Thursday 13 March 2014
The Passing of the Year / Winter Nomads / Ilo Ilo
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| Abbbots Bromley hobby horse ©Simon Garbutt |
A
nother free event: Barrie Gavin presents a documentary (
The Passing of the Year) he made for
Omnibus
in 1973. Working with folklorist A. L. Lloyd (or Bert as he knew him)
Gavin made six films for the BBC, recording British folk traditions and
World Music before it was categorised thus. It was a fascinating and
touching forty-five minutes. Most of these traditions continue but they
have been relabelled as quaint, co-opted by the tourist trade or, in the
case of the trade union movement’s May Day marches, ignored by today’s
chroniclers. It’s usual to mourn for lost times at this point. It is not
the haircuts or clothing that have changed. It’s the effort people used
to put in: an hour practising madly complicated dances every week every
year.
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| Winter Nomads |
Winter Nomads is a soothing documentary about
two shepherds leading 800 sheep, four donkeys and three dogs across
Switzerland. It’s not the first film about shepherds that Borderlines
has shown. Its tone – people who are happy in their work because it’s
tough – reminded me of
Être et Avoir, another award-winner. The subject
of that documentary did not like the end result. I wonder what Miss
Pastoral Chic and the Philosopher King made of this. It’s as
unbelievable as
Man of Arran – I can’t believe the worst a sheep
suffered was a nip from their dog. Animals wandering in the wrong
direction always raised a chuckle. Forgot the sudden, random appearances
of snipers and suicides, in terms of audience reaction, the moment the
donkey slipped over registered the highest level of concern during the
whole festival. There are plenty of films with donkeys in them.
My back was feeling the pace during
Ilo Ilo.
This is why film critics are crotchety. Alfred Hitchcock said that a
film’s length is related to the size of the human bladder. When a critic
reappraises a film it means he had trapped wind the first time he saw
it.
Ilo Ilo is notable for having two unappealing characters. The
boy is a brat and his mother distrusts most of the people around her.
To her, one ‘rightly’ justifies a thousand slights. The story provides a
snapshot of Singapore during its late-1990s economic crash. A family
and their Filipino maid adapt to changing circumstances. A family of
three hire a maid; it becomes a family of four that can’t afford one.
The boy’s behaviour is troubled: self-mutilation in the expectation of
framing a teacher is not normal. (The lack of pupil care in Singapore
schools was not good.) The maid is the only person with the time to work
with him but has to deal with his received prejudice first. Racism is
another strand through this festival’s line-up: horrific in
12 Years a Slave and
The Golden Dream.
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| Ilo Ilo |
The boy is incapable
of expressing his fears with words but shows his displeasure through
actions. Unfortunately, his parents have problems enough. His mother
puts her faith in a motivational speaker. His slogan is 'Hope is Within
Yourself' and he picks her, a pregnant woman, out from the crowd. He’s a
professional. The father is not the kind of person who can exploit a
recession. It ends: the maid returns home to her son; the parents have a
new child to raise; the boy, at least, has had feelings for someone
other than himself. Some films feel like the director needed to put
something on the record.
Ten films from eight countries. I look
forward to next year, by which time the organisers will have sifted
through a few thousand more titles. We get to watch the best ones.
Robin Clarke (Festival Volunteer)
