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Faraw! Mother of the Dunes, a review by Danae Cassandra

Faraw!  Mother of the DunesOverview:
FARAW! recounts twenty-four hours in the life of a woman in Songhoi country. Zamiatou, the mother of three young children, is fighting for survival in a town in northeastern Mali, on the edge of the desert. Her husband is to weak to work and her children are exasperated by their situation of poverty. Life is very hard in this devastated, almost desolate region haunted by the specter of drought. Zamiatou endures many ordeals, refuses to put her daughter into prostitution and finally gets help from her old friend, Morou, who lends her a donkey and a few water skins....

My Thoughts:
A powerful and moving portrait of one woman's indomitable determination and strength of will. As George Monbiot once said, "If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire." Zamiatou is the embodiment of that quote. She isn't afraid of difficulty or hard labor. Indeed, that is her life and she accepts it. She is unwilling to take the easy (but morally repugnant) way out, but instead holds her head high and clings to her honor and her faith. If you don't admire her character by the end of the film, you have no soul.

The casual misogyny of her two sons toward their sister, and Zamiatou's acceptance of that, is less easy to accept, and mars this otherwise excellent film. That may be my Western bias speaking. I'm rather sad that no one else on Letterboxd has logged this film, as it's well worth seeing.

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall: 3.5/5

(From March Around the World 2016 on March 15th, 2016)

Letter Never Sent, a review by Danae Cassandra

Letter Never Sent (Neotpravlennoye pismo)
Year of Release: 1959
Directed By: Mikhail Kalatozov
Starring: Innokenti Smoktunovsky, Tatiana Samoilova, Vasili Livanov, Yevgeni Urbansky
Genre: Drama

Overview:
The great Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov, known for his virtuosic, emotionally gripping films, perhaps never made a more visually astonishing one than Letter Never SentLetter Never Sent is a fascinating piece of cinematic history and a universal adventure of the highest order.

My Thoughts:
This is a visually striking film.  The cinematography is really, truly beautiful.  Absolutely stunning.  Each shot, each movement, is gorgeously composed, and you could hang stills in galleries next to art photography and not know they were from a film.  The camera work is very definitely the star here.

That doesn't mean that's all there is to this film.  The actors all give solid performances.  There's a real empathy you develop for the characters.  The story is straightforward, yes, but it's well told.  In one view the film reads as propaganda: the characters are very patriotic, cooperative, willing to make sacrifices for the good of their group and their country.  They're hopeful of freeing Russia from dependence upon imported diamonds with a discovery of their own.  Yet, there's also a subtle criticism I read in the film.  These people give up everything for the state, they believe in it with all their hearts, but all it brings them is loss and death.  The voice on the radio tells them that they are eagerly awaited back home (for their discovery) and later that rescue has been sent out,  ... yet it never arrives.  

Excellent film, beautiful cinematography, recommended for film aficionados.  A typically bleak Russian ending makes this probably not a good choice for the more general viewer, though.

Bechdel Test: Fail  

Overall: 4/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on September 19th, 2015)

Ghost Whisperer Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

5. LOST BOYS
While cleaning the basement of an old inn, Melinda finds the lost spirits of three boys that died in an orphanage fire 50 years ago. She must help the boys pass on before the inn is destroyed and they become eternally earth-bound spirits.

My Thoughts:
This remains to be one of my favorite episode. I really liked the story behind it... even if it was obvious who the old man that bought the old inn was.

6. HOMECOMING
Melinda assists an upset teenage ghost and learns something that will affect the lives of everyone the boy left behind.

My Thoughts:
Another good episode... deals with a teen trying to find his birth mother but dies before he gets the chance.

7. HOPE AND MERCY
A woman who died during pregnancy can't cross over until her husband stops blaming himself. Plus, Andrea meets a con artist who discovers a surprise about her past.

My Thoughts:
A good... but somewhat standard episode. But I did enjoy the set up for the next episode at the end of this one.

8. ON THE WINGS OF A DOVE
Five years after his father's death, Jim begins acting strangely. Melinda notices and believes the problem is caused by his tortured spirit. Painful memories are brought back when she is surprised by a visit from a friend (Estella Warren).

My Thoughts:
This episode was enjoyable... was good to see Melinda's husband more in the thick of things. Now he gets an idea of what Melinda has to endure.

(From Ghost Whisperer Marathon on July 31st, 2008)