The European Union Film Festival kicked off on the 13th with a lineup that highlights the best and never-before-seen-in-Ottawa contemporary cinema from – you guessed it, the European Union. The festival showcases 27 films in 23 languages over 18 days – possibly the most diverse fest of its kind. Screenings take place in the auditorium at Library and Archives (395 Wellington St). For the full schedule, and ticket information, click here.
The Gilded Cage plays tomorrow night at 7pm.
There’s nothing like a good comedy to secrete some endorphins and feel good. I think of all the genres, the hardest one to pull off is comedy. It takes sensitivity to deliver a movie that is at once funny and witty, and the director of The Gilded Cage, Ruben Alves succeeds in doing both.
This is Alves’ debut film. Set in Paris, the characters speak mainly in French with some Portuguese woven throughout the dialogue to remind us, apart from their Portuguese accents, that they are immigrants.
You can tell that the director is intimate with the subject matter. He is the son of Portuguese immigrants who settled in Paris and his treatment of the characters, although caricatured, is filled with a deep understanding of what it means to leave your roots and settle in a new land.
The title of the film is fitting: this is the story of a couple that have created a life of comfort in a foreign land. Paris, friends, family and employers make up the bars of their gilded cage. Their two children are undoubtedly French—yet as children of first generation immigrants, they are also culturally Portuguese.
The film takes on big themes in light-hearted ways, including identity, class, the idea of home and of course, love. By examining relationships between characters, all of these themes unfold effortlessly before your eyes. That is what I love most about comedy: its capacity to express the complexity of human experience in ways that lift you up rather than burden you with negative emotions.
I recommend this film if you’re in the mood for laughing or if you want to lift your mood. Watch the trailer below:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKHw9PsAceI[/youtube]
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