Ivul
directed by:
Andrew Kötting with:
Capucine Aubriot, Manon Aubriot, Jacob Auzanneau, Jean-Luc Bideau Caught playing seemingly taboo games with his older sister, teenager Alex's father furiously tells his son never to set foot on his land again. He responds by living a life off ground, watching his family from the trees and roofs above. Ivul is a film which seems to merge the French family saga with the English rural idyll, textured with audio-visual montage and dance-like abstraction to create a heartfelt and idiosyncratic drama.
Selection: Cinéastes du Présent, Locarno 2010
The movie will baffle and disconcert some. Others will find it a paradoxically realist visual poem about families and hurt feelings. - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
5.30
Sunday 26th September
Savoy, Penzance
8.00
Monday 27th September
Savoy, Penzance
8.00
Tuesday 28th September
Royal, St Ives
7.30
Wednesday 29th September
Royal, St Ives
Switzerland | France
2009
101m
yes
15
Comments
Couldn't really get on with this, particularly as much of the screen time avoided analyzing the potentially dramatically interesting relationship between Alex and his sister; it could hardly do otherwise with her in Russia, and him in the trees. Indulgent, close-shot scenes (and way too many at night) of domestic life, children and rustic grotesques do not a narrative make. Having said that, some of the shots were beautiful and the interposition of archive/found film worked well, although some of the symbolism was heavy-handed. Lambs? It must be spring! PFS has screened Kotting's two other major productions, Gallivant and This Filthy Earth. If only this had the focus of the latter. But well done for screening it. In the demise of the UKFC, it is reassuring for audiences (and presumably directors like Andrew Kotting) to know that organizations like PFS can provide access to this kind of challenging cinema experience.
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