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From: Egypt, Africa Watch: Trailer, Mubi, Prime Video, JustWatch Next: After the Battle, The Insult, Saudi RunawayContinue reading “Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story – Down With the Patriarchy”
Taxi Tehran is filmed from a taxi cab driven by Jafar Panahi. As he’s driving round Tehran, he picks up a wide range of characters from a variety of backgrounds. It’s a perfect microcosm for real life in Tehran and Iran and the perfect disguise for a banned filmmaker to practice his art.
From: Iran, AsiaContinue reading “Taxi Tehran – Travel Around Tehran with the Locals”
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: Ten, This is Not a Film, Locke
Bacurau is one fun genre film with a bunch of memorable cult action film characters on the level of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator or Song Kang-ho in Snowpiercer. Problem is, it builds up the cult vibe a bit too high, which leaves the ending doomed to underwhelm.
However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t watch this film. On the contrary, you should. It’s still exciting. Plus it presents a positive message (in a High Noon esque conflict with a lot of violence that I cannot advocate) of a diverse community in rural Brazil that comes together to stand up to attacks from local politicians and foreign interests. It’s an obvious allegory to a Brazil that has become increasingly polarized due to the rise of the Brazilian far right, led by President Jair Bolsonaro. It is interesting to see that this adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game arrived in the U.S. the same weekend as The Hunt, a U.S. adaptation of the same book, considering both countries are led by right-wing leaders.
Bacurau is the name of the fictional isolated town in the heart of Brazil where the film takes place. The town is a Brazilian copy of the towns you’d expect to see in an American western. It’s surrounded by dusty land and sparse vegetation, with only one road leading into the town. The same road all the town’s buildings are built on. The residents also represent a diverse range of backgrounds, like you’d expect to see on the American frontier (see First Cow), with black, white, and brown people, young and old, from a variety of professions. It’s almost a utopian community of the future, where everyone gets along and respects each other, or maybe it just feels utopian because communities like this are disappearing.
They’re rightly suspicious of and prepared for anything that tries to break their community. A couple stationed a mile outside of their town uses walkie-talkies to inform the DJ in town of any visitors, who then uses his speakers to pass their warnings onto everyone in town. Their lines of communication allow them to avoid interacting with the lying local politician and prepare themselves from the attacks of foreigners. They can survive by embracing outcasts and standing together in the face of danger.
There are even a few clues that the community has done this before. The town’s museum is full of memorabilia from countless rebellions against the government. The town’s residents encourage outsiders to visit the museum to show off their pride in their independence, and also warn them of what might happen if they don’t receive respect. In one of the last scenes, the museum curator asks the clean up crew to leave the mark of a bloodied hand on the wall to serve as another mark of their resistance. Their respect for their local museum indicates a respect for their history. Knowing their past, allows them to be better prepared for the future. In this case, their experience defending their town from the government and foreigners in the past has made them more wary of the same people today. It’s a lesson for everyone living today: know your history or fall victim to a cycle of racism and division that has been reborn in the rise of the prejudiced right-wing governments of the world.
If you liked Bacurau, director Kleber Mendonça Filho and co-director Juliano Dornelles handpicked an assortment of films that map the rich cinematic universe to which their inventive creation belong for the Lincoln Center in New York. Whilst the film series had to be cancelled due to Coronavirus, many of the films listed are available for streaming. Check out their program here or the link below, featuring works by John Carpenter, Sergio Corbucci, Eduardo Coutinho, and more.
How many times have you thought about what your life would be like if you were born in a different country or even in a different era? You may romanticize about life in the past, but in reality, even if you were a king you’re quality of life would be incomparable to what it is now. In Wallay young Ady is taken to stay with his family in Burkina Faso. It’s a completely different world to the one he is used to in France but he walks around like a spoiled brat until he realises that his holiday is permanent.
Wallay starts with a 13 year old boy in France writing a letter to a girl. The image of a sweet 13 year old is quickly dispelled as the next scene shows him buying some new trainers off of the Parisian black market and getting told off by his dad when he returns home.
So, how does his dad properly discipline him? His dad takes him to spend some time with his family in small town Burkina Faso. What young Ady doesn’t realise is that this is not just a holiday. His father leaves him and he is forced to help his strict uncle work to repay him for the money he stole from his dad.
At the beginning, Ady walks around Burkina still surrounded in his materialist glass house symbolised by his Beats headphones and smartphone. He seems to wear a necklace of the African continent for fashion and not because of his roots. But as he is forced to pay back the money he stole he slowly opens up to life in Burkina Faso and discovers the treasure that is his cultural heritage.
Ady is spoiled. Not in the sense that he was well off, but because he lives in an economically developed country with luxuries that he (like a lot of us) all take for granted. In Burkina Faso, he learns he has been lucky to have grown up in France whilst also discovering the beauty of his Burkinabe roots.
You might have a vision about a particular place you’ve never visited, but you have to go there to really see what it is like. In Djon Africa, Miguel dreams of meeting his father from Cape Verde, so he decides to seek him out by going there. His fantasies of a place covered with beautiful women and parties are tested by reality.
From: Cape Verde, AfricaContinue reading “Djon Africa – Fantasy vs. Reality in Cape Verde”
Watch: Trailer, Watch on Amazon
Next: Wan Pipel, Wallay, Song of the Sea
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