I edited the thread heading to reflect more films at the festival I considered worth recommending, so...
I saw seventeen films in total, over a nine day period and, overal, the standard of the festival was extremely high. A few highlights:
Secret Museums - a Dutch documentary on private collections of erotica and how museums censor this material.
Moon - most people here have probably heard of this one. It's a British science fiction film about a man nearing the end of his tenure as the operator of a mining installation on the Moon who, while making some repairs, discovers himself. Literally. Very, very good. Directed by David Bowie's son Zowie Bowie (Duncan Jones).
The Horseman - an Australian film based off a short-film which was described as having the most realistic fight seen ever. I haven't seen the short-film, though I can testify that
The Horseman has at least two of the very best fight scenes you'll ever see in film. Made locally in Brisbane and in North Queensland. Don't ask me what the title has to do with anything, though. A tenion fuelled masterpiece.
Dead Snow - an absolutely brilliant zombie film from Norway about Nazi zombies preying off some holiday-goers. A strong contender for most entertaining zombie film ever. This one also did quite well at Cannes and, so I hear, the film-makers have been offered a deal from Hollywood to remake their Bond Uni grad film (Bond is a "university" in Brisbane) called
Hansel and Gretel Witch-hunters. Looking forward to it. Zombie Nazis in film are nothing necessarily new (though they are usually
underwater Nazi-zombies), though this has to be the very best by far. Funny, super-gory, and . . . well . . . who could say no to a film which includes undead Nazis as the villains?
Morphia - a Russian film by Alexey Balabanov. Last year I saw
Gruz 200 (
Cargo 200) at the fest, and that was a contender for best of the selection.
Morphia is almost as good. It's based off the writings of Mikhail Bulgakov (Soviet-era author), and concerns a young doctor sent to a frontier village in 1917. The revolution is only occassionally mentioned, though it forms the basis of the theme. The talented doctor descends into Morphine addiction, subtly providing a metaphor for the collapse of idealism in the Bolshevik Revolution. This film is bleak, funny, and shocking. First-rate.
The best of the festival for me would be
Van Dieman's Land . . . though it beats
Dead Snow by a very thin margin.
