set in 1970s Los Angeles that flips sexualisation of the human body onto its male population. Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond) teams up with a low-rent publisher (Jake Johnson) to publish a feminist journal which morphs into the first erotic magazine for women. HBO has given the series the green light for a second season right off the bat in testament to the relevance of the gender-conscious comedy and Lovibond and Johnson’s rapport.

Murder in Paris: 10 October

A moving political crime documentary seeking justice for anti-apartheid activist Dulcie September who was assassinated in Paris in 1988. It was aired at last year’s Encounters Documentary Film Festival, and also on SABC on Human Rights Day (a surprise considering its critique of the ANC) but Dulcie’s family is still waiting on justice to be served.

The Rehearsal: 10 October

An absurd television experiment engineered by Nathan Fielder, the hilarious Canadian awkward genius who produced HBO’s How To With John Wilson, in which Fielder helps ordinary people prepare for some of the most important moments of their lives by “rehearsing” them in simulated scenarios with the aid of actors and a construction crew. It’s a show to be gawked at in fascination, confusion and uncomfortable hilarity.

Gaia: 31 October

A South African ecological supernatural body-horror directed during the pandemic by Jaco Bouwer. An injured forest ranger in the Tsitsikamma National Park is relieved to be saved by a father and son living off the grid, but she quickly grows suspicious of the former scientist father’s cult-like devotion to the forest. Visually arresting, multidimensional and symbolically potent, Gaia leaves the mind racing and grappling with well-placed guilt. 

The White Lotus Season 2: Mondays from 31 October

The first season of the sardonic satire was the most-awarded show at the 2022 Emmys, winning 10 awards. It followed employees and guests at an apparently idyllic Hawaiian resort that turns out to hold more sinister dynamics than meets the eye. The new season tracks a different group of vacationers (an almost entirely new cast) at another White Lotus resort in Sicily and promises hilarious and scathing commentary of global widening wealth disparity and the sickening excess of luxury industries. 

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Apple TV

Shantaram: 14 October

Charlie Hunnam plays Lin Ford, the escaped convict who flees to the 1980s Bombay in search of redemption in an Apple original series adaptation of the best-selling novel by Gregory David Roberts. The tested source material teems with character development and riveting drama, but it remains to be seen whether showrunner Steve Lightfoot is up to the task of bringing it to the screen. 

Raymond and Ray: 21 October

A black-comedy road-trip drama of grief and closure by writer-director Rodrigo García about a pair of estranged half-brothers (Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke) forced together by their sadistic father’s dying wish that they bury him together. The film dutifully follows the reconciliatory path laid out by its set-up but the dynamic between its experienced leading men carries it through the familiar themes of mourning and moving on. DM/ML

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