film review

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Daughters of the Sun
Dakhtaran-e khorshid (original title)

 2000 / 109 min  / Iran / Persian

Writer: /Director: Maryam Shahriar

  Cast : Altinay Ghelich Taghani,Soghra Karimi,Zahra Mohammadi,Habib Haddad

           

 

The Iranian film Daughters of the Sun (Dakhtaran-e Khorshid), directed by Maryam Shahriar, pictures the poverty of the rural countryside, where desperate families send their illiterate daughters to a small-scale rug factory in order to gain remittances from their wages while they live in virtual slavery. They are cruelly punished for accidents rather than treated medically; mail is kept from them, and they are unable to leave the factory, where they are locked up at night or otherwise kept under almost constant surveillance with meager rations. When the film begins, Amangol (played by Altinay Ghelich Taghani) is having her head shaved in preparation for her assignment to a factory. Without hair, she appears to be male (presumably to get higher wages for the poor family) and thus does not wear the customary head covering. Because she is an excellent weaver and a male, she is placed in charge of all the female workers but punished when they weave inferior products. None of the workers is happy; all want to escape. The scene of a horse liberating itself by running away from a master is the principal paradigm of the film. Bibigo leaves when married to someone whom her family chooses, with presumably another life of harsh servitude ahead. Belghies's uncle committed her to the factory after the rest of her family died during an earthquake in Tiva. In due course Belghies begs Aman to return to Tiva as her husband, but the latter declines. there is only one scene where mutual lust can be inferred from facial expressions. Finally, Aman decides that the only way out is to burn down the factory, including herself. Daughters of the Sun is a slow-moving film presenting the thesis that women should be better treated in Iran. But women will have to act on their own behalf to produce any change, as the men in the film are beasts. Love scenes were cut from the movie at the last minute to gain release from the Iranian censors. With opaque subplots, the filmviewer may find Daughters of the Sun to be almost a silent film; the power of the message is in facial expressions and scenes of brutality and poverty more than in words. (PFS Film Review)

FILM REVIEW

Even the Rain (2010)
También la lluvia (original title)

103 min / Spain,Mexico,France / Spanish,Quechua,English

Directed by Icíar Bollaín

Written by Paul Laverty

Starring Luis Tosar,Gael García Bernal,Juan Carlos Aduviri,Karra Elejalde

Raúl Arévalo

Music by Alberto Iglesias

Cinematography Alex Catalán

Even the Rain (Spanish: También la lluvia) is a 2010 Spanish drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín about Mexican director Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar) who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus’s conquest. Sebastián and Costa unexpectedly land themselves in a moral crisis when they and their crew arrive at Cochabamba, Bolivia, during the intensifying 2000 Cochabamba protests, which their key native actor Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) persistently leads. The film was directed by Icíar Bollaín, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty.
The film received nominations and won awards internationally, including an Ariel Award for Best Ibero-American Film and three Goya Awards, one of which was Best Original Score for the work of Alberto Iglesias. Additionally, the film was nominated as Spain’s entry for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

Mexican filmmaker Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and his executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar) arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia, accompanied by a cast and crew, prepared to create a film depicting Columbus's first voyage to the New World, the imposition of Columbus’s will upon the natives, and the subsequent indigenous rebellion. Cognizant of his limited budget, producer Costa (Luis Tosar) elects to film in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. There, impoverished locals are thrilled to earn just two dollars a day as extras in the film, and willingly engage in physical labor for set preparation. Costa saves many thousands of dollars by having underpaid extras perform tasks meant to be completed by experienced engineers.
Sebastián casts a local man named Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) in the role of Atuey, the Taíno chief who led a rebellion against the Europeans; and Daniel's daughter Belén in a crucial role as well. At that time, although their first encounter with Daniel smelled like trouble to Costa, enough to oppose his casting, Sebastián is unaware that Daniel leads impassioned demonstrations against the water privatization that the Bolivian government had agreed to. Filming begins smoothly despite the alcoholism of actor Antón, (Karra Elejalde) cast as Colón (Columbus), but when Costa observes Daniel’s revolutionary involvement, he grows uneasy. Daniel pretends to acquiesce to Costa's insistence that he stop protesting, but heedlessly continues and sustains facial wounds in a clash with the police. At this point, Costa bribes Daniel with thousands of dollars to wait for filming to conclude before participating in the rebellion again. Daniel agrees, accepting the money, but remains active in the protests, eventually becoming bloodied and imprisoned. Sebastián experiences moral conflict and begins to doubt the likelihood of the film’s completion, but is reassured by Costa who bribes the police for Daniel’s temporary release in order to film a key movie scene. Upon this scene’s completion, police arrive in the Bolivian jungle to once again detain Daniel but are besieged by the film’s extras and Daniel escapes.
That night when starring actors Juan and Alberto see the latest news reports showing war-like violence in Cochabamba, they become worried to the extent that they demand to leave. Sebastián begs that they stay and they hesitantly agree. The next day, as the cast and crew prepare to depart for filming, Costa is met by Daniel’s wife, Teresa, who desperately implores him to assist her in finding her daughter Belén, who has disappeared into the protests and is reportedly wounded and needing hospitalization. Teresa’s persistence wins over Costa’s conscience, despite Sebastián's equally impassioned insistence he leave for the airport and safety with the rest of the cast and crew. After Costa and Teresa's obstacle-laden drive through riotous Cochabamba, Belén’s life is preserved, but her leg does not fully heal. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is stopped by a military blockade and all except Antón leave Sebastián to journey home. The revolution ends shortly thereafter with the departure of the multinational water company, but Cochabamba is left in ruin from the conflict. Costa expresses hope that the film will be finished after all, and Daniel emotionally presents him with a vial of Bolivian water in appreciation for his life-saving efforts.

film review

 

Le quattro volte

(2010) /88 min /italy/

A beautiful combination of an old man's struggle to continue his goathearding life; the birth of a baby goats; a tree which becomes charcoal; and the lives of the simple people in the hills of Calabria. We see the stages of life through beautiful imagery at times dramatic and at times comical.

Jonathan Romney, writing in The Independent on Sunday, described Le Quattro Volte as "both magnificent and magnificently economical", remarking "I like to think that it's possible for cinema to make profound cosmological statements without having to go all Cecil B. DeMille".Romney finds the film "the freshest and the deepest film I've encountered in a while", and "one of those rare films that anyone could enjoy, whether or not they normally care for slow Italian art cinema"

There is virtually no dialogue in the film. The film was written and directed by Michelangelo Frammartino and stars Giuseppe Fuda, Nazareno Timpano, Bruno Timpano and Artemio Vellone.

Director:  Michelangelo Frammartino

Writer:  Michelangelo Frammartino

Stars:Giuseppe Fuda, Bruno Timpano and Nazareno Timpano |

FILM REVIEW

Talk to Her

2002/112 minutes/Spain/Spanish

Directed by       Pedro Almodóvar

Produced by    Agustín Almodóvar/Michel Ruben

Written by        Pedro Almodóvar

Starring            Javier Cámara/Darío Grandinetti/Leonor Watling/Geraldine Chaplin/Rosario Flores

Music by          Alberto Iglesias

Cinematography           Javier Aguirresarobe

Editing by        José Salcedo

Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella) is a 2002 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starringJavier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores. The film won the 2002 Academy Award forBest Original Screenplay and the 2003 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.

The film's themes include the difficulty of communication between the sexes, loneliness and intimacy, and the persistence of love beyond loss.

In 2005, Time magazine film critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel included Talk to Her in their list of the All-TIME 100 Greatest Movies. Paul Schrader placed the film at 46 on his film canon of the 60 greatest films.

Plot

Benigno ("benign" or "harmless" in Spanish) Martin and Marco Zuluaga cross paths when they attend the same concert dance, only eventually meeting again at a private clinic where Benigno works. There, he is the personal nurse and caregiver for Alicia, a beautiful dance student who lies in a coma and with whom Benigno has become obsessed. Marco, a journalist and travel writer, is at the clinic to visit his girlfriend Lydia, a famous matador who is also comatose after being gored by a bull. As the men stand vigil over these women, the story unfolds in flashbacks, giving details of the two relationships. Marco leaves Lydia in the hospital when her previous lover informs him that they had reunited a month before Lydia's accident. He travels to Jordan to write a tourist guide; while there he reads in a newspaper that Lydia has died in her coma.

Meanwhile, Alicia is discovered to be pregnant. Benigno, who believes his relationship with the comatose Alicia is a mutual love affair, is accused of raping her and is sent to prison in Segovia. Marco returns to Spain and begins trying to help Benigno. He finds out that Alicia had awakened during or sometime after giving birth, but the baby was stillborn. Following Benigno's lawyer's urging, he does not tell Benigno about her unexpected recovery. Desperate, Benigno ingests a large quantity of pills to try to "escape" and reunite with Alicia. He dies of an overdose. Meanwhile, Alicia has begun rehabilitation to recover her ability to walk and dance.

The film ends with Marco, sitting two rows in front of Alicia at a dance concert, turning around and smiling at her for a moment, and then turning back around. The screen lists Marco y Alicia as the next act.