Films that bring previously obscured truths about the political process to the attention of the public, showing for example how offices of public trust are used for private purposes.
LULA, SON OF BRAZIL PORTRAYS HIS HUMBLE ROOTS AND METEORIC RISE Covering his birth in 1945 until his mother’s death in 1980, with much attention to his family life, Lulu, o Filho do Brasil shows how a boy born into abject poverty exhibited much intelligence as a child, became a machinist, joined the union, and […]
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THE IRON LADY FEATURES BURNOUT AT #10 Only three prime ministers have portraits at #10 Downing Street—David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher. All three won wars. In her case, the Falklands War, also known as the Malvinas War. And, midway in The Iron Lady, her conduct of the war becomes a paradigm for her
IN DARKNESS SHEDS LIGHT IN LWÓW’S SEWERS DURING WORLD WAR II For 14 months a group of Jews who had dug their way into the sewers of Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), hid from the Nazis until 1945, when Russian troops liberated the city, Simon Wiesenthal’s hometown. Leopold Socha (played by Robert Wieçkiewicz), whose job
KINYARWANDA IMPRESSIONISTICALLY RECREATES THE RWANDA GENOCIDE AND AFTERMATH Impressionistic painters place dots on a canvas, allowing viewers to organize what they see into a coherent picture. Although perhaps not deliberately, that is what Kinyarwanda does in trying to depict the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Scenes are organized with subtitles, flashbacks, flashforwards, and other scenes during
IS ELITE SQUAD 2 A PARADIGM FOR POLITICS EVERYWHERE BESIDES BRAZIL? News stories emerging from Brazil nowadays mention that the police are cleaning up the slums (favelas) in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games but are vague on details. Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within (Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro),
THE CONQUEST EXPLAINS WHY NICOLAS SARKOZY BECAME FRANCE’S PRESIDENT The world has been hearing more about French President Nicolas Sarkozy nowadays. He is the one behind the intervention in Libya, and he recently confided that he perceived Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “liar.” The Conquest (La conquête), directed by Xavier Durringer, begins with
Placid Gang In-ho (played by Yoo Gong) reports for a position as art instructor at a school for the deaf in Gwangju Province, Korea, and soon discovers that the children are being sexually molested and viciously punished by an instructor and the twins running the school. After reporting what he sees to human rights activist