Films that demonstrate the folly of political violence as a means for resolving conflict and/or show the superiority of nonviolent political conflict resolution.
DIVIDED WE FALL IS NOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE During the wartime occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, many tragic and many subtle happenings kept the population on edge. Divided We Fall, directed by Jan Hrebejk, peaks into the window of ambiguity and inhumanity and emerges with considerable healing for the country, quite a […]
TURKEY’S REPRESSION OF THE KURDS LAUNCHES A JOURNEY THROUGH HELL The title of the film Journey to the Sun (Günese Yoculuk) describes a trek by a young Turkish man, Mehmet (played by Newroz Baz), with the body of his Kurdish friend Berzan (played by Nazmi Quirix) from the European side of Istanbul to Zorduc, a
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KIPPUR TAKES FILMVIEWERS TO THE BATTLEFIELD DEAD AND WOUNDED On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur Day. In Kippur, director Amos Weinraub Gitai provides an autobiographical account of a small portion of the war. He focuses on two reserve soldiers, Weinraub (played by Liron Levo) and Ruso (played by Tomer
THIRTEEN DAYS RELIVES A TIME WHEN THE WORLD WAS AT THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR A nuclear winter nearly began in October 1962, when American leaders pondered a military response to the installation of more than two dozen offensive SS-4 nuclear missiles in Cuba that could hit nearly every city in the United States. The
PARIS SHORTCHANGES CHILDREN TO “SAVE” THE FRENCH ECONOMY During the 1990s, French unemployment hit 10 percent. The province of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (the same province featured in the recently released Humanité) had an unemployment rate of 33 percent, but government agencies turned a deaf ear to the social consequences, according to the fact-based story in Ça commence
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AN UNLIKELY PEACE ACTIVIST EMERGES IN BELFAST The Titanic was built and launched in Belfast, only later to run into an iceberg. The paradigm of a sinking ship with many lost lives due to irresponsible behavior by those at the helm is perhaps one way of understanding the conflict in Northern Ireland over the last
SUBURBAN AMERICA’S PROBLEM IS THAT IT DOES NOT READ DOSTOEVSKY The theme of angst of suburbia, from Over the Edge (1979) to American Beauty (1999), is replayed with far more raw intensity in Crime and Punishment in Suburbia, directed by Rob Schmidt. Based loosely on the Dostoevsky classic, the film contains many voiceovers from Vincent
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THE CELL WARNS JUDGES TO SEND ABUSED CHILDREN TO FOSTER PARENTS A plot involving the pursuit of a serial killer is not uncommon among the many suspense movies for those who like to bite their nails when they run out of popcorn. This year’s best addition to the genre so far is The Cell, directed
IT’S THE RAGE IS NOMINATED FOR PEACE AWARD Originally on cable television in 1999 as All the Rage, the feature film It’s the Rage, released in Hollywood on July 7 and directed by James D. Stern, has two heavy bookends sandwiching a story about how several people die because of the easy availability of handguns.
THE TERRORIST IS NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD ON PEACE FOR THE YEAR 2000 What motivates a terrorist and what can get a terrorist to give up terrorism? This question is posed in the Indian film The Terrorist, directed by Santosh Sivan, which reached Los Angeles in February 2000, although the Indian release date was 1998.