See Beyond the Cancellation of CIFF44
Due to the cancellation of CIFF44, this post will share the twelve films I planned to see with my media accreditation and volunteer passes. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t get to blog about them after viewing them at the festival, so this is the next-best thing. World War II is represented in a few of the films, which are mainly family dramas.
The organizers of the 44th annual Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF44) faced a devastating reality just two weeks before the 2020 event. The Corona virus, the pandemic sweeping the world, obliterated the blood, sweat, and tears that went into training volunteers, arranging schedules, securing filmmakers, working with the venue, and executing every other detail that goes into planning the 12-day event.
According to the program guide, the theme this year was SEE BEYOND, a “nod to exploring new and different places, people, issues, and ideas.” The schedule consisted of 207 feature films and 227 short films from more than 80 countries, challenging audiences to “see beyond where we don’t usually look and to see beyond what appears on the screen.”
It was to be my first time at the festival. I was honored to receive media credentials and I also signed up as a volunteer. With my six media passes and the passes earned through volunteering, I would likely have viewed 12 films during the last five days of the event. I painstakingly plotted the films that interested me on the schedule and fretted about the overlaps. On the same day I made my hotel reservations, I learned that the event had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. Although I was disappointed, my let down most definitely can’t compare with that of the organizers and the 400 filmmakers who were expected to attend.
I hope I get the chance to view many of the movies that were on the schedule in the near future. There’s a good chance they’ll show up on DVD Netflix, because its massive library is ripe with mainstream, independent, and foreign films. For now, I’ll share a dozen movies that interested me most. Which one sounds the most interesting to you?
(Canada, Vietnam)
After her adopted daughter dies, Isabelle travels to Vietnam and finds the girl’s birth mother, a French-speaking tour guide. Isabelle books a two-week tour through the countryside, concealing her identity in order to experience her daughter’s homeland through the birth mother’s eyes.
(Morocco/France)
Samia is a pariah because she’s pregnant and not married. She cannot find work, nor a place to sleep, until a widowed baker takes her in. Samia becomes both an asset and a conduit to healing for the baker. What will happen after the baby is born? Adam was Morocco’s official submission to the Oscars.
(Russia)
Set at the end of World War II, Iya, also known as Beanpole because of her height, is a nurse who cared for injured soldiers. Suffering from debilitating PTSD, she causes the death of a young boy, making her life even more of a nightmare. When she reconnects with a comrade from the war, she begins to heal and rebuild her life.
(Belgium/Netherlands)
Wearing too many hats, this veterinarian/wife/mother keeps everything together well enough until she’s hit with a major health crisis. It seems as if everything is going wrong at once, and the shakeup causes her to reevaluate the condition of her marriage and direction of her life.
The Crossing (Flukten over Grensen)
(Norway)
Ten-year-old Gerda lives in a world of imagination until her parents are arrested by the Nazis for harboring Jewish children. In order to survive, Gerda and her brother, Otto, must help the two Jewish children get to neutral Switzerland. The four children encounter many dangerous situations as they cross the Norwegian wilderness.
(Iceland, Ireland, USA)
A woman dies and her wish is to have her ashes scattered over a remote lake in Ireland. Her husband and son are estranged, but they are determined to grant her final wish. The two men set off on a trip from Iceland to Ireland with the understanding that afterward, they never have to see each other again.
(USA)
Starring Casey Affleck and Dakota Johnson, The Friend examines how cancer causes complete upheaval in a family and how true friendship helps keep everything from falling apart. The young parents are lucky to have a friend who gives up everything to be there and stay there, even after everyone else drifts away.
(Slovenia, North Macedonia, Serbia)
Irena and Neža are half-sisters who hardly know each other, but harbor plenty of resentment. Irena’s father left her mother for Neža’s mother many years ago. When life circumstances put them both in the same town, they decide to live together to save money. They must learn to set aside old grudges and to trust each other, especially after they are faced with new life challenges.
(Norway, Sweden)
Anja and Tomas are a long-time couple that has grown apart over the years. When Anja receives a terminal diagnosis, they must somehow get through the holidays with their combined five children before a risky surgery that could give them some more time together. The situation puts strain on the couple’s relationship, but it also gives them a chance to rediscover each other.
USA, Poland)
At the height of WWII, 13-year-old Sara leaves her Jewish family behind and escapes Nazi-occupied Poland. After a long journey, she takes a job as a maid with a Christian couple in Ukraine, convincing them that she is Christian too, through her knowledge of their prayers. When the Nazis come to town, Sara must hide her identity or perish. Based on a true story.
(France)
Newlyweds and new parents, Adam and Anna decide to spend their honeymoon in their ancestral home of Poland. Making the shift from Paris to Poland is not easy, though, and they feel like fish out of water. The purpose of the trip was to grow closer to each other through their shared heritage, but conflicting goals for the trip soon come to light.
(Hungary)
Set in post-WWII Hungary, a con man makes a living by promising to find missing loved ones, until he tries to put one over on a detective and he must flee Budapest. In the forest, he meets a woman and her son who reluctantly give him shelter. A romance develops between the man and the woman—giving the man a chance to redeem himself.
Disclaimer: I am a DVD Netflix director, which earns me rewards but does not influence my opinions on movies. DVD Netflix has hundreds of thousands of movies to choose from, many that you won’t find on streaming services.
Leave a Reply