Turkish director Nisan Dag, who is a Columbia Film School Graduate, made a splash at Slamdance and other fests in 2015 with debut feature “Across the Sea,” a relationship drama that she co-directed. Her followup “When I’m Done Dying,” directed solo this time, delves into the world of hip-hop subculture in Istanbul’s slums where the cheap and deadly drug known as bonzai gets in the way of a 19-year-old aspiring rapper’s musical ambitions as well as his love affair with an older affluent DJ.
“When I’m Done Dying,” made in collaboration with rapper Da Poet (Ozan Erdogan), who is one of the top beat makers in Turkey, is being sold internationally by Magnolia Pictures. It will world premiere on Saturday at Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which is taking place as physical event. Variety spoke exclusively to Nisan Dag about the challenges of bringing this bold tale to the screen.
“When I’m Done Dying,” made in collaboration with rapper Da Poet (Ozan Erdogan), who is one of the top beat makers in Turkey, is being sold internationally by Magnolia Pictures. It will world premiere on Saturday at Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which is taking place as physical event. Variety spoke exclusively to Nisan Dag about the challenges of bringing this bold tale to the screen.
- 11/19/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Directed by Jennifer Gerber, The Revival is effective in its brevity. Running at a lean 84 minutes, the focus is on Eli (David Rysdahl), a young preacher running the church his late, beloved father founded. Unsure of himself and his sermons while money and parishioners run short, he encounters a handsome drifter named Daniel (Zachary Booth) who complicates things further. Based on the play of the same name by Samuel Brett Williams (who also wrote the screenplay), the film leans on Rysdahl and Booth, who are the sure standouts.
While Eli spends the film cloaked in responsibility, fighting his inner urges, Daniel appears free and open. Their chemistry is at once prevalent and vacant, Gerber going well to let the camera linger on reactions from each performer at any given moment. The surrounding community is represented primarily by the bullish Trevor (Raymond McAnally), Eli’s self-appointed hype man, and June (Lucy Faust), Eli’s pregnant wife.
While Eli spends the film cloaked in responsibility, fighting his inner urges, Daniel appears free and open. Their chemistry is at once prevalent and vacant, Gerber going well to let the camera linger on reactions from each performer at any given moment. The surrounding community is represented primarily by the bullish Trevor (Raymond McAnally), Eli’s self-appointed hype man, and June (Lucy Faust), Eli’s pregnant wife.
- 2/16/2018
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Erlingur Thoroddsen‘s Rift is an icy “cabin in the hills” thriller worth every scenic gawk; Iceland’s genuine production value featured to a remarkable degree (looming mountain regions to jagged lava fields). Landscapes like a Bob Ross painting and tension like a Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead production might squeeze. It’s such prime location setting, which Thoroddsen skillfully uses to subtlety wall-in characters and inspire tone-snapping hope. This sets the stage for personal rumination in the most idyllic of lands, where evil may present itself as a wolf of our own conjuring – living, not even hiding, in plain sight.
Thoroddsen boils a complicated relationship between two men – Einar (Sigurður Þór Óskarsson) and Gunnar (Björn Stefánsson) – down to psychological fears. Uncertainty. Life. It’s their status as ex-lovers that unites the two men once again, after Einar leaves Gunnar a vague – and cryptic – voicemail. Gunnar, unable to decipher the message’s intent,...
Thoroddsen boils a complicated relationship between two men – Einar (Sigurður Þór Óskarsson) and Gunnar (Björn Stefánsson) – down to psychological fears. Uncertainty. Life. It’s their status as ex-lovers that unites the two men once again, after Einar leaves Gunnar a vague – and cryptic – voicemail. Gunnar, unable to decipher the message’s intent,...
- 9/22/2017
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
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