Young people figure prominently in several films screening in this year’s programme, in keeping with the unfortunate reality that they often comprise a segment of the population that is least empowered to be heard or able to defend its own interests. The protagonist of Ramin Bahrani’s moving and expertly-conceived CHOP SHOP is a disarming and memorable addition to world cinema’s iconic child heroes, and through his daily struggle Bahrani reveals a universe unfamiliar to most audiences, resembling not what we typically associate with the US, which is where the film was made, but rather the so-called developing world. Tahani Rached’s excellent documentary, THESE GIRLS, similarly chronicles the harsh experiences of Cairo’s street girls, who try to live life to the hilt despite their pariah status and cultural invisibility. The HIV-infected teenagers abandoned as infants by the state in WE’LL NEVER MEET CHILDHOOD AGAIN are equally impressive, as are the dedicated care-givers who guide viewers on an emotional journey through their lives. And BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME offers an endearingly stubborn and fearless child hero, little Bakhtay, determined at all costs to go to school in war-torn Afghanistan. A clever political allegory, BUDDHA’s main thrust is a humanist one, lamenting the predicament of average Afghanis caught between a rock and a hard place. The tragic fate of one such citizen is documented in the disturbing TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, which begins with the story of a murdered cab driver and turns into an indictment of the Bush administration’s use of torture. Also tackling grim subject matter is Oswalde Lewat-Hallade’s accomplished A LOVE DURING THE WAR, which examines the effects of widespread use of rape by militias in the Congo, but also tells an incredible story of love lost and found despite daunting odds. Lastly, EL EJIDO, THE LAW OF PROFIT, introduces us to some of the 80,000 Moroccan immigrants living in Spain; denied basic rights, struggling to subsist, but helping to produce Europe’s fresh fruit, they try to cling to the hope that their plight will be addressed -a prospect that would require challenging the fundamental laws of profit.
- George Kaltsounakis
Each screening in
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