Sin Nombre.

Economic migrants are certainly getting a bad press at the present time. What are economic migrants other than people who want to improve their lives for both themselves and their families? Some live in conditions and countries that people would not let their precious dogs live in, so why let people? Admittedly some folk just see another country as having something different to offer be it sunshine or perhaps better schooling for their kids. I myself was an economic migrant some 23 years ago when I choose to move my family to another country. One in which my children were offered a better education system and somewhere where they could actually venture outdoors without adult supervision. Obviously my situation was nowhere near as serious and heart rendering as the migrants we see in the 2009 Mexican-American thriller Sin Nombre.

Written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga who was born in the USA but whose parentage was Swedish/Japanese. Fukunaga was responsible for directing all eight of the first season of the award winning HBO TV series True Detective, a truly remarkable piece of work, as is his debut feature film.    

 

El Caspers only chance in life is joining Mara Salvatrucha and its leader Lil Mago.

Seeking the promise of America, a beautiful young Honduran woman, Sayra, joins her father and uncle on an odyssey to cross the gauntlet of the Latin American countryside en route to the United States. Along the way she crosses paths with a teenage Mexican gang member, El Casper, who is manoeuvring to outrun his violent past and elude his unforgiving former associates. Together they must rely on faith, trust and street smarts if they are to survive their increasingly perilous journey towards the hope of new lives[1].

Shot mostly in Mexico City and filmed in Spanish, the film's title means "Nameless", it won several awards, including prizes for directing and cinematography at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It evokes the hardship and violence of a society that gives no real hope for a future or a life. The only opening for disinfected youth is to join a gang where your life can be cut short at any time. Who can blame these people and others in the same position from trying to improve their lives even at great risk to themselves demonstrated in this excellent movie and in the BBC news programmes over the past months?  

Several of the extras used in the film were actual migrants. Fukunaga said of working with them, "I didn't have to tell them anything—they know how to sit on top of a train” The film stars Paulina Gaitan (We Are What We Are) as Sayra and Edgar Flores as El Casper. The executive producers included Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal. This harrowing authentic movie is recommended for those of you that profess a social conscience and in fact it would not do the back bottoms that don’t have a social conscience any harm to watch it either.

---

[1] Focus Films.

Omar.

Premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize, Omar did not get a general release in the UK until a year later in May 2014, but it was well worth waiting for. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad, an Israeli born Palestinian who immigrated to the Netherlands in the 1980’s, whose previous movie Paradise Now (2006), a drama about suicide bombers, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and received an Oscar nomination in the same category. This latest outing is a compelling drama set in the Occupied West Bank. The movie successfully underlines the present unfair situation in the Middle East where the Israelis punish the Palestinians for wanting to live free from military dictatorship in what are rightfully their own lands.

 

The giant separation wall that Omar has to climb....

Set in East Palestine on the front line of a conflict that may never be resolved, it was filmed mainly on location in Nazareth, Nablus and the Far’a Palestinian Refugee Camp which itself is located in the foothills of the Jordan Valley in the Northern West Bank that until 1998 was under the occupation of the Jordanians and the Israelis, then came under the control of the Palestinian National Authority.

 

....so he can visit the love of his life Nadja.

The main protagonist in this tense gripping thriller is Omar (Adam Bakri) a Palestinian baker who we witness regularly climbing over the giant separation wall to visit the love of his life Nadja (Leem Lubany) who he hopes to marry when she leaves school.  But at night he’s a different man ready to risk his life to strike at the invaders.  Along with his two childhood friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani), who is Nadja’s older brother and Amjad (Samer Bishatey), who also has feelings for the attractive young schoolgirl, they hatch a plan to eliminate an Israeli soldier via a high powered rifle. But following his arrest for the killing and consequent torture and beatings Omar is forced into becoming an informant as his only sure way out of prison. But will he inform on his friends and betray his cause, who can he trust when he realises he is not the only informant?  

 

 Omar is not only a lover but also a fighter. 

From whatever way you approach this film it presents you with a moral dilemma but it still a film to appreciate with its strong sense of pace and its fine performances from its Palestinian cast. There is I must say a completely unpredictable ending, well it’s not an American film - so enjoy.    

Devils Knot.

Although based on a true story, Canadian stage and film director Atom Egoyan’s movie Devils Knot (2013) is the rather un-compelling retelling of a incident involving the murder of three eight year old boys in Arkansas in 1993.  The suspects, who became known as the West Memphis Three, were charged and convicted of the killings. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, with the other two, Jessie Misskelley Jnr and Jason Baldwin, sentenced to life imprisonment. Did they carry out the crime or was it a miscarriage of justice?  The film stars a wooden Colin Firth as Ron Lax, an investigator who assists the defence team pro bono because of; the film informs us, his objection to capital punishment and Reese Witherspoon as Pamela Hobbs, mother of one of the young victims.

 

West Memphis Three.

The actual 'Three'.

The problem with this movie is it lacks any element of surprise and turns out to be a plodding retelling of a well known story already covered by Mara Leveritts book, on which the movie is allegedly based, Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, published in 2002 but also there is the three part documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky which is said to be far superior. Which raises the question why bother?

After The Wedding.

Having already enjoyed two films directed by Danish born film director Susanne Bier, the first was Brothers (2004) and the second was the Academy Award winning In a Better World (2010) which starred the Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt who can presently be seen in the BBC4 series Beck, I was looking forward to seeing her 2006 movie After the Wedding and was not to be disappointed as the director had certainly maintained her normal extraordinary high standard.

 

A man with a past .

A man with a hidden agenda .

Jacob Petersen heads an Indian based orphanage and his work helps to save many vulnerable young street children. An honourable man but a loner who because of his chosen career is compelled to forgo mature relationships, but a man with a past but one that would appear to be happy with his situation. When the orphanage is threatened by closure, he receives an unusual offer. A Danish businessman, Jørgen Lennart Hansson, offers him a donation of $4 million dollars. There are, however, certain conditions and Jørgen’s motives are not what they seem. Not only must Jacob return to Denmark, he must also attend the wedding of Jørgen's daughter. The wedding proves to be a critical juncture between past and future and catapults Jacob into the most intense dilemma of his life. Family secrets will be revealed along with Jørgen’s well intentioned hidden agenda, but does it give Jørgen Hansson the right to control other people's lives even those close to him and will it be morally justifiable and does the end result justify the means?

 

A beautiful woman caught in a triangle of passion.

The sensitive daughter.

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, only loosing out to the German movie The Lives of Others (2006), After The Wedding is chock fall of believable characters that are beautifully portrayed by all four lead actors.  For example a sensitive portrayal of the daughter by Stine Fischer Christensen, Mads Mikkelson’s melancholy depiction of the troubled and intense Jacob, Rolf Lassgard powerful interpretation of the rich businessman and Sidse Babett Knudson as Helene Hansson torn between Jørgen her husband and a previous relationship. All four, as well as the supporting actors, display the essence of natural acting, proving that it is the key to the great performances in this film and also proves how important casting was for the portrayal of Anders Thomas Jensen’s screenplay. Screen International described it as not only a powerful compelling drama but complex and gripping. Emotional, but never melodramatic it underlines the difference between the poverty of India and privilege of Jørgen and his family. I would sincerely recommend that lovers of a well told, brilliantly acted, superbly directed drama should not miss a chance to see this movie. 

Bullhead (Rundskop)

Belgian director Michael Roskam’s debut feature film may be a tough, brutal, gritty crime drama but its unbelievably good and certainly not to be missed and I opine its even better than his second movie The Drop (2014), which turned out to be James Gandolfini’s final feature film.   

The explosive Jacky Vanmarsenille. 

Starring Matthias Schoenaerts, the award-winning star of Rust and Bone (2012), Bullhead (2011) or to give it its Dutch title Rundskop, is harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. The Belgium born actor plays Jacky Vanmarsenille a man whose life has been affected by a violent childhood incident that has left him permanently maimed which in turn has made him unsociable and deep, a handsome man who has never known love outside his immediate family. Jacky and his family are central to a meat selling scam, one in which beef cattle are illegally injected with hormones to bulk them up and produce more meat. But again due to that violent child hood occurrence Jacky Vanmarsenille has also been injecting himself with hormones as well as taking steroids. Three things happen to Jacky that complicates his life even more than usual, putting pressure on his already explosive nature. Firstly undue pressure from a Mafioso meat trader, secondly the murder of a Federal Agent who has been investigating the illicit trade in meat and finally a woman from his traumatic past.

 

The woman that comes back into Jacky's life..

To play this part the brilliant Schoenaerts had to put in a great deal of work bulking up to replicate the effects of the characters drug intake and successfully giving the impression that he will explode into violence any moment - which at times he does!  Don’t be put off by the movies ruthless and cruel subject matter, this is a film that should be widely seen and was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84^th Academy Awards and only lost to the Iranian submission A Separation (2011) - yes its that good.

The source of an illicit income.