Kisarazu Cat's Eye: Nihon Series (2003)iMDB Rating: 6.6
Half Moon (2006)iMDB Rating: 7.3Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men. But Mamo is determined to carry through, if not for the gullible antics of the bus driver.
Beautiful film
Half Moon is a road movie with a difference. An elderly man Moma (portrayed with great range and nuance by Ismail Ghaffari), a celebrity singer in his native Iraqi Kurdistan, sets out by bus from Iran with an entourage of his musician sons to his homeland to perform in a large public concert. With seven months of rehearsals, official permits and visas carefully arranged, nothing could go wrong, right? Well, this is border country between bitter enemies Iran, Iraq and the highly marginalised Kurds who are basically a dispossessed people without a country and held in contempt by both countries as well as Turkey. This film illustrates what can go wrong.
While beautifully filmed in some beautifully stark landscapes, the real richness of Half Moon - like most Iranian films screened here - is in the simplicity of the story and the attention to detail to the struggles of seemingly mundane activities. The cultural aspects are especially fascinating. The authority of Moma as the family patriarch is evident; his middle aged sons all hold him in high esteem and cower before him. Not unexpectedly,as Iran does not allow women to sing in public, there are specific issues with involving a woman in such a cultural endeavour.
The family and social dynamics depicted breathe life into this little gem of a film. Music is a universal language that binds people, so when contempt is shown by the Iranian border guards, it has a powerful effect on the audience. My in-laws are similarly musicians of a dispossessed people (Pontians, Greek orthodox who once lived in Turkey), so I could relate well to the scenario in the film.
It was interesting to see the advancement of technologies such as cell phones and wireless internet laptops creeping into these otherwise isolated communities. The film is full of beautifully understated performances and naturalistic humour and drama. I highly recommend it, and like most Iranian films I have seen, is something I would take my six year old son to see (were it to get a theatrical release).
Rain in the Mountains (2007)iMDB Rating: 5.1Eric Smallhouse is a Native American who believes it's his destiny to lead his people back to the old ways. Undaunted by his complete lack of knowledge about those ways, he drags his son on a quest to reclaim the past. Failing miserably, Eric begins to think that the modern world with its modern conveniences is the real enemy, and his antics soon leave him on the run from the authorities.
Very well-done cult classic in the making
I attended an independent movie festival with another movie topping my short "must-see" list, but this one (which was almost an afterthought to me) was hands-down the best one I saw. It's a very gentle film with no swearing that does a superb job of depicting the internal conflict of Native Americans raised in mainstream society who want to reconnect with their culture, but never gets preachy or overarching.
The script is well-written, the cinematography is rich, and the casting was inspired. This strikes me as a movie that people of all ages can watch and come away with something. While another indie, "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding" got a lot more notice, "Rain in the Mountains" to me is by far the better film. It has the chance to join such movies as "Harold and Maude" and "King of Hearts" as cult favorites because it is both timeless and very human. Unlike those two, you could take a 10-year-old kid to this one without blushing.
I can't recommend "RITM" highly enough.
Aoeo (2005)iMDB Rating: 6.9AOEO is a modern fairy tale about a young, masked man who lives in the suburbs of a big city. A place where lot's of people do very weird things, but strangely enough AOEO is isolated from everything and everyone. He is lonely, not in a sad or tragic way, but completely filled with a deep feeling of longing: He loves the melancholic atmosphere of the sunrise, climbing the roofs until above the city and to dream about how beautiful life could be. As the story progresses AOEO stumbles through one strange event into another suddenly finding himself pursued by drug dealers and having fallen in love with a girl from a gang of bodacious bank robbing babes. At this point AOEO realizes that it's far too late to turn back to the life he used to live. The thin facades of his dreams start to break down and reality defies the man behind the mask. Aoeo symbolizes a facet of the young generations spirit: Overwhelmed and covered up by the chaos of todays society they are inwardly searching for ...
Jasminum (2006)iMDB Rating: 7.1Jasminum is a sweet, aromatic fairytale about love
Jasminum
The film is about love: primarily about love or love relationship between a man and a woman. The viewer is gradually introduced first to Patricia's unrequited love to the movie star, and as the story unfolds, also to Jasmina's tragic love story with one of the monks, and finally the unhappy love story of Natasza, the main character. And the movie is about love in a more general sense, or similar feelings between human beings: exemplified in the unusual friendship between the little girl Genia and Brat Zdrówko (Brother Sanitas), or Natasza's friendship with Patricia.
Although the topic seems rather trite, "Jasminum" does a good job making it interesting by presenting it in the form of a fairytale for adults. The voice-over narration by a child and the waltz music mainly played by piano set the fairytale atmosphere. Jan Jakub Kolski, the director, obviously has a penchant for light, melodious but slightly sad waltz, as he made use of such music in his previous work "Pornografia (2003)." The difference is that in Pornografia the music is partially diegetic, while in "Jasminum" it is completely non-diegetic.
This is because in "Pornografia" the music directly relates to the main character's tragic past. In "Jasminum," on the other hand, the waltz mostly accompanies the young narrator's voice-over, helping to set the atmosphere: tragicomic, sad and comforting at the same time. When doing so, the music also functions as a separator between stages of the plot development, or a symbolic "curtain" between "acts" of the film.
As in "Pornografia," tragic love story and secrets from the past are important in Jasminum. The monastery itself holds a tragic love story from the past, and its spell still persists. The spatial setting of a monastery is quite adequate in this context because by definition the setting must separate men and women. Natasza, the altar-painting restorer and perfume maker on the side, turns out to have her own unhappy love story, no matter how absurd: a runaway bridegroom. Patricia, the hairdresser whom Natasza helps, has perhaps the most banal kind of sad love story: unrequited love towards a famous actor. The film, however, treats all of these love stories equally with "a sense of humor and attentiveness" as the director emphasizes in one of the interviews.
The precocious narrator Genia is the only person who does not have a tragic love story hidden in the past for obvious reasons. Therefore her narration of the story is fairly objective, with her adorable dryness adding to the humorous aspect. In the end, however, Genia experiences her own version of a sad love story when she must leave Brat Zdrówko.
The key to solving all the mysteries of love lies in finding the right aroma. The film is all about magical smell. This extraordinary idea also adds to the fairytale aspect of the film. The important fact is that Natasza's magic perfume works as a love potion only because the love is already there. She merely gives a little boost by caring and acting upon her sympathy. This leads to the final topic of the film: "saintliness," as the director comments.
The film's message is that the most important thing between people is love and caring, and acting upon one's caring for another person. When the caring and acting reaches a certain level, it qualifies to be saintliness. The final scene, when Brat Zdrówko becomes a saint, confirms this idea. As the viewers saw in the film, Brat Zdrówko is the one who cares the most, even about the piglets; he is the one who acts the most to take care of the entire monastery, silently and inconspicuously. This final message is conveyed again with "a sense of humor and tender attentiveness" as Zdrówko complains he cannot light the stoves with the stigmata his hands.
