Turtles Can Fly is a 2004 film from Iraq. It is the first film to be filmed in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It tells the story of the lives of youth in a Kurdish refugee camp. The sad quality of the story is how while all the stories appear to be about very adult themes and occurrences, the protagonists are all youth no older than 15 years of age.
The main protagonist is a boy by the name of Satellite. The quality of Satellite is the fact that he is the leader of the youth within the camp but also he is one of the few speakers of English (though it is a rudimentary form of English at best) within the camp as well as being one of the only persons with the knowledge of how to install satellites in order for the town to watch news on the television. While obviously caring he is brash and also a manipulative person of the youth.
The girl that he falls in love with is Agrin, a girl caring for a blind toddler that she was forced to bare after being gang raped. The sorrow in her life is the fact that she is forced to care for the toddler but she is also forced to continue to see the product of her gang rape. In the end she ends up killing the toddler, but also killing herself afterwards. To Agrin, the child is not and never will be her child and she cannot bare dealing with him.
Agrin's older brother is Hengov, a youth that seems to be capable of telling the future. Yet while being able to tell the future it seems that he only is able to predict it and not change it. The entire film is about youth being forced to be adult.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Analysis on Bicycle Thieves
Bicycle Thieves is a 1948 film from Italy. The film examines a man's life after he is unable to work his job because of the thief of his bicycle. Throughout the film right alongside the father is his son and the audience is allowed to analysis their relationship as well. In the end, when the father attempts to steal another person's bike in order to end his quest, his son witnesses his following capture and is assumed to have lost a respect for his father as he cries.
In the film the bicycle that the father searches for is a symbol of survival within the poor prospects of Rome at the time. Without the bike the father is unable to work his job and thus he is unable to feed his family. He understands that if he does not find the bike soon it means the starvation of his family, especially since there are no other jobs available in the community. When the father attempts to steal the bike of another person he is essentially trying to save his own family by sacrificing another.
The relationship between the man and his son is a very powerful dynamic that the audience witness as it slowly and sadly weakens. At the beginning of the film, the son sees his father as a great man and he tries to imitate his father. As the film continues he helps his father in his quest to find his bike and on a lesser level the son understands the importance of the bike. However, the son is also forced to witness his father put himself in undesirable situations because of the absolute need to find this bike. The son begins to lose his respect for his father after being struck by him. Then he is forced to see his father seemingly abuse and accuse a boy of thief of his bike without any proof. This all culminates in the breaking point when the son witnesses his father trying to steal another bike and being captured. The son has experienced his lost of innocence because he has been forced to witness his idol being lowered to a lower level in morality.
In the film the bicycle that the father searches for is a symbol of survival within the poor prospects of Rome at the time. Without the bike the father is unable to work his job and thus he is unable to feed his family. He understands that if he does not find the bike soon it means the starvation of his family, especially since there are no other jobs available in the community. When the father attempts to steal the bike of another person he is essentially trying to save his own family by sacrificing another.
The relationship between the man and his son is a very powerful dynamic that the audience witness as it slowly and sadly weakens. At the beginning of the film, the son sees his father as a great man and he tries to imitate his father. As the film continues he helps his father in his quest to find his bike and on a lesser level the son understands the importance of the bike. However, the son is also forced to witness his father put himself in undesirable situations because of the absolute need to find this bike. The son begins to lose his respect for his father after being struck by him. Then he is forced to see his father seemingly abuse and accuse a boy of thief of his bike without any proof. This all culminates in the breaking point when the son witnesses his father trying to steal another bike and being captured. The son has experienced his lost of innocence because he has been forced to witness his idol being lowered to a lower level in morality.
Film Analysis fof Moolaade
Moolaade is a 2004 film from Senegal. It takes place in a small Burkina Faso. It is about Colle, the second wife of her husband. Throughout the film she is also the protector of four young girls. The film addresses the subject of female genital mutilation and how it affects the women in the village. The film eventually culminates in the women revolting against their husbands and the men of the village and refusing to any longer be subject to the travesties of the mutilation.
In the film there is a symbol of the radios of the village and them being a form of knowledge for the women of the village. In order to suppress the women of the village the men force the women to throw their radios so that the women cannot use them as a means of combating the mutilation that is happening in the village.
The film also uses contrasting inner versus outer qualities throughout the film. For example the mercenary/ merchant of the village seems to be a womanizer and a bad sort of man. However, the wise men of the village are actual the less caring persons of the village and it turns out that the mercenary genuinely cares about the health of the women. The audience is left examining the characters more so in the play because they are not entirely as it seems.
In the film there is a symbol of the radios of the village and them being a form of knowledge for the women of the village. In order to suppress the women of the village the men force the women to throw their radios so that the women cannot use them as a means of combating the mutilation that is happening in the village.
The film also uses contrasting inner versus outer qualities throughout the film. For example the mercenary/ merchant of the village seems to be a womanizer and a bad sort of man. However, the wise men of the village are actual the less caring persons of the village and it turns out that the mercenary genuinely cares about the health of the women. The audience is left examining the characters more so in the play because they are not entirely as it seems.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Film Analysis of A Prophet
The film that I will be reviewing/ analyzing today is the 2009 French film "A Prophet" directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Tahar Rahim among others. The film in my opinion is a great character developing film that works over the six years that Rahim's character (Malik El Djebena) exists in prison. Audiard uses Malik's appearance and the spectre of the murdered Reyeb in order to demonstrate the change in Malik's character over time.
Audiard plays with Malik's appearance over the course of the six years as Malik goes from being an bald, outcast in the prison to looking more like the Muslim inmates that he will eventually come to be a part of. Malik enters the prison with unclear explanations behind it all. His possessions (a cigarette, string, and a 50 franc note that he tries to hide) shows the almost failure of a life that Malik has lived up until now. A 20 something year old that has spent his life falling in and out of juvenile prisons, Malik has no family outside of prison and no friends inside the prison. As Malik steps through the prison doors, Audiard mkes it very clear that Malik is all alone in the world. Malik; however, is okay with this fact and tries to keep to himself though Audiard shows that Malik is destined to be forced into a world that perhaps proves better for him despite the seemingly darkness of it.
Malik is forced to by the Corsicans of the prison to kill a Muslim, Reyeb. After doing it in order to spare his own life Malik is placed under the protection of the Corsicans. This event is the first signs of Malik developing a place that he belongs. The problem does exist that Malik is a Muslim and the manner in which the Corsicans treat him often reestablishes this fact.
Reyeb's spectre exists in a manner that inspires Malik to become a better Muslim and begin to learn to read and write. He becomes friends with Ryad as he attempts this goal and he becomes closer to the Muslims in the prison partially due to this. Compared to the Corsicans the Muslims of the prison are much kinder to Malik and in a way they become almost a family for him. Ryad makes Malik the godfather of his child and asks him to watch his family after Ryad passes of cancer.
Throughout this Audiard gradually changes Malik's appearance from a person that looks as though he doesn't fit into any of the camps of the prison until Malik looks like the Muslims around him.
Also Malik's amounts of possession increases rapidly so much that he has much more inside the prison than he ever had outside of it. Malik has found his purpose in the prison and this creates two great questions. What will Malik do when he leaves the prison? And is what Malik doing okay even if he is gaining a family and making a living from it?
Malik is a practicing Muslim and appears as if he just trying to survive inside the prison. This is more so the case at the beginning of his incarceration though when he was forced to kill Reyeb in order to survive. As the film progress Malik kills and deals with crime usually for his own gain. Malik becomes more and more like the people that forced him to kill Reyeb.
Malik is a confusing character in that sometimes he seems like a lost lamb just along for the ride in prison. Other times he appears to be a wolf that takes matters into his own hands and works for a better life. Sometimes he appears to be a good Muslim and other times he's more akin to a murdering criminal. Sometimes Malik is the good guy that you root for and sometimes he's the bad guy that you wish would receive his just deserved. Audiard does a great job of creating these questions in the viewer's mind and creating a character like Malik.
Audiard plays with Malik's appearance over the course of the six years as Malik goes from being an bald, outcast in the prison to looking more like the Muslim inmates that he will eventually come to be a part of. Malik enters the prison with unclear explanations behind it all. His possessions (a cigarette, string, and a 50 franc note that he tries to hide) shows the almost failure of a life that Malik has lived up until now. A 20 something year old that has spent his life falling in and out of juvenile prisons, Malik has no family outside of prison and no friends inside the prison. As Malik steps through the prison doors, Audiard mkes it very clear that Malik is all alone in the world. Malik; however, is okay with this fact and tries to keep to himself though Audiard shows that Malik is destined to be forced into a world that perhaps proves better for him despite the seemingly darkness of it.
Malik is forced to by the Corsicans of the prison to kill a Muslim, Reyeb. After doing it in order to spare his own life Malik is placed under the protection of the Corsicans. This event is the first signs of Malik developing a place that he belongs. The problem does exist that Malik is a Muslim and the manner in which the Corsicans treat him often reestablishes this fact.
Reyeb's spectre exists in a manner that inspires Malik to become a better Muslim and begin to learn to read and write. He becomes friends with Ryad as he attempts this goal and he becomes closer to the Muslims in the prison partially due to this. Compared to the Corsicans the Muslims of the prison are much kinder to Malik and in a way they become almost a family for him. Ryad makes Malik the godfather of his child and asks him to watch his family after Ryad passes of cancer.
Throughout this Audiard gradually changes Malik's appearance from a person that looks as though he doesn't fit into any of the camps of the prison until Malik looks like the Muslims around him.
Also Malik's amounts of possession increases rapidly so much that he has much more inside the prison than he ever had outside of it. Malik has found his purpose in the prison and this creates two great questions. What will Malik do when he leaves the prison? And is what Malik doing okay even if he is gaining a family and making a living from it?
Malik is a practicing Muslim and appears as if he just trying to survive inside the prison. This is more so the case at the beginning of his incarceration though when he was forced to kill Reyeb in order to survive. As the film progress Malik kills and deals with crime usually for his own gain. Malik becomes more and more like the people that forced him to kill Reyeb.
Malik is a confusing character in that sometimes he seems like a lost lamb just along for the ride in prison. Other times he appears to be a wolf that takes matters into his own hands and works for a better life. Sometimes he appears to be a good Muslim and other times he's more akin to a murdering criminal. Sometimes Malik is the good guy that you root for and sometimes he's the bad guy that you wish would receive his just deserved. Audiard does a great job of creating these questions in the viewer's mind and creating a character like Malik.
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