Strands Best Films- Page 6 of 41

Not One Less (China) – 13 Year Old Teacher, What Could Go Wrong?

Not One Less Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

What do you do when you mother is dying and you need to find a replacement teacher to do your job whilst you go visit her? You find a 13 year old girl from a neighboring town that hasn’t been to high school to take over from you for a month. What could go wrong? Find out here (buy to watch on Amazon).

Image result for not one less

Why Watch Not One Less?

Learn from the world’s youngest substitute teacher – a 13 year old girl from rural China
For a 5 minute teaching masterclass – who needs qualifications?
Experience life as a kid in rural China and see how it contrasts with life as a kid in the city
If you like Italian neo-realism and/or coming of age films

The Breakdown

Not One Less starts with the arrival of the substitute teacher named Wei. She’s only 13 and hasn’t completed high school yet. But as it’s just a month and this rural town has no one else remotely qualified to teach their kids, she seems like a great option.

Before the actual teacher goes, he gives her a 5 minute 101 in teaching. Here are the golden rules:

Let the students go home, when the sunlight reaches this stick
Copy these lessons for the students to write – one a day
Don’t use too much chalk (it’s expensive)
Sing one song a day

It doesn’t sound too hard. As he leaves, he promises to give her 50 Yuan for her month’s work, and an extra 10 if she keeps all the students until he gets back. Just for perspective, a ticket to town on the bus costs around 20 Yuan. The pay is poor, but it’s what drives this 13 year old substitute teacher – she does whatever she can to keep these kids until the teacher returns for that extra 10 Yuan.

However, as you’ll see, this extra clause is a harder than it might seem. Firstly, as expected, she’s not a great teacher. She doesn’t ‘teach’ the kids, as she just writes on the board, tells the kids to copy it down, and sits outside the exit to block anyone from escaping early. Secondly, her students are poor. One is moved to an athletic school under the promise that her life might be better elsewhere, and another is taken out of school to go work in the city. So what does she do? She turns her lessons into a mission to get them back to school encouraging the students to help her in her quest. If it weren’t for the promise of money, she would be the most caring teacher in the world.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

Wei learns a lot in this film, and so do we. We learn about the Chinese education system, poverty, work, local politics, salesmanship, marketing, the consequences of cheating, and more. Even though this film is about teaching, it shows us that the most valuable lessons are learned outside the classroom in life itself. To learn about China and life in general, go watch this film!

For more great Chinese film, check out the following:

The Road Home: for another film from Zhang Yimou – this one’s an emotional romance
A Touch of Sin: a bleak, politically charged portrayal of contemporary Chinese society
The Assassin: An art-house Martial Arts film with beautiful cinematography and choregraphy

Or, if you’re looking for more coming-of-age films in which kids are forced to grow up quickly, check out Mustang from Turkey and Abouna from Chad. I’d even recommend watching the heartwarming Kikujiro from Takeshi Kitano as well!

Black Girl (Senegal) – One of Africa’s Must Watch Films

Black Girl Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Do you want to see one of Africa’s best films from the 20th Century? Set aside 55 minutes to watch Black Girl below (please comment if the video is not working). Don’t let film scholars be the only ones to have seen this incredible film as this should be seen by everyone.

Why Watch Black Girl?

It’s short: it will only take 55 minutes of your time!
It features a strong female character
The best pieces of art are completed quickly. Black Girl was made in 20 days
Examine the legacy of colonialism

The Breakdown

Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl starts with a big passenger ship arriving at a port in France. A finely dressed black woman, Diouana, leaves the boat wondering if anyone will be there to pick her up. Sure enough a white man greets her, takes her bags, and drives her off. After a few jump cuts in the car ride (a style made famous in Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard) she arrives at a house on the French Riviera.

The opening suggests Diouana is here to meet her friends. Because of her nice dress and the white driver meeting her, it initially appears that she shares equal status with the white French people. However, as soon as she enters the apartment, it becomes clear that she does not share the same freedoms as her employers. She is kept in the apartment all day, every day to clean and cook and never ventures out because she never gets paid and is never introduced to anyone (which is always helpful when you don’t speak the language). As a result, she is almost a slave.

What’s the significance of the African mask?

To get to know the film a little better, look out for the African mask. It first appears in the film when Diouana buys it from a small boy from her neighbourhood in Senegal. She then gifts it to her employer who first question it’s authenticity (‘it looks like the real thing’) and then hang it on one of their blank white walls in their apartment in France.

Firstly, the mask initially signifies equality between Diouana and her employer. The act of gifting implies that you share an equal standing with the person you give to. Initially, because of the gifting, Diouana is equal to her employer. However, when her employers dismiss the mask as a fake, they imply that Diouana cannot afford a real mask and therefore she is not on the same level as them.

Secondly, the mask is a metaphor for Diouana’s isolation in France. Like the mask hanging in the middle of a blank wall, she is alone and out of place in French society.

Lastly, the mask is a symbol of the misappropriation of African culture. In Africa the mask is alive as the young boy is shot playing with it and wearing it. However, in France, the mask is dead. In France, the mask has been reduced to an ‘exotic’ artifact which sits on a wall as a trophy of Diouana’s employer’s exoticism. It allows her employers to temporarily ‘play’ their ‘connection’ to African ‘exoticism’ without experiencing any of the discrimination they perpetrate. Just like a fancy dress that they can take off whenever they want.

Narration as a symbol of post-colonialism

When watching Black Girl you’ll notice that whilst Diouana doesn’t speak French, all her thoughts are narrated in French. Her consciousness has been taken over by a language that isn’t her own. She can’t physically speak French and therefore become equal to the French speakers in France, but she can think in French. In fact, French is the only language she actually thinks in via the narration.

This is symbolic of the legacy of French colonialism in Africa (in this case, Senegal). Although Senegal achieved it’s independence from France a few years before this film was made, by restricting Diouana’s consciousness to French Sembene emphasises the parasitic legacy of colonialism. The colonisers colonised Senegal and replaced it’s native culture with it’s own and disrupted Senegalese consciousness in the process.

Related image

Conclusion

There’s so much more to say! Simply put, Sembene’s Black Girl packs a lot into just under an hour. If it’s not being studied at schools across the world, it should be. Everyone needs to watch this film!

If you haven’t seen it, you’re in luck. Watch it here on YouTube!

Man Bites Dog (Belgium) – Help Out an ‘Affectionate and Sweet’ Murderer

Man Bites Dog Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

This may well be the darkest comedy there is. You may not agree at first, but you probably will by the end of the film. And you’ll probably feel like a murderer for watching it! This is one of the ultimate mockumentarys!

Why Watch Man Bites Dog?

If you like dark comedies – and when I say dark, I mean it!
If you like docu-fiction films (see Battle of Algiers or Che)
To learn how much ballast you need to sink a corpse
For a murderer’s ode to pigeons – actor Benoit Poelvoorde is crazy

The Breakdown

You’ll get an idea of what kind of a film this is from the opening. It starts with what looks like a normal scene. A man on a train is standing by the window as a woman walks past him along the corridor. However, as the man moves out of the way to let her pass, he rings a rope around her neck, forces her into a cabin and strangles her.

As you’ll quickly realise, this is not a serious film. However, you also won’t be surprised that it was highly controversial when it was released in 1992 (two years before Natural Born Killers).

Straight after the brutal opening scene, we meet Benoit (the murderer) again. This time, he is talking to the camera and telling us how to properly ballast a corpse so it sinks. Remember, ‘you need to ballast a dead body with 3 times it’s body-weight, and 5 times for old people as their bones are even more porous’ (Benoit’s quote, not mine).

The mockumentary style (mock documentary) makes the film even more real. Benoit looks straight at the camera a lot, and therefore straight at us. As a result, we are forced to get close to him and pushed towards identifying with him. The intimacy is stretched even further as we are introduced to his family and friends, who all say what an ‘affectionate and sweet’ person he is. But every time we start to get comfortable with him the director reminds us of his violence. For example, in one scene he starts playing with a few kids in a park making him appear normal, but the director quickly cuts to a montage of him murdering innocent people to remind us that he is a murderer.

Image result for man bites dog

Conclusion

Man Bites Dog is provocative. But it’s also clever. It plays with us throughout the film, encouraging us to get close to a murderer before brutally showing us images that are undeniably wrong and shocking. There’s also a pretty meta commentary on both the moral obligation of the film-makers and the audience. Are the film-makers and us morally wrong for making/watching this film?

Either way, for more, I’d recommend checking out Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (with a young Woody Harrelson leading). Also check out Behind the Mask for a horror movie equivalent.

The Insult (Lebanon) – Words Can Start Wars

The Insult Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

The Insult demonstrates just how powerful words can be. The trials between the Tony the Lebanese Christian and Yasser the Palestinian refugee are like the OJ Simpson trials on steroids.

From: Lebanon, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Amazon Prime, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: OJ Simpson: Made in America, Silvered Water, Ajami

Makala – Live the Life of a Charcoal Miner in Rural DR Congo

Makala Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

This documentary film is on another level. You’ll rarely get this close to a life completely different to the one you’re used to. Not just because you probably have no idea about the lives of charcoal miners in DR Congo, but because you rarely get films that are this intimate. There are so many close ups and shots where Kabwita’s emotion is so clearly visible that you’ll feel like you’re there right beside him. The only problem is that you’ll feel even worse for not being able to help him up those hills.

Why Watch Makala?

Find out how to make a living in rural Democratic Republic of Congo
The incredible cinematography! (detail below)
Learn how to make charcoal
It’s an excellent documentary – it won Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival 2017

The Breakdown

Makala starts with Kabwita (our protagonist). The camera follows him through the bush. He’s carrying two axes on his shoulders. He’s looking for a good tree. After a minute or so, the perfect tree appears near the top of the shrub covered hill. After a quick prayer, Kabwita starts cutting down the tree.

Makala covers the whole process of making a living from charcoal. You’ll see Kabwita make the product (charcoal), transport it, and sell it. This is how he manages to live.

What’s amazing about the film is how intimate it is. The director, Emmanuel Gras, found Kabwita whilst working on his previous documentary (also set in DRC). Kabwita agreed to the film in return for help building the home he mentions in the film. This is how the director manages to get so many close-up shots of Kabwita documenting his trials and tribulations.

Because of the connection the close-ups establish between us (the audience) and Kabwita, there are many times when we want to reach out and help him. We can feel his struggle pushing the charcoal logs up hills and also his frustration when a lorry crashes into his livelihood. Of course, the director could help, but to do so would be to take away from our experience. It’s the director’s responsibility to direct the life of the charcoal maker. It’s our responsibility (the viewers) to be enlightened and be inspired to make a change.

Image result for makala film

Conclusion

Makala is a beautiful film. The cinematography at times is almost unbelievably real. A lot of the shots are so intimate and close that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that this is a documentary. We are so used to seeing unrealistic intimate shots in Hollywood films (close-ups of people kissing that you’d never see in real life) but this kind of intimacy is unusual in Documentary film. In Makala you get to experience the life of the charcoal maker, not just witness it.