North America Best Films- Page 13 of 16

A Caribbean Dream – Shakespearian Comedy in Barbados

A Caribbean Dream Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you’re looking for a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream set in the tropics you’ve come to the right place. Shakirah Bourne’s A Caribbean Dream captures the magic of the original with mischievous fairies and pantomime humor and adds its own touch with the lush setting and Bajan music. The acting and editing is B-movie level, but if you’re not expecting anything exceptional, you’ll have a good time in its short run time.

From: Barbados, North America
Watch: Trailer, Hoopla, IMDb
Next: Romeo + Juliet, 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless

A Caribbean Dream – The Breakdown

A Caribbean Dream reminded me a bit of an English pantomine. The acting isn’t high quality, neither are the makeup or effects. However, this is fine if you go into the film expecting B-movie quality. Like when you watch a B-movie action or horror – you expect cheesiness so you can laugh with it – do the same for this one, after all, this is how Shakespearean plays were performed in Elizabethan times.

A Caribbean Dream borrows a lot from its source material. If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream you’ll recognize most of the lines in this film. It uses the original ‘older’ English verse more than contemporary Bajan language. You’ll also recognize all of the main characters from the original as they’ve all been copied into this adaptation along with the silly comedy.

Despite the old verse, the film does bring the 16th Century text up to the present. Situating it in Barbados’ tropical setting works well as the lush green rainforests match the fairy magic. It’s also nice to hear Bajan carnival music to break up the long pieces of Shakespearian dialogue.

Overall, the adaptation works fairly well. The problems with the script stem mostly from the film’s faith to the original. It doesn’t work especially well with the short run time, which makes it feel like you’re watching the play on fast-forward, or the many characters, as there’s not much time for creative development. So, if you’re unfamiliar with the original text you might get a bit lost with all the different people and fairies. The faith to the original text also feels unnatural in the modern context, especially as some scenes feature regular Bajan conversation. It would have been nice to see more of a break with the original text to make the film more distinct. It feels like the director was afraid of doing the Shakespeare a disservice and held back from making something truly unique.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more Shakespearian film adaptations you’ve got plenty of choice. Romeo + Juliet and 10 Things I Hate About You are two that are contemporary to when they were filmed (like A Caribbean Dream). You also have a bunch of Midsummer Night Dream adaptations to check out. Or you could try Clueless, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.

Life is Fare – What it Means to be an Eritrean in America

Life Is Fare Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Life is Fare is a Tigrinya/English feature film exploring three different experiences of the Eritrean diaspora living in the U.S. It uses different styles (drama, documentary, animation, fantasy) to construct a range of views on what it means to be Eritrean and living abroad. So, if you’re looking for a unique exploration of the immigrant experience in the U.S. Life is Fare is a movie to add to your watch-list.

From: U.S/Eritrea, North America
Watch: IMDb, Watch for Free on Film's Website
Next: Farewell Amor, Burial of Kojo, The Infiltrators

Cargo – Presenting the Dark Side of The Bahamas

Cargo Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

In Kareem Mortimer’s Cargo a faltering fisherman turns to crime to pay for his mounting debt. This thriller presents a very different view of the Bahamas than the clear oceans the tourist board presents but is slowed down by a number of characters and clichéd subplots. However, if you’re a fan of slow thrillers or want to see the dark side of the Caribbean, this is worth a watch.

From: The Bahamas, North America
Watch: Trailer, Tubi, IMDb
Next: Sin Nombre, Maria Full of Grace, The Load

Cargo – The Breakdown

When you think of The Bahamas, you think of pristine beaches and crystal clear sea. It’s what the tourist board promotes to potential visitors year round. The picturesque islands are also what we’ve seen in films shot in The Bahamas such as the James Bond franchise. However, whilst the beaches are visible in Kareem Mortimer’s Cargo, the film focuses on the daily strife the locals and immigrants face. There’s no sign of tourists or an easy life.

It follows Kevin, a fisherman living in the city with his wife and aging mother. He’s had a privileged upbringing at a private boarding school, so he pays for his son to have the same privilege. However, the fees of the school, alongside the need to bring in support at home to take care of his mother dealing with dementia, pushes him into an insurmountable mountain of debt. Instead of pulling his son out of private school (and kicking his gambling habit), he assumes a life of crime to get his way out. Problem is, as per other ‘resorting to crime’ film plots, Kevin gets sucked in by the money, becomes a different person and gets a few more problems to add to those he started with. In this case it’s new girlfriends and dependents.

One thing that stands out with Kevin is that he’s white in a country that is 90% Black. Alongside the other white characters in this film – the School Bursar, Banker, and opportunistic Crime Lord – Kevin appears to live a privileged life. He has a nice house, sends his kid to private school, and has a car. In contrast, the main Black characters live in makeshift houses, struggle to get their kids an education, and use public transport. Even though his fishing isn’t bringing in enough money to pay his bills, he still finds himself in a better position than the Black characters of the movie. His failures are a sign of the total lack of opportunity in The Bahamas as it shows that both the privileged and unprivileged are struggling to get by.

Whilst Cargo highlights the inequality and lack of opportunity in The Bahamas well, Kevin’s slow spiral from friendly fisherman to “the devil” features too many subplots and characters. The three women in his life each come with their own story, slowing down the pace of the movie when it could do with a bit more energy. The clichéd conclusions of one of them feels like the over dramatic teen-orientated PSA’s that encourage you to not do drugs. The human-trafficking parts of the film are gripping, but are unfortunately never the film’s focus. This is all about Kevin and his ever increasing subplots.

What to Watch Next

Whilst Cargo focuses on the trafficker, there are a lot of great movies that focus on the people being trafficked. Some notable examples are:

Sin Nombre – that takes place on the infamous “la Bestia” train
Maria Full of Grace – follows a Colombian girl used as a drug mule
Flee – tracks the memories of an Afghan fleeing to Europe

You could also try The Load from Serbia, which follows a Serbian truck driver delivering secret cargo to Belgrade from Kosovo.

Bantu Mama (Dominican Republic) – Pan African Film Festival 2022

In Bantu Mama, a French-Cameroonian woman is arrested in the Dominican Republic for attempting to smuggle drugs back home. However, she’s rescued by the Dominican underworld, sheltering in one of Santo Domingo’s notorious neighborhoods with a semi-orphaned family until she can make her escape.

It’s clear from the start that Bantu Mama is meant to appeal to the audiences at Western film festivals. Like European film festival fare, the images look dark and gloomy, and they carry the bulk of the narrative weight, with the sparse dialogue only covering the basic gaps the images can’t provide. There’s also a lot of movement in every shot, with no tripod or steadicam shots, and the short shot length and fast cutting verges on the speed of montage, especially in the opening. All these stylistic choices match the lean, moody looking standard of the big film festivals in Europe and North America, contrasting with the slower paced, dialogue focused African films that dominate the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

This is not to say that Bantu Mama is unoriginal; it is. Firstly, it’s incredibly efficient, telling a complete story with limited dialogue in just 77 minutes. Secondly, it’s propelled by a brilliant soundtrack of regional African music and Dominican trap. Both genres mesh together to represent the cultural dialogue with Africa that Emma, the French-Cameroonian fugitive, opens to the Afro-Latino children that shelter her. The soundtrack also creates one of the film’s most memorable moments – a visual example of this cultural link – in which Cuki is transformed into a Maasai dancer with the help of African music and Emma. In this moment, the music transports them from their dangerous neighborhood to an imagined Pan-African utopia. This is just one moment in a handful in which the soundtrack and Emma link the Dominican Republic with Africa. The cultural dialogue they create make Bantu Mama unique.

If you’re a fan of film festivals in North America or Europe and want to see a lean, music-powered cultural exchange linking the underworld of the Dominican Republic to Africa, Bantu Mama is the film you need to watch.

Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.

Zepon (Martinique) – Pan African Film Festival 2022

Viezo and his daughter Victorine have spent happy years on the road, taking their prime fighting cocks and snake oil wares around the island. However, with the best chicken he’s ever had, Viezo wants to try his luck in the big ring one more time, reigniting past rivalries and old problems.

You shouldn’t be surprised to find a well-made film from Martinique. After all, one of the World’s most famous female directors, Euzhan Palcy, made her renowned Sugar Cane Alley on her home island. Whilst Zepon doesn’t follow the same post-colonial themes of Palcy’s most notable films, it is at least very well made, likely helped by the path that Palcy created. If you have a good eye you might even recognize actress Jocelyne Beroard (who plays Titine) from Euzah Palcy’s Siméon.

The plot, whilst colored by Martinican flavor, does stick to one of the classic tropes of World Cinema; the clash of modernity and tradition. Not, in this case, a juxtaposition of the modernity of the city vs. the country the two protagonists have been touring, but of the modern progressive symbolism of Victorine vs. the conservative traditional views of the island. As an independent young single woman, Victorine is progressive in her existence. She runs her own snake-oil style stall to fund her dreams of dancing abroad in America. Meanwhile, her father, and the rest of the island, are all stuck in an old honor code dictated by drunken handshake deals that play out in the cockfighting ring. The battle between Victorine and the island culture is unique to Martinique, but the modernity vs. tradition trope the conflict follows has played out many times before.

The highlight of the film is the cockfighting, which is portrayed brilliantly. From the intimate stands of the cockfighting ring to how the director chose to shoot the cockfight itself. For both fights, the director deliberately cuts away from the fight itself. Instead of showing the chickens fighting, the director firstly cuts to an impressionistic animation that captures the energy of the chickens in the first fight, and secondly, cuts to shots of enthusiastic spectators cheering for their bets. Both create two of the film’s most memorable visual moments and manage to capture the energy of the fighters and the crowd without showing any real violence.

For a well made film from Martinique that gives a sample of Martinican culture Zepon is worth a watch. Whilst it falls into some tired World Cinema tropes, there are some brilliant moments in the film that is supported by a light humor that carries it from start to finish.

Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.