Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell & Ten Months
INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL (2023) — dir. Pham Thien An
The winner of the Caméra d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell will surely join the ranks as the latest surefire Letterboxd-type cinephile slow-cinema favorite. A Vietnamese language film co-produced by Vietnam, Singapore, France, and Spain, Pham Thien An’s feature debut impresses on many fronts.
The film opens with a long peaceful scene of deep philosophical conversation taking place at an outside restaurant in Saigon. The serenity is suddenly interrupted by a mostly off-screen act of violence as Thien’s (Le Phong Vu) sister-in-law Teresa dies in a motorcycle accident just a few meters away. Her five-year-old son Dao (Nguyen Thinh) survives the crash. Thien carries the burden of responsibility for his sister-in-law’s funeral and Dao before he eventually embarks on a quest to find his long-lost brother.
The film is bound to draw comparisons to the favorites of slow cinema, especially with the major Asian directors of the movement—Tsai Ming-liang, Jia Zhangke, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, etc—and that’s not entirely just because it’s a mode of filmmaking with limited popular interest and thus limited exemplars.
Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.
TEN MONTHS (2023) — dir. Idan Hubel
Nothing compels in Ten Months, the Israeli film from Idan Hubel that just had its world premiere as part of the Official Selection – Competition of the Black Nights festival. The film burdens itself by being too simplistic in its premise, execution, and even presentation.
Merav (Shiri Gadni) is in her early 40s and is still childless after many years of trying. She experiences a false pregnancy and instead of ending it, she “follows her body” and intends to carry the “pregnancy” to term. Her husband, played by Tom Hagi, and mother (Idit Teperson) understandably struggle to support her in her decision to have a mental breakdown. She needs their help though because if she begins to feel not-pregnant, she trembles with fears that her body may return to normality.
Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.