Film Analysis | Film Reviews

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1 Jan , 2004  

Written by Chris Cooke | Posted by:

A review of films featured at the 2004 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, 'Osama,' 'Pinochet's Children' and 'Scenes From an Endless War.'

Human Rights Watch brings its International Film Festival to Boston for the fourth time on January 22-26. Two films by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad are featured — "Ford Transit," which follows a cab driver as he detours around roadblocks and speeds through short cuts in Ramallah and Jerusalem, and "Rana’s Wedding" (returning from last year’s festival), about a young woman who flees her family home to unite with her boyfriend after her father demands that she choose a husband from the eligible bachelors he has selected. Another Middle Eastern entry, "Welcome to Hadassah Hospital" documents a hospital in Jerusalem, whose doctors must often treat suicide attack victims and offenders side by side.

South Africa is the setting for two films: "When the War is Over" follows two ex-activists years after the fall of Apartheid, and "State of Denial" explores the lives of those living with AIDS. The former Soviet Union also makes a showing: "The Damned and the Sacred" chronicles a traditional youth dance group from Chechnya on its European tour, and "Power Trip" portrays the chaotic post-Soviet transition to privatized electricity in the Republic of Georgia. "The Flute Player" features a Cambodian musician and survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide, and "Life on the Tracks" chronicles a Filipino family’s struggles as they eke out an existence living in a shack by a railroad. In "War Takes," three Columbian filmmakers record their own lives as they navigate the gulf between the lawlessness of guerillas to the refinement of dinner parties.

Closer to home, "Domestic Violence 2" recounts court cases in Tampa, Florida, and such complicated decisions as parental visits, restraining orders, and support payments. And "Balseros," documents the lives of Cuban refugees living in America.

"Osama"

I was able to take in three of the HRWIFF films, including the Boston premier of Siddiq Barmak’s "Osama," the first feature production out of post-Taliban Afghanistan. A desperate widow disguises her young teenage daughter (Marina Golhahari) as a boy so that she can work to support the family and walk through the streets unhindered by Taliban patrols. The girl must adjust to new gender-defined social and religious customs, while living in constant fear of discovery — the punishment for her offense could be death, or worse. Espandi, a scrappy street urchin, knows her secret, and she worries that he might turn her in. Her fears are heightened when she is enrolled in school — for eventual military training in Bin Laden’s army — and kept under the close watch of her Taliban masters. The tension is mixed with occasional black humor, as in a wonderfully uncomfortable scene when the decrepit Molah Sahib teaches his young students how to bathe their genitals like grown men.

Filming in the shops, homes, and alleys of Kabul, Barmak skillfully portrays the barren, desiccated landscape and the poverty and oppression the people face, giving the film a hallucinatory vividness. An ear-piercing soundtrack heightens the tension. As a personal and political statement — and a scathing indictment of the Taliban — "Osama" is relentless as it leads patiently but inevitably to its dark, gripping conclusion. As a work of art, it’s a beautiful, haunting film. Highly recommended.

"Pinochet’s Children"

Ironically, sometimes oppression brings out the best in people. Paula Rodriguez "Pinochet’s Children" documents the rise and fall of the Chilean dictator through the eyes of three members of the first generation to grow up under his rule. Alejandro Goic was 16 years old when Pinochet’s coup ousted Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected socialist head of state in the world. Poli Paris was 12. And Carolina Toha was only eight. All were too young to completely understand what had happened. They only knew the sorrow of those around them, and the soldiers and killing in the streets.

But Goic, Poli, and Carola grew up to be dynamic and strong political leaders during the student protests of the 1980s. Poli and Carola had good reason to protest, and the genetic disposition toward it. Both their fathers had been advisors to Allende, prime movers in the historical movement that Pinochet quashed. And both men — Jose Toha, Allende’s Minister of the Interior and Defense, and Enrique Paris, psychiatrist and Allende’s personal advisor — were among the many killed in the coup and its aftermath. And Goic, a repeat detainee in those days, is still visibly shaken by the torture he suffered at the hands of Pinochet’s infamously brutal police.

Oddly, once the transition to democracy begun and the protesters’ cause was brought to the bargaining table, all three of them — who had lived their lives so intensely, as if each day of protest could be their last — found themselves aimless, without purpose. Indeed, their entire generation, which had (along with the poor living in the slums) initiated the move to reform, found itself left out when reform got underway, adrift and out of place in a political landscape dominated by businessmen. Only recently, over a decade later, have they begun to find themselves again.

"Pinochet’s Children" invites them to look back on their lives, recounting their deeds and analyzing their motives, psychologically and emotionally. It is a mature, well-developed examination of a time and place, and a good, thought-provoking film. In days when our own civil liberties seem to many to be slowly eroding away, it’s a valuable piece of history to witness.

"Scenes From an Endless War"

Also worth a look is Norman Cowie’s half-hour "experimental documentary" and handbook for decoding propaganda, "Scenes From an Endless War." Juxtaposing real news footage and interviews with altered news scrolls and added graphics, Cowie makes ironic and sometimes outright mocking comment on post-9/11 news reporting. His use of recontextualized commercial images exposes the slight hypocrisies and utter fallacies of the United States’ budding militarism, the trend toward globalization at any human cost, and the "war on terror." It probably won’t change anyone’s mind, but cynics will certainly find something to chuckle at. I know I did.

For more information about the Human Rights Watch International Festival and film schedules, visit http://hrw.org/iff/2004/.


For more information about the Human Rights Watch International Festival and film schedules, visit http://hrw.org/iff/2004/.

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