MIFF 2016 - Day 5

The Bacchus Lady

So Young is a "Bacchus Lady", a sex worker catering to an elderly clientele. Elderly herself, she has no family to support her, so she does what she must to survive. When she discovers one of her former clients has had a stroke she visits him out of friendship, and he asks for her help to commit suicide. This leads to a path where other men who want to die ask for her help. Tackling society's insensitivity to ageing, the regrets of youth, and the dignity of those on the margins, this is a sad and gentle film full of warmth. A truly impressive balancing act.

Harmonium

A man takes in a friend recently released from prison. The man seems genuine about atoning for his sins and soon the family take to him. But what starts out looking like a heart-warming story of redemption veers into darker places. By the end it's suffocating. One of the biggest surprises of the festival so far for me. It's excellent, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it either.

Office 3D

A musical about corporate machinations in a trading company about to go public. Unfortunately, this is 2008 and the stock market is about to collapse. Though as it turns out, that's really just a background detail to the cloak and dagger of a CEO and the Chairman of the Board trying to outplay each other, and their minions doing much the same. It's a fun bit of fluff, the most notable thing about it is the impressive set design. A minimalist wireframe that is repurposed with a few props to stand in for every location. It's very cool to look at.

Beware the Slenderman

It begins with two 12-year old girls stabbing their friend because they believe that if they don't, the Slenderman, an urban myth created for a photoshop competition, will kill them and their families. But the internet meme ends up being secondary, though sensationalist, to the study of how the girls are treated by the justice system. Set to be tried as adults, we learn that the reason for the crime is mental illness, and still there is no change from the prosecution. The film mainly focuses on the parents of the two girls, and avoids the family of the victim completely. I assume this is due to their unwillingness to participate in the documentary, but it means we get to follow the difficult path of parents loving children who have done something horrific, and trying to make sense of it all. It's a sad but interesting exploration of childhood delusion and adult grief.