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

Code Blue (2011, Urszula Antoniak)

The world of Urszula Antoniak is more gaga than that of Lars von Trier or Michael Haneke together.
The movie is about Marian, a nurse, who seemingly is devoted to her job, but she is an angel of death and not devoted to nursing her terminally ill patients. No emotions whatsoever.
Her private life is a corresponding waste land until she gets a crush on her neighbor. One evening she remarks that also he is observing a rape under their windows listlessly. Their erotic encounter at last is however far from being romantic.
Sex and Death have been combined often enough. Maybe Antoniak chooses this combination for shocking purposes, but sorry, if you don't have a story to tell, shocking details won't save your films. Antoniak is biting more than she can chew, or at least she doesn't chew long enough.
Antoniak introduces the theme of crime and forgiving when talking to an old lady, but she does not explore that direction further. This could have added a decisive feature to the character of the nurse. We could have been able to look behind her facade, but this remains undeveloped.
Likewise the introduction of SM and perversion remains largely undeveloped. Marian seems to think that submission is still better than no physical contact. But why is she lonely? Her solitude is bordering perversion. Is she a sociopath? Is she anorectic? What in general is wrong with her? And is the character as such credible. Hey, this is 21st century. If you are looking for intimacy, perversion, kinky stuff or what else, there is a forum for everything. You don't have to smell the crotch of strangers in the bus or walk to a park and look for the condom a rapist has left there... in short; the private life of Marian is not developed sufficiently and thus this movie is less than satisfying.
There is some good cinematography,although the metaphorical use of day versus night is less than groundbreaking. Close focus on the characters, surroundings are faded out.
2/10