View All Posts By Author: Ian Merkel

SEVEN WINTERS IN TEHRAN    Reviewed by Ian Merkel Seven Winters in Tehran Multiple Festival Awards  Berlin International Film Festival 2023 Winner Compass-Perspektive Award Best Film Steffi Niederzoll 2023 Winner Peace Film Award Seven Winters in Tehran is a documentary based on the secret filming of footage and taped recordings smuggled out of Iran to Germany. Reconstruction of many scenes were made in Germany, using mostly miniatures.  In the summer of 2007,

“R.M.N.” Reviewed By Arash Taheri   Cannes Film Festival 2022 NomineePalme d’Or Cristian Mungiu       ………R.M.N is arguably one of the best films of the year. My admiration is not only for its solid storyline, but also from a technical point of view, it is well executed.  ……..It starts quite mysteriously with a young boy running away from something that horrified him.……..From then on, the story shifts on to

“Music Pictures – New Orleans” Review by Ian Merkel ……..This documentary featuring 4 jazz legends,  well into their golden years, is a delightful film covering different genres of the New Orleans Jazz and Blues Scene. It provides a wonderful snapshot of  New Orleans and its special connection to the Music Scene. …….Beginning with Grammy-winner Irma Thomas, aka “The Soul Queen of New Orleans, and moving on to Benny Jones Sr., of

“Klondike” Review by Ian Merkel Sundance Film Festival 2022 WinnerDirecting Award World Cinema – DramaticMaryna Er Gorbach NomineeGrand Jury Prize World Cinema – Dramatic This powerful theatrical debut by Maryna Er Gorbach screened at Sundance 2022. A very timely  war drama set in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine in 2014.  ……Timely , as it was released just before Russia decided to invade Ukraine this year. ….Including the tragedy of the

The White Fortress Nominee: Best Feature Film: Berlin 2021 Grand Prix of the Generation 14 plus International Jury Directed and written by Igor Drljaca, the film is shot in Sarajevo, the largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Igor was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and resides in Toronto Canada. As with his previous documentary, he continues to focus on post war Bosnian political and social issues,  and in this new drama concentrates

Films That We Have  currently Reviewed or Get Our Vote The Worst Person in the World Thoroughly enjoyed this film at the Playhouse Last Night Ian Merkel **** ——————————————– VIFF 2021 BC AWARDS  VIFF 2021 International Shorts  Saloum, Azor and Handle With Care        Godavari and The Six   (Watched both today Oct 6 on -line) The Last Tourist  The White Fortress VIFF Docs  Set Out To Change our Minds

Blue Box. Winner DocAviv Film Festival 2021 (Research Award) Nominee: Dokufest International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2021 (Truth Award) Directed by Michal Weits, the great grand daughter of Joseph Weitz known as the father of Israel’s forests. This review is from one of our long time supporters of our society Richard Migicovsky: This is a must see if you have any interest in the state of Israel. I was

Havel Winner of the Czech Lion  2021 with 7 winning awards: Director, Film,  Best Actor, Best Actress, Best make-Up, Best Supporting Actor and  Best Supporting Actress Slávek Horák is a Director, Writer and Actor, who I met at VIFF in 2015 ,when he attended VIFF for his first full feature film “Home Care” Our society, as a community partner, had chosen to sponsor this film and a year later I 

A Tale of Love and Desire (Une histoire d’amour et de désir) A Tale of Love and Desire was the closing film of the Critics’ Week at Cannes I really enjoyed this beautiful, romantic film with its cultural diversity of the two main subjects and I am happy it was was chosen for VIFF 2021 Directed and written by the young Leyla Bouzid “Barely I open my Eyes”  it is

Charlotte The tragically short life of German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon and her remarkable body of autobiographical work.        The difficult family history and holocaust story of Charlotte is not well known, but told in the form of 700 paintings bound together in a book, which was probably one of  the world’s first graphic novels.        Superbly narrated by a strong well know cast  and a

Vancouver International Film Festival 2021 Join us in celebrating VIFF’s 40th Annual International Film Festival October 1st to October 11th Days Hours Minutes Seconds PRESS RELEASES VIFF ANNOUNCES 40TH EDITION FESTIVAL LINEUPA RETURN TO IN-CINEMA PRESENTATIONSAND EXPANDED VIFF CONNECT ACCESS VIFF 2021 FAST FACTS Sept. 9, 2021VIFF announces 2021 events and speakers for VIFF Immersed and VIFF AMP Sept. 10, 2021VIFF unveils program and speakers for Totally Indie Day and

The reason I jump Posted from VIFF Award Announcements VIFF Impact AwardThe Reason I Jump (dir. Jerry Rothwell) Kudos to the creative team for their richly cinematic exploration of autism. Not only does the film allow us entry into this unique world, it does so with sensitivity and authenticity. While acknowledging autism’s painful challenges, this riveting film is hopeful, and transformed the jury’s understanding of the subject. Rarely is the medium

  Additional “Contemporary World Cinema” previews we received in advance The first 2 are from up and coming new directors Kala Azar This Dutch – Greek produced film won a couple of awards at Rotterdam and in Hong Kong. A young couple who are themselves strange and mysterious, live in a 4×4. They travel around somewhere in southern Europe, collecting dead animals from pet owners as well as roadkill they

My favorite section at VIFF each year has always been Contemporary World Cinema  Often a  small independent film in this section becomes one of the gems of the festival. Preparation for deciding what to see requires much research: reading up on the films, their reviews on various sites, then the difficulty of scheduling conflicts and finally pacing oneself for 5 films a day.  This year under Covid with just over

DOCUMENTARIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD         David House: Vancouver Foreign Film Society     I am a lover of many different genres of film and the Vancouver International Film Festival has always happily filled my many varied interests, with dramas and comedies from around the world, horror and sci-fi, experimental films, animation and short film programs. However another big part of the festival program is documentaries. Usually at

  Merkel – Anatomy of a Crisis (Die Getriebenen) Powerful and  fast paced this film will hold your attention with superb acting and characterizations. A few times I had to remember that these were actors! I had to watch this film as my first review. I knew that Merkel (no relation by the way) was an example to the more liberal European Union members in opening Germany’s borders to the

Here We Are (Hine Anachnu) This drama is a touching tale of fatherly love that shouldn’t be missed at VIFF 2020. David House – Vancouver Foreign Film Society   Aharon is divorced and has stopped working to devote himself to being the full time caregiver for his autistic son Uri. No longer a child, Uri is entering adulthood, and his mother thinks that it’s time to consider whether Yuri would