Two big foreign films open this weekend in New Orleans – Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey and the Oscar-nominated Bullhead. Both were nominated for major American awards – Golden Globe (Blood & Honey) and Oscar (Bullhead) – but ultimately lost to Iran’s A Separation, which is also currently playing in NOLA at The Theatres at Canal Place.
First up is In the Land of Blood and Honey, a love story set against the background of the Bosnian War that tore the Balkan region apart in the 1990s.
The film is set in 1990s Sarajevo against, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in the camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed. Although they attempt to rekindle their connection, the pressures of war threaten their once promising love.
Watch the trailer for the film posted in the VIDEO box on the left side of the article.
In the Land of Blood and Honey marks the directorial debut of Angelina Jolie, who also wrote the screenplay using her vast political connections to craft an accurate story and setting. The film stars Goran Kostic, Zana Marjanovic, and Rade Serbedzija.
Though the film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, it has received mostly mixed reviews. Praise has lauded upon Jolie for attention to detail and surprisingly skilled direction. Plus, the film has one of the year’s best promotional posters.
This weekend at Chalmette Movies, In the Land of Blood and Honey opens Friday, March 16, playing daily at 2:00 and 7:00 pm.
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Next up is Bullhead, a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption, and fate.
The domineering young Limburg (Belgian) cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille, constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef trader. But the assassination of a federal policeman, and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky's past, set in motion a chain of events with far-reaching consequences.
Bullhead is a visceral tragedy about fate, lost innocence, and friendship, about crime and punishment, but also about conflicting desires and the irreversibility of a man's destiny.
Watch the trailer for the film posted in the VIDEO box on the left side of the article.
The film is directed by Michael R. Roskam, in his feature film debut, and stars Matthias Schoenaerts in a truly career-making performance. Schoenaerts also starred in the 2008 Belgian film Loft and its American remake due out later this year.
Bullhead premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and made its American debut as Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX, where it was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films. The film was then nominated for an Academy Award this year in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
Bullhead opens locally this weekend at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center starting Friday, March 16 through Tuesday, March 20 at 6:30 pm and then again Friday, March 23 – Wednesday, March 28 at 8:00 pm.
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Also this week at Zeitgeist, visiting Canadian filmmakers Ryan Stec & Veronique Couillard and curator/producer Christopher Rohde present Public Domain, a program of six films from seven media artists commissioned to create new video works from public domain materials in the film/video/audio collection at Library and Archives Canada.
Bringing critical perspectives to bear on their found materials, the artists mine the nature of the image for its visual, narrative, mnemonic and evocative potential. While some of the resulting videos highlight the fragility and disappearance of images, others focus on their renaissance through re-contextualization.
Public Domain will screen Thursday & Friday, March 15 & 16 at 8:30 pm.
On top of that, Tomboy, a French film that premiered at Zeitgeist last Friday, has been held over for another week of shows.
A 10-year-old girl, settling into her new neighborhood outside Paris, is mistaken for a boy and has to live up to this new identity since it's too late for the mistake to be clarified.
It focuses in on the significance of gender identity in social interaction from an early age, the difficulties of being transgender and young, and how we navigate these in the background of childhood play and love.
Tomboy will now show at Zeitgeist from Saturday, March 17 – Tuesday, March 20 at 8:45 pm.
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