melodrama

6

Hulhudhaan (Maldives) – Family Drama on Perils of Addiction

hulhudhaan

Hulhudhaan Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Hulhudhaan is a family drama that focuses on the perils of drug addiction. It features a recently retired father and his drug-addicted daughter that comes to him for money. 

From: Maldives, Asia
Watch: YouTube, IMDb
Next: Hand of Fate, Where I Come From, Cargo

Hulhudhaan – Breakdown

Social issue cinema can be problematic. Focusing on trauma and suffering to generate a base emotional response is exploitative, especially without character development or context in the plot. When this happens in film, it resembles charity commercials, which show malnourished kids to emotionally exploit viewers into donating. It also simplifies complex issues into a quick fix problem + solution equations.

In the case of Hulhudhaan the social problem is Sama’s drug addiction, and the solution is her father’s love and forgiveness. Sama took up drugs because she didn’t get enough of her father’s attention in childhood, and she’s addicted because she doesn’t realize her father still loves her. This presents a happy and dangerously easy solution: love can overcome addiction. The problem with this is the simplification of the issue and solution. Not all addiction is due to a lack of love, and love isn’t the silver bullet for drug addiction.

The depiction of the two main characters is also a little problematic. Manik, the father, is portrayed humbly whilst his daughter, Sama, is shown to be fragile and in need of help. Manik’s respectability is shown through his work ethic (he remains at work throughout the day as other employees come in and out), his tidy apartment, and his religious devotion (he faithfully wakes up through the night for prayer). He appears to be trustworthy and honorable. As Sama doesn’t receive a similar level of character development, the audience naturally sympathizes with Manik, the more complete character. This makes it easy for the film to deliver the love as cure for addiction solution – particularly led by the trustworthy Manik in saving his fallen daughter. It feels like it’s directed at men to take care of their women (especially considering the happy ending).

What to Watch Next

If you liked Hulhudhaan and want to watch more films which deal with social problems, try Hand of Fate (arranged marriage), Cargo (immigration), Where I Come From (poverty).

Or for other films that depict drug addiction, try the entertaining world of Trainspotting or the brutally real world of In Vanda’s Room.

7

Tears of Joy (Saint Kitts & Nevis) – Bullying Isn’t a Game

Tears of Joy

Tears of Joy Film Difficulty Ranking: 1

Tears of Joy is a 15 minute reminder that bullying isn’t a game. It is designed to trigger those who have experienced being bullied and to scare anyone related to the victims. However, its scare tactic methods prioritize melodrama over a real exploration of the subtleties of bullying.

From: Saint Kitts & Nevis, North America
Watch: YouTube, Mubi
Next: Where I Come From, Shaina, Hulhudhaan

Tears of Joy – The Breakdown

Similar to Where I Come From and Shaina, Tears of Joy feels like a throw-back public service announcement. Its message is very clear (bullying is bad) and it uses intense examples to convey it. These examples take up the entire short film and are designed to evoke anger/horror in those who view the bullying, and sympathy and sadness for the victim. However, the intensity of the examples, and obviousness of the bullying, out-shouts what is often subtle and concealed. The bullying is so clear to us that it’s hard to believe that the adults choose to overlook it, especially as it appears to be every student against Joy. There’s no attempts on the school kids to hide it, so it feels unrealistic that they’re not caught and reprimanded. Meanwhile, Tears of Joy also infers that bullying is brutal and obvious, ignoring its more subtle guises.

Joy and the lead bully do get brief scenes with their parents for brief moments of character development, but this isn’t enough to justify the direction each character takes. Almost every scene of this short film is taken up by footage of school kids bullying Joy, or Joy crying alone (which she does very well, kudos to the young actor). This makes the film appear more exploitative – focused on shocking the viewers rather than building on the dialogue around bullying. Less focus on showing traumatic bullying and more focus on the characters and their motivations and feelings would have been helpful to justify the conclusion of the film. Spending more time building the characters would have also helped convey the complexities of bullying and its many forms.

Ultimately, if you’re a sucker for traumatic films designed to trigger emotions with a low budget, here’s Tears of Joy. It manipulates emotion by focusing on shocks and some intense crying scenes, carried out well by Neila Jones.

What to Watch Next

Whilst these exploitative, PSA style ‘message films’ aren’t my cup of tea, there are plenty of them from around the world. For more check out any of the following: