Tiff 2019

2019 TIFF Film Review: MARIA’S PARADISE (Marian paratiisi)(Finland/Estonia 2019) ****

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Tiff 2019, TIFF 2019 Movie Reviews, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,
Maria's Paradise Poster
The orphan Salome is the servant and devout follower of Maria Åkerblom, a charismatic sect leader. But as Salome befriends a rebellious outsider and starts to have doubts, Maria turns dangerous.

Director:

Zaida Bergroth

Writers:

Jan Forsström, Anna Viitala

Stars:

Pihla Viitala, Tommi Korpela, Elina Knihtilä

Forget Avi Aster’s Scandinavian religious sect horror MIDSOMMAR.  MARIA’S PARADISE is the real thing – based on the real events that took place with a religious sect in Finland in the 1920’s.  Where Aster has instilled his odd humour and imprint on MIDSOMMAR making it more terrifying but less believable, director Bergroth lets the real horror as seen by one of the sect members reflect the terror without resorting to any theatrics.  

Salome, a teenage follower begins to question the teachings (and actions) of the fringe religious sect in which she has been raised.  Salome eventually discovers that her mother was murdered by the sect and that she is being led into the same dilemma by the cult’s leader, Maria.  When Salome leans that her best friend is also murdered, she decides to take matters in her own hands with an escape plan.  Director Bergroth has her own style and it is one that underscores the credibility of the events. 

 The film is slow moving but the horror unfolding is even more lasting.  Chilling and captivating!  Shot in Finnish.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smFtoYp5QUo

2019 TIFF Film Review: LA GOMERA (THE WHISTLERS) (Romania/Germany/France 2019) ***** Top 10 Film

festreviews 2019 Movies, Tiff 2019, TIFF 2019 Movie Reviews, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,
The Whistlers Poster
A policeman intent on freeing a crooked businessman from a prison on Gomera, an island in the Canaries. However, he must first learn the difficult local dialect, a language which includes hissing and spitting.

Director:

Corneliu Porumboiu

Writer:

Corneliu Porumboiu

Stars:

Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar |

The foreign title of the film is the name of a Canary island – LA GOMERA.  The English title THE WHISTLERS refers to the people that speak the land’s native tongue, a language totally formed out of whistling – a whistling language called El Silbo Gomera.   

Crooked cop Cristi (Vlad Ivanov) learns to speak this language from his Spanish-speaking Mafioso ‘friends’ so that he can communicate with them without the knowledge of the cops who has every place under surveillance including Cristi’s home.  The story unfolds in 8 chapters each one named after a character in the story.  For such a serious theme on the Mafioso, director Corneliu Porumboiu is unafraid to inject his brand of humour.  Porumboius’s film is full of similar surprises.  

Besides the nod to Hitchcock’s PSYCHO shower scene, director Porumboiu brilliantly places a clip from John Ford’s THE SEARCHES that includes a scene where a whistle signal is made in a crucial moment.  It is the attention to detail and the outrageous plot unfolding in absolutely dead seriousness with style and wit that makes Porumboiu’s film so deliciously wicked and entertaining.  

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRFK2i0FklI