A little over two weeks ago the European focused Europa! Europa! Film Festival came to a close for it’s fourth year. This year they had a handful of films which were selected by their countries as Oscar entries, a few films which have been generating buzz overseas, some films that will be entirely new to us and finally a retrospective on Francios Truffauat.
Below are the films that I got the chance to see at the festival;
Julie Keeps Quiet
Julie Keeps Quiet, the headliner of the festival is a subtle, pathos filled film. One which traps us in the cold isolated world of a teenage girl dealing with trauma, letting us in on the pain and terror which constantly invades this young girl’s life. Thankfully nothing is shown nor is it really explicitly said, instead through careful and intriguing filmmaking you experience the dread and nausea inducing aftershocks alongside this quiet fragile young girl fighting to not fall apart.
Waves
The Czech Republic’s Oscar selection for 2025 and the 2nd highest grossing Czech film ever Waves follows a group of journalists in 1969 who are fighting for free speech in Soviet controlled Czechoslovakia. This film is a solid, simply made thriller that is never bad but also never really goes beyond just good. It’s an easy watch focusing on a very important historical moment, subject matter which often outshines the actual filmmaking which attempts to depict it. The characters never truly feel whole, most of their important moments being no more than a plot rather than actual exploration of their feelings. The thriller aspect is good especially in the second half but it fails to raise the level of importance that the subject matter needs. A solid and gripping watch that should have been more special.
They Will be Dust
They Will be Dust centers around an older man deciding to euthanize himself alongside his terminally ill wife, and the acceptance of this fact by their adult kids. It’s a very interesting premise, a down to earth take on an ageless idea of dying with your lover, though it’s done without any real success. The film’s style is mostly bland except for the strange and highly original musical number which generally convey very little. What they do add in emotions or story immediately gets undone by being repeated through the following narrative scenes making both the dance and the narrative beats redundant, lacking in any power. This is the film’s biggest fault, it stops the film from reaching that emotional or philosophical pinnacle it is aiming for.
Two English Girls
Two English Girls is a strange film, a cold, distant film which explores emotions in a delicate, unique and ultimately quite heady way. Which is to be expected from a new wave master like Truffaut. It follows a love triangle between a Frenchman and two sisters over a span of years, doing so with nostalgia and great patience. As a whole though I found the film so distant and so philosophical that I could not quite break fully into the film or the character though I believe this to be a matter of the viewer’s taste rather than a failure on Truffaut’s part. The 4k restoration is absolutely mind blowing, making a film from the 70s look far more modern and fresh then I thought possible while still keeping all the roughness and character you would expect from a film shot in the era. Unlike some transfers which rob part of the soul of the film by making it look too modern.
Film festivals like this one are so important, they are expensive and take a lot of behind the scenes work to run. We must not take them for granted, they give us the chance to discover films that we may truly never get to see again. I know I personally would probably never have seen the three new features if it weren’t for the festival. So next year when Europa! Europa! runs for it 5th year, do yourself a favour and go see an unknown film, you never know what you might discover.
by Billy Newbery