Austrian documentary
filmmaker Christian Tod, who was — by his own admission — heavily influenced by
Captain Jean-Luc Picard and certain episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation
back in the 1990s, asks the question, “What would you do if your income were
taken care of?”
The result is the
feature-length documentary titled Free Lunch Society, which will be
making its domestic DVD debut courtesy of Icarus Films on Feb. 5.
How would it work? Is it possible? These are the questions (and more) that Tod
explores with the likes of Götz Werner, self-made billionaire and the head of
the Cross-Department Group for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology; Fran Ulmer, educator, Director of the Institute of
Economic and Social Research and former Lt. Governor of Alaska; Peter Barnes,
journalist, author and environmentalist; Charles Murray, author of “Our Hands”
and Libertarian Political Scientist; University of Manitoba professor Evelyn
Forget; UC Berkeley professor Emmanuel Saez and more.
The film raises the
issue, should the Calvinistic work ethic continue to be the backbone of modern
society or can there be constructive alternatives?
Free Lunch Society is presented in a mix of English and German, with
English subtitles where necessary.
Bonus features include
the featuretted titled “The Free Lunch Society Talk Show” and several promotional
videos.
Also announced this past
week by Icarus Films is the Distrib Films presentation of director Vahid
Jalilvand’s No Date, No Signature, the official Best Foreign Language entry
by Iran for this year’s Academy Awards (nominations will be revealed on Jan.
22).
The domestic DVD debut
date will also be on Feb. 5.
No Date, No Signature had a very limited Oscar-qualifying theatrical
release in early August of this year (limited to just three screens) and
generated $33,877 in ticket sales … the ARR comes in at 186 days.
Class distinctions in
current day Iran (filmed in and around Tehran) are explored in this intense
dramatic tale — critic rave reviews and multiple award-winning film festivals
results give credence to just how well-made this foreign-language entry is
(including Best Director and Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 2017,
losing-out to Nico, 1988 in the Best Film category).
In the opening sequence, Dr.
Kaveh Nariman (Amir Aghaee — We're All Sinner, Mermaid, The Second Wife,
etc.), a renowned Forensic Pathologist, collides with an over-loaded motorcycle
on a dark street — father, mother, young boy and infant. It appears to be a no-harm, no-foul incident
and that’s that as they all go their separate ways.
Later, he crosses paths
with the young boy again, this time as a dead body that is awaiting an
autopsy. This sets in motion a series
of events that filmmaker Vahid Jalilvand uses to explore both class divisions,
but long-standing customs and traditions that may seem alien to Western
audiences.
Dr. Nariman’s colleague, Dr.
Sayeh Behbahani (Hediyeh Tehrani — Red, Fireworks Wednesday, Israfil,
etc.), performs the autopsy when he begs off and she discovers that the boy has
died of food poisoning, which comes full circle to the father (played by Navid
Mohammadzadeh) when Sayeh informs the parents.
He had bought cheap, rancid chicken and his wife immediately knew that
something was amiss.
The father goes on a
rampage against those who sold him the meat, while Dr. Nariman guilt-ridden
over the boy’s death and eventually orders his body exhumed for a second
autopsy. Neither father, nor doctor can
let “their” guilt go … it becomes all-consuming.
No Date, No Signature is presented in Farsi with English subtitles.
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