Final reflection

I was fortunate to be a member of the Ecumenical Jury for this year’s 61st Locarno International Film Festival. For ten days this sleepy town located on the waterfront of Lake Maggiore at the base of the Swiss Alps was transformed into a magical showcase for world cinema.

The town of Locarno and its surrounding villages truly make a concerted effort to support this event. The festival’s leopard logo was prominently displayed in, and on, virtually all of the area’s public buildings and local shops. Part of this festival’s unique and special appeal, especially among cinema lovers, can be attributed to the nightly outdoor screenings of select films in the heart of the city’s Piazza Grande. These films, depending on the weather, were attended by as many as 8,000 filmgoers each night. This festival, with overall attendance of more than 123,000 this year, is considered to be one of the major film festivals of Europe. It is a truly welcoming event, without any of the pretentiousness that you might find at some of Europe’s other major festivals.

Our Ecumenical Jury was comprised of six jurors, three representing SIGNIS (Catholic) and three from INTERFILM (Protestant). I immediately recognized the geographical and cultural diversity of this jury, which included members from India, Ireland, Mexico, Germany, Austria, and the host country, Switzerland.

This year’s festival showcased a total of 372 films (including short and mid-length films), of which 18 feature films were considered for the International Competition, the slate of films upon which our jury was to deliberate.

Filmmaking is truly a global art and venture now, as exhibited by the entries in the International Competition, which consisted of films from Mexico, Turkey, France, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, South Korea, Peru, Canada, Ireland, Russia, Germany, Portugal, and Italy. Our jury’s task was to choose one film from the Competition that best represented our criteria, which covered a number of aspects including artistic quality, the message of the Gospel, Christian responsibility, inventive expression, and universal impact.

The overall theme for this year’s Competition films became apparent to me on Day One. Whether intended or not, this was to be a festival of films that showcased in some way the heavy weight and deleterious effects caused by loneliness and isolation. Whether it was emotional isolation or geographical isolation, the theme remained consistent throughout the entire slate of eighteen films.

We began with two films about prison, one set in the mountains of Turkey concerning a young man trying to find his future following a decade behind bars (“Sonbahar”), the other (“Parque Via”) set in Mexico City about a family servant who finds a unique and questionable solution in order to maintain his secluded and ordered life. And we ended the festival by experiencing a visual love story (“Sleep Furiously”) for the isolated farmlands of Wales and witnessing the lonely struggle of a Chinese son (“Feast of Villains”) who submerges himself in the medical black market in an effort to save the life of his dying father.

In between these sets of films we experienced the emotional aftermath of a small village as they refuse to deal with their grief following a recent group suicide (“März”), watched an alienated young girl (“Katia’s Sister”) who finally receives her own identity, observed the isolation of a violent, rural Quebec (“Elle Veut Le Chaos”) in black and white, and shared in the lonely road trip of a young South Korean man (“Daytime Drinking”) whose girlfriend recently left him.

We also traveled with two runaway Irish kids (“Kisses”) as they escape their broken homes searching for some kind of human connection, and finally realizing that they can turn to and rely on each other. In another French-Canadian film (“Story of Jen”), a lonely teenage girl seeks human connection after the recent suicide of her father.

We ventured once again to Turkey, this time to the isolated eastern part (“The Market – A Tale of Trade”) as a man battles his ethics in order to support his family, and then on to Poland (“33 Sceny Z Zycia”) to observe the spoiled isolation of young artist as she loses first her mother to cancer, and then her father to illness, in rapid succession.

The Locarno Film Festival has a historic reputation for showcasing talent from first time directors, telling stories that may not be as polished as more veteran filmmakers but often more raw. In a shrinking world caused by increasing globalization, disappearing borders, and immediate communication, we often find ourselves more isolated, more lonely, and more in need of human connection. Whether the isolation is psychological or geographic in nature, each of the films in Competition resonated on some level this prevailing theme.

Our jury met on a number of occasions to remain focused solely on those films which best exhibited the nature of our criteria. Our final decision was not an easy one. In fact, it was quite difficult.

In the end we awarded our Ecumenical Jury Award to “Mar Nero” (“Black Sea”) for its well-crafted, universal reflection on tolerance, forgiveness, and most of all, hope. Based on a tightly-woven script by 65-year old Ugo Chiti, this film, directed by Federico Bondi, featured excellent performances by the two leading actresses, giving added weight and credibility to this tale of an Italian grieving widow. Set against the backdrop of Romania’s integration into the European Union, this film features specificity, nuance, and emotional honesty like no other film in the Competition. It also raises valid issues regarding growing old, being alone, and what "family" truly means. It was a deeply moving and most worthy film experience.

Our jury also elected to give a Special Commendation to “Yuriev Den” (“Yuri’s Day”). This was a well-polished Russian production with an abundance of metaphorical imagery. It is the story of a narcissistic, successful opera singer whose petulant son disappears while they are on a visit to the mother’s Russian home town of Yuriev. As the mother searches for her son, she takes a lyrical and humbling journey of her own, becoming a more caring and compassionate human being. At one point losing her voice, she eventually finds it again, but now it is only one amongst a choir of others as she continues her wait for the return of her son.

In a place where three languages prevail -- Italian, German, and French -- this native-English speaker found Locarno to be a most welcoming environment to experience the world of cinema. As the lights went down, whether inside the theaters or outside in the Piazza Grande, the cultural barriers disappeared as we repeatedly experienced these films of isolation and loneliness. The International Competition films of the 61st Locarno International Film Festival served as a not-so-gentle reminder that what human beings need most is a healthy human connection to survive, and to thrive.