OUR TOP TEN FAVOURITE MOMENTS OF THE YEAR

DECEMBER 4, 2022

(Mongolia, Ukraine, Japan)

With roughly 15 days before the list of 92 films are reduced down to 15, we right now feel that the following films will be shortlisted on December 21.

Argentina - Argentina, 1985
Austria - Corsage
Belgium - Close
Bolivia - Utama
Cambodia - Return to Seoul
Denmark - Holy Spider
France - Saint Omer
Germany - All Quiet on the Western Front
Ireland - The Quiet Girl
Morocco - The Blue Caftan
Pakistan - Joyland
Poland - EO
South Korea - Decision to Leave
Spain - Alcarras
​Ukraine - Klondike

​THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

This week we're taking a look at our favourite scenes of the year and there are always just so many to choose from.  We've narrowed it down to twenty movies and the following ten just missed our best of the best:

Beautiful Boy (Panama) - the ending of the party as Jimmy accomplishes his task
The Blue Caftan (Morocco) - the funeral of Halim's wife
EO (Poland) - the sudden ending to the film
Farha (Jordan) - watching everything that's happening from a tiny opening in the door as a family enters Farha's house
Harvest Moon (Mongolia) - the ending scene as the boy is chasing his "father"
Klondike (Ukraine) - the husband and brother fixing the side of their broken home as the pregnant wife watches on the couch
Last Film Show (India) - when Samay sees all of the movies being destroyed in the factory
Plan 75 (Japan) - while Michi is being euthanized she looks over and sees another man in the same position as her
War Sailor (Norway) - when the ballet performer begins to dance and simultaneously a boat is getting destroyed
World War III (Iran) - the chaotic ending

10. NARCOSIS - THE TELEPHONE BOOTH (NETHERLANDS)

We've been praising the film Narcosis ever since we saw it.  The film tackles the five stages of grief, from denial, anger, bargaining, depression and then finally acceptance.  The scene that stuck with us the most in this terrific film is the moment that Merel, played brilliantly by Thekla Reuten, and her two children, come to terms with the fact that their father and husband, John, is now deceased and will never come back.  They all head to a telephone booth one by one, which was installed by John, to say their goodbyes.  No one could properly prepare us for the emotional impact this moment had on us.  It hit us hard.

9. HOLY SPIDER - THE KILLING OF A SEX WORKER (HOLY SPIDER)

Holy Spider is one of the most brutal, tough, violent films of the year.  It doesn't hold back when it comes to showing the serial killer brutalizing his victims one by one.  With so many moments in the film to choose from, the scene that hit us the hardest was when this man vigorously tries to kill a sex worker that he picked up from the street.  The difference with this murder, compared to the others, was the fact that this strong woman fought so incredibly hard to save her life.  She tried everything she could to continue to breathe, and despite every bit of effort, it was just not enough, and her freshly mutilated, destroyed body is left there just lying on the rug, lifeless.

8. A CUP OF COFFEE AND NEW SHOES ON - THE BROTHERS (ALBANIA)

The success with A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On is the incredible way director Gentian Koci has created the bond between the deaf-mute twin brothers, Gezim and Agim.  Every scene with the two of them working together to accomplish tasks to survive in a world not meant for them is done so brilliantly.  When the monozygotic twins find out that they're going blind due to a rare and genetic disease, the moment afterwards with them adapting to the fact is just unforgettable.  Not only will they be deaf and mute, but blind as well hits us hard.  And it shakes us realizing how impossible their life is going to be.  The turmoil of seeing them accept this condition is just impossible to forget, and so heartbreaking.

7. BEAUTIFUL BEINGS - THE ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE (ICELAND)

Throughout the film, Addi, a member of a small gang of best friends, has premonitions and feelings that something bad is about to happen in their already violent lives.  He feels like there's something wrong.  When one of his friend's stepdad returns back to the house after having spent time in jail, everything changes, quickly.  This stepdad is a child molester.  And we know that this is the climax that's about to happen.  We are not mentally prepared for the tragedy and level of violence that is about to happen as the boys enter the house prepared to teach the child molester a lesson.​

6. UTAMA - THE SEARCH FOR WATER (BOLIVIA)

Utama is a film dedicated to showing how our world is causing permanent changes to our weather.  This can be especially seen in places where the Quechua Bolivians currently live in the Andean Highlands.  It doesn't rain anymore.  The film is focused on a husband and wife and their llamas.  Every scene with this married couple walking along the dry parched soil with their animals looking for food and water is memorable.  But the true effect of the heat warming crisis hits hard when one of their llamas faints from heat exhaustion and you see his lifeless body gasping for survival in desperate need of water.  ​

5. RETURN TO SEOUL - THE FAMILY REUNION (CAMBODIA)

Return to Seoul is a film focusing on a young girl who's been living in France with her adopted parents.  As she heads to Seoul on an impromptu trip, Freddie decides to head to the adoption agency where she was dropped off as a baby.  As she learns all the rules related to the agency, Freddie decides to pursue her search for the parents she never met.  Her biological father instantly accepts Freddie's invitation to meet her and he invites her to his town.  But her mother rejects it.  Years later, and still struggling with her self identity, Freddie's mother finally says yes to meeting her and the moment of anticipation as we wait to see if she actually shows up is absolutely gut wrenching.  It is some of the best acting we've seen all year.

4. THE QUIET GIRL - THE END OF SUMMER (IRELAND)

The Quiet Girl is, as the title suggests, a quiet film about a neglected, lonely girl, Cait, who gets the opportunity to spend the summer with her Uncle and Aunt in the countryside, as her mother is pregnant with another baby and doesn't want to take care of another child at the moment.  The entire film is a gorgeous, subtle, moving story that leads up to the end of summer as Cait has to return back home.  There's practically no other scene this year that is as moving as the last five minutes of the film when Cait is left on her own again with her biological family and the sudden realization that her life has returned back to the same harsh, abandoned way of living.

3. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT - THE SOLDIER (GERMANY)

There are just so many scenes to choose in the epic masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, from the stealing of a chicken at a nearby farm, to the final scene as the war is close to ending, to the long shots of these soldiers running amongst the bullets and grenades trying to get to the other side.  But the one scene that stood out the most was the slow-burn killing that occurred between Paul, the lead character in the film, and another soldier as the latter is finally stabbed in the heart after a gruesome fight.  As Paul realizes what he's just done he tries desperately to save this stranger's life, but to no avail.  Paul discovers that this "enemy" is married and has a family waiting for him back home.  And in that moment he finally realizes that this is no longer a game.

2. CLOSE - THE BUS (BELGIUM)

There are also just too many scenes to choose from in the film Close.  As the two thirteen year old best friends, Leo and Remi, head to high school, their close relationship is questioned by other students.  This begins to create a division in their once perfect friendship.  It reaches its escalation when a fight occurs in school between Leo and Remi.  The next day, Remi is absent from school, as Leo and the other students head on a school excursion.  When they return back to school, all the parents are there waiting for their arrival, and as Leo begins to realize that something must've happened to Remi, Leo's mom enters the bus.  It's one of the most heartbreaking, unforgettable moments of the year once we begin to realize what has just happened.

1. JOYLAND - THE PERFORMANCE (PAKISTAN)

Joyland is a film about a young man named Haider who gets an opportunity to work as a backup dancer at an erotic dance theatre, under Biba, a trans woman who he becomes fixated on immediately upon meeting her.  As Biba is not the headliner at the dance theatre, she performs during the worst possible hours during the live events, usually in front of just a few attendees.  One evening, when the power goes out at the performance centre, the owner wants to cancel the evening.  Biba sees this is an opportunity to perform in front of the entire audience, so Haider and the rest of the team get the entire audience to use the lights from their phones to create the perfect amount of luminosity so that they're able to perform.  Those five minutes are absolutely pure bliss as Biba and her dancers perform the most memorable moment of the year.  It's the climax of the film.  What a scene!  What a film!