I traveled to a bunch of different countries in the first half of January 2021. That is, as far as the lock downs permitted me to go. In other words,I watched a bunch of movies from different continents, From Asia to Europe, to Latin-America.
This way, I got to experience a couple of hours in Turkey, Macedonia, Germany, China, Portugal, The Philippines and Mexico, without going through C*vid-tests, quarantine and the overall hassle and stress of traveling.
The Turkish Watchtower ( seen on the first day of the year ), mainly captivated me with its beautiful mountain landscapes, as well as by the natural acting of the two main characters. It almost made me forget I was watching a movie. What put a smile on my face too was that it reminded me of a game called 'Firewatch' that I once played at my brother's home, a handful of years ago.
Honeyland was worth watching for its subject and protagonist ( a female bee-keeper in Macedonia ) but felt more and more staged along the way, Apparently it was nominated for two Academy Awards / Oscars ( including one for best documentary ).
The Small Town, another film from Turkey, was well worth watching for its realness, beautiful cinematography and non professional actors.
The German My Sister's Good Fortune and the Mexican Rezeta were just entertaining enough for me to watch till the end. Both of them are love stories ( one about a young Eastern-European model in Mexico, the other about an indecisive man stuck in a doomed-to-fail love-triangle with two sisters ). They are the kind of movies that I'll probably have forgotten about very soon.
The 1997 Pickpocket, from Chinese director Jia Zhangke ( whose later movies The World, Still Life and 24 Hour City fascinated me quite a lot ) was a pleasant surprise.
Its nerdy protagonist, a simple pickpocket of few words and this guys' love affair, a girl from a karaoke bar, made my day / evening :<)
Now I think of it, like the two previous films I mentioned, this one is about love. But - unlike those - it's executed in a way that suits me way more. Not really sure why. Probably the overall style of the movie, the use of non-professional actors, the overall cinematography, the picture it paints of China and, I guess, the characters themselves, who are - in a way - losers and it's very hard not to like them. Also the karaoke music and the out of tune singing of the actors was pretty endearing.
Without a doubt my favorite film so far this month.
Then, yesterday night, I watched Horse Money ( Carvalo Dinheiro ), a Portuguese movie with Cape Verdian actors. As I'm living in Portugal since 2018, I watched this film with Portuguese subtitles. i was a little confused though, as the words spoken - and at times sung - where slightly different from the Portuguese that I know. Sometimes they seemed more like Spanish. I can't say I 'liked' this movie but it impressed me in quite some ways including its raw and cinematic portrayal of the mentally ill and - once again - the use of non-actors.
Non-actors seem to be the red thread woven through this month's viewing, so far. I guess that happens when you don't go to cinema ( the nearest is quite far away and probably closed due to Portugal's current lock-down ) and choose Mubi over Netflix.
That's all folks!
Trailers of the films mentioned can be found by following this link and clicking on the movie's title