Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

This week I’m looking at three new movies: a historical drama, a sex comedy and a thriller/horror. There are four filmmakers facing censorship in Yugoslavia, two sexually frustrated moms in Montreal, and a pair of siblings in Australia who find themselves in a very strange foster home.

Beautiful Evening,  Beautiful Day

Wri/Dir: Ivona Juka

It’s 1957 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, where a group of filmmakers are shooting a drama. Lovro (Dado Ćosić) its director and Nenad (Đorđe Galić) its writer are both national heroes. While still university students, they led a revolt against the Nazis and Ustashe, the Croation Fascist Party and later joined the resistance. As did Stevan (Slaven Došlo), their cinematographer. But the government doesn’t like their movie; it’s not patriotic enough. So they send in an apparatchik named Emir (Emir Hadžihafizbegović) who specializes in propaganda. Emir is there to “fix” the movie, with a new storyline, dialogue and actors. But also to catch and punish filmmakers who aren’t towing the party line. Tito’s Yugoslavia, though a “non-aligned” country, is warming up toward the post-Stalinist Soviet government. And is also conducting a crackdown on dissidents and undesirables in the arts. In particular, homosexuals. And this includes long time lovers Lovro and Nenad, Stevan and other gay men working on the film, all of whom had risked their lives as anti-fascist partisans in the past.

The filmmakers are interrogated, bribed, threatened, and even tortured when asked to name names… but production continues. Emir treats it all like just another job… until, four of the men he’s spying on save his life. Now Emir faces a dilemma: follow the rules or his own conscience. Can the lovers stay together? Will they finish their film? Or will the administration gather enough evidence to convict them of the serious crime of being gay and sentence them to a penal colony? 

Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day is a powerful drama about a group of gay men in 1950s Yugoslavia, and the harsh persecution they faced for their sexuality. It’s both tender and brutal, with touching scenes and horrific violence. Although the story is fiction, it’s based on director Ivona Juka’s own research she did for her PhD dissertation. Gay men did play an important role in the resistance, and hundreds were later imprisoned and tortured by the government. 

The film boasts excellent acting and stunning B&W cinematography by Dragan Ruljančić. It sheds light on a topic which until now has been virtually non-existent in Yugoslavian cinema. This is an excellent indie movie that deserves to be seen.

Two Women (Deux Femmes en Or)

Dir: Chloé Robichaud

It’s wintertime in Montreal. Florence and Violette (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Laurence Leboeuf) are next door neighbours in a housing coop. They can be seen gazing longingly out their windows. Florence, a translator, has a 10 year old son with her common law husband David (Mani Soleymanlou). Vivi is on maternity leave taking care of their new baby daughter, while her husband Benoit (French actor Félix Moati) is on the road. He makes a good salary in pharma sales (and is having a secret affair with a younger woman he works with). But Vivi is losing sleep over a sound she keeps hearing: a Caaaw, Caaaw, Caaaw coming through her walls. Is it a crow? A crying baby? Or, the most likely reason, it’s her neighbour Florence loudly performing her orgasms through the thin apartment walls. She casually brings it up to her, but there the penny drops: Florence admits she hasn’t had sex for many years. It can’t be her; she’s on anti-depressants which totally destroyed her sex drive. But why should both their lives be so miserable?

They decide it’s time to have fun. Florence goes off her meds, and the two of them start hanging out in bars. They’re also viewing men differently than they used to. The exterminator, the cable guy, the housecleaner, the window washer, the linesman… why should these neglected moms pass on all these potential sexual adventures? But how would their husbands react to sudden changes in their wives’ behaviour? And what will happen to their marriages?

Two Women is a delightful, bittersweet comedy about a pair of sexually frustrated mothers in Montréal and how they deal with their non-functional marriages. It’s sexy, silly, satirical and savvy. The main characters are as likely to be seen seducing a plumber, as quoting Simone de Beauvoir or discussing the ramifications of the #Metoo movement on Facebook. 

Count on Québec to thumb its nose at sexual prudishness in mainstream North America, meaning lots of casual full frontal nudity (as well as from every other conceivable angle). Now apparently this is a remake of Claude Fournier’s hit film from 1970 starring Monique Mercure. I’ve never seen the original but let me tell you, Two Women is a great one all on it’s own. Loved it.

Bring Her Back

Co-Wri/Dir: Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to me)

It’s a normal day in Australia. Andy (Billy Barratt) is Piper’s (Sora Wong) step-brother; a few years older, but they share the same Dad. Piper is visually impaired but doesn’t use a white cane — she doesn’t like people staring at her. She’s funny and self-confident, but  Andy still keeps an eye out on her at school; some kids can be cruel. But their lives are torn apart that day when they discover their father dead in the shower.

They’re immediately sent to child services, who attempt to send them to separate places —  Andy has a juvenile record —  but they insist on remaining together; he’s basically Piper’s caregiver. In the end the social worker sends them off to stay with a kindly foster mom until she can find them a permanent home. The house is cluttered and shabby, with a drained swimming pool in the back and a padlocked toolshed. Laura (Sally Hawkins) is funny, wacky, and more than a bit eccentric. She’s overjoyed to have them there since her husband’s gone, and her daughter — who was blind like Piper — is dead. She’s quick to introduce them to her favourite dog — but he’s stuffed! Taxidermy.  And then there’s her son Oliver, a little boy with a shaved head and a vacant look on his face. He seems innocent… until he catches their cat and starts to eat it, alive!

He’s been a bit off since their accident, Laura says. Piper really likes her, so Andy tries not to interfere. But bad things start to happen. Andy is wetting his bed at night —  he hasn’t done that since he was a little kid, and Laura is whispering stuff to Piper all the time, turning her against him. He knows there’s something really wrong here, but he can’t figure out what it is. Why is there a chalk circle around the house? Why is Oliver acting so strange? And what’s in that shed? But when he discovers the truth… is it too late?

Bring Her Back is a relentlessly terrifying horror movie about a frightened teenaged boy and his innocent step-sister. It’s every kid’s nightmare — trapped in a potentially dangerous place, ignored by authorities, and gaslit by a foster mom who is supposed to be on their side. The movie starts with a cold open, a  horrific, found-footage VHS snuff film, that remains unexplained for much off the film. Frustrating and terrifying, this movie keeps you on tenterhooks till the end. The Phillipou brothers (identical twins) weave a contemporary fairytale as scary as the Brothers Grimm. Great acting, beautifully made, but quite difficult to watch.

Bring her Back is brilliant horror like you seldom see. 

Two Women (which premiered at Inside Out), Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day, and Bring Her Back all open in Toronto this weekend; check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.