Afterwards I was confused. I never read the introduction in the program. Which probably would have added more confusion as they we’re both filed under “Masters” and “Festival Favorites”.

First, Like You Know It All, a Korean movie. I’ve seen only good Korean films during the past festivals. Tough, hard, but always good. Ironically this was about a film director who was chosen to judge at a film festival. For the first 30 minutes I thought that I probably have very limited understanding of Korean culture because people acted rude, unnatural and irrational. I started to get annoyed with all the characters. And the script (or translation) was awful making the lead role say nothing but “Really? Thanks.” For about one hour.

And that’s when I looked at my buddy Mathias for support. He whispered: “I’ve never left a movie before. But I think I have to.” Mathias is a very polite and smart guy. If he didn’t understand it either AND wanted to get out of there I truly trusted his instincts.

We laughed all the way out of the little movie theatre and wondered “What the heck was that?!“. Later I found out that we could have suffered for one more hour had we stayed.

And now to the most confusing movie all times.

About Elly. Four shows - completely sold out. Iran’s contribution to the Oscars. Won prices at Berlin Film Festival. It looked pretty good.

Reality? Two hours of excruciating boredom completely liberated from intensity, drama, depth, and intrigue, which, reading afterwards, the introduction had promised. And no music, just two hours of women half crying, half complaining, men yelling and the waves of the sea to accompany that.

Irans Oscar contribution. What did I not get?

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