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If you’re looking for a Norwegian update on Stephen King’s Carrie, you’ve come to the right place. In Thelma, just like in Carrie, there’s Christianity, madness, and strict parents. However, Thelma also boasts a lesbian awakening and enough subtlety to keep you questioning long after the ending.
From: Norway, EuropeContinue reading “Thelma (Norway) – A Supernatural Coming-of-Age Story”
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Next: Carrie, Gone Girl, Call Me By Your Name
From: Ghana, Africa Watch: Trailer, Netflix, JustWatch Next: Sleepwalking Land, The Fall, Eve's BayouContinue reading “The Burial of Kojo – A Magical Quest Through Space and Time”
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).
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:
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.
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:
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.
You might have seen Fellini’s La Dolce Vita or Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, two films that honor the city of Rome, but you probably haven’t seen In The Last Days of the City, Tamar El Said’s tribute to Cairo. Instead of a bombastic tour around the city, In the Last Days of the City’s tribute is muted. Instead of a warm film about one man’s love for his home city, In the Last Days of the City charts the director’s growing disillusionment with his home city and the increasingly militant and fundamentalist place it’s becoming.
From: Egypt, Africa Watch: Trailer, JustWatch Next: The Square, La Dolce Vita, The Journey
El Said wanders around Cairo trying to find a new apartment. He needs a new place to live as his current landlord is evicting him to demolish his apartment block for a new more profitable construction. In his search, he visits many parts of the city, becoming an observer of everything happening. Whilst he wanders the city, he doesn’t interfere with anything going on. He watches the changing city passively and allows us (the audience) to form our own opinions on what we see. He’s like our Virgil from Dante’s Inferno, his role is to guide us around the city and show us what is changing.
Through his eye, we start to see the growing militarization and fundamentalism of the city and the gradual loss of freedom. In terms of the militarization, we see more and more army trucks and soldiers patrolling the city, plain closed policemen chasing people, and policemen beating and arresting protestors. In terms of the growing fundamentalism, we see ‘Thou Shall Not Look at Women’ slogans stuck on walls in apartment blocks and hear prayers playing over loudspeakers in apartment elevators. Backed by a soundtrack with snippets from radio shows speaking to the growing divisions in the country, the future of the city looks bleak.
There’s a scene which serves as a warning of Cairo’s negative future. In the scene, we meet a group of the directors friends in a cafe lit by light and laughter. It’s a rare scene of laughter and happiness. Each one of the group is living in a different corner of the Arabic diaspora and represent the choices that El Said has. Two of the friends are from Baghdad. They represent the extreme direction that Cairo could take. One has left the city for Europe after seeing his home city crumble to ruins. The other can’t leave his roots despite the violence, and continues to live in fear. Both of them fail to recognize the homely city that they grew up in. The third friend from Beirut, represents the middle ground between Cairo and Baghdad. His growing disillusionment and antipathy at the changes in Beirut are conquering his happy memories. But he’s still managing to grasp onto the last remnants of the city he loved before it becomes unrecognizable like Baghdad. Each of their stories are warning signs for the direction of El Said’s Cairo. He can stay and watch the city fade or he can leave the country with some of his positive memories intact.
El Said’s indecision is reflected in his struggles to make the film. He wants to capture the city he loved, the warm city of his memory, but as he’s filming, all he can see is the cities inevitable demise. He slowly comes to realize that he will either watch the city he loved slowly disappear or leave the city and preserve the happy memories that still survive in him.
If you want to watch more films which honor the director’s home city, check out Fellini and Sorrentino’s respective odes to Rome: La Dolce Vita and The Great Beauty. You could also check out Thom Andersen’s documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself, composed completely out of Hollywood films.
Or if you’re more interested in seeing towns and cities slowly disappear, check out Once Upon a Time in Venezuela and Kings of Nowhere; two documentaries of towns destroyed by nature. There’s also Cuban docu-drama, The Project of the Century featuring one town full of hope destroyed by international politics.
Lastly, for more films set in Arabic cities subject to increasing fundamentalism and war, watch The Square from Egypt, Freedom Fields from Libya and The Journey from Iraq.
How well do you know your Cuban history? Lucia charts the evolution of revolutionary consciousness in Cuba from Spanish Imperialism until after the Cuban revolution through the stories of three women named Lucia (living in 1896, 1932, and 1960 respectively). Who’d thought a Cuban film made in the 1960s would be more progressive than most of the Hollywood films of today because of it’s political consciousness and female protagonists.
Part one. It’s 1895. Lucia, a lady from the upper class, gossips with her friends about another lady who has just returned from Paris with a rich, chubby husband before they all head into church. She catches the eye of a trader whilst in church, and they both exchange smiles. This is romance of the 1890s.
As part one progresses, you gradually see more and more of the demise of Spanish imperialism. Firstly, from the horrific story of Fernandina; a former nun that crazily roams the streets after being raped. Secondly from the doomed love affair of Lucia. And, lastly from the chaotic battles that take place at the end of the segment. The chaos which ends part one is a long way from the playful gossip that starts the film.
You’ll also notice how Humberto Solas adds loads of emotion to his film. For example, in Fernandina’s rape scene, he quickly cuts between different angles preventing us from focusing on one view point which disrupts our viewing flow. To add to the effect, he uses a hand-held camera. The combination of the quick cutting and the hand-held camera make us feel Fernandina’s confusion and horror as all these soldiers are frantically chasing her. If you’ve seen Sergei Eisenstein’s famous Battleship Potemkin, you’ll recognise this chaotic montage.
Click on the poster on the left to buy on Amazon!
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