SFFILM 62 Day 8: Aniara

The 62st San Francisco International Film Festival began a week ago and runs through April 23rd. Each day during the festival I'll be posting about a festival selection I've seen or am anticipating.

A scene from Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja's film Aniara, playing at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 10-23, 2019. Courtesy of SFFILM.

Aniara (SWEDEN/DENMARK: Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja, 2018)
playing: 8:45PM tonight at the Roxie.

I can't say that much about Aniara because it's on the list of "Hold Review" titles at this year's SFFILM Festival, in light of its commercial release by Magnolia Pictures to theatres and streaming platforms precisely one month from today. (Though I'm not sure which Frisco Bay venues it might show up in; it's nowhere to be found on the coming soon page of the local Landmark Theatres, the traditional stomping grounds of most Magnolia theatrical releases) Anyway, here's the brief capsule review that I'm allowed for a "Hold Review" title:

The first feature-film version of a 62-year-old poetic saga by a Swedish Nobel laureate, Aniara depicts a spacecraft full of émigrés headed to Mars until a collision spins it into the galactic void. Eschewing a falsely "timeless" aesthetic, the action occurs in a relatable near-future culturally similar to today's Europe (questionable music taste included). Hard sci-fi concepts like beanstalks and artificial gravity are prioritized over character development but the cinematic trajectory’s haunted me for days.

SFFILM62 Day 8
Other festival options: Your last festival chances to see a couple of features I've been hearing good things about are today. In this case the culprits are The Death of Dick Long, playing at 3:00 at the Children's Creativity Museum Theatre, and A Faithful Man, showing at 6:00PM at YBCA. The latter showing is, at this writing, at RUSH status, meaning you'll need to wait in line for a ticket. No such line necessary however for Hong Kong action movie Project Gutenberg, having its single festival showing 7:30PM tonight at the Castro.

Non-SFFILM option: BAMPFA isn't 100% given over to SFFILM showings this week; today it also hosts the penultimate installment of its lecture/screening series devoted Japan's most decorated active auteur, Hirokazu Kore-eda. Kore-eda's latest feature Shoplifters won last year's top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and screens today after a sure-to-be substantial introductory lecture by Marilyn Fabe, starting at 3:00PM. A 35mm print of his first narrative feature Maborosi screens next Wednesday, April 24th at the same time, and both movies will be part of a package of lower-priced, lecture-less Kore-eda reprise screenings happening next month (Maborosi during the Silent Film Festival, so you might not want to put off a viewing of that one if you can possibly make it to an afternoon matinee.)