American History X

Film: American History

Director: Tony Kaye

Writer: David McKenna

Racism and ethnic discrimination in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era. Forms of Racism in USA:

ü  Racism against African Americans

ü  Discrimination and racism against Asian Americans

ü  Discrimination against Latin Americans

ü  Racism against Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans

ü  Racism against Iranian Americans

ü  Antisemitism

ü  Anti-European immigrant ethnic discrimination

ü  Racism and discrimination against European Americans

ü  Black – White Racism

America is country of different races, religion and people with different colours. By colour it basically means “Black or white”.’American History X’ is a story of ‘Derek’ who is a white skin American who ruthlessly kills two black gang members. The movie is about the after effects of the killing by Derek and the sequence of events in jail which change the perspective of ‘Derek’ towards black people. Derek’s younger brother is shown to be very much influenced by his elder brother’s brave act of killings and so tries to follow his ideologies.

Time has changed and so has ‘America’. 2008 saw the emergence of a new African American leader in the form of ‘Barack Obama’ who holds the seat of the president even till date. But still ‘ Racism’ has not got completely abolished of the US land.

Critics mostly praised the film and Edward Norton's performance, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Central do Brasil

Director: Walter Salles

Written by : Walter Salles, João Emanuel Carneiro, Marcos Bernstein

Dora a retired teacher sits on the Rio De Janiro's Central station, writing letters for illiterate people. One day Josuha a 9 year old kid with his mother comes to her to write a letter to Joshua's father. Joshua has never seen his father and hopes to reunite with his father. After writing the letter Joshua's mother dies in an accident outside the station. Dora takes Joshua with her and ends up selling to a corrupt couple who promises to help Joshua getting adopted in a good family. Irene her neighbor makes her feel guilty and tells her that the couple might sell his organs illegally. Dora feeling guilty runs away with Joshua from the couple's house. 

Dora then sets out on a journey to find Joshua's father with Joshua. During the course of the journey they build a long lasting friendship.

The movie gives an account of life in Rio which doesn't seem to be different from Mumbai. Crowded trains, survival of the fittest, poor people emigrating to city in search of work, crime, etc. Seems that every big city in developing country has a same story. 

Recommended.

Cautiva

Director & Writer : Gaston Biraben
   

 
In Argentina military junta assumed power between March 1976  to December 1983. During this tenure thousands of Argentinians disappeared. Any person who spoke against military raj was arrested, detained and tortured. Military took away the kids people who were killed or arrested and gave away them for adoption.
The film is the story of a teenager Crisitina who one day is told that her parents are not her real ones. She is sent to live her real grandmother who had been searching her for years. Cristina baffled and hurt finds it difficult to digest the truth. One more important question starts to haunt her what happened to her real parents? And was her policeman father involved in the killing?

Recommended.

The Syrian Bride

Director: Eran Riklis
Writer: Suha Arraf & Erin Riklis

Golan is a small village located at the border of Syria and Israel. Bot the countries claim the village as their territory. Due to the dispute the villagers nationality is undefined. In such a backdrop a girl Mona is suppose to be married to a man from Syria.  After the marriage she won't be able to come back to Golan, i.e. she won't see her family again. She is also the daughter of Hameed who is pro-syrian and sore in  the eyes of Israeli police. 
The ritual is that family will accompany bride to the border where the groom and his family is waiting. Bride after completing the formalities will cross over the border. 
But this time Israeli government changes the procedure and puts different stamp stating clearly that Golan is their territory. This angers the Syrian government official across the border and he refuses to allow the entry until the Israel rectifies it's mistake. Israeli government official says he can't do anything as he has been ordered to use the stamp and now he can't reach his superior being a weekend. After lot of time and persuading Israeli official erases the stamp by using white ink. Happy that all has been sorted out when UN official who is negotiating goes to Syrian official she finds out that earlier official has left and new one has come for duty who refuses entry because of the white ink.

The film proves again that it is the common man who always grinded because of politics.  

Recommended.

Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho

Director & Story: Saeed Akhtar Mirza

Every Indian fears court. Many of us tolerate many social evils as we don't want to get into court matter. Indians courts are notorious for trials that goes on for years. The victim ends up spending lot of money and time without justice in sight. 

Mohan Joshi though aware of this apathy manages enough courage to sue his landlord for ignoring the repair work required in chawl. Chawl is in such a bad shape that one day it might fall like pack of cards. Landlord doesn't want to spend money on it ,as he is getting same rent set by his grandfather 75 years back which is worth nothing.
Years go by, Joshi and his wife makes rounds of the court without justice in sight and  lawyers keep filling their coffers.Even Joshi's neighbors instead of supporting him ridicules him. Landlord in effect sues Joshi for eviction and assault. 

After years of fighting when Joshi decides to give up a ray of hope comes in the form of an honest judge. Judge decides to visit the chawl and have a look. Landlord to avoid losing hires people to clean up and paint the place so that judge feels that he is taking good care. When the Judge visits chawl people and landlord enters into altercation, judge defers the judgement saying that he needs a structural report from engineers to decide. Joshi frustrated starts hitting the bamboo which is supporting the staircase of the chawl, the bamboo falls along with the staircase and the floor above it killing Joshi as well. 

Film is biased towards tenant without taking landlord's position into consideration. Landlord is shown as villain who wants to build skyscraper on the chawl's land. I don't agree with the portrayal because if we put ourselves in his shoes we would have desired the same thing. You can't expect someone to do repair work that will cost thousands of rupees (as per 1984 standard) when you pay Rs.2 as rent. 

What film gets right is the apathy of our court procedures. Justice delayed is justice denied. Indians don't trust the judiciary anymore because of the time spent on the trial. Fighting the trial in court itself becomes a punishment for the victim. Why there is no time limit for a trial ? Why court have summer holidays like school kids when so many million cases are pending? Why can't court work overtime? Why it can't be open 24/7? If people in corporate can slog why not government employees. 
The failure of the judiciary system is one of the main reason for Indians getting exploited in the hands of corrupt people.

About Elly

Director : Asghar Farhadi
Written by : Asghar Farhadi & Azad Jafarian

Elly a kindergarten teacher accompanies middle class Iranian group of friends to a picnic. The friends consists of three couples with their kids and a single man Ahmed. Elly knows only Sepideh in the group and comes for the picnic as Sepideh forces her to. Sepideh is trying to link up Elly and Ahmed. 
Elly initially hesitant is attracted to Ahmed and Ahmed also likes her. The group stays in a deserted villa on the beach of Caspian Sea. Elly wishes to go back home next day as she has lied to her mother about the picnic. But Sepideh forces her to stay back. In the afternoon one of the lady asks Elly to keep watch on the kids playing on the beach. After some time one kid is found drowning in the sea and men in the house save him. After sometime they realise that Elly is missing. They start looking for her. They are not sure if she left or she drowned in the sea. They can't go to police has she and Ahmed are single and they lied the owner of the villa that they are married. The lie will bring disgrace to Elly and her family. Everyone starts blaming each other for the disappearance but the things are not the same as they seem. 

The film earlier seems to be boring but after the drowning incident becomes a mystery. Mystery surrounding the identity of Elly and what is the truth Speideh is hidding from everyone? Suffocation due to social taboos is the main character in the film and it plays the role well.

It is very normal for us to meet or date someone but the concept seems to be taboo in Iran. The unmarried couple can meet only under parental guidance. Why government has to decide on how we live our life? Why their should be moral policing? This is not case only with Iran, but even in India many political parties resorts to moral policing as per their liking and convenience. They should understand that they are because of us and not vice versa. 

Recommended.
 

Amreeka

Director & Writer : Cherien Dabis

 After WWII Jews felt that they should have their own country so that they don't have to suffer again. They zeroed on Palestine as it was the land gifted by god to Abraham and is considered to be holy. Millions of Jews started pouring into the country. 

The tensions between Jews and original inhabitants Palestinians started to take roots. But Jews had the support of powerful countries and UN recognised them as a country. Since then Palestinians are fighting for their existence and identity.

Amreeka is a story of such a Palestinian single mother raising her 12 year old son. She wins the US citizenship through lottery but decides not to consider it. But one day while going back home she and her son is harassed at Israeli checkpoint. At that point she forsees the future that her son would have in this hostile environment, she decides to go to US. 
After reaching US she starts staying with her sister's family. The struggle to adjust to new country, culture, people starts for both the mother and son. Over a period of time they cope the problems their way and adjust to their new country and identity.

Recommended.