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Reviews
Bagdad-Paris, itinéraire d'un poète (2011)
This Could Have Been a Good Movie
I was not able to get through this entire movie... I tried, I tried.
One of my big pet peeves with documentaries is when a movie starts out advertising one plot-line, and then swaps and builds a documentary around a different plot line. This film starts out as a documentary about the fall of Baghdad, and then quickly jumps to a series of meandering interviews with an Iraqi exile in Paris.
The plot-line is laid out very quickly in the movie and then, as you get into the movie, its hard to understand exactly where the film is going, and why the film is taking so long to get there.
I really wish that some backstory of Iraq, the Iraq-Iran War, the origins of Saddam Hussein, the origins of Saddam's oppression of dissent, etc, would have been interspersed throughout the film to give a pause from the interviews.
Without any sort of break in between the interviews, the only way this film would have worked would have been to cut the film down to about 15 minutes, and end with the main character's return to Baghdad. At close to an hour, this film really needed editing, artful photography, or something to keep it interesting. Without artful elements, the wandering of the interviews and lack of a concise, easy to follow, plot, this film is nearly impossible to watch.
El futuro es hoy (2009)
Slow moving film with some beautiful scenes of Cuba
Although, this film had some beautiful scenes of Cuba, the film didn't get very deep with any of the characters, and didnt seem to do much research on the primary question it was asking; "What will happen to Cuba now that Fidel Castro is gone?"
There were three very interesting characters in the film; the writer, the doctor, and the fisherman. The film maker may have done better to just focus on those three characters, or to do separate short films on each of those characters. In this film, the director doesnt seem to spend enough time with any of them to get a real, in depth, feel for any of them.
Without doing much research on Fidel Castro, the Cuban economy, or the Cuban Revolution; the film may have worked better to have shown the daily life of these people without asking them about the future of Cuba.
Lastly, the film doesnt move anywhere. It really feels like it stays on the same street, in the same city, on the same day, for the entirety of the 35 minutes. It may have worked better to take some time to lead us to the location, or change location at some point in the film.
Tu pa tam (2004)
One of Slovenia's Best Films
Low budget film, made by a young Mitja Okorn, using friends as cast and crew. The actual plot of this film is secondary; this is a film about the friend dynamics of late teen/ early adults. Really well done. Oddly enough, I feel the best comparison to this movie would be the Canadian DIY film "Clerks." Lots of witty banter, clothing jokes, skateboarding, race dynamics. Really impressive for such a young director.
One thing I would like to point out, I was not born or raised in Slovenia, and when I watched the film I did not speak Slovene; that being said, the subtitles work REALLY well!!!!! So don't feel you will miss out on the humor if you do not speak Slovene.
The only downside of this film is that it is nearly impossible to find. I haven't searched Amazon, or ITunes recently, but I have never seen it available anywhere outside of Slovenia.