Once Were Warriors

The quest for identity is a long, hard journey, which often offers no ultimate gain, but is an important one to make. In gaining a sense of identity we gain pride, self-respect and dignity that we need in order to pick up our lives and find the strength to move on. “Once Were Warriors” chronicles that long, hard journey we make, and the physical and emotional battles that come with self-discovery.

The story involves the lives of the Keke family: abusive controlling father Jake “The Muss”, who married mother Beth at a very young age, despite the protests from her family, and their five children. Beth, who is regularly physically and sexually abused by Jake, must also deal with the defragmentation of her family. Her eldest son, Nig, has joined a street gang in an effort to distance himself from his father. Her second son, Mark, has been convicted of minor criminal charges and is sent into social welfare system. Her eldest daughter Grace, who spends most of her time writing and inventing stories, has been traumatized after being sexually violated by Uncle “Bully”, a drinking friend of her father’s.

Beth’s Maori heritage begins playing into the story as the source of strength and pride which finally culminates into Beth, tired of being abused and cleaning up after drunken parties, kicking Jake out of the house. Beth reminds herself, and the audience, that Maori people were once great warriors, and she must draw from that spirit and fight to keep her and her family’s rights to happiness. She believes that the “mana” or pride of her tribe will allow her to continue her life with dignity.

The discovery of their Maori heritage is important to her children as well. Mark is taught the fearsome “Haka” dance, an ancient tribal ritual dance, whereupon they draw upon the spirit of the ancestors. The elder son, Nig, has half of his face covered in the traditional Ta Moko tattoos to represent his heritage of half-Maori. By embracing their heritage, the boys find a sense of self-pride which they channel to better themselves as people. This is especially reflected when asked by Nig if he wanted his own Ta Moko tattoos, Mark replies he wears his on the inside. This goes to show that your identity is defined by your intrinsic qualities and not by your appearance or colour of skin.

Because of globalization, cultural borders in a colonized country like New Zealand have blurred, but this film serves to remind the Maori people of their worth. The white majority in the population has led to a situation where it had become customary to believe that the Maori were somehow less of a people than others. “Once Were Warriors” urges others to treat Maoris with the respect they deserve, and reminds Maoris of the spirit of their people and to never let that die.

Written by: Riwia Brown, based on the novel by Alan Duff

Directed by: Lee Tamahori

No Man's Land

No Man's Land is about a Bosniak named Ciki and a Bosnian Serb named Nino, who find themselves stuck in a trench together during the Bosnian War.  At first, the two soldiers try to wound each other because they are enemies. However, they eventually become somewhat of friends and attempt to help each other throughout their stressful endeavor. There is also another Bosniak soldier in the trench with them named Cera. Cera is wounded on top of a bouncing mine. If he moves off of it, the mine will explode and kill everyone within a fifty-meter radius.

While the two mobile soldiers are trapped in the trench, a French United Nations Protection Force agent tries to help the soldiers, even though he was told by his superiors to stand back. Also, an English reporter, who overhears the event taking place on the radio, pressures the UN to help the soldiers by constantly reporting on it. Naturally, scared for their lives, Ciki and Nino become fed up with one another. This causes Ciki to shoot Nino, which in turn, results in a UN agent shooting Ciki. It was determined that the mine could not be defused, but the UN tries to save its reputation and reports that it was defused and that all the soldiers were saved.  In reality, Cera is left on top of the mine, and everyone, including the reporters leave the trench.

No Man’s Land contains a power struggle between the two opposing sides.  Ciki and Nino each have their turn with the gun, which ultimately gives its possessor power over the other soldier. Ciki often tells Nino what to do at the start of the movie. Nino has to listen because, as Ciki says, “I have a gun and you don't.” Later, in the film, Nino has the gun and is able to tell Ciki what to do.  These quarrals for power in the midst of a life or death situation prove that grown men will always act like little boys, even in the middle of a war.

This film shows how globalization affected Bosnia and Herzegovina during the time of the Bosnian War. One of the main characters in the film is wearing a Rolling Stones shirt. The Rolling Stones were an English rock band formed in the 1960’s.  The fact that a Bosnian soldier is wearing a shirt of an English band shows how well developed nations affect other less developed nations, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Another issue discussed in this film is the variety of languages in war. When the UN agents try to speak to the soldiers and other various characters in the film, they have to constantly ask if he knows French or English.  Some soldiers understood French, some understood a little English, and some understood neither.  Throughout the film, there is always a struggle to be understood, which is a necessity in war. Between the fight for language and the quarrel for power, No Man’s Land, has been proposed as a comedy, but really, it is far from it.

 

Turtles Can Fly

The film, Turtles Can Fly, takes place in Kurdistan and follows the lives of the orphans in the camp. The orphans have created their own world in which they feel no need for adult supervision. Their only supervision comes from their apparent leader, an orphan by the name of Satellite. Satellite earns his name through his work in installing antennas that allowed locals to keep their eyes out for news and updates of the ongoing war. This adolescent feels obligated to tend to the other orphans as they carry out odd jobs that help Satellite earn some money. Amongst the orphans, there is one that stands apart from the rest; Hengov. Hengov lost both his arms to a mine and is miraculously able to predict the future. His sister Agrin and her son Riga create an interesting story in Satellite’s life.

It’s interesting to see how this film depicts the war in Iraq. Being a Kurdish movie, it is no surprise that the movie glorifies the fall of Saddam Hussein as he was an enemy to the Kurds. Globalization is portrayed through Satellite’s clothing as a representation of the impact of the western world. Another brief example of globalization is the inclusion of Fox news and other American shows including several American musical channels. Aside from global aspects in the film, the general cinematographic techniques and soundtrack also attribute towards a sense of global trends.

Turtles Can Fly makes a statement about the general feeling of Iraqis and Kurds regarding the involvement of the America in their country. This is one of the first Iraqi films that references the fall of Saddam and there is an overbearing positive outlook on his removal. It appears that this film is propaganda for Iraqis to support the American involvement. Regardless of the director’s views on the American involvement, it is clear that this movie wants to relay a message that screams everyone is affected by war.

Death of Mr. Lazarescu

The film Death of Mr. Lazarescu follows the hospitalization of an old grumpy lonely man. He gets thrown around from hospital to hospital always placed on the side-lines of the waiting rooms due to a serious crash that happened earlier. The doctors are all too concerned with the crash victims and dealing with their own problems to take care of Mr. Lazarescu and, as a result, his illnesses are left untreated. One lesson that is stressed is that everyone needs to care and be cared for. The film starts off with Mr. Lazarescu taking care of his cats, and as the film progresses we learn that his daughter has left him to live in Canada and his wife died many years ago. The cats have become his thing to take care of. There is no one else for him to pour his life and care into, so he makes someone out of his cats. Even as he leaves to go into the ambulance he makes sure his cats are okay. So he has someone to care for, but now what about someone to care for him?

When the paramedic arrives at his house they are both cold towards each other. The scene is dark lighting, the dialogue is short and snappy, even the set is dirty and bland looking. This makes you think that this paramedic will be just one more face in his life. But as the story continues you find out that she is just the person he needs in his life. She gives him care and grows warm to him until eventually she is fighting to get him the best care possible. She stays with him until the end and uses the friends she has to get him into tests faster or better care. She connects with him on a deeper level due to the little chats Mr. Lazarescu has with her in the back of her ambulance.

The film also makes a strong statement on the way patients (and staff) are treated in hospitals. All the hospitals except two treat their staff and Mr. Lazarescu like crap. He is just a thorn in their sides that they wish to remove as quickly as possible by passing him off to another doctor. The second hospital and fourth hospital they visit show Mariana some kindness and take her voice into opinion, but in the first and third she is thrown to the side and told not to interfere unless she is a doctor and has a degree. If the doctors were smart they would listen to her, the patient is half unconscious and she knows much more about the Mr. Lazarescu and his pains than the doctor at this point. The nurses also are not treated well, they are ordered around while the doctor pokes and runs little tests on the patient that only requires them to watch. The doctors appear to consider the nurses their slaves. By making a statement about the hospital hierarchy system the director may hope to change that and make the staff’s job much more enjoyable.

JSA: A Film Analysis

    "Joint Security Area", released in South Korea in the year 2000 and directed by Park Chan-wook, is a nationalistic drama covering the boundaries of improbable friendship in the face of political and militaristic segregation. When an unpredictable twist of fate puts a South Korean soldier face-to-face with two of his enemies-- soldiers of the North Korean military-- a humanitarian connection between the men overrides their respective military duties and a friendship is born. JSA follows this unlikely friendship through its ultimate end and the dramatic events that lead to it.

    The film's depiction of how men can overcome a seemingly overzealous sense of nationalism, in regards to both North and South Korea, is indicative of the extreme political duress during the time period that the film took place. Secret late night meetings in an otherwise abandoned guard shack were the only ways to at least semi-safely goof-off and galavant together without the sleeping North Korean officers being aware of the men's presence and holding them as spies or worse, enemy soldiers on an infiltration mission. In this sense, the possibility for peace between the opposing war camps was certainly made aware to the men involved in the group of friends, but for the vast majority of the rest of the present military, a sense of nationalism and therefore nationalistic duty would prevent them from showing mercy and humanism towards the South Koreans. This sense of nationalism, then, is a cold and isolationist beast that can defy the chords of brotherhood, even among people of the same race.

    JSA, in the end, represents the regrettable state of modern Korea where, in the two nations' pasts, they were unified as one brotherhood, under one flag, under one sense of nationalism. The same ties, then, that tear the friends apart in this story are the ones that used to bring their respective people together as a single nation. The idea of nationalism is such a strong notion that it can penetrate deeply into an individual's persona and define their views of the aliens around them, yet the idea of a nation itself is as easily divided as the signing of a Constitution or the institution of a military dictator. There is some inherent discordance in this arrangement, but unfortunately for humankind it has been pressed into us since the day we learned what it means to be proud of our countries and disdainful towards the opposing views of people from other lands.

Nine Queens : A Film Response

Juan(Gaston Pauls) and Marcos(Ricardo Darin) talk the art of con
in a scene from "Nine Queens"(2000)

Every director and writer ensures the viewer knows what to expect from a caper flick. There's a heist, a con is pulled off, and the robbers make it away with millions leaving the good guys scratching their heads. All the rules are thrown out of the window in “Nine Queens”. The whole movie isn’t just about a con, it is a con in itself, with edge-of-your-seat suspense framed in ordinary, droll exchanges.

“Nine Queens” starts off with Juan, a down-on-his-luck young man who has reluctantly turned to conning people for money in order to collect money for his father, in jail. Juan seems to be a conscientious young man, with a strong moral compass. After a convenience store con goes awry, Juan is rescued by the seemingly nice but slightly sinister Marcos, a professional weasel who knows all the tricks of the trade. Marcos is a worldly-wise cynic who believes a conscience should be left at home when working the streets. Marcos hears out Juan’s story about why he got into the con business and offers him a seemingly simply deal: to be his partner-in-crime for a day, because his current partner is missing in action. Juan agrees eager to make quick cash. An opportunity rises for the pair when an old artist friend of Marcos, Sandler, proposes a con – to sell a wealthy Spaniard a forged set of rare valuable stamps, entitled the “Nine Queens”.

Grabbing this opportunity, Juan and Marcos set out to pull off the con of their lives, only to encounter entanglements like the suspicious Spanish businessman Gandolfo, Marcos’s estranged sibling Valeria and Federico, a conniving stamp expert, and most of all, Juan’s mistrust of Marcos. The whole plan is thrown off balance when a motorcycle gang grabs the suitcase containing the forged stamps and throws the contents into the river. This set up an entirely different climax than previously achieve with convincing Gandolfo the stamps were the real deal. The pair manages to get their hands on the real stamps, and make a dubious deal with Gandolfo involving Valeria, and finally make the sale. However, the check made out to them cannot be cashed because of a financial crash, and they are stuck in a rut.

The final revelation, however, that every single character we’ve come across in the film were in cahoots with Juan in order to swindle Marcos, is possibly one of the best plot twists in cinema since “the Sixth Sense”. The script is sharp, smart to keep our attention and full of dry and sardonic wit. The cinematography is especially effective, from a close-up of a paper-shredder in the hotel room of Gandolfo to establish tension when the stamps are being inspected, to the slow turning of the lock in men’s restroom to indicate Gandolfo was listening when Marcos said he had the Nine Queens. If any assumptions can be made from this film about Argentinean society, it is most certainly this: family above all. Never wrong your family, for if you do, the consequences are dire. Overall, “Nine Queens” entertains as a heist flick/psychological suspense film, and leaves us with questions about morality and trust in today’s world.

Written and directed by: Fabian Beilinsky