European Union Film Festival picks: Stories of love, survival and endurance

The annual edition of the European Union Film Festival kicked off in Delhi in October, followed by screenings in Bengaluru. The festival’s final leg will be held in Hyderabad between December 5 and 14.

Twenty-three productions from the EU member states and Ukraine will be screened in Hyderabad. The programme includes Three Kilometres to the End of the World, Romania’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar in 2024.

Also on the list are Matters of the Heart (Denmark), The Trap (Bulgaria), The Waves (Czech Republic) and Pelican (Croatia). Here are reviews of three unmissable films, each one different in theme and tone but united by curiosity and empathy about the human condition.

Happy (Austria)

Sandeep Kumar’s film is about an Indian undocumented immigrant trying desperately to stay on in a country that has no place for the likes of him. Happy Singh (Sahidur Rahaman) has lost his appeal for asylum to Austria. Happy doesn’t have the papers that will let him stay on and care for his daughter Maya (Shirin Grace).

Happy works terribly hard to support himself and Maya, delivering newspapers and later setting up a food delivery business. Forced to constantly look over his shoulder, and aware that time is running out, Happy is happiest in the company of his beloved daughter.

The crisply narrated and poignant film is in the mould of European dramas about desperate immigrants. There’s also a nod to Bicycle Thieves (1948), Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist masterpiece about courage in the face of grinding poverty.

Sahidur Rahaman turns out a superb performance as Happy, who neither fully belongs to his adopted homeland nor can return to his native land. This is the film that Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki should have been.

It’s Not My Film (Poland)

Maria Zbaska’s delightful comedy is about a couple that wants to split up, but doesn’t quite know how to. Co-written by Zbaska, It’s Not My Film is filled with memorable lines and comic scenes of Wanda (Zofia Chabiera) and Jan (Marcin Sztabinski) pushing their relationship to the limits.

They have become emotionally estranged for reasons unknown. We don’t suffer from depression – we are having a case of Monday, Wanda says. I can’t imagine starting all over again with anyone else, but I can’t live with you either, Jan says.

Jan proposes a trek to the icy coast – a kind of divorce-moon, if you will. If they manage to make it to the end of the journey, they will stay together. While braving the winter and huddling in tents, Wanda and Jan go over what keeps them apart but also holds them together.

The wonderful lead actors play characters who are universal in their squabbling and self-manufactured crises. Apart from the hilarious put-downs, there are soaring romantic lines too. If I am in a prison, you are a crack that I can breathe through, letting the air in, Jan says. It’s Not My Film is the rare relationship drama that isn’t cynical.

Dying (Germany)

The title of Matthias Glasner’s terrific black comedy refers to the orchestral piece that music conductor Tom (Lars Eidinger) is working on as well as the state of his family. Over 180 minutes, Glasner observes Tom, his sister Ellen (Lilith Stangenberg) and their parents Lissy (Corina Harfouch) and Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer) trying to keep the family unit together, while individually falling apart.

Like an epic novel, the film is divided into chapters. Gerd has dementia. Lissy is afflicted with serious health problems. Tom is the reluctant surrogate father of his ex-girlfriend’s child. Ellen is an alcoholic, battling her addiction while also carrying on with a married man.

The film makes judicious use of music. Tom’s magnum opus is being composed in collaboration with his suicidal friend Bernard (Robert Gwisdek). Most of the characters have little reason to carry on and yet they do, in a manner that is hilarious at times, heart-warming at others, and always piercingly honest.