COMING HOME (aka GUI LAI) (CHINESE) (2014)

What is a home ? Is it just four walls under a roof that provide shelter to a family ? Or.. Is it the sense of belonging that every member of a family holds toward each other and to the family as a whole ..? Indeed, it is the confluence of souls that find solace and succour in one another, especially when they wade through turbid tides of troubled times. Noted director Zhang Yimou's Coming Home explores this theme in a family drama set in the tumultuous era of Chinese cultural revolution (1966-76).

It recounts the story of a small Chinese family of Professor Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming), his wife Feng Wan Yu (Gong Li) and their daughter - Dandan (Hang Huiwen). Early in the movie, at the height of cultural revolution, we find this  family is thrown into disarray when Professor Lu is forcibly separated from his wife and infant daughter on being accused of anti-national activities. He is one among the  millions who are incarcerated and relegated to a labour camp for a long sentence. Several years pass by as we see that, under the watchful glare of the state which is wary of Lu's status of an anti-national, Feng is struggling to make ends meet as a teacher even as Dandan, a student at the ballet academy, is struggling in her own way to land a part of lead in a prestigious stage show. When Lu makes a desperate attempt to flee his captors and reunite with his family, Feng is having a difficult dilemma between rejoicing his escape, being wary of Dandan who barely remembers him and sees him merely as the source of their miserable status and the state which puts them under a microscope to recapture him if he contacts them. Ultimately, when he does return home, he is quickly pounced upon by the state authorities who were tipped off by Dandan on the hope that such loyalty would help her secure that coveted part in the show. Fate plays a cruel trick as soon after the arrest, Dandan is spurned for that role as she is still seen as the daughter of an outlaw and her mother shuts her out for what she sees an unforgivable betrayal. Some years later, when Lu is released after the Cultural Revolution, he returns to find his family shattered as his wife is suffering from an amnesia and his daughter is forced to eke out a living as a textile worker. Feng is unable to recognise Lu as her husband and she continues to wait for him to return from incarceration. The rest of the movie narrates the attempts of Yu to rebuild his family and reconnect to his wife.

Yimou's narrative is subtle, yet profound in observations. It is indeed a travesty when you require an official letter to recognise somebody who is your own. And, at times, even that is not proof enough. Feng's loss of memory is perhaps, her pathetic, final attempt to shut out a State that seeks to seep down and intrude into every element of her existence to enforce a compliance to its prescribed code of conduct. 

Through the prism of this family, the director showcases how an authoritarian state can appropriate one's life so ruthlessly that the citizens remain helpless and mute spectator as their life and family get trampled over by the giant wheels of a State machinery which pulls its entire citizenry in a particular direction to a predetermined destination. The instruments of the state intrude into every sphere of their life to suffocate them off any meaningful independence in exercise of their choices and where the individuals and their every aspiration is subordinated to the professed Party line and jingoistic nationalism.

The movie is anchored by stellar performances from the three leads - a spellbinding Gong Li and equally spectacular performances by Chen & Zhang who portray the multiple nuances of their roles effectively. Yimou's movie is ultimately a tale of triumph of the human spirit and the endless love it is capable of as well as the phenomenal power of such love to emancipate, enliven, energize and create beauty from bleakest of circumstances. 

The poignant, multi-layered movie replete with metaphors which premiered in Cannes in 2014 has won several accolades at several film festivals across the world.

AN EXCELLENT WATCH !!

RATING - 4/5

THE FOOL (aka DURAK) (RUSSIAN) (2014)

In Durak (The Fool), Russian director Yury Bykov presents the story of a young idealistic plumber who wages a lonely war against the system and society steeped in corruption where honesty, integrity and empathy for fellow beings appear to alien values. The Fool is the story of Dima Niktin (Artyom Bystrov), a young plumber who finds himself at the mercy of small-town government bureaucracy when he discovers that the tenement building he is servicing is in imminent danger of collapse. 

In an unnamed Russian town, Dima Nikitin (Bystrov) is a plumber and heads the local municipal repair crew maintaining several buildings. Late one onight, Dima is asked to attend to an emergency plumbing job in one of the rickety communal housing buildings in the neighboring districts which houses the poor including an assortment of drunkards and social outcasts.While completing the repair, Dima unearths a much larger problem, as he finds that the exterior wall behind the pipe has cracked and has started to tilt. On further inspection, Dima realizes the building wall has developed a deep fissure from the ground level right up to the roof. As he assesses the extent of this damage, Dima calculates that the fissure could cause the building split into two halves and would ultimately collapse within the next 24 hours.

The knowledge that the 800 odd inhabitants face imminent death and require immediate evacuation wouldn't let Dima resign himself that the building is in not in his regular jurisdiction and would be responsibility of his colleague. So, despite the objections of his his protective wife and nagging mother, Dima rushes to inform his seniors who are gathered at the 50th birthday party of Nina Galaganova (Nataliya Surkova), the town’s imperious mayor. In doing so, he bypasses his direct boss, the corrupt inspector of public housing, Federotov (Boris Nevzorov). Soon, we get to know that Federotov had received funds for a major overhaul of the building, he had only supplied a new coat of paint and had funneled the remaining money on his daughter's personal residence. On hearing the news of the impending disaster, Nina begins an extended, closed-doors meeting with Dima, Federotov and heads of several other departments, including the fire brigade. As the assembled try to pass the buck on culpability and increasingly blatant and aggressive accusations fly thick and fast and long buried skeletons come tumbling down, the fact that this city council (and, by extension, Russia’s ruling class) is rotten to the core becomes painstakingly clear to Dima. However, his sense of responsibility would not allow him to relinquish his responsibility towards the residents of that ill fated building and he strives to to do his best to safeguard them even if it would mean putting himself and his family in peril.    

The movie presents an explosive combination of highly personal moral drama upon the canvas of a wider, scathing commentary of a country in which corruption and greed seem to be the only shared values left. This well-oiled narrative machine is further aided by the inherent race against time that ratchets up the tension about a building on the brink of collapse threatening heavy casualties among its indigent residents even as the key bureaucrats and politicians are engrossed in their vodka-addled blamegames and intrigue to protect themselves. The humble plumber Dima, on the other hand, with his steadfast integrity and ethics, is the titular fool, who represents the conscience and the moral compass of a society which is muddled in the miasma of selfishness and corruption. 

The director Yury Bykov has wrote, directed and edited the film has also composed the music which sets the right mood for the proceedings which unfold at a brisk pace in the course of a single night. He also employs several overt and subtle metaphors like the crumbling building representing Russia as a whole resulting from deep seated corruption of its ruling class of politicians and bureaucrats, the night itself in which the entire story unfolds indicating the dark tidings that engulf the country and the indifference and helplessness of the ordinary folk resulting in their lack of empathy and sense of responsibility for fellow beings indicating the prevailing social conditions.

Bykov assembles an effective cast who deliver remarkable performances especially Artyom Bystrov who is terrific as the humble and naive plumber, Dima and the Natalia Surkova as Nina, the mayor of the town. Running just over two hours, The Fool, despite being set in Russia, has relevance which would resonate across several regions beyond Russia where the hapless citizenry suffer under the power of an abusive authority and greed of the ruling class.

This powerful social drama has won numerous awards at several films festivals across the globe and was also highly appreciated at the Bengaluru International Film Festival in 2014.  

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5

OMAR (ARABIC) (2013)

When you are born in a land which has been suffocating under strife for generations, distress and betrayal could well permeate into your very being to the extent that they get embedded into the genetic code itself. Perhaps, it seeks to serve as a flimsy line of defense that helps this cursed populace fight on in a futile battle of survival. And, it would appear that trust is something that gets truncated with the umbilical cord at birth itself. In the resulting melee of such poisoned environs that fester with insecurity and hatred which feed on each other, innocence goes incognito. 

This is a case of a history which refuses to remain just that as it transcends the realm of the past to haunt the present, perhaps in a death wish which seeks to reenact itself on a daily basis. History, akin to a mighty banyan tree, which even as it provides the security of shade from the heat of a scorching sun, stunts the inherent growth - in this case, the present and the future - of plants beneath it. Seen that way, this is a generation buried under the burdens of their past which is spreading its tentacles through timelines to slowly scupper their present and future.

The story is set in the West Bank region of Palestine which features the tall wall that separates the fellow Arabs on either side as much as it seperates the Israeli and Arab settlements. Our protagonist Omar (Adam Bakri), a baker is in love with Nadia, the younger sister of his close friend Tarek. Omar and Nadia  steal occasional moments of romance and togetherness hiding away from the eyes of their conservative society and plan for a "happily ever-after" marital bliss. Meanwhile, Omar, Tarek and Amjad who are buddies from childhood are planning to launch an attack on an Israeli army post as their act of angry defiance against an enemy who defiles their daily lives through their continuing occupation and oppression. Their ill-conceived, mindless act results in the death of a random Israeli soldier which triggers an Israeli backlash in the form of a manhunt for the perpetrators. 

While Tarek and Amjad flee, Omar is apprehended and lands in the Israeli prison. In the prison, after being put through the customary third-degree torture, Omar is entrapped by the wily Israeli agent Rami who persuades him to accede to a deal for his freedom in return of him aiding the Israelis to capture Tarek who is seen as the leader of their gang. A desperate Omar agrees on the false hope that he could somehow wriggle out of this mess and may even turn this deal to the advantage of their gang. He also hopes to salvage his relationship with Nadia and realise their dreams of a life together. Alas, all is not well and the best laid plans and hopes turn to mirage in a land parched by the unquenchable thirst of a continuing conflict. 

There are no winners in this battle of betrayals which is a zero sum game that feeds and fuels a seemingly perpetual vicious cycle of  meaningless violence and bloodshed. Fears cloud the psyche as a thick and persistent smog strangling any recourse to reason. And, this is  a land where even love appears steeped on conditionalities of one's conformity to a credo that is identified as the common cause.

Director Hany Abu-Assad, who awed the viewer with his earlier Paradise Now (2005), paints an intimate picture of love and betrayals in a conflict zone. While he refrains from making any overt political commentary on this region trapped in turmoil, in his observation of events at the micro level of his leads here, he subtly brings out the lasting effects of life in a war zone. With a cast of mostly fresh, albeit confident, artists, Assad succeeds in essaying an engaging human drama which is filled with romance, friendship, commitment, betrayal, pain and survival laced with intrigue and subterfuge.

"Omar" has been richly awarded in several international film festivals including the prestigious Un-Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes. It is also the second film directed by Hany Abu-Assad to be a finalist among foreign language films nominated to receive an Oscar at the 2014 Academy Awards and lost to The Great Beauty, the winner from Italy. It was featured in the recently concluded Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES-2014).

A multi-layered film, Omar is at once a crisp thriller, engaging human drama as well as a subtle commentary on the devastating impact on the daily lives of ordinary citizens of an occupation that has spanned several generations without an end in sight. It is a thoroughly satisfying watch which stays with the viewer long after watching it.

A MASTERPIECE & A MUST WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5