Don't miss flicks at JIFFest

For a movie buff, an event like the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest) is like a beautiful oasis in the middle of the arid wasteland of Hollywood blockbusters. But with so many films at the festival it can be confusing choosing what you want to see.

To help you, here are two excellent films showing at JIFFest that most people probably have never heard of.

City of God

The movie opens with a chicken trying to escape his fate in the frying pan. It is chased by a bunch of gun-wielding gangsters. With fast-beat editing the film maintains its pace to the end, and the audience is never allowed to blink or they will miss something.

City of God is a slum area in Rio de Janeiro that no tourists will ever see. Still, Brazilian director Meirelles manages to turn the dirty slum into a beautiful cinematographic experience. The gritty earth-colored area is turned into flashy yellow walls, blue-tinted doors and filled with colorful characters.

Based on a true story, this chronicle of two decades of gang warfare and fast living is rich with overpowering figures. At the same time it's horrific to realize that this story is happening in real life, and even more shocking to know that most of the criminals are really only children.

One of the main characters got his start in the gangs at the age of 10. Prepare yourself for loads of violence. The innovative camera work and the playful colors and angles help to take some of the edge off the violence.

The story is narrated by a young photographer called Rocket. He grew up in the City of God but refused to become involved in gangs and drugs. He is an observer, a neutral figure between the different gangs that are at war.

The director employs a neat literary structure (breaking the action down into narrated short stories) to show the rather horrific transformation of the ghetto's children from innocents to criminals.

The movie also does well hinting at the corruption of a society that allows its poor and abandoned children to wreak such havoc, while at best ignoring and at worst exploiting the situation for their own profit.

In the end, the director succeeds in telling a grim, nightmarish story with glossy, rich visuals.

City Of God will be screened on Nov. 2 at 9:45 p.m. at Plaza Senayan 21, and on Nov. 3 at 9 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut.

Millennium Mambo

For those unfamiliar with director Hou Hsiao-hsien please be patient, for this director is never in a rush while telling a story. He takes his time to set the mood of the film, as slowly as possible. The slow-motion opening scene sets the mood for the film.

This is the story of Vicky (Shu Qi), who is trying to set herself free from her obsessive and jealous boyfriend Hao Hao. Vicky and Hao Hao are from two completely different worlds and they don't understand much about each other.

They are suffocating and mentally torturing each other in the name of love. In the end, Vicky seeks refuge under the comfortable and protective wings of two Japanese brothers.

Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien successfully captures the essence of being young and growing up in the city without being pretentious. He wants to show that loneliness and emptiness are unavoidable in big cities. Set in the bars, clubs and dingy apartments of contemporary Taipei, the camera work fills us with pop colors throughout the film.

Hou cleverly softens the harshness of the reality being shown by pumping techno music into the background, and making every image glow and hum like neon to soothe the eyes of the audience.

Millennium Mambo will be screened on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut.

--John Badalu