Film: A Small Act Release date: 15th April 2011 Certificate: TBC Running time: 88 mins Director: Jennifer Arnold Starring: N/a Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: USA
This is a multiple, including English, language release.
A small act of kindness can ripple throughout the world. That is the guiding idea behind this documentary, directed by independent filmmaker Jennifer Arnold, which follows the incredible story of Chris Mburu.
Chris Mburu is a Human Rights lawyer who works for the United Nations and is a Harvard graduate. However, his journey to this point was not straightforward; he was born into poverty in a small Kenyan village and, as he explains at the start of the film, his parents did not have enough money to send him to secondary school, despite him being the brightest student in his class. He would probably still be living in that same village, uneducated, were it not for Hilde Back. Hilde sponsored Chris as part of a Swedish sponsorship system, enabling Chris to get through secondary school and continue onto the University of Nairobi and Harvard.
Chris is now in a position to help others, and decides to set up a similar system to sponsor children from his village so that they can have the same opportunities he did. Although he knows nothing about Hilde Back apart from her name, and that she was a Swedish teacher, he creates the foundation in her name. Doing this motivates Chris to try and find Hilde if he can, to say thank you. When he finally meets her, he realises that there is a lot more to this quiet, retired teacher than meets the eye, and an extraordinary bond develops between them.
Back in the Kenyan village where Chris grew up, there are three children, all desperate for the scholarship which will change their lives. However, as violence breaks out in the country following the elections, it demonstrates starkly that without education, it is not just the fate of the individual children which is at stake, but that of an entire nation…
This documentary is deceptively simple, given the scope of what it portrays – several countries, many individual lives, different times and generations – yet Arnold weaves them all seamlessly into one coherent story. What is perhaps even more astonishing is that while she is clearly a talented filmmaker, she did not invent any of this; she found an incredible true story which spans the globe whilst being personal. It does take a little time for the film to get going, as the viewer is introduced to the different settings - Sweden, Kenya and Switzerland - but that groundwork soon pays off, and you cannot help but be drawn into this powerful tale of humanity.
Chris Mburu is the cornerstone of this film; he is the link which holds the other stories together, and there is something very poetic about the way the search for his benefactor takes place as he fulfils the same role for other children, who he hopes will go on to do the same so that the one small act grows and grows.
Kimani, Ruth and Caroline, the three children we are introduced to, are warm and engaging, with drive and determination to do well. They are under no illusions about how important the scholarship is, not just for them but for their whole families - they feel that the responsibility for providing their loved ones with a better life rests on their shoulders.
On the other side of the world, Hilde Back represents all that this film is about. She is an ordinary yet extraordinary lady, a retired schoolteacher, a German-Jewish refugee, a woman of 85 who is still full of spirit and vigour. She has seen humanity’s power to do both good and evil. She is not sentimental and takes everything in her stride, including a trip to Kenya, but is truly amazed when Chris finds her and ends up forging a strong relationship with him. Her uncomplicated words of wisdom provide much of the narration in the film.
The less obvious hero in this story is Chris’s cousin, Jane Wanjiru. She too had a Swedish benefactor, and she followed Chris to Nairobi, Harvard and the United Nations, where she works as a lawyer, specialising in refugee crises. She is on the board of the scholarship foundation, where she not only argues to get children accepted who have not made the required grade, but is also the voice for women’s rights, proposing that there should be an equal number of boys and girls on the programme. She knows all too well what a lack of education means for women in that situation, and is determined that the girls should also have the opportunity of a good education.
What makes this documentary special is the fact that, above all, it has a positive message. It does not shy away from harsh realities, or portray the situation in a falsely optimistic way, but it is ultimately uplifting. In an increasingly cynical and pessimistic world, where the individual can often feel that nothing they do will make the slightest bit of difference, this film offers a message of hope. Hilde Back did not know for years what happened to the child she sponsored in faraway Kenya, she had no idea that her small donation had created so much good.
At an hour-and-a-half, the film does not labour its points, and the viewer never feels like it is preaching; it is simply telling a story and showing the exponential ripple effect that a small act can have. While it does tie up enough loose ends to give it a satisfying conclusion, it is a real-life documentary; these people’s lives are still continuing and that is also clear. In this way, it creates a very interactive experience with the audience. There is never any kind of appeal for money, but you cannot fail to be moved by the story and frustrated that more children cannot be helped. This explains why so many people have donated money to the Hilde Back Education Fund after seeing this film. The story is not yet finished, and it offers the chance for everyone to be a part of it.
An inspiring and powerful documentary which empowers the viewer to make a difference. A Small Act really can change the world. KS
Film: Son Of Babylon Release date: 11th April 2011 Certificate: 12 Running time: 90 mins Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji Starring: Shazada Hussein, Yasser Talib Genre: Drama Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: Iraq/UK/France/Netherlands/United Arab Emirates/Egypt/Palestine
Already half forgotten from the world’s mind as other atrocities, tyrannies, wars and disasters play on, Son Of Babylon is released in the UK eight years from the fall of Saddam Hussein and the extent of his legacy revealed. However, instead of the temptation to deliver a political/historical commentary, Al Daradji presents a very emotional exploit embarked upon by a grandmother and her grandson. Three weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Um-Ibrahim (Shehzad Hussen) sets out with her grandson, Ahmed (Yassir Taleeb), from northern Iraq in search of Ibrahim, respective son and father.
The film opens on a hot, windy desert as the two travellers follow a seemingly endless road to nowhere. Just as young Ahmed throws a tantrum and threatens to turn back for home, a truck comes along with a somewhat belligerent driver who agrees to take them to Baghdad for a large sum of money.
When they get there, the truck driver’s empathy for the two makes him return all the money and the recurrent theme of the kindness of strangers established. While they wait for a bus, Um-Ibrahim makes Ahmed read a letter from someone in the army which says how, after saving this man’s life, Ibrahim got sent to Nasiriyah prison. After a bus ride to Nasiriyah, they manage to find the prison, but find that Ibrahim is not on any of the lists. They are told to start searching the mass graves currently being uncovered in the desert.
Along the way, they meet a man called Musa (Bashir al-Majid), who turns out to be an ex member of Saddam’s Republican Guard, and who was forced to murder men, women and children while in service. After initial rejection from Um-Ibrahim, and out of guilt and good will, Musa helps grandmother and grandson search for Ibrahim’s body, but to no avail, and the two are left to endlessly search the sandy graves in the hope of discovering something that remains of Ibrahim…
By all accounts, the storyline is a bit thin. While there are western films and TV dramas galore which revel in middle-eastern political coups, desert warfare, army conflict and its effects in the West, when it comes to a film made in Iraq about the Iraqi people and by an Iraqi Dutch filmmaker, a story about an old lady and her young grandson is perhaps one of the last things to be expected. But Al Daradji succeeds in making a poignant account of what the years of oppressive dictatorship rule did to a whole people - more than one million of whom went missing or died, ending up in the astounding number of 300 mass graves.
In Son Of Babylon, religious and political animosity are pushed to the background in the name of tender humanity displayed by nearly every stranger across the races - Kurdish and Arab - and enforced none so much as in the scene where Um-Ibrahim forgives Musa. In fact, it comes as a surprise to learn that the two lead actors of the film are amateurs, unlikely to have ever even seen a film before. They nevertheless manage to incur raw and honest presentations of human experience, perhaps due to the actors’ own experiences during those times of suffering – authenticity certainly pays off in their performances.
The film is almost purely elemental in its representations of hope and death, something which is mirrored in the cinematography. It is as if the film could be set in the land of limbo; nothing is static, the people are always moving, and the buildings are never complete. It is such a land that Al Daradji films, where the surroundings echo the emptiness of its people who are always on a journey, searching for lost ones.
The use of subtle metaphor is a nifty technique when approaching sensitive subject matter, adding a poetic and philosophical slant on what could otherwise be quite brazen material. For instance, the only time Ahmed comes close to finding his father is when he drives past the gate to the gardens of Babylon - a little bit of heaven in the desolate, windy planes of the dusty desert saturated in skeletal remains.
By using the sensitive relationship of Um-Ibrahim and Ahmed, an audience can be drawn in to the film material emotionally and at least witness some of the pain endured by innocent Iraqi people. It is unclear if the film is trying to send a message. However, it is a recount of something which must not be forgotten as a part of Iraqi history (something supported by the Iraqi Prime Minister himself in a DVD extra).
This film isn't a film for everyone. It hankers after the sympathetic conscience in all of us and succeeds with flying colours. One message of sorts Son Of Babylon sends out in to the world is how resounding and reflective national cinema can be. It is a simple film, but manages to illustrate the hardships endured by those left behind so effectively that it makes one wonder of how much suffering came to happen in the first place. MI
A journey through Iraq, a troubled land where no-one knows what lies ahead. On hearing the news that prisoners of war have been found alive in the South, curious young boy Ahmed (Yassir Talib) and his obstinate grandmother embark set out to uncover the fate of the boy's missing father, one of the many soldiers who never came home.
From the mountains of Kurdistan to the sands of Babylon, the pair hitch rides with strangers and cross paths with fellow pilgrims on an all too similar quest. As a grandmother struggles to accept an awful truth, Ahmed retraces the footsteps of a father he never knew. This is a journey that will not only connect them to the past, but will determine their lives forever.
Film: Son Of Babylon Release date: 11th April 2011 Certificate: 12 Running time: 90 mins Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji Starring: Shazada Hussein, Yasser Talib Genre: Drama Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: Iraq/UK/France/Netherlands/United Arab Emirates/Egypt/Palestine
DVD Special Features:
• Trailer
• Behind the scenes footage
• Baghdad screening
• Featurette
• Berlin screening featurette
• Iraq’s missing campaign
• Trailer
Film: Into Eternity Release date: 17th January 2011 Certificate: E Running time: 75 mins Director: Michael Madsen Starring: Timo Äikäs, Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm, Mikael Jensen, Berit Lundqvist, Wendla Paile Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: Denmark/Finland/Sweden/Italy
This is an English-Language release.
Nuclear menace is a topos of 20th century cinema. Catalyst of mutation and apocalypse, the spectre of the mushroom cloud haunts the 1950s b-movie, and emanates far beyond. The initial symptoms were metaphorical, fantastically inflamed. Bugs blew up, men miniaturised, THEY attacked, and galactic visitors delivered sonorous warnings against proliferation. As weapon and technology, the movies enjoy a duplicitous love affair with the nuke; simultaneously fetishising the gleaming accruements of science, whilst despairing their malign fallout. Dwelling on that horrific what if, later productions such as The War Game, Failsafe and The China Syndrome abandoned metaphor, depicting atomic menace in explicit, realist contexts that made the nightmare ever more palpable. Michael Madsen’s provocative new documentary is a potent addition to this cautionary canon.
With fairytale portent, Michael Madsen’s flat voiceover reproaches the trespass of the camera. Deep beneath a frozen forest lays a long, dark tunnel: an illicit realm. “You are now in a place where we have buried something to protect you,” he intones. Unheeding, the curious camera eye presses deeper and deeper into the mysterious recess. Another warning. “You should not have come here.” Too late. We have strayed into to the Onkalo; or ‘hiding place’. A vast bunker corkscrewing into the frigid wilds, the facility is to be the final resting place for Finland’s radioactive junk. Scheduled for completion next century, this 4.2 km long cement intestine will envelop the poison until safe – a mere 100,000 years hence. Madsen explores the implications of this potentially lethal bequest, a lethal time capsule future generations may unknowingly inherit. Interviewing the plan’s architects, it becomes clear that art and myth – rather than science – may be the project’s final sentinels.
Wary audiences may fear this sombre topic proffers the entertainment value of watching uranium deplete. But Madsen’s elegant cinematography renders this an understated, chilly mood piece. Much of the film’s weight is derived from its interviewees, but talking heads comprise only part of a sensuous, imaginative narrative…
Unusually, the scenario Into Eternity presents is one of safety last. Forgoing the clichés of sweaty meltdown scenarios and rogue missiles, Madsen skips to the end of the cycle, and the less visceral, enduring hazard posed by nuclear waste. Eschewing titillating alarmism, the film offers an atmospheric mediation on the consequences of Europe’s power dependency. Billed as “a film for the future,” this grim science faction documents what may be mankind’s ultimate legacy – and, ironically, his most fatal folly.
Rhapsodising bone-white control rooms, mercurial pools and gleaming laboratories, interiors assume a nostalgic, futurist glamour. Peopled by uniformly lab-coated technicians, this flattering montage evokes utopian documentaries of the 1950s, which promised limitless, clean energy. Enthralled by electrified grace, the lens accompanies apparatus as it glides across the polished surfaces of the plant, a silvered cathedral of physics. Kraftwerk’s ambivalent techno hymn, Radioactivity, ebbs from the soundtrack in fittingly ethereal accompaniment. It’s an eerily idyllic vision that subtly decays. Slo-mo camerawork finally estranges the white coated boffins from their creation, rendering them mere ghosts eclipsed by an awesome machine.
Contrasted with this stainless steel utopia is the deserted landscape above the pit. Icy stillness – disturbed only by a grazing reindeer – provides an intense, almost surreal counterpoint. Madsen refers to “forbidden zones” in his voiceover – a reference to Tarkovsky’s Stalker. With a lyricism reminiscent of that work, the wilderness occupies an uncanny role here, hinting at nature’s timelessness – and mankind’s ephemerality.
Beneath ground, the film sensuously explores the interplay of light and darkness, arranging a chiaroscuro of gloom and incandescence. Though corporate video graphics pixellate it into a lurid spiral – something like a Hot-Wheels racetrack – Madsen mines a wealth of visual riches from the forbidding caverns. Worshipfully lingering over imposing drilling gear, the camera virtually caresses the coarse texture of the tunnels, equally captivated by the rock itself. Like the wan scientists and vacant forest, this sooty Hades emphasises human vulnerability, posing workmen against enfolding darkness in a series of stark tableaux. This stylish dialectic is particularly apt, since it embodies another fundamental, and indeed mythic theme at work here – ignorance versus enlightenment.
Madsen’s documentary proves unusually resonant, as his investigations gradually evolve along unexpectedly profound tangents. Rather than assume a purist ‘green’ position, his free-wheeling inquisition also poses head-scratching philosophical questions. Though considered a ‘final solution’, his exposition observes that, for humankind, the 100,000 year lifespan of the Onkalo is an unintelligible duration. We have no way of comprehending how our culture – if it exists – will interpret the site. Comparable in grandeur to a Pharoah’s tomb, could it ultimately be excavated, or regarded as an ancient monument? Whilst the project’s designers seek to preserve its integrity for aeons, might their ‘infallible’ security be breached? A lethal Pandora’s Box, this nuclear graveyard may prove an irresistible lure to inquisitive humans who threaten its sanctity. This is implicit in the design of the film itself – since its initial lines seem addressed to some future intruder.
Invoking the legend of Prometheus, Madsen considers nuclear energy as a dangerous knowledge which imperils those who seize it. Damned by their boundless curiosity, our scientists now seek to deny others their awareness. Ironically, the paternal duty of these learned men is to bestow ignorance on future generations; maintenance of a benign obliviousness: “to remember forever to forget.” The architects face a bleak choice – to ritually mark the pit, erecting obelisks and menacing art as warning signals – or, fearing this would entice, to erase it from history altogether. Perhaps, they muse, the Onkalo might yet endure through folk tales – translated into a fearful cultural memory. The film (and mankind) seems to have travelled full circle: from myth, to science – and back again.
Prying deep, Madsen excavates – and eviscerates – the premises of the Onkalo. Leaving his interviewees with adequate rope to lynch themselves, it gradually becomes clear that, as one scientist announces, “Nobody knows anything at all.”
Mythic allusions detract from the film’s urgency, but elevate it to a grim parable. Offering no resolution, this provocative documentary shatters expedient ‘logic’. Primed with a rhetorical warhead, its grim analysis inflicts an unnerving critique. Regrettably, with a best-before date of 102011, this is one film unlikely to lose its relevance as quickly as one would like. DJO
This is an English-language release.
The film traces the rise of one of the world’s premier architects, Norman Foster, and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design.
Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of emblematic projects, such as the largest building in the world Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst Building in New York, and works such as the tallest bridge ever in Millau France.
In the very near future, the majority of mankind will abandon the countryside and live entirely in cities. Foster offers some striking solutions to the problems that this historic event will create.
Film: How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? Release date: 7th March 2011 Certificate: E Running time: 78 mins Director: Carlos Carcas & Norberto López Amado Starring: Norman Foster, Deyan Sudjic Genre: Documentary/Biography Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: UK/Spain/Germany/USA/Switzerland/France/China/Hong Kong
This is an English-language release.
Ever wonder where America gets most of its oil? If you thought it was Saudi Arabia or Iraq you are wrong. America’s biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canada’s oil sands. Located under Alberta’s pristine boreal forests, the process of oil sands extraction uses up to four barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil.
It goes without saying that water — its depletion, exploitation, privatisation and contamination — has become the most important issue to face humanity in this century. At the same time, the war for oil is well underway across the globe. A struggle is increasingly being fought between water and oil, not only over them.
H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion. Unlikely alliances are built and lives are changed as they come up against the largest industrial project in human history.
Ultimately we ask: what is more important, oil or water? And what will be our response? With hope and courage, H2Oil tells the story of one of the most significant, and destructive projects of our time.
Film: H2Oil Release date: 14th February 2011 Certificate: E Running time: 76 mins Director: Shannon Walsh Starring: Alan Adam, Cathy Gratz, Aaron Mathers, Dr. John O'Connor, George Poitras Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: Canada
DVD Special Features:
• Trailer
• Additional scenes
• Extended interviews
• Image gallery
A haunting, unforgettable journey across the breathtaking Middle Eastern landscape, Son Of Babylon is the second feature from Mohamed Al-Daradji following his impressive debut Ahlaam in 2007.
Northern Iraq 2003. Saddam Hussein has fallen. A journey through Iraq, a troubled land where no one knows what lies ahead.
On hearing the news that prisoners of war have been found alive in the South, curious young boy Ahmed (Yassir Talib) and his obstinate grandmother set out to uncover the fate of the boy's missing father, one of the many soldiers who never came home.
From the mountains of Kurdistan to the sands of Babylon, the pair hitch rides with strangers and cross paths with fellow pilgrims on an all too similar quest. As the grandmother struggles to accept an awful truth, Ahmed retraces the footsteps of a father he never knew. This is a journey that will not only connect them to the past, but will determine their lives forever.
A powerful and urgent new voice in Iraqi filmmaking, Al-Daradji was recently names as Filmmaker of the year by Variety.
Film: Son Of Babylon Release date: 11th February 2011 Certificate: TBC Running time: 90 mins Director: Mohamed Al-Daradji Starring: Shazada Hussein, Yasser Talib Genre: Drama Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: Iraq/UK/France/Netherlands/United Arab Emirates/Egypt/Palestine
English-language release. Check out the trailer below for How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?, which is released in cinemas on 28th January 2011.
More information on this film can be found by clicking here.
The film traces the rise of one of the world’s premier architects, Norman Foster, and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design.
Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of emblematic projects, such as the largest building in the world Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst Building in New York, and works such as the tallest bridge ever in Millau France.
In the very near future, the majority of mankind will abandon the countryside and live entirely in cities. Foster offers some striking solutions to the problems that this historic event will create.
Film: How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? Release date: 28th January 2011 Certificate: 12A Running time: 78 mins Director: Carlos Carcas & Norberto López Amado Starring: Norman Foster, Deyan Sudjic Genre: Documentary/Biography Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: UK/Spain/Germany/USA/Switzerland/France/China/Hong Kong
Film: Into Eternity Release date: 17th January 2011 Certificate: E Running time: 75 mins Director: Michael Madsen Starring: Timo Äikäs, Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm, Mikael Jensen, Berit Lundqvist, Wendla Paile Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: Denmark/Finland/Sweden/Italy
This is an English-language release.
The human race’s dabblings with nuclear power have been producing a hazardous by-product which for decades we’ve all been blissfully sweeping under the carpet. It’s time to start facing up to the problem that sadly, nuclear waste will not go away - not for a long, long time. With his new film, Into Eternity, Michael Madsen (not he of Reservoir Dogs fame, but a Danish filmmaker and conceptual artist), examines the world’s first permanent solution currently under construction beneath the surface of Finland.
The current answer to dealing with the nuclear waste problem is to store it in vast tanks of water which, to some extent, control the radioactivity, but this is a temporary solution which will only be effective for only ten years or so. In Finland, 500 metres below the surface, engineers are building a vast underground tomb where the waste can be buried, and – independent of human maintenance – sealed away until it becomes safe.
Scientists predict that by the known rate of radioactive depletion, that will take 100,000 years - it is an incomprehensible legacy we have bequeathed to the world. This underground tomb is named Onkalo, which is Finnish for ‘hiding place’.
Through Into Eternity, Michael Madsen directly addresses the future inhabitants of our planet, some 100,000 years into the future, explaining the circumstances under which this deadly package has come to be there, warning of the terrible dangers that lurk beneath the Finnish soil, and to never, ever, disturb what lies there…
Into Eternity is a documentary, and an environmental documentary at that. It may not sound like the most enthralling topic for a ninety-minute feature, but somehow, Madsen has made a monster movie of it. Through his direction, the toxic waste becomes a beast, lurking unseen below the earth waiting to be disturbed, and absolutely deadly. We feel its presence constantly throughout the film, and in this Into Eternity is a film about fear. Madsen’s final scene is a brilliant homage to King Kong, as the monster is unchained, un-caged, and through wreaths of ethereal smoke we are invited to finally face it.
The photography is truly breathtaking. Through Madsen’s lens, the strange rocky underground lair becomes lunar and terrifying, and the smooth lines of the machinery and vast water pods become alien and threatening. Madsen has sited Ridley Scott’s Alien as an influence, and it is apparent in Into Eternity’s treatment of space, and the slow beauty of the eerie and somewhat menacing machinery.
It is to Madsen’s great credit that a film which could so easily have been ninety-minutes of finger wagging and self-righteous moralising is instead all about asking questions, and focuses his efforts on probing areas of uncertainty in the official theories. The conceit of directly addressing the future inhabitants of the planet is devilishly effective. It drives home the point that this issue is not a theoretical threat. It is a done deal. We have, as a species, already scarred our planet for longer than we can imagine, and the situation is worsening daily.
The scientific experts are articulate and clear throughout, and Madsen never allows the film to become bogged down in arguing technicalities. Often the most fascinating topics of discussion involve postulating on who or what the far distant inhabitants of our planet may be, and how on earth we go about communicating to them the nature of the terrible horror we have left them. Will they read? Will they understand abstract symbols of danger such as fields of thorns or Edvard Munch’s The Scream (two genuine suggestions for possible markers). These are huge philosophical areas of debate, and Madsen handles them with the sensitivity they deserve.
What is most impressive about Into Eternity is its sense of purpose. Madsen has been either startlingly clear-minded about what he shoots, or else brutal in the cutting room, to have produced such a single-minded piece with so little filler. Here is a film that knows absolutely what it wants to say, and does so with ingenuity, originality and style.
Artistically nourishing, morally aware, and clear without ever becoming patronising, Madsen delivers his essay with remarkable confidence and clarity of presentation. Honest, beautiful and terrifying, Into Eternity is an outstanding achievement - and an absolute must see. LOZ
This is an English-language release.
Feature-length documentary looking into the ways in which Finland deals with its nuclear waste.
The country is digging a miles-deep repository to bury its high-level radioactive waste in the hope that it will remain undisturbed for at least 100,000 years in order to break down and become safe.
Film: Into Eternity Release date: 17th January 2011 Certificate: E Running time: 75 mins Director: Michael Madsen Starring: Timo Äikäs, Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm, Mikael Jensen, Berit Lundqvist, Wendla Paile Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: Denmark/Finland/Sweden/Italy
Film: Enemies Of The People Release date: 10th December 2010 Certificate: TBC Running time: 93 mins Director: Rob Lemkin & Thet Sambath Starring: N/a Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: UK/Cambodia
Filmmakers have long been obsessed by the Vietnam conflict. From Kubrick to Coppola and all stops in between, the war has been a cinema staple for years. Somehow, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia has failed to ignite Western interest to anywhere near the same extent. Remaining in the shadow of its neighbour, a genocide which saw the massacre of up to two million people in the aftermath of the Vietnam War has rarely been represented on screen. Enemies Of The People aims to remedy that as Thet Sambath concludes ten years of work by bringing interviews and testimonies of Khmer Rouge killers to the cinema for the first time. It’s a deeply personal quest for Sambath, whose family were killed by the ‘Organisation’.
Central to the whole documentary is Nuon Chea, the party’s ideological leader, breaking a thirty year silence on camera ahead of his war crimes trial in front of the United Nations…
Thet Sambath is an admirable character. Calm and thoughtful, yet tenacious and determined, his perseverance in making this film is incredible. An early scene puts into context exactly how much he has sacrificed in his quest to shine a light on Cambodia’s shameful history: saying goodbye to his children and wife, he climbs into his car and heads into the countryside to record more of his meticulously catalogued interviews (later on his wife explains how much she misses him – but never complains). It’s typically low-key, and an early demonstration of the unassuming manner which Sambath has utilised to maximum advantage in gaining the trust of his subjects.
One of those whom Sambath courted was Nuon Chea – number two to the tyrannical Pol Pot at the helm of the Khmer Rouge. Together, they presided over a period of ethnic cleansing and extreme communism which their country is still recovering from. Chea is a chilling presence on screen: cold and emotionless. Having spent three years ingratiating himself, Sambath gains access which others can only aspire to - yet manages to remain non-judgemental.
Sambath’s impartiality is all the more impressive given his circumstances. Early in the documentary, he describes his father being stabbed and kicked to death as his brother watches on. It’s deeply moving, and all the more so given that the story is spoken over images of Chea surrounded by his smiling family. It’s a jarring and powerful juxtaposition - and a brilliant piece of editing.
Whilst Chea is unwavering in his belief that the Khmer Rouge’s aims were just and peaceful, a more moving journey takes place in the hearts and minds of Suon and Khoun, two men who killed on behalf of the regime. They are introduced by the banks of a river, and with tears in their eyes describe the surrounding ditches in which bodies were piled thirty or forty deep. It falls to a passing woman to create the film’s most arresting moment as she describes water “boiling” due to the rotting, bubbling flesh it contains. It’s such a striking idea that you can almost see it.
By and large, Sambath is a participatory observer in proceedings. Only once does he choreograph a scene – one in which Suon demonstrates how he murdered people. It’s an awkward encounter initially, but soon gives way to powerful unease as a plastic knife is run across a prone volunteer’s throat. At times, Suon’s hands ached due to the amount of killings he committed.
Sambath ensures that Suon and Khoun are portrayed in a sympathetic light, and it’s impossible not to feel for them as they relive horrifying memories from their past. Whilst refusing to act as an apologist on their behalf, Sambath gives them adequate space to demonstrate their regret – lingering shots of tear-filled eyes are as powerful as anything they say. Their attempts to help uncover fellow murderers and those who gave the orders are admirable – and the sense that they are actually enjoying exposing people is palpable.
Whilst the changes in those at the bottom of the pyramid are obvious, further up there is no such sense of self-awareness. Chea is incapable of self-criticism, and still firmly believes that his regime was justified in its actions. Always filmed centrally, his figure dominates the screen in a manner disproportionate to his frail frame. This also means that even the most minute facial expressions – a sneer, a sly smile – are writ large.
He’s a deeply unpleasant man, and Sambath has recorded plenty of material which proves it. His sympathies with Saddam Hussein during his televised hanging are testament to his mindset, and the euphemistic way in which he refers to killings as “problem solving” indicate a man at ease with his past actions. He’s also a shameless politician. During a meeting with Suon and Khoun, he disgracefully dodges their direct questions and manages to turn the conversation to Buddhism – clearly believing that in his next life he will escape censure for the atrocities he has committed in this one.
Enemies Of The People closes with a poignant scene which demonstrates exactly how appalling life was under the Khmer Rouge. A series of images of the notorious S21 prison, tortured bodies, starved corpses and shackled skeletons are presented in stark black-and-white. They are deeply affecting and truly horrifying – but would have been better placed at the beginning of the film. Occasionally the film lacks context, and a prior knowledge of Cambodia’s history is certainly beneficial in making sense of it – a little more exposition at the start would certainly help those who are less familiar with the subject matter.
Enemies Of The People is a deeply personal film which, despite its harrowing content, offers a real sense of redemption to those who are both victims and perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge. More than just a labour of love for Thet Sambath, it offers a sense of closure and reconciliation - and serves as a powerful and unique historical document. RW
The Khmer Rouge ran what is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most brutal regimes. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now.
In Enemies Of The People, the men and women who perpetrated the massacres – from the footsoldiers who slit throats to the party's ideological leader, Nuon Chea, aka Brother Number Two – break a 30-year silence to give testimony never before heard or seen.
Sambath is on a personal quest: he lost his own family in the Killing Fields. The film is his journey to discover not how but why they died. In doing so, he hears and understands for the first time the real story of his country's tragedy.
Film: Enemies Of The People Release date: 10th December 2010 Certificate: TBC Running time: 93 mins Director: Rob Lemkin & Thet Sambath Starring: N/a Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: Cinema Country: UK/Cambodia
Every day, throughout the world, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storages, which are vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to societal changes; constant surveillance, security management and maintenance is required.
In Finland, the world's first permanent nuclear repository - Onkalo - is being hewn out of solid rock - a huge system of underground tunnels that must last at least 100,000 years. Onkalo is a Finnish word for hiding place. It is situated at Olkiluoto in Finland, approximately 300 km northwest of Helsinki, and it is the world's first attempt at a permanent repository. Work on the concept behind the facility commenced in 1970s and the repository is expected to be backfilled and decommissioned in the 2100s – more than a century from now. No person working on the facility today will live to see it completed.
Once the waste has been deposited, and the repository is full, the facility is to be sealed off and never opened again. But how to ensure that? And how is it possible to warn future generations of the deadly waste left behind? How to prevent them from thinking they have found hidden treasure, burial grounds? Which languages and signs will they understand? And if they understand, will they respect the instructions?
While gigantic monster machines dig deeper and deeper into the dark, experts above ground strive to find solutions to this crucially important radioactive waste issue to secure mankind and all species on planet Earth, now and in the near and very distant future.
Captivating, wondrous and extremely frightening, this feature documentary takes viewers on a journey never seen before into the underworld - and into the future.
Film: Into Eternity Release date: 12th November 2010 Certificate: E Running time: 75 mins Director: Michael Madsen Starring: Timo Äikäs, Carl Reinhold Bråkenhjelm, Mikael Jensen, Berit Lundqvist, Wendla Paile Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: Denmark/Finland/Sweden/Italy
Film: Last Train Home Release date: 25th October 2010 Certificate: E Running time: 85 mins Director: Lixie Fan Starring: Suqin Chen, Changhua Zhan, Qin Zhang, Yang Zhang Genre: Documentary Studio: Dogwoof Format: DVD Country: Canada/China/UK
Each New Year, China’s railway stations become teeming, seething compounds of thousands of commuters. Here, they queue for tickets at booths where demand far outstrips supply, or wait in the forlorn hope that the train will turn up on time – if at all. This anxious group are all aching to return to their villages to see the families they left behind as they sought employment in the cities.
Last Train Home focuses on one family caught up in this desperate situation. In the ‘90s, the Zhang family were forced to leave their young children with their grandparents as they left to find work. Eager to improve the prospects of their children, they work hard and live simple lives, sending as much money as possible to the family they left in their rural village. This cash, they hope, will provide the education they were denied in their own youth.
Sadly, their daughter cannot see beyond her perceived abandonment and rebels. Dropping out of school, she decides to earn her own money by becoming a migrant worker, too. It’s a huge blow to her family, and Last Train Home concerns itself with the Zhangs’ attempts to heal the family rifts, and guide their daughter back onto the path they chose for her.
Opening with scenes of workers sewing garments in a crowded factory, we are instantly introduced into the drudgery of life in the Guangzhou. Here, staff work in open-plan conditions producing clothing for the West. It seems that all aspects of life take place within the grey walls of the factory – food is eaten communally and bedrooms are little more than stalls. A montage of images quickly conveys the grimness, which is in direct contrast to the lush greenery of the life Changhua and Suqin left behind in Sichuan province.
In the country, their children, Qin and Yang, live on the family farm with their loving grandmother. They gather corn, eat as a family, and their life seems much happier than that of their parents. Beautifully framed shots of paddy fields with farmers slowly meandering across the screen confirm that the pace of life here is much more sedate.
Following their first arduous journey across the country, Changhua and Suqin are reunited with their children. The expectation is of a joyous coming together, but instead there is a sullen air about the kids. It quickly becomes apparent that gifts of mobile phones don’t cut the mustard, especially with their daughter, Qin. She’s resentful of an approach to parenting which casts her mother and father in the role of providers of money – but not love.
The relationship between the daughter and her parents deteriorates from this point on. Never judgemental, the film allows each character to get their point across, and it’s perfectly possible to sympathise with all parties. One scene in particular illustrates the strange dynamic between the three characters: waiting for a train to take them back to Sichuan, they encounter a heaving station caused by a power cut further up the tracks. In the midst of the crowded chaos, the characters bicker - Qin sniggers at her mother and Changhua attempts (not particularly effectively) to take control of the situation. It sums up the dynamics of their relationship perfectly - all the more dramatic for being set amidst the human debris and emotion of the angry mob.
Lixin Fan’s directorial approach is to offer as little interference as possible in proceedings - and this has really paid dividends. The access he has gained is incredibly personal, and grows more so as the film progresses – it’s clear that the relationship he has built with the family has grown stronger and more trusting over the three year period in which filming took place. This can be seen most clearly in Changhua – initially he is meek, mild and ineffectual. He seems wary of the camera and is usually in the shadow of his more vocal wife. Even during direct addresses to the camera, he is often almost eerily quiet – a man of few words. Yet the most explosive scene of documentary takes place when Qin swears in front of him. He explodes in a violent rage – the first time his self-control has been lost. It’s indicative of the tension which has been boiling within him, but also points to a comfort with the camera which was evidently missing earlier in the piece.
Last Train Home is sedately paced, yet utterly engaging. The neutrality adopted by the director ensures that a complicated situation is allowed to breathe on screen, and this allows the audience to decide where their sympathies lie – if anywhere. It’s a documentary which asks many questions about the role of parents, the way capitalism is impacting on China and the merits of self-sacrifice. Thankfully, Lixin Fan is not patronising enough to try and answer those questions himself. RW
