OUR TAKE

Vic+Flo ont vu un ours

Just out of female prison for sentences we never learn the details of, Vic and Flo move into Vic's quadraplegic uncle's remote Quebec home, more for the bed, board and isolation than out of any sense of filial piety. Soon enough their past comes back to haunt them, in the cute but sadistic form of Jackie, a sociopath from back in prison, who Flo made the mistake of crossing some time long ago.

Christopher Shea, our correspondent at the Berlin Festival, a.k.a Berlinale 2013, files this report.

Reviews:

THE GRANDMASTER

Set in World War II-era Foshan and Hong Kong, The Grandmaster traces the rise and fall of Kung Fu master Ip Man. The movie is gorgeous, strange and stylized, bouncing between tea houses and brothels and beaches and back alleys, all with operatic sweep.

The turmoil in Egypt dominates the news from the Middle East, overshadowing the recent oppressive measures imposed by the Iranian despots. Apparently in an attempt to stifle any anti-regime resistance inspired by the events in Cairo, the Tehran government has hanged at least 73 people in recent weeks, many of them political prisoners.

Persecuted filmmaker Jafar Panahi finally got his day in court a couple of weeks ago, whatever that might mean in the Iranian justice system, and released a statement defending his right to create such amoral, treasonous films as "Offside" (2007) and "Crimson Gold." (2003). In it he said in part, "[Y]ou are putting not only us on trial but the socially conscious, humanistic, and artistic Iranian cinema as well, a cinema which tries to stay beyond good and evil, a cinema that does not judge nor surrender to power or money but tries to honestly reflect a realistic image of the society."