JOE SHEPPARD reflects on Day One of the Wellington International Film Festival.

Hand Painted Under Camera provided me with an auspicious opener to 2007’s celebration of all things film, with enough ideas, styles and voices in 69 minutes to sustain a whole festival. When every frame is hand-painted, you’d think everything would be streamlined as economically as possible, but the lyrical centerpiece Alexander Petrov’s of ‘My Love’ unfolded with all the richness and decadence of a dozen Russian Empires. Weaving an oneiric tale of upstairs-downstairs passions, Petrov has lovingly painted a gallery of impressionistic landscapes and portraits but never forgotten the real focus on depth of theme and character. Well worth the admission price on its own. Also deserving mention: Martha Colburn’s ‘Destiny Manifesto’, which connects the twitchy Wild West and the moribund Middle East with red ribbons of guilty post-colonial blood.

The US may be heavily criticized in Bamako, a trial drama where the defendants are no less than Capitalism and Globalisation themselves, but the most vehement excoriation is reserved for the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the G8. Debt and endemic corruption have ravaged Africa’s civil services, and the Western solution – especially the privatization of health, education and the railways – is tantamount to homicide on a continental scale, argues the plaintiff. The speeches in the makeshift African courtroom are broken up with scenes of daily life in the Mali town: the production line of spun and dyed cotton, the sick and the dying, a broken marriage, and the local men smoking and drinking as they gather round speakers to catch all the testimony. The simple and powerful eloquence of righteousness gives a compelling and cathartic voice to years of unspeakable trauma. My pick for the most surreal moment: the film within the film, The Death of Timbuktu, a camp and morally bankrupt African western starring Danny Glover and an international cast of bandits with poor English.

Another stunningly designed and magical milieu has sprung perfectly formed from the fertile and original minds at Studio Ghibli, as Miyazaki Goro dons his dad’s enormous shoes to give Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea narrative the anime treatment. The Legend of Zelda meets Celtic song, classical architecture and every fantasy world going in another morally charged but strangely Japanese story of young heroes, transforming dragons, and evil warlocks. Tales From Earthsea would make the ideal babysitter for two hours this weekend, but parents shouldn’t feel guilty if they hoard this treasure all for themselves!