Film Difficulty 3

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.

If you’ve mastered these films, move onto Film Difficulty Ranking 4.

The Structure of Crystal (Poland) – Contemplate Life with Two Old Friends

The Structure of Crystal Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

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.

Image result for structure of crystal film

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 (Senegal) – Meet Dakar’s Street Kids

The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

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).

Image result for the little girl who sold the sun

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.

Towards The Battle – Spain/Latin American Competition – SBIFF

In Towards the Battle, Louis, a French photographer, gets lost in French occupied Mexico in the 1860’s. He wants to photograph the French-Mexican War, but gets lost in the Mexican wilderness trying to find it. However, his encounter with Pinto, a Mexican peasant, gives him the companion and support he needs to carry out his quest.

Louis is in Mexico as commissioned by the French army. He holds a permission slip from the French general which acts as his pass to freely travel the region without reprimand from the roaming French army. It’s the only thing that separates Louis from the rabble of the French army. If he loses it, he’d be conscripted into the army, or, if he’s lucky, sent back to France.

Whilst he can escape from the marauding French army, he can’t escape from the Mexican wilderness. As the scenery changes from mountainous scrub-land to deep rain-forest, Louis is (literally) one step away from a premature death. It’s obvious he can’t survive by himself with two horses carrying his huge amount of photography gear. Luckily for him, a Mexican peasant named Pinto finds him when he’s starving and gives him the food he needs to survive.

From that moment on, they become Don Quixote and Sancho Panza-esque partners. Louis is Don Quixote: a leader of a well off background that loses himself in the quest of one of his hobbies. Instead of chivalry, Louis drags a mountain of photographic equipment across the Mexican wilderness in search of a war that doesn’t appear to exist. When Pinto finds him, he’s already gone a bit mad in his quest to capture a photo of the elusive war. Pinto is Louis’ Sancho Panza: a Mexican peasant that knows Louis is mad, and doesn’t understand him (he doesn’t speak French), but happily goes along with Louis’ delusional quest because he’s got nothing better to do. Along the way, he saves Louis a couple of times, and subordinates himself to him to allow Louis to live out his fantasy. The Don Quixote allegory gives Towards the Battle a timeless feel, and gives an extra layer to Louis’ madness and his slow progression to his own awareness which he reaches in the final scenes.

From the scenery to the setting to the characters, Towards the Battle was one of the films that flew under the SBIFF radar. It’s a well made update of Cervantes’ Don Quixote applied to the French occupation of Mexico. It’s used to show the madness of the French in Mexico and the absurdity of the French occupation of Mexico. The French (Louis) and Don Quixote both live a world away from the reality.

Midnight Traveler – Follow A Family Fleeing the Taliban

Midnight Traveler Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Midnight Traveler is the ultimate first hand account of a family fleeing across Western Asia and Eastern Europe from death threats received in their home country Afghanistan. Because the filmmaker has made movies deemed immoral by the Taliban, he and his families safety is in danger. After having requests for asylum denied by Western countries, the Fazili family are forced to try their luck at migrating to the safety of Europe. However, little do they know that the the troubles and prejudices will increase when they hit Europe. Through the cell phone footage of their journey, you’ll get a idea for what it feels like to no longer have a home and to be criminalized for trying to escape death. If you’re a citizen of a country whose citizens don’t live in fear, consider yourself lucky, and spare a thought and 88 minutes to join the Fazili family in their quest for a normal life.

From: Afghanistan, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Kanopy, JustWatch, IMDb
Next: Saudi Runaway, Los Lobos, Sin Nombre

Suleiman Mountain – Join a Bunch of Outcasts on the Road

Suleiman Mountain Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Ever wondered what life would be like growing up in the back of a converted East German truck with an alcoholic con man for a father, a practicing witch doctor for a mum, and your father’s second wife who’s probably young enough to be your sister. Well, here’s your chance to experience it. Join the crazy road trip in Suleiman Mountain.

From: Kyrgyzstan, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Amazon
Next: Shoplifters, Little Miss Sunshine, The Wounded Angel

Read The Full Review