drama - Page 19 of 27

Battle In Heaven

Battle in Heaven Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

This film is provocatively shocking! Even more so than the most shocking scenes of Heli or Y Tu Mama Tambien. If you’re not a fan of provocative images then this might not be for you. But if you can handle it, watch on, and see Mexico City. Witness the power structures, class divides, religion, and football.

Why Watch Battle in Heaven?

For something very provocative, like a lot of Mexican films!
To see Mexico City: the streets, the people, the shops, the rich neighbourhoods, and more
Big juxtapositions: Ugliness vs. Beauty, Rich vs. Poor, Powerful vs. Weak
For a pretty cool soundtrack (which often ends up distracting Carlos)

The Breakdown

In one of the most controversial openings of a film ever, the film opens with a close up of Carlos’ chubby face. He is middle aged, bearded, has dishevelled hair, and wears big glasses. He is not attractive. The camera then slowly pans down his naked body, showing us his man boobs and huge belly. However instead of showing us his penis, we see the back of a female head with matted hair. Just in case it is not obvious what she is doing, the camera cuts to the side, showing her young face sucking the penis of this fat, middle aged man.

It is not the oral sex that is that is the most shocking part of the introduction but the pairing of the old man with the young woman. These two people should not be together. However, Reygadas later challenges our prejudices when he shows the naked bodies of Carlos and his even more chubby wife. Their paired naked bodies are even more repulsive than the opening scene, even though their pairing is way more normal. Provocation is a theme of Battle in Heaven, and Reygadas shows us shocking images of things that are wrong, and things that are not wrong, but equally shocking.

Outside of the provocation, Battle in Heaven portrays Mexico City well. Reygadas shows us the streets, the stall run by Carlos’ wife, and the rich neighbourhoods and the city centre. He also depicts two of the biggest things that constitute Mexico: Religion and Football. Firstly, there are a lot of football fanatics. The chief police inspector is wearing a football shirt, there’s an entire scene at a football game, and the Pumas win the Championship. Secondly, religion dominants the mise-en-scene (the setting) throughout. There are plenty of religious icons and pictures in all the houses (although not Ana’s house), there is a religious march of pilgrims, and we are shown the real image of La Virgen in the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.

Conclusion

Battle in Heaven is dominated by some controversial film that, on one hand, challenge us, but on the other, might put you of from watching on. If you can look past the provocation, and the relatively bare plot, Reygadas’ film is a well thought out portrait of Mexico City. It is an opportunity to see what drives the city (football and religion), the rich/poor divide, the power structures (military and police), whilst watching city life.

Asmaa (Egypt)

Asmaa Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Can you imagine a place where TV adverts about HIV/AIDS show scary images of bats, blood, drugs, and prostitutes? Well, you don’t have to. Egypt actually showed these adverts. In Asmaa director Amr Salama challenges the social prejudice towards HIV/AIDS suffers. Watch this film to learn about the limitations of being a HIV/AIDS patient and a woman in Egypt.

Why Watch Asmaa?

Follow the life of a woman with HIV battling against social prejudice in Egypt
Watch the film here on YouTube to start your adventure into Egyptian film
Experience a bit of life in Cairo and the country surrounding the capital

The Breakdown

First of all, it is important to know that there is a bit social stigma around the HIV positive in Egypt. The director, Amr Salama, states:

“In Egypt we think it’s a punishment from God and we should not treat it. We think that they get it from a sin so they deserve it, and we think it’s very contagious so we don’t deal with them in any way. So people die from that more than they die from anything else. “

Asmaa starts in a small HIV group, a bit like an alcoholics anonymous group. The director cuts between the group talking and scenes in a hospital. We find out that our protagonist Asmaa has HIV and was denied hospital treatment because of it.

Asmaa is a do it all mother. She looks after her father, her daughter, whilst working shifts at the airport. Through flash backs to her former life, we learn how she caught HIV and her former dreams. Her flashbacks are shown in golden colours which contrast with the dreary blue and grey filter that depicts her current life and her visits to the hospital. It is obvious she wishes to recapture the dreams of her early life with her former husband.

Conclusion

Asmaa is an important tale based on the true stories of many HIV/AIDS suffers that Salama met when filming a documentary before he filmed Asmaa. The film reveals the plight of women in Egypt as well as the social prejudice against HIV/AIDS patients. It challenges the controversial portrayal of HIV/AIDS in Egypt by putting you in the shoes of a strong woman coping with the disease.

After the Battle (Egypt)

After the Battle Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Like me, you may have heard of the Arab Spring (2011) and the protests at Tahir Square in Cairo (documented on Netflix’s The Square). But do you know what happened afterwards? After the Battle explores the aftermath so you can see how life has changed (or stayed the same) since the Arab Spring. Ignore the bad reviews (yes, the film is a little bit cheesy in parts) and go watch it!

For all those not sure – check out the first 45 seconds of this trailer (then turn it off unless you want spoilers!)

Why Watch After the Battle?

To learn about the political climate and quality of life in Egypt following the Arab Spring in 2011
Explore gender politics and class structure in Egpyt – lots to discuss!
It’s not hard to watch – it has the tone of a TV series so all of you can watch it without getting lost in any pretentiousness
For a great post-Arab Spring viewing companion to Asmaa

The Breakdown

On February 2nd 2011, Tahir Square protestors were attacked by camel and horse riders from the pyramids. This event became known as the Battle of the Camels. Footage of the event shows horse and camel riders riding into protestors armed with whips (and nothing else). One of the riders falls off of his horse and is beaten by the protestors.

Mahmoud is the rider who falls from his horse in the Battle of the Camel. He is a poor horse rider from Nazlat (a suburb of Cairo near the Pyramids) who made his living from tourists. However, a great wall was built to separate the horse riders from the tourists, so he no longer has a job. He has to rely on the ‘good-will’ of his relative/local boss to get by. He is the one who lets him and his family live in their house and provides them with a little income when needed. Mahmoud represents the lower classes that were not represented in the Arab Spring, that have continued to be exploited by their ‘superiors’.

Rim is the woman we follow throughout the film. She is a liberal middle-class woman and a strong activist for the Arab Spring. She is marginalised just like Mahmoud. However, instead of class prejudice, she experiences sexism. After being groped whilst protesting, she is told that the place for a woman is at home, not on the streets. However, her revolutionary ideas meet a challenge when she meets Mahmoud – her antithesis.

Conclusion

Another interesting exploration of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring (also see Asmaa). The film tries to cover a lot, from gender politics to class, but ultimately manages to cover it all without appearing vague.

Lupe Under the Sun (Lupe Bajo El Sol) – London Film Festival 2016

Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Lupe Under the Sun features an ageing migrant worker from Michoacan working in California’s Central Valley. It deals with the vagueness of migrant identity – is Lupe Mexican or American? Or both and neither at the same time? The director, Rodrigo Reyes, shows migration to be both an inspired act of hope and a frightening leap into the unknown.

Why Watch Lupe Under the Sun?

For a timely look at the life of a lonely migrant worker in the U.S. a group verbally assaulted by Trump
To see an old man riding a tricycle
Step in somebody else’s shoes – take a walk through the eyes of an immigrant worker in an unfamiliar environment which you call home
What does it mean to not belong?

The Breakdown

The film starts with a narration by Lupe’s grandson as Lupe walks through arid landscape and orchards.

He says that his grandfather told him a secret; that he was going to America to paint a really big house that will take him a long time. He won’t be back for some time, because he has to keep painting.

Does Lupe really belong here? He doesn’t talk to anyone, except one scene where he is gambling around a small table with two other guys. He doesn’t answer his girlfriend, he mumbles back to the doctor, and doesn’t make any effort to start any conversation. His lack of dialogue emphasises his lack of belonging and identity. He has no friends and no one he cares about in the Central Valley. He has no reason to stay where he is or go home.

Furthermore, his days are occupied by ritual. He wakes up at 4am each morning, cooks his eggs, showers, and shaves his moustache before he gets picked up to go pick fruit. Each day we are shown this same ritual emphasised by fixed shots of the alarm clock, the cooking hob, and the kitchen sink. The repeated shots emphasise the mundaneness of Lupe’s life – is he brave for sticking out this monotone life? His only joy seems to come from riding his tricycle around town.

Why is Lupe living here? Why doesn’t he go back to Mexico where he might feel a little more belonging? Lupe is symbolic of the ‘no-man’s land’ of migrant identity – he is both the man of his past life in Mexico and the man of his present in the U.S. Pick this one for a quiet night in to watch with someone else – watching it alone might make you question your loneliness.

Mardan (Iraq) – A Sombre Film Set in Kurdish Iraq

Mardan Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Most of you know that Iraq has had one of the most traumatic modern histories. But when you think of why, you’d probably think of the Iraq War. So when I tell you this is a sombre Iraqi film you’d also probably think that it is about the Iraq War. But you’d be wrong. Unlike Ahlaam, Mardan is set in Kurdish Iraq, and follows the traumatic life of a border patrol guard.

Why Watch Mardan?

To see a Kurdish Iraqi film (for an Arabic Iraqi film, check out Ahlaam)
If you are up for a solemn (but well made) movie
To see the beautiful and wild mountain scenery of Iraq
For another story with a traumatic childhood (which reminded me of the Kosovan short film Shok)

The Breakdown

Mardan starts with an extreme close up of half a man’s face. The camera is focused on one of the man’s watery eyes. He is crying.

A traumatic flashback to his childhood shows us why he is crying. It should be an innocent memory of him and his brother playing by the river. But some military men raped and killed his brother, giving him a burden he has had to carry for his whole life.

Surprisingly, the introduction is the only place where the military is shown, apart from the border patrol. Instead, the film focuses on Mardan and how he deals with his harrowing childhood memory. He doesn’t seem like the nicest guy – he accepts bribes and appears pretty grumpy, but the film implies that his background is to blame for this.

His only shot at redemption is by helping a family find their relative. But don’t expect a Hollywood ending. This film is more about the journey and character development than any climactic ending.

Conclusion

Mardan is not the film you want to watch after a long day at work. It is solemn and does not offer any respite. It is a well made film, but you’d only want to watch it if you want to see a bit of life in Kurdish Iraq, some Iraqi scenery, or if you are into sombre films.