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Reviews
The Danish Girl (2015)
Chapeau!
The Danish Girl is masterful. I had not read the synopsis or any review of the film, so coming into it without background, I found it transporting. For me it was not a transgender question or a social stigma question, so it did not provoke in me a moral righteous reaction to how the subject was handled whether lightly or accurately or offensively to those who have different expectations. For me, the story is an intimate undramatised personal experience of a couple living a threatening and natural transformation. And the actors deliver flawlessly the maturity and honesty and will to find a form that is viable to their continuity. It is an example of how a couple undergoing critical challenges can hold itself by the qualities of real love, of adaptability and a surmounting commitment of being oneself. The film manages to impress on me the behavior of the two towards themselves and with each other, where they could have otherwise easily turned one against the other. This is a story of respect, of sensitizing with the soul, of riveting in nature. Produced with an aesthetic and at a pace that stirs a desire and pleasure in being.
Kis Uykusu (2014)
Real(socio)politik
Anatolian landscape dramatic in beauty and hardness, locks people in a certain dynamic which is hyper cognitive, hyper existential, and imminently resentful. Characterised by the dominance of its scale over the scarcity of people, yet each character present on screen consumes it to an almost suffocating fullness. Real, articulate, overbearing. The conversations start very well behaved, sincere and forthcoming with the ease of the mature, and turn into the inescapable deadlock which the place imposes. A merciless incompatibility of human relations in despair from their interdependence. No where to go, nothing to resolve, a clear realization of this situation resigns each to his chamber, on a bed, a couch, a writing desk, staging ideas or vocations to cover underlying personal crises. Whoever seeks solace only aggravates his situation further because in a place like this hypocrisy does not live.
Alam laysa lana (2012)
Documentary of generations in Ein El Helweh, Lebanon.
Talented director. He is clearly ambient with the people, evident from their ease with his filming them, receiving him (his lens) with open and kind willingness. The characters themselves are strikingly charismatic. The interception of political historical events is very balanced, and almost embedded in the storyline, as if without notice. Subjects of discussion come in conversation instead of interview, which feel so pertaining, genuine, reflective and timely. It is neither romantic nor melodramatic, also not propagandist nor neutral, perhaps a most real form of documentary. There's almost an absence of mise-en-scène, though the sets are highly cinematic and effective. The open confidence in the storytelling had me weary for privacy, especially the earlier footage had it not been intended for a film, I felt it intrusive to find its way to the public screen. The documentary made me reflect more on the production, the personalities, than the actual Palestinian tragedy. Beyond and above the misery, was a reality that somehow could be seen as universal. A universal meaning: a man is and remains what he is, irrespective of where he is. Ayn El Helwe, Danmark, Athens, change the setting, the man is very much himself, like a condition overriding context. Another very marking element in the film is the distinct presence of humor and kindness in a life devoid of elements for humor. Also symbolic is that the thinking of a man is what makes him. The man who appears to survive his generation with his unshaken foundational faith - in return, for example. Another who appears to maintain an unfaltering cool has his plan - to leave. Mahdi Fleifel excelled at narration and editing footage, and engaging key characters to relate his story and history.