Directed by Elene Naveriani and written alongside brother Sandro Naveriani, “Wet Sand” world premieres today in the Cineasti del Presente competition at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival.
Very much in line with the section’s mission statement, the Swiss-Georgian co-production is a vibrant example of emerging talent that has quickly grown into versatile auteurs with a striking control of their craft.
“Wet Sand” is Naveriani’s second feature and, beyond its craft and structure, playfully blends genres without losing a a clear auteurist voice.
Sold by Maximage, which produces with Takes Film, the feature is set in a small Georgian town on the Black Sea coast. Its inhabitants’ peaceful id mundane existence is broken when one of the locals is found hanged. His granddaughter, Moe, returns for his burial lifting the heavy veil with which her grandfather guarded his life, and casting light on the town’s entrenched bigotry.
Distributed in...
Very much in line with the section’s mission statement, the Swiss-Georgian co-production is a vibrant example of emerging talent that has quickly grown into versatile auteurs with a striking control of their craft.
“Wet Sand” is Naveriani’s second feature and, beyond its craft and structure, playfully blends genres without losing a a clear auteurist voice.
Sold by Maximage, which produces with Takes Film, the feature is set in a small Georgian town on the Black Sea coast. Its inhabitants’ peaceful id mundane existence is broken when one of the locals is found hanged. His granddaughter, Moe, returns for his burial lifting the heavy veil with which her grandfather guarded his life, and casting light on the town’s entrenched bigotry.
Distributed in...
- 8/12/2021
- by Emiliano Granada
- Variety Film + TV
Peter Carey’s 1988 novel “Oscar and Lucinda” contains a section in which a glass church is floated down a river. It’s such a striking image that one imagines it must have been the spur for the whole intricate story, just as the sight of a large tree borne on a barge, cutting a crisp swath through calm blue coastal waters and trailing an arc of questions in its wake, might trigger a documentary as quietly magnificent and strange as Salomé Jashi’s “Taming the Garden.”
Across an immaculately slow and beautiful 92 minutes, Jashi’s film sometimes recalls experimental essays like Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s “Leviathan,” with similarly outstanding cinematography from Jashi and co-dp Goga Devdariani. Occasionally, with a shot across treetops in which one patch of greenery moves with bizarre animal grace while all else is stationary, it looks like one of Tolkien’s Ents has decided to take a stroll.
Across an immaculately slow and beautiful 92 minutes, Jashi’s film sometimes recalls experimental essays like Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s “Leviathan,” with similarly outstanding cinematography from Jashi and co-dp Goga Devdariani. Occasionally, with a shot across treetops in which one patch of greenery moves with bizarre animal grace while all else is stationary, it looks like one of Tolkien’s Ents has decided to take a stroll.
- 3/1/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH -- East meets West with quietly droll results in "We Went To Wonderland", the second feature-length film by London-based Chinese filmmaker/novelist Xiaolu Guo. While her 2006 debut, "How Is Your Fish Today?," spellblindingly combined documentary and fiction, this time she takes a more straightforwardly documentary approach to record her elderly parents' first visit to Europe. "Fish" frustratingly didn't obtain the exposure and acclaim a film of such quality deserves. "Wonderland", a more small-scale and uneven work, looks set for a similar future at festivals and on the small screen but confirms Guo is a name to watch.
She performs multiple duties here including camera operator, dispensing with a tripod to facilitate the close-up observation of her folks. They're very much a "chalk and cheese" duo: earthy, chatterbox mother HeYing and tall, skinny father XiuLin, the latter mute since a life-saving cancer operation 13 years before. The first half of the film sees them going about their daily business -- the mornings always starting with graceful but energetic calisthenics in their daughter's compact Hackney flat, venturing out for the occasional journey around the London area. Just before the 50-minute mark, the trio embark on a more ambitious trip through France to Italy, where HeYing is underwhelmed by the splendors of Rome. "It just feels old, ' she sniffs.
A talented artist who spent a decade in a Mao-era labor camp, her husband scribbles comments on a notepad, which are translated via titles in the middle of the screen. More dramatically, what we take to be his inner thoughts ("2012 Olympics? Here?!") are occasionally displayed, flashing on and off the screen -- an amusing if slightly heavy-handed way for his daughter to assert her authorial/editorial presence. Though never appearing on camera, XiaoLu chips in with the occasional comment or question, but is mostly a silent, unacknowledged witness to her parents' doings.
These are presented in black-and-white DV via low-end equipment. In several sequences, the technical rough edges are something of a distraction. Although there are clues that the soundtrack -- a key element of which is Philippe Ciompi's haunting score -- is the result of careful manipulation, the picture often feels like an artistically ambitious kind of home-movie.
Production company: Perspectives Films. Director: Xiaolu Guo. Screenwriter: Xiaolu Guo. Producers: Xiaolu Guo, Philippe Ciompi. Director of Photography: Xiaoli Guo. Music: Philippe Ciompi. Editor: Philippe Ciompi. Sales: Perspective Films, London. No rating, 75 minutes.
EDINBURGH -- East meets West with quietly droll results in "We Went To Wonderland", the second feature-length film by London-based Chinese filmmaker/novelist Xiaolu Guo. While her 2006 debut, "How Is Your Fish Today?," spellblindingly combined documentary and fiction, this time she takes a more straightforwardly documentary approach to record her elderly parents' first visit to Europe. "Fish" frustratingly didn't obtain the exposure and acclaim a film of such quality deserves. "Wonderland", a more small-scale and uneven work, looks set for a similar future at festivals and on the small screen but confirms Guo is a name to watch.
She performs multiple duties here including camera operator, dispensing with a tripod to facilitate the close-up observation of her folks. They're very much a "chalk and cheese" duo: earthy, chatterbox mother HeYing and tall, skinny father XiuLin, the latter mute since a life-saving cancer operation 13 years before. The first half of the film sees them going about their daily business -- the mornings always starting with graceful but energetic calisthenics in their daughter's compact Hackney flat, venturing out for the occasional journey around the London area. Just before the 50-minute mark, the trio embark on a more ambitious trip through France to Italy, where HeYing is underwhelmed by the splendors of Rome. "It just feels old, ' she sniffs.
A talented artist who spent a decade in a Mao-era labor camp, her husband scribbles comments on a notepad, which are translated via titles in the middle of the screen. More dramatically, what we take to be his inner thoughts ("2012 Olympics? Here?!") are occasionally displayed, flashing on and off the screen -- an amusing if slightly heavy-handed way for his daughter to assert her authorial/editorial presence. Though never appearing on camera, XiaoLu chips in with the occasional comment or question, but is mostly a silent, unacknowledged witness to her parents' doings.
These are presented in black-and-white DV via low-end equipment. In several sequences, the technical rough edges are something of a distraction. Although there are clues that the soundtrack -- a key element of which is Philippe Ciompi's haunting score -- is the result of careful manipulation, the picture often feels like an artistically ambitious kind of home-movie.
Production company: Perspectives Films. Director: Xiaolu Guo. Screenwriter: Xiaolu Guo. Producers: Xiaolu Guo, Philippe Ciompi. Director of Photography: Xiaoli Guo. Music: Philippe Ciompi. Editor: Philippe Ciompi. Sales: Perspective Films, London. No rating, 75 minutes.
- 6/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.