To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to Film Difficulty 3.
Film Difficulty Ranking 3: More of a challenge for those familiar with foreign films. Level 3 is like a mix between an intriguing European mime artist and your most interesting and demanding school teacher.
Meet Mister Lazarescu. He’s an old man living in an Communist-era apartment block in Bucharest with some cats. Problem is, he’s an alcoholic, and his last few drinks are sending him over the edge of life. Join him in his last few hours as he navigates the bureaucratic Romanian health system. It’s his last nightmare and one to put you off drinking for life.
How much do you know about the Syrian Civil War? Here’s an opportunity to learn how the crisis started and to see footage made by different sides of the crisis. Silvered Water is made from 1001 images shot by the Syrian people across the opening years of the Civil War. You will be presented with an array of evidence so you can debate the Syrian crisis with your friends and family.
Why Watch Silvered Water?
You want to know a bit more about why the Syrian refugee crisis started
Witness revolution and war from first hand mobile footage
Unlike some films, nothing is hidden from Silvered Water – the violence, the torture, the dead bodies are all real
To see how important film is in documenting history
The Breakdown
This film is a compilation of 1001 images shot by Syrian men and women. It starts with footage of a dripping water tap surrounded by rubble. Next we are shown a newborn baby being washed and a man in underwear crouched in a corner. The half-naked man is beaten and tortured. He is the one that wrote “Topple the Regime” in graffiti. The authorities tell his parents to “forget about him,” to “go make another one,” and if they can’t to “send their women to him”. This is the start of the Syrian crisis.
Silvered Water is a documentary of the Syrian crisis as recorded on the mobile phones of the population. Nothing is spared from the camera as phone cameras explore dead bodies lying in the street. The close-ups of the wounded and the deceased may seem a bit over-the-top just like a gory Tarantino film. However, this is real life, the camera focuses on the violence as if in disbelief of what is happening in Syria. The gore is shown as it is part of life in Syria, and it must be shown to shock people around the world into awareness.
The amazing part of Silvered Water is that it is constituted from footage of both sides of the crisis. Everyone is making their ‘movie’ of the events. As a result, Silvered Water, is a combination of the cinema of the murderer, the victim, the poetic, the realist, and more. It documents the perspectives of the nation.
Conclusion
The makers of Silvered Water want people to watch this film to then talk and debate about it. The narrator describes an acquaintance who asked for his help in setting up a film club. To start a film club, all you need is to watch a film and then talk and debate. Silvered Water is not meant to be watched alone. The makers want as many people watching it to then talk about the issues together.
The directors also imply that everyone should add their story or opinion to the film’s thread of images. They have documented the cinema of the murderer, the victim, the poetic, and the realist, but we must add the final piece.
Be a fly on the wall as two old friends meet up after years have passed. The serene setting and conversation about the meaning of life will keep you feeling warm and calm like a mug of hot tea. Watch it here (Amazon via Mubi channel) and read more about it below.
Why watch The Structure of Crystal?
Experience life and it’s simple pleasures
Contemplate the meaning of life
Hear a beautiful soundtrack
If you’re a fan of early Ingmar Bergman (see Wild Strawberries for a perfect comparison – read more here)
The Breakdown
All we can see are two people standing on the distant horizon. They’re silhouetted against the pale sky and snow covered landscape. Their isolation is broken by a horse pulled sleigh which slowly makes it way past them. You can tell it’s going to be a slow and serene film; if that’s what you’re looking for you’re in for a treat.
The film takes place in rural Poland. The two people in the opening scene are Jan and his wife, both of them waiting for Jan’s old friend Marek to arrive. They studied Physics together at university but their paths have diverged since. Jan got married and moved to the remote countryside whilst Marek carried on studying physics and now travels the world with his degree.
The director perfectly captures the awkwardness of two old friends seeing each over for the first time in years. There’s lots of hugs and small talk, but neither of them really say anything to each other apart from how happy they each are to see each other. The feeling is perfectly captured when they all sit quietly at the dinner table not saying anything. The only thing you can hear is the clashing cutlery and the ticking clocks, emphasising that Marek’s stay is limited.
“I thought I had so much to tell you but now you’re hear I don’t know what to say”
Jan can’t break the small talk or silence, but Marek assures him their old friendship will resume. They eventually get round to talking about their past and their future. Both of them try to encourage the other to adopt their lifestyle.
Ticking Clocks and Ingmar Bergman
If you’re a fan of Ingmar Bergman, you might find some similarities between this film and Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (if you haven’t seen Wild Strawberries you need to watch it here on Amazon).
Both film’s have a similar contemplative feel and serene style. Furthermore, they both explore our search for meaning in life, which in both films becomes especially significant as the professor in Wild Strawberries feels himself getting closer to death, and in this film as the ticking clocks mark the short time Jan and Marek get with each other to catch up. Ultimately, they each reflect on their own choices and find peace with the path’s they have chosen.
Conclusion
I love contemplative and serene films, but I never feel like I can do them justice in writing. Like the early Ingmar Bergman films, The Structure of Crystal is all about the tone of the film. It’s a tone which somehow makes you calm and receptive but not sleepy. It’s just like listening to someone read you an interesting book when you’re tucked up in bed.
Watch The Structure of Crystal here (Amazon). And for more similar films, check out Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries and Seventh Seal.
The Little Girl who Sold the Sun is an ode to the potential of Africa’s most oppressed. The main character, Sili, is a poor, disabled girl trying to make a living for herself and her blind grandmother. The odds are stacked against her – is there any hope? Find out by watching it here (Amazon).
Why Watch The Little Girl who Sold the Sun?
To meet the marginalised people of Dakar
Get inspired by the spirit of young Sili
It’s only a short film – so you can watch it in 45 mins
Girl Power! This girl can do whatever the boys can!
The Breakdown
The Little Girl who Sold the Sun starts with a chaotic scene on the streets of Dakar. A woman is accused of being a thief by a man in the street. The man runs up to her, grabs her bag from her, and rummages through the bag whilst the woman indignantly shouts that she’s innocent. A crowd of spectators gathers around them to watch and laugh at the fight. It’s an opening that quickly establishes a few things:
There’s sexism in Dakar – men hold power over women and can subject them to random searches and accusations and get away with it.
Classism – people in positions of power pick on poor people making a living.
The implicitness of everyone in Dakar. The spectators simply watch the powerful accuse the innocent and laugh at the unfortunates victimisation. Everyone is a part of the entrenched sexism and classism.
Our Saviour = Sili
Introducing Sili. She’s not meant to succeed in life: she’s poor, disabled, and a young. On top of that, she has to look after her blind grandmother.
So, how does she succeed? What isn’t obvious from first impressions is her incredible spirit and perseverance. She sees a few boys selling newspapers in the street and sees an opportunity. So she walks up to the newspaper office and demands some newspapers to sell.
She gets 13 newspapers (a lucky number) to sell, but she also inherits a bunch of rival sellers (all boys) and some jealous cops eager to see her fail. Watch the film here (Amazon) to see what happens.
Conclusion and What to Watch Next
The Little Girl who Sold the Sun is a great film to watch to revive your faith in humanity. Sili’s spirit gives hope to the oppressed of the world. It’s well worth sparing 45 minutes of your time to meet her.
If you want to watch more films about street kids, check out these three films:
Slumdog Millionaire: A film many of you will have seen, it’s a brilliant rags to riches story of two kids from the Mumbai slums.
City of God: For more violence and less hope, check out Fernando Meirelles film about street kids come slum lords in Rio de Janeiro
Tsotsi: Follow a young thug from the Johannesburg slums and see what he does when he finds a young baby in the back of a car he robs.
Or if you’re looking for more great contemporary West-African films, check out Wallay. You’ll meet a young kid from Paris who is taken on holiday to Burkina Faso to visit his family. What he doesn’t know is that his father intends to leave him there to work back the money he has stolen from him. It’s a great coming of age story.
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