The 56th Chicago International Film Festival officially wrapped up on Sunday, October 25 after more than a week of virtual screenings and events, not to mention a handful of in-person drive-in screenings (many of which sold out). Though this year's program was smaller in scale than in years past (just dozens of films instead of more than a hundred), many of them will continue their journey to audiences in the coming months, from film's opening as early as this weekend to those anticipated in December (One Night in Miami opens on Christmas Day) and beyond. Revisit all our dispatches from this year's Festival, including a few additional brief reviews below, and keep an eye out for Festival films to come to virtual cinemas (or actual movie theaters) in the coming months.
Image courtesy of Chicago International Film Festival
As the Festival entered its final weekend, this year's award winners were announced, from narrative features to documentaries and short films. Top honors (the Festival calls them "Hugo" awards, though why exactly remains a mystery) were bestowed on Polish drama Sweat, about three days in the life of a social media influencer who reaching a breaking point. Andrei Konchalovsky claimed Best Director honors for Dear Comrades!, a black-and-white drama set in 1962 Soviet Russia. And Yorgos Lanthimos protege Christos Nikou and co-writer Stavros Raptis claimed Best Screenplay for Apples, the weird and somber story of a man afflicted by a silent pandemic and his journey to recovery. In documentaries, Things We Dare Not Do and Little Girls were named Gold and Silver Hugo winners, respectively. See the full list of this year's Chicago International Film Festival Award Winners.
Sleep
A German production from first-time director/co-writer Michael Venus, Sleep is filled quite densely, powerfully, and nightmarishly with the ways in which the sins of older generations of absorbed into the psyche of the younger generation—a problem that is apparently rampant in Germany, at least according to this film. Sleep begins with flight attendant Marlene (Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann) who says she’s leaving for work one day but ends up going to a quaint hotel that she somehow associates with a past trauma (hers or someone close to her). By the end of her stay, he is hospitalized and largely non-responsive when her daughter Mona (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) arrives and follows in her mother’s footstep, landing at the same off-season hotel and given the royal treatment by husband-and-wife co-owners Otto (August Schmolzer) and Lore (Marion Kracht). What happens next is best experienced and not explained, but it involves a combination of horrific visions and nightmares that often result in actual physical injuries. Are these visions actually memories stored in the walls of the hotel, or are they the ghosts of those who died in its walls (we learn of several suicides that have taken place there)? And the less Mona sleeps, the more her waking and dreaming states become blurred (as does our comprehension at times). But Mona is unquestionably the hero of Sleep, and her determination to get to the bottom of her dark family history, despite the possible threat to her sanity or life, is admirable and inspiring. (Steve Prokopy)
Image courtesy of Chicago International Film Festival