Editor's Note: This week is packed with films for all tastes.
The Kyiv Post recommends two major movie events in Kyiv: the Danish Triumph film festival in the Kyiv cinema, and the Chardynin 140 program at Zhovten of silent movies accompanied with live music.
ANTICHRIST
Drama, Mystery
Denmark 2009, 110′
Language: English with Ukrainian subtitles
Directed by Lars von Trier
Feb. 24, 25 at 7 p.m.
Kyiv
Shock is the simple and accurate description of the effect the movie “Antichrist” made at the Cannes festival in 2009, where it premiered.
However, its director Lars von Trier happy with it and even proud of his masterpiece.
The film tells a story of a couple whose baby falls out of the window while the parents are making love.
As a result of the loss, the mother gets a major depression and suffers from a major mental disorder, meaning that she is permanently stuck in limbo between consciousness and delirium.
Her husband, a psychotherapist, takes her out of the hospital to Eden, a place where the family had lived happily the previous summer, when the son was still alive.
Frame by frame, things keep getting worse, grimmer and more painful – in every sense.
The film contains scenes of masochistic sex and violence. Needless to say, the husband does not succeed at healing hie beloved.
SUBMARINO
Drama
Denmark 2010, 110′
Language: Danish with Russian and Ukrainian subtitles
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
Feb. 25, 26 at 5 p.m.
Kyiv
Brotherhood is often associated with sharing, trust and mutual support.
Nick, however, barely has anything in common with his younger brother, except painful memories of their unhappy childhood spent with an alcoholic mother.
Nick himself is a bitter and angry alcoholic, who has just come out of prison, when he meets his brother at their mom’s funeral.
The brother, who has no name in the movie, has gone even further down the slippery slope. He is a drug-addicted single father.
As both are stuck in their own personal hell, they are seeking a new hope of a better life.
VALHALLA RISING
Action, History, Adventure
Denmark 2009, 93′
Language: Ukrainian with English subtitles
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Feb. 22 at 5 p.m., Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.
Kyiv
Varhalla rising is about a mute Viking One Eye, who ran away from his slavers to join a group of Christians on their spiritual journey to Jerusalem.
Suffering from hunger and thirst, they finally reach what they think is the Holy land, only to discover that strange things start to happen.
It becomes apparent that the work hell would be a better description of this place.
IN A BETTER WORLD (HÆVNEN)
Thriller, Drama
Denmark 2010, 119′
Language: Danish with Russian and English subtitles
Directed by Susanne Bier
Feb. 22 at 7 p.m., Feb. 23 at 5 p.m.
Kyiv
The winner of last year’s Oscar for the best foreign movie, “In a better world” looks at the issues of pacifism and violence through a friendship of two 11-year-old boys from different families.
Elias’ father is a doctor, who spends most of his time in an African refugee camp.
Overwhelmed with the sight of wounds and blood, the father hatesviolence, living with the motto of turning the other cheek.
He is beaten up by a local mechanic, and Elias, eager to avenge his father, follows the instructions of his cruel friend Christian.
A FAMILY (EN FAMILIE)
Drama
Denmark 2010, 102′
Language: Danish with Russian and English subtitles
Directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen
Feb. 23 at 7 p.m., Feb. 24 at 5 p.m.
Kyiv
Sometimes life forces us to take a decision we have been putting off for years. That is exactly what happens with Ditte several times in the course of the movie.
When she is offered a dream job in New York, Ditte decides to get an abortion to remove all obstacles to leaving her home in Denmark.
Soon, however, it turns out this might not have been the best choice as her dads falls ill and she needs to stay in the country, as well as decide whether to continue running her art gallery, or concentrate on the family bakery instead.
BABETTE’S FEAST (BABETTES GÆSTEBUD)
Drama, Music
Denmark 1987, 103′
Language: Russian with English subtitles
Directed by Gabriel Axel
Feb. 25, 26 at 3 p.m.
Kyiv
It appears that sometimes a single feast can turn one’s world upside down.
Two daughters of a Protestant priest in the 19th century Denmark, who have never left their small village, serving their father, are pious spinsters, as their father rejected all their admirers.
They value modesty above everything, even in food. At least, until Babette, a refugee from Paris comes to their door, looking for a shelter.
A girl sticks to their rules for 14 years, cooking bland meals.
When Babette suddenly wins a lottery, she decides to splash on a fantastic, unbelievable French feast.
CHARDYNIN 140
Silent movies accompanied with live music
Russia, Ukraine 1913-1926
Directed by Petro Chardynin
Feb. 23 at 7 pm., 25 at 6 p.m.
Zhovten
This year the world celebrates 140s anniversary of Petro Chardynin, the pioneer of Russian and Ukrainian cinematography.
Born in 1873, he managed to make more than 200 movies on the Slavic lands before moving to Europe. However, only 30-something films have survived.
Several of them will be shown in Zhovten.
A selection of shorts will be accompanied by Djs U-Ra and Dj Zlata, while detective story “Ukraziya” and biopic “Taras Shevchenko” will be accompanied by the Ukranian jazzman Oleksandr Saratsky.
ZHOVTEN
26 Kostyantynivska St., 205-5951
www.zhovten-kino.kiev.ua/
KYIV
19 Velyka Vasylkivska St. (former Chervonoarmiyska), 234-7381
www.kievkino.com.ua
SEE MORE SCHEDULES ON
kino.ukr.net/cinema/kiev/
