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Rang-e khoda (1999)
Simply Beautiful Sadness
The Color of Paradise starts and ends with sadness. The movie is full of misunderstanding, of confusion and in a way hate. We follow Mohamed through the movie, he is a happy little boy who goes to a special school for blind boys in the city were we first see him patiently waiting for his father to pick him up for summer vacations. From the first 10 minutes, we can sense the tension that will not go away for the rest of the movie. When Mohamed's dad finally picks him up, he is not able to see him but his dad looks at him with disappointment we learn latter on that he sees his son as a burden. We learned then why. Mohamed's mother died and his dad is trying to remarry to a young woman from their village and he believe his son is keeping him from doing so, he then sends his own son away to a bling carpenter to learn carpentry but this cost him a lot at the end and eventually ruins his life completely.
We can connect each of the family member of the movie to the government of the country. Mohamed represents the people and his dad represents the country of Iran, where the movie takes place. The government sees its people as a burden, they wish they could get rid of them but if they do this they are left with nothing. While watching the movie with this mentality one can see the small hints here and there of how the government treats the people in Iran. It can also simply be a tragic movie about the life of a blind boy but I believe there is more meaning behind it than we would expect it to be. Either way this is a beautiful movie to watch, from its spectacular shoots to the charismatic little boy who is Mohamed and his truly tragic story of suffering because of his father hate towards him. You will cry at the end of the movie but you will have also witnessed a beautiful story that will be hard to forget any time soon.
Syn Babilonu (2009)
Beautiful Tragedy
When one thinks of Iraq it is probable that you have an image of it. Lots of guns and lots of militia all around the cities. This movie shows the other side of it. The side after the images we normally think of. To be able to understand everything in this movie, knowledge about Iraq is required. In 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussain, the country of Iraq was in a bad place. One of the worst things that were discovered after Saddam's fall were, mass graves, where not all the bodies in them could be identified. Those families who had sons or husbands in the military were forced to look for their relatives in this mass graves and most of the times they were not found. This is the setting for the movie Son of Babylon.
Ahmed has never meet his father who was drafted to join the military 12 years ago when Ahmed was born. Ahmed and his grandma, Um Ibrahim, decided to go look for Ahmed's father after she gets a letter from a friend of her son. They go out looking for him with nothing, they are not even sure if they will find him, they hope they will. Their journey is a long and tiresome one. They encounter some people along their way that might be able to help Ahmed at the end of the movie, or at least we hope they will. Their journey begins and ends with tragedy and sadness. Ahmed is forced to become independent and is left with nothing at the end, not even hope. The last scene of the movie is heartbreaking as we see Ahmed play the flute of his father while crying.
This movie really shows the effect war has on people. They suffer some more than other and they lose sometimes everything they have. Son of Babylon could be called a roadrtrip movie because we follow our characters on a trip that will change their lives forever but this movie is so much more. It opens a window to a world many of don't even imagine. A beautiful, tearful movie that will make you think about the consequences of war and the importance of family.
Idi i smotri (1985)
A True War Film
We live in a time where war movies are always about a hero. They show how a soldier risked their life to save a friend how heroic they truly are. This movie whether we like it or not, glorify war. They make it seem like a good option for someone to thanks part of, they basically say "Hey there might me death but hey you will be a hero at the end!" and we know that is now hoe it goes. Some of these movies could even be called war propaganda in a way. They paint war as a glorifying moment in a soldier's life but it is extremely weird for a movie to show the other side of the war. Not the soldiers who trained and became heroes but the people who suffered because of war and this is exactly what Come and See does.
Come and See is a movie that I could not get out of my mind for a moth. This is a masterpiece with a deep antiwar message. In the movie, we follow Florya a young Russian guy who decided to join the military during the Second World War. He does not become a hero at the end but a victim, what most people who go to war are. We follow Florya through a period of time where he lives the most terrible things a human being could possible experience. He is forced into situations no one should be put through. His life becomes a tragedy in its purest way. Not in a single moment of the film do you see a hero or you feel like Florya might have a good life after. This movie focuses on the real side of war, the bad side, the terrible side which most people in war experience. This is what I would call a war film, and the best one I have seen. It opposes war in all of its aspects not separating the good or the bad side but simply showing the bad that war does to people.
Machuca (2004)
Honesty in a movie
I haven't seen a movie that seemed so honest and real in a long time. I believe that the actions taken by the characters are natural for them, the children take the decisions and act as children would act in real life. There are many movies now days where the actions of the characters don't seem to fit the character they are unnatural and sometimes even betray the character themselves, but not in Machuca, every action has a reason to be. This could have been a really bad movie if it had been done just a little bit different. There are not amazing shoots there are not long monologues that seem unnatural and every character is constant throughout the movie. The movie takes place at the end of the presidency of Salvador Allende and at the end of the democracy of Chile.
Gonzalo and Pedro, the main character of the movie, become friends almost immediately, even though the they are from different social classes, Gonzalo's family supporting the right side and Pedro's family supporting the left side, the kids still become friends by fighting their bullies. This shows how children don't really care about the material stuff or how much money someone has, as long as they can have a fun with someone they will become friends. Gonzalo and Pedro might have very different lives but they understand each other and are intrigued with each other lives. Gonzalo is welcomed in Pedro's family. Gonzalo has his first reality shook when he goes to Pedro's house and sees how the other side of Chile lives. Gonzalo's reaction to Pedro's life is natural. He doesn't feel completely comfortable because he is used to way nicer things but he is not scared either, he is mature enough to understand that Pedro's family is not like his and he accepts it and doesn't let this difference come between his friendship with Pedro. He even decides to help them sell Chilean flags during protests. Whit this simple action Gonzalo gets a better understanding of the situation in Chile, even better than his mom who is shown supporting the right side and even being mean to Gonzalo's crush, Silvana. It is the adult who start to drive Gonzalo and Pedro apart. The families of Gonzalo and Pedro's school do not like the people of lower resources to go to the same school as they "privileged" children. Finally, the cruelty of the revolution drives them apart in a horrible way, Gonzalo tries to help his friend but he is in danger by doing so and ends up running away. We can see the regret of Gonzalo for ruing away but there is nothing he could have done but we know that he will be the change Chile will need in the future.
The movie does a great job at showing both sides of the Chile revolution and at making it all seem real. The camera movements, the different shots, the actions of the characters with a reason behind them all help the movie be as realistic as possible and to be able to show both sided of the revolution. I truly enjoyed this movie and the story it tells. It is a movie that helps understand better the situation Chile went through.
Ángel de fuego (1992)
Angel de Fuego and its Oppressing Society
Angel de Fuego is a movie hard to forget. The events that the main character Alma live through, I do not wish for anyone to live. This movie is about the consequences of an oppressing society where the poor are given no other choice but to be poor and suffer. Alma works at a circus where she is the main attraction, without her the circus would go broke, but Alma is simply a 13-year-old girl. Not such responsibility should lay on a 13-year-old girl. To the people of the circus Alma is not more than an income, so when she is no longer able to provide them with said income they don't hesitate on kicking her out of the circus. Alma knows no other life but the one where there is violence, abuse, marginalization, and powerlessness. So, when she is kicked out of the circus and finds what she believes to be her rescuers she does not see that they only want to help her for their own benefit. Alma leaves a life of constant abuse just to fall back into the same life.
Alma was an angle living in hell. At such a young age, she is not able to understand the world she lives in, she tries to get through it but fails and end up in a worst place than where she started. At the end of the movie Alma makes the first selfish decision of her life. She does it for herself and no one else. No one will take advantage of her anymore. The actions of the character were justified, even the most horrible ones, because of the oppressing society they live in. They were poor and know no better. They were forced to take those decisions.
The movie like I said before is a hard one to forget, the tragedies in Alma's life lead to a tragic end. I don't think there is a better ending to this tragic movie. The story will drag you into the movie and it compensates for the lack of production of the movie. Not every movie need to have perfect cinematography or perfect direction, a good story is what makes a good movie and Angels de Fuego is a story you will never forget.
O Menino e o Mundo (2013)
The sad reality
Don't let the colorful animation of Boy and the World to distract you from its deep obscure meaning. From the beginning, I thought this was going to be another animated movie for kids but boy was I wrong. Boy in the World is about a Brazilian boy whose life is destroyed. His dad leaves to go find work and the boy want to go find him but instead he finds a terrible world where he is lost. The boy is more of a symbol in the movie, he represents the people of Brazil and how they have suffered because of modernization and capitalism. We can see how the other characters of the movie lose their humanity when they become factory workers or film workers. They are nothing to their country but a source of money. They work all day and they live in terrible conditions. We see a contrast of color and sound in some scenes specifically the ones were the people were being oppressed which give it a darker connotation. But the most effective scenes where not the animation one but when they show small clips of the real world and how bad things really are. A break from the fantasy and a crash into reality.
The movie is a critique of the world we live in and how some people are lost to this society. People are stripped of their lives and are forced to become nothing but and income to those in charge and those in charge clearly don't care about them. The fact that the boy's dad is never found shows just how lost people really get in this world sometimes. I found the movie to be extremely effective at getting its message across. I couldn't stop thinking about this movie for a week after I watched it, it will really make you consider and look with a critical eye what is going on in the world now days. We can let other people be stripped of their humanity there must be something we can do.
Wadjda (2012)
A big step for Saudi Arabia
Many of you might have watched this movie without really knowing the history behind it and how much this movie really means to the women of Saudi Arabia and to their country on general. Wadjda is not simply a movie about the oppressing rules in Saudi Arabia and how a girl over comes them. The movie itself is an example of this. Haifaa Al-Mansour is the first Saudi woman director of the country. She had to fight for almost 3 years to get the financial support to get the movie made and once she did she face difficulties while filming because she could not be seen interacting with the men of the crew in public so she had to stay inside of a ban from where she directed which made it extremely difficult to do so. Wadjda was also the first feature length movie shoot entirely in Saudi Arabia and with a mostly Saudi cast. This was also the first movie the country ever submitted to be considered by the Academy Awards, it did not get nominated but the simple fact that it was submitted speaks a lot about how important this movie is.
Of course, the story of Wadjda had a lot to do with the recognition of the movie. The story of a girl who want to ride a bicycle in a country where bicycles are only for boys. Wadjda doesn't give up and does whatever she has to do to get her bicycle and race her friend. We see the character of the movie overcome many obstacles on their lives, from simply cutting their hair to taking responsibility for their actions. The movie clearly criticizes the society of Saudi Arabia but it also shows how the people of the country can help make it better and that it is possible for it to get better. The movie was controversial when it first came out, Haifaa Al-Mansour faced criticism for the source of her movie calling it anti-religious, which she denied. The movie was still a big success in the country which shows how there is hope for it to change for the better and how it is already changing.
Pelo malo (2013)
Differences not Accepted
We live in a word where differences are not always accepted. Even now days we face discrimination, racism and plain hate for those who are different to what the social norms dictate. The world is slowly changing for better but there are people who want to keep things "the old way", people who don't accept those who are different. This is intolerance to differences is evident in the movie Bad Hair. Junior is a 9-year-old kid living in a department complex in Venezuela. His mother doesn't have a job and she is the only provider for Junior and her little brother after his dad died. From the beginning of the movie we can see the tension between Junior and his mother but we don't know exactly why this tension exists at the beginning. With the course of the movie we can see that Juniors mother does not accept who her son is and therefore neither does he. It is not explicitly said but we know that junior is gay because of his actions. He says he want to be a singer, he has a crush on Mario the guy who works in the store downstairs, his only friend is a girl and the most important one, he doesn't like his "bad hair" (curly). Throughout the movie, we see Junior doing different things to his hair to try to make it straight and every time he does his mom get angry at him. She doesn't want her son to be who he is and it seems like no one in Juniors life accepts him. This is a clear example of intolerance in society today. There are many kids who go through the same thing Junior goes through, not being accepted. Junior has his back against a wall in the movie. He is only 9 and he depends completely on his mom, who he loves very much. He is not giving other option but to deny who he really is at the end of the movie. It is a truly sad story, because we can see how Junior feels, he wants to be himself but we know because of the last scene where junior is standing in the courtyard of his school with his head shaved and emptiness in his eyes, that he will oppress his true self just to make those around him happy, just so his mom will accept him. The movie captures perfectly the dilemma some people go through in their lives and why sometimes they make the decisions they make.
This is a beautifully shot movie with a deep message to those who oppress other and to the oppressed. Is a movie where one is able to connect with the characters and understand their positions. By the end I was angry and sad, I might have cried a little bit a really enjoyable and meaningful movie.
Tomboy (2011)
Tomboy and why the title is wrong
This movie touched me in a way I wasn't expecting it to. I watched the movie a couple of years ago when it was first put on Netflix, but I recently watched it again and couldn't help but think "The title of the movie is wrong". When you look up the meaning of Tomboy you find that tomboy means a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys which means that a Tomboy still identifies as a girl but Laure, or I should better say Mikäel, does not identify as a girl, he is a boy. The title of the movie might mislead some viewers to believe they are watching a movie about, well, a tomboy when in reality they are watching a movie about a boy trying to find himself. He might not explicitly say "I am a boy" but his actions speak for themselves. Mikael is uncomfortable in his body, and feel like one, he stares at his flat chest for long periods of time in the mirror and we can see his desire for it to stay that way, but we know it won't, and when he is invited to go swim with his friends he decided to create his own boy swim trunks and a little bulge so he really does look as a boy. He doesn't identify with his birth given name Laure. He identifies as Mikael, a boy. If Mikael was a tomboy he would might still present himself as Laure and would still wear a girl swimsuit and a shirt while playing soccer.
I don't think the director of the movie understood the character of Mikäel completely. If she did then she would have known that the title of the movie doesn't have anything to do with the main character. There are several instances in the movie where I sensed a misunderstanding of the character, specifically the ending where Mikäel says his name is Laure to his friend, the ending makes you believe that he would come to terms with being a girl but I think that if you paid close attention you know this will not happen. There could have been a better ending to the movie but it still is a pretty good movie that I believe people should watch, as it is a story that will touch your hearth.