Colour of Pomegranates is not a biography of the 18th Century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, but a film which tries to depict his poetry on film. If you’re looking for plot, storyline, and a conclusion, stay away from this movie. However, if you want to explore how you can use film as an artistic medium, check out this brilliantly esoteric and stylish film.
If you love films about mad historical characters then check out Rey. It follows the unlikely story of Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, a French country lawyer who ventures to Chile in 1858 to unite the Mapuche. If you liked the madness of Aguirre or Apocalypse Now check this art-house flick now! I recommend watching the trailer below to see if you can handle it!
Why Watch Rey?
It took 7 years to make – director Niles Atallah even buried the 16mm film footage in his back garden to artificially age it
If you want a Quixotic version of the Herzogian madmen (see Aguirre or Apocalypse Now)
It stretches the boundaries of film by playing with myth, memory, and history
To feel like you’re in one of the world’s last wildernesses
The Breakdown
Rey begins with a Frenchmen who landed on the coast of Chile in 1858. According to legend he traveled to the end of the South American continent to create his own kingdom. He united the tribes from the region and proclaimed himself king.
If you think it already sounds mythic, the film’s experimental style makes it seem even more unbelievable. We first meet the self proclaimed king standing alone in the wilderness shrouded in mist. After the mist clears, he declares himself ‘the king of water’ as water magically flows from his hands into a pool of water below him.
The unusual images don’t stop there either. Later on, when he is on trial, all the characters involved in the trail are wearing paper-mache masks. The masks could signify the character’s lost connection with the true history of the continent (they refuse to acknowledge the tribes in the south). Or that they use the masks to hide their true history, which is ultimately wiped out.
Is Rey an allegory of colonialism?
As the French lawyer narrates how he came to South America, we are shown images of ships landing and western looking men riding horses. He describes how he ‘flew across the sea’ and immediately ‘felt the spirit of the land.’ Layering his narration over the images of westerners arriving is an allegory to the colonizers who came across the seas centuries before. He like them, has come to take control of the land. In his case, he ventures south in an attempt to unite and lead the Mapuche tribes. In doing so, he brings the last autonomous region in Chile into the spotlight. Ultimately, he is the tribes downfall.
Conclusion
Rey is one of the experimental films that works well. It pieces together the beginning of the end for the last autonomous tribes in Chile through the unbelievable character of Orelie-Antione de Tounens. It’s a creative depiction of a enigmatic character that fuses myth, memory, and history to tell an unlikely story.
For more similar (but easier to watch) films of enigmatic characters in Southern America, check out Aguirre and The Lost City of Z. Or if it’s a good jungle film you’re after, check out The Embrace of the Serpent and Apocalypse Now.
You probably know who Pablo Escobar is and what he did. You also may know about the war that has raged on in Colombia across the last several decades. While the wars have ceased, the mist of violence still remains. In Impression of a War you’ll see that violence still lingers in Colombia. It is hidden in the landscapes, the music, and the people of Colombia. This film will show you where to look.
Why Watch Impression of a War?
You’ve seen Narcos and possibly Colours of the Mountain and Maria Full of Grace and want to see a more experimental look at the legacy of violence in Colombia
It’s a kaleidoscope of images showing how violence has permeated all aspects of life in Colombia
To see Colombian soldiers shooting at guerillas one minute, and dancing salsa the next
It’s a Silver Leopard winner at the Locarno Film Festival
The Breakdown
The river of Medellin has changed colours many times in it’s contemporary history as textile factories up river dumped excess dye into the river. One time the factory chucked bucket loads of red dye into the river turning the whole river red. This happened at the height of Escobar’s violence in Medellin and as a result, the media turned this blood red river into a symbol of the cities violence.
This anecdote is one example of the violence entrenched in Colombian society. An entrenchment that cannot see a river coloured red by red dye, but a river soaked in blood.
Impression of a War is a work of art that tries to cast a subjective gaze at the legacy of violence in Colombia. Restrepo (the director) captures any visible trace of violence in the daily lives of the people living in Colombia. He shows us images from the battlefields, images from the landscape (as above), and interviews with those affected by the violence.
All these traces, whether deliberate or accidental, constitute the raw material for Impression of a War.
Conclusion
This 30 minute documentary covers a lot. Violence has affected everything from the colour of the taxis to the cities music. Will the new generation be freed from this legacy?
Piedra Sola, like Notturno (one of the other films at this year’s AFI Fest), is beautifully shot. Set in the hamlet of Condor in the northern highlands of Argentina, it contains a lot of otherworldly landscapes and local ceremonies that look unusual to foreign eyes.
However, the exceptional images hint at a higher meaning that isn’t really decipherable in the film. For example, there’s the opening shot of a horse with its two front legs tied, hopping over a rocky hill at dawn. It’s a striking image, and beautifully captured in low light conditions, but it’s not clear how it fits into the narrative of Piedra Sola. The horse never reappears and doesn’t have too much of an impact on how we perceive the film, except to create intrigue. That’s not to say the film needs to have a narrative – it doesn’t – however, the scenes don’t feel like they all come together to unlock the mystery that they each contain. It feels more like a collection of sublime images than something complete.
This also comes across in the focus of the film, the lama herder. We see him go travel to a nearby town to sell his wares and get involved in the local festival, but beyond that we don’t have much of an understanding of him. It’s made vaguely aware that his livestock is being attacked by a puma, but it’s never clear if this is imagined, real, or an allegory for something else. His silence and emotionless face don’t give away any of his feelings either way. He is as mysterious as the collection of images that make up Piedra Sola.
His lack of agency also comes across as a bit problematic. Combined with his silence and lack of emotion, it presents another image of the passive Latin American indigenous person. Like Cleo in Roma and Justino in The Fever (two more films directed by non-indigenous directors), things happen to the lama herder that he quietly reacts to. Instead of initiating things himself, he only responds to things around him, which makes him seem a bit characterless.
There’s also the exoticization of the isolated Andean community. The director, Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf beautifully captures the ceremonies and the hamlet, but he also others it. The unique culture is viewed with a gaze that highlights the differences between the highland culture of Argentina from the city culture of Buenos Aires. It makes their culture seem a bit rustic and old fashioned, situating the community as if it exists in another world and time.
If you’re looking for a beautifully shot, esoteric movie set in the remote highlands of Argentina, you’ll love Piedra Sola. However, the mystery in the images and narrative make it hard to access, whilst the exoticization and passivization of the portrayals of the remote community make it hard to love.
Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.
50 years after colonialism, Sunday in Brazzaville takes a look at three artists contributing to contemporary Congolese culture in the former capital of Free France. Each of them reforms influences from the West into cultures that are uniquely Congolese.
The three artists in profile represent three different parts of culture:
The Fashion orientated Sapeurs – a group of men and women that live by a gentlemanly code and dress in bright suits. Their code of conduct rules that they must show good manners, be elegant, and always well dressed – deriving their characteristics from wealthy upper class Frenchmen. They’re surprisingly proud of their French heritage, but also sport brightly colored suits that feel uniquely Congolese.
The wrestler representing sport and entertainment. This wrestling has much more in common with the WWE in the U.S. than the greco-Roman wrestling you’ll see at the Olympics. It’s more focused on the spectacle than strength. The wrestler profiled, like the Sapeurs, mixes Congolese elements into the U.S. style wrestling, with magic and live animals becoming his secret weapons.
Lastly there’s our musician, a rapper uncovering life in Brazzaville in his rhymes. Like the Sapeurs and the wrestler, he has been influenced by culture from the West (in this case rap music from the U.S.) and adapted it to depict contemporary Congolese life.
Each of the three artists in Sunday in Brazzaville represent contemporary Congolese culture with all of them adapting elements of Western art for Congolese audiences to give a quick overview of life in Brazzaville. The only thing that would have been nice to see is more of a gender balance in the subjects as the characters profiled are all male.
What to Watch Next
Sunday in Brazzaville is a western made African documentary that doesn’t focus on the exploitative thematic trio of poverty, conflict, and AIDS. Narrated by a Congolese radio host, it reminded me a bit of PRI’s informative and diverse Afropop Worldwide podcast series which looks at a wide range of African music around the world. It also reminded me of some of the vibrant and colorful documentaries coming out of the Republic of Congo’s neighbor the DRC such as System K and Zombies. Or if you’re looking for more overviews of one country’s culture, check out Burkina Rising and Night of Calypso.
You must be logged in to post a comment.