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  • EVENTS
    • EuropeNow
      • EuropeNow 2020: Shorts I
      • EuropeNow 2020 Features: Quiet Life | 31.07 | 6 pm BST
      • EuropeNow 2020: Shorts II
      • EuropeNow 2020 Director’s Spotlight: Dekel Berenson | 5 pm BST
      • EuropeNow 2020 Features: Salt and Pepper | 1.08 | 6.30 pm BST
      • EuropeNow 2020: Shorts III
      • EuropeNow 2020 Features: The Mayor’s Race | 1.08 | 3 pm BST
      • EuropeNow 2020 Features: Humanity Last: Refugees Still Hope | 2.08 | 5.30 pm BST
    • WoFF Goes Online: Weekly Film Events
    • Balkan Musicals: My Father the house-painter (Bulgaria)
    • Romanian Classics: Veronica (1972)
    • Balkan Musicals: Greek night with ‘Some like it cold’
    • 2.11 | WOFF X SCOTTISH BORDERS | WILD ROSE SCREENING & DISCUSSION
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    • WoFF 2020
      • Thursday 8.10
        • Shorts Competition 1 | 2 pm
        • Shorts Competition 2 | 4.30 pm
        • European Film Academy Shorts 1 | 7 pm
        • The Woman Who Ran | Opening Film | 7 pm
      • Friday 9.10
        • Shorts Competition 3 | 12 pm
        • Female Perspective Shorts 1 | 2.30 pm
        • This Is Where I Meet You | Female Perspective Competition | 5 pm
        • European Film Academy Shorts 2 | 7 pm
        • 15 Years | First Feature Competition | 9 pm
      • Saturday 10.10
        • Animation Day in Glasgow: Third Edition | All Day
        • Shorts Competition 4 | 12 pm
        • The Donbass Children | Balkan Cinema Competition | 4 pm
        • Rotten Ears | First Feature Competition | 6 pm
        • Female Perspective Shorts 2 | 7.30 pm
      • Sunday 11.10
        • Mezquite’s Heart | Female Perspective Competition | 12 PM
        • Female Perspective Shorts 3 | 1.30 pm
        • Shorts Competition 5 | 4 pm
        • Focus on Balkan Cinema: Short Films | 6.30 pm
        • A Picture with Yuki | Balkan Cinema Competition | 8 pm
    • WoFF 2019
      • AWARDS 2019
      • WoFF 2019: Opening Night
      • Dream State
      • Short Films Competition: Part 1
      • Animated Women UK: Panel discussion
      • Virgin Money Lounge Programme
      • World Animation
      • Balkan Focus: Shorts
      • Female Perspective Shorts: Part 1
      • A Moon For My Father
      • Queen of The F***Ing World: Performance
      • Family Animation (All ages)
      • Short Films Competition: Part 2
      • Stories of Women in Film: Panel Discussion
      • Pitch Session: Ideas from Script to Screen
      • Female Perspective Shorts: Part 2
      • Breathe
    • FESTIVAL 2018
      • Sgt Stubby: National Cinema Day Family Screening (Animation)
      • Pre-Fest Party + International Shorts Screening @ Nice N Sleazy’s (FREE)
      • Opening Film: A Balkan Noir | 4 Oct | 7 pm
      • Special Screening – Musical: The Island Of Doctor Moron
      • Clay Pit | 5.10 | 6.30 pm
      • Shorts Competition | 5.10 | 8.15 pm
      • Animation Day: VR Experiences
      • Animation Day: UK animation screening | 6.10 | 12 pm
      • Animation Day: International Shorts | 6.10 | 1.15 pm
      • Animation Workshop with Sharon Sorensen | 6.10 | 2.30 pm
      • Shorts Competition 2 | 6.10 | 6.15 pm
      • Hermanos | 6.10 | 8 pm
      • The Best Of All Worlds | 7.10 | 1 pm
      • Panel Discussion: The Female Perspective – Stories of Women in Film
      • Female Perspective Shorts | 7.10 | 5 pm
      • Gregoire | 7.10 | 7.30 pm
    • FESTIVAL 2017
      • Invisible: WoFF 2017 Opening Film
      • Friday, September 29
        • Project Papa
        • Paris 5:59 (Theo & Hugo)
      • Saturday, September 30
        • Short Films
        • Short Film: Female Perspective
        • Short Films: Free Charity Event
      • Sunday, October 1
        • Women’s Tales: Panel discussion
        • Junod: Japanese Animation
        • Brexitannia (+ Damned Dolls: Short Film)
        • Closing Screening: Vergot
      • AWARDS 2017
      • JURY 2017
    • EuropeNow Festival 2017
      • July 12 Schedule
        • Short Films: Western Promises
        • Brexitannia
      • July 13 Schedule
        • Short Films: Antiphysis
        • The islands and the whales
      • July 14 Schedule
        • Four Passports
        • Sin + Illy Still Alive
      • Brexitannia to open EuropeNow Fest
    • Festival 2016
      • Opening Ceremony & Screening
      • Friday 30.09
        • Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service + Immortalising memories
        • Shorts #1: Visions
        • Shorts #2: Connexions
        • Get Happy
        • Shorts #3: Journeys
      • Saturday 1.10
        • Tierra Caliente + The Land of Exodus
        • The Gift
        • Capsule
      • Sunday 2.10
        • Shorts #4: Brave
        • ‘FREE EVENT’ Animation Screening: Short Films
        • Sin & Illy Still Alive + Shorts Selection
        • Closing: Awards & Screening
      • Film Journalism Workshop with NISI MASA @ WoFF 2016
      • AWARDS 2016
    • FESTIVAL 2015
      • PROGRAMME
        • Opening Night
        • 2 October
          • Shorts Programme: Memory
          • Shorts Programme: The Hyperphysical
          • Short Films Programme: Laugh attack
          • The First Summer
          • Shorts Programme: Age of Oblivion
        • 3 October
          • Oblivion Season
          • Theatre: Life is Shrinking
          • Theatre: Losing Games
          • Shorts Programme: It’s rights o’clock
          • Camera/Woman & On the Edge: A tribute to Moroccan cinema
          • Shorts Programme: European Short Pitch
          • Silent Sea
        • 4 October
          • Animation Shorts Programme
          • Theatre: Life is Shrinking
          • Theatre: Losing Games
          • How To Stop A Wedding
          • Shorts Programme: Through The Art
          • Short Films Programme: Women of the world
  • CONTACT US

REVIEW: The Urban Farm

Review by Liam McGarry

Nothing. Day after day, nothing. No Job, no girlfriend, no prospects; a drug dealing best friend and a family that won’t get off your back. Karim is a Moroccan immigrant living in Montreal; he spends most of his time hanging around with his best friend J-P, selling pot around their local park and killing time until he has to return to his strict Muslim family. A feature debut by Onur Karaman, the film is a slow-paced and offbeat comedy drama that explores the surrealism, the drama and the futility of Karim’s life in his French Canadian suburb.

Intendedly as unmotivated and meaningless as its main characters at times, the film nonetheless has difficult and powerfully emotional scenes as the vices and laziness of Karim’s lifestyle clash with the pride and expectations of his family. Karim is a young man torn between his adopted culture and his Moroccan heritage, feeling out-of-place in both his family and in Quebecois society.  Onur Karaman himself comes from a Turkish heritage, and this life experience is clearly seen in the authenticity of the behaviour portrayed by Karim and his Family.

The photography is beautiful and subtle, drifting off at times to display soft warm sunlight and the stillness of Karim’s quiet neighbourhood. Slow and measured frames convey the sense of calm and tranquillity flowing through the boys and their customers as they smoke and listen to whatever drowns out the calmness and dullness of the streets outside.

The acting is believable, even to the point that it is hard to like Karim and J.P. when we first meet them. This is due to their initially obnoxious personalities and constant squabbling, but through the progression of the story as well as their developing friendship with relatively agreeable customer Juan, we are shown a deeper and more understandably distant Karim. The main characters act like rebellious teenagers; hanging out in the park, smoking weed, fighting, and endlessly barraging each other as well as those around them with harmless, though offensive insults.

For me, whether I liked the characters didn’t seem to matter by the end, but for some, the coarse language, and antisocial attitudes of Karim and J-P may hurt the dramatic tension and ultimately the enjoyability of this film. The swearing however, and the racial stereotyping and prejudice is necessary however, as it reflects the behaviour and attitudes of how a pot dealer and his unemployed friend would likely have.

This is a smooth and dreamlike experience, at times philosophical and others crass and offensive. The two main characters drift through their lives, unmotivated and seemingly complacent as Karim struggles to find meaning in his adopted country. Karaman gives us a mellow, and at times bizarre and existential look at his young and disillusioned leads, letting the viewer relax and take it all in.

 

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