In-Conversation with Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik’s latest film Blonde, about the troubled life of Marilyn Monroe, has been the talk of the film world ever since it launched at the Venice Film Festival. Now available on Netflix, the biopic confirms Dominik’s status as one of the leading auteurs working today. He is a visionary willing to experiment with form and aesthetics to add extra depth and dimension to the stories he tells. The result is inimitable works that look stunning and leave the audience questioning their own preconceptions when the credits roll. Blonde can be seen as another rung of the Australian director’s probing and readdressing of complex real-life protagonists such as criminal-turned-author Mark Read in Dominik’s rousing debut film Chopper (2000), starring Eric Bana and also, Jesse James, who is reconfigured in the epic revisionist Western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. Born in New Zealand but living in Australia since he was 2, the 55-year-old auteur also ventured into documentary filmmaking with the fascinating and poignant One More Time With Feeling. It documents the recording of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree, made during the aftermath of the death of Cave’s 15-year-old son. Dominik also has a penchant for crime thrillers. His striking 2012 neo-noir thriller Killing Them Softly, starring Brad Pitt, Scoot McNair and Ben Mendelsohn, played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed two episodes in the second season of the highly acclaimed crime series Mindhunter. The director will be talking to audiences in Jeddah about his career thus far, working with some of the top names in the film industry across a range of mediums. Dominik is a fascinating character with strong opinions and insights, and this In-Conversation is sure to be one of the talking points of the Red Sea IFF.
Other movies
THE LEGEND OF THE VAGABOND QUEEN OF LAGOS
Director: James Tayler
The Agbajowo Collective bring a lively mix of legend and community struggle to a fable grounded in Nigeria’s real-life mass evictions. In 2017, the state government and corrupt police colluded to burn out and bulldoze the waterside shanty town of Otodo-Gbame, leaving thousands homeless. Those who resisted were beaten, jailed or worse. In the fictionalised version - called Agbojedo - young mother Jawu, living in the floating slums on the lagoon that gives Lagos its name, is compelled by the spirit of the great warrior king Egbaezen to stand firm against these forced evictions, unifying her poor but loyal community behind her in an epic multi-genre adventure containing a stash of extorted money and a magical African Grey parrot.
MONSIEUR AZNAVOUR
Director: Mehdi Idir
Charles Aznavour, the son of Armenian immigrants who became a defining voice of France, died in 2018 aged 94. Two years later, his sons, Mischa and Nicolas, announced they had been working with their father on a biopic to be released this year: Aznavour’s centenary. This stunning musical drama is an intimate portrait of the artist’s life that's packed with biographical information. Growing up in poverty gave him an unswerving determination to reach the top; by the 1940s, he was playing cabarets with Pierre Roche, but his ambition was a solo career and a mass audience. Tahir Rahim plays Aznavour in a drama punctuated with disarmingly honest anecdotes from family members, giving us both the man and, of course, his music.
K-POPS
Director: Anderson .Paak
Eight-time Grammy winner Anderson .Paak makes his film debut with the story of a washed-up drummer whose life turns around when he meets his teenage son for the first time. Paak himself plays the father BJ, who is still holding out in middle age for rock’n’roll stardom; his real-life son Soul Rasheed plays the fictional Tae Young, whose mother Yeji is Korean. When BJ gets an unexpected gig on a Korean talent show, he discovers Tae Young, a hotly-tipped contestant. Eager to make up for lost parenting time, BJ becomes the boy’s mentor – but the truth is that he needs help to grow up himself. Riffing off their real family relationships, .Paak’s comedy is an instant winner full of charm and K-Pop fandom.
