Many Los Angeles events shine as indispensable gems, but some of these prizes are not known by the general public. One such event is L.A.’s longest running film festival, the AFI Film Festival. This gathering of international emerging film maestros and perennial domestic filmmakers has been around since the festival was known as FILMEX, before AFI bought the festival in the 1980s. Its historical reputation precedes the fest, and this year was a vibrant, original and impressive event. The five films profiled here offer just a small taste of the festival’s wide variety.

“Until the Light Takes Us”
Directed by: Aaron Aites, Audrey Ewell

Filled with great music and photography, this film shows the story and origins of the black metal movement. From an outsider’s perspective this film educates a good bit on the music and the radical movement it spawned, which includes followers and musicians burning churches. But the film errs when it casts only a cursory look on black metal and follows a restrictive narrative. The film doesn’t mine through the layers of black metal as much as it should, but it is definitely a decent film that opens a world the audience has never seen.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

“Che”
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: Peter Buchman
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Demian Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Julia Ormond, Franka Potente
Awards:
Cannes Film Festival
Nomination: Palme d’Or (Golden Palm)
Winner: Best Actor – Benicio Del Toro

“Che” presents the story of Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) in terms of engagement and disengagement, showing in The Argentine, the first part of the film, a successful revolution in Cuba. This success is contrasted in Guerilla, the second part of the film, with a failed revolution in Bolivia. The first act is a slow-paced but eventful and compelling portion and the second act is a slow, wrenching descent into utter chaos, paranoia, failure and death; both acts require much patience but the time the film takes is one of its strengths not a weakness. The performances by Del Toro and Demian Bichir, who plays Fidel Castro, are spot on and the visuals shot by Soderbergh on the digital RED camera are immaculate, putting the viewer there in the jungles. “Che” carries along the legacy of films like “Apocalypse Now” and “Reds,” massive epics that first received mixed reviews but were later considered classics; I believe “Che” will fulfill that destiny.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“Sugar”
Written & Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
Starring: Algenis Perez Soto
Awards:
Sundance Film Festival
Nomination: Grand Jury Prize

This is a compassionate, daring, authentic portrait of fictional Latin-American minor league baseball player, Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Perez Soto) trying to achieve the American dream. Instead of following sports movie convention, this film attempts to tell a real story about a realistic character. The film is anchored by the lead, Soto, who is a minor league baseball player with no formal training in acting. Crucial to this film’s success are the keen eyes the filmmakers use to capture the small town, the big city and the Dominican slum with a full range of specificity without neglecting the intimate and personal. Although the film is not as deep and emotionally satisfying as “Half Nelson,” the accuracy and maverick filmmaking of Fleck and Boden is too good to pass up.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“Waltz with Bashir”
Written & Directed by Ari Folman
Awards:
Cannes Film Festival
Nomination: Palme d’Or (Golden Palm)
Israel Awards
Winner: Best Film

This expressive piece of art retells the story of the filmmaker, Ari Folman, trying to reconstruct his memory of genocide carried out during the 1982 Israeli conflict in Lebanon. He melds together documentary, animation and narrative filmmaking to make a form all his own. He grapples with the ideas of remembrance and history and how the mind represses certain memories. “Waltz with Bashir” is extremely focused, yet still complex. It is a cinematic marvel that works on every level. Waltz with Bashir is easily one of the best films of the year and one of the best foreign films of recent memory with a subject and visual style that explode onto the scene and beg to be seen.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

“The Class”
Directed by: Laurent Cantent
Written by: Francois Begaudeau, Robin Campillo, and Laurent Cantent
Based on the novel by Francois Begaudeau
Starring: Francois Begaudeau
Awards:
Cannes Film Festival
Winner: Palme d’Or (Golden Palm)

This is a genuine look at a Parisian public middle school and one teacher’s (Francois) struggle to reach ethnic groups that comprise the major cultural groups in current-day France. The Class does something new in a teacher film as it follows the protagonist as he struggles with loving as well as disciplining his kids and attempting to get through basic classroom curriculum. The film challenges the audience with confrontations that are incredibly real. While the in-your-face style could overwhelm some, it still is a film stands alone as a solid, touching piece of cinema. It is up there with “Waltz with Bashir” as one of best recent imports cinematically.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars