by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

Attending this year’s Sundance Film Festival from the red carpet of my living room, I was able to screen a dozen features over five days. It’s a marathon, but with so many new and exciting titles available through the festival’s online portal, I am always looking to discover a gem. 

Festivals are always a mixed bag as they try to present something for everyone, and I generally watch different genres each day—a documentary followed by an international film before a shorts program, then an indie drama and a midnight movie. This year’s program did not feature any absolute standouts, but most of the films, especially the documentaries, were strong, and many transported me to new worlds full of interesting people, which is why I go to the movies. 

Here is a rundown of five notable films I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Cutting Through Rocks
Directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni

The title of this remarkable documentary is a metaphor for the difficulties faced by its indomitable subject, Sara Shahverdi, in her remote Iranian village. As the newly elected—and first—councilwoman, Sara wants to use her power for positive change. She proves herself to be a dynamo and a role model in her fight against outdated traditions like having pre-teen girls married off rather than educated. (She even takes in one teenager, Fereshteh, who is seeking a divorce from her husband.) Sara is determined and defiant; she rides a motorcycle, designs her own clothes, has delivered 400 babies as a midwife, and knows construction. She never backs down from a fight and becomes justifiably angry when her plans to build a circular park are “squared,” by a male colleague, or a judge tells her to “accept a situation as it is.” Cutting Through Rocks observes and sides with Sara as she rails against inequality and injustice. In one of the film’s most interesting sequences, she lets a group of young girls experience the freedom of cycling on the open road only to have their ride end with an abusive encounter by one girl’s uncle. The film’s insights into women’s life and culture in Iran are compelling and disturbing, never more so than when a complaint is filed against Sara, that could change her life forever.  This is an immersive and eye-opening film about a woman unafraid to break barriers in a society that is slow to change. It also won the festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize.

Didn’t Die
Written and Directed by Meera Menon

It is refreshing that Didn’t Die features an Indian American podcaster Vinita (Kiran Deol), battling the undead with her brothers Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and Rish (Vishlal Vijayakumar) among others, including her ex, Vincent (George Basil). But it is a shame that this low-budget black-and-white film, directed and cowritten by Meera Menon, is so uneven. The plot has the zombies, known as “biters,” evolving and starting to attack during daylight, but the action scenes are shot and edited in such a disjointed way they won’t please die-hard genre fans. It is also hard to care about who survives since the characters are pretty underdeveloped. Vinita cracks wise—“Less biters, more orgies!”—but her deadpan humor fails to amuse. Her enemies-to-lovers romance with Vincent also feels more contrived than meaningful. There are some nice touches, however, like Hari and his wife Barbara (Katie McCuen) coping with quarantine by dressing up for cocktail hour. And the film’s messages about maintaining family and community rather than being alone resonate in the age of COVID—as does the film’s ideas about sacrifice and survivor’s guilt. But Menon’s use of footage of Vinita’s family from happier times as well as a coda, shot in color, come off as pretentious, not poignant. Didn’t Die has the bones for a good film but it feels like a draft rather than a finished product. 

How to Build a Library
Directed by Maia Lekow and Christopher King

How to Build a Library is an inspiring documentary that chronicles the years-long effort (starting in 2017) of two women, Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka, to revitalize the McMillan Memorial Library and two of its branches in Nairobi. Their task is an uphill climb as the project requires considerable funding as well as negotiations with (and concessions to) the government. The are other political issues in the important decolonization work Shiro and Wachuka and their team are doing; the McMillan Library was restricted as Whites only until 1958. Should they rename the building after an African? Is using the Dewey Decimal System, which marginalizes African languages and feminism, appropriate? The film is strongest when it probes these issues and makes a case for acquiring and classifying books that reflect the library’s users. It is gratifying to hear one man enthuse about the smell of the books and the ideas they provide, or when the women ask mothers what needs their children might have. How to Build a Library generates excitement as progress is made and funding is secured. And the film engages viewers by raising questions about legacy as the team finds a photo of the first Black hanging, or when a VIP visit prompts a discussion about contemporary colonization. Shiro and Wachuka are passionate advocates as they face myriad challenges, successes, and setbacks in the efforts to achieve their goal. Watching them and their commitment is what makes How to Build a Library both admirable and engrossing.

Ricky
Written and Directed by Rashad Frett

Writer/director Rashad Frett’s promising feature debut, expanded from his 2023 short, has 30-year-old Ricardo (Stephan James), struggling to adjust to life outside after 15 years of incarceration. Ricardo encounters trouble just walking home from work, and he faces pressure from his parole officer Joanne (Sheryl Lee Ralph) to toe the line. When he unexpectedly loses his job, Ricardo tries to avoid free falling into a downward spiral, but forces frequently conspire against him. In one of the film’s most intense sequences, his efforts to get to a parole meeting on time involves numerous complications and setbacks.

While the screenplay can sometimes be didactic, and the story is familiar, James elevates the material with his riveting performance. It is absolutely heartbreaking when he admits, “I just never thought I’d live this long.” Frett shoots Ricky as if it were a nature documentary, studying his title character up close and in his environment. As Ricardo forms relationships with Jaz (Imani Lewis) and Cheryl (Andrene Ward-Hammond), and deals with his put-upon mother (Simba Kali), he wants to do right, but circumstances just work against him. Ricky can feel contrived as the drama escalates, and Ricardo gets caught in a series of untenable situations but forget the narrative manipulation and concentrate on James’ nuanced performance as an inchoate young Black man who feels trapped and often hopeless. In support, Sheryl Lee Ralph is impressive as Joanne— especially when she delivers an inspiring speech to Ricardo as he is despairing. 

The Virgin of the Quarry Lake
Directed by Laura Casabé
Written by Benjamin Naishtat

The Virgin of the Quarry Lake is an excellent and non-traditional coming of age film about purity corrupted. Director Laura Casabé sets an unusual tone from the start with a vivid slow-motion sequence featuring a homeless man defecating in the street where Natalia (Dolores Oliverio), a sullen teenager, and her superstitious grandmother, Rita (Luisa Merelas) live. Rita believes the block has been cursed—and bad things do start happening; power and water become scarce, and a hit and run that occurs is particularly shocking. But Natalia is focusing all her attention on keeping Silvia (Fernanda Echeverria) away from Diego (Augustin Sosa), the guy she is crushed on. Natalia may be a virgin, but as she loses her inhibitions—snorting cocaine at a club or hiring a sex worker to be deflowered—she becomes empowered. And she is captivating as she confidently slinks her way through this hypnotic film with a mischievous sense of purpose. On a dance floor, Natalia shoots eye daggers at Sylvia that could kill her, and in a fantastical scene, she kisses—and injures—a guy who won’t let her pass on a bridge. Is Natalia imagining and manifesting what she wants, or are these just the flights of fancy from a horny and frustrated teenager? Casabé leaves things deliciously ambiguous. Oliverio is superb conveying so many emotions in her blank expressions that viewers will recalibrate what to think and feel right up to the film’s horrific and highly satisfying climax. 

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