DVDs may be sooner or later drummed out of existence -- by online downloads, at first, I'd guess, reducing movie "releases" to nothing more than press announcements of availability -- but for now they're still "things" you can buy or rent, physical manifestations of the art form, not just the opportunity for access. In the process, they're continuing as our default B-movie distribution stream, offering up indies and foreign films and unforeseen archivals that had a snowball's hellbound chance at finding theatrical screentime. These are still not eligible for any year-end toasts, absurdly enough, and so here's my list of the best of the year's straight-to-digi-vid, for which the only qualification is being entirely overlooked, this year or ever, by our theatrical distribution wimps, and being new to U.S. home video of any stripe.
15. "Absurdistan"
(Veit Helmer, Germany/Russia/Azerbaijan, 2008)
A bawdy Caucasus folktale, Helmer's nutty yarn visits a...
15. "Absurdistan"
(Veit Helmer, Germany/Russia/Azerbaijan, 2008)
A bawdy Caucasus folktale, Helmer's nutty yarn visits a...
- 12/22/2009
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Absurdistan
Directed by Veit Helmer
2008, 90 minutes, In Russian with English subtitles
First Run Features Heterosexually speaking, one of the greatest manipulative powers women have had over men since perhaps the dawn of time is the ability to withhold sex. From Aristophanes' ancient comedy Lysistrata (about a battle between the sexes that erupts after the women of Greece lock up their chastity belts in protest of the Peloponnesian War) to the Kenyan women's activist groups who even got prostitutes to take part in a sex strike this past April, this practice has long been effective, and deftly illustrates how foolish and base we men can be. While Veit Helmer's bawdy burlesque Absurdistan seems, at first glance, like a fanciful folktale reimagining of Lysistrata, it's actually based upon a real-life Turkish incident that the Tuvalu director had read about in a 2001 newspaper article. Continued reading DVD Of The Week: Absurdistan.
Directed by Veit Helmer
2008, 90 minutes, In Russian with English subtitles
First Run Features Heterosexually speaking, one of the greatest manipulative powers women have had over men since perhaps the dawn of time is the ability to withhold sex. From Aristophanes' ancient comedy Lysistrata (about a battle between the sexes that erupts after the women of Greece lock up their chastity belts in protest of the Peloponnesian War) to the Kenyan women's activist groups who even got prostitutes to take part in a sex strike this past April, this practice has long been effective, and deftly illustrates how foolish and base we men can be. While Veit Helmer's bawdy burlesque Absurdistan seems, at first glance, like a fanciful folktale reimagining of Lysistrata, it's actually based upon a real-life Turkish incident that the Tuvalu director had read about in a 2001 newspaper article. Continued reading DVD Of The Week: Absurdistan.
- 8/20/2009
- GreenCine Daily
The mistake that people have made about John Cassavetes, both those who fall swooning at the altar of his films and those who find them overwrought, irritating and indulgent, is in considering him as a realist. A mere realist. Cassavetes' work may look realistic, spontaneous and controlled in the moment by emotional typhoons, but this is not your Italian granddaddy's neo-realist peasant drama or anything like the new-ish introverted realism coming in thick bolts out of the global cameras of the Dardennes, Jia, Tsai, Reygadas, Costa, etc. The only Cassavetes movie that was truly improvised was his first, "Shadows" (1959); after that, the scripts were fleshed out in grueling detail through rehearsals, and what grumpy Hollywood turks like Sean Penn and Vincent Gallo have seen as letting the actor's id run free in a psychodramatic hothouse of booze and childish regression -- cutting through the bullshit and getting to the reality...
- 8/18/2009
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
Absurdistan
Directed by: Veit Helmer
Cast: Kristyna Malérozá, Maximilian Mauff, Nino Chkheidze
Running Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Rating: Unrated
Plot: In a small village between Asia and Europe, outside of any known country, lives Aya and Temelko. Born on the same day, they grow up together and feel destined to be together. Aya’s grandmother, kind of a soothsayer, predicts that they have one week in which to come together or they never will. In the interim, the pipe that brings water to their town breaks and the men in town refuse to fix it so the women go all Lysistrata and refuse their husbands sex until the pipe is repaired. Meaning Temelko has less than a week to fix the pipe and get the girl.
Who’s It For? Do you like German comedy? And yes, it is different. This would be good for fans of Aki Kaurismäki (Man Without...
Directed by: Veit Helmer
Cast: Kristyna Malérozá, Maximilian Mauff, Nino Chkheidze
Running Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Rating: Unrated
Plot: In a small village between Asia and Europe, outside of any known country, lives Aya and Temelko. Born on the same day, they grow up together and feel destined to be together. Aya’s grandmother, kind of a soothsayer, predicts that they have one week in which to come together or they never will. In the interim, the pipe that brings water to their town breaks and the men in town refuse to fix it so the women go all Lysistrata and refuse their husbands sex until the pipe is repaired. Meaning Temelko has less than a week to fix the pipe and get the girl.
Who’s It For? Do you like German comedy? And yes, it is different. This would be good for fans of Aki Kaurismäki (Man Without...
- 4/3/2009
- by Megan Lehar
- The Scorecard Review
Max Mauff And Kristyna MALÉROVÁ In Director Veit Helmer's Absurdistan. Courtesy First Run Features.
German writer-director Veit Helmer is a true oddity, a creative mind whose films might well have been unearthed from a time capsule buried during the era of silent comedy. Born in Hanover in 1968, Helmer spent much of his childhood watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and by the age of 14 had already made his first film. He studied at Munich's School of Television and Film, and made quirky shorts throughout his time there, such as the highly inventive Surprise! (1995). When Wim Wenders, a professor of his, decided to make a film based on one of his students' screenplays, he chose Helmer's submission. The resulting film,...
German writer-director Veit Helmer is a true oddity, a creative mind whose films might well have been unearthed from a time capsule buried during the era of silent comedy. Born in Hanover in 1968, Helmer spent much of his childhood watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and by the age of 14 had already made his first film. He studied at Munich's School of Television and Film, and made quirky shorts throughout his time there, such as the highly inventive Surprise! (1995). When Wim Wenders, a professor of his, decided to make a film based on one of his students' screenplays, he chose Helmer's submission. The resulting film,...
- 2/18/2009
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
As its theatrical poster infers, Veit Helmer’s third feature Absurdistan (2008) is a buoyant and romantically ebullient fable, tempering the sexual politics of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata with enchanting dollops of magical realism and insouciant humor. Since at least the Soviet perestroika, the term “absurdistan”—according to Wikipedia—has been in use to satirize “a country in which absurdity is the norm, especially in its public authorities and government.”
Eschewing the term’s potential political heft, however, Helmer adopted it to entitle his allegorical comedy centered on two childhood sweethearts—Aya (Kristyna Malérová) and Temelko (Max Mauff)—who seem destined for each other from the moment they’re born. But when a water shortage threatens their village and the lazy indifference of the male villagers angers the women to go on a sex strike until the drought is resolved, Aya and Temelko’s first night of love—predicted by a narrow astrological window—is jeopardized.
Eschewing the term’s potential political heft, however, Helmer adopted it to entitle his allegorical comedy centered on two childhood sweethearts—Aya (Kristyna Malérová) and Temelko (Max Mauff)—who seem destined for each other from the moment they’re born. But when a water shortage threatens their village and the lazy indifference of the male villagers angers the women to go on a sex strike until the drought is resolved, Aya and Temelko’s first night of love—predicted by a narrow astrological window—is jeopardized.
- 2/9/2009
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- The battle between the sexes rises to ludicrous heights in Absurdistan, an attempt at comic allegory that stretches a thin premise to feature length. A film best suited to the international festival circuit, it might find a welcome at European-friendly fests before potentially securing a spot on overseas TV or DVD.
German director/co-writer Veit Helmer's principal limitation is not an absence of imagination, but a lack of focus in the execution of his fanciful tale. Childhood sweethearts Temelko (Maximilian Mauff) and Aya (Kristyna Malerova) come of age in a small village in the arid and imaginary nation of Absurdistan (actually Azerbaijan), where the men are famed for their supposed virility and the women known for their apparent compliance. Although most of the males are incompetent at the jobs necessary to keep the little community functioning, the women always are ready to take up the slack and get the work done.
One issue they can't address is the growing deterioration of the town's water source, dependent on a rickety pipeline running from a treacherous cave high in the mountains. Although the women entreat the men to resolve the shortage, their spouses are little interested in tackling the problem, even as the dwindling supply brings about drastic conservation measures.
Desperate, the villagers send their young men to the big city to study the water problem and Temelko reluctantly departs, even though Aya's grandmother has consulted the stars and set a date for the couple to consummate their relationship four years in the future.
When he returns close to the appointed time from his urban sojourn, Temelko unwisely squanders water from the town's meager supply for the ritual bath that must precede the couple's special night, provoking Aya to angrily prohibit any lovemaking until Temelko solves the water crisis.
Soon, all the village women have delivered the same message to their spouses, declaring No water, no sex, as low-intensity gender warfare gradually begins to escalate, trapping Temelko and Aya in the middle.
While Helmer and his three co-writers aim for a lyrically comic tone, the inspiration for their script was an actual incident in Turkey. The story's anecdotal origins provide little material for compelling character development or inspired dialogue, relying primarily on voice-overs narrated by Aya and Temelko.
Helmer's attempt to craft an absurdist Lysistrata-like fable founders further on his tendency to favor small comic bits at the expense of developing the overall narrative. With two ineffectual lead performances and a supporting cast drawn from 16 European nations, Helmer's filmmaking skills aren't sufficient to the task of forging a coherent vision for the film.
ABSURDISTAN
A Veit Helmer film production in association withMedienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FFF and MFG
Credits:
Director: Veit Helmer
Screenwriters: Gordan Mihic, Zaza Buadze, Ahmet Golbol, Veit Helmer
Producer: Linda Kornemann
Director of photography: George Beridze
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designers: Mehriban Efendiyeva, Serap Bahadir
Editor: Vincent Assmann
Cast:
Temelko: Maximilian Mauff
Aya: Kristyna Malerova
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- The battle between the sexes rises to ludicrous heights in Absurdistan, an attempt at comic allegory that stretches a thin premise to feature length. A film best suited to the international festival circuit, it might find a welcome at European-friendly fests before potentially securing a spot on overseas TV or DVD.
German director/co-writer Veit Helmer's principal limitation is not an absence of imagination, but a lack of focus in the execution of his fanciful tale. Childhood sweethearts Temelko (Maximilian Mauff) and Aya (Kristyna Malerova) come of age in a small village in the arid and imaginary nation of Absurdistan (actually Azerbaijan), where the men are famed for their supposed virility and the women known for their apparent compliance. Although most of the males are incompetent at the jobs necessary to keep the little community functioning, the women always are ready to take up the slack and get the work done.
One issue they can't address is the growing deterioration of the town's water source, dependent on a rickety pipeline running from a treacherous cave high in the mountains. Although the women entreat the men to resolve the shortage, their spouses are little interested in tackling the problem, even as the dwindling supply brings about drastic conservation measures.
Desperate, the villagers send their young men to the big city to study the water problem and Temelko reluctantly departs, even though Aya's grandmother has consulted the stars and set a date for the couple to consummate their relationship four years in the future.
When he returns close to the appointed time from his urban sojourn, Temelko unwisely squanders water from the town's meager supply for the ritual bath that must precede the couple's special night, provoking Aya to angrily prohibit any lovemaking until Temelko solves the water crisis.
Soon, all the village women have delivered the same message to their spouses, declaring No water, no sex, as low-intensity gender warfare gradually begins to escalate, trapping Temelko and Aya in the middle.
While Helmer and his three co-writers aim for a lyrically comic tone, the inspiration for their script was an actual incident in Turkey. The story's anecdotal origins provide little material for compelling character development or inspired dialogue, relying primarily on voice-overs narrated by Aya and Temelko.
Helmer's attempt to craft an absurdist Lysistrata-like fable founders further on his tendency to favor small comic bits at the expense of developing the overall narrative. With two ineffectual lead performances and a supporting cast drawn from 16 European nations, Helmer's filmmaking skills aren't sufficient to the task of forging a coherent vision for the film.
ABSURDISTAN
A Veit Helmer film production in association withMedienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FFF and MFG
Credits:
Director: Veit Helmer
Screenwriters: Gordan Mihic, Zaza Buadze, Ahmet Golbol, Veit Helmer
Producer: Linda Kornemann
Director of photography: George Beridze
Music: Shigeru Umebayashi
Costume designers: Mehriban Efendiyeva, Serap Bahadir
Editor: Vincent Assmann
Cast:
Temelko: Maximilian Mauff
Aya: Kristyna Malerova
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/30/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- There were 983 submissions from 15 countries in this category and apart from a couple of names, I know not one of the final selections below. World Cinema Dramatic Competition"Absurdistan" (Germany), directed by Veit Helmer, written by Helmer, Zaza Buadze, Gordan Mihic and Ahmet Golbol, about a sex strike by village women that threatens a young couple's first night together."Blue Eyelids" (Mexico), directed by Ernesto Contreras, about the ramifications of a single woman's winning of a beach trip for two."Captain Abu Raed" (Jordan), directed and written by Amin Matalqa, concerning an aging airport janitor who relates tall tales to local kids who think he's a pilot."The Drummer" (Hong Kong), directed and written by Kenneth Bi, the story of a young man who matures from reckless gangster to serious grownup due to the influence of Zen drumming."Elite Squad" (Brazil), directed by Jose Padilha ("Bus 174") and written by Braulio Mantovani and Padilha,
- 11/28/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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