This review contains minor spoilers.

 

Palestinian-Danish actor Omar Shargawi debuts as a writer-director with Ma salama Jamil (Go with Peace Jamil), in all likelihood one of the first Dogme-inspired films mostly spoken in Arabic. The film about two small warring factions of Muslims, one Shi‘ite, the other Sunni, is set in Denmark but could be set anywhere – even in predominantly Muslim countries, as the film is not interested in culture clashes or adapting to life in a non-Muslim country. Instead, it focuses on the age-old battle to break the cycle of violence that begets violence, and as such, the film is a promising if overlong debut. Ma salama Jamil is part of the New Danish Screen initiative for young filmmakers and is part of the Tiger Competition in Rotterdam.

Ben, a withdrawn autistic boy, dreams of taking revenge on the school bullies in the same effortless way he dispatches his enemies in computer games in the accomplished Belgian feature Ben X. Based on a play that was in turn based on a bestselling book, Ben X sees Nic Balthazar, the author of both these works, also in the director’s chair for the film adaptation. It would be hard to guess from the final result that Balthazar has never made a film before: Ben X takes full advantage of all that the medium has to offer. The film has been a hit in Belgium with over 260,000 tickets sold to date, though foreign results have been less stellar, with some of the film’s appeal probably literally lost in translation. A US remake is already in the works, which should widen this story’s appeal ever further.

In the spick-and-span Swiss comedy Die Herbstzeitlosen (Late Bloomers), some conservative grannies find themselves rallying around one of their friends who dreams of opening a lingerie shop in their conservative mountain town. Director Bettina Oberli and screenwriter Sabine Pochhammer are in it for the gentle chuckles and becalming pleasures of a grey-haired feel-good movie, and as such the film is a winner. But who thinks this might be Calendar Girls with mountains is wrong; it never quite reaches that level of sophistication or bite. Die Herbstzeitlosen was a huge hit in Switzerland with over 600,000 visitors, though outside of the German-speaking countries this film will be a niche item -- though it could easily be marketed to older audiences.

Two redheads strike up an unlikely friendship in Le renard et l’enfant (The Fox and the Child), French director Luc Jacquet’s follow-up to his international documentary hit La marche de l’empereur (The March of the Penguins). More clearly aimed at children, especially in its storytelling, this live-action tale of a young girl’s affection for a fox unspools like a cute bedtime story and features spectacular photography and unaffected performances from both protagonists. French parents seem to have taken their offspring to this film at least once or twice during the holidays – since its mid-December premiere there it has sold over 2 million tickets. Success outside of France may be less stellar but should nevertheless be solid, especially when dubbed so as to directly speak to even the smallest moviegoers.