Two ribald, Rabelaisian works about Afghanistan, Orientalism, war, drones and the limits of representational prowess.
War movies appealed to Maddin as a child, he tells us, ‘with their thrills and romance, camaraderie and cool uniforms, all the pomp and ceremony of real war but without real death.’ And with that, Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton blossoms into the cine-essay he’d imagined, a very moving and very funny analysis of the costs (in the most biting and ironic sense) of war. – Daren Hughes, Senses of Cinema
Ennui Ennui
Gabriel Abrantes | France 2013, 33 minutes | 4pm, Sunday 24 July
While the French ambassadress to Afghanistan is negotiating disarmament with a Kuchi nomad, her daughter Cléo is kidnapped by an Afghan warlord. Sentient drones, the works of Georges Bataille, and Rihanna’s social media also prominently feature.
D Gabriel Abrantes S Gabriel Abrantes P Justin Taurand C Simon Roca E Aël Dallia Vega
Language: English, and French and Dari with English Subtitles
Distribution: Les Films du Bélier DCP
Winner of the Grand Prix France at Brive Film Festival.
Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton
Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson | Canada and Jordan 2015, 30 minutes | 4pm, Sunday 24 July
Notionally a documentary about the making of Paul Gross’s Afghanistan war epic, Maddin’s latest work (The Forbidden Room, QFF 2015) is a ball of energy that through documentary, dream sequences, hypnotic drones, and self-pitying whining, dismantles not just war films but also national cinema.
D Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson P Niv Fichman and Jody Shapiro C John Gurdebeke and Jody Shapiro
Language: English
Distribution: Winnipeg Film Group DCPUnrated 18 +
This screening is preceded by On Air (Grasso, 2009, 9 minutes) and The Freestone Drone (Barber, 2013, 13 minutes).