Under Another Sky

I'm still a bit stunned. Just returned from seeing a film at Pacific Cinematheque called 'Under Another Sky', part of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Here's the synopsis, pinched from the VIFF site:

Under Another Sky [Les Chemins de l'Oued]

Samy (Nicolas Cazalé), a young beur (French of Algerian descent), is just the driver; he doesn't even know what the "merchandise" is. But then he runs a police roadblock and hits a cop... Paralyzed with guilt, he turns to his mother, who ships him off to Algeria, her homeland. There, Samy is welcomed into his Algerian family--a family burdened with secrets as heavy as his own--by Issam, his first cousin, a stoner who's gotten mixed up with a dangerous crowd. Issam’s sister, Nadia, is pregnant and her husband--who Issam calls a monster--has disappeared. Samy also becomes close to his grandfather (Mohammed Majd), a dying man who refuses to leave his ancestral land even though he knows that the wadis--the ancient wells--have run dry.

Superbly played by a primarily Algerian cast (especially Cazalé, who brings a young Brando intensity to his role), Under Another Sky is an eye-opening film, an atmospheric psychological drama about guilt and fear in a culture torn by war. Young filmmaker Gaël Morel depicts a deeply wounded world, where people can no longer afford the basic virtues of trust and honor, where machine guns determine who is right and who is wrong, where every stranger is a potential murderer. Right up to its shocking conclusion, Morel holds us in his grip, never letting us escape Samy's torment, as he tries to find out the truth about himself, his family and the country in which he hopes to bury his secret forever.

I was glad to make it to at least one VIFF film, since earlier today I stood in a queue for over 20 minutes in a drizzle (ironically called "rush tickets", there is absolutely no rush, just a shuffle of seat-beggars), waiting to get into a Canadian film called "19 Months". Although I have this feeling that if it is any good, it will get picked up for distribution and I'll get to see it eventually. In it I recognize Benjamin Ratner, from The Last Wedding (2001), a fine Vancouver film, and Angela Vint -- Ziggy from the now-defunct Bay Street TV drama Traders.