SESI MINI KATA/ Silent Films

Tuvalu / Veit Helmer/ 100 menit / Color / Jerman
Tuvalu merupakan nama sebuah tempat dimana semua impian dapat diwujudkan dengan mudah. Denis Lavant, anak dari pemilik kolam renang, sedang dirundung masalah. Kolam renang yang dikelolanya sedang dirundung masalah yang besar. Sudah setahun belakangan tidak banyak lagi pengunjung. Akhirnya dia memutuskan untuk memperbaiki keadaannya yang sudah demikian parah.

Tuvalu is the name of an island which the protagagonists dream of escaping to - a dream which seems to be unlikely to come true, given that they are marooned in a dilapidated and largely deserted swimming pool. Denis Lavant (Les Amants du Pont Neuf) plays the downtrodden younger son of the pool's proprietor, and he is at pains to preserve the illusion that this astonishing wreck of a building is still a prospering enterprise. In fact there are almost no swimmers, and those who do come pay in buttons, literally. Meantime, his unscrupulous older brother is trying to bring final ruin to the business, so that the building can be demolished and the site developed.

Director Veit Helmer has established a strong reputation on the strength of his idiosyncratic short films (Surprise!, Tour Eiffel) and his debut feature shares some of their winning characteristics. It is largely without dialogue, and the few words which are spoken are in a variety of languages. If this makes the film sound spartan, quite the reverse is true. The expressive physicality of the performances is hugely effective and often very funny (particularly on the subject of technology = progress). There is comedy, emotion and romance abundance and, above all else, a genuinely distinctive visual style, employed to brilliant effect.

Verboden Te Zuchten/ Alex Stockman / 98 menit / Color / Belgia - Belanda
Jons seorang pengangguran dan yang merasa kecewa akibat ditinggal kekasihnya. Buster Keaton pegawai pos memasuki kawasan Brussels melalui jaur kereta api. Mereka datang untuk meninggalkan kota dan kehidupannya yang kacau. Di menit terakhir, dia menyadari bahwa Brussel adalah kota yang ruwet. Ia lalu menulis surat kepada temannya, memberitahu bahwa dia menikmati waktunya di Algrove. Dalam pelarian itu dia menginap di sebuah hotel. Suatu ketika dia bertemu dengan seorang gadis di sebuah klinik. Lewat perkenalan singkat ini mereka menjadi akrab dan berencana menjajaki hubungan yang lebih serius. Namun sang gadis justru sulit diduga keinginannya sehingga hubungannya menjadi tidak jelas. Gadis tersebut bekerja sebagai penari erotis di sebuah pub malam.

Brussels, 1999. Joris (26) is alone again after his first love affair comes to end. He has decided to exchange "the city of his life", for sunnier climes. However, a premonition prevents him from making his way to the station. He turns back on his tracks and temporarily moves into an old hotel. He stays there for four days and nights, gripped by the city, in a twilight zone between remembering and forgetting, between dreaming and waking
This is the modest, charming sketch of a young man who briefly has no idea how to proceed in life. It is an atmospheric black and white film, that is also a homage to the unique city of Brussels, with its strange mixture of languages and styles.

Alex Stockman (1962, Hasselt) works for the well-known Flemish magazine Humo. He produced reports for BRT TV and directed several short films. This is his feature film debut.

Filmy/Films - 1994: Violette (kr./sh.); 1996: In de Vlucht/Story of a Hurried Young Man (kr./sh.); 2000: Verboden te zuchten