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Tribeca Festival · 2017

Tribeca Festival 2017

International Narrative Competition

These ten films will compete for Best Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

Programme

10 films · 4 reviews

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The Divine Order (Die göttliche Ordnung)

Review preview for The Divine Order

Leuenberger makes Nora's gradual awakening to gender issues feel like the sun coming out on a dreary day, brimful of unexpected warmth.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A small-town mum joins the suffrage movement in Switzerland.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2017; Director: Petra Volpe; Writer: Petra Volpe; Stars: Marie Leuenberger, Maximilian Simonischek, Rachel Braunschweig, Sibylle Brunner, Marta Zoffoli, Bettina Stucky, Noe Krejcí, Finn Sutter, Peter Freiburghaus, Therese Affolter, Ella Rumpf, Nicholas Ofczarek, Sofia Helin, Elias Arens, Mirjam Zbinden)

Full review See: Petra Volpe on The Divine Order, the #MeToo movement and the ongoing fight for equal rights

International premiere

Holy Air

Desperate to care for his pregnant wife and ailing father, Adam embarks on his latest, riskiest business venture: selling bottled holy air.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2017; Director: Shady Srour; Writer: Shady Srour; Stars: Laëtitia Eïdo, Shady Srour)

World premiere

Ice Mother (Baba z ladu)

Hana lives alone in a big villa with only weekly visits from her two belligerent sons and their families to look forward to. While on a stroll with her grandson one day, she rescues Brona, an elderly ice swimmer with a hen for a best friend, from drowning. This encounter invigorates Hana, introducing her to a new hobby and unexpected romance.

(Country: France, Czech Republic, Slovakia; Year: 2017; Director: Bohdan Sláma; Writer: Bohdan Sláma; Stars: Václav Neuzil, Alena Mihulová, Tatiana Vilhelmová, Petra Spalková, Zuzana Krónerová, Pavel Nový, Daniel Vízek, Marie Ludvíková, Marek Daniel, Lubos Veselý)

International premiere

King Of Peking (Jing Cheng Zhi Wang)

Big Wong and his son Little Wong are traveling film projectionists, screening Hollywood movies for local villagers. Faced with losing custody of his son, Big Wong starts making and selling illegal bootleg DVDs out of the old movie theater where he works, despite Little Wong’s objections.

(Country: US, Australia, China; Year: 2017; Director: Sam Voutas; Writer: Sam Voutas; Stars: Jun Zhao, Wang Naixun, Qing Han, Si Chao, Bowen Geng, Long Yi, Min Zhou, Yi Qin, Changxin Fan, Maishun Cao, Wei Ai, Lishan Feng, Zhongli Zheng)

World premiere

Newton

Review preview for Newton

Even though Newton is a stickler, there's an appealing purity to his views and he remains likeable almost despite himself.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A young bureaucrat named Newton is sent to the jungle to monitor an election there. But Maoist blockades, forced police protection and indifferent voters make defending democracy no easy task.

(Country: India; Year: 2017; Director: Amit Masurkar; Writer: Amit Masurkar, Mayank Tewari; Stars: Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathy, Anjali Patil, Raghuvir Yadav, Mukesh Prajapati)

Full review

North American premiere

November

Review preview for November

Sarnet doesn't lack imagination and the unsettling mood that pervades the action is maintained throughout.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A peasant girl's unrequited love plays out against a backdrop of pagan ritual and myth.

(Country: Estonia, Netherlands, Poland; Year: 2017; Director: Rainer Sarnet; Writer: Rainer Sarnet, based on the novel by Andrus Kivirahk; Stars: Rea Lest, Jörgen Liik, Arvo Kukumägi, Katariina Unt, Taavi Eelmaa, Heino Kalm, Meelis Rämmeld, Dieter Laser, Jette Loona Hermanis, Jaan Tooming, Klara Eighorn, Ene Pappel, Ernst Lillemets, Sepa Tom, Tiina Keeman)

Full review

International premiere

Nobody's Watching (Nadie Nos Mira)

After giving up a successful soap opera career in his native Argentina for a chance to make it in New York, Nico finds himself staying afloat with odd jobs bartending and babysitting. In a moving depiction of the vibrant city, Nobody's Watching questions who is watching and how we adjust ourselves accordingly.

(Country: Argentina, US, Spain, Brazil, Colombia; Year: 2016; Director: Julia Solomonoff; Writer: Christina Lazaridi, Julia Solomonoff; Stars: Nadja Settel, Paola Baldion, Guillermo Pfening, Paige Sciarrino, Ana Carolina Lima, Cristina Morrison, Elena Roger, Noelle Lake, Marco Antonio Caponi, Kerri Sohn, Marina Artigas, Ava Tracy, Blanca Vivancos, Josefina Scaro)

World premiere

Sambá

Cisco has his back against the ropes. After spending 15 years in an American jail, he’s returned to the Dominican Republic yet is unable to get a job, a problem compounded by his mother’s ailing health and his younger brother’s delinquent habits. To make money, he’s resorted to illegal street fighting. But Cisco finds a possible salvation in Nichi, an Italian ex-boxer who sees dollar signs in Cisco’s gritty fighting skills.

(Country: Dominican Republic; Year: 2017; Director: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Writer: Ettore D'Alessandro, Carolina Encarnacion; Stars: Laura Gómez, Algenis Perez Soto, Ettore D'Alessandro, Gerardo Mercedes, Jalsen Santana, Riccardo Bardellino, Oscar Carrasquillo, Ricardo Ariel Toribio, Héctor Sierra, Félix Mangu Valera, Miguel Sabino, Karina Valdez, Omar de la Cruz, Omar Augusto Luis, Dheni Paris)

World premiere

Son Of Sofia (O Gios tis Sofias)

Set during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, 11-year-old Misha is travelling from Russia to live with his mother in Athens in the home of an elderly Greek man she works for. When he learns this man is actually his new father, Misha runs away but doesn’t have the stomach for life on the streets. Returning to his new home, he clings to the stories he grew up with, melding them with reality to create a dark urban fairy tale.

(Country: France, Greece, Bulgaria; Year: 2016; Director: Elina Psikou; Writer: Elina Psikou; Stars: Viktor Khomut, Valery Tcheplanowa, Thanasis Papageorgiou, Artemis Havalits, Christos Stergioglou, Iro Maltezou)

World premiere

Tom Of Finland

Review preview for Tom Of Finland

Although much of Laaksonen's work was hardcore, Karukoski doesn't seek to 'shock' audiences with outrageousness, instead gracefully zoning in on the man and his life to celebrate his both his bravery and his art.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Portrait of the Finnish artist famous for his homoerotic work.

(Country: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, US; Year: 2017; Director: Dome Karukoski; Writer: Noam Andrews, Aleksi Bardy, Aleksi Bardy, Aleksi Bardy, Mark Alton Brown, Dome Karukoski, Susanna Luoto, Kauko Röyhkä, Mia Ylönen; Stars: Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen, Jessica Grabowsky, Jakob Oftebro, Werner Daehn, Jimmy Shaw, Þorsteinn Bachmann, Seumas F. Sargent, Jan Böhme, Kari Hietalahti, Taisto Oksanen, Georg Kroneis, Niklas Hogner, Siim Maaten, Roy Saaristo)

Full review See: Dome Karukoski on biopic Tom Of Finland

International premiere