The Refocus Film Festival took place from October 17th to the 20th at FilmScene in Iowa City, highlighting films that celebrate adaptation. This year’s festival featured over 20 films, including two U.S. premieres, five short films, and five restorations of classic films, as well as public art installations, live music, and various opportunities to interact with filmmakers. Missed the festival? It’s no big deal. Here we showcase a few films that screened at the festival that are worth a watch.
The winner of the 2024 Refocus Film Festival Audience Award was The Count of Monte-Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo), a new film out of France based on Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t actually read The Count of Monte-Cristo, but this film made me want to read the book. Pierre Niney does an amazing job embodying Edmond Dantès and the sets of the film are breathtakingly gorgeous.
The Storm is a 2024 release out of China by highly acclaimed animator Busifan. The film uses 2D animation to mimic traditional Chinese ink paintings, resulting in gorgeous pastel backgrounds which make the film worth a watch all on their own. It follows Mantou (translated as Bun in English) and his father Daguzi (Grain) as they search for magical silk in a haunted ship which Daguzi believes will free them from poverty.
Along the way, Mantou and Daguzi find themselves in the center of a longstanding feud between Lumin guardians trying to preserve nature, and members of an opera troupe haunting the ship. Both groups are united in that they blame the greed of humanity for their fates. The film explores themes of change, grief, and letting go, and is appropriate for all ages, but is better suited for older children or young adults who have a solid understanding of death and grief.
The Falling Sky (A Queda do Céu) is a film about Brazil’s indigenous Yanomami people, loosely based on Davi Kopenawa’s book The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Though classified as a documentary, the film is moreso a video essay, and features a combination of artistic shots of the sky and trees, a black screen with narration, and documentation of Yanomami rituals and daily life. The film is heavy and thought provoking, focusing on environmental destruction and the disturbance of indigenous daily life by capitalist society.
Ghost Cat Anzu is an adorable rotoscoped Japanese film focusing on a schoolgirl named Karin, her grandfather, and a giant ghost cat named Anzu, as they navigate life together after Karin’s father abruptly leaves her at her grandfather’s temple, trying to escape debt collectors. Karin, with the help of Anzu and other local forest spirits, processes her grief surrounding her mother’s death and father’s disappearance. The film does have a lot of cheap and childish humor like bad puns, but when I saw the film, the theater contained only young adults. There were multiple times where they all erupted in laughter. I think the film can be enjoyable for all audiences, but it is definitely a children’s film. Ghost Cat Anzu has a theatrical release starting November 15th.
I had the privilege of seeing the U.S. premier of Savanna and the Mountain (A Savana e a Montanha), a film focused on Covas do Barroso, Portugal and the towns prolonged battle with a British mining firm. The film has quite a surprise at the end, or at least it was a surprise to me, and includes fantastic original music composed by a member of the town. I loved the filmmaking and musical score of Savanna, and the film had me thinking about the impact my personal consumerism has on towns like Covas do Barroso long after the film was over. If I had to recommend seeing just one film that was played at Refocus, it would be this.
