'LE FATE IGNORANTI' + SPECIAL THANKS

Set in the year in which the Jubilee and the World Pride 2000 split Rome, Özpetek's The Ignorant Fairies challenges gender and class categories within a melodramatic framework. Controversial, original, provocative, unconventional...

LE FATE IGNORANTI, by Ferzan Özpetek (2001)

December 16, 4pm

Lille Auditorium (Room 234)

Danish School of Journalism

With this unusual Italian film we wave goodbye to the "grey brutal architectonical room" that has given us shelter for exactly three months now and to Denmark, the country that will always be BLACK&WHITE's home and heartland.

The Mundus Film Club continues in Amsterdam in February. Until then, special thanks to all of you who have contributed in some way or another to make possible this idea of getting to know each other's cultures better through the artistic expression of our national cinemas: Inger, Anna, Roman, Sofia, Jennifer, Rabea, Judy, Kresten, Carol, Vinicius, May, Namitha, Rashmi, Nasrin, Katica, Guia, our loyal and not-so-loyal followers and Torsten and the Chinese janitor, whose technical skills have helped us out of trouble so many times...

Remember our e-mail box stays open for suggestions, Christmas cards or secret love letters during holidays. Consumism isn't everything!

mundusfilmclub@gmail.com

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & Viva El Amor!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqvid_BRUz8

'THE QUEER WORLD FROM A MIDDLE CLASS WOMAN POINT OF VIEW', by Guia Baggi

Death usually shocks people's lives but it might also push them to widen their knowledge of a person they loved and, through the discovery of his/her past, find a bit more about themselves.

This is the case of Antonia, the main character of the third film by the Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek, The Ignorant Fairies (Le Fate Ignoranti). Unexpectedly, Antonia finds herself alone by the accidental death of her partner. In the sorrow for the loss of her husband, Antonia discovers a second life she never imagined Massimo might have had.

Death and gender are again in The Ignorant Fairies the main motives in Özpetek's production, after The Turkish Bath - Hamam (1999) and before Facing Window (2003) and Saturn in Opposition (2007).

In her research of the truth, Antonia risks to take her husband's place in the strange family with whom he used to stay when for her he was at the stadium or at some conferences. It is a warm lively family very different from Antonia's normal middle-class life. To the point that she and her husband's lover, Michele, might fall in love with each other.

Unfortunately, looking more deeply into characters and their psychology, many stereotypes from which some sensibilities could take offense emerge: from Antonia's housemaid behaviour to Michele's infatuation for Antonia and, of course, his friends' features.

Özpetek's female characters are detached but determinate in struggling with their lives, while men are drawn complex, in crisis but strong at the same time. Sexuality is described in Özpetek's films especially from men's perspective but the main characters of his films are usually and sometimes involuntarily women.

Özpetek is some kind of Italian-Turkish Almodóvar. He was born in Turkey but studied at the Silvio D’Amico Drama Academy in Rome, and his works often combine his double culture. An emotional Margherita Buy plays Antonia's role, while Stefano Accorsi interprets Michele. The Ignorant Fairies was awarded with three Italian Silver Ribbons and with the prize as best feature at the New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

'HEAD ON' FLYER

After France and Spain, let's meet another strong woman from Germany. Head-On by Fatih Akin is a film which strikes hardly; a total electroshock led by a duo of brilliant actors with exceptional and effective music. The film heroine, Sibel, is rebellious, outspoken, and sexy.

Come along to enjoy a powerful movie, between suicide and sensuality: a contradictory love in the punk atmosphere of the streets of Hamburg!

GEGEN DIE WAND, by Fatih Akin (2004)

December 9, 4pm

Lille Auditorium (Room 234)

Danish School of Journalism

'HARSH, STRONG, ALMOST PUNK: 'HEAD ON'', by Naouel Abbadi

The first German film to win a Golden Bear in Berlin in 2004, Fatih Akin's Head-On is a desperate fable about a wild love and a current romantic tragedy rocked by oriental chants. It is the story of two human beings, taken in the hurly-burly of life.

Alcoholic since the accidental disappearance of his wife, Cahit Tomruk (performed by the sensational Birol Ünel) tries to commit suicide during a drunkenness night. At the hospital, he meets Sibel, a young lady quite determined to do what she likes pretty freely. Oppressed by her very traditional family, she dreams to gain her independence. But to get it, it is necessary that she marries a Turk. Cahit should do the trick but the love is well sure to oppose their plans, inviting itself inconveniently in the fictitious wedding. Little by little, both flat-mates become more sociable, they learn to live side by side, even if the sex remains a taboo subject: "if we make love together, we shall be then a husband and a wife", murmurs Sibel. For a long time restrained, the passion eventually bursts in broad daylight and the trajectories of both lovers will be changed for ever.

Fatih Akin's remarkable film is many things: an exploration of Turkish culture in Germany, a comedy, a tragedy, and above all, a romance. The punk Cahit is a sad-eyed, worn-out soul who, as the film rages on, realizes that he wants to hang tenaciously onto life for as long as he can. Sibel Kekilli, in her feature film debut, gives a heart-breaking performance. Erratic, vibrant, extreme, occasionally out of her mind, Sibel is a woman who can change a man.

Not only is Head-On visually beautiful, but it also relies heavily on musicality. Without music, the film loses a certain emotional strike and Akin is the first to admit the importance of it: "Film is a two-dimensional thing, but when you add music it becomes three, four, even five-dimensional".

A tragedy of two lonely souls, the film opens with Cahit driving his car head-on into a brick wall: the first and most transparent realization of the threat stated in the title. But despite all the film's griminess and doom, bad behaviour and bad luck, it is hope that engines Head-On. These characters are intimately exposed; feelings of both genuine pleasure and pain bared wide open on the screen. Head-On is positively gripping.