Dir - Rahi Anil Barve/Adesh Prasad/Anand Gandhi
Overall: GOOD
Several years in the making, Rahi Anil's full-length debut Tumbbad is an ambitious Bollywood/Marathi genre offering that weaves a horrific tale of all-consuming greed in a fashion that is epic in scope and consistently sinister. Barve initially wrote the script back in 1997 when he was a teenager, with numerous production companies jumping on board only to back out before shooting finally began in 2012 with producer/star Sohum Shah attached. It was then re-written and re-shot yet again, being completed in 2015, at which point another three years of post-production commenced. Such blood, sweat, and tears comes through in the final folk horror tale which utilizes unique mythology told in three different chapters that follow one man's arc of overcoming an ancient curse in order to gain exorbitant amounts of wealth around the time that India was working towards its independence during the first half of the 20th century. Largely filmed in natural lighting with Anand Gandhi and Adesh Prasad serving as co-directors, it has a rich, earthy aesthetic where the location of the title is depicted in a constant state of monsoon season. Some of the CGI work is less than acceptable, yet both the creature and set design of its lair are memorably fleshy and unsettling. Touching on other cultural themes, (particularly both women's and children's places in a male-dominated hierarchy), it all feeds into a fundamental, "greed is bad" agenda that is clear-cut without being condescendingly infantile.
Dir - Adrian Panek
Overall: GOOD
Beginning where World War II was officially ending at least on the European front, the Polish/Dutch/German co-production and filmmaker Adrian Panek's sophomore effort Werewolf, (Wilkolak), is an unavoidably bleak viewing experience, putting its characters in the devastating seat of trying to survive after they have been "saved" by Allied forces. A rag-tag group of concentration camp refugees manage to find transport to an ill-supplied, isolated mansion in the woods which besides having no electricity, running water, or enough food to eat, is also besieged by pillaging Russian troops and, (as the title would allude to), a pack of German guard dogs who trap everyone inside Cujo-style. So as things go to catastrophically bad to also bad, the film depicts an all too real and all too harrowing moment in the 20th century where there are devastating effects of not just the Nazi takeover, but the aftermath of the party's collapse. The cast of unknown youngsters look appropriately ravished and traumatized, plus Dominik Danilczyk's cinematography is naturalistic and bleak, creating more of a fly on the wall aesthetic despite some soaring musical accompaniment and suspenseful set pieces done in slow motion. Grim and not to everyone's tastes of course, it is still a commendable work.
Dir - Jennifer Kent
Overall: MEH
Serving as writer/director Jennifer Kent's comparatively superior follow-up to her debut The Babadook, The Nightingale is a relentlessly unpleasant period piece that is meant for few tastes yet has a pivotal historical backdrop that is impossible to ignore. Set at the on-set of the Black War on Van Diemen's Land, it depicts a brutal landscape where both immigrants and natives are hopelessly denied justice against British colonization. There are no winners here and no good guys; just miserable individuals living out their miserable existences in an era that only temporarily favors those who rape, murder, and exploit. Such unwholesome examples of this are both many and unflinching as Kent grants the audience the same mercy that she grants her characters, meaning none. At the core of such atrocities lies Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr's desperate partnership. As the film's two most unequivocal victims, they find common ground through the oppressive mistrust and bitterness of their surroundings, ultimately achieving some meager sense of freedom at the cost of what little humanity and compassion that they can still hold onto. Things end on as much of a downer as they begin, but the film is richly photographed and flawlessly acted. Kent can be amended for her accurate depiction of a loathsome time in her native Australia's history, but it is also a fair critique that the results are too much to bare.
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