Austria   ¦   KOTSCH   ¦   6/10
A tale of small town pals, late-20s/early-30s, and their arrested development. Set in Fohnsdorf, a semi-rural Austrian backwater which would seem to be your typical sleepy mid-European 'burg.' Artsy directorial touches are (effectively) applied to what could easily have been very broadly-played mainstream-comedy faire. Drawback is that the film is narrated by the least interesting of central trio (which occasionally becomes a loose quartet) : his pals dominate. Chief among these is the rangily outsize, boorish lothario Boris (Andreas Kiendl), a charismatic kind of oaf who steals the show. Running gags and in-jokes abound: these are 'drinking pals' who have known each other too well and too long to move on (idea of a daring night out is a a trip to the casino in nearby Graz). Dynamics between the lads are believable - these characters seem to have been worked on organically over a period of time, and their dialogue has the boozy smack of believability (the title is their preferred word for idiotic or worthless). Fundamentally knockabout stuff, but the subtext is often surprisingly (and intriguingly) melancholy. Worth a look.



Finland  ¦   A DECENT FACTORY   ¦  8/10
Outstanding documentary tackles a fiercely topical, pressing subject - economic globalisation - by looking at one specific case (a Chinese firm making Nokia mobile-phone rechargers) to illustrate much wider points. Film addresses the question of how workers in far-eastern factories are treated - conditions, pay, etc - and how this squares with the supposedly "ethical" policies of the large Europe-based companies whose supply-chain they form part of. The documentary has a light touch, but is subtly rigorous in probing how economics, morality and politics intersect. We follow the genial representatives of Nokia as they are taken on a (guided) tour of the factory and the workers' nearby living quarters (eight people to a room is not uncommon). Their guides: a gloweringly defensive British boss and his eager-to-please Chinese underlings. The Nokia representatives come to their conclusions - and so does the viewer - though we're constantly reminded of the Chinese-rural-poverty context. The workers are, we see, caught between two vast monolothic systems (Chinese post-Communism at the service of western capitalism). But humour abounds - the film is in the recent tradition of accessibly barbed documentaries such as The Czech Dream and The Yes Men but manages to hit harder, building in impact from a rather slow start to a very wry coda: by which stage A Decent Factory has become (somewhow) the most thoroughly absorbing documentary since Spellbound.

France   ¦   VIOLENT DAYS - DRY   ¦   6/10
From the shimmeringly monochrome, not-very-legible opening credits the film's priority is clear : style will take precedence over substance. Tone is achingly hip as we get a Kenneth-Anger-ish examination of a rather unlikely (and reportedly fictional) French rockabilly subculture - the director makes no attempt to hide her debt to (among others) Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kausirmaki. Bequiffed, wallet-chained rockers and their 50s-dressing girlfriends travel from a city (Paris?) to Le Havre for a gig. Over the course of the long day, group dynamics emerge, though you'd be hard pushed to call these people 'characters' as such. Journey to the coast seems to take forever (deliberately?) but things pick up in the second half when the gang reach Le Havre for what turns out to be a rather sparsely-attended of (genuine) rockabilly music - various bands (of various ages) both on stage and off, and at the end an impromptu 'open mike' session. Amateur-hour free-for-all provides welcome (low-key) comic relief. Grainy monochrome throughout, and the picture does have a certain mogadon swagger, a lip-curling, Elvis/Dean/Brando-inspired charm - is this how the protagonists would like to see themselves? There are hints dotted here and there that we're building to some kind of convulsive finale (half-developed 'subplots' abound), and there is something of a ruckus at the venue - though the real drama is playing out among 'our' little gang not far away. Ends with diaphanous closing credits which are even harder to decipher than the opening titles!



Germany   ¦   MOLLY'S WAY   ¦   6/10
Somewhat glum drama is partly a rethinking of Atom Egoyan's Felicia's Journey, seen in the context of the newly-expanded European Union. A pregnant woman travels from her Northern Ireland small-town home (Newry) to small-town Poland in search of her ex-'boyfriend'. Post-industrial desolation abounds, and (in the first of several melodramatic touches) Molly quickly takes up residence in a brothel - working as a cleaner. Here she encounters hostility (from the German 'madame') and a kind of rough-hewn solidarnosc (from the 'working girls'). Along the way she meets an implausibly sympathetic 'john' (no Belle de Jour type brutes in this establishment) - but despite her sleazy milieu Molly, whose gauche sincerity and dowdy dress-sense recall Bess from Von Trier's Breaking the Waves, is essentially uncorruptible, indomitable and doggedly persistent in her quest for the errant Marcin. The latter turns out to be a hunky model type when finally tracked down, one of several plot-points which strains credulity (and the madame/landlady Britta is such an entertaining battleaxe it's slightly disappointing when she suddenly softens and shows her human side late in the day). Writer-director Atef maintains our interest by focussing closely on her flinty heroine, but loses focus in the final reel when Molly makes a particularly unexpected decision that doesn't quite ring true. Material feels a little stretched at feature length: despite the new twist of following a 'western' traveller who goes 'east,' there's very little fresh ground being broken here and the story would sit quite comfortably in a one-hour evening TV slot.

Neil Young
22nd May / 30th June 2006

KOTSCH : [6/10] : Austria 2006 : Helmut KOPPING : 95 mins (timed)
A DECENT FACTORY : [8/10] : Saadyllinen tehdas : Finland 2004 : Thomas BALMES : 79 mins (timed)
VIOLENT DAYS - DRY : [6/10] aka Violent Days* : France 2003 : Lucile CHAUFOUR : 83 mins (timed)
MOLLY'S WAY : [6/10] : Germany 2005 : Emily ATEF : 84 mins (approx)

Kotsch**, Violent Days - Dry and Molly's Way seen at CityKino cinema; A Decent Factory seen at Moviemento cinema. All seen on 27th April in Linz (Austria).

click here for A-Z of all features reviewed at Crossing Europe 2006, or here for a roundup article on the event (written for Tribune magazine)

* nb : a 106-minute version of the film, entitled Violent Days and reportedly featuring more documentary-style elements was premiered at a film festival in Belfort in 2003. Both edits are copyright-dated 2003.
** Kotsch was not officially part of the Crossing Europe film festival line-up, but was shown as part of the event's 'Austrian Screenings' parallel programme