23/09/2003 - The linking theme of the films in competition at Viareggio, A different way by the Swede Christina Olofson and Jericho Mansions by the director of Spanish origins, Alberto Sciamma

Today it was the turn of A different way by the Swedish director Christina Olofson, and Jericho Mansions by the director of Spanish origins, Alberto Sciamma, at the EuropaCinema Festival.
A different way is a sort of fresco looking at Swedish youth. Olofson follows on the trail of three very different youngsters to show the passions and concerns of 17 year olds. The film also claims to be a critique of the modern consumerist and communications society.
"In 1997 – explained Olofson – I directed Truth or Dare which had young girls aged 12 as the main characters. Following on from that I thought it would be interesting to see at least see one of these girls 6 years later, on the borders between adolescence and adulthood. It’s not an accident that I chose Tove Edfeldt to play the main part of Hannah, as she had already worked on the previous film. When you’re 16 years old you go through a phase where it’s important to know the truth and so having trust in others becomes crucial. So Hannah has to go down the difficult path of getting to understand herself and the world around her".

Looking back after the screening of the first four films in competition at this festival it appears that the main theme running through these works is the search for identity. It was important in The Lunatic's song as well as for Cloud Cuckoo Land, and both Olofson and Sciamma also seem to fit into this pattern.

In Jericho Mansions the main character played by James Caan is a concierge who has no memory and who suffers from agoraphobia. Through the rediscovery of objects hidden in the block of flats, he slowly manages to reconstruct his life and to uncover the mystery of both the building where he works and his enigmatic and hateful employer. It’s a genre film, filled with special effects, which seems to follow in the footsteps of the new Spanish cinema and on more than one occasion it evokes the dynamic style of the Coen brothers’ films.
"The idea of the film – said Sciomma – came from something that actually happened in my house. There was a flood and we had to do some building work and during the work we found an old Spanish sword. This discovery made me think about all the objects that are around us and the stories behind them, whether they are our own stories or about the lives of other people. So I wanted to built a small, closed world, the building, and inside it a man who doesn’t know anything about himself who starts to search into his past life. The whole plot takes place in this closed environment, so this meant I chose the action to be very dynamic, doing a lot of camera movements and filling the block of flats with characters. When looked at this way perhaps you can see some similarities with the Coens or other directors. It depends how you want to see a film ".

A different way will be in Swedish cinemas on December 12, while there-‘s a planned distribution for Jericho Mansions in America, Britain, Spain and France.