While the Nashville Film Festival has its share of high-profile movies, don’t miss the discoveries that are screening under the radar. Here are three films by new directors and an indie doc with 100% African-American voices. These movies are why we go to film festivals.
- In the Summers: in this remarkably authentic and evocative narrative, two sisters fly to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for annual summer visits with their divorced dad. The father, Vincente, played by Rene Perez Joglar (AKA the rapper Residente) is a spirited and talented underachiever who tries to show them a Disney Dad experience; the girls soak up the fun, but also absorb lessons about Vincente’s less reliable characteristics. Each summer the girls return with additional savvy and sponge up real world lessons from Vincente’s changing circumstances and behavior. It’s a compelling coming of age for the daughters, but the changes each year in the dad, bouncing from unearned swagger to self-loathing distraction to an uneasy humility, are just as forceful. The three sets of actors playing the daughters as they mature are excellent, as is Joglar. In the Summers is a triumphant debut feature for writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio, who coveys so much without spoon-feeding the audience.
- To a Land Unknown: This searing thriller takes us to Athens, into the underground world of Palestinian migrants stuck until they acquire false passports that will get them into Germany. Yasser (Mohammed Ghassan) is a decent family man forced into low level criminality to survive and raise money for the forged passport; he is also burdened by responsibility for his cousin, whose drug addiction is a ticking bomb. Repeatedly exploited and defrauded, Yasser conceives of one very risky way out – to scam the very human traffickers preying on him. Ghassan is excellent, as is Angeliki Papoulis as a fun-loving but clear-eyed Greek woman also living in the margins. To a Land Unknown is the gripping first feature for Dubai-born Mahdi Fleifel, who works between Britain, Denmark and Greece.
- A King Like Me: This fun and thoughtful doc tells the story of the all-African-American Mardi Gras parading organization, Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. A King Like Me traces the journey of this 100+-year-old New Orleans cultural institution as it survives Jim Crow, Hurricane Katrina and COVID-19, and faces a sensitive question – should African-American men continue to publicly parade in black face? This movie is brimming with humanity.
- Endless Summer Syndrome: A professional couple and their two very attractive teenage kids are enjoying August, as upscale Parisians like to do, in a roomy, well-appointed country home. Their idyll is rocked when the mom is tipped off that the dad may be sexually involved with one of the adopted kids. She furtively investigates, trying to find out what is going on with whom. We know that there will be a reckoning once she finds out, but no one in the audience will guess the shattering ending. First-time director and co-writer Kaveh Daneshmand keeps the tension simmering. The performances are superb, and I was surprised to learn that only one of the four actors has substantial film experience.
Also see my Previewing the Nashville Film Festival. Here’s the Film Guide.
