International Film Festival of Rotterdam

The last week and a half of January, I worked as a volunteer at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam(IFFR). I was a 'zaalwacht', in other words, I stood at the door, ripped tickets and handed out rating cards, and at the end of the movie I helped clean up the zaal(theatre). I worked at the Luxor which is usually used for theatre productions, musicals, that kind of thing. It was only the one theatre with room for 750 people. I had a really good time. I got to see a lot of movies, and got to work with interesting people.
I saw about 17 movies over 10 days. Some of them were quite good, and others, well, I would like the hour and a half of my life I spent watching the movie back.
Here's some of the best movies I saw:

Troubled Water (Norway) 5/5
This was probably the best movie I saw. It told the story of a young man, just released from prison. He had been sent there while still a teenager for murder of a young boy. Something he still claims was an accident. In prison he has become an excellent organ player. On the outside he finds a job at a church as the organ player. Soon, he is an important member of the church; falling in love with the priest, making friends with her son, having his own place to live again. But trouble starts to happen when the mother of the young boy who died comes across him one day...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948544/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7I3hFBtOFQ

Maman est chez le coiffeur (Canada) 5/5
The 2nd best movie I saw was about a young girl and her family over the course of their summer vacation. It is the summer where she discovers that the lives of adults and those around her aren't as perfect as she thought. She helps her mother discover that her father is having an affair, which results in her mother leaving home. How will the rest of the summer go?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1153111/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRmpXuXWgtg
Also check out two of the songs from the movie, which are sung by one of the actors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUGFcqGBPtg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NrT14CGWMY&feature=related

The Chaser (Korea) 4/5
This was a really cool Korean film. About an ex-cop who owns an escort service. One night he realises that his escorts, that he thought were running away, in fact all disappeared after visiting the same man. He sets out to find the escort he had just sent to this man. Unfortunately he doesn't know where he lives... There begins a night of chases through the street, fights which explode into a great climax the next day. A very good thriller.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkqczsLZd1I

Wrong Rosary (Turkey) 4/5
This is a movie about a young muezzezin who has just moved to Istabul to work in a mosque. He meets two people, one an older man who owns an antique book shop and a young catholic woman who is looking after the old nun who lives next door. He begins to fall in love with her. There's also a connection between the old man and the woman. Both men have to make confessions to her, will they do it?
I actually saw the world premiere of this movie. The director and all the actors were there.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1366981/

Bronson (UK) 4/5
This is a true story about the longest serving prisoner in the UK. Charlie Bronson has been behind bars for 34 years, 30 of them in solitary confinement. He has never killed or fatally wounded anyone. However, he's pubslished 9 books on topics ranging from poetry to personal fitness. It's a very interesting story!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172570/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLvVXYwVj-o

La frontiere de l'aube (France) 4/5
This movie follows a young man through two relationships. The first one with an actress, things alternate back anf forth between them, he leaves her, she goes insane and kills herself. Then he's with a new girl, things are going good, she gets pregnant, they're going to get married, than his old girlfriend starts haunting him through his mirror. What will he do?
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=la+frontiere+de+l%27aube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZgsWh7QSxY

La memoire des anges (Canada) 3/5
This isn't your regular kind of movie. To make this movie, the director went to the National Film Board of Canada, and went looking through all their old films that somehow touched on the city of Montreal. Then he took all the old stock film, amd made it into a movie about the city. There's no real characters aside from the city itself.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286825/

Jerichow (Germany) 4/5
This movie is about three people. A German man just out of the army, and a couple a german woman married to a Turkish man. The Turkish man owns a chain of snack bars, and hires the german man to work for him. Then the German man starts having an affair with his wife...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1224153/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANPf4TmPB9E

Gomorra (Italy) 3/5
A movie with many different plot lines about life in Naples under the mafia. One tells the story of how the mafia is diggin holes all around Naples to dispose of dangerous chemicals. Another looks at two young boys who want to do things independently.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929425/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk8KeeZcQYc

Delta (Hungary) 3/5
This movie tells the story of a young man who movies back to his home village on the Danube Delta. He decideds to build his own house out on the river, away from everybody else. his sister moves out with him to help him out. But, is their relationship getting too close? The townspeople certainly think so...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910860/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E422dgatB10

Everybody dies but me (Russia) 3/5
This Russian movie is about three teenage girls preparing for a disco at their school. Things start out good, with them promising to be friends forever, but as different pressures build up, as boys come between them, things start to break apart. A really depressing movie, but also quite realistic I think. The filmmakes were not afraid of showing real life.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1227189/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXjEb7JzbBg

Tokyo Sonata (Japan) 3/5
Tells the story of a man laid off from his job, but he decides to keep it from his family. He then meets people doing the same thing. Meanwhile, back home his family is starting to fall apart. It was a good movie, but way too long.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938341/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSKDeTVDEIU

Kan door huid heen (Netherlands) 2/5
This movie is about a woman who is assaultd in her home by the pizza deliveryman. It alters her life dramatically. She ends up moving to Zeeland and trying to renovate her own home with the help of the neighbours. A really weird movie. Can't say I recommend it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132593/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jomMVK2skw0

Tony Manero (Chile) 1/5
Weirdest movie ever. About a man living in Chile during the Pinochet regime. He has an obsession with the movie Saturday Night Fever. He takes it to some extremes...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223975/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvCpNw609V8

Parque Via (Mexico) 0/5
Most boring movie ever. It's about a man who's been living in a mansion from 10 years, looking after it, while it waits to be sold. Then, one day it is sold. What will he do? He's now accustomed to living on his own, and has trouble being in large crowds. Apparetnly it's mostly a true story. And the man who it's based on, actually plays himself. it is extremely slow movie. Here he is mowing the lawn... now he's brushing his teeth... now he's preparing something to eat... now he's sleeping... and repeat. The only highlight of the movie was when his girlfriend visits him, and she asks him: 'Do you think my legs are beautiful?' He replies 'I don't care about legs... They're the first things I push out of the way.'
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183942/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPz9EhipfWI