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.
THE TITLE ROLE IN LORD OF WAR DARES INTERPOL, “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN” When a film ends with the title “Based on True Events,” the impact is much more profound than if the title appears in the beginning. Lord of War, directed and written by Andrew Niccol, is indeed an exposé of major significance. […]
YUGOSLAV COMMUNISTS APE NAZI METHODS IN THE GREAT WATER The breakup of Yugoslavia was a tragedy, especially because of the ethnic cleansing that took place. Accordingly, some recall with nostalgia the way in which the various ethnic groups lived together in harmony under Marshall Iosip Broz Tito. The Great Water (Golemata voda), a Macedonian film
A PRIEST LEAVES DACHAU TO MEET FAUST IN THE NINTH DAY Among the many horrific accounts of the Nazi era, Constantine Costa-Garvas’s Amen (2003) raised serious questions about the silence of the Vatican. The Ninth Day (Der neunte tag), directed by Volker Schlöbdorff, provides a partial answer to that silence. When the film begins, Abbé
CRASH ASKS WHY THE RACES “DON’T GET ALONG” IN THE UNITED STATES In 1991, Rodney King asked, “Why can’t we all get along?” He was referring to racial mistrust in Los Angeles, but his query was interpreted as relevant to the United States as a whole. Because few efforts subsequently have tried to answer his
MACHUCA PORTRAYS THE CLASS STRUGGLE THAT BROUGHT ABOUT & UNSEATED ALLENDE IN CHILE In 1973, after the reelection of Richard Nixon, the government of democratically elected Salvador Allende was replaced by a military coup led by General Agusto Pinochet. Machuca, directed by Andrés Wood, attempts to recreate events before, during, and after the coup from
ASSISTED LIVING EXPOSES A NASTY SECRET “Old people’s homes,” now euphemistically called “assisted living facilities,” are nursing homes where the elderly are parked in the United States because dysfunctional families do not take care of them. Assisted Living, directed by Elliot Greenebaum, is a semifictional exposé of Masonic Home, an actual facility at Louisville, Kentucky. The
IN MY COUNTRY DEPICTS APARTHEID OBSCENITIES BEFORE & AFTER MANDELA BECOMES PRESIDENT When an unjust regime falls, how can a new government provide justice? Whereas the French and Russian revolutions killed off the royal family, the film In My Country attempts to explain the South African approach–through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Directed by John
DOWNFALL EXPOSES THE LAST TEN DAYS OF HITLER’S SURREAL WORLD In Downfall (Der Untergang), director Oliver Hirschbiegel presents a vivid docudrama of the last ten days of the Third Reich, mostly inside Hitler’s Berlin bunker surrounded by the luminaries of the Nazi state. To achieve historical accuracy, the script relies on Joachim Fest’s Inside Hitler’s
CHILDREN IN A FORGOTTEN IRAQI REFUGEE CAMP IMAGINE THAT TURTLES CAN FLY Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand), a joint Iranian-Iraqi production directed and written by Bahman Ghobadi, begins just before Gulf War II at a refugee camp in Iraq’s Kurdistan. The principal actors are children, and the fictional story represents a slice of
CONSEQUENCES OF WORLD INACTION EXPOSED IN HOTEL RWANDA In 1994, Paul Rusesabagina saved the lives of 1,200 persons in his role as manager of Sabena Airline’s four-star Hotel Milles Collines in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Hotel Rwanda, directed by Terry George, tells that story. As the movie explains through the dialog of various actors,