What kind of film are you looking for?
Beauty and the Dogs is one traumatic roller coaster ride. There’s no respite from the very first cut and once you’ve strapped in you have to watch until the end of the ride.
From: Tunisia, AfricaContinue reading “Beauty and the Dogs (Tunisia) – One Victim Against the Police”
Watch: Trailer, Amazon Buy
Next: Irreversible, The Insult, Dogville
In the late 2000s a group of black boys aged 12-14 robbed other children’s phones on around 70 occasions in Gothenberg. This film tracks one of their robbery scams to see how they did it whilst cleverly making the victims (and the audience) look (and feel) helpless. Watch it here (Amazon).
Play starts with a still shot of the centre of a shopping mall. Two 10 year old white boys enter the middle of the frame talking about what they need to buy next. Then, the camera slowly pans to the left, settling on a group of 5 black kids. They’ve spotted the two white kids and play rock, paper, scissors to decide who is going to go rob them.
Turns out, their trick is a lot longer than you might expect. One of the black boys asks one of the white boys for the time. Then when the white kid pulls out his phone, the black kid tells him that his phone looks just like the one that was robbed from his little brother. Cue a tour around town to find his ‘little brother’ to verify if the phone is the one that was robbed from him.
The race and class separation between the two groups is obvious. One group, with two white kids and one Asian kid, is obviously more well off than the group of black kids that rob them. They are in the mall shopping for new clothes and video games. In contrast, the black kids are just messing around. They’re not there to spend money, they’re there because they have nothing else to do. Robbing the richer kids is their entertainment. It gives them something to do and gets them enough funds to afford dinner.
For more on the identity dynamics, I recommend reading IndieWire’s review of Play here.
First of all, the bystanders in this film are pretty useless. Every time they see the group of kids in trouble, they refuse to help and just carry on with their own lives instead. The static frames make the bystanders look even more useless. Instead of cutting between close-up shots of the victims and antagonists, the static frame shows us their surroundings. You can see bystanders sitting or standing at the edge of the screen, pretending to be oblivious to the action. Their cowardice makes us question ourselves: would we be like them and just ignore kids being bullied near us?
The static frames also convey the victims helplessness. Once the victims enter the frame they’re stuck. They can leave the screen, but they will always return to it. Similarly, the audience is forced to watch the victims being bullied and robbed. There are short breaks from the main narrative, such as a group of Native Americans singing in the street, but our focus will always be diverted back to the kids being bullied. It’s as if the director wants us to feel helpless whilst trying to show us enough bullying to encourage us to help the helpless.
Play is brilliantly daring. It’s controversial and clever – it highlights cowardice and staunch social boundaries (class and race) and provokes debate. However, one word of advice, just like a lot of other controversial art (gangsta rap) you’ve got to look deeper than the surface.
For a funnier but even more awkward film from Ruben Ostlund, I strongly recommend Academy Award Nominee, Force Majeure (Amazon).
I’d also strongly recommend watching both Girlhood and La Haine. They’re two more films that focus on underprivileged kids looking for their way in life in societies where they’re marginalised.
Or, if you’re looking for more Swedish film, you must check out anything by Ingmar Bergman. Start with Wild Stawberries or The Seventh Seal (Amazon).
Unfortunately Tremors carries the same name as a much more famous B-movie monster film from Hollywood. However, whilst they’re vastly different, they do share one thing in common: they’re both tongue-in-cheek comedies. Instead of laughing at the absurd huge worm like monsters in the 1990’s American version, you can laugh at the absurd response to the outing of a closeted gay man embedded in an upper class family life in Guatemala. It’s fun watching their stiff upper lips curl in long periods melodramatic weeping. The extremist gay conversion therapy that Pablo’s devout catholic family force him to attend to keep them together takes the satire to another level. All we can do is enjoy the levels the family goes to in order to hide their shame. Pablo’s out-and-proud lover is the only sane person in the film and watches Pablo’s family bewildered like us as it slowly disintegrates.
From: Guatemala, North America Watch: Trailer, IMDb, JustWatch Next: Dakan, Jose, I Am Not A Witch
In Ixcanul, the volcano is a reminder of the power that nature holds over our lives. Follow Maria as she tries to find a way to escape from her rural community and the looming presence of the volcano.
Ixcanul starts with a close up of a teenage girl’s face. Her mum appears behind her and starts tidying her hair, cleaning her face, and tying her colourful head band. Maria (the teenage girl) looks blankly at the camera. It’s clear that she’s being prepared for something that’s out of her control. Is she getting married? Whatever it is, she seems too stunned to care.
The next scene flashes back to the two of them feeding rum to some pigs to make them horny. The girl waits around and watches the pigs as they copulate. It’s clear she’s bored. The only things she does at home is help her mum with the cooking and care for their livestock. Therefore it’s not a surprise that she finds another teenager that works nearby to have sex with.
The only problem is that her parents have just promised her hand in marriage to their boss. He’s the reason why they’re living in their house with the things they own as he’s the one renting it to them. So when her mum finds out Maria is pregnant she tells her off for ‘not counting her moons’ and puts together a plan to try and get rid of the baby.
Whilst the volcano never erupts, it’s power is always felt through the film. In every shot of the landscape, it looms in the background as if it is controlling their lives. In a way it is.
It is the wall that is blocking them from prosperity. On their side of the volcano, there is nothing, just barren land and boredom. But on the other side there is the United States and Guatemala City which both promise a better life. Just look at Maria’s fiance who travels to see them once every few weeks. He comes from the other side of the volcano and owns a car, the house Maria and her family live in, and is able to speak Spanish. He is obviously from the same part of Guatemala as her (as he also speaks Kaqchikel), and therefore the same lifestyle, but he has managed to find prosperity by venturing past the volcano.
Ixcanul has great cinematography and strong female characters ensnared by the power of the volcano. It is the blockade between their barren farm and a better life as on the other side is the city and the influence of the U.S. Can they make it to the other side?
If you want to see another film about a young kid/teenager trying to break the monotony of their life, check out Wadjda. It’s a coming-of-age story of a young girl in Saudi Arabia who is desperate to ride a bike, despite all the pressures on her to become a woman.
Or if you want to see more films about young adults trying to find a better life, check out:
If you’re a fan of mellow conversation led family dramas, The Stranger might become your next favorite film. It features the unexpected return of a long lost relative after 30 years of traveling the world. On his return he finds a changed city and an unwelcoming family that are skeptical of his identity. What follows is a film that could take place on the stage. Shot mostly in a spacey urban Indian apartment, The Stranger focuses on the conversational duels between the returning outcast, Uncle Mitra, and his niece Anila and her husband. It swings between debates about civilization, religion, culture, identity and traveling the world. Plus there’s a heartwarming relationship between Uncle Mitra and his young grand-nephew, the only person that trusts him.
From: India, Asia Watch: Trailer, JustWatch, IMDb Next: Naseem, My Dinner with Andre, Pyaasa
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