Revisit the overlooked films of 2021 you may have missed
At the turn of a new year, it’s easy to forget the bevvy of films that were released in the previous 12 months, particularly with our minds on the promise that new forthcoming films may bring. Indeed, once the Oscar nominations have been announced and the ‘best of’ lists have been written, hundreds of great films go unaccounted for and remain undiscovered gems until they’re hopefully discovered many years later.
As the disastrous effects of the coronavirus pandemic eased ever-so-slightly in 2021, production studios seized the opportunity to create films once more and the year saw an influx of releases, particularly in comparison to the previous year. Whilst the likes of Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster Dune and Drive My Car from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi seized the headlines, many other modern classics slipped under the radar.
Whether because they’re offbeat, low budget, a debut effort by an unknown director, or not actively promoted, some interesting films end up undiscovered, attracting too small an audience to gain significant traction. Looking past the allure of the Academy Awards and Hollywood limelight, here are a few of the more unusual and disregarded films from last year, which might be worth a second look.
7 overlooked films from 2021:
Good Madam (Jenna Bass)
This South African fantasy/drama is a horror film of sorts, but one with an unusual theme: characters are haunted not by actual ghosts but by the metaphorical ghosts of colonial history. The complicated issues of race, power, and servitude provide the setting for a strange, subtle film that combines a naturalistic family tale with magical realism.
Director Jenna Cato Bass introduced the film at TIFF 2021, explaining: “One big reason we wanted to make this film was as a kind of exorcism; as a way of kind of exorcising the trauma and baggage of our past – maybe not once and for all, because it’s obviously not that simple, but hopefully doing that through the journey of the characters.” Why use horror to tell the story? Bass comments that horror films are rarely about “the stuff that I find horrifying in life, such as inequality and oppression. So I became interested in what a horror film that was actually about something horrific would look like, and that is why we took this story and put it in this particular genre”.
The essential storyline involves a young woman, Tsidi (Chumisa Cosa), moving in with her estranged mother, Mavis (Nosipho Mtebe), a live-in servant of a wealthy white woman. The otherwise simple and straightforward plot gives way to an eerie background story, told in a combination of portents, symbols, and vague fantasies, which force unspoken realities, past and present, to the forefront. The director lets the camera do much of the work, making the house and its contents take on a spooky significance, as Tsidi finds herself falling under the spell of the building and the largely unseen invalid who owns it. Carefully chosen flashbacks and dream sequences add to the suspense.
Director Bass noted that the original title of the film, Mlungu Wam, translates accurately as ‘My White Person’ but she chose the less correct translation of Good Madam, “For reasons that will become apparent as you watch the film.” It is an effectively creepy, eccentric effort to translate the thoughts and feelings connected with a longstanding colonial past into the oddly appropriate format of a haunted house tale.
The Other Tom (Rodrigo Pia and Laura Santullo)
This family drama, by co-directors Rodrigo Pia and Laura Santullo, puts a face on what Pia describes as the “epidemic of children being diagnosed with mental health issues based on their observed behaviour” and of being medicated on that basis. While the film manages to avoid being didactic, it clearly has a point of view that is strongly held by the filmmakers Santullo remarked during the film’s release, “Talking about mental health and illness is also talking about values and prejudice in today’s world. These days, we see success and performance as incontestable values, so it’s easy to think that those who don’t fit the mould are problematic.” She sees the film as an effort to “question this thinking”.
The film follows the story of Elena, a financially struggling factory worker with a young son, Tom. Elena is called to the school to discuss Tom’s “disruptive behaviour”. At the school’s suggestion, Tom is taken to a doctor, and after a very brief consultation, is prescribed ADHD medication. This marks the beginning of a journey for Elena, who becomes increasingly uneasy with the medical approach.
The story does not suggest all is well apart from the over-medication issue. Tom is decidedly lively, within the normal but inconvenient and annoying range of children his age. He is sometimes angry and spiteful. He also has a fondness for pulling pranks on adults, which gets him into trouble regularly. Elena is a far from perfect mother, all but incompetent at disciplining her son, although she genuinely cares about him. The lack of idealism makes Elena’s situation more plausible, as she grows concerned about the side effects of Tom’s medications, and is forced to defy a very imposing system.
While the story is serious, it is told with humour, from Tom’s impish send-ups of the adults in his life, to the clips of a classroom in which every child introduces himself by name and diagnosed condition. There is no triumphant conclusion; the film ends with possibilities still open and more battles still to be fought. Newcomer Julia Chavez is believable and sympathetic as Elena, while child actor Israel Rodriguez as Tom is a suitable combination of charming and infuriating – which is to say, a normal child.
Nobody Has To Know (Bouli Lanners)
This very unusual love story revolves around an elaborate deception – not the whimsical kind common in light romantic comedies – but a slightly darker and more desperate one. Set in the beautiful but desolate environment of an island in the Outer Hebrides, the story begins when Philippe (Bouli Lanners, also the film’s director), a middle-aged Belgian labourer temporarily employed on the island, collapses suddenly and is rushed to the hospital. He has suffered a stroke and wakes with most of his memory gone. When he is left to recuperate alone, a spinster his own age, Millie (Michelle Fairley, Game of Thrones), impulsively takes Philippe under her wing as he slowly recovers. The lonely and unfulfilled Millie, encouraged by the warmest friendship she’s had in many years, tells the amnesiac Philippe that they are a couple, warning him that their relationship must be kept secret from the community, for reasons she never clarifies.
The film follows the development of the quietly tender relationship that emerges from this deception. Their very different personalities seem surprisingly well suited, Philippe’s outgoing and boisterous nature encouraging the quiet and reserved Millie to come out of her shell. Michelle Fairley does wonderful work bringing withdrawn, depressed Millie to life as she grows closer to Philippe. As Philippe’s memory begins to return, and he is contacted by relatives from Belgium, Millie’s deception threatens to surface. The film follows Millie’s relationship with Philippe, her own family, and the community with understated sympathy as her circumstances are brought to a sad but satisfactory resolution.
One Second (Zhang Yimou)
Prolific, versatile, and multi-award-winning director Zhang Yimou moves away from historic drama following his last film, Shadow, with an unusual comedy/drama set during China’s Cultural Revolution, with movie and film audiences as its unifying theme. It involves something of a quest – although it is not a quest with the life-or-death significance of many of Zhang’s extravagant battle films – but something very small and human-sized.
As the film opens, a man, never given a name (played by Zhang Yi) walks through a vast, barren desert. He stops at a village, asking about local film screenings. He has just missed one; the film is being transported to the next town to be shown there. When a vagrant girl known as Orphan Liu (Liu Haocun) steals one of the film cans, the man tracks her and steals it back. She in turn manages to take it from him, and he again tracks her, in an ongoing battle that continues as they travel across the desert and into the next town. In an extended battle of wills and strategy, the two try to evade or outwit one another and claim the can of film they each, for different reasons, value so highly.
Over the course of the half-serious, half comical competition, the mystery of the nameless man’s obsession with the film is eventually revealed, and in the process, so is his background and virtually everything significant about him. One Second also serves as a tribute to film from one of its most admired artists, and in particular to the value of the art form at a particular point in China’s history. It is a simple but entertaining story that combines mystery and conflict with touching character study and family dynamics, presented in Zhang’s distinctive style.
All My Puny Sorrows (Michael McGowan)
Film and television director Michael McGowan (Still Mine, One Week, Saint Ralph) presents an excellent adaptation of Miriam Toews’ acclaimed novel of the same title. McGowan also wrote the adapted screenplay. The poignant family drama deals with a pair of sisters who grew up together in a strict Mennonite community, and their ongoing mutual support as they pass through adult ordeals and challenges.
Versatile actor Alison Pill (Hail Caesar, Vice, American Horror Story) plays Yolandi Von Riesen, a woman with a chaotic life but a calm and stable disposition. Her sister, Elfrieda, played by the brilliant Sarah Gadon, is a talented and successful concert pianist, but suffers from chronic depression and has repeatedly attempted suicide. The story follows Elfrieda’s family as they struggle to find a way to help and support Elfrieda without dismissing her autonomy, depending on and offering aid to other extended family members in the process. The melancholy yet hopeful tale offers insight into both grief and joy, interdependence and its limits, with the help of a well-chosen ensemble cast.
The Shaman’s Apprentice (Zacharias Kunuk)
The latest production by prolific writer and director Zacharias Kunuk, best known for the Cannes and Critics Circle award-winning ‘Fast Runner’ trilogy, is an animated short film, currently in the running for an Oscar in its category. Originally titled Angakusajaujuq, The Shaman’s Apprentice is based on Inuit oral history and mythology. The 21-minute film uses stop-motion animation, along with incredibly effective lighting techniques, creative camera work and imagery, and atmospheric soundtrack featuring traditional Inuit music, to give the story a tense, otherworldly tone.
The central story is of the apprentice of the title, a young shaman in training (voice of Lucy Tulugarjuk) who must travel with her grandmother and mentor (Madeline Ivalu) to the underworld to gain insight into the reasons for a community member’s illness. The film takes great care not only with the visual and sound elements but in presenting the Inuit culture accurately. As the director explained in a statement following the film’s release, he took pains to find a crew that would take seriously the task of replicating even minor details of Inuit practices, mannerisms, implements, and appearance respectfully and truthfully. The result is an enchanting and compelling supernatural adventure story.
Night Raiders (Danis Goulet)
This first feature by Danis Goulet, winner of the Emerging Talent award at last year’s TIFF, is a futuristic thriller and allegory. The New Zealand/Canada collaboration, which boasts Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi as executive producer, presents a dystopian, authoritarian near-future in which children are routinely rounded up and placed in a highly touted educational facility known as The Academy. The central characters, a Cree mother and her daughter, try to avoid the girl’s being found and abducted, by maintaining an austere but hidden existence in the woods, until the child’s injury forces them to seek help.
The first act takes time to establish the details of the fictional world and its power structure. The plot then develops into an erratic action story, involving conflicts with the mysterious authorities, daring escapes, and desperate rescue attempts, while more is gradually revealed about the nature of The Academy. The final confrontation uses an innovative combination of science fiction and mysticism to lead to an unexpected conclusion.
The film is slow-paced and its metaphors more than a little on the nose, but it is visually interesting, contrasting the shabby post-war environment of the future citizens with the sleekness of the ruling class’ official properties, particularly the ominous high-tech drones which both air-drop basic essentials to the poor, and spy on them. The film is effective largely due to its genuine emotional impact and the filmmakers’ focus on its strongly felt political message.
