'North From Calabria'  Like a chameleon, Marcin Sauter's "North
From Calabria" cleverly slips between narrative whimsy and
documentary reality.  Like a chameleon, Marcin Sauter’s “North
From Calabria” cleverly slips between narrative whimsy and
documentary reality as a kind-of portrait of the Polish town of
Chelmsko Slaskie, in which the citizens are prepping for their
annual festival. Suffused with a utopian vision of a community
whose members always get along, yet accented by a bittersweet
tone that anchors it to a genuine view of humanity, this is a
fine, fresh example of the hybrid film that will seduce fest
programmers beyond Europe as well as adventurous distribs.
Sauter’s blend of fiction and nonfiction intermingles pro actors
with locals, erasing any detectable boundary between the two.
While the helmer said he has never seen the work of Catalan
filmmaker Jose Luis Guerin, “Calabria” vividly recalls Guerin’s
masterful balance of visually keen observation with amusing,
distinctive characters and a cha