VIFF in Review

Michelle Da Silva

Wendy and Lucy
USA, 2008, 80 min.

Michelle Williams is Wendy, a resilient, tom-boyish woman travelling to Alaska and hoping to find work. Lucy is Wendy’s golden Labrador Retriever, her constant companion and often her only friend in the world. When Wendy stops in a small town in Portland to fill up on gas and get some food, her journey is halted when, stuck for cash, she is caught shoplifting cans of dog food from a local grocery store. After spending an afternoon in jail, Wendy’s plans spiral out of control when she realizes that Lucy has gone missing.

Director Kelly Reichardt, whose previous work includes the widely-acclaimed Old Joy, teams up with writer Jon Raymond to craft a seemingly simple yet strikingly meaningful world. Through a very minimalist structure, Riechardt is able to focus on anxiety and loneliness from a female perspective. Williams, in one of her most profound performances to date, truly carries the entire film on her back with grace and beauty.

Son of a Lion
Australia/Pakistan, 2007, 92 min.

Benjamin Gilmour’s Son of a Lion takes us deep into the desolate Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan and into a remote town where men are expected to earn a living manufacturing firearms. Sher Alam Afridi (Sher Alam Miskeen Ustad), a widower who is too proud of his own work to see other ways of living, expects his only son Niaz (Niaz Khan Shinwari), an 11-year-old boy, to follow in his footsteps, choosing not to send him to school and to have him work beside him every day instead. However, when Niaz, a gentle boy with a penchant for mischief, sees other children socializing in a schoolyard, he begins to hassle his father to let him enroll as well.