LONELY OAKS Reviewed by David House
Lonely OaKs
Awards
Berlin International Film Festival
2023 Nominee for Best Film
Directors: Fabiana Fragale, Kilian, Kuhlendahl, Jens Mühlhoff
This is an observational documentary about environmental activists in Germany
It is filmed over a 2 year period, 2018-2019, by Steffen Meyn, an investigative journalist and film student. The setting is the Hambach forest which is next to a large coal extraction site. The forest is being steadily clear cut to allow mining expansion. A group of young activists have been protesting, living in tree houses they have constructed to try and save these ancient woods from destruction. Steffen installed a 360-degree camera on his bike helmet and climbs into the tree tops to spend time with the protesters and spread their message. The film has a very powerful opening; footage from Meyn’s camera in the aftermath of Steffen’s tragic death when he falls to his death during a police action to remove the activists from their tree shelters.
This is a very powerful and moving look at the methods and activities of peaceful environmental protests, democracy, responsibility, negotiations, police interventions, the rights of the press and the life changing outcomes of the protests.
A film sure to provoke thought and discussion.
RESTORE POINT Reviewed by David House
This film from the Czech republic is a Sci-Fi set in Prague in the near future, 2041.
A new scientific technology has eliminated death by unnatural cause for anyone who uploads their data to a server every 24 hours. Some folks find this form of resurrection to be so unnatural as to be abhorrent and have organized in a group called River Of Life to try and destroy this technology. The film opens with the murder of one of the founding members of the corporation that controls this life restoring technology. Emma, a young female detective, is in a rush to solve this crime before the rebel group is able to install a virus in the computer at the restoration teams headquarters and destroy everyone’s restore points.
The film is very much a neo-noir crime thriller in a futuristic setting. The film looks stunning, beautifully shot, with simple but very effective and believable special effects. It is suspenseful and moves at a brisk pace through several twists and turns to a satisfying ending.The film looks at humanity’s eternal ‘fear of death’, the dilemma of mortality versus the corrupt technology which might let us ‘live forever’ in the machine, and asks us to consider if this is what we really want.