“I don’t know my neighbors. There is a wall between us,” muses immigrant handyman Moha (Mohamed Mellali) in voiceover in Neus Ballús’ deceptively modest, gently ingenious third feature, “The Odd-Job Men.” “Water, electricity, gas, telephone. Our building is connected to all the others in the city and to all the other cities. And yet, we’re still alone.” It’s a nicely bittersweet summation of this crookedly charming film’s central preoccupation with connection — tentatively formed and easily broken — between people separated as much by biases, culture, language and ethnicity as they are by the walls of their apartments. And who better to observe, maintain and repair some of those connections than the plumbers, electricians and builders we invite into our homes to service our utilities, to tile our splashbacks and de-ice the AC.
The job of the traveling repairman is indeed an odd one in that it requires...
The job of the traveling repairman is indeed an odd one in that it requires...
- 10/15/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
It’s an important week for three handymen in Barcelona. Pep (Pep Sarrà) is retiring after decades on the job. Moha (Mohamed Mellali) is showing what he can do as his potential replacement. And Valero (Valero Escolar) is left to reconcile their swap’s extreme change to his routine with an empty stomach due to a last-minute attempt to lose weight before a family member’s wedding that weekend. There’s a bit of “old man yelling at clouds” with Pep’s last hurrah providing the opportunity to tell builders how bad they are at their craft, some nervousness as far as Moha learning to balance politeness and professionalism when clients interrupt his work, and a lot of griping thanks to Valero’s petulant desire to sabotage every effort to make this transition smooth.
The result is six days of a volatile dynamic made worse by customers met along the way.
The result is six days of a volatile dynamic made worse by customers met along the way.
- 9/9/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay CashINTERNATIONAL Competition(Jury: Eliza Hittman, Kevin Jerome Everson, Philippe Lacôte, Leonor Silveira, Isabelle Ferrari)Golden Leopard: Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Edwin) | Read our reviewSpecial Jury Prize: A New Old Play (Jiongjiong Qiu) | Read our reviewBest Direction: Abel Ferrara (Zeros and Ones) | Read our reviewBest Actress: Anastasiya Krasovskaya (Gerda)Best Actor: Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar (The Odd-Job Men)Special Mention: Soul of a Beast (Lorenz Merz) and The Sacred Spirit (Chema García Ibarra) | Read our reviewFILMMAKERS Of The Present( Jury: Agathe Bonitzer, Mattie Do, Vanja Kaludjercic)Golden Leopard: Brotherhood (Francesco Montagner)Special Jury Prize: L'Été l'éternité (Émilie Aussel)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Hleb Papou (The Legionnaire) Best Actress: Saskia Rosendahl (No One's with the Calves) | Read our reviewBest Actor: Gia Agumava (Wet Sand)First Feature(Jury: Amjad Abu Alala, Karina Ressler, Katharina Wyss)Best First Feature: She Will (Charlotte Colbert...
- 8/16/2021
- MUBI
Locarno 2021 Golden Leopard Winner
The 74th edition of the Locarno Film Festival came to a close over the weekend, with Indonesian film director Edwin scooping the Golden Leopard in the International Competition with Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash. Elsewhere in the International Competition, the Golden Leopard for Best Direction went to Abel Ferrara for Zeroes And Ones, while Qiu Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play won the Special Jury Prize. Best Actress went to Anastasiya Krasovskaya for Gerda, while Best Actor was shared by Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar from The Odd-Job Men. Special mentions went to Soul Of A Beast and Espiritu Sagrado.
Venice Completes Line-Up
Venice Film Festival finalized its line-up today with the addition of three titles. They are: Graziano Conversano’s 52-minute documentary Ricostruire insieme – Biennale Architettura, which looks at the themes, works and figures of the 2021 Biennale architecture festival; Nastia Korkia’s docGes – 2, a visual reflection upon the project by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop to renovate a former power plant in the centre of Moscow; and finally, Antonello Sarno’s Pietro Il Grande, a tribute to photojournalist Pietro Coccia, who died in 2018.
The 74th edition of the Locarno Film Festival came to a close over the weekend, with Indonesian film director Edwin scooping the Golden Leopard in the International Competition with Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash. Elsewhere in the International Competition, the Golden Leopard for Best Direction went to Abel Ferrara for Zeroes And Ones, while Qiu Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play won the Special Jury Prize. Best Actress went to Anastasiya Krasovskaya for Gerda, while Best Actor was shared by Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar from The Odd-Job Men. Special mentions went to Soul Of A Beast and Espiritu Sagrado.
Venice Completes Line-Up
Venice Film Festival finalized its line-up today with the addition of three titles. They are: Graziano Conversano’s 52-minute documentary Ricostruire insieme – Biennale Architettura, which looks at the themes, works and figures of the 2021 Biennale architecture festival; Nastia Korkia’s docGes – 2, a visual reflection upon the project by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop to renovate a former power plant in the centre of Moscow; and finally, Antonello Sarno’s Pietro Il Grande, a tribute to photojournalist Pietro Coccia, who died in 2018.
- 8/16/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Golden Leopard goes to filmmaker from Indonesia for first time.
Indonesia’s Edwin has received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s International Competition.
The Indonesia-Singapore-Germany co-production – adapted and based on a literary work by Eka Kurniawan – is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.
It is also the first time in Locarno’s 74-year history that the Golden Leopard has gone to a filmmaker from Indonesia.
Accepting the award on behalf of Edwin, who had already...
Indonesia’s Edwin has received Locarno Film Festival’s top honour, the Golden Leopard, for his latest feature Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s International Competition.
The Indonesia-Singapore-Germany co-production – adapted and based on a literary work by Eka Kurniawan – is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.
It is also the first time in Locarno’s 74-year history that the Golden Leopard has gone to a filmmaker from Indonesia.
Accepting the award on behalf of Edwin, who had already...
- 8/14/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Given that, after its shuttered 2020 edition, the 74th Locarno Film Festival’s ident features a prowling, growling, resurgent leopard and the distinctly tumescent tagline “Cinema is Back” it’s somewhat ironic that the festival’s top prize should go to a film about erectile dysfunction.
In other ways, however, Indonesian director Edwin’s fabulously if nonsensically titled “Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash” is perhaps the ideal Golden Leopard winner, in what is a strange year for the world, and a strange year for the Swiss festival, which is finding its footing under the new artistic direction of Giona A. Nazzaro.
As an admixture of several distinctly populist genres that still, as Variety critic Jay Weissberg noted, uses impotence as a metaphor “to make a broader critique of a toxic culture that puts so much emphasis on virility,” the film is among the best exemplars of Nazzaro’s avowed...
In other ways, however, Indonesian director Edwin’s fabulously if nonsensically titled “Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash” is perhaps the ideal Golden Leopard winner, in what is a strange year for the world, and a strange year for the Swiss festival, which is finding its footing under the new artistic direction of Giona A. Nazzaro.
As an admixture of several distinctly populist genres that still, as Variety critic Jay Weissberg noted, uses impotence as a metaphor “to make a broader critique of a toxic culture that puts so much emphasis on virility,” the film is among the best exemplars of Nazzaro’s avowed...
- 8/14/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Few phenomena in Spanish film have proved so striking in recent years as the emergence last decade of a new generation of Catalan filmmakers, very often women, making resonant movies grounded in highly specific local realities.
Think Clara Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a Berlin First Feature Award winner, or Pilar Palomero’s “Schoolgirls,” which walked off with best picture at this year’s Spanish Academy Goyas.
For years, prominent Catalan auteurs – José Luis Guerín, Marc Recha, Isaki Lacuesta – have made movies straddling documentary and fiction.
Sold by Beta Cinema, “The Off-Job Men,” directed by Pompeu Fabra U. alum Neus Ballús, drinks deep from both traditions.
Its stars, Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar and Pep Sarrá, are real life plumbers who, in a fiction-set up created by Ballús, play employees at Instalaciones Losilla, a small handyman firm on the outskirts of Barcelona. Over six days, Moha, a Moroccan new recruit on a one-week trial,...
Think Clara Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a Berlin First Feature Award winner, or Pilar Palomero’s “Schoolgirls,” which walked off with best picture at this year’s Spanish Academy Goyas.
For years, prominent Catalan auteurs – José Luis Guerín, Marc Recha, Isaki Lacuesta – have made movies straddling documentary and fiction.
Sold by Beta Cinema, “The Off-Job Men,” directed by Pompeu Fabra U. alum Neus Ballús, drinks deep from both traditions.
Its stars, Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar and Pep Sarrá, are real life plumbers who, in a fiction-set up created by Ballús, play employees at Instalaciones Losilla, a small handyman firm on the outskirts of Barcelona. Over six days, Moha, a Moroccan new recruit on a one-week trial,...
- 8/8/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
"Nowadays, people... they just don't do things right." ScreenDaily has revealed the first promo trailer for an indie comedy from Catalonia called The Odd-Job Men, at least that's the English version of the title. The original Catalan title is Sis Dies Corrents, which translates directly to Six Current Days. It's premiering at both the Locarno and Toronto Film Festivals this fall, which makes this a good discovery already. The story follows three handymen who spend a week going from door-to-door in Barcelona to fix whatever is broken. "A peculiar team of three handymen has to face a series of eccentric clients. Their everyday job becomes a surrealist and exhilarating experience." The indie film stars Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar, and Pep Sarrà. I had a good feeling this might be pretty good and honestly it looks fantastic so far. It's not often we ever see a film about handymen, but here...
- 7/30/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The film stars Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar and Pep Sarra.
Screen can exclusively reveal the first international trailer for Neus Ballus’ Catalan comedy-drama The Odd-Job Men, which has been selected for Locarno’s international competition and Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema strand.
The film follows three handymen who spend a week going from door-to-door in Barcelona to fix whatever is broken, and stars Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar and Pep Sarra.
Ballus, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Margarita Melgar, previously directed 2019 Berlin Panorama title Staff Only and 2013 debut The Plague, selected in Berlin’s Forum.
The Odd-Job Men is produced...
Screen can exclusively reveal the first international trailer for Neus Ballus’ Catalan comedy-drama The Odd-Job Men, which has been selected for Locarno’s international competition and Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema strand.
The film follows three handymen who spend a week going from door-to-door in Barcelona to fix whatever is broken, and stars Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar and Pep Sarra.
Ballus, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Margarita Melgar, previously directed 2019 Berlin Panorama title Staff Only and 2013 debut The Plague, selected in Berlin’s Forum.
The Odd-Job Men is produced...
- 7/30/2021
- by Screen staff
- ScreenDaily
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