Dinard film festival, prize list

It is not often that audience and jury get along about a movie. Exception made in Dinard, occasional British enclave on the Breton seaside where it frequently happens. The Keeper was generally acclaimed, as a true story, a bit romanticized, quite peculiar. Thinking thought we had seen everything about the Second World War, did you know Manchester football team’s keeper was a Nazi soldier imprisoned during the war ? That is the story of this film, classically made, even a bit outdated. The film focuses on Bert Trautmann from the battlefield to glory, also going through a British labor camp and heavy familial issues. What Marcus H. Rosenmüller is interested in is the love story between the German and a young British woman, interpreted by David Fross and Freya Mavor. But the film is even more relevant when it approaches the question of forgiveness. Are Bert’s achievements enough to clear a whole country’s grudge after the Second World War ? Can you forgive yourself for what you have done ? Many questions asked by the film which unfortunately doesn’t have a French distributor yet.

The festival shone thanks to other nice screenings. If you had to choose three : Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, the other great social director along Ken Loach, offers a 2h34 movie about peaceful demonstrators for democracy being  massacred in 1819. A bit demanding because of its duration and speech based rhythm, it is highly actual though. Peterloo, ultimate yellow vests film (200 years before) ? The film doesn’t have a French distributor either, a shame for a Mike Leigh movie !

The Virtues by Shane Meadows : This is England’s creator directed this 4 episodes series screened in Dinard. Moving show, awarded at the Serie Mania Festival, focuses on a man broken by its divorce and separation with its daughter, who is going back to Ireland investigating his painful past. It is not the funniest show but one of the strongest. It has its light and touching moments, reminding us Alan Clark, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. We are also waiting for a French channel to acquire it.

Let’s finally talk about William Nicholson’s Hope Gap, focusing on an old couple starring Bill Nighy and Annette Bening (American Beauty, The Grifters…). Their life falls apart on the day the husband leaves the house and his wife for another woman. Full of moving and poetic dialogues, Hope Gap is shattering, catching perfectly the horror of breaking up and healing of resilience. Distributed by Condor Films, this movie should be brought to our eyes on early 2020.