Father and Son – Review by Gursimran Datla

Father and Son – Review
Film – 88:40 – Vietnam
Mon. July 3 – 6:45 PM

ReelHEART Film Festival, Toronto

We are not Cities. We are Humans!

‘Father And Son’ is a visually stunning film, that revolves around the happiness and tragedy of a single-father Moc and his 6-year-old son Ca, who lived near a river-bank, somewhere in Vietnam. This Film is a directorial debut of Vietnamese filmmaker Luong Dinh Dung, who recently has nominated for prestigious “Remi Award” at 50th Annual Worldfest Houston International Film Festival this year for this film.

Wrote almost 22 years ago by Luong Dung himself, ‘Father and Son’ opens with a remote but picturesque village, where Moc is surviving with his kid by catching and selling fish. The blend of nature and innocent characters take us to the traditional Vietnamese scenario and the stillness of their lives, which are masterfully photographed in this thoughtful film.

The story moved with the dreams and curiosity of ‘Ca’ and his other little friends who are keen on planes, which they call ‘bird from the city’ and other nuances of city life. So in the flood season when Moc and Ca, with other community members, move uphill, it’s the routine of kids to listen the story of the city from ‘Uncle Blind’ who once worked in that city, building the “Future House’ ( largest skyscraper ). ‘Uncle blind’ lost his eyes by working construction in that building.

Going through the beautiful imagery of mountains, fog, river, fish and a tragedy of losing a family due to flood, people return back to the Riverbank and build their house again from the scratch.

Meanwhile, the community members suggest Moc should get married again, but before Moc can think further on this, Ca becomes terribly ill. When traditional herbs from the forest don’t work, Moc takes Ca to the hospital in the nearest city.

Metaphorically, the film makes a transition from the calm life of Riverbank to the noisy, polluted and hurtled world of city full of tall buildings and, the “future house of blind man” right, opposite that hospital. This reminds me of Chinese Filmmaker ‘Jia Zhangke’s film ‘Still Life’ which is also based on the similar themes of the gap between cities and Riverbank areas.

Moc must find a way to get his son proper healthcare which of course, is equal of catching 160,000 fishes. When recovered, Ca wants to go on that ‘future house of blind’. Metaphorically, the hospital becomes a partition between the reality and the dreams.

The film has superbly crafted soundtrack by Korean composer Lee Dong Jun, the artist behind the sounds of many of that country’s popular movies like “Miracle in Cell No. 7” and “Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War”.

On the hospital bed, Ca dreams about the boat, river, and fish. On the other hand, Moc worries about collecting money for Ca’s treatment. Will Moc successfully take Ca to the ‘future house of blind man’’ where only people with good clothes can go ? Where dreams and reality intersects?

The mesmerizing story “Father and Son” opens the 13^th Annual ReelHeART International Film and Screenplay Festival, Toronto, Canada on July 03^rd

ReelHeART runs until 08 July 2017. Book your tickets now!

Gursimran Datla @gursimrandatla

American Dream – Review by Gursimran Datla

American Dream
Documentary – 78:09 min – United States
Fri. July 7 – 1:45 PM
ReelHEArt Film Festival, Toronto

–
Those who leave
And
Those who remain
We
Together, bound by our breaths
We are
Strangers
In our own homes.
We are
Strangers…

“American Dream”, one of the primary documentaries based on the post-Trump era, draws a raw, organic look into the journeys of undocumented citizens and their dangerous crossing attempts through Texas from the Mexico border. Now, when we are on the move, our ancient lands got corrupt. They hold the burden of the greatness of their history and their sacred texts and more than that, they are now under the rule of organized gangs and criminal elites.

Directed by Joel N Clark, award-winning director, “American Dream” portrays lives of realistic immigrants and the unrealistic immigration procedures on Texas-Mexican Border.

America nourished and flourished by so many different cultures and traditions is a Refuge for so many immigrants coming via Mexican borders. “American Dream” is a cathartic yet sublime depiction of universal problem of migrations, its reasons, effects, and results.

Without wasting a single minute on establishing the narrative, the film opens directly to the point and took us to the various regions of Latin America like Honduras, El Salvador And Mexico, introduced us to the people on the verge of crossing border as well as those, who successfully crossed borders but now categorized as “Undocumented”.

The film is about four different lives, trying to cross Mexican border with one dream i.e. to reach America. For the hope of better future, a better life for themselves as well as their family.

As the film unfolds, it reveals the major problem with migration, which is not just economic crises, but also the extreme violence and extortions of criminal gangs. El Salvador, also known as ‘murder capital of the world’ where 20 % of its population now migrated to America due to the high rate of crime and violence.

Meanwhile, the family members of those undocumented immigrants seek arms of the children, of their mothers to hold them and hug them.

What kind of world we have built where we tore apart the families. Where earning basic necessities become the ultimate goal of life. Filmmaker, also follow the Journey of ‘Sonja’, a 7 month pregnant, all she wants her child to be born in America.

“American Dream” is well shot with interesting perspectives, is well edited and juxtaposed with all different story-lines, accumulates to one goal of that is American Dream.

Sometimes it feels like if the filmmaker romanticizes the America and its name, but he also explores a narrative of a police officer in Texas, who was once an immigrant himself, and now living a better life with his family and serving country.

In totality, the journey is hard, life is not easy but we can’t afford to stop. Yomi, a Mexican immigrant, who is living in Austin, Texas as an undocumented migrant compile her journey in two sentences – ‘All I see is walls around me. All we do is work and sleep’.

This film makes you a bit more good human. It sensitizes you with journeys and fears of some migrant people and surprisingly you will find that they are very similar to you. We are on a journey and this world is a playground. Let’s celebrate our souls and vulnerabilities of being on this beautiful and one and only planet.

Gursimran Datla @gursimrandatla

 

उस बड़े से पार्क के बीचो बीच
उस बड़े से पेड़ के नीचे
प्रेमी जोड़े जो बैठते थे
इन्हीं पेड़ों पर अक्सर जोड़े
दिल बना कर अपने नाम के पहले अक्षर 
जड़ देते हैं
अब वो जो दिल अंकित हुआ पड़ा है पेड़ पर
वहाँ पर कीड़ों ने डेरा लगाया हुआ है
ज़मीन के अंदर से बहार आ कर कीड़े
पेड़ पर चलने लगते हैं
बिलकुल दिल की shape के ऊपर कीड़े चलते हैं।

उसके बाद जो उसके अंदर S बना हुआ है
कीड़े उस पे भी मंडराते हैं।
वहीँ तक रुकते रहीं
जी नहीं भरत तोह
आगे बने P पर भी एक चक्कर लगा आते हैं।
लगता है जैसे
ज़मीन से निकले यह कीड़े
इस मोहोब्बत का समर्थन कर रहे हों
उकेरी गयी है पेड़ पर

वो कीड़े फिर इस दिल के इर्द गिर्द चक्कर लगाते हैं
पहरेदार की तरह
लिखने वाले लिख कर चले गए खुद
पर कीडों के लिए चक्कर लगाना जैसे हो
रोज़गार की तरह

— इस बार
बरसात नहीं हुयी यहां
तोह कीड़े ज़मीन से कुछ कम निकले हैं
—- इस बार
पेड़ों पर भी कम ही दिल उकेरे मिलते हैं
रहते हैं पेड़ स्पाट और साफ़
अब पेड़ भी तोह कम ही मिलते हैं
अब पार्क भी तोह कम ही मिलते हैं
अब सब जैसे जा रहा है
ज़मीन के अंदर
कीड़ों की तरह !

– Gursimran Datla

Beatriz at dinner – An empath in post trump era !

I think Beatriz at dinner is one of the first films in the post-Trump era, focusing on how an empathetic person feels. We should let people know that it’s ok to be empathetic.
The beauty of watching a movie is by entering into a cinema hall without any burden of liking it or not, as I don’t know much about the filmmaker Miguel Arteta.
Beatriz at dinner, a film I even not heard of yesterday, I was not familiar with the director and writer, the first film of Salma Hayek I ever watched, today, I was mesmerized by watching it.

Check the trailer in link below –

Beatriz at dinner Official Trailer
Without quoting all the beautiful one liners on the internet about this film, In simple language, Beatriz is a story of a Mexican immigrant in California, an immigrant, just like most of the population today are, but she… she is an empath… in a non-empath world. The film follows enigmatic, elegiac Salma Hayek, her journey as a mystic healer from her neglected house bursting with the barks and cheers of animals, to her job at a Santa Monica alternative cancer center, reaching to a dinner night at the County home of a wealthy client, Cathy. (Connie Britton). where she is invited but, not welcomed.

The dinner hosts are Cathy and Grant (Connie Britton, David Warshofsky), whose daughter Beatriz once helped through a bout with cancer. The daughter is now off at university and mom ( Connie Britton ) is now taking massage therapies from Beatriz.
At dinner, another couple in the house is (Chloë Sevigny and Jay Duplass) who are shameless social climbers, make the party slutty, funny and desperate. But it’s not an easy ride.
It’s a subtle, sharp and sublime take on the contemporary times. With pinches of humor, surrealism, and emotions, Beatriz is not a regular American movie.
“Beatriz at Dinner” is written by Mike White. This is Mike and Miguel’s third movie together, after “Chuck & Buck” (2000) and “The Good Girl” (2002), in both of which they refined the art of making an audience jiggle. This smooth, crisp 83-minute dark comedy of different mannerisms, move around characters who do not “belong” at the same gathering. They do not, in fact, appear to belong in the same country. White wrote “Beatriz at Dinner” two years ago, before the establishment of Donald Trump, the current president. The movie, however, feels more like written for the contemporary times. But, it reflects the past too.
It has a satirical approach towards all the contemporary political and social problems whether it’s dying, killing animals, illegal migrations, destroying environment etc.
All the actors perform their part really well.

The way Hayek’s chose to play this character — as a kind of haunted healer — lends itself to some surreal witty moments. Chloë Sevigny and Jay Duplass as a younger, careerist couple bring a fresh and realistic approach to their characters.

John Lithgow, who portrayed a kind of metaphor of President Trump, make the film interesting and witty.

 

John Lithgow on How His Character Differs from Trump in ‘Beatriz at Dinner
Beatriz at Dinner may look like ending abruptly, but its central clash between healers and destroyers maintains its power long after the credits have rolled.
who we are and Why are we here? What difference can we make? These questions that Beatriz takes seriously. And they will resonate with anyone who has ever considered the troubled state of humanity and felt a deep solitude and grief. The movie’s disturbing conclusion is that the world is full of Doug Strutts ( greatly played by John Lithgow ) And as satisfying as it might be to call them to account, they never really go away.

 

• Gursimran Datla

“The Commune” – Love is on decline.

The commune is one of the most important and magnificent film I saw this year. 

Thomas vinterberg’s “The commune” is a humorous yet painful portrayal of dis functional marriage and the pain of living together. 

Set in the mid-1970s and loosely based on the vinterberg’s own experiences, film follows the journey of a couple Erik and Anna (Ulrich Thomsen and a magnificent Trine Dyrholm) who decided to opt for community living as they can’t afford to live in their rambling mansion. 
So now the house full different people with different opinions and inclinations, create comic conflicts and dramatic moments which magnificently used to create much deeper subject based on how as human we react. 

Vinterberg comes from the ‘DOGMA 95’ moment and he efficiently used natural lighting to create the story in authentic way yet also gave us some surreal moments. 

There is Melodrama, contradicts among characters. 

This is the art of Thomas Vinterberg that he takes the viewer so close to the reality of certain relationships. The scenes among Erik and his daughter, between Anna and her daughter, between Erik and Anna are well crafted and intensely shot. 

The loneliness, needs and brokenness of a mid age, married, working wife is brilliantly portrayal by Trine Dyrholm. Dyrholm won Best Actress in Berlin for her performance.

I am a great admirer of her since I saw her in Vinterberg’s previous film on similar idea of get together called “The Celebration”. She is so amazing and bring all the layers to her character. The last time Danish director Thomas Vinterberg stuck a bunch of people under one roof in party spirits, and watched the situation implode, was for 1998’s Festen, the Dogme 95 drama

Similarly, Ulrich Thomsen as Erik, equally competitive against her as a lone husband in search of time and support. He find that support in the arms of Helene Reingaard Neumann, who is also married to Vinterberg. She is the most neutral character in the film and her character is responsible in making this film exceptional and unique.

A special mention for ‘Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen’ for her incredible, haunting and cathartic role as Freja. 

Few subplots in the main story give more drama to feel the meeting scenes around table are good metaphors for us to re consider our ways of opinions and judgments. 

To watch trailer click on the link – 

The Commune official Trailer

. “Love is on decline in the world,” a character says in the end is truely went along with the film filled with mesmerizing moments, brilliant performances and marvellous filmmaking.

– Gursimran Datla 

Szymborska and Me.

To

All,

It’s great to return back to those books, which inspire you in your old times. It’s great to re-open those pages which remind you of certain memories. Human life is made of memories. And we live either to cherish memories or to make some.

At that time, when I was searching blindly for some answers of my being, I found Szymborska. Szymborska’s words hold me, her lyrics hold my breath and calm me down. Her words make me feel the air, the chair, the table, the pillow and the war. At the summer of 46-degree temperature, Szymborska provides my soul, relief. Neither I know her language nor she knows mine but there was something much beyond then words that connects us.

While coming to Toronto from my home country I brought some books with me and Wislawa’s poems were among them. Today almost after a year I turned the pages and found that smell of summer of my home country, that harsh air and that prolonged peace in those pages. I cam smell myself in those pages. ahhhh!

Certainly, this nostalgia is not because I am far away from my home or I am reading good words, but it is because deep down My soul urge to connect with something original, pure, simple and true.

Being displaced from its origin is now the reality of mankind but what is more disastrous is – we are closing the gates of connecting with each other.

I saw a large number of People, who almost completed their half lifetime and still roam in shock, pain and clueless about their lives. Some have no idea and some are ruined by the contemporary conspiracies of war, conflict and civil uprising.

Is man really searching for life on other planets or is he bored from destroying the same one again and again?

Szymborska born in Poland in 1923 and awarded with Nobel Prize in literature in 1966. With Wit and humor, layered with catharsis, she defends individual subjectivity against collect thinking. She is undoubtedly one of the greatest European poets ever lived.

“Cat in an empty Apartment” is one among her most remarkable poem. Some of the lines are –

“Nothing seems different here

But nothing is the same

Nothing has been moved

But there’s more space”.

Now, with a warm cup of coffee, I am reading her another deeply touching and most famous poem is “The End and the beginning” which explore the post-war diaspora. Let me share some lines with you –

“After every war

someone has to tidy up.

Things won’t pick

themselves up, after all….”

…..

 

Another one which is my favorite is and I think which defines my current stage of life is –  “Writing a resume ” –

“What needs to be done?
Fill out the application
and enclose a résumé.

Regardless of the length of life,
a résumé is best kept short.”

Wislawa Szymborska has written no more than 250 poems. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that almost every poem is a masterpiece.

For Szymborska, the war was a formative experience of youth. The attempt to cope with a collapse of reality is the starting point of her poetry and the foundation of her la search for life. This is shown by one of her early untitled poems, which begins with the words: “We used to know the world inside out”. –

We used to know the world inside out:

It was so small that it fitted into two clenched fists,

So easy, that it could be described with a smile,

As ordinary as the echo of old truths in a prayer.

History did not greet us with a victorious fanfare:

It poured dirty sand into our eyes.

Before us, there were roads, distant and blind,

Poisoned wells, bitter bread.

Our war loot was information about the world:

It is so big that it fits into two clenched fists,

So difficult that it can be described with a smile,

As strange as the echo of old truths in a prayer.

Szymborska’s poetry of war and grieving inspires the poetry of the new generation, thinking in accordance with the directives of socialist realism.

 

Her poetry brings me back to my present and gives me enough reasons to feel gratitude towards life. Going through her poems is like going through different time periods of my life, different parts of the world, going inside and re-considering our beliefs.

 

Thank you, Szymborska

 

• Gursimran Datla

Why there are no Bressons, Truffauts, Tarkovaskies and Bergmans anymore ?

 

 

The thought behind this article started last Saturday when one of my filmmaker friends asked me a question, in between the conversation on cinema and contemporary filmmakers.

He asked –

Why there are no great storytellers anymore?

Because there are no great lovers anymore.

I replied.

He looked at me and started thinking about it.

So I came home and note down the points which I think are obstacles in the path between films and filmmakers of the current generation.

Here are a few points I think which are the reasons why we don’t have that kind of remarkable storytellers today –

1 – Today – filmmakers have no opinion.

Today’s filmmakers want to play safe. They need money. so they work diplomatically. They don’t want to hurt anyone. They want to be in good books of everyone. They need funds.

 

They appreciate government and officials, they didn’t resist to their policies, they don’t fight back. Moreover, today’s filmmakers don’t know the reason why they are creating certain stories.

Whereas a storyteller needs to question the contemporary times, environment and society. French filmmaker Jean-Luc-Godard influenced the whole narrative cinema by starting a different wave called french new cinema. He was a true rebel. He thrashed all the technology of so-called studio cinema and invent handheld camera technology. what Godard is to Cinema is what Joyce was to literature and the cubists were to painting. He saw a rule and broke it. Every day, in every movie.

 

 

Here is a great link to case study in Godard Cinema –

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/5-case-studies-of-jean-luc-godards-innovative-filmmaking-techniques/

2 – Today – filmmakers are frightened.

They don’t dare to touch controversial subjects, they get frightened by the particular community, fear of getting banned and caught by police as well as insecurity at the box office. These are the great threats for today’s filmmakers.

They didn’t go all the way to prove their perspective and neither they care about their perspective. And a filmmaker without perspective is a filmmaker wasted. Robert Bresson’s films are a great example of how to use film as a form to narrate your expression to the viewer, without letting them emotionally attached to it. His films are the great example of reflective art.

Here is the link to an essay written by Susan Sontag on the “Spiritual Style in the Films of Robert Bresson” –

http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-bresson.html

 

3 – Today – All they care is – technology

 

Today’s filmmakers spend all their time knowing and updating their anxiety about technology. They have all the information regarding new cameras, tech shows, audio recorders They want to have all the latest equipment but on the other end, they can’t justify their own films, their own film’s shots, and camera movements. They have one reason for that – It looks good.
Beautification and high color grading are killing the essence of cinema.

 

Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman spend all his life on an Island making films, theater plays and reading. He doesn’t have access to drones and goes pros. Believe me, cinema is much simple.

Here is a link to youtube, a beautiful essay exploring the themes of dreams in Bergman’s minimalist movies –

Today – filmmakers are ‘seller’.

today’s filmmakers spend all their energy in writing grants, impressing producers, giving pitches and attending unwanted film workshops. They present their idea as a product and also open space to manipulate it as producer demands. All they want is to sell their stories.

 

They want to make “Beautiful shots”

Color correction and Auto-mode on camera are blessings for filmmakers. Now they capture clean neat beautiful shots with high color grading techniques. Naturally, more than the story you see the production value and camera movements.

people still get awestruck by the eight-minute long take in ‘weekend’ movie directed by Godard. Where as Fellini’s La Strada is an epic example of creating the story in an ill-designed world?

Today – filmmakers make noise not sound.

To make their film rich and costly, they try everything. They want to impress everyone. The filmmaker never makes a film to impress anyone, he challenges society. The film should challenge rich and show solidarity with oppressed people.

Quoting Tarkovsky – “Never try to convey your idea to the audience – it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they’ll find within themselves the means to assess and appreciate it.”
The filmmaker never makes a film to impress anyone, he challenges society. The film should challenge rich and show solidarity with oppressed people.

 

So, I will close this article with some fantastic lines by Andrei Tarkovsky. This quote is an excellent answer to what is cinema, why it is not just a medium of entertainment and why do we go to Cinema.

 

–

ALL ART, OF COURSE, IS INTELLECTUAL, BUT FOR ME, ALL THE ARTS, AND CINEMA EVEN MORE SO, MUST ABOVE ALL BE EMOTIONAL AND ACT UPON THE HEART.

WHY DO PEOPLE GO TO THE CINEMA? WHAT TAKES THEM INTO A DARKENED ROOM WHERE, FOR TWO HOURS, THEY WATCH THE PLAY OF SHADOWS ON A SHEET? THE SEARCH FOR ENTERTAINMENT? THE NEED FOR A KIND OF DRUG? ALL OVER THE WORLD THERE ARE, INDEED, ENTERTAINMENT FIRMS AND ORGANIZATIONS WHICH EXPLOIT CINEMA AND TELEVISION AND SPECTACLES OF MANY OTHER KINDS. OUR STARTING POINT, HOWEVER, SHOULD NOT BE THERE, BUT IN THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF CINEMA, WHICH HAVE TO DO WITH THE HUMAN NEED TO MASTER AND KNOW THE WORLD. I THINK THAT WHAT A PERSON NORMALLY GOES TO THE CINEMA FOR IS TIME: FOR TIME LOST OR SPENT OR NOT YET HAD. HE GOES THERE FOR LIVING EXPERIENCE; FOR CINEMA, LIKE NO OTHER ART, WIDENS, ENHANCES AND CONCENTRATES A PERSON’S EXPERIENCE—AND NOT ONLY ENHANCES IT BUT MAKES IT LONGER, SIGNIFICANTLY LONGER. THAT IS THE POWER OF CINEMA: ‘STARS’, STORY-LINES AND ENTERTAINMENT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

 

• Gursimran Datla