Journey: Whether it’s the journey or the destination, films to transport you and shift your perspective
Do you want to leave your job to go meditate in a Buddhist temple surrounded by lush green hills? This film might just be the one for you. In the idyllic setting of Golden Kingdom you’ll follow one junior monk on his path to enlightenment.
From: Myanmar, AsiaContinue reading “Golden Kingdom – Follow the Path to Enlightenment”
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: Colours of the Mountain, Rabbit Proof Fence, Kundun
From: Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Australasia Watch: Trailer, Amazon Prime, Tubi, JustWatch Next: Whale Rider, Boyhood, The Orator
Vai is a collection of eight short films made by 9 women which takes place across seven different countries (Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Kuki Airani, Samoa, and Niue). The titular character, Vai, is played by eight different indigenous women aging from 6 to 80.
Another interesting thing to note before watching is that ‘Vai’ translates as ‘water’ in each of the countries named above. Water is an integral part of the story. It surrounds each of the islands, which isolates each community, making traveling between islands harder. It’s ability to provide food is threatened as companies infringe on and overfish in traditional fishing waters. Drinking water is also rare and hoarded by the privileged. Most importantly, it gives life, both spiritually (as in the final short) and physically.
“We sweat and cry salt water, so we know that the ocean is really in our blood”
Teresia Teaiwa
Vai’s journey is played by 8 different indigenous actresses across 7 different countries and 8 different ages. In the first short, Vai is a 6 year old girl in Fiji, and the film progresses until the final short shows her as an 80 year old woman in Aeotara (New Zealand). By shooting Vai’s journey with different actresses across different countries, Vai creates a common indigenous Pacific Islander experience.
One common theme is the cycle of leaving and returning. In the first three shorts, Vai lives without her mother or father, as they’ve been forced to travel to New Zealand to try and provide for their family. In the fourth, Vai has already left Samoa and is studying in New Zealand. The final four films feature an older Vai that has returned to home. She returns and has to relearn the traditional ways she has forgotten. Whilst she regains her community, her younger relatives leave their homes just as she did, repeating the cycle of coming and going.
(Insert analogy comparing the coming and going of the people and tradition to the coming and going of the sea tides).
The Pacific Islander experience may be new to some viewers, however, the experience of life is much more universal. It’s scope reminded me a little bit of Linklater’s Boyhood, except here the scope is much larger. Instead of focusing on a child from 8 years old to 18, Vai follows a woman across a whole lifetime. In doing so it encapsulates the entire experience of life in 90 minutes. When you’re watching Vai as an 80 year old, the memories of the shorts of Vai as a 6 and 13 year old are still clear in your head which allows us to enter Vai’s old age with a greater understanding of where she came from. These are memories that we often lose touch of once we hit adulthood in our own lives. Showing it all in one film lets us see life repeating itself and allows us to better empathize with Vai as an older woman.
If you’re after more indigenous stories from the Pacific Islands, check out Whale Rider, The Orator, Waru, or even Tanna. For too crossover films you could also check out Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Rabbit Proof Fence.
Or, if you’re looking for more films which follow a single character across different ages, I’d strongly recommend checking out Boyhood and Moonlight. They’re two great U.S. films about growing up.
Mimosas Film Difficulty Ranking: 4
Mimosas is a film of epic journeys. There’s Ahmed and Said who are attempting to guide a Sheikh and his caravan across the Moroccan mountains. Secondly there’s the magical journey of Shakib who travels time to guide Ahmed to a more honourable life. Check out a spoiler free trailer below (I’ve deliberately cut the length).
Mimosas starts with a few shots of graffiti on a wall of a castle and garden before switching to a few shots of the mountains. As you’ll see later in the film, the graffiti alludes to the modern world (the present) whilst the mountains provides the setting for the past.
After a screen wipe (a blank shot) we are introduced to Ahmed and Said, two guides helping a dying Sheikh to cross the mountains. They are all wearing traditional clothes and half of them are on horseback. These scenes of Ahmed and Said seem to be from at least hundred years ago, probably more.
In contrast, we enter another world in a Moroccan town bordering the mountains (probably the place where the graffiti from the opening scene was shot). It’s here we meet Shakib, preaching about creation fervently to a group of men. It’s present day, evident from the cars and clothing. He’s picked out by one of the head workmen to go with him for an important job: to go into the mountains, find Ahmed and keep him safe.
It’s in his journey into the mountains and meet up with Ahmed that he magically crosses from the present into the past.
Who is Shakib? And how did he seem to travel time? Is he a prophet? Mimosas depicts the epic journey of Said and Ahmed which is suddenly surpassed by the epic journey of Shakib. You’ll be actively involved in this film as you try to piece together the gaps.
Could you escape from the Colombian Civil War? Even in the remote parts of Colombia where The Towrope is set, the effects of the Civil War are unavoidable. It seems like everyone knows someone who has been affected by the conflict. However, the part of Colombia in The Towrope is like another world. Welcome to the grey skies and cold rain you don’t see on the Colombian guide books.
The Towrope starts with the silhouette of a limp figure hanging from a stake. It’s dawn, and the sky is so grey that it’s impossible to see if it’s a dead person or a scarecrow; either a sign of the civil war or a sign of fertility.
It’s not people, but the landscape that sets the tone of this film. The grey sky and persistent rain is not the sunny, hot Colombia that foreigners probably think of. The lake they live by is empty and quiet and not full of tourists or visitors. The landscape and weather defines the life of the locals. They have to continually fix their houses to withstand the weather and their movement and freedom is limited by the lake.
The gloomy weather compliments the dark backdrop of the Civil War. 19 year old Alicia arrives at her Uncle’s house on the lake after her hometown was destroyed by the Civil War. It’s not clear if her family have been killed or abandoned. Her Uncle reluctantly lets her stay with him but does not offer her much hospitality.
This slow paced film masterfully builds tension. The sound of creaking floorboards and rain and wind battering the sides of the house ominously hint that trouble is nearby. All the signs of Civil War are around, but nothing is explained in any detail. It’s not clear how they have been affected by the Civil War and if danger is nearby. All we can do is keep guessing.
The Dead and the Others follows Ihjãc, a 15 year old indigenous Krahô father. After his own father dies, he starts to hear voices and receives a visit from the legendary macaw, a signal of the start of his transformation into a shaman. However, instead of accepting his duty, he runs away to a white Brazilian cowboy town a day’s drive away from his community. It’s here, isolated from his people that he faces the reality of being an indigenous person in contemporary Brazil.
In a way, The Dead and the Others feels like a prequel to Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever. Both films are directed by outsiders filming indigenous people in Brazil, but whereas The Dead and the Others centers on a young person leaving his community, The Fever centers on a middle aged man that has already left his community that starts being drawn back to it through visions and the prejudices he faces in ‘white’ Brazil. Both I believe are two great films to watch to get a glimpse into the indigenous experience in Brazil. However, take this opinion with a pinch of salt as I haven’t had the opportunity yet to watch any indigenous films from Brazil actually told by indigenous people. Please let me know if you have any recommendations!
From: Brazil, South America Watch: Short Clip, JustWatch, Mubi Next: Land of Ashes, Zama, A Fever
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