The shadow of the Holy Book (III)

The documentary film Shadow of the Holy Book reveals the secretive and repressive dictatorship of Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s head of state from 1985 to 2006, and the Western companies who did business with him.

Listen to  the discussion about the film held at the OSI office New York in February.

Head Wind

The Iranian documentary Head Wind about satellite television and internet access was shown at the Amnesty filmfestival Movies That Matter. Despite the fact free access is difficult – though not impossible – Head Wind is a lively film with lots of humour.

Interesting to do the Q&A with Kamran Ashtary.

IFFR

For me the International Filmfestival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2009 was:

The Hungry Ghosts (NYC): entertaining citystories

Blind Pig who wants to fly (Indonesia): surrealistic, wonderful disorientating, puzzeling visual poetry. Quote:  ‘Schiet met je boog, maar niet in mijn oog. Want mijn oog is voor iedereen, en mijn hart alleen voor jou.’ I just called to say I love you by Stevie Wonder will never sound innocent again.

Also see Dana Linssen’s excellent review about this weird film.

The Fixer, The taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (VS): not one second of fiction, a great journalistic documentary. ‘ Truth is much stranger than fiction’ (Mark Twain)

Jalainur (China): nice scenery of Mongolia, lots of snow and steaming trains, still do not have a clue what the story was about

Native Dancer (Kazakhstan): magical film about some crooks (petrol dollar gangsters) and a healer. The story is based on an real character who lives about seven kilometres outside Almaty. An intense story, with a heart breaking ending: neither happy, nor sad. Director Gulshat Omarova witnessed several rituals (seldom without blood) and told in the Q&A she sincerely believes in the power of this witchcraft. Currently Omarova lives in Rotterdam: ‘a great city to write scenarios’ and she travels to Kazakhstan three, four times a year. In 2006 she was asistant director of The Mongul.

IDFA after talk

My favourites for the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) are this year:

Burma VJ; winner of the Joris Ivens Award and the ‘Movies That Matter’ Human Rights Award and also my number one.

Afghan Star; how about the tv programme Idols in Afghanistan? A film  about national roadshow in search of Afghanistan next big star.

When Carmen meets Borat; Carmen is 17 years old and lives in Glod; a small gypsy village somewhere in the Romanian mountains. She works daily in the shop and pub of her father. But Carmen dreams of a future somewhere else; somewhere she can find her ideal husband and lead a fantastic and rich life. She watches Spanish soap operas on TV and learns Spanish. When a man named Borat and his film crew appear; the villagers cooperate on what they believe will be a documentary.

Rough Aunties; “Fearless, feisty and resolute, the ‘Rough Aunties’ are a remarkable group of women unwavering in their stand to protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa.”

The Queen and I;  ‘Whereas during the Iranian Revolution in the late seventies the leftist documentary-maker Nahid Persson helped depose the shah the Iranian king. In reaction to these reprimands, Nahid decides to make a film about the last Iranian queen Farah, who lives abroad, like herself. This leads to a fascinating encounter of two women with clashing political visions, who develop an improbable friendship in the two years of their association’

Waltz with Bashir

Last night we viewed this animation documentary in Rialto, a cosy and pleasant cinema in our neighbourhood. I can be short: Waltz with Bashir is impressive. The combination of documentary and animation is a very effective way to visualize personal experiences, in this case in war situations. The film is situated in Libanon. Although it shows more about Israel and its country’s politics in the 80’s.

Walz with Bahir tells the story through the eyes of young soldiers.  A former army friend tells Ari Folman about his recurrent nightmare in which he again is a soldier in the Israeli army.  They were both 19 years when they witnessed a mass killing in the Libanese refugee camps Sabra and Shatila in Beirut.  In a combination of comics and videogames the films shows the madness and confusion of the war. When you are in the opportunity; go and see this film. Other people will have to do with the beautiful website: Waltz with Bashir.