MIFF 2019 - Day 10

Sakawa

Ghanian dating scammers try to make ends meet by convincing lonely men they're in love. Meanwhile, they're getting scammed themselves by self styled voodoo priests promising wealth, or Christian preachers promising much the same. It's fascinating, especially when you hear them on the phone with their "clients". How anyone could be taken in is a mystery. But it's a lonely world, and people need hope. And hope is exploitable. Definitely worth checking out wherever it ends up showing.

Evelyn

Orlando Von Einseidel has won Oscars for his documentaries like Virunga. Now he turns the camera on himself and his family as they embark on a five week walking tour of the UK to remember their brother Evelyn, who committed suicide 13 years earlier. They've never spoken about it. Keenly observed grief, and encounters with strangers along the way help you to realise how prevalent their experience is, and how sharing doesn't remove the pain, but it does help. Beautiful landscape cinematography also adds to the experience.

Sword of Trust

Making fun of civil war conspiracists who believe that the south won the war, this is a comedy about a pawn shop owner, his assistant and a couple who are bequeathed a sword their grandpa insists proves that the North surrendered to the South. Most of the laughs come from Marc Maron amping up his cynical irascability, he gets all the best lines. But since it's heavily improvised, scenes rise and fall depending on how much the cast is up to it. When it works, it's hysterical, the rest is pretty flat. Good fun overall though.

Funan

Grave of the Fireflies now has competition for the best animation I might never watch again. Telling the story of one family as they live through the Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia, it's just one horror after another. In a situation with no good choices, how to survive becomes a more and more awful question to consider. It's gruelling, but brilliant.

Bros: After the Screaming Stops

Billed as the funniest music film since Spinal Tap, it's not quite there, but damn Matt Goss says some amazingly funny things. By turns funny and emotional, you watch the Goss brothers reunite for a tour, and work through the issues that broke the band up originally. It's actually really sweet, even if you're laughing at them more than with them a lot of the time.