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The fest is over for another year, and I saw lots of good films, and even a few great ones. So here's my next batch of mini reviews.

War Sailor

This film was the one I most wanted to see for reasons of family history. It's about two Norwegian merchant marines who are caught up in WW II and conscripted to work on Allied war convoys crossing the Atlantic. My dad was an 18-year-old Latvian merchant marine in 1939 whose ship was captured by the Germans and forced to work the convoys to Norway. The film is frequently harrowing, and made even moreso where it matched some of the very few stories my dad passed down about what happened to him during the war. (Being strafed by fighter planes. Having his ship sunk and, somehow, surviving.) The film also follows the one sailor's family back in Norway, as they struggle to get through the war through food shortages and Allied bombing campaigns. It's not an easy film, and there's no happy endings, but I'm glad I got to see it.

What's Love Got to Do With It

A British rom-com, starring Shazad Latif as a British Pakistani man who decides to let his family set him up on an arranged (or assisted as he likes to call it) marriage, and Lily James as his childhood friend and neighbour who decides to make a documentary about the process. Though there are funny moments, it's more rom and drama than com, as the two friends gradually figure out that maybe they're more than that. Highly enjoyable.

We Are Still Here

An anthology film by indigenous Australian, New Zealand, and Pacific Islander filmmakers on the 250th anniversary of Cook's colonization of the region. The time periods range from distant past to near future, and the tones range from grim to hilarious. I really enjoyed this one.

Viking

This is a kinda wacky Quebecois film that's sort of sci fi. Five people whose personalities match those of the crew of the first manned mission to Mars are sent to a desert outpost where they can mirror the actions of the real crew and hopefully predict any issues before they arise on the real mission. (At the Q&A, the director said he wanted to do a SF film that really just used space suits.) The tone ranges from deadpan funny (two of the crew who are running a mock operation, complete with space suits, run into a couple of bemused cowboys in the desert) to quite touching (when the main character finally has had enough of the isolation of the mission and takes off to the diner in a small Texas town in his space suit.) Not quite like anything I've ever seen.

Kacchey Limbu

This was advertised as an Indian Bend It Like Beckham, but with cricket. Aditi is a young woman in Mumbai who doesn't know what she really wants. She's studying for medical school because her father wants her to. She's taking traditional dance classes because her mother wants her too. She says she's interested in fashion because her friends want her to. But when her brother enters a local cricket tournament, she decides to put together a team to enter because she wants to. This is a first feature, and both the dialogue and acting can be a bit clunky, but it's endearing. The real stand out is Ayush Mehra, a first time film actor playing Aditi's maybe love interest who helps her set up her team.