coming of age - Page 6 of 7

Death of Nintendo – Berlinale 2020

Death of Nintendo feels a lot like your typical nostalgic American middle school coming of age story. It has a group of friends that are desperate to become more popular than they are and a lot of pop culture references. However, there are a few unique Filipino elements in Death of Nintendo that you’re unlikely to see in American productions: a volcano, a body eating monster, and circumcision. These help the film to stand out in a pretty crowded genre.

A strong nostalgia for the early 1990’s is what hits you at the start of Death of Nintendo. It starts with two kids slotting colorful Nintendo games into their Nintendo, something that many 90’s kids will happily remember doing. Then in the following 15 minutes, you’ll hear hip hop and dancehall, and see them skateboarding and playing basketball in Nike shoes. The combination of visual and aural references quickly sets the film within the 1990’s. The way it’s presented, lit up in vibrant colors under the Filipino sun and with a few slow motion takes, makes sure it looks good enough to evoke a warm nostalgia for the era. If you’re a 90’s kid, this opening will make you want to be back in your happy childhood memories.

We’re knocked out of the nostalgic 1990’s childhood opening by a bully and love. The American bully disrupts their love for all things American, whilst their young love prompts a quick quest to grow up and become men. Being men = being popular and being popular = girls and no bullies. However, to become men, they have to embrace their Filipino identity. They have to come to terms with the volcano which threatens their neighborhood, their fear of the Manananggal (a Filipino man-eating mythical creature), and finally, they have to get circumcised (to help them grow and turn into men). Plus, they have to figure this all out on their own. Neither of the three boys have a fatherly role model to guide them through puberty, which perhaps leads to their strange idea of how to become men.

The 1990’s references and coming-of-age tropes are all taken from American culture. Without the Filipino references (volcano, Manananggal, and circumcision) and Tagalog, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a U.S. film. Whilst every international film shouldn’t have to set out cultural identifiers to situate it within the country it was made, they should try and differentiate themselves from existing films and make something new. Whilst Death of Nintendo is an enjoyable coming of age film from the Philippines, there’s not too much to help it stand out from an already crowded genre of nostalgic coming of age films.

However, don’t let that stop you from watching more films from Raya Martin. Manila, a film he co-directed with Adolfo Alix Jr. is much darker and intriguing. Read our review here.

Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret – PAFF 2020

Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret takes us back to Jaki’s childhood living in a coastal African town with his Granma, family, and friends. There’s no sign of school or any other schedule filling activities for young Jaki, so he creates his own entertainment with his friends Pi and Charlita. They start investigating the construction site of a huge mausoleum guarded by Russian soviets. Their innocent adventures uncover the Russian’s plot to demolish their neighborhood, so they plan to foil it by setting off their secret explosives.

Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret revolves around Jaki’s childhood in the 1980s. The characters give the film (and award winning African novel by Ondjaki) its flavor. There’s Jaki and his two friends, a trio of innocent adventurers that Americans will recognize from many 1980s U.S. films such as The Goonies or E.T. There’s a loving Granma that never loses her spirit even when her toe is covered in gangrene. You’ll also meet two foreigners fighting for her company in a Portuguese speaking Russian and a Spanish speaking Cuban doctor. None of the characters are threatening or unfriendly, even ‘Sea Foam’, the only homeless man in the film is friendly and happy. It creates the kind of neighborhood you wished you grew in.

The film is also told in flash back, of an older Jaki reminiscing on his childhood. This flash back narrative adds to films saudade, a classic feeling in Portuguese language novels and films which describes feelings of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia for an object that you’ll probably never have again. In this case, it’s Jaki’s saudade for his happy and innocent childhood. The director emphasizes his good memories by coloring the memories of his childhood town in warm pastel colors and filling the story with only happy memories. Eradicating the greys and downplaying the threat of the Soviet construction work and the absence of Jaki’s parents keeps the story positive in a way that only a person looking back on their life with saudade could.

Whilst I haven’t read Ondjaki’s novel, João Ribeiro’s adaptation is a heart warming coming of age story told through the rose tinted lenses of Jaki looking back on his childhood.

Head to our Pan African Film Festival Hub for more reviews from PAFF 2020.

She Paradise – AFI Fest 2020

Right from the beginning, you can tell that 17 year old Sparkle is lonely. Much like Amy, the lead in Maimouna Doucore’s Cuties, she’s stuck doing house chores for her grandparents. It doesn’t look like she has any friends at school or at work, and she doesn’t talk much. So when she meets a group of older girls dancing in the street, she finds the confidence and expressiveness in them that she wants to have. So she works her way into their clique and transforms from the children’s clothes wearing, shy 17 year old kid from the introduction into a vividly dressed, confident dancer.

Her gateway is Trini culture. In particular Soca music: a mix of calypso, reggae, dancehall unique to Trinidad which permeates She Paradise. Soca is present in the dancing and style, which combines with the music to give Sparkle a brand new modern key to her independence. Embracing the contemporary Trini culture through Soca opens up a new world that is totally unique to her world at home with her grandfather. It’s modern and fresh, instead of from the past. It allows her to forget about her childhood and home poverty, and have an opportunity to become a free independent woman.

She Paradise is a feature length version of the brilliant short film that debuted last year at a few festivals that we reviewed here. Like the short, the feature version has many of the same scenes, which are mostly included in the first part of the film. The feature also contains a few hints at Sparkle’s background, but it’s still not clear what she does before she meets the Soca crew. However, unlike the short, this feature film adds in a few male characters which take the focus away from the female friendship of the short. Instead, the focus switches more to Sparkle and how she navigates a world of patriarchy – represented by her father and Skinny, the male Soca artist. It’s a shame as the friendship between Sparkle and Mica was the highlight of the short.

Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.

Boy on the Bridge (Cyprus) – One Kid Finds Trouble and Secrets

Boy on the Bridge Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you’re a fan of coming of age films centered around trouble seeking kids, you’ll find a lot of familiar ground in Boy on the Bridge. Set within a now sleepy mediterranean town, 12 year old Socrates forces the community to reckon with secrets in a way that the police and town leaders cannot.

From: Cyprus, Europe
Watch: Trailer, JustWatch
Next: Granma Nineteen and the Soviet's Secret, The Colors of the Mountain, Kings of Mulberry Street

Boy on the Bridge – Breakdown

Boy on the Bridge starts with two 12 year old boys setting off home made firecrackers in the middle of the street to surprise a drunk man as he walks out of his house. The noise they create alerts the local police chief, setting up a bike chase through the town. Socrates, the troublemaking kid, escapes through the forest to the home of an old war vet. His stories of the war, and willingness to give young Socrates advice to advance his bomb-making, makes him one of his role models in the film.

His other role model, his respectable dad, generously forgives him for his trouble-making. He’s positioned as the benevolent character in this film through his role as community mediator (as seen in a scene in which he gathers community leaders to confront a domestic violence incident), his leniency with Socrates, and his position as a doctor (an always respectable occupation). However, his benevolent character is a front to disguise the secrets he keeps from his family, which inevitably, the curious Socrates uncovers. His secrets, not his benevolence, are shown to be what binds the community together.

Like other films that feature boys getting into trouble, Boy on the Bridge shows that trouble often leads to discovering hidden secrets. Whilst the secrets that Socrates uncovers are less fantastic than the hidden treasure in The Goonies, its humble community murder mystery make it an engaging enough watch.

What to Watch Next

For more similar movies featuring boys getting into trouble, check out Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret from Mozambique and Kings of Mulberry Street from South Africa. There’s also the more serious The Colors of the Mountain from Colombia.

Or if you’re looking for more films focusing on community in small towns on the Mediterranean, try The Black Pin from Montenegro and Simshar from Malta.

The New Girl (Argentina) – Cinélatino Film Festival 2021

Jimena lives day to day in Buenos Aires, scavenging whatever and sleeping wherever she can find. In search of a better life, she smuggles herself on a bus bound for Rio Grande, a small town on the island of Tierra del Fuego in southernmost Argentina. It’s an area known for its manufacturing jobs and it’s also where her estranged half brother, Mariano, lives.

Jimena gives off a quiet meekness. She doesn’t share much with her brother or the locals – least of all her life as a transient in the city. Despite this, she’s welcomed warmly by both her brother, who sets her up with a job at the manufacturing plant he works at, and by her new colleagues, that invite her to work socials. She’s given space to settle in and adapt to her new life.

As the movie flashes through brief moments in Jimena’s first few months in Rio Grande, it’s apparent she’s becoming part of her new community. She connects with her brother’s love interest, bonds with the workers at the union meetings, and starts to help her brother out too. However, her brother, guessing the nature of her previous life starts to implicate her in his own illicit trading business. He knows he holds some power over her whilst she’s living in his apartment and not quite settled in the region. He also knows she relies on him as her only relation. As the economic backdrop kicks in, Jimena has to choose between helping her brother or supporting the union strikes – family or the community.

The New Girl packs a lot into it’s relatively short run time. It quickly provides context for Jimena’s arrival in the remote South of Argentina and her growth and coming of age in Rio Grande, to set up the climax. It highlights the privilege of crime – contrasting her experience stealing out of need vs. her brother’s smuggling to get rich. This, plus the arrival of the union mark the anti-capitalist thread of the movie. The union symbolizes the community and its strength in organization, whereas Mariano’s one-man illegal business represents the flaws and selfishness of unrestricted capitalism.

The New Girl is an engaging coming of age story as well as a protest movie, along the lines of Made in Bangladesh and Salt of the Earth. Not bad for a 79 minute movie.