30.9.12
Three remarkable films
This week I saw three films at the Take One Action film festival. Studies that are deeply personal and political, all three are relevant, riveting, and remarkable,
This is Not a Film:Jafar Panahi, an Iranian filmmaker, is under house arrest and under court order not to act or direct. So without acting or directing, he documents his life, claiming that the result is not a film to comply with his court order. This film, the result, was smuggled into Cannes in a cake.
1/2 Revolution: the story of the Tahrir Square in Cairo and the ouster of Mubarak, from the point of view of five friends of mixed Arabic and European heritage.
5 Broken Cameras: Emad Burnat buys a camera to video his newborn fourth son, then feels compelled to document the struggle of his village Bil'in, to oppose the barrier erected by the Israeli's that cuts them off from the land they use for the livelihood. His camera is destroyed by a bullet from an Israeli soldier's gun, so he buys another, and the story continues through protests, arrests, deaths, and five broken cameras. Emad himself attended the screening, and after the events of the film I was moved to see him present, now with a head of greying hair, still devoted to non-violence. The audience welcomed him with something I rarely see among stoic Scots, a standing ovation.
