Presented in IFF Rotterdam’s Ammodo Tiger Short Competition, urban solutions is the fruit of a directing collaboration between four filmmakers who look at modern-day slavery in Brazil.
With a selection of over 100+ films, this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is underway from January 26 to February 6. With an abundance of films to be watched, IFFR is the first international festival to jumpstart the year for cinema. Placed after Sundance and right before the Berlinale, IFFR’s vast selections has a movie for everybody interested in film. Whether it be retrospectives of filmmakers you may have never heard of (Cinema Regained section), the young exciting voices of up-and-coming filmmakers (Bright Future section), or the competition sections (Tiger and Ammodo Short Tiger Competition), plus many more that’ll be highlighted in future dispatches, the IFFR has a unique program that isn’t bounded by world premieres or A-list celebrities, but for the love of the artform.
With a directing collaboration between four filmmakers, Arne Hector, Luciana Mazeto, Vinícius Lopes, and Minze Tummescheit, the new film urban solutions, portrays life in Brazil comparing and contrasting the colonial period of Brazil by Europeans with private security guard workers of Brazil. Surveillance cameras and historic paintings are used for the filmmakers’ arguments of the modern-day slavery work of security workers. Shot on 16mm, and hilariously portrayed by the main security worker, the arguments of the master and the worker, the relationship between the two, and the mundane, meaninglessness of their jobs show viewers of yet, another outcome of capitalism. Though repeated, urban problems require urban solutions, and the finale of the film showcases a revolting conclusion that doesn’t have the answers, but needs a solution.
