Oh dear, a message film. That’s the only thing wrong with A day without a Mexican: it’s so concerned with getting its anti-racist message across, that the filmmakers actually resort to writing little facts about Latinos on the screen. The story itself also leaves no opportunity unused to beat the fact that “Mexicans are people too” into you.

But if you can ignore all that, Un día sin Méxicanos is an extremely fun film. The story is contained in the title: one day, the residents of California awaken to find that all their Hispanic-American friends and neighbours have disappeared. Of course, the state falls into disarray, as it is rather dependent of that 30% of its citizenry.

The film is edited in a way that switches the focus between several subplots, most of them very basic but also quite sympathetic. The acting is all over the place (which is to say not very good), but mostly fits in with the film’s bordering-on-wacky atmosphere. It’s a slight film, but what really makes it fun is that everybody involved obviously had so much fun making it. That fun is contagious, and it makes the film extremely pleasurable to watch.

Forgiveness (Ian Gabriel) (4+ out of 5)

This beautiful and very moving film is about the aftermath about the Truth Commission Hearings in South Africa, held against the perpetrators of the apartheid regime. Arnold Vosloo (aka The mummy) plays Tertius Coetzee, a retired police officer who was a torturer for the white dictators during the years of apartheid. After he is judged innocent at the hearings, he is wracked with guilt and decides to visit the family of a young freedom fighter he murdered to ask for forgiveness.

Extremely well performed (especially the actor who plays the father of the bereaved family) and with a realistic and sensitive approach to the subject matter, Forgiveness is a fine, fine film. The dialogue between this man and the family he tore apart is well written, and subtly brings to light why each family member reacts as they do, and the reasons Coetzee had for doing what he did.

There are a few nitpicks, though: the director ladles on the drama via the use of music, and he goes a little overboard every now and then. These scenes speak for themselves and don’t need to be underscored so heavily. Also, a few of the subplots feel like unnecessary padding. Other than that, Forgiveness is one of the best and most subtle films to deal with the themes of guilt and forgiveness that I’ve seen.

Mysterious skin (Gregg Araki) (3,5 out of 5)

Mysterious skin is a pretty standard, but well told melodrama about two boys who were sexually abused when they were eight years old. One of them, Brian, has pushed the memory away, and now believes he was abducted by aliens when he was young, to explain the hole in his memory. The second boy, Neil, knows full well what happened to him and has grown up to be sexually aware teenager who sells his body to older men.

We follow both these stories independently, until the boys meet up at the very end of the picture. Whereas the story of Neil (in a brave and uncompromising performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is involving though somewhat predictable, Brian’s part of the plot is bogged down by his fixation on UFO abduction, which of course leads nowhere.

The sex scenes are actually the best part of the film; you’re constantly aware of the danger Neil faces when he’s with a john, and the child molestation scenes are extremely tense and shocking. However, the film offers no other surprises, is slightly too long, and has peripheral characters who are completely uninteresting. A reasonable film, then, but it would have been much better if it had been half as long (say, the length of a short film).

Land of plenty (Wim Wenders) (4,5 out of 5)

This beautiful, beautiful parable about the state of America today tells the story of Lana (played by Michelle Williams, the film’s only semi-weak link), a young girl who returns to the USA from a life in Israel to find her uncle Paul, because she’s supposed to deliver a letter from her mom to him.

Paul Jeffreys, however, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, a changed man after exposure to Agent Orange. He spends his days profiling Arabian-Americans, as he’s obsessed with uncovering terrorist cells before they strike. Lana and Paul finally meet when a homeless middle-eastern man is shot to death in front of the mission where Lana is staying, and they team up to find out the cause of the murder.

What makes Land of plenty work so well is the fact that it works as a metaphor for America’s condition. Paul Jeffreys’ only concern is to protect the country he loves, a concern that has raised in priority after the 9/11 attacks. In a beautiful monologue at the end of the film, Jeffreys (fantastically played by John Diehl) explains that the nightmare that was Vietnam, the specter of that failed war, returned in full force after that day.

The film perfectly comes together in that scene, and I was so moved by it that I still had a lump in my throat when I tried to explain the impact the film had on me after the screening. The USA is a country ruled by fear today, but there is also a massive will and capacity to do good. Wenders succeeds in bringing these elements together in a way that never feels trite or preachy, but powerfully clear.

The best post-9/11 film since 25th Hour, and the best film of this festival so far.

Ab-normal beauty (Oxide Pang) (3 out of 5)

Sigh. When am I going to learn that Oxide Pang is never going to learn to use any restraint in his films? Most of Pang’s films have such hyperstylized visual and audio design that they degenerate to painful (not least for the eardrums) self-parody.

This is certainly true of the first 70 minutes of Pang’s latest film, Ab-normal beauty. It is the story of a girl called Jin who falls into an obsession with capturing the moment of death on camera. Connected to an event in her young childhood, she loses herself in her morbid fascinations, until it almost leads to suicide or murder. When she slowly recovers with the help from her best friend, she receives a videotape in the mail. On this tape, a young girl is brutally murdered. Is it real? Is it a sick joke? Is it all in Jin’s head?

This story may seem interesting, but the potential psycho killer doesn’t show up for the first 70 minutes. The first part of the film is just plain ludicrous, as every part of Jin’s obsession is highlighted by a driving beats, idiotically fast editing and extreme close-ups. This doesn’t create tension, just unintentional laughter.

Once the videotape shows up, though, the film finally shifts into high gear. The last thirty minutes or so are extremely sick and almost make up for the boring first half. This is where Pang’s tricks serve him well: the darkness of the story can support loud music and unorthodox camera work, and is enriched by it. Still, the great creation of the snuff movie killer can’t quite save the film: it is ultimately undone by Pangs refusal to look up the word “subtlety” in the dictionary.

That’s it for today – I’ll be back tomorrow with Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation, the New Zealand drama In my father’s den and David Gordon Green’s Undertow.

Oh, and Elaine, if you could spare some time to chat with me one of these days (maybe you have some tips for a guy trying to break into the reviewing “industry”), I’d really appreciate that. You can contact me at mmndftm@hotmail.com .

The Last Lizard, signing off.

And here's day 8...

Hey Harry/Mori,

well, this was the most disappointing day of the festival so far (and I’m only going to spend one more day here). Not only did I turn out not to have a ticket for The big red one: the reconstruction, of which I’d promised you a review, but the films I did see didn’t really blow me away. Oh well, onto the films then...

Die Souvenirs des Herrn X (The souvenirs of mr. X) (Arash T. Riahi) (3 out of 5)

The souvenirs of mr. X is a documentary about the art of amateur filmmaking. The director got the idea for the film when he bought a whole box of amateur holiday films at a flea market. After watching the movies, he wonders who the director is and tries to find out. After a lot of searching, he eventually ends up at an amateur film club in Vienna. Because they can’t help him find mr. X, he decides to shift the focus of his film to these amateur filmmakers.

The first half of the film consists of interviews with these people, and Riahi succeeds in painting a comprehensive picture of the sort of person who’d dedicate an enormous part of their free time to making Super 8 films, their trials and tribulations and of course their films.

Unfortunately, once the film focuses on one of them, an elderly gent by the name of Herr Spindler, The souvenirs... begins to drag. As we follow Spindler from competition to competition, we gradually lose interest and wish that Riahi would go back to his broader perspective. The filmmaker tries too hard to make his film an “inspirational”story, and it becomes very boring in the end.

Though the film is too long, it gives an interesting view of the subculture of amateur filmmaking and for that, it should be commended.

The overture (Ittisoontorn Vichailak) (3,5 out of 5)

The overture is the third well made, but bog-standard melodrama that I’ve seen at this festival. See also: Beautiful boxer (Day 3) and Moolaadé (Day 6).

What... you want more?

All right then. The film tells the story of Sorn, an extremely talented ra-nad ek (Thai xylophone) player. When his brother is murdered after an exhibition music match, Sorn’s father forbids him to ever play again. Against his father’s wishes, he keeps practicing until his father can no longer ignore his talent and lets him play against Kun In, the best ra-nad ek player in the country.

The story of Sorn’s youth is crosscut with his life as an old ra-nad ek master, when the Thai government banned the ra-nad ek in the name of modernization of the country. The cultural cleansing act forbade the use of any and all traditional Thai music instruments to force the population to conform to its ruler’s idea of modern culture. Sorn stood against the government’s regulations until his death.

Like I said, the film has a very predictable style and narrative. It is well made in all areas: it’s beautifully photographed, well performed and the sound design is great (very important for a biopic about a musician). Unfortunately, the filmmaker can’t quite avoid sentimentality and the characters are wafer-thin.

The scenes that really make this film shine are the ra-nad ek play-offs.

They’re exactly like the rap battles in 8 Mile, but with xylophones. You’ll be absolutely amazed at the speed and fury with which these instruments are played, and, like in a sports film, you’ll feel like standing up and applauding when the main character finally defeats Kun In.

Los muertos (Lisandro Alonso) (2 out of 5)

The only thing this film has to do with death is one of boredom. Slowly paced, almost devoid of narrative and featuring shots that seem to last forever, let’s just say Los muertos isn’t my cup of tea.

Vargas, a convicted murderer, is released from prison and heads down the river to be reunited with his family. And that’s the whole plot. The film depends on the mysterious mood that is underlined by the taciturn main character and the jungle he journeys through, but it only succeeded in putting me to sleep.

It’s all gone Pete Tong (Michael Dowse) (3 out of 5)

This was the surprise film of the evening (meaning that it was a Surprise Film, not that it was surprisingly good). I had actually hoped for something like I heart Huckabees(which isn’t out over here yet(this is Europe, people)), but was instead treated to this barely passable British mock-biopic, which barely works as entertainment, but never as art. The unholy mess of a first hour introduces us to Frankie Wilde, a world famous DJ living the good life, spending his time on drugs, music and women. Before long, however, he starts his decline: he turns out to be slowly going deaf.

Wilde’s story is told through a combination of fake interviews and a “reconstruction” of his life. It’s supposed to be a comedy, but I laughed only once or twice. The characters are heavily stereotyped, there’s plenty of lowbrow, physical comedy, the director takes seen-it-all-before cheap shots at the music industry (if that’s what you’re after, go watch 24 Hour party people again), and it’s all shot by a cameraman who must have been on drugs himself. Or maybe he just suffered from Parkinson’s disease. If that wasn’t bad enough, Dowse actually expects us to care about Frankie’s downfall, when he’s done nothing to bring about any emotional investment.

However, when Frankie crawls back out of his hole, the film turns itself around and becomes watchable. With the help of a lip-reading teacher, Wilde finds his lust for life again. The scenes between these two are sweet, and we finally get a protagonist we can root for. It’s still all very predictable, though, and it’s not worth enduring the grueling first hour for.

Team America: world police (Trey Parker) (3,5 out of 5)

Don’t worry, I’ll keep it short on this one. The first half of Team America rocks, as Parker and Matt Stone seem to be hitting the same stride as in their South Park feature. Eviscerating America’s foreign policy and Hollywood action films at the same time, the laughs come quick and often.

Unfortunately, the second half isn’t nearly as strong: the film follows the rules of the action film so religiously that it becomes kind of predictable. Though the sending up of Hollywood actors is funny at first, it doesn’t stay that way for long (especially the prolonged F.A.G. joke is pretty dumb). And the enormous amount of dick, fart and vomit jokes almost becomes the film’s undoing.

But then, that’s Parker and Stone: shooting with a double-barreled shotgun no matter who wanders into their sights. It’s just a pity that their latest film doesn’t strive for something more than pure entertainment.

Right, that’s the end of day 8: tomorrow I’ll return for the last time with only four films.

The Last Lizard, signing off.