Sean1954 Reviews

One Humanity (2014)

A terrific documentary about how a media event did actually change things

[9/10 · 30 May 2014]

This is a terrific documentary. It examines the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa by focusing on the concert held at Wembley Stadium in June 1988 on the occasion of Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday and as part of the campaign for his release from prison. The concert was broadcast in more than 60 countries with a world-wide audience of more than 600 million. There is footage from the concert (and a follow-up concert in 1990 to celebrate his release), other archive material and more recent interviews with key figures of the time. These are blended to tell the audience what apartheid was about, and how the concerts were instrumental in changing public perceptions outside South Africa and so helping to bring about its demise.

As someone who lived through the period it is fascinating to be reminded of how far 'official' attitudes in Britain have changed since the concert was staged. The campaign to 'Release Nelson Mandela' (the slogan that appeared on posters and T-shirts) was not supported by the British Government – there is a clip of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher referring to Mandela as a 'terrorist'. The right-wing press took the same line. And this reviewer can remember Conservative students launching their own campaign with the slogan 'Hang Nelson Mandela'.

By the time Mandela died he had become a secular saint, and the panegyrics from all quarters – including some of those self-same students become MPs and journalists etc. - make it easy to forget that anyone ever thought anything else.

The film is a healthy corrective to all that – a reminder for those who were there, and an eye-opening lesson for those who were not. See it.

Finding Family (2013)

A powerful yet heart-warming documentary

[9/10 · 29 May 2014]

This is a stunning documentary, based on the film-maker's own experience. Born in Bosnia in Yugoslavia (as it was then) in 1985 Oggi Tomic was diagnosed with water on the brain and not expected to live: his mother left him at a hospital and he grew up in an orphanage in Sarajevo, living through the terrible siege of 1992-6. Twenty years later and now living in Britain, he hears from his family and decides to go back, retracing his steps by visiting the hospital where he was treated and the children's homes where he was brought up, meeting some of the people who looked after him. We just see Oggi talking to various people and giving his thoughts to camera, talking about his life. It's simple, yet enthralling. Then he goes on to meet his family, who are hard-line Serbian nationalists (the very people who were shelling Sarajevo)until finally he meets the mother who gave him up, and there's a sort of happy ending.

Grim in places, but riveting and in a way heart-warming – it's a superb film. Amazing that it was made on such a tiny budget.

Leaving Baghdad (2010)

A riveting film that gives insight into life under Saddam Hussein

[8/10 · 18 March 2013]

At one level this is a road film: we follow Sadiq, a photographer, as he escapes from an Iraq still ruled by Saddam Hussein (the film does not give dates, but appears to be set in the 1990s) trying to get to London, but finding himself stranded in Eastern Europe.

Sadiq, however, is not an ordinary Iraqi, but a supporter of the régime, a member of the Ba'ath Party, and at one time (before the film starts) very close to Saddam himself, personally photographing and filming the dictator. But his privileged existence ends when his son becomes an opponent of the régime and disappears. Sadiq has to go into exile, guilt-ridden and haunted by his collaboration with the dictatorship.

The film is mostly shot with a hand-held camera, and often very close up to Sadiq personally – the viewer is there with him drinking tea or lighting his endless cigarettes. As we see him making increasingly desperate calls asking for money so he can pay to be smuggled to Britain, the camera is almost jammed against his face as if the viewer is squeezed into the phone box with him. This lends a definite documentary feel to the film, and also helps to reduce the contrast with the passages of archive footage of Saddam's Iraq which are interwoven in the film: scenes of pro-Saddam demonstrations in Baghdad, and of Saddam himself, and then, more disturbingly, scenes of prisoners being beaten and executed while we wonder uneasily just how complicit Sadiq has been.

Vision Shorts (2010 TV Movie)

An interesting film about an interesting project

[7/10 · 24 May 2011]

A very interesting film about a project in which some people with mental health problems went on a film-making course and then (with help) made their own short films (which were then screened at a cinema). About a third of the film consists of interviews with the people who arranged it and the participants telling about their experience and how it helped them; the remainder of the film shows two examples of the 10-minute shorts that were produced - presumably the best ones. The stuff about the project is interesting - it was a great experience for those who took part and really helped them, but the shorts themselves are actually far better - a revelation.

One is called 'A Life on the Line' and consists of a series of cuts of people talking on the phone - from which the story emerges. You wouldn't believe that the person who wrote and made this had had no knowledge of film-making at all only a few weeks later.

And the second ('Night Music') is brilliant: an animated film about the mysterious Dr Bird and his adventures in the big city in search of new parts for his old gramophone. Amongst other things he goes to a sailors' dive and a dance hall, buys a soul from the devil and conducts a wedding, before he gets what he wants. The story keeps you interested and there is a great plot twist at the end. Some good jokes and very nice animation and soundtrack.

Night Music (II) (2010)

The mysterious Dr Bird needs to repair his gramophone

[9/10 · 29 April 2011]

An entrancing animated short film. The gramophone of the mysterious and strange Dr Bird stops working and he has to go out (into the seediest parts of the big city at night) to find what he needs (what this is is not clear at first) to make it play again. On the way he goes to a sailors' dive and a dance hall, buys a soul from the devil and conducts a wedding, before he gets what he wants. Very nice animation and soundtrack - all done on a budget of next-to-nothing - only £500 according to the website. The story keeps you interested and there is a great plot twist at the end. Some nice jokes as well - I liked the bottle of 'Sumatran Rat'.

Sezon tumanov (2009)

A thoughtful continental-style film

[7/10 · 26 April 2011]

A thoughtful continental-style film about a Russian woman (and aspiring writer) who has come to Britain with a teenage daughter (the back story is not explained) and now lives in a village in Leicestershire, working as a hairdresser and married to a local man who runs a garage. But despite her apparently settled existence she still feels the pull of the world she left behind – and the tension this creates is the theme of the film. An interesting twist (for a British audience) is how the English countryside (very visible in the film) is treated - a seemingly innocent rural retreat for the would-be novelist from Moscow. The soundtrack is superb – very evocative.