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IN THIS WORLD EXPOSES PEOPLE SMUGGLING, LA CASA DE LOS BABYS UNMASKS THE BABY ADOPTION RACKET In This World appears to be a documentary of a true story, but in the style of the Blair Witch Project (1999). The plot is about sixteen-year-old orphan Jamal Udin Torabi and his cousin, twentysomething Enayatullah, two Afghan refugees […]

TAKING SIDES ASKS WHETHER FINE MUSIC COULD REALLY BE SEPARATED FROM NAZI POLITICS Taking Sides, directed by István Szabó, provides an intense prosecution of a man outside of a court, punctuated by scenes of Nazis, their followers, and the obscene carnage that they produced, along with the tragic opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Although

GREEN CARD FEVER EXPOSES IMMIGRATION SCAMS Green Card Fever, directed by Bala Rajasekharuni, is an exposé of the illegal and unethical traps of the immigration process in the United States, as seen through the experience of an Indian named Murali (played by Vikram Dasu). When the film begins, Murali is in Columbus, Ohio. He has

TYCOON DEPICTS DARK FORCES THAT BROUGHT DOWN A RUSSIAN ECONOMIC OLIGARCH Tycoon: A New Russian (in Russian the title is Oligarkh), directed by Pavel Lounguine, is a loose biopic about Russian billionaire and Kremlin fixer Boris A. Berezovky, whose cinematic embodiment is as Platon Makovski (played by Vladimir Mashkov). In a larger sense, the film

INITIALLY BANNED IN INDIA, SANDSTORM REVEALS A FIGHT AGAINST ENTRENCHED CASTEISM & SEXISM Some years before the release of Sandstorm (Bawandar), Sanwari (played by Nandita Das) of the Untouchable caste works as an organizer for a feminist organization in India to make some extra money for her family. Shobha Devi (played by Deepti Naval) hired

CATHOLICS LEGITIMATE IRISH SADISM IN THE MAGDALENE SISTERS Ireland once had a method for dealing with teenage girls who yielded to what the Catholic Church calls “temptation.” As illustrated in details so graphic that they may compete with the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps for sadism, The Magdalene Sisters presents the method by which

PILLEGAL ALIENS EXCHANGE KIDNEYS FOR PASSPORTS IN DIRTY PRETTY THINGS “We drive your taxis, make your beds, and suck your cocks,” according to Dr. Okwe (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) in Dirty Pretty Things, commenting on the fate of illegal aliens in London. A physician who left Nigeria to avoid arrest and prosecution for a murder

LEGALLY BLONDE 2 , UNSURPRISINGLY, TRIVIALIZES POLITICS The film Legally Blonde was a hit in 2001 because Elle Wells (played by Reese Witherspoon), an intelligent yet flamboyant girl from Bel Air, was not only admitted to Harvard Law School but also made inroads into Washington politics. In Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde she

HEROD’S LAW EXPLAINS A BASIC PRINCIPLE OF POLITICS Directed by Luis Estrada, Herod’s Law (La Ley de Herodes) is a satirical tale that takes place (and was filmed) in the desert town of San Pedro de los Saguaros, México, where angry non-Spanish-speaking Indian residents, according to the fable, lynched three corrupt mayors from 1944 to

SOURCES OF IRAN’S POPULARITY IN IRAQ EMERGE IN MAROONED IN IRAQ Marooned in Iraq, directed by Bahman Ghobadi, is perhaps an Iranian counterpart of Saving Private Ryan (1998). Mirza (played by Shahab Ebrahimi) has been summoned by his estranged fourth spouse, Hanareh, presumably from a place in Iran’s Kurdistan at the border with Iraq. A