What kind of film are you looking for?
If you want to get an idea of how life was in Germany after the Second World War, Europa is your film. It recreates the inevitably nightmarish environment in a country shrouded by the horrors it has committed. It’s inventive, creative, and amazingly dark.
From: Germany, EuropeContinue reading “Europa – Darkness in Post-War Germany”
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon
Next: Wings of Desire, Children of Men, Persona
This is your opportunity to see the perfect heartwarming story from Saudi Arabia. In fact, it’s probably your best chance to see a film from Saudi Arabia, as this was the first feature film shot entirely in the country. So go watch it here (rent on Amazon) now.
The film starts in a girls school in Saudi Arabia. The very first thing you see is a close up of the shoes on the feet of the girls as their names are being taken for register in the morning. The camera passes an array of smart school shoes before settling on a pair of converses. This is how we meet our protagonist Wadjda.
The close up shots don’t stop when we meet Wadjda, as all the scenes of her at school and at home are never shot from far away. Therefore we are never given a complete view of her school or her home, and you rarely get an establishing shot (a shot which allows you to ‘establish’ the setting) of the area she lives in. But this changes as she begins to challenge the authority of her parents and school. Towards the end of the film, these establishing shots are more common. You’ll see a wider view of the school assembly hall, complete shots of the square by their house, and a shot of Wadjda cycling through the town. The whole world frees up just as Wadjda starts breaking boundaries. It’s an subtle way of using camera distance to reflect the restrictive social boundaries.
Of course you’ll also witness all the lack of freedom of women in Saudi Arabia in this film. You’ll hear some great quotes, such as:
These lines are meant to be provocative, but they’re also pretty funny and add to the slightly comic tone of the film. And that’s what makes this film great: it’s a feelgood film but it doesn’t hide the repressive society.
Wadjda perfectly walks the line between becoming a heavy political movie and a childish one. As a result, it’s the perfect coming of age film: Wadjda is an awesome character oppressed by the cultural and religious restrictions. The way she stands up to society is amazing. So go and watch it here.
If you want more, I’d first check out another awesome family friendly film from Iran: Children of Heaven. It’s even more heartwarming.
But I’d also recommend checking out The Bicycle Thieves. It’s obvious that Wadjda draws a lot of influences from The Bicycle Thieves. It uses bikes as a symbol of freedom and even shares a similar final shot.
Ever wonder what it’s like to be an Angel? In Wings of Desire you’re immortal, but confined to a half-reality. You can see and hear reality, but you cannot feel it. So all you can do is wander the world watching it change. Be an angel and watch Wings of Desire here (rent of buy on Amazon).
An eye opens and cuts to a sweeping aerial shot of Berlin. The eye belongs to Damiel, a winged angel, and the aerial shot is his view of Berlin from the top of one of the cities highest monuments. The only people that see him perched at the top of the building are a few passing children who stare at him in awe.
Damiel and the other angels wander the city invisibly. They cannot talk to humans and they cannot be seen by humans, but they can hear all of their thoughts. Therefore, all they can do is wander the human world as observers.
The director (Wim Wenders) portrays their wandering with extreme melancholy. Firstly, he shows them trying to help people in vain, like a man who commits suicide. Secondly, he shows their lives in black and white whilst the Berliners they listen and watch are shown in vibrant colour. By creating their lives as a half life (without feeling, colour, and action) it makes us sympathize with their desire to be human.
Wings of Desire was shot in the decade before the reunification of Germany. Therefore you will see the Berlin Wall and East Germany looming in the distance. The melancholic lives of the Angels are a reflection of the melancholy in Berlin, a city that still hasn’t recovered from the the Second World War.
There are reminders of the war placed throughout the film, from the actors dressed as Nazis and Jews on a nearby film set to the Berlin Wall. However, the most prominent example of the wars devastation on life in Berlin is the fate of Potsdamer Plaza.
A storytelling character aptly named Homer walks through the no-man’s land wasteland by the Berlin wall where Potsdamer Plaza used to be located. He reminisces about the Plaza when it was full of life. Before the war, it was full of friendly people and tradesmen. But later Nazi flags filled the square and the people became unfriendly. And now it’s just part of an empty wasteland that runs alongside the Berlin wall, with no life at all.
Wings of Desire is a beautifully melancholic film that meditates on the plight of humanity in the 20th century. In the political volatility today, this film is particularly relevant. It’s almost a warning of what could happen if we let love abandon us; we’d become Angels wandering the wastelands.
For another great German film of almost epic proportions I strongly recommend watching Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun. It charts 20th century German history through the stoic Maria Braun, who is widowed as her husband fights in WW2.
If you love the melancholic philosophical musings I also recommend watching The Seventh Seal (rent or buy on Amazon), the story of a knight who is stalked by death.
The brilliance of Araby is hard to pinpoint. This analogy might not do it justice, but it’s a bit like going to a retirement home and meeting a fascinating storyteller who intimately reveals to you their life story in 90 minutes. There’s nothing particularly special about Cristiano’s life in Araby, but it’s told so intimately and warmly, that you just can’t help but watch and listen. The patient viewer will reap it’s rewards.
From: Brazil, South AmericaRead The Full Review
Watch: Trailer, Kanopy, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: Tabu, Djon Africa, Extraordinary Stories
As the World Cup continues in Russia, the Tennis stars of the world play at Wimbledon, and the world’s premiere cycling tour kicks off in France, there’s no better time to watch Icarus. You’ll learn about the effects of doping, start doubting the even playing ground of all sports, before asking yourself: “what if they’re all doping?” To find out more about doping in sport and the political stakes of doping, watch Icarus on Netflix.
Meet Bryan Fogel. He’s an amateur cyclist who was on the brink of turning professional when he was hit with an injury. Whilst he didn’t get to cycle alongside Lance Armstrong like some of his friends, he still idolized the best cyclist from his country and generation for his 7 Tour de France wins. But, his view of professional cycling and Lance Armstrong came crashing down when Armstrong finally admitted to doping in 2013.
How did Fogel react? By choosing the toughest 7-day amateur cycling race available and riding it twice. Firstly, he rode it clean, and secondly on performance enhancing drugs to analyse their effect.
Long story short, he finished in the top 20 clean, but couldn’t improve his positioning whilst doping. But, what might have been a movie about how doping won’t immediately make you the best in any sport luckily doesn’t end there.
That’s because the guy helping Fogel to dope was the director of the Russian anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov. They both become friends as Rodchenkov helped him through his doping process. Rodchenkov gives him plenty of advice and laughs, and even hosts him at his home in Russia.
However, Rodchenkov later drops a bombshell: he oversaw the state-sponsored doping programme for the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. This confession turns Icarus into an investigation into the worldwide doping scandal that banned all Russian athletes from competing in the 2016 Olympics and rocked the sporting world.
Icarus is one of the most gripping documentaries out there, especially if you’re a sports fan. It’s got an interesting premise (how much does doping help) which sets up the story, but the twist lands in Fogel’s lap because of Rodchenckov’s confession. From there it’s the two of them versus the Russian State and the U.S. court system.
If you’re looking for more great documentaries, check out the equally thrilling Citizenfour about Edward Snowden. Like Icarus it contains a whistleblower vs. the state, but instead of sport’s doping, it’s a worldwide spy network.
Or, if you’re looking for a sport documentary which focuses more on the sport, check out the brilliant basketball documentary, Hoop Dreams. It’s like Boyhood meets Basketball.
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