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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
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Locarno Says Farewell to David Lynch With Tribute Film ‘An Unfinished Room…'
The dream world of David Lynch was back on a big outdoor screen in Switzerland, at least for a few minutes, on Wednesday evening, namely in the form of a short film entitled An Unfinished Room… The Locarno Film Festival presented the emotional, heartfelt and surprise tribute and farewell to the cinema legend on the opening night of its 78th edition on Wednesday, courtesy of Lynch mentee Duwayne Dunham, who has worked as a director (Twin Peaks: The Return) and editor (Twin Peaks, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart), and collaborators. Before the Locarno 2025 opening film unspooled, artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro set up the surprise homage without mentioning Lynch by name, saying the tribute was in memory of a creative who 'left an indelible mark' on cinema. 'He touched all our souls, he touched all our emotion,' Nazarro continued. 'His contribution to beauty, dreams, and art will never be forgotten. And tonight, we celebrate him with this tiny, wonderful masterpiece, An Unfinished Room…' More from The Hollywood Reporter Golshifteh Farahani Gets Locarno Honor From Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Calls Cinema a "Refuge" in a "Dark World" Gaumont Marks 130 Years With Academy Museum Retrospective Neon Nabs Japanese Video Game Movie Adaptation 'Exit 8' With excitement on Locarno's Piazza Grande square palpable, the movie then started on the big screen. The film featured words spoken by Lynch, discussing such things as his painting and film work and more, as well as scenes from such Lynch favorites as Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, and The Elephant Man, along with What Did Jack Do? It also included footage of Lynch painting and making music. The film was edited by Dunham, with its creative producers' credits listing Dunham, S.E. Feinberg, and David Negron. When the Twin Peaks theme started playing near the end of the short film, and the words 'David Lynch 1946-2025' showed up on the dark screen, the Locarno festival audience burst into enthusiastic applause. Dunham is also in Locarno to world premiere his Legend of the Happy Worker, 'a fable for our time,' starring Josh Whitehouse, Thomas Haden Church, and Colm Meaney out of competition. The director and some of his actors and creative team were shown on the big Locarno outdoor screen on the Wednesday opening night as they were arriving and walking the red carpet. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 25 Best U.S. Film Schools in 2025 The 40 Greatest Needle Drops in Film History The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Israel, Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Korea: Political and Dystopian Films in the Locarno Spotlight
The Locarno Film Festival is known for presenting the latest art-house movie discoveries, and isn't afraid to push some buttons in the process. As such, its 78th edition will present 'cinema that unfolds while the world is undergoing violent upheavals, while we witness — in real time — horrors that we had only read about in history books or studied in archival footage,' as artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro put it in unveiling this year's lineup. More from The Hollywood Reporter Writer Steven Knight Teases His Plans for Amazon's James Bond: "Better, Stronger and Bolder" British Tough Guy Ray Winstone to Receive Sarajevo Festival Award Gus Van Sant to Receive Venice Fest's Passion for Film Award Indeed, political movies or ones likely to cause political debate or are a prominent part of the Locarno78 program. Audiences will find dystopian films, documentaries, and experimental fare that is likely to be cause for reflection. Israel, Gaza and Lebanon are among the places represented on Locarno screens. The two Koreas, Iraq's nuclear ambitions, and climate change are also being dissected cinematically in the various sections of the fest. Kicking off the fest on Wednesday is Tamara Stepanyan's In the Land of Arto, starring Camille Cottin and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, which dives into Armenia and the war traumas its people deal with. Iranian dissident auteur Jafar Panahi's Cannes winner It Was Just an Accident also dissects trauma — and vengeance. Plus, fans of Romanian provocateur Radu Jude can expect his Dracula to ruffle some feathers. Here is THR's look at some of the other Locarno 2025 feature-length films with political or dystopian undertones. Tales of the Wounded LandDirector: Abbas FahdelCountry of production: LebanonFestival section: International Competition 'Intimate chronicles of the war that devastated southern Lebanon for a year and a half, this film captures the everyday lives of those left behind in the scorched land, as a wounded community struggles to rebuild and find a semblance of peace.' The description for this documentary hints at such themes as loss, displacement and the attempt to preserve dignity amid destruction. Explains Fahdel in a director's statement: 'My film was born from the need to bear witness to a war that shattered our lives and homes, and to show how, despite everything, resilience and humanity continue to flourish amid the ruins.' Some Notes on the Current SituationDirector: Eran KolirinCountry of production: IsraelFestival section: Out of Competition 'A philosophical tragicomedy about space, time, cinema and wars, composed of six episodes, all together forming an absurdist footnote.' This is how Israeli filmmaker Kolirin's new movie is described. Starring third-year acting students, Kolirin (The Band's Visit, Let It Be Morning) tells seemingly absurd stories to offer reflections on Israel amid the conflict in Gaza. Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, who lauds Kolirin as 'an extremely outspoken' filmmaker, highlights: 'That is not a film about Gaza. It's really a film about the Israeli and Jewish Zionist identity. … And it's terribly prophetic in a way.' With Hasan in GazaDirector: Kamal AljafariCountries of production: Palestine, Germany, France, QatarFestival section: International Competition 'This is my first film, which I have never made,' Palestinian filmmaker Aljafari (A Fidai Film, Recollection) says about his new, but also old, movie. And he calls it 'an homage to Gaza and its people, to all that was erased and that came back to me in this urgent moment of Palestinian existence, or non-existence. It is a film about the catastrophe, and the poetry that resists.' A synopsis explains that three Mini-DV tapes of 'life in Gaza from 2001 were recently rediscovered.' What started as a search for a former prison mate from 1989 has become a documentary about an unexpected journey through the Gaza Strip, accompanied by local guide Hasan. A trailer for the film has just been released. Nazzaro told THR: 'It's a film that was supposed to be Kamal Aljafari's first film, when he was looking for a friend in Gaza, around the early years of the 2000s, when the so-called largest open-air prison in the world was creating the preconditions of the unspeakable tragedy that we are witnessing today. And the reason why we picked that film as programmers was that we see a filmmaker who, while he thinks he's making something, he's actually creating his very own archive of himself, his family, his land, his homeland, and so on.'The FinDirector: Syeyoung ParkCountries of production: South Korea, Germany, QatarFestival section: Filmmakers of the Present If you like dystopian genre films or love exploring young South Korean voices, The Fin could be for you. Here's what to expect: In a post-war, ecologically devastated unified Korea, mutated outcasts called Omegas are exploited as cheap labor. A newly recruited government worker becomes suspicious of an Omega, but then begins to question her once unshakable faith in the state's ideology. Korean singer Pureum Kim and Pachinko actress Yeji Yeon star in the movie, which 'explores the contagion of fear and the making of myths,' as its young filmmaker explains. The DealDirector: Jean-Stéphane BronCountries of production: Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, BelgiumFestival section: Out of Competition Bron is pulling double duty in Locarno's 2025 out-of-competition lineup. His Le Chantier, about the renovation of a legendary cinema, led by architect Renzo Piano, 'paints a portrait of a miniature society,' a synopsis says. In contrast, The Deal is a geopolitical drama series that takes viewers behind the scenes of the 2015 nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in Switzerland. It has already won Series Mania's first annual Buyers Choice Award. Starring Veerle Baetens, Juliet Stevenson, Arash Marandi, Anthony Azizi, Fenella Woolgar, and Alexander Behrang Keshtkar, the series not only sounds West Wing-y but also feels particularly timely again. Mare's NestDirector: Ben RiversCountries of production: United Kingdom, France, CanadaFestival section: International Competition English filmmaker Rivers has made a name for himself with documentaries. In his latest, Bogancloch, he revisited a Scottish hermit. At Locarno, he is premiering a dystopian hybrid film, starring Moon Guo Barker and inspired by the impact of COVID-19 on children and Don DeLillo's climate change play The Word for Snow. It sees a young girl traveling through a mysterious world free of adults. 'I wanted to create a world of kids with underlying uncertainty, echoing global anxieties, while somehow also being hopeful,' Rivers says in a director's note. 'I didn't want any relation to the adult world, and no explanation as to why.'Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Greatest Needle Drops in Film History The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best Solve the daily Crossword
