Eye on Films

Two couples, four different perspectives, the same obsession: the gambits and the wins, the strengths and the weaknesses of the French left wing movement. Chris Bailey and Judith Lazard, Paul Adler and Albertine Langlois, that is the the political analist and the historian, the journalist and the actress, all fight and make up according to the moves of their party of choice. When one of the leaders of the Socialist Party unknowingly becomes part of a love triangle, the already complicated relationships between the four become even more complicated. How far are they ready to go in order to defend their convictions?

Yaron, a member of the Israeli Anti Terrorist Unit, has no doubts in his mind about the righteousness of his choices, be they personal or professional. State politics is the leading principle in life, and it has to be followed, no matter what. The Arab enemy from within has to be crushed, because being an Arab is one and the same with being a terrorist. This all changes when the terrorist’s role is played by an Israeli girl, whose troubling beauty starts to haunt him. Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival.

From hero of the anti-Communist resistance, over night, Zygmunt turns in the enemy of the people. More than 30 years after being imprisoned for his activities as a Solidarność leader, he is accused of collaboration with the secret police. Paweł refuses to accept that his father may have betrayed his cause, but gradually, he has to accept the mistakes of the past, and also the unknown realities behind post-Communist Poland. The paradox is that, in this story about compromise, no one is guilty. Best Actor award for Borys Szyc at the 2011 Montréal World Film Festival.

In the mid ’80s, caught in endless guerilla wars, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique formed a toxic triangle, an equation whose only constant was the ever increasing number of human victims. Ruthless businessman or spy, friend of the South African people or pacifist visionary, Jean-Yves Ollivier cannot be denied his role in having restored peace in the South of the Black Continent, and having helped give back to the world one of its most illustrious leaders, Nelson Mandela. Best Documentary at Regards sur le Cinéma du Monde festival in Rouen, France.

Only miles away from the shore, away from the prying eyes of the hordes of tourists that invade the French Riviera every year, a new landform can be admired, one that has yet to be included in the local maps: the garbage mountain. Filmmaker Martin Esposito sets camp near Villeneuve Loubet, to witness what could well be an ecological disaster. This is how he learns that no real recycling efforts are being made, with one of the main polluters being the Cannes International Film Festival.