The Pattaya Days Oscar preparations continue with a look at a couple of films nominated in the documentary category, plus one that hasn’t been nominated for an Oscar but is a worthy watch anyway. Five Broken Cameras - Emad Burnat is a Palestinian farmer who bought a video camera in 2005 to record the birth of his son. He then used the camera to record life in and around his village. Illegal land seizure by the Israelis and the building of a security wall which divided the village’s land, became a focal point of protests. Burnat recorded these protests, and continued to do so over a period of five years; using a succession of cameras after Israeli troops destroyed them; once by firing a bullet at Burnat’s head, which luckily hit the camera instead of him. One of Burnat’s friends is not so lucky, killed by troops from the other side of a security fence during a peaceful protest. Burnat himself is harassed, beaten up and imprisoned; for the crime of using a camera on his own land.
Poignantly, we see Burnat’s son growing up in this environment. One the first words he learns is “cartridge” and it seems inevitable that he will grow up to be an angry, frustrated and hate-filled young man; just another small cog in the Israeli/Palestinian mess.
Burnat’s hundreds of hours of film were turned over to Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi, and the result is Five Broken Cameras. Very watchable, but be prepared to be angered. It’s nominated for an Oscar and I hope it wins; if only to recognise Burnat’s incredible bravery in pointing a camera at men with guns for so many years.
Searching for Sugar Man - Here’s a question for you; which of these artists is the least famous in your eyes: Elvis, The Beatles, Rodriguez?
Everywhere in the world you would expect the answer to be “Rodriguez”. Except in South Africa, where Sixto Rodriguez’s songs became anthems to the anti-apartheid movement. Millions of copies of his two albums were sold and he was the most popular artist in the country, but nobody knew who he was. His music had flopped in America and there were rumours that he had killed himself on stage.
*Searching for Sugar Man *documents the search by two South Africans to find out more about Rodriguez, and to discover the truth about his rumoured death. It’s an astonishing story, deftly constructed, and I will admit to being in tears before the end. Oscar nominated and an enjoyable watch.
The Imposter - In 1994, thirteen year old Nicholas Barclay disappeared from his home in Texas. More than three years later he apparently surfaces in Spain. But from the outset, we know that the boy found in Spain is actually a French con-man called Frédéric Bourdin. Bourdin talks to camera and explains how and why he tried to pass himself off as Nicholas, in spite of being much older and looking nothing like him.
For no obvious reason, the family accept him as their son and he lives with them for some time until things start to unravel and darker secrets come to the surface. It’s a revealing look behind the headlines at a dysfunctional family and an outsider they adopt for their purposes. Using a mixture of interviews and reconstruction, the film makers offer a variety of perspectives and opinions. Who are the real victims here? What really happened to Nicholas? Watch, and draw your own conclusions.
Comments 🔗
2013-02-05| Grant saysI thought for a moment you had dropped onto one of my favourite films, but the I saw that the title was not “The Five Broken Cameras” - This monumental odyssey tells the harrowing and desperate story of an elderly gentleman in reduced circumstances whose last remaining possessions of any slight value are not quite half-a-dozen ancient and decaying Russian ‘Kiev’ cameras. As they break, one by one, the film charts his angst-ridden journey down into the pits of anguish and despair until finally,as we knew all along, the last camera breaks and he is unable to repair it, leaving it as a sad and deeply alegorical pile of small cogs. To say more would be to betray the ending which while intended to be powerful and uplifting instead becomes shallow, weak, stupid and annoying. This is entirely due to the towering lack of talent of the writer/producer/director/cinematographer Hugo Darnhard, long exiled from Hollywood for his dangerous beliefs and bizarre personal habits and reduced to working out of a rented room in a slum in Mexico City. Quite an appalling watch, the film never-the-less continues to retain some small currency amongst the weirder outer fringes of the art house set. Not recommended.
2013-02-05| Spike saysHave you ever considered a blog?
2013-02-05| Grant saysNo, I am humble enough to freely admit that I could never aspire to that level of greatness…
2013-02-07| Donovan saysHmmm, the film makers were laying it on a bit thick with the ‘anthem to the anti-apartheid movement’ stuff in Searching for Sugarman. It was the pervasive soundtrack of us liberal middle-class white university students in the ’80s and 90’s, but like most, my protest action was limited to the mildest, safest kind, with the worst threat being the risk of being sprayed with permanent dye.
It was a really poignant personal story though.
2013-02-07| Spike saysI think I speak for all our readers when I sat that your personal treatment of Universal Soldier was an inspirational protest song back in the day.
2013-02-07| Donovan saysTHIS is why I usually lurk online as just d… At least you didn’t bring up Mellow Yellow.