Binti (2029, Frederike Migom)

Another view thanks to the generous decision of the Film Festival of Aubagne to make entries of the main competition available online.
Usually I don't watch many films for young viewers. This was a charming exception. Binti makes a serious problem understandable and relevant for young viewers. Binti is an illegal alien in Belgium. In other words: she lives, but she doesn't exist. She was born in Congo, but her father brought her to Belgium right after her birth. So they run away, as soon as they see a police agent. Binti meets Elias, a boy with a divorced mother. Wouldn't it be a perfect  match, if Binti's father and Elias' mother became a couple? Things get complicated, when a jealous neighbour denounces them to the police.
8/10

De Patrick (2019, Tim Mielants)

This blog has been orphaned again; I have promised myself to write more and shorter memos. I hope, I will eventually defeat my laziness.
Before all a big THANK YOU or rather MERCI BEAUCOUP to the Film Festival in Aubagne, who generously opened the films in the main competition for online viewing. Maybe I can be there next year for real and not just online.
De Patrick  is a  kind of deadpan existentialist comedy. It is up to the viewer to make the ends meet.
In the first shot we see a bulky middle-aged man floating as "dead man" in a lake. Patrick is relaxing. He is janitor in a naturist camping. While everybody greets Patrick, he is avoiding eye contact. Patrick is already 38 years and still living with his parents, a blind mother and a very sick father. The condition of the father gets worse and he dies eventually. At this time Patrick discovers, that a hammer is missing from his set of tools. Patrick is actually a gifted carpenter and designs chairs. - Instead of sorrowing, Patrick tries to find that tool. The father is gone for good, but he might be able to retrieve the hammer.
Of course the guests in the naturist camp are naked. Nudity does not create equality among the guests at this site. This place with naked people is far from being a restoration of lost nature or paradise. On the contrary, they are scheming and plotting. Especially Herman sees a chance to get his fingers at the site.
Nudity in De Patrick is not at all erotic, but rather a functional gimmick to make the story work. This is a genre-bending coming of middle age film, which is absolutely worth a watch.
7/10

L'Iceberg (2005, Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy)

It is a pity that Aristotle did not write about comedies and made it clear for everybody what to expect. In generic terms L'iceberg is a comedy. Thus many people think that they have to laugh all the time, but comical does not necessarily mean farcical. There is no slapstick or kick ass humor (there is another difficult term) in this film. But I think it is safe that detect black humor in this film - potential tragic situations are presented with irony. Yes, the recipient must have an antenna for this kind of humor, else it won't work.
The film starts with a narration by the Inuit girl Nattikuttuk (is this a real Inuit name? Google only finds it only in this feature film!) . She is going to narrate narrate how she met her husband. Change of scenery to a fast food restaurant in Belgium. Fiona gets trapped in a walk-in freezer. She survives the night, but has to learn that nobody missed her at home. Her husband, Julien, doesn't notice that his wife is not sharing the bed with him. Like robots they butter their bread and don't notice when Fiona finally stumbles home. Here you have tunnel vision in a nutshell.
After the traumatic experience Fiona gets fascinated by icebergs. She runs away from her family and joins a group of travelers. They are villagers from a coastal village. An elderly woman offers her shelter in her house.  A not talking fisherman, René,  owns a boat by the name of Titanique. They feel atracted to each other.
After some time Fiona actually is missed by her family. Her husband wants her to return, but at first he has to fight with René. On the tinay Titanique they sail the open sea and are wrecked.Nattikuttuk saves them.
The frames of this film are mainly static - almost as cages -, yet the protaganists are often busily running through the scenery. There is very little dialogue in this film. It is nice to see that the directors rely on the power of the pictures.
Seen on Festivalscope.
7/10

The king of the World?