Newsletter

FEMALE CIRCUMCISION RUINS MORE LIVES IN GOD’S SANDBOX Although Moolaadé last year featured Senegalese women protesting female circumcision in the 1990s, God’s Sandbox (Tahara) brings the practice into a Romeo-and-Juliet story involving an Israeli woman and a Bedouin man in the 1960s. Directed by Doron Eran, the movie begins in the present, with a sixtysomething […]

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

ARE THE TWO LATEST SCI-FI BLOCKBUSTERS ONLY FOR BLOCKHEADS? Star Wars: Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas, is yet another installment that glorifies war in the minds of filmviewers as the only way to settle conflicts. The plot of Episode III has been well understood for several years. Annekin

CRUSADERS RUN AMOK AGAIN IN THE KEEPER: THE LEGEND OF OMAR KHAYYAM The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam (directed by Kayvan Mashayekh) is a fascinating biopic of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122), famous Persian astronomer, mathematician, poet, and author of The Rubaiyat. The biography is recounted in the method of oral storytelling, reminiscent of the television

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN DEPICTS CRUSADERS RUNNING AMOK Directed by Ridley Scott, Kingdom of Heaven is an epic movie that begins in France during the year 1184 (though filmed in Spain).  Titles say that the Christians have been in control of Jerusalem for almost a hundred years. (Muslim control began in 638, with Christians and Jews

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

THE TAKE DOCUMENTS WHY ARGENTINA HAS FORCED IMPORTANT CHANGES IN THE IMF In 2001, the Argentine economy collapsed. The government defaulted on $3 billion in payments to the International Monetary Fund, global corporations pulled out their assets, factories were shuttered, and banks closed so that citizens could not tap their savings. The Take, directed by

FEAR AND TREMBLING, TRANSLATED CORRECTLY, LAMBASTES JAPANESE CORPORATE PRACTICES Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et tremblements), directed by Alain Corneau, is a screen adaptation of a 1999 autobiographical novel by a French-speaking Belgian, Amélie Nothomb (played by Sylvie Testud). The daughter of Belgium’s ambassador to France, she was born in Kobe, left Japan at the age of

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