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Reviewer Ed Farolan

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Mellow Mud

(Es esmu šeit)
Latvia 2016. Dir: Renārs Vimba. 106 min. DCP

Winner of a Crystal Bear in the youth section of the Berlin Film Festial, this sad semi-tragic feature debut ofRenārs Vimba delves into the intimate and absorbing portrait of adolescence. Superbly acted by gifted first-timer Elina Vaska. After the death of their father, 17-year-old Raya (Vaska) and her little brother are placed in the custody of their paternal grandmother Olga, who lives in a small, tucked-away cottage in rural Latvia. When Raya returns home to find Olga dead, she decides to bury the body, without reporting it to the police. She engages herself in a relationship with her English teacher who dumps her afterwards, and she looks for her estranged mother in London who gives her money and tells her to go back and take care of her brother, which she does.It's somewhat depressing seeing a child taken advantage of by her school teacher and nothing done about it. If it hapeened here in Canada, that teacher would be barred his entire life from teaching.

 

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All the Best

(Sve najbolje)
Croatia 2016. Dir: Snježana Tribuson. 102 min. DCP

A delightful Christmas tale from this award-winning Croatian writer-director. A pastry-shop worker and opera singers are the protagonists of this story about loneliness and the search for love, set during the Christmas holidays. The story ends in a happy note as their lives are entwined in accidental series of events. There was applause at the end of the film by an almost full-house audience.

 

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Barcelona Christmas Night

Barcelona, nit d'hivern)
Spain 2015. Dir: Dani de la Orden. 95 min. DCP

This Spanish filmmaker had a hit with his 2012 romantic-comedy, Barcelona Summer Night and now, five years later, this time during the Yuletide season, he comes up with another delightful film by talented Catalonian actors speaking in Catalan and Castillian. The scenarios include a young couple coping for the first time with parenthood, a closeted grandmother who announces she's a Lesbian during the family Christmas dinner, roommates doing a ménage à trois; and an actor playing one of the Magi rekindling his flame for a long-lost love. Another film enjoyed by the audience from the applause at the end.

© 2017 Ed Farolan