Day 4 : Faces and Army

Sunday. After the surreal screening of Rubber last night, we went back to reality with a Danish double feature that we could call "in your face". The sort film Berik by Daniel Borgman shows an untenable and unforgettable face, Berik’s one. This real kazakhman is disfigured from his birth by a tumour that is due to the too many nuclear tests made next to his neighbourhood. The pitch could be offensive but the camera finds the right distance to avoid the freaks show. After that, the documentary Armadillo by Janus Metz "shows war as we’ve rarely seen it" (we quote ourselves). We rediscovered the film on the big screen and we are pleased that it still works. We were afraid that the machine-gun-like cut would unnerve our most mainstream audience but it was not the case. The debate after was a good one and the audience seemed to have understood the aim of the film (well... to provoke a debate?). During the afternnoon screening, the producer told me backstage about the explosive effect made by Armadillo in Denmark. Press and politicians are discussing now the rôle of Danish army in Afghanistan because of the blunders exposed in the film. We looked again the Armadillo poster (a heart-shaped grenade or is it the reverse) while in the screening room, among the audience, Janus Metz was watching his film for the second time.