Lone Wolf (2021)
Like the Berlinale, the International Film Festival Rotterdam is rolling out its 2021 edition in two stages. And like Sundance, the IFFR has a new director, Vanja Kaludjercic, who faces the extraordinary challenge of navigating the event through a global pandemic. As if to up the ante, the IFFR is also celebrating a big anniversary with its fiftieth edition.
While the festival hopes to be able to stage a series of live, in-person events in early June, screenings over the next seven days will be strictly virtual and accessible only to audiences in the Netherlands (though accredited guests can be anywhere in the world). For the rest of us, the IFFR has put together quite a treat. For each and every one of the titles in the Tiger and Big Screen competitions, the festival has invited a critic or programmer to write a brief reflection, and all thirty of these pieces are collected on a single page: Appreciations.