DCist’s roundup of films playing tonight at FilmFest DC.
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Florencio runs the general store in a small town in rural Argentina circa 1983. His simple-minded brother Baldomero is running for mayor against the corrupt Don Hidalgo. After Baldomero seduces the butcher’s wife, he turns up dead, and his brother vows revenge, cutting off the titular finger and promisng to shove it up the offender’s dark side. If this sounds more interesting than it is, it’s because The Finger, with its small town artificial charm and quaint soundtrack, comes off like an episode of Northern Exposure with a touch of magical realism, as the finger becomes a town oracle. As if that wasn’t precious enough, the filmakers insert a framework of storytelling, interrupting the narrative with present-day residents of the town looking back on those crazy times. What is it about Argentina that makes it prone to such self-conscious storytelling? The Finger is inoffensive, but its brand of whimsical fable is all quirk and little character, barely better than a sit-com. —Pat Padua
View the trailer.
Friday, April 13 at 8:30 pm; Saturday, April 14 at 8:30 pm at the Avalon. $11.
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Found Memories
Like The Finger, this Brazilian-Argentinian production revolves around a rural general store. But where The Finger uses this as the centerpiece of an arch sit-com, first time director Julia Murat observes character with the patience of Ozu. Beautifully shot in natural light (evening shots illumated only by gas lamp), Found Memories is about the beauty in waking up everyday, making coffee and bread, working and faith. —Pat Padua
View the trailer
Friday April 13 at 8:30 pm; Saturday April 14 at 7:00 pm. E Street Landmark
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Arrogant ectomorph Benno (Fabian Krüger) is an aspiring orchestra conductor who works at one of Zurich’s premier stamp collector‘s shops. One day his germophobic boss discovers strange residue on the stamp counter. To his horror, Benno discovers that sand is trickling from his body. But why? Shades of Beckett and Kafka give this nightmarish tale some potential but it’s washed away in whimsical music and a thoroughly unappealing lead whom you can’t wait to get his comeuppance.—Pat Padua
View the trailer.
Friday, April 13 at 9:15 pm; Saturday, April 14 at 5:00 pm at the Naval Heritage Center, 701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW. $11.
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Unfinished Spaces
If you need a metaphor for the Cuban revolution, Unfinished Spaces provides an excellent one: the country’s National School of Arts. Started during the heyday of the revolution, when just about anything seemed possible, the five iconic buildings that comprised Fidel Castro’s dream for the finest art school in the world were eventually abandoned as the Caribbean island moved closer to the Soviet Union. Like much else in Cuba, the school of art and the talented architects behind it saw the promise of the revolution travel from renaissance to repression; the country’s democratic decay was similarly echoed as the school’s buildings were left to be consumed by the elements.
But like with much in Cuba, there were fleeting attempts to save the school that speak to the larger struggles the island continues to face. At one point, a U.S.-based institute wanted to raise money to restore the buildings, but the six-decade-old embargo wouldn’t allow it. In 2003, Castro ordered that they be saved, but by 2009 funding had again been cut.
Unfinished Spaces finds a way to talk about Cuba—both its promise and its peril—without actually talking about Cuba. It’s a fine line for sure, but for a country as divisive as Cuba can be, one that is extremely hard to toe. In choosing a symbol like the National School of Art and the architects behind it, Unfinished Spaces explores the complexities and contradictions of the Caribbean island without falling into the usual traps of pro- and anti-Castro debate. It’s a commendable exercise—and one worth watching. —Martin Austermuhle
