57th TIFF: “2 or 3 Things I Know about Her” Tribute

PRESS RELEASE
57th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November 3-13, 2016
 
“2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER” TRIBUTE"
 
What do we know about women? Many things or, perhaps, nothing at all. After all, the roles of women have always been multiple, not only in real life, but also in cinema. The 57th Thessaloniki International Film Festival attempts to approach these roles with a special tribute titled “2 or 3 Things I Know about Her”, inspired by the famous film by Jean-Luc Godard.
 
The tribute presents 5 films directed by women filmmakers, featuring themes that concern and involve women, but reach to all audiences. Five stories with women heroines at their centre. Five “women’s films” then? We might agree if someone could explain what exactly that means. So then why a separate segment? Because, if you will, the only way to find out that the word “women’s” doesn’t have any special meaning as an adjective before the word ‘cinema’, is to try and examine how such an idea can be applied to specific examples. And because, as Jane Campion once said, women “represent half of the population – and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are not going to know the whole story”.
 
The Films:
- Don’t Call Me Son by Anna Muylaert
Cross-dressing teenager Pierre discovers that he was stolen at birth, together with his younger sister. Now, his biological parents try hard to make up for the lost time. Which is the “right” and which is the “wrong” family? A sober drama about the mechanics of love, family, motherhood, gender and being human (Teddy Award, Berlin Film Festival).
 
- Mother by Kadri Kousaar
This darkly comic crime mystery set in small-town Estonia centres on Elsa, the full-time caretaker of her comatose son, Lauri, and the locals, who are abuzz with rumours about who shot Lauri and why. But in this tight-knit town, where everyone seems to know everyone and everything except for what’s right under their nose, the world’s clumsiest crime may go unsolved.
 
- Certain Women by Kelly Reichardt
The lives of three women –a lawyer, a mother and a law student- intersect in Montana, USA, revealing a portrait of contemporary America, through the female eyes. A triptych of powerful independent women, played by three great actresses; Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart.
 
- Layla M. by Mijke de Jong
An 18-year-old Muslim girl born and raised in Amsterdam, chooses to abandon her family and the western lifestyle, to follow her own path, guided by her faith. She secretly gets married, but soon finds herself among jihadists; an idealist heroine crushed by her own beliefs and frustrations.    
 
- By the Time It Gets Dark by Anocha Suwichakornpong
A film director and her muse, who was a student activist in the 1970s, a waitress who keeps changing jobs, an actor and an actress, all live loosely connected to each other by almost invisible threads. The narrative sheds its skin several times to reveal layer upon layer of the complexities that make up the characters’ lives, showcasing the present and past of Thailand.
 
The tribute (free admission) is financed by the Operational Program “Public Administration Reform” and co-funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) and national funds.