The 43rd Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) is currently going on from April 11-25, with over 200 films screened. Here are some quick-bite reviews of a few of the films I have watched, with more to come soon.

Green Border

Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border is nothing short of ambitious, as it sees the revered Polish writer/director putting her native government through the wringer in the hopes of shining a light on the atrocities taking place on its eastern border. Split into several chapters, the majority of the film’s focus is on a Syrian migrant family as they start their journey to Sweden to start a new life with one of their distant relatives. Like thousands of other families, they are lured into Belarus under the government’s false advertisement of safe travel into the European Union. They are then harassed and extorted by border guards until being forcibly flung into Poland as part of a geopolitical war to destabilize the EU. Any hope of sympathy from the Polish forces quickly vanishes; replaced with more xenophobia, abuse, and forcible deportation back to Belarus.

Holland captures the brutality of this inhumane game of tug-and-war in stark black-and-white, the endless forest along the border being perpetually shrouded in darkness. There’s always a “one step forward, two steps back” attitude towards the plight of the family, with Holland never crossing over the line of torturing her characters for the sake of a message. The themes of inhumanity extend further into the other chapters, which eventually becomes a bit of a Pulp Fiction-esque story of intersecting storylines. One of those storylines features a young group of Polish activists who circumvent the law to aid the battered migrants, although their work never seems to be more than putting a metaphorical band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Although the feeling of hope rarely shines through in Holland’s material, a bit of it can be felt based on the anger it incites. It’s no surprise that for all the prizes (including the Special Jury Prize in Venice) and acclaim the film has received from Western audiences, it was heavily condemned and censored by the Polish government. Even if the film has been prevented from having its full impact at home, it at least still carries quite the universal punch abroad. (3.5/5)

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

You need to have serious guts (and a really trustworthy producer) to have your debut feature film run over three hours and feature little to none of the usual trappings audiences expect to keep them occupied in their seats. Vietnamese writer/director Phan Thien An has created a film of extraordinary uniqueness, aligning closely with the extreme slow cinema works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Béla Tarr. The plot is simple: A man’s sister-in-law dies in a motorcycle accident and he must escort his young nephew across the country to his estranged father. But the literal plot is something that An is least concerned with, instead focusing much of his attention on the spiritual ambiguity underlining every moment of our lives.

Every scene is comprised of a single take, all of them extraordinary feats of production on account of their length and complexity. Time is often at a standstill, with no one ever seeming to be in a rush or wanting to have a direct conversation. Your attitude towards this style will be determined quickly, most likely in your ability to stay awake. But even those who drift off from time to time will have their dreams permeated by images from the film. It’s part of the experience, a little piece of the film that sticks with you, something the large majority of other works fail to do.

Pham received the Camera d’Or prize for best first feature film at the Cannes Film Festival last year, where he premiered as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section. I have no doubt that it will be the first of many prizes he will receive at that festival, as their relationship seems to be a match made in heaven. (4/5)

Shoshana

Michael Winterbottom’s story of British Mandatory Palestine (specifically Tel Aviv) circa the 1930/1940s never knows exactly what side it wants to be on. It’s a film that wants to examine the British/Arab/Jewish conflict from all angles but always feels too scared to probe a little deeper for fear of angering viewers, which becomes most noticeable when the postscript reveals sentiments that the events of the film hardly supported.

Winterbottom has usually been a filmmaker who plays fast and loose (see 24 Hour Party People and Wonderland). Here he trades that all away for a polished procedural style, complete with bland archival footage and a tacky score by the usually reliable David Holmes. At the heart of this conflict are the star-crossed lovers of British police officer Tom Wilkin (Douglas Booth) and Zionist Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum). They try to stay neutral with their feelings, but the increasing violence and tension ultimately force them to choose a side. Both of the leads are quite capable in their roles, it’s just that they end up being swallowed by the uninteresting forces around them. (2.5/5)

Janet Planet

Playwright Annie Baker’s feature directorial debut is a work of quiet observation, both literally and metaphorically. The nature of rural Massachusetts is the film’s soundtrack: crickets, swaying trees, and the distant verve of a car passing by on the dirt road. Inside one of the secluded houses live Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and her 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler). Throughout the summer of 1991, three people enter their lives: the reserved Wayne, former friend Regina, and pseudo-intellectual Avi.

Baker captures the textures of an endless summer with ease, using a certain kind of slow cinema that’s mostly been found in cinema outside the Western hemisphere. While the argument behind the need for the theatrical experience has mostly been reserved for huge tentpoles filled with bombastic sound and visuals, Janet Planet makes just as much of a case to be seen in a dark room while barely registering over a whisper. The quiet rhythms and cinematography will surely not play as well at home, or in any multiplex with sound bleed. It’s one of those films I wished I could see alone in a screening room, just letting the vibes wash over me.

Zeigler is tremendous in her first-ever performance. She and Nicholson share great chemistry, always at the heart of the film even as sometimes spins its wheels. Baker’s film could be the little indie sensation of the summer if A24 gives it the proper push it deserves. (3.5/5)