Mexican Films Stand Out at AFI Fest 2000

Among notable offerings in AFI Fest 2000 are a pair of compelling films from Mexico.

Asa Faringer’s “Street Love” is a portrait of Rosa, a Mexico City street prostitute, who at an early age was kidnapped and held captive by three policemen, who raped her and forced her into prostitution. Rosa and countless other women are trapped in a system of virtual sexual slavery, controlled by pimps who are also policemen or are protected by them. “Street Love” screens Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Vogue Theater, 6675 Hollywood Blvd., and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Egyptian 2, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.

Winner of the International Critics’ Week Prize at Cannes, Alejandro Gonzalez In~arritu’s “Love’s a Bitch” would be a highlight of any festival, but also highly controversial. Even though there’s a disclaimer stating that no animal was injured in the film’s making, the movie has images of the effects of killer dogs attacking other dogs that are going to be very hard for many people to stomach.

Working from a superbly wrought script by Guillermo Arriaga, In~arritu proves an adept screen storyteller, spinning three Mexico City vignettes linked by a car crash. The first centers on a youth, Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal), who becomes involved in dogfights to finance his dream of getting away and starting a new life with his sister-in-law, Susana (Vanessa Bauche), who is stuck with his brutal, crooked older brother Ramiro (Marco Perez).

The second concerns a beautiful model, Valeria (Goya Toledo), injured in the crash, and tells how her recuperation takes a bizarre twist involving her pet poodle. The third focuses on a middle-aged derelict (Emilio Echevarria), clearly once a man of distinction, and reveals what brought him to despair and isolation, relieved by his taking in stray dogs.

The fate of the film’s various dogs becomes a comment on human nature, and eternal themes of love and fate and their interplay run throughout this richly drawn and ironic tale. “Love’s a Bitch” screens Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. at the Egyptian 1 and next Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Vogue.

Reza Parsa’s suspenseful “Before the Storm” (Egyptian 2 on Friday at 7 p.m. and El Capitan, 6838 Hollywood Blvd., on Sunday at 11 a.m.) imaginatively crosscuts between an Arab immigrant taxi driver (Per Graffman) and an adolescent (Emil Odepark), the target of a relentless bully. Their lives are suddenly thrown into chaos; the film deals obliquely with chronic terrorism in the Mideast and the West’s role in it.

One of the festival’s drollest yet most stinging films is Jerzy Stuhr’s beguiling “The Big Animal” (El Capitan on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Egyptian 2 on Monday at 7 p.m.), based on an unfinished 1973 Krzysztof Kieslowski script. Veteran actor Stuhr, who added directing to his laurels beginning in 1994, plays a middle-aged small-town bank official who brings down the enmity of his picturesque community when he takes home a big, sweet-natured camel left behind by a circus. This charming and beautifully expressive film becomes a parable on conformity and the bureaucratic mentality that had clear implications on life under communism.

Lou Ye’s drenchingly romantic “Suzhou River” (Vogue on Saturday at 9:30 p.m.) inevitably recalls the bold style and impassioned free spirit of Wong Kar-Wai’s films. An unseen Shanghai videographer tells us of the beautiful, elusive young woman (Zhou Xun) to whom he lost his heart, and of a courier (Jia Hongsheng) who zooms through the city on his motorcycle. The courier’s own lost love may--or may not--be the same young woman. Another outstanding Asian entry, Im Kwan Taek’s period love story, “Chunhyang,” screens Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Egyptian 1.

Cesc Gay’s “Krampack” (Vogue on Sunday at 4:30 p.m.) is an exceptionally subtle and engaging coming-of-age story in which two 16-year-olds, longtime friends, have their friendship tested during summer vacation.

The affluent parents of the blond, curly-haired Dani (Fernando Ramallo) have taken off for two weeks, leaving him behind at their elegant summer home in a posh Mediterranean resort. Dani has invited his best friend Nico (Jordi Vilches) to come down from Barcelona to keep him company while his parents are away. Dark, skinny but intrepid Nico can’t wait to start pursuing the pretty girls on the beach, while Dani envisioned the two of them taking off on fishing and hunting expeditions.

What neither of them realizes at the outset is that Nico’s presence will force Dani to start coming to terms with his homosexuality, while Nico will confront the feeling of being used after a brief fling with a local beauty.

Gay is a compassionate, observant filmmaker, witty and wise and possessed of an easy touch. He leaves us thinking it might be a while before either boy realizes just how pivotal his 16th summer really was. (323) 520-2000.

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One of the sure-fire hits of the last Outfest, Mel Chionglo’s “Burlesk King,” the latest potent variation on the late Lino Brocka’s landmark 1989 “Macho Dancer,” opens a one-week run Friday at the Nuart. Two handsome, impoverished youths come to Manila to try to make some money as near-nude dancers and hustlers at a seedy Manila club. Writer Ricardo Lee has piled on the lurid soap operatics but also alludes in the Eurasian Harry (played with conviction by Rodel Velayo) to a long-standing exploitation of Filipinos by Americans, especially those at the now-defunct American military bases.

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Director Andre De Toth will appear with “House of Wax” on Saturday at the Silent Movie, which is screening his 1953 3-D classic Friday through Oct. 29. (323) 655-2520.

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Cult Movies Convention 2000 runs Friday to Sunday at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, highlighted by a variety of events in celebration of Bela Lugosi. Among many other attractions are an awards ceremony Saturday evening, panel discussions, screenings, a Troma Team exhibition and a closing night screening of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.” (310) 324-3106.