Turtles Can Fly tells the sad story of Kurdish refugees through the fall of Saddam Hussein and leading up to the American invasion of Iraq. Despite its focus on such a tense political issue, the film makes no attempt to form any solid opinion of either supporting or opposing the war. Instead we are drawn into the precarious lives of children refugees led by a boy they call Satellite as they face the hardships and daily struggles of life.
The cinematography perfectly captures the bleak and dying landscape of a small village located along the Iraqi-Turkish border. This atmosphere, which is maintained throughout the entirety of the film, serves to highlight the similarly tragic lives of the refugees. Left with no place to call their homeland, the Kurdish people lived repressed and hard lives under the regime of Saddam. Yet with the fall of Saddam, they are neither content nor discontented. They seem dispirited - as if nothing could change the hardships they've faced. News of the American invasion does not bring them hope. Even the children have learned that daily they must struggle to survive.
We see all these terrors faced by the refugees through the lives of children. This ironic spin in casting makes this movies unique and flawlessly portrays the struggles of these people. Seeing all of this suffereing through the once innocent eyes of the chilrdren makes the situation even harder to face and at the same time more tangible and real. In the end, we see American soldiers running past Sattelite and his friend, not sparing a glance. But that has been the story of the Kurds: always disregarded and without any land to call their own.
Romania has been known for dark and somber themes in its cinema, and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is no different. The film centers around the sickly, old Mr. Lazarescu and his trip through the Romanian medical system. This film concentrates more on those around him rather than his own story though. He acts more as a centerpiece, linking different ideas together. By doing this, one is able to see the disorganization of the medical system in Romania, thus showing the economic climate of the region.
The film has some very intriguing elements that do seem to bring out many ideas. First, early on in the film there is a scene where he is waiting in the hall of his building for one of his neighbors to bring him some medicine. The light in this hallway is controlled by a timer, and his neighbor has to turn it back on every minute or so. This happens several times creating an annoyance for the viewer. This use of misc-en-scene gives him or her a small taste of what living in that situation would be like.
In a parallel to the story that is being told by the movie there has been a fatal bus crash in nearby. Throughout the entire film this is referenced through the doctors and through newscasts on television. This paints a picture of the harsh, depressing reality that is Romania.
The hospitals he visits are each different, with the attitudes of the doctors being the focus of the scenes. Mr. Lazarescu, as a patient is refused treatment early on because he simply has alcohol on his breath. This provincial mindset is definitely intended to be the focal point of the scene. The film is trying to convey the problems with Romanian society and how it fails to keep pace with global attitudes. On the other hand, by making this statement, the film itself does just the opposite and does gain a more global perspective.
Chan-wook Park’s film Joint Security Area centers around two North Korean and two South Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone separating the two countries. Through a strange order of events the four create a forbid bond of friendship. A sickening twist threatens to unravel everything in a matter of seconds It becomes quite clear that nationalism is the driving for the majority of the events in the film. The scene of the stone line along the 38th parallel is shown repetitively in order to stress the division between the two nations, as well as the national pride each soldier has for their given country. Just imagine looking at someone day after day but never being able to say a word to them. The film appears to take several aspects of American film and blend it together with a Korean style. Throughout the film there are numerous action scenes with gunfights and explosions suggesting influence from the States. Park incorporates Korean styles throughout the film as well, simpler plot to how the story was told in a non-linear fashion. Globalization of the Korean society can also be seen within the film when the South Korean soldiers talk about delicious desserts and fancy gadgets they have been imported from America. The use of color stood out the most to me while viewing this film. Initialing each side, the North and the South, was dressed in drastically different colors, yet as the film progresses this idea changes until reaching the climax of the plot. Joint Security Area blends an emotional story of four soldiers with action and gun explosions in order to create a high quality Korean movie, while stressing the idea that the two sides must come together and find some form of peace.
Set in Buenos Aires, Argentina, “Nine Queens” is the tale of Juan, the good-hearted protagonist who joins forces with Marcos, a purportedly more experienced conman who steals shamelessly and swindles even those scammers who work alongside him. The team undergoes a series of ordeals, only to lose hundreds of thousands of pesos to a worthless check after selling valuable stamps to a powerful man with money to spare. In the end, however, it is revealed that the real trick is on Marcos, as, with Juan’s help, all the people he has betrayed in the past and throughout the course of the movie turn out to be working against Marcos in a seamless and successful plan to take the spoils for themselves. This film has a particularly national stamp in that the plot and the way in which Marcos’s and Juan’s characters contrast each other highlights the underlying element of a lack of trust; this lack of trust, in turn, reflects an Argentinean society with a hidden corruption. Elements such as contrasting characterization and economic troubles convey this sense of insecurity.
In a crucial scene of the film, Marcos attempts to cash a check for a large windfall only to find that there is a run on the bank. Such a display of chaos is unfamiliar to an American audience and would be unrealistic in a Hollywood film set in America, a country that has not experienced such a sign of instability in many decades. However, the scene is reasonable enough to make the movie still appear realistic, which is a sign that marks the film as Argentina’s own. Such instability is portrayed as being relatively normal there, which shows a film audience and larger society in the nation that is used to a lack of trust in the financial system.
The lack of trust is also shown in the juxtaposition of the characters of Marcos and Juan. Marcos’s shameless conning shows that he represents the corruption that some people perceive to be running rampant in Argentinean society. Juan’s reluctance to steal from the misfortunate shows that he represents the caring common man. When they first meet and Marcos offers Juan a partnership for the day, the view rotates around them, showing close-ups of both faces. The way in which the view is framed is reminiscent of scenes in which two enemies meet and prepare for battle. This use of the framing alerts viewers that the two will be pitted against each other despite their apparent unity, just as the common man is pitted against the corrupted in an apparently united country. Throughout the film, Juan periodically questions Marcos’s intentions and acts worried that Marcos will trick him and take all the money for himself. This represents the common man’s lack of trust in society as corruption looms. The two also represent a clash between tradition and modern decline. Juan is portrayed as a family man concerned for his father, while Marcos represents the erosion of family values, as he has stolen inheritance money from his siblings.
The Argentinean social trend of a lack of trust in society is evident through the scam genre of the film itself, the characterization, and the economic background of the country. A general unease is portrayed as being commonplace in the country. The movie ends on a positive note, however, as the victims take matters into their own hands and deal justice to the corrupt. It remains to be seen, however, whether this is just an appeal to the audience, satisfying their wish for power to be given to the common man, or if it is reasonable to expect justice to be brought to the corrupt society.
