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MANY TEARS FALL IN THE DRY LAND Films featuring returning veterans from the Iraq War might have been played by professional actors, but greater impact can come from nonprofessionals. The Dry Land, directed by Ryan Piers Williams, is one of the latter. Although the action begins with the arrival of James (played by Ryan O’Nan) […]

OLIVER STONE IS ENCOURAGED IN SOUTH OF THE BORDER After George W. Bush took office, Washington’s attention was directed at Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan in a bold militarization of American foreign policy. Except for an attempted coup in Venezuela, which Bush celebrated in 2001 before being consummated, Latin America was forgotten. Oliver Stone, turned

PLEASE REMOVE YOUR SHOES DOCUMENTS REMOVAL OF REASON BY TSA Airline passengers are annoyed not only by long lines and gruff treatment at confusing airports but recall first being required to remove their shoes (after the shoebomber) and then being limited to small containers of creams. But has anyone asked why there were breaches at

THE OATH REVEALS THE REAL AL QAEDA AND THE PHONY “WAR ON TERROR” The documentary The Oath, directed by Laura Poitras, focuses on Salim Hamdan and Abu Jandal, two Yemenis who met in 1996, became brothers-in-law, and were later caught up in the 9/11 hysteria. The “oath” is the pledge of those who join Al

THE PARADIGM OFTHE HARIMAYA BRIDGE INSPIRES GENERATIONS OF JAPANESE According to legend, as explained later in the film, a beautiful woman and a Shinto priest were separately banished after he gave her a hairpin as a sign of his love while both were on the bridge. A replica of the bridge is reproduced in the

A biopic, Creation, directed by Jon Amiel, is about Charles Darwin (played by Paul Bettany) during the time when he had writer’s cramp. Although he had completed all the research required to publish his On the Origin of Species (1859), and he was encouraged if not goaded by Joseph Hooker (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and

THE PROPHET REVEALS THE POWER STRUCTURE OF INMATES IN A FRENCH PRISON When The Prophet (Un prophète) begins, nineteen-year-old Malik El Djebena (played by Tahar Rahim) has been arrested, his public defender has bargained him into a guilty plea with six years imprisonment. Although he was in reform school before, this is his first time

AJAMI PORTRAYS THE PALESTINIAN UNDERWORLD IN ISRAEL Ajami, a section of Jaffa where Palestinian Arabs, Bedouins, and Christians live as second-class citizens in Israel along with Jews, is the apparent venue for a film by two directors, Yaron Shani, an Israeli Jew, and Scandar Copti, an Israeli Arab. Their aim is to demonstrate how the Jewish