The-king-of-ping-pong

Sundance Trailer: Captain Abu Raed

By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago

Here I am again with one of the few trailers available for films screening at Sundance this week. It’s for a Jordanian film titled Captain Abu Raed, and it comes with the prestige of having already won a Best Actor Award at the 2007 Dubai International Film Festival for Nadim Sawalha, who plays the title character. It also comes with a heartwarming plot involving an airport janitor and the group of young boys who mistake him for a pilot. Yes, we could say this kind of story is a generic one in world cinema, but there’s no denying the appeal of an old man imparting hope and wisdom on a new generation. There’s good reason the theme continues to be reworked time and time again.

As I previously touched on when reviewing the trailer for The King of Ping Pong, regardless of how mainstream a foreign film may seem to me, I’d rather check out something like Captain Abu Raed at Sundance than any of the star-studded American films on display. This particular film’s universal appeal makes it possible that some distributor could one day give it a release in my neck of the woods, but I’d rather not chance it. As much as I hate that it takes so long for American indies to go from Sundance to the local movie theater, I find it more worthwhile to look for gems that might never make it at all. If you’re at least curious about Captain Abu Raed, then visit the film’s website and writer-director-producer Amin Matalga’s blog detailing his “journey” through the making of film.

Captain Abu Raed has its Sundance premiere this evening at 6 PM at the Egyptian Theatre. It plays again at Holiday Village tomorrow morning at 9:15 AM, at the Library on Friday evening at 5:30 PM and at the Sundance Resort Screening Room on Saturday at noon.

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Festivals, Sundance 2008, Video

Sundance Trailer: ‘The King of Ping Pong’

By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago

This is the kind of movie I look for when attending a film festival. And not just because the protagonist looks like I did at his age. No, the true reason is that this little Swedish film will likely never play in your local theater. It may not even make it to DVD in this country. Unless it wins the World Cinema - Dramatic prize at Sundance, you may never hear of it again. So, forget about waiting in that long line for that higher profile, star-studded indie you and everyone else is looking forward to. You’re sure to have the opportunity to see it sometime in the future. As for Ping-pongkingen (The King of Ping Pong), it could be now or never.

Fortunately this is one of the few Sundance entries that I’ve been able to find a trailer for. And doesn’t it help? Who would have given this movie a second thought without seeing that preview? I’m shocked that more festival films aren’t marketing themselves as well. Without the trailer, The King of Ping Pong just sounds like another Scandinavian movie about brothers, though co-scripted by Hans Gunnarsson, who also had a hand in Mikael Hafstrom’s Oscar-nominated Ondskan (Evil), which I liked a lot. With the trailer, we see that the film features a lovable fat kid (and yes, this probably appeals more to me that he looks like a little Christopher Campbell, and that his brother looks like my own brother at that age), who says funny things about ping pong being the last egalitarian sport and about life being a damned merry-go-round (compare his deadpan delivery to the unrealistic performance and unlikely dialogue from Elle Fanning in this other Sundance 2008 film — clip here — for which more people are likely to buy tickets). How could you resist finding out what’s going on in all those quirky-looking scenes?

The King of Ping Pong is screening at the Egyptian Theatre on Friday night at 9pm. Then it screens Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon at the Holiday Village Cinema III, then Tuesday evening in Ogden and next Friday evening in SLC.

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