Spotlight on Africa

Back in February, inspired by an article in Sight and Sound, I sought out films from Africa. But the search proved challenging as most of the films mentioned in that article were elusive. In the end, of the four titles I got, only Touki Bouki (1973, Senegal) was highlighted in the article. My other three picks were random, basically whatever I could find. Out of the three, only When the Stars meet the Sea, a mythical fable from Madagascar was a personal favourite; Quartier Mozart (1992, Cameroon) & La Vie Est Belle (1987, Zaire) were decent enough as they provided some interesting moments of humour centered about themes of witchcraft & love. But these four were not enough for a decent spotlight, so I always wanted to find more titles from Africa.

About 10 months on, the search still proved difficult but I managed to track down a few more titles from that Sight and Sound article, plus I got enough different films to atleast have a decent overview. The films also neatly fall into two distinct regional areas -- West Africa & North Africa.

The West – Soccer & Films:

Pic from: My Travel Guide

Western Africa has provided a rich dose of films and soccer players over the last few decades. In fact, some of my favourite African soccer players have hailed from West Africa. Players such as Kolo Toure (Ivory Coast), Abedi Pele (Ghana), Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo), George Weah (Liberia), Kanu & Jay Jay Okacha (both from Nigeria) have fascinated me over the last 15 years or so. But these are just a handful of players from an impressive selection. Ofcourse, it is a bit easy to know about West Africa's pool of players because a huge number of them ply their trade in top European teams.

There is also a rich selection of directors and films that have graced the international scene from the complex diversity of 16 countries that constitute West Africa. The films range from artistic & poetic tales to crude commercial works that cater to local cinematic palates. Stories that feature both harsh reality and magical myths are shown in equal measures, sometimes in the same film.

Exile and the return: Sissako & Mambéty

Professional African soccer players may be the highest paid people of the group that leave Africa for European employment. But plenty of other people who leave the continent struggle to earn an income in Europe. Some of them manage to do fine but find themselves longing for life back home. Such is the case of the main character Dramane in Abderrahmane Sissako's Life on Earth. Dramane (played by Sissako himself) decides that he wants to usher in the new century (2000) in his native Mali.

At the film's start, we find Dramane wandering through a grocery story packed with numerous varieties of cheeses and other food items.


He returns home to a village where the craziness of Year 2000 couldn't be further. It is a peaceful place where one would be thankful for finding even one brand of cheese.


The relaxing life allows Dramane to ponder his life and even the fate of Africans on a global scale.


I first saw Sissako's Waiting for Happiness (2002) and was impressed. That film was about a young man waiting to head to Europe for a better life (as the title indicates). So his days are spending waiting while watching people go by. Well Life on Earth is about a character's return back to Africa from Europe to find happiness. But this movie was made first, so it forms an interesting circle with his later work. And, there are some characters in the film who simply sit around and watch the world go by, much like in Waiting for Happiness.


Exile is also a central idea in Djibril Diop Mambéty's 1992 film Hyenas. This time however, it is a woman who returns back to her village to seek revenge not peace. When she was a young girl, she was forced into prostitution by a man and had to leave the village in shame. After she has earned riches abroad, she returns to set things right. Besides the revenge aspect, the film is an interesting look at greed and how money can shift politics in one easy go. One absurd segment in the movie revolves around a trial which is rendered useless when the returned woman offers to buy the judge. While all the political games are going on, the hyenas (literally) are simply laughing on the sides. I saw Mambéty's Touki Bouki (1973) back in February. The title of that surreal road movie translated into ‘Journey of the Hyena’. Well, almost two decades later, Mambéty truly exposes the hyenas disguised as men.

An element of exile is also tackled in Moolaade. A rich village elder's son is back from France to marry a local woman. The son is prized because of his French education and he returns with modern ideas which are at odds with those of his father. For example, the son supports equal rights for women as opposed to his father who wants the women to be oppressed like the old days. Interestingly enough, both the son in Moolaade and Dramane in Life on Earth find inspiration in the words of French poet Aimé Césaire, a person who fought for the rights of French colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.

Old tradition and values vs winds of change:


Certain traditions such as the importance of family are best kept and nurtured. But old traditions such as the oppression of women are best buried and forgotten. Ousmane Sembene's brilliant film Moolaade looks at a village’s old practice of female circumcision. Problems arise when a local woman supports the decision of a handful of girls to avoid the ritual. Her defiance leads to a mini revolution which shakes the old male dominated rule.

In order to oppress the village people, the elders decide that radios should be banned because they are influencing the minds of the people and exposing the villagers to dangerous foreign ideas. So an order is issued to collect all the village radios and burn them. This scene echoes the burning of books depicted in Fahrenheit 411.


The clash of traditional vs modern values is also depicted in Haramuya, a film set in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougo. The film also shows the economic difficulties that exist in the city where some people struggle to earn an income and have to resort to petty theft to make ends meet.

Gaston Kaboré's Wend Kuuni is mostly the story of an orphaned ‘mute’ child and the family that takes him in. But around the boy, we can see old practices and beliefs dominating the people. Through a flashback, we learn about the traumatic event that caused the boy to lose his voice -- his mother had been accused of being a witch and killed. While the film shows that sometimes old beliefs can cause harm, the movie also highlights how traditional values can benefit as the boy in Wend Kuuni is lovingly raised by his new adopted family.

Myth and witchcraft:

My first introduction to the witchcraft that existed in Africa was through soccer. June 8, 1990. Argentina, the defending World Cup Champions, stumbled to an unbelievable defeat against Cameroon. No one could have predicated Cameroon's 1-0 win. I still remember that day and the reaction of shock that surrounded that win. Very soon afterwards, almost all neutrals were cheering for Cameroon and its 38 year old star Roger Milla. Most soccer players stop playing soccer in their early 30's, so it was extraordinary to see Milla playing at the top level at 38 (even more remarkably, Milla played in the 1994 World Cup and currently holds the record for the oldest player to have scored goal at the age of 42!). Milla was not supposed to have been in the team for the World Cup because he had retired from the game prior to 1990 but he was asked to play thanks to Cameroon's president. And what a great decision it was as Milla scored crucial goals to lead Cameroon into the quarter-finals. In fact, Cameroon were 7 minutes away from the World Cup semi-finals before England knocked them out. But despite the heroic on-field efforts by Cameroon, talk of witchcraft hovered around the team. It was rumoured that a witch doctor was brought in to bless the team. Was this blessing merely a stunt or an actual belief? Whatever the case maybe, with each subsequent World Cup, the talk of witchcraft does return whenever Cameroon or even Nigeria play. Witch doctors do make headlines predicting World Cup winners and even game scores! Such talks of witchcraft are not limited to Western Africa only but also find roots in almost all parts of Africa with maybe the exception being North Africa.

When did the first mention of witchcraft originate? Probably with some of the oldest myths that can be found in a country’s history. Souleymane Cissé's film Yeelen beautifully films an ancient Mali myth about a battle between father and son (Nianankoro). Set in the 13th century Mali Empire, Nianankoro must tackle an entire cult group along with his wizard father while trying to restore his family name. The folk story is peppered with elements of magic and witchcraft in depicting the family battle. Because Nianankoro holds the power of magic, he is equally feared and respected.

Kenyan author Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O's book Wizard of the Crow also features witchcraft in the story about a corrupt African ruler set in a fictional African country. In fact, the book's title comes from a magical curse that a character (a beggar) invokes in order to ward off the policemen chasing him. The beggar is amused to find that a simple hand written sign threatening a curse could have such a powerful effect on the adults and scare them into submission. Such is the power of magic on the minds of the people. I am still in the middle of reading the book so I am not sure if in the end reality will win over black magic.

The Third Wood: witchcraft, love and family

What is the third biggest film industry in the world? This Guardian article first drew my attention to the answer which stumped me -- Nollywood. The entirely video film industry in Nigeria churns out movies at a rapid rate behind the studios of Hollywood and Bollywood. Since none of the movies are shot on film or shown in a theater, producers and film-makers can quickly shoot and produce movies on video. The films are often distributed and sold at road-side stalls for an eager audience.

Recently Film Int studied Nollywood in great detail. The essays ranged from history of the film industry to the themes covered and the social & political impacts of these movies. Unfortunately, none of those in-depth essays are available online but here a few quotes:

"The first Nigerians to shoot feature fictional films on video were artists from the Yoruba travelling theatre tradition, who turned to video when making films on celluloid became prohibitively expensive as the result of Nigeria's catastrophic structural adjustment programme". Jonathan Haynes, Nnebue: the anatomy of power.

"The Video film is arguably the most popular mode of cultural expression in Nigeria, produced at a rate which arguably makes Nigeria the hothouse of the genre in the world". Chukwuma Okoye, Looking at Ourselves in our Mirror.

On Nollywood's essential themes: "the corruption, moral turbulence and pervasive anxiety of the post-oil-boom era; the garish glamour of Lagos; titillating and dangerous sexuality; melodramatic domestic conflicts; and immanent supernatural forces including both dark cultic practices and Pentecostal Christianity." Jonathan Haynes, Nnebue: the anatomy of power.

"From its very beginnings in the 1990s the 'home video' industry in Nigeria has churned out movies that were constructed around a mode of narrative that seeks to naturalize the supernatural by dwelling on stories or plots that blend reality with fantasy. These movies have seized the imagination of audiences in Nigeria, across Africa and the African diaspora. It would seem that Nollywood movies have the strong capacity to appeal to deep currents in the psyche of its captive audiences, particularly its African audiences. The interplay between the magical and the real is part of the African consciousness and is part of the popular culture of postcolonial Africa." Hope Eghagha, Magical realism and the 'power' of Nollywood home video films.

Even though Nollywood started out in Nigeria, a few articles show how the industry and its practices cover neighbouring Ghana and Ivory Coast as well. One of the most surprizing things I discovered was how a certain number of Nollywood films were inspired by Bollywood films. In fact, some Nollywood films entirely lifted the stories or even dance steps from Bollywood films such as Taal, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Maine Pyaar Kiya. In a way, it should not be a surprize that Bollywood's appeal reaches to the Nigerian audiences as the tales of domestic problems and love stories should have no problems finding homes in countries with a strong focus on family life.

Images of a region:


German filmmaker Ralf Schmerberg's 45 minute black and white documentary Hommage à noir manages to capture both the African village and city life in a series of gorgeous black and white visuals accompanied with resonating music. His camera captures tribal practices, leisurely soaks in all the sights and sounds of a local market and even records a local soccer game. Filmed mostly in Cameroon, the abstract images could be used to apply to certain Eastern, Central and Southern parts of the continent as well.

Moving on to the North...

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The North – Football & Cinema:

Pic from: My Travel Guide
North Africa also has an amazing selection of top class soccer players but only a few of them leave for Europe. The Egyptian soccer league is the most established of the North African countries with the Moroccan league providing some worthy teams as well. One of my favourite North African players is Mustapha Hadji (Morocco) who was named African Footballer of the year in 1998. He had limited success in the English league but scored some amazing goals for Morocco.

But sometimes football can indeed tale the state of a country or even a region. Professional Egyptian soccer is certainly better known than its other Arab North African counterparts, much like how Egyptian cinema and literature dominates its Northern African neighbours. In fact, for the longest time it was Egyptian film that dominated the entire Arab world. But in recent years, other nations such as Tunisia and even a few of the Middle Eastern countries have started making in-roads towards establishing a unique cinematic identity of their own. Tunisian film-maker Férid Boughedir’s insightful documentary Caméra arabe (1987) looks at the development of Arab cinema and its rise against a background of turbulent political pressures. It was interesting to watch Boughedir’s documentary but unfortunately, I was only familiar with one director in that 60 minute film -- Youssef Chahine.

Coming of age via the lens of Férid Boughedir:

I first came across Boughedir thanks to his 1996 film A Summer in La Goulette. Sometimes a movie impacts a person tremendously. In that regards, ..La Goulette was one of the first few foreign films to overwhelm me and leave me breathless. I was seduced by the film and its three female characters, one Christian, one Arab and one Jew. I too wanted to travel to the beaches of La Goulette to bask in the white walled town where the three girls wandered, leaving men speechless in their wake. It was a tremendously enjoyable film and showed that no matter what religion the girls followed, their fathers were equally stressed and worried about their daughters; the fathers wanted to protect their daughters from the eyes of the local boys at all costs but they didn’t realize that it was their daughters who were the ones eyeing boys with equal passion and lust in the first place.

But before Boughedir showed the coming of age of teenage girls, he beautifully portrayed the maturing of a young boy Halfaouine: Child of the Terraces (1990). The film starts with the following images of the boy.


What are the interesting images that are holding the boy’s attention? Well his mother has been talking him to the local Hamam since he was a little boy but she has not realized her boy is growing up fast and developing an interest in girls and women. His eyes are wide open because he is staring at the naked girls and women around him.

The film is shown from the point of view of the little boy. We see what he sees and at times, we are given a few glimpses into the political revolution that is taking place around him. Not too much time is spent detailing the political struggles against a dictatorship regime because the boy does not understand what is going on. He has no idea why some people get arrested, why some disappear or how writing some harmless slogans on the wall could get someone in trouble. His goal in life is to understand the female species and to that end, he does accomplish his goal.


The purpose of a film and struggles along the way:


The last viewed film turned out to be an appropriate choice to close out the African spotlight. Youssef Chahine’s Alexandria Again and Forever details a film director’s struggle to get a movie made, the struggles he has with himself and his lead actor, the pressure of his producer, the overwhelming expectations of film festivals and the challenges posed by a writer’s strike. Chahine plays the main role in a film that can be described as his 8 ½.


The issues described in the film could possibly plague every film-maker as they could find themselves questioning the relevance of each scene and even the impact that their work would have. And surely there are plenty of directors out there who have one eye on the film festival circuit during their film’s post-production. Indeed, some directors attempt to get their movies completed in time for that prestigious film festival screening. So when a director is working with an end goal already in mind, it is not far fetched to believe that the pressure of expectations could creep up into some of their decision making during the filming.

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Final notes:

Africa will once again take centre stage for me at the start of 2008 thanks to the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament held in Ghana from Jan 20 – Feb 10. 16 nations from all corners of Africa would complete in this usually entertaining competition.

Group A: Ghana, Namibia, Guinea, Morocco
Group B: Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Ivory Coast
Group C: Egypt, Sudan, Zambia, Cameroon
Group D: Tunisia, Angola, South Africa, Senegal

Ideally I would have liked to have a film festival to coincide with the soccer games but unfortunately, I would struggle to find films from all nations. As it stands, I have atleast seen films from 8 of the 16 countries. This spotlight was definitely an improvement in terms of getting films from African. But there are plenty of classics out there which are either lost or not distributed in North America. Slowly, but surely, maybe some of these works will start finding their way across the ocean.

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Film (Year, Director): Ratings out of 10

Life on Earth (1998, Abderrahmane Sissako): 9

Hyenas (1992, Djibril Diop Mambéty): 8

Moolaade (2004, Ousmane Sembene): 9.5

Haramuya (1995, Drissa Toure): 6.5

Wend Kuuni (1982, Gaston Kaboré): 6

Yeelen (1987, Souleymane Cissé): 8.5

Hommage à noir (1996, Ralf Schmerberg): 8

Caméra arabe (1987, Férid Boughedir): 7

Halfaouine: Child of the Terraces (1990, Férid Boughedir): 8

Alexandria Again and Forever (1990, Youssef Chahine): 7.5

Back to the Theater 2: still more robbers and killers

Redacted (2007, Director Brian De Palma)

I went to see the movie that De Palma made. But a few minutes into the movie, I longed for another another movie that existed within Redacted. Redacted starts off with two video journals, one by an American soldier and the other from two French journalists. The French journalist diary only focuses on one checkpoint that the American soldiers in the film control. We get a voice over French narration as the camera hovers around the soldiers stationed at the checkpoint. No dialogue or action takes place but enough tension is created from the simple checkpoint images because we know how incidents at these checkpoints could end up -- either innocent Iraqis will be mistakenly killed or an ordinary person could be a threat? There is a moment when the camera shows us the viewpoint from a soldier's eyes -- we can see the soldier calculating each Iraqi as a threat or harmless.

Checkpoints are a source of high drama by themselves. The purpose of checkpoints is supposed to be for maintaining security but they end up being a show of power. Those stationed at the checkpoint are in power and determine the fate of the people wanting to get to the other side. More often that not, those in power abuse the innocent. I would have preferred to see an entire film about this American checkpoint, much like the brilliant documentary Checkpoint (2003) which showed the drama that takes place daily at Israeli checkpoints. That documentary simply placed a camera on the side and recorded events as is, without any narration. Such a simple documentation gave plenty of insight into the frustration that Palestinians feel as they attempt to make daily crosses across the absurd checkpoints, whose rules change on a daily basis.

But the main focus of Redacted is not about the checkpoint. It is about another incident about the abuse of power -- rape. The movie is a fictional account of a real incident about the rape of a 14 year old Iraqi girl by two American soldiers. There is nothing nice about the American soldiers shown in the film and their actions can easily be predicated. Ofcourse, the soldiers frustration only increases when they are not allowed to go back home. It is so easy to label the actions of a few soldiers as actions of some "bad apples" but one interesting idea that this film conveys is if the leadership at the top is rotten, it filters down to the bottom at the soldier's level. So if a soldier is a "bad apple", one has to follow the trail back to the top to see how the soldier was rotten in the first place.

In a way, it is good to see an American director make such a bold statement with this movie. One can even feel the anger throughout the film that comes to a boil in a few scenes. But given the number of books and documentaries that exist about Iraq, Redacted appears to add nothing new. De Palma blends multiple formats within the film such as video journals, internet videos, mock TV interviews and video diaries. Some of these separate segments are interesting but they appear to be disjoint within the overall story of the soldiers. I truly longed for a story about the checkpoint but I couldn't fathom the loud and annoying story about a few immature men working as soldiers and looking to satisfy their primal male urges.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, Director Andrew Dominik)

There are moments of beauty in this 2 hour 40 min film. There really are moments of shimmering beauty. The shots of the fields, abstract shots of everyday objects like a rocking chair. Why is no one sitting on the rocking chair? Well, Jesse James used to sit there. But not anymore. It is beautiful how a character's affair with a married woman is shown in a few shots -- she is stitching on her porch at night-time, rocking in her chair. We hear the door open behind her yet the camera stays only on her face. We can detect a hint of smile across her lips. She knows who it is and we know what will happen next. We get to see beautiful snowy Alberta which shines in such beauty that one forgets how the awful cold makes life miserable.

Yes there is beauty in the background score which dances on the smoother side, a soft peaceful tranquility. There is beauty in the calm voice over narration which leads us through the life of Jesse James and Robert Ford. A beautiful calm descends before Jesse James is killed cowardly. Any other movie would have ended there but the film's title also has another name, Robert Ford. And the movie continues as we see Ford's misery increase.

There is so much beauty in the film but the experience of watching this in a theater was a painful one. In fact, my experience was similar to the feelings I had when I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 years of solitude. I was quite excited to read the book and enjoyed the first few pages. Then my sentiments went through uneven proportions of like and dislike. When the dislike was winning, I wanted to stop reading the book. But I continued. When I finished reading the final words and closed the book, I was thoroughly satisfied. I did feel that it was a good story with a perfect ending. But I didn't enjoy the process of getting to the end. Similarly, I enjoyed the ending of ..Jesse James.. but I didn't enjoy the process of getting to it. I know which shots and segments I liked and which I disliked.

Credit for all the cinematic beauty goes to Roger Deakins, who was also recently responsible for bringing some peace and beauty to the Coen brother's No Country for Old Men.

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Ratings (out of 10):

Redacted: 6.5

The Assassination of Jesse James...: 7

Coming Soon -- The Euro 2008 Film Festival!

Dec 2, 2007: By early sunday morning (5 am Mountain time, 1 pm European Time), the draw for next summer's European Championship was completed. It gives soccer fans plenty to look forward to next year but it also gives me the chance to assess the potential match-ups for my Euro 2008 film festival.

Here are the groups:

Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland
Group C: Holland, Italy, Romania, France
Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia

The Group of Death, almost:

Leading up to today's draw, the fear of a 'group of death' was a real possibility. Such a group would have featured France, Italy, Holland and Germany. Well Group C comes close with Romania standing in for Germany. Romania are not an easy team to beat and might even nick a point or two off France & Italy. Romania also had the upper hand over Holland in the qualifying group -- the Dutch could only manage a 0-0 time with Romania and Romania won the group top spot by beating the Netherlands 1-0.

The German conspiracy:

About two months ago, Germany were poised to qualify as the highest rated team from all the European qualifying groups. This would have given Germany the highest seeding for the tournament along with co-hosts Austria & Switzerland and defending champion Greece. That would have meant that Germany would have avoided meeting these three teams in the Euro 2008 Group stages. It was at this time that I noticed articles mentioning that such a high seeding for Germany would be a disaster as they would miss the easy points they could pick up against Austria, Greece or Switzerland, the three weakest teams in the tournament. Sure enough, in the final three games, Germany duly lost at home to the Czech Republic and drew 0-0 with Wales to finish behind the Czechs and miss out on the top qualified team spot.

So the Germans got the draw they wanted. They are indeed drawn with the tournament's weakest team in Austria but the Germans will not have easy games against Croatia and Poland. Still, despite their planning, the Germans could have been in the group of death with France, Italy and Holland. But as it stands, I am sure they are happy to in Group B.

Such conspiracies are not new to German football. In 1974, West Germany were rumored to have thrown their match against rivals East Germany (1-0) so that they could avoid meeting the tournament's best team Holland. In the 1982 World Cup, West Germany and Austria settled on a 1-1 draw which ensured both teams reached the knock-out stages at the expense of Algeria. This was especially cruel on Algeria who had managed a brave 2-1 win over the West Germans.

The Two Hosts:

I am sure Switzerland will do fine and have a good chance to advance from Group A. But currently the Austrian national team is in shambles and if things don't get better, they could find themselves with no points from all 3 games next summer.

Regional Rivalries:

There are plenty of intriguing match-ups with some old rivalries bound to surface. The Swiss had a turbulent match-up with Turkey for the 2006 World Cup where the Turks were eliminated by the Swiss. Expect a fiery match-up between these two.

France and Italy must be sick of each other. Next summer would mark the 4th competitive meeting between these two teams in less than 2 years of international football -- their dramatic match-up in the 2006 World Cup final was followed by two eventful encounters during the Euro qualifying stages.

The numbers game:

An interesting event took place during the draw. To begin with, all the 1st place spots in the four groups were filled such as Group A1, B1, C1 and D1. Next, the slots for the remaining three group positions were to be randomly drawn. Meaning, any of the remaining teams could have occupied positions 2, 3 or 4. Initially only the 4th position number was drawn for all the four groups -- A4, B4, C4 & D4. Next, only the third spots were drawn -- A3, B3, C3 & D3. It was amusing to see the random drawing of positions by 4 different people resulting in the same numbers being pulled out in sequence.

Film Festival:

I had a great time mixing soccer with film for the 2006 World Cup and 2007 Copa America. So I am looking forward to next summer's Euros. And unlike the World Cup and Copa, I am guaranteed to find films from all the countries taking part in the tournament. Also, this time I won't wait until the soccer tournament begins to start watching the films but will start in the next few weeks. I already have some early film candidates in mind.....

Let the games, errr, film watching begin!!

Back to the Theater: Robbers and Killers

After a long break, I finally braved the cold weather and snow to return back to the movie theater to watch some films.

The Robbery -- the oldest cinematic story:

The first feature film ever made was The Great Train Robbery back in 1903. Since then, the heist or robbery film has been crafted and refined countless times -- from simple train robberies to bank hold-ups to sophisticated museum & casino thefts. Director Sidney Lumet made a memorable bank hold-up movie back in 1975 -- Dog Day Afternoon. Dog Day... was based on a real life bizarre story about a man's attempted hold-up and the media + police circus that followed. Over the years, shades of Dog Day.. can be found in quite a few heist movies. Now, at the age of 83, Lumet has directed a new kind of heist film -- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a robbery + dark family drama.

The core story penned by Kelly Masterson is wickedly evil and engaging but unfortunately the screenplay and final execution could have better. The first hour of this 2 hour film is weak but the movie gets better after the hour mark and ends on a strong note.

A few minutes into Before the Devil.., the robbery takes place. Then through a series of flashbacks, we are shown how all the characters got to the situations that resulted in the robbery. There is really no need for the flash back stories as it is obvious why the characters would attempt the robbery -- one look at the characters and their situations can be assessed completely. Also, the manner of the flash-backs is quite weak -- the same scene is repeated from a different camera angle to bridge the past events with the present. But, there is no need for these repeated scenes as they add nothing to the film. Moreover, the situations of these characters is not that complex to begin with so all the flash-backs scenes are overkill.

The real juicy movie takes place in the second hour when all the characters attempt to deal with the aftermath of the robbery. Dark, evil & intense. Revenge at all costs!

From an evil in the city to the country side monster:

Evil and blood are to be found in ample doses in the new Coen brothers film No Country for Old Men. It is a welcome change that the brothers head back to the dark murky evil territory that they first explored in their wonderful debut film Blood Simple (1984). At one point, I considered Joel and Ethan Coen to be geniuses and felt they could never make a bad movie. But then came along Intolerable Cruelty (2003) & The Ladykillers (2004) and I began to have my doubts. Now, a partial excuse for those two dull movies could have been that the brothers directed material they never originally wrote as opposed to the gems they wrote & directed such as Blood Simple, Barton Fink & The Big Lebowski. Ofcourse, O Brother Where Art Thou? was amazing but it was not a direct adaptation but a crafty blend from Homer's Odyssey to the deep American south. In that regard, I had some lingering doubts about No Country for Old Men because it is also based on material (Cormac McCarthy's novel) that the brothers didn't write. But thankfully, it is much better than their previous two adapted features.

As far as the story is concerned, it is a traditional good vs evil film, with the evil manifested in the form of a super villain (Anton Chigurh played by Javier Bardem). Anton oozes evil from every pore and can't be killed, or so it appears. He conducts his business on strong principles and appears to believe in the probability theory of creation. Anton probably believes that the universe was created on a dice roll and that is why he gives his victims the options to survive via a coin toss -- Anton is not doing the killing but it is fate that is driving him to via the invisible hand that is tossing the coin. Near the film's end, Anton calmly explains the significance of the coin toss and claims that it was the 'coin that brought him' to his victim's house.

While the battle between good and evil is going on, we have a person attempting to investigate the events in the form of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). The sheriff wants to help the good guy (Llewelyn Moss played by Josh Brolin) but I felt his role was not that of an enforcer but more of a neutral observer. It is a very interesting role as the sheriff reflects on the changing violent nature of the land. Ofcourse, the sheriff's memory only goes back to his grandfather's time when the land was quiet. Once upon a time, it was a rough country side with violent killings. Then peace reigned and in the present times, an influx of drugs and weapons is resulting in another violent phase. Which is where the movie starts off with multiple dead bodies lying on the ground while the vast and isolated desert looms large.

The movie could have been 20-30 minutes shorter. For me the weakest section was the last 10 min. Maybe it is something present in the book (the talk about old values and dreams) or maybe it is a means to justify the presence of this supreme evil killer? Another scene that bothered me. Near the start Anton is about to kill an innocent man and asks the man to "hold still". In the next scene, we see Llewelyn hunting and just before he pulls the trigger, Llewelyn whispers "hold still". Yes, the connection between hunter and prey is obvious but could this not have been handled in a subtle manner? But this is a minor niggling point as this is the only such symbolic scene in the movie. This scene reminded me of a similar usage in A History of Violence -- when a little girl wakes up screaming, her father tells her that there are no such things as monsters, only to show a real life killer in the next frame. For some reason, these scenes remind me of B-grade movies from an era long gone when the cinematic narrative options were not as well developed as they are now.

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Ratings (out of 10)

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Director Sidney Lumet): 7.5

No Country for Old Men (Directors Joel & Ethan Coen): 8.5

Finally, a zero rating!!!

Just when it looked like the year might end without any 0/10 rated films, along comes a movie so bad that even Ed Wood would have been embarrassed. Prior to watching this awful flick, the front runners for my personal worst 2007 movies list were Anubhav Sinha's Cash & Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag. Now, Ram Gopal Varma has had plenty of good movies to his name in the past so maybe he can be forgiven for the odd bad movie he churns out every few years. But currently as it stands, Anubhav Sinha is heading straight for the Ed Wood hall of fame with his awfully constructed films. Still in all his 5 movies, Sinha has not managed to make anything as bad as Vikram Bhatt has this year.

So here it is....drum roll..............

Speed (2007, Director Vikram Bhatt): Rating a solid 0/10

Contrary to what the title might indicate, this is not a Bollywood version of the 1994 Keane Reeves bus thriller. It is instead a ripped off version of the 2004 Hollywood film Cellular. Vikram Bhatt has made a habit of 'borrowing' plots from Hollywood movies but as bad as his movies are, they are usually watch-able to some extent. But Speed is a laughable effort.

I have not seen Cellular but the story does not sound too bad for a thriller. The problems with Speed are everything else Bhatt has modified to adapt the movie -- terrible screenplay & awful timing of the songs (a hot sexy number moments before the assassination has to take place). Urmila Matondkar has put in a decent acting effort but the rest of the cast do their best impersonation of B-grade flicks. Ofcourse, credit for all the wrong things has to go to Vikram Bhatt. And no truly bad Bollywood film would be complete without the patriotic angle where any ordinary Indian can save his nation!

Since Otar Left, Killer of Sheep

Otar has left with the Killer of Sheep

We interrupt our regular programming with this breaking news!!!

"Otar has left the country along with the killer of sheep. The killer of sheep was last seen 30 years ago in 1977 but has recently surfaced again. He is a wanted target and a threat. I repeat, he is a THREAT!!! His recent relationship with Otar could prove to be very dangerous for everyone. We are working on...hang on...what?...ok."

Dead air.

"And we are back. We have just received some new information. It appears that Otar has not left with the killer of sheep. I repeat, Otar has not left with the killer of sheep. Otar has left for Paris but the Killer of Sheep is still at large. Please lock your doors and stay in front of the tv for the rest of the night. We will continue to work on this story for our 11 pm news tonight."

Booming Announcer Voice: "We NOW return to the current program".

Tick Tock. Time flies by.

11 pm. Booming Voice: "Welcome to channel 847's nightly news. Here's your host Jim Newswallah"

"Good evening and glad you could be with us. We begin with our top story involving Otar and the Killer of sheep. Police have now confirmed that Otar has illegally landed in Paris and has gone missing. He has nothing to do with the Killer of Sheep who still poses a threat to the people of the free world. For more on Otar, we join ace reporter Valencia Fernandez on location in Tbilisi".

Valencia: "Yes thank you Jim. I am in Tbilisi, Georgia covering this remarkable story about Otar. It appears that Otar left Georgia for France in order to provide a better living for his family. The economy in Georgia has been going through a rough transition after the collapse of communism and people are struggling to make ends meet. In fact, some people still fondly remember the days of Stalin and the Soviet rule. One such person who misses the old regime is Otar's grandmother Eka."


"Eka lives with her daughter Marina and grand-daughter Ada

in an apartment complex in the heart of Tbilisi. The three women had to solely relay on Otar and now they can only hope that Otar can quickly find work in Paris and send some money back."

"This is Valencia Fernandez reporting for Channel 847, Tbilisi, Georgia."

Jim: "Well that was one part of our story. It appears that Otar doesn't pose a threat to anyone at this point. But the same can't be said for the killer of sheep. Who is this killer of sheep? Why is he a danger for all inhabitants of this planet? For more on his identity, we join the hip and manly Chaz Henry in L.A"

Chaz: "Good evening Jim."

Jim: "Yes, good evening Chaz. What can you tell us about this sheep killer?"

Chaz: "Well it appears that this story has been blown out of proportion. We ain't talking about no murderer but an ordinary hard working human being."

Jim: "With a name like killer of sheep, how can be innocent?"

Chaz: "Oh he got that name because he works in a slaughter house. That's all. In fact, he don't even slice the sheep. He merely mops the floor after the sheep get killed and takes them dead sheep towards the ice storage."

Jim: "Well that explains the title. But who is this man?"

Chaz: "His name's Stan."


Chaz: "He got a wife and two little kids. The kids spend all day playing around and getting in trouble. You know, the sort of stuff that kids do.


His wife is real pretty but she don't do much work around the house. Poor Stan got to do it all. He works all day long in the slaughter house, surrounded by blood and dead sheep. He got to wipe up all the blood off the floor. Then he comes home and instead of having dinner has to either fix some appliances or something."

Jim: "So is Stan a threat?"

Chaz: "Oh I get it. The only reason we doing this story is because you all think that Stan is a threat, eh?"

Jim: "No. Not at all. We thought he was a murderer and sent our ace crew to cover the story."

Chaz: "Well you got it all wrong. Stan could never hurt a fly. Well he may one day kill a sheep. But he won't lay a finger on a human being. You see.."

Jim: "Sorry Chaz. We have to go."

Chaz: "But I ain't finished yet."

Jim: "It does not matter. Stan is of no interest to us."

Chaz: "Ain't that the problem. Just because Stan is an ordinary man with every day problems and an honest job, he ain't interesting enough for you?"

Jim: "Chaz, we really don't have time for this. We are about to go to commercials"

Chaz: "No you ain't. You ain't going nowhere until you hear about my story about Stan."

Jim: "Chaz we have no place for real humanistic stories in our news. We only cover sensational news so that we can cause fear and panic in people. Only then will people submit to the greater powers. And once we have scared them enough, we feed them with mindless entertainment to numb them further."

Camera Man #1: "Jim, we are still on air"

Jim: "F*($#*^#$$#. I thought you said we went for commercials."

Camera Man #1: "You never gave the cue."

Jim: "You want a cue. I will give you a #$*&#$ cue."

Dead Air.

Booming Voice: "Due to technical difficulties with the news broadcast, we instead join an episode of the award winning drama 'Crime Beat Team: Suburban patrol."

---

Since Otar Left (2003, France/Belgium, Director Julie Bertucelli): Rating 8.5/10

A very tender and touching story about the relationship between three women. Beautifully acted, especially by Dinara Drukarova who plays the young Ada. Ada is the peace maker in the house as she balances the icy wars between her mother Marina (Nino Khomasuridze) and her grandmother Eka (a very sweet and measured performance from Esther Gorintin).

Killer of Sheep (1977, Director Charles Burnett): Rating 9/10



I can't believe such a poetic and simple film about a man's everyday struggles was made in 1977. The late 1970's American cinema was known for big Hollywood blockbusters, like Star Wars which got released in 1977 as well. So it is refreshing to know such a humble independent film was made three decades ago.

Note:
Killer of Sheep pics -- Copyright © 2007 Milestone Films
Since Otar Left pics -- Zeitgeist Films

Cruel harsh reality or fiction dressed up as life?

Despair. Agony. Anger. Misery. Helplessness. Depression.

The above words could be used to describe the emotions that some soccer fans might have felt last week at their nations failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championship in Austria/Switzerland.

Or

The above words could be used to describe the emotions that the characters experience in Austrian Ulrich Seidl's films.

Boredom:

Bright hot sunny days. Just another day in the suburbs. Nothing ever really happens. Silence & Sun. How to rid of the boredom?

Trim the hedges.


Or just lay around the pool.


Or one can engage in boring mechanical sex orgies (what, no pictures!!).

A microcosm of a nation or an independent culture existing within a nation?:

Ulrich Seidl's Dog Days is set in an Austrian suburb. But nothing in the film can be used to describe Austria itself -- the people depicted in the suburbs may be fictional characters or based on real life individuals but their stories can't be used as a lens to observe an entire culture. But can a suburb ever represent a culture? Even though American Beauty was praised for highlighting the suburban life, it was not representative of the American culture. Director Sam Mendes and writer Alan Ball could easily have portrayed a different set of happier and more confident characters who lived on the other side of the street. Similarly, Ulrich Seidl could have focused on characters who didn't live such bleak and depressive lives. But happy characters don't present audiences with many intelligent challenges. Not to mention that misery tends to win more awards!

Reality or fiction pretending to be reality?:

In both Dog Days & Import/Export, Seidl has filmed scenes in real locales (suburbs, apartment complexes with all the mess & garbage or an internet sex chat room) with a mix of non-professional and professional actors. Also, the camera keeps a slight distance from the characters allowing the audience to feel like a silent observer ("fly on the wall"). Such tactics appear to give the two films a verite feel and it is tempting to label the movies as 'realistic'. But that realistic feel disappears every time Dog Days rapidly cuts to a different character -- those multiple cuts do provide a reminder that Dog Days is still a manufactured film.

One can compare Seidl's style with that of Philippine film-maker Brillante Mendoza. Mendoza has shot both his 2007 films Slingshot and Foster Child on location as well (shanty towns) with a mix of professional and non-professional actors. But Mendoza used close-ups and long takes in equal proportions to fully involve the audience. Plus, his movies had more interesting story lines.

Suburbs with a difference:

American Beauty focused on a suburban family with the teenagers given some screen time. Larry Clark's Ken Park also focuses on suburban issues but looks at the movie from a teenager's point of view. Whereas, Seidl's Dog Days looks at older & retired people in the suburbs. But the age does not stop Seidl's characters in engaging in ménage à trois or sex orgies much like characters in a Larry Clark movie.

Timing:

I am glad that I first saw Seidl's 2007 film Import/Export before visiting his older 2001 work, Dog Days. Import/Export focuses on two central characters and does not hide the ugliness and misery in these characters lives. But the movie is not as harsh and savage as Dog Days is. In fact, the hopelessness and cruelty shown in Dog Days makes Import/Export look like a feel good happy movie!

---

Dog Days (2001): Rating 6.5/10

Import/Export (2007): Rating 9/10

Spotlight on Bollywood

Love -- Dreams, Fantasy & Heartbreak:



Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya is a combination of three sources:

Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story White Nights

a mix of Bhansali's two older films -- Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam & Devdas

Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge.

If these three elements were not complicated enough, then Bhansali has to deal with the added challenge of debuting two famous Bollywood star kids -- Ranbir Kapoor & Sonam Kapoor. Since Ranbir Kapoor is the youngest actor of the famous Prithivraj & Raj Kapoor family, Bhansali has added a few tributes to the famous RK banner films. When all these elements are blended together and garnished with plenty of songs, the end result is an uneven serving of art, drama, poetry & numbing torture. Sure, at moments the true beauty of Bhansali's vision shines through but overall, this is a pretty disappointing effort.



As far as the newcomers are concerned, they have done an outstanding job! In fact, both Ranbir and Sonam have captured the true complexities of their Dostoevsky characters perfectly. The script has only tweaked the personalities of Dostoevsky's characters slightly so it is easy to compare the actor's performances with those penned by Dostoevsky. Essentially, Raj (Ranbir) is a dreamer who tries to find happiness in life despite the lonely sadness that exists inside his heart. Sakina (Sonam) is also a dreamer but she can shift from happiness to misery in an instant. In the film, Sonam Kapoor's expressions are perfect in all scenes -- when she is laughing we can detect a hint of sadness in her smiles and when she is crying, we can detect the laughter that is about to errupt. And Ranbir Kapoor brightens up the screen with his refreshing performance and makes watching the movie bearable.

The sets and costumes are top-notch, as one would expect in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. There is beauty to be found around every corner of the dreamy constructed city. Ravi K. Chandran's cinematography is excellent as well. There are two shots that stand out for me -- one is a hovering crane shot when Raj is running past the bridge and the second is a shot when Sakina is running in an alley. The camera follows Sakina on her run and in that brief moment, the movie does achieve a moment of beauty and poetry. Unfortunately, the numerous songs and the pointless character of Rani Mukherjee ruins any flow in the movie. If the songs were good, then it might have made things a bit more watchable but except the title song, all the remaining songs are average and the videos are badly choreographed.

Hockey as a unifying sport:



Rarely has a predictable movie been so enjoyable! The trailers of Chak De India give away the entire formulaic story -- a disgraced ex-field hockey player takes on a coaching job that no one wants and despite all odds, turns things around to become a hero again! But thanks to a fresh and lively cast of newcomers and some smart decisions by director Shimit Amin, Chak De India is a very pleasant film to watch. Two particular scenes stand out as being good decisions by Amin and they both involve the characters of Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) & Bindia Naik (Shilpa Shukla).

Scene One: Bindia Naik is a senior hockey player who does not believe in following rules and makes life difficult for her coach, Kabir Khan. After a confrontation, Kabir orders Bindia off the field. The camera follows Bindia from the field to the bench and remains focused on her face while Kabir's character disappears in the background. Normally, in other Bollywood movies this is how the sequence would have been filmed -- after Kabir would have ordered Bindia off the field, the camera would have shown Bindia's face, then cut back to Kabir Khan and then cut back to show that Bindia is seated on the bench. The rule of thumb in most Bollywood films is to always focus on the 'star' whereas other characters mean nothing. In this case, Shimit gives plenty of screen time to a cast of newcomers which is a great thing to see.

Scene Two: Bindia is upset that she is not selected as the team captain. She confronts Kabir and mentions that she is willing to do anything to become captain. The camera is only focused on both their faces. We can hear Bindia unzip her top. The camera shifts to Kabir's face. Then the camera moves back slightly but still stays focused on both character's faces. We hear Kabir unzip Bindia's top back up. What is interesting about this scene is that the camera shows the emotion on both character's faces whereas several other Bollywood directors would instead have focused the camera on Bindia's assets and would have had a close-up shot of Kabir's hand on the zipper.

Both the above scenes may seem like minor aspects but the movie is packed with plenty of such tiny details. The end result of all these shots is that Shimit has ensured that the audience only focuses on the relevant details. A truly fun film!

Drama -- Emotion & Tears:



Feroze Khan's Gandhi, My Father is an emotional voyage about a story that has rarely been told. Everyone has heard about Mahatma Gandhi but how many people have heard about his son Harilal Gandhi? Feroze Khan has based the movie on two novels about Harilal Gandhi and included a few selected events from his life. At the film's start, we see an almost dead Harilal. While lying in a hospital bed, he remembers certain key moments of his life. Via flashbacks we see some episodes from Harilal's life -- his youth, education and marriage followed by his failed business ventures to his religious conversions & eventual decline.

While the movie has some flaws (pacing mostly), it can't be ignored. Khan has set up his scenes in such a manner that we can truly focus on Gandhi's son. Even though Harilal made some wrong decisions in his life, the film tries to simply depict his gradual decline and misery without passing judgment. Sometimes, incidents in a person's childhood forever alter the course of their life. In Harilal's case, at a very early age his father's principles alienated him and shocked him deeply.

Personally, it was difficult to watch this movie because it was clear that there was no happiness around the corner. Even when people help Harilal or offer him shelter, it is clear that nothing can save him from the path of destruction. Gandhi death's shocked the nation whereas Harilal quietly disappeared from the world 5 months after his father. Credit goes to Feroze Khan for making this movie. It is not an easy film to watch but it is one that I can't get out of my mind. Even writing these words makes me shudder at the thought of Harilal's fate.

Comedy -- Ghosts, Treasure Hunts & some romance:




Did Priyadarshan get lucky with his 2000 film Hera Pheri? That movie is still one of the best comedies to have come out of Bollywood in the last decade. But since then, Priyadarshan has directed a handful of comedies with mixed results -- movies such as Hulchul, Hungama & Garam Masala had plenty of hilarious moments but the movies were also plagued with poor stories. Based on that track record, I didn't have too much hope from Bhool Bhulaiyaa but was pleasantly surprized! The movie is an easy mix of humour, horror and mystery. The first hour flows at such a leisurely pace that it is difficult to believe that this is a Priyadarshan film. But things pick up considerably as soon as Akshay Kumar enters the screen at the hour mark. In fact, within two minutes of screen time, Akshay Kumar injects more life into the film than that of the previous hour. Eventually, things settle down and head towards a very interesting climax. Not bad.

Well any good work that Priyadarshan achieved with Bhool Bhulaiyaa, he wasted it with Dhol, a terribly boring comedy about 4 friends who want to get rich quickly. Awful screenplay and bad acting.

Dhamaal is also a comedy about 4 men who want to get rich fast but it is a much better effort than Dhol. The humour in Dhamaal is good and the jokes are evenly distributed throughout the movie so that the comedy does not get too dull. Even though the movie was decent to watch, a better story with some additional editing could have made this a much better film.

David Dhawan made his name in Bollywood with crude & vulgar comedies in the early 90's with Govinda as his star. Eventually, Govinda dropped out of the pictures and Dhawan moved onto less crude comedies with Salman Khan. Over the last few years, he has tried different pairings for his comedies -- Salman Khan & Sanjay Dutt, Govinda with Sanjay. And now finally he has paired Govinda with Salman. Unfortunately, Dhawan forgot to have a screenplay. As a result, Partner is just a painful movie, even by David Dhawan's standards. In fact, Partner is so bad that it makes me long for his crude comedies from the 90's.

Cheeni Kum may have sounded like a good idea on paper but ends up being a pretty dull end product. Yawn.

Action -- Fight, Explosives & Loud Noise:



Watching Anubhav Sinha's Cash was pure torture! The pointless loud action sequences combined with awful performances and a poor screenplay made Cash a real waste of money. The best aspect of the movie is the closing credits song -- "Aye Chorrey". That last song is pleasant to hear and shot in an easy cool manner, unlike the rest of the film. Yuck!



Sholay is still considered to be one of the best Bollywood movies ever made! It is perfect in every aspect -- great screenplay, fascinating characters (the villain Gabbar Singh is still the greatest ever villain in Indian, yes Indian not just Bollywood, film history) & memorable music. So when Ram Gopal Varma wanted to remake the movie as a matter of tribute, it sounded like a bad idea. But no one could have ever imagined that the director of such cutting edge films as Rangeela & Satya would go on to make one of the worst films in Bollywood's history. It is shameful to even say Aag is someone's tribute to Sholay. Every scene is packed with mistakes -- bad acting, poor screenplay, terrible characters and forgettable songs. Unfortunately, I still can't give this movie a Rating of 0 because there are some decent camera angles in the movie. In some scenes, the camera hovers effortlessly over the characters and in most scenes, the camera is below the waist level and glares upwards towards the characters. Ofcourse, one easily forgets this good camera work when any character opens their mouth. Painful, utter torture!!!

---

Film (Director): Ratings out of 10
Note: All movies released in 2007

Chak De India (Shimit Amin): 8.5
Gandhi, My Father (Feroze Khan): 8
Bhool Bhulaiyaa(Priyadarshan): 7.5
Saawariya (Sanjay Leela Bhansali): 7
Dhamaal (Indra Kumar): 6.5
Cheeni Kum (R. Balki): 5.5
Dhol (Priyadarshan): 4.5
Partner (David Dhawan): 4
Cash (Anubhav Sinha): 3.5
Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag: 2

Spotlight on Greece

When one thinks of Greece, the images that come to mind are either those of the beautiful Greek Islands or the fascinating historical structures of Athens. But what about Northern Greece that shares a border with Eastern Europe? Even though Greece is grouped in Western Europe, it is south of Eastern European countries such as Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Decades ago this East-West divide was made on political grounds but unfortunately, this tag of Eastern vs Western Europe still holds in today's age of the European Union.


Online Map/Still. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Nov. 2007 http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-62900

Greek soccer as a history lesson:

My education of European geography has partly been fueled by European soccer but unfortunately Greek soccer has failed to give me an accurate picture of Greece. Just like Turkish soccer is dominated by three teams from Istanbul, Greek soccer is dominated by the big three from Athens -- Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. Olympiacos is the biggest of the three and have won 35 league titles including 10 of the last 11 championships. Panathinaikos have won 19 titles with AEK Athens bagging 11. The last time a team other than the three won a title was Larissa back in 1988, almost 2 decades ago. In fact, during the entire history of the Greek Championship from 1928 to 2007 (no championships were held from 1940-45), only 6 titles have gone to teams outside the big three. Larissa have one title, with two teams from Thessaloniki claiming the other 5 titles -- Aris with 3, PAOK with 2.

While Greek soccer may not highlight the different Greek cities & cultures, this uneven balance does explains the nation's one-sided structure -- Athens is not only the capital but also the financial hub. Not to mention the historical significance that Athens occupies in Greek history. So if soccer can't broaden my view of Greece, then surely Cinema can help? Right? Thankfully, this is where Theodoros Angelopoulos comes in.

The Balkan Connection -- opening the borders:

Theo Angelopoulos' 1995 film Ulysses' Gaze takes a look at Greek ties with its neighbouring Balkan countries. Harvey Keitel plays a Greek director who returns from America in search of three missing reels of the first ever Balkan movie. But the search for the three missing reels proves to be an elusive quest. His search for the reels takes him to neighbouring Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and eventually Bosnia. It turns out that each country has an equal claim to the film reels and as the director drifts from border to border, his past flashes before him. The memories of his childhood are mixed with the present political situations he finds himself in, such as the ongoing war. One interesting aspect of the movie is that the same actresses is used to play different roles in each country. This simple technique conveys the fact that no matter which country the director goes to, he sees the same image of the woman he desires. If people are the same everywhere then what is the need for fictional borders?

There are plenty of beautiful shots in the movie like the following poetic and haunting sequence which depicts a statue of Lenin being transported.




With the fall of communism, there is no longer any need to have Lenin displayed everywhere. In a subtle manner, the movie shows the changing political landscape of the Balkan nations and their re-birth after years of communism. Despite the noble intentions, Ulysses' Gaze is a bit disjoint and tends to oscillate between interesting moments and dullness in equal parts.

Exile and Love:

Even though Angelopoulos's 2004 film The Weeping Meadow starts off with scenes of a border crossing, the movie is about Greek political history over a span of three decades. At the film's start, exiled Greeks return from Odessa in 1919 to settle back in their homeland; the returning Greeks have been promised land in Thessaloniki to start their new life. One of the newly returned citizens is a young orphan girl, Eleni. Eleni is the film's central character and the story follows her life from childhood to teenage love, marriage and growth of her two children against the backdrop of communism, World War II, a Greek civil war (where a brother is pitted against brother) and exile of Greeks to America to start a new life.

In some aspects, this film covers the same grounds as Emir Kusturica's Underground in showing how war can tear a country apart. While Underground was a vibrant film which focused on surreal elements, The Weeping Meadow takes a realistic approach to the tragedies that surround the characters. But just like Undergound, The Weeping Meadow features some haunting gypsy music which provides joy to the characters in moments of their sorrow.



The film features some amazing visuals which make use of brown and greyish tones to depict the character's bleak situations.



This is supposed to Theo's first film of a proposed trilogy. It will be interesting to see what direction he will take with the other two films.


Greek-Turkish Rivalry:

Historically, there has been has a rivalry between Greece and Turkey. But when did this rivalry start? One clue can be found in the name of AEK Athens. AEK spells out Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos or the Athletic Union of Constantinople. The history of the club reveals that the team was founded in 1924 by Greek refugees who returned from Constantinople following the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922. That war forms one aspect of the rivalry with a more recent one being that of Cyprus.


"Cyprus." Online Map/Still. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Nov. 2007, http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-74048

Shamefully, I knew nothing of the two nations historical involvement over Cyprus. I had hoped that Mihalis Kakogiannis' documentary Attila '74 would provide some answers. Kakogiannis does provide some historical context of Cyprus prior to its independence in 1960 but the film does not answer even the basic question of how the 1974 war started or who fired the first shot. Kakogiannis focuses more on the displacement of the innocent Cypriots who were caught in the political cross-fire and gives a voice to the locals plight. But when Kakogiannis tries to dig up reasons for the war, he unfortunately interviews the wrong people. As a result, the political message in the documentary appears to be more propaganda rather than an objective historical portrayal.

Romance and a Greek Tragedy:

It would have been unfair to not have included a film in the Greek spotlight which didn't feature those picturesque Greek islands. Kakogiannis' 1956 film A Girl in Black starts off with beautiful images of white washed buildings of Hydra.


The small population of Hydra means that all the local residents know each other and one person's affair is gossip material for everyone else. This over-intrusive behaviour can force a person to live in a constant state of hell. Such is the case of Marina, who is hounded and chased for an affair she had a few years back.


When Pavlos, a visiting tourist, arrives in Hydra, Marina temporarily finds happiness. This is one of the few shots where we actually see a smile on her face.


Some of the island's macho men can't stand the fact that a stranger can fall for one of the locals, especially Marina. Christos is the leader of the macho group and he has more reason to be jealous because he once had an affair with Marina. He plots a revenge to teach Pavlos a lesson. But as it turns out, that lesson leads to a wider scale tragedy that has an impact on most of the island's residents.

Plenty of interesting aspects stand out from the revenge that Christos and his group plan. Even though certain locals know that Christos is responsible for the tragedy, they are willing to be quiet and are instead content with heaping blame on Pavlos's arrival to the island. This nature of a group of men sticking together despite the obvious evil deeds of a group member is such a commonly found problem in modern society -- 'us' against 'them', locals vs outsiders. Even though it was clear that the local macho men were always looking for trouble, the island residents were more than willing to turn a blind eye to everything Christos & his group did and instead lay blame on the foreigner.

Overall ratings out of 10:
A Girl in Black (1956, Director Mihalis Kakogiannis): 9
The Weeping Meadow (2004, Director Theodoros Angelopoulos): 8.5
Ulysses' Gaze (1995, Director Theodoros Angelopoulos): 7.5
Attila '74 (1975, Director Mihalis Kakogiannis): 6

No Smoking revisited

I had a different experience watching Anurag Kashyap's film No Smoking a second time. There was no rush of excitement, just calm admiration. I picked up on little details that I missed the first time around and came close to confirming my theory about the film's meaning. As the final credits rolled, I mused about the clues. But then something happened which I didn't expect. There was an additional scene after the credits. Damn! This scene didn't exactly shatter my theory but simply made it very clear what the movie was about. But why was this scene there? Why? And then after that scene, there was one final song with Bipasha Basu. And at the song's conclusion, an un-necessary finale (can be a surprize depending on one's viewpoint).

I was also able to correct an earlier observation where I believed one scene reveled the film's true reality. There is no one such scene but a series of scenes which reveal what is going on. However a lot of elements in the film appear to be simply thrown in for a wow factor (memory flash back with canned laughter, side story about Cuba and the display of the character's inner thoughts) and add no value to the movie. Unless that one scene after the credits is removed, then these other cool scenes have some purpose.

Still an interesting and worthy effort!

Notes: Some elements in the movie that I loved. These won't make sense unless one has seen the movie.
-- The call centre for troubled souls
-- The Rs.1 coin needed for a soul to call its body for help: inner voice
-- The pyramid chain scheme where friends sold out their friends only to save themselves: every man for himself, society today.
-- Calcutta Carpets set-up: hell in an earthly form, complete with receipts.
-- The bath-tub: each troubled soul in the film has a safe spot to hide in; a vessel from which they go to their happy place. K heads to the bathtub whenever life is getting too much for him whereas other characters either hide under the bed or in a closet.
-- The police interrogation room: voice of reason/logic?
-- The film's visuals & sound -- dark when they have to be.

Additional comment:
A lot of the reviews about this movie mention how the story idea is similar to Stephen King's short story Quitters, Inc. Not having read the short story, I can only go on the rough story outline that I have found. From those outlines, it does appear that the idea of using torture to make someone quit smoking has been inspired from King's story. But the additional layers of Kafka and the soul vs body struggle appears to be Kashyap's.

Still, the lack of a tag which acknowledges that the film was "inspired" by King's story does dampen my feelings about the movie a bit. Why? Because such an act follows the trend of other Bollywood film-makers who choose not to credit their sources.