CLAUSTROPHOBIA FROM SPAIN : "CELL 211"

Who do you think of when you hear the phrase “famous Spanish director”? Pedro Almodovar? Alejandro Amenabar? Well, Daniel Monzon might be another name to add to that list. He basically took everyone (including Almodovar and Amenabar) by surprise at the Goya awards this year and made off with eight of them. And the “surprise contender” is Celda 211 / Cell 211 . Although, to be fair, to anyone who has actually seen this film, this will not come as a surprise.

Based on a book – now a bestseller of course - Cell 211 is the story of Juan, soon to be father and prison warden. And life for Juan is exciting : He loves his wife who is six months pregnant to their first child and he has just got out of his rather gruesome job at the local slaughterhouse and become a prison warden. He has a day until he starts yet but he decides to visit the local “slam” anyway. He wants to give a good impression – not to mention starting learning the ropes… His new colleagues are happy to meet him and eager to show him around, all seems to be going well until a small accident happens… The prison is being renovated and a falling piece of plaster hits Juan on the head, momentarily knocking him out. His colleagues decide to lay him down in an empty cell (cell 211 as you may have gathered) and run for the doctor. Just at this particular point, an uprising starts in the prison. And Juan is left inside, on his own and unconscious. When he comes round, there seems to be only one way of surviving the madness : pretending he is the new inmate of cell 211 instead of a guard until he can find a way of breaking out…

Now, the story and the pace of Cell 211 is more than enough to glue you to the screen. It’s an adventure story and thriller of the highest caliber, there are many twists and turns you will never have even imagined. But there is also a very deep side to it that I think makes it relevant in our troubled times. Ok fair warning, this is another film I saw in the “Human Rights” competition of the local film festival. Police brutality, prison conditions and prejudice are the main themes of the film and very easy to “spot”. But there is a much deeper and more disturbing side to the storyline. It is the argument, which seems to be surfacing more and more often these days that each and every one of us is capable of violence if pushed hard enough and put in the right circumstances… And indeed, this is a side of the storyline that you may find disturbing – the idea of someone like you or I committing hideous crimes – or alternatively the idea that people who commit hideous crimes are really just like you or I sometimes – is disturbing to say the least. It doesn’t make it any less true for all that though… Watching it will give you quite a lot to think about. After it’s finished though. You will not have the time to “think” about anything ‘till the end of the film – it’s too darn exciting!!

"AJAMI"

Ajami. No, not an exotic fruit but an actual neighborhood in Jafa. Here, Jews, Palestinains, Christian Arabs and many many more live side by side, trying to make it through the day. I watched this slightly under-advertised Oscar® nominee and Cannes special mention winner in the “Human Rights” section of a film festival. And it’s an Israeli film, starring mainly Palestinians and that might set alarm bells ringing, but actually no, it is definately NOT what you might think…
Ajami, as far as I can tell, parts from the fact that you cannot understand the whole without seing the individual pieces first. A very wise point of view, especially if something as complicated as life in the Middle-East is concerned… So we watch five different stories – stories that are inextricably intertwined – of life, and a very sad event in Ajami. It all starts when a young Bedouin charges into a small café demanding “protection money” from the owner. The Palestinian owner refuses to be frightened by this young upstart and shoots him on the spot, paralyzing him. What he doesn’t know however, is that the Bedouin is part of a very strong clan, and that now his entire family is in danger. Things escalate when a 15-year old neighborhood boy is shot when he is mistaken for Omar, the café-owner’s nephew… 19 year-old Omar decides that it falls to him to sort this mess out. And unwittingly becomes part of a very destructive chain reaction that will upturn the lives of every single person it touches.
Ajami is a great success in that it is a very good micro-cosm of what is going on in the middle east right now. Memories running deep, violence surrounding the innocent who are desperate to save themselves and lead relatively normal lives… The directors use a non-lineer timeline and a brutally straightforward tone as they show us first one and then another of the pieces of the puzzle. The resulting picture will leave you shocked and very possibly in tears… And it is not a “sided” movie either, despite the fact that it is infact an Israeli-German co-production. It just shows that, no matter what your ethnic / religious background, all people suffer in the same way. That killing is a tragic thing, no matter who the gun is pointed at. And it reminds you that this kind of thing goes on around us. All over the world.
So be warned, it will shake you up, but I sincerely think it’s worth it…
Oh and one footnote worth mentioning : None of the people you will see in the film are profesional actors, and the feel that alone adds to the subject is well worth the two hours...

SOME HISTORY, SOME POLITICS AND SOME "HUNGER"

If you looked at the summary of this film and said “God no, not another film about The Troubles!” I could actually relate to that. But if you want to watch one and decide to make it this one, you actually wouldn’t be doing that badly for yourself.
Hunger, is another true story (you may have noticed I have a soft spot for those). Through the eyes of Davey (played by Brian Milligan), a new IRA prisoner in Maze prison, we witness the “Blanket Protests” during which Republican prisoners led by Bobby Sands (played rather superbly by Michael Fassbander) protested in various ways to gain political status (one example is that since as political prisoners they would have been allowed their own clothes, the prisoners attired themselves only in their prison issue blankets and refused to wear prison uniforms – hence the name “Blanket Protests”). The various forms of non-cooperation and dissidence culminated in a hunger strike that led to the death of some of the protesters, including Bobby Sands himself.
Now once again I have to tell you, this film is not for the faint of heart. The film is, by nature, very political, and discusses the morality of the protests and the motivation of dying for a cause very effectively. But it is far from being all ideas and “heroics”. You will watch the prisoners and the guards “face off” in all its terrible glory. The film skimps on no detail, including the details of the protests (and believe me the Republican prisoners were “imaginative” ),the hunger strike and its physical effects on the strikers.
But if you force yourself past this undoubtedly disturbing side of the film, you find yourself faced with a fascinating narrative where many forms of hunger are discussed. Of course there is the physical hunger, predominant in the film but also the hunger for political rights, glory, righteousness… But at the end, my feeling was that the greatest “Hunger” was one that is not mentioned at all but to my mind was painfully present throughout the film : the hunger for peace. A thought-provoking and sensitive film you should not miss…