A Serbian Film

Srdan Spasojevic would have us believe that his first feature film A Serbian Film (2010) is a political allegory about modern day of life Serbia and how their governing elite treats its people. He talks in an interview about the movie being a giant metaphor and how he treats real life as pornography, considering peoples lives as pure exploitation, with basic employment being viciously exploited by the employers. Violent scenes, he goes on to say, underline his strength of feeling with the main character although a porn star is part of a “perfect” family with a beautiful and educated wife and a happy and contented young child. The film is also meant to highlight the violence within the family, Serbian men can treat their women and children in what ever way they deem fit!

This films premise is fairly simple. Retired porn star Milos is lured back to his old profession by the promise of a very large amount of money and the prospect to push back the boundaries of pornographic art, an opportunity he decides that’s to good to miss, but too late, he finds out that film maker Vukmir is keener on creating a snuff video than making a cinematic work of art. Milos is kept docile, except where it counts, via a good dose of cattle aphrodisiac and therefore has no personal control over his actions.

There is no doubt that Serbia’s first truly independent film (financed by private funds and not the state) is controversial, coursing problems where ever and when ever it has been shown publicly and dividing viewers and critics alike. BBFC made 49 cuts amounting to 4 minutes and eleven seconds making it the most censored cinema release in Britain since 1994. The censoring was due to the sexual violence, sexualised violence and the portrayal of children in a sexualised and abusive content, although the director did make sure that the children where filmed separately which in turn avoided legal problems under the 1978 Protection of Children Act. The Serbian reaction to the film was, as elsewhere, mixed with certain sections of Serbian society thinking that it did not reflect a good image of the country and others having a view that it may attract outside filmmakers to make movies there, opening there film industry to the outside world.

So going back to my first paragraph do I believe the director when he states that his film is a political allegory or just a extreme blood, gore and sex horror movie that the French make so well? Spasojevic says his film is an honest approach to the subject matter and that the original message is hidden because of the cuts and that the film was not made with the sole intention of creating controversy.  But whatever the director states the film will continue to evoke strong reactions amongst it audience. What do I think? Well I think you should make every effort to see this film and make up your own mind. File next to Antichrist (2009)

The Damned

British poster.

H L Lawrence’s novel The Children of Light told of a secret government experiment to cultivate a group of cold-blooded radioactive children to inhabit a contaminated earth in the aftermath of a nuclear war. With the encouragement of Hammers Michael Carreras, who wanted the production company to diversify from it’s reliance on gothic horror, Joseph Losey was persuaded to make a film based on Lawrence’s novel. Added to the novel’s basic British science fiction premise was “teenage rebellion” including a teddy boy/rocker gang lead by King (Oliver Reed) whose sister Joan (the lovely Shirley Anne Field Arthur Seaton’s love interest in 1960’s Saturday Night-Sunday Morning) uses her obvious sexual charms to lure American tourist Simon Wells (Macdonald Carey) into a mugging where he is beaten and robbed by her evil brother and his gang. This attack leads to Joan and Simon having an affair which narratively speaking leads to the discovery of the secret experiments and the children who, like their counterparts in the recent Never Let Go (2010), are innocent victims of a self serving ruthless ruling class. Stanley Kubrick used the same premise in 1971’s A Clockwork Orange in as much as questionable activities by both an extreme youth movement and the even more dangerous “authorities”.

American poster.

The movie, filmed on location in Weymouth and nearby Portland Bill, was originally made in 1961 but due to political considerations was not released until 1963 in the UK and 1965 in the USA where it went under the title of These Are The Damned. When viewing this film today it must be remembered that in the early 60’s many considered a nuclear war inevitable at a time when the Cuban missile crisis was at its height. Even the sculptures made by Freya Nielsen (Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors) were made to represent bodies of people and animals killed by a nuclear blast. (They were actually made by British sculptor Elisabeth Frink) Losey’s film, fascinating and menacing, captures the edgy nature of living with the threat of nuclear oblivion and is now can be regarded as one of the best of Hammers Films.

For more Joseph Losey follow link:

http://brianmatthews60.blogspot.com/search/label/Joseph Losey

Animal Kingdom

We come to the end of another eight-film season of the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club with the award winning Australian “family” crime drama Animal Kingdom (2010). Directed and written by David Michod, his debut feature film, its loosely inspired by the real life Pettingill family including their matriarch fondly known as “Granny Evil” Pettingill, Melbourne’s answer to Violet Kray, and also the Walsh Street police shootings that occurred in Melbourne in 1988. Michod film offers a look beyond the gloss of the city normal life to its criminal underbelly, and how well he does it.

Granny loves her boys.

This is a strong character movie that puts your in the mind of The Wire. The film opens with a women and a 17 year-old boy sitting in front of a TV, the women appears to be a sleep, then the medic’s arrive and we learn that this is the boys mother and she’s died from a heroin overdose. The boy, Joshua Cody, is very laid back about this tragedy and telephones his grandmother Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody, whom it appears he has had no contact for many years; she agrees to take the lad in. It’s at his “loving” granny’s that he eventually meets his three uncles. The eldest is Andrew Pope Cody a psychopath on the run from the law, drug dealing Craig Cody and the dim witted Darren along with their associate Barry Brown bank robber and dabbler in stocks and shares: all four are career criminals. The corrupt local law enforcement officers take the law into their own hands and kill Barry Brown in cold blood, it’s this action that triggers the chain of events that follows.   

Make no mistake about it, this is one superb Australian movie, one that will thrill and hold your attention. The main players are exceptional and the three that deserve a special mention are Jacki Weaver, who was nominated for a Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at this years Oscars for her portrayal of blond, brassy and slightly incestuous grandma. Ben Mendelsohn, who can be seen in Baz Luhrmann 2008 masterpiece Australia and the brilliant Beautiful Kate (2009), plays the evil Pope Cody. The best-known face is probably Guy Pearce who plays what seems to be the only honest cop in the film, Detective Nathan Leckie tasked with bringing in our criminal tribe. The violence is handled discreetly, music is sparingly used but the main reasons to make sure you don’t miss this movie is its strong story and Jacki Weavers performance.

Link to Beautiful Kate.

http://brianmatthews60.blogspot.com/search/label/Beautiful%20Kate   

Route Irish

Route Irish.

The Bagdad Airport Road is a 7.5-mile stretch of road in Iraq; it links the International Zone, the heavily fortified area at the centre of Bagdad  referred to in the press as the Green Zone, to the Bagdad International Airport. This road is commonly referred to as ‘Route Irish” it’s acknowledged as the most dangerous length of tarmac any where in the world, it forms the back bone of Ken Loach’s latest film.

Frankie (John Bishop).

Sixteen Films a production company formed in 2002 by Ken Loach and producer Rebecca O’Brian with writer Paul Laverty as associate director, it’s function is to make films written, produced and directed by this top class team. Route Irish (2010) is their latest offering, which was first shown at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of the friendship between two Liverpool lads Fergus and Frankie who met on their first day at school and have been close friends ever since. Fergus became a highly trained member of the UK’s elite SAS. When he resigned in 2004 he persuaded ex Paratrooper Frankie to join his security team in Bagdad, a job that pays £10,000 a month, tax-free. In return their expected to risk their lives in a city steeped in violence and terror, a city awash with billions of US dollars, which fosters a climate of greed. Back in Liverpool a grief-stricken Fergus learns of Frankie’s death on the notorious Route Irish but will not accept the official explanation and begins his own investigation into his best friend’s death, an investigation that leads to dark places in the ex SAS mans mind.

Fergus Molloy (Mark Womack)

The movie explores the corporate greed and corruption involved with the private military company’s (PMC’s) working in Iraq. These privatised organisations provide staff of a military and security nature normally selected from ex-professional soldiers. In the past these men would be known as mercenaries but, as we see the movie, are now referred to as security contractors. The companies these men work for are generally sanctioned by the United States under the notorious Order 17 which means that the contractors do not come under Iraqi law and could kill without redress, these men are not answerable to any government but only to the PMC’s grasping shareholders.

The director at work.

Superbly photographed in Liverpool and Jordan by the award winning Chris Menges who previously worked with Ken Loach on Kes (1968) The Gamekeeper (1980) and Looks and Smiles (1981). TV actor Mark Womack in his debut feature film plays the rather tragic figure of Fergus. John Bishop continues the trend in Loach films to use northern comedians; he plays Frankie the contractor with a conscience. While Paul Laverty was researching the film he interviewed a young soldier Craig Lundberg who was blinded in action, both Laverty and the director were so impressed with him that they cast him as Craig in the movie. Special mention to Trevor Williams who allowed himself to be water boarded because there was no other way of showing this government sanctioned form of torture realistically.

When talking about making films Loach was quoted as saying “The idea of a film establishment is a contradiction in terms. We should be critical, abrasive and subversive” This sums up the reason I love this mans work and he’s still producing meaningful social realist British cinema even if the bulk of the funding still comes from Europe.

Salt

Overlong, overblown and utterly forgettable Salt (2010) is a waste of the acting talent of Angelina Jolie (Check out Girl, Interrupted 1999, A Mighty Heart 2007 and Changeling 2008) she plays a character called Evelyn Salt who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes all out to try and clear her name. Seemingly a character that Tom Cruise was down to play but even he backed out along with the of two previous directors before Australian Phillip Noyce took control, Noyce can make a good movie for example the 1998 break through movie for Nicole Kidman Dead Calm, The Quiet American (2002) and Rabbit Proof Fence (2007), still I suppose we’ve all got to eat.

Tim Hetherington.

Tim Hetherington in Libya.

Among the ten civilians killed in Libya’s besieged rebel city of Misratya yesterday was Oscar nominated British filmmaker and photojournalist 41 year-old Tim Hetherington.

Along with American journalist Sebastian Junger, Hetherington was joint director of the film Restrepo (2010) a documentary that explores the year the two men spent in the dangerous Korengal Valley in Afghanistan embedded with a Platoon of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. The documentary starts with some amateur footage that shows a group of US soldiers before their deployment one of which is Juan Sebastian Restrepo. The base they set up in the Korengel Valley is named after this young lad when he is killed in action shortly after they arrive.  The film follows their 15-month tour of duty.

Similar to the recent Ken Loach film Route Irish (2010) the documentary demonstrates how war affects the men that have the lead role: the soldiers. In interviews with the men on their return from duty they talk about their experiences with death and suffering and most poignant of all their deteriorating mental health. If the civilised world will send teenagers to fight in bloody and violent conflicts then how do we expect them to respond to the stress of combat, lack of sleep, substance abuse and the constant sight and threat of death. Are we storing up problems for the future!!

Documentary filmmakers like Hetherington make us question the right of nations like America and their lapdogs to carry out “legalised” mass murder of mainly civilians. Tim Hetherington R.I.P

The Decameron

The Decameron 1970.

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director that did not shy away from his deeply felt beliefs when making movies. A self confessed atheist and Marxist who led a gay lifestyle and was expelled from his beloved Communist Party because of a scandal involving alleged sexual activities with adolescent boys. Pasolini was murdered in 1975 under suspicious circumstances that may have been related to his homosexuality.

The Decameron (1970) is the first film in what became known as his trilogy of life (the other two being The Canterbury Tales 1972 and Arabian Nights 1974) and is a lavish historical pageant. A portmanteau film based on ten stories from the 14^th century by Giovaai Boccaccio described on the BFI DVD release as “tales full of bawdy humor, earthly spirit, a romp through tales of sex and death of lusty nuns and priests, cuckolded husbands murdered lovers and grave robbers” Best described as playful and full of life, the cast was handpicked and almost wholly non-professional.

It’s indeed a departure from the two films that originally brought Pasolini to my attention, the 1968 Theorem (I have included a earlier ramble below) and his final and most controversial film Salo (1975) a film based on the Marquis de Sade novel 120 Days of Sodom with its setting transposed to Mussolini’s miniature Fascist Republic of Salo, Italy in 1944. Both films confirming that some movies warrant being described as art.

Theorem 1968.

Silvana Mangano.

On the face of it Theorem, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 film is a simple story. A mysterious stranger, the guest, played by Terence Stamp, arrives at a bourgeois household in Milan where he successively seduces the son, the mother (The exquisite Italian actress Silvana Mangano) the daughter, the father and the maid! As a result of this so called divine intervention, the father hands his factory to its workers, the mother gives herself to random sexual encounters, the son expresses himself by a form of modern art and the daughter gets taken away by men in white coats, while the maid becomes a miracle performing saint. It’s a film about loneliness, sexual repression and self-discovery and is punctuated by shots of a windswept volcanic wilderness which I understand represents ‘The bleak wilderness of the soul’ the dialogue is particularly sparse but this interesting and compelling movie is a visual treat.

The A-Team

A-Team poster.

Cheesy with a daft plot that involves some dubious politics but I must say The A-Team (2010) is not a bad Saturday nights viewing with the added bonus: it’s amusing and entertaining! This American action film is based on a television series of the same name and features the same characters namely Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) Face Peck (Bradley Cooper) B.A. Baracus (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson) and not forgetting Howling Mad Murdock (Sharlto Copley) although the war has changed from Nam to Iraq. The basic story line involves our elite army team being set up and incarcerated for a crime thy did not commit. They escape with the sole intent of clearing their names.

Apparently the film had been planned since the mid 1990’s going through a number of writers, story lines and directors, which lets be honest does not bode well for any movie, before finally settling on Joe Carnahan as director, the same gentleman that was responsible for the dreadful Smokin Aces (2007)!

Fargo.

The wide open spaces of a Coen movie.

Wednesday night at the RBC Film Theatre was another in the Directors Focus series, this time following, True Grit on Monday, the Coen Brother were the subject of Darren Conner’s discussion. The evening started with a showing of the 1996 award winning Fargo.

The Coen character study.

Fargo is a dark comedy crime drama set in a very snowy North Dakota where Jerry Lundergaard a car salesman, who’s desperately in debt, arranges for two ex-cons to abduct his wife. The ransom is to be paid by Jerry’s rich, bullying father-in-law and split between Jerry and the two villains. But the “no rough stuff” deal does not work out as planned. This is due to two things the clumsy ineffectual crooks and the intervention of the seven-month pregnant local police chief Marge Gunderson.

Produced, directed and written by the brother’s Coen it stars the absolutely brilliant Frances McDormand as the very sharp local police officer, William H Macy as the anxious car dealer, the “funny lookin little fellow” Carl Showaller is played by Steve Buscemi and the psychopathic Gaear Grimsrud, a killer with a craving for pancakes, is portrayed by Peter Stormare. The film earned seven Academy Award nominations, winning Best Original Screenplay for the Coen's and a very disserving Best Actress in a Leading Role for McDormand.

Coen humour.

Following the film Darren gave a very good talk with reference to what makes a Coen movie, something I have already rambled in my comments on True Grit (see link below) but suffice to say the Coen’s are unique, with an attention to detail, humour, strong characters and their tremendous writing ability. I think all of us who attended on Wednesday would agree that the whole evening was very enjoyable and I’m sure we would all like to thank Darren, who’s next for a focus then?

http://brianmatthews60.blogspot.com/search/label/True%20Grit%202010

Orlando

Orlando falls for the  Princess.

Orlando (1992) stars the perfectly cast Tilda Swinton and is the story of a journey through time, of someone who lives for four hundred years, first as a man, then as a woman. As a young nobleman, Orlando is given land, property and money by Queen Elizabeth I (Quentin Crisp) if he agrees to the Queens command “ Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old”. After the monarch death, he falls passionately in love with the visiting Russian Princess Sasha (Charlotte Valandrey) on the glittering ice of the frozen river Thames. The princess leaves Orlando, however, and, after a disastrous brush with poetry, he takes up his "manly" destiny as an Ambassador in the deserts of central Asia. There, in the midst of war, unwilling to kill or be killed, he changes sex. As a woman, Orlando returns to the formal salons of 18th century London, where she faces a choice: marry and have heirs or lose everything as she faces several impending lawsuits arguing that Orlando was a woman to begin with and therefore has no right to the land or any of her/his royal inheritance Finally, this androgynous being having lived a most bizarre existence emerges into a twentieth century as an ordinary individual with a child and having written a book now finds some tranquility.

Directed and adapted by Sally Potter from Virginia Woolf’s 1928 semi biographical novel Orlando: A Biography, based in part on the life of Woolf’s lover Vita Sackville-West the English author and poet.

An unqualified delight, a movie not to be missed, believe me this rather unique fantasy is not your standard costume drama and has been described as a “gender-bending epic”! It had the distinction of introducing both Tilda Swinton and Sally Potter to a wider cinema audience.

True Grit 2010.

For the more discerning cinema lover the western still holds a special appeal proved by the fact that Ethan and Joel Coens master class in the genre is packing cinemas and Monday nights RBC Film Club showing was no exception.

Mattie Ross.

Based on the 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name True Grit (2010) relates the story of 14 year-old Mattie Ross who sets out to avenge the shooting and killing of her father Frank Ross by his drunken low life employee who goes by the name of Tom Chaney, amongst other’s. The strong minded Mattie hires the one eyed fat whisky drinking US Marshall Reuben J “Rooster” Cogburn to track the outlaw who is now riding with the Ned Pepper gang across the Choctaw terrain. Texas Ranger LeBoeuf, who is pursuing Chaney for killing a State Senator, joins them on their manhunt.

Rooster Cogburn

Originally adapted as a film in 1969, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring the American icon that is John Wayne, a role that won him his only Academy Award for Best Actor, True Grit has now been resurrected by Joel and Ethan Coen. The “two headed director” wrote the screenplay, based more on the novel than the previous movie, edited under their normal alias of Roderick Jaynes and produced with a little help from a certain Mr Spielberg.  The Coen’s version narrates the story from the prospective of Mattie Ross who in 1928, as an older churchgoing spinster, recounts her adventures. Marshall Rooster Cogburn is portrayed as a complex character who was an unsuccessful family man, a member of William Quantrill’s guerrilla band during the American Civil War and its hinted, that he was once on the wrong side of the law?  The Texas Ranger LaBoeuf is a buckskin clad pipe smoking Texas Ranger who has been hunting Chaney for a cash reward for four months for killing the senator and his dog.

The Texas Ranger.

This western is pure entertainment from the start to the finish, it’s a film marked by its humour, its realism and its brutal social commentary. In my opinion its due to the brilliant cast and crew including long time cinematographer nine time Oscar nominated Roger Deakins, his eleventh film for the Coen’s. The soundtrack, based on 19^th-century church music, is the 15th scored by another long-time collaborator Carter Burwell. There is no doubt that we will certainly hearing a lot more of Hailee Steinfeld, chosen out of 15000 girls for the role of the resolute Mattie Ross. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress she even outshone Jeff Bridges who made the part of Rooster Cogburn his own just missing out to Colin Firth for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Bourne Trilogy star Matt Damon plays the Texas Ranger and Josh Brolin who was in the Coen’s award winning movie No Country for Old Men (2007) plays the psychopathic simpleton Tom Chaney. The directing style is undoubtedly  Coen brothers, with their attention to detail, the humour, the strong characters and their tremendous writing ability. It’s not before time that the brothers turned their clever genre skills to the best of all genres: the western.

Splice

Dren plays with Dolly!

The third feature film from American-Canadian director and screenwriter Vincenzo Natall is the science fiction horror Splice (2010) starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as a pair of generic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast whose work involves splicing together the DNA of various animals to create a new hybrid for medical use. As always Doctor Frankenstein, these academic types get carried away and our two are no exception adding human DNA to the mix  (obviously for the benefit of mankind?) The pharmaceutical company that sponsor their experiments have got more sense, or is it lack of funds, forbidding the couple from carrying out their objectives. But come on we would not have much of a story, or Dolly the sheep, if all these mad scientists did what they were told!  An interesting slant on the way generic science is heading? Good acting from the two leads, not forgetting Delphine Chaneac as the feminized humanoid. With passable special effects it makes an entertaining movie but without the “punch” of David Cronenberg.

The Loved Ones

Lola was never that good at DIY

Brent is a good-looking 17 year-old student with a steady girlfriend but he still grieves for his beloved father after he killed him in a car crash. When Brent declines an invitation from the unassuming Lola Stone to accompany her to the school dance he has no idea of the horrors that await him.

An Ozplortation horror comedy The Loved Ones (2009) is written and directed by short documentary filmmaker Sean Byrne, his first feature film. Shot in Melbourne Australia its Creepy, very bloody, extremely violent exceptionally funny and a very entertaining 84 minutes.

Never Let Me Go

Are we living in a society that’s inherently bad, do we recognise the underlying warning tones, are we all living in a negative utopia characterised by an authoritarian form of government, are there repressive social control systems in place that restrict our individual freedom? That’s the power of cinema: you trot along to the RBC Film Club on a Monday night and you end up spouting unintelligible rhetoric!

Cathy, Ruth and Tommy

Do movies really reflect the time that they were made, if true, then how will future generations view the dystopian drama Never Let Me Go (2010)? Kazuo Ishiguros a Japanese author, who was brought up in England, wrote the novel, that the film is based upon, in 2005. It was adapted for the screen by fellow novelist Alex Garland who was responsible for the novel The Beach and the original screenplays for both 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007). It is set in a post war Britain in which the mayor scientific break-through is in genetics rather than nuclear physics, a society where human cloning is an accepted fact. These clones are created for the sole purpose of donating their vital organs to enable the life span of the “humans” to exceed the100 year mark. Young people would complete (die) in early adulthood after a second or third extraction. The children, who unconditionally accept their fate without the slightest hint of rebellion, are brought up in what closely resembles a 1950’s boarding school. The story centres on three of the children we first see at Hailsham School in 1978. Kathy H falls for Tommy but Ruth highjacks their relationship and forms a strong attachment to the emotionally fragile young boy that lasts well past the time all three leave the boarding school. Kathy eventually becomes one of the privileged clones acting as a carer, a position that will prolong her life beyond the normal expectations of a clone! Directed by Mark Romanek, who spent the previous twelve years making music videos for such well-known rock artiste as REM, Nine Inch Nails, Madonna and Michael Jackson and starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield who superbly play out the the grown up version of the children.

The viewer is restricted to what Kathy allows us to see through her narration giving us what is probable a blinkered view of her peripheral world. The film really makes you question our inability to escape the human lifespan what ever period were allocated be it 100 years or 100 days in fact do we really accept that our time is truly limited? Still just like the film, is life not just an attempt to love and be loved?

Brighton Rock

The question is of course did Pinkie Brown really grow to love Rose Wilson? Answers to be submitted to The RBC Film Club, I’m joking but you must admit it would make a good discussion.

Pinkie and Rose.

Rowan Joffe adapted for his first feature film Brighton Rock (2010) the 1938 novel of the same name by Graham Greene a story previously adapted by Greene and Terence Rattigan for the 1947 version of the movie directed and produced by the Boulting Brothers and starring Richard Attenbourgh as Pinkie a role he had performed in a West End play three years before. This film version sits at number 15 in the British Film Institute 100 List of great British films. The new Joffe version has changed the original timeline from 1930’s Brighton to the Mod and Rocker era of 1964.

Ida Arnold

Sam Riley (Joy Divisions vocalist Ian Curtis in Control 2007) plays the menacing and moody form that’s Pinkie Brown, a young murderous thug who has designs on the leadership of a low life criminal gang. Andrea Riseborough (Made in Dagenham 2010, Never Let Me Go 2010) is Rose a waitress, touching and vulnerable but with a hint of something harder, who witnesses the first steps in the demise of Mr Fred Hale. A love affair shrouded by a cloak of criminality forms between Rose and our guilt riddled Catholic, Pinkie. Ida Arnold, Fred Hale’s companion on the day of is death, is determined to solve the truth behind his murder and save the young waitress from the clutches of the evil Pinkie. The always-alluring Helen Mirren plays Ida with great panache. Other distinctive members of the cast include Andy Serkis, John Hurt and Phil Davis

This brooding British noir was very entertaining and I especially enjoyed the fact that it had been updated to an era I was familiar with and for me strengthening the narrative. My only grumble was the ending, Joffe, who also wrote The American the 2010 thriller directed by Anton Corbijn and starring George Clooney, bottled out with his sticking gramophone needle, when you see the film your know what I mean!

The Terrorist

Based on the assassination of Tamil Politian Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 by Thenmuli Rajaratnam who wore a belt of explosive material attached to her lower back region with the switches and circuitry in front. Director and writer Santosh Sivan, a well known Indian cinematographer, wanted to make a film about terrorism he chose these real life events for the basis of his story. The Terrorist (1999) portrays a period in the life the 19 year-old Malili (Ajesha Dharkar) who was overjoyed to be chosen to assassinate a leader in South Asia via the suicide bomb strapped to her. Asked to sacrifice her life for the future of her people the film explains how, in slow precise detail, Malili develops doubts about her deadly mission.

Thought provoking and very beautifully shot with what seems constant Indian downpour’s playing their part in the overall atmospherics of the movie. Considering the subject matter violence is almost non-existent. John Malkovich was so impressed with the film that he put pressure on to have it released in America. Well worth a look.