Where We Are: Mozambique
wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique)
What We Watched:
(http://www.invelos.com/mpimages/84/844667023589f.jpg)
Terra Sonâmbula (Sleepwalking Land)
Year of Release: 2007
Starring: Nick Lauro Teresa, Aladino Jasse, Hélio Fumo, Ilda Gonzalez
Directed By: Teresa Prata
Genre: Drama, War
Overview:
In the midst of Mozambique's devastating civil war, Muidinga, an orphaned refugee, wanders the countryside in search of his mother. His only companion is an elderly storyteller, and the only guide to finding his mother is a dead man's diary. Together the storyteller and diary lead him on a magical, and sometimes macabre, journey across war-torn landscapes to find the family he lost. Based on Mia Coutou's acclaimed Portuguese novel of the same name, Teresa Prata's transporting drama underscores the power of imagination in surviving, and ultimately overcoming, the catastrophe of war.
My Thoughts:
I'm a bit overwhelmed as to what to say. This is a powerful film. It has a lot to say about the effect of ongoing war on civilian populations, on the madness of madness of inter-tribal conflict and prejudice. When the shopkeeper says that the kind of men he likes are those of "no color," it really resonates to conflict around the globe, not just Mozambique.
This is another low-budget film with amateur actors, but the two leads, Nick Laura Teresa as Muidinga and Aladino Jasse as Tuahir, are really good in their roles. Jasse really brings Tuahir to life. I was especially struck by the scene where he recalls life before the war, when he worked for the railroad, and how he brings that to life for Muidinga.
This is, in part, magical realism, and as such can be read in multiple ways. Tuahir and Muidinga journey in circles, ever-returning to the burned-out bus they first settle in. Later the bus moves while they remain in it. It is left to the viewer whether you believe in the magic, or it is simply their hallucination as the events of their lives overwhelm them. Just as you are left to decide whether the story of Kindzu that Muidinga reads from the journal has happened as Muidinga reads it, or is it something that Muidinga is embellishing or making up. The ending is equally ambiguous, letting the viewer end the story themselves.
This is a very compelling film, well made despite its budgetary limitations, but given the subject matter not for the tender-hearted. There's also one scene that would offend most of my friends - where Tuahir masturbates his young charge after they talk about women (you don't see anything)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Overall: 3.5/5
Where We Are: Russia
wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia)
What We Watched:
(http://www.invelos.com/mpimages/04/043396002463f.jpg)
Kukushka (The Cuckoo)
Year of Release: 2002
Directed By: Aleksandr Rogozhkin
Starring: Anni-Kristiina Juuso, Viktor Bychkov, Ville Haapasalo
Genres: Drama, Comedy, War
Overview:
September 1944, in a land torn apart by war, a Finnish sniper is labeled a coward by his compatriots; as punishment, he is nailed to a rock and left to his own devices. Not long after, a disgraced Russian Captain, en route to his court martial, is injured in an accident. Both men are about to find out how they have one thing in common. Wounded and emotionally tortured, they are taken in by Anni, a young, resourceful war widow, who offers shelter to one while nursing the other back to health. None of them understands the others' languages, but it doesn't seem to matter. Isolated, the three unlikely roommates - a Finn, a Russian and a Lapp - overcome both comic and tragic misunderstandings to form a passionate three-way...relationship. Because after a day of hard work on Anni's farm, who needs words?
My Thoughts:
I must say, I'm glad Mom insisted we watch this one out of our Russian films. We really enjoyed this film. It has a stark kind of beauty to it, especially the landscape once the focus gets to Anni's farm by the lake. It's also a powerful anti-war film. In the featurette on the making of the film, Haapasalo talks about how once you get to know someone you can't go to war against them, for you see them as a human being just like yourself. The film has the same message, in the eventual friendship between Ivan and Veikko. That friendship, and their mutual friendships with Anni, however, are only so deep. Though they find a way to communicate without language, and do come to understand each other to a certain degree, their relationships would have been much deeper and much stronger than they became. The film really emphasized to me the fundamental importance of language in human relationships. The language barrier led to several very humourous parts of the film, especially the sequence between Ivan and Anni about the mushrooms, but it was also the biggest tragedy between all of them. Of course, had they been able to communicate we might not have gotten another valuable point the film tries to make - that one should not judge someone so quickly. Ivan believes Veikko to be a fascist, when Veikko is trying to tell him that the war is over for him and all he wants is to go home and live in peace.
Ultimately, this is a film that promotes the idea that love, friendship, pleasure, and life are really what is important and what are really worth striving for. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the ending.
I really wanted them to stay with Anni, and I think they would have if they had known she was pregnant
Bechdel Test: Fail
Overall: 3.75/5