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Farewell Amor – Hard Reunion

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“We don’t even know each other anymore—or ourselves.”

Among the sacrifices many immigrants face is long separation from the people they love. In Ekwu Msangi’s Farewell Amor, a family is reunited in the US after many years apart. There are cultural differences for those coming now, but even more, there is a struggle to see if the family is still the family they were.

Walter (Ntare Guma Mbabo Mwine) and Esther (Zainab Jah), along with their daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson) are reunited at JFK airport after being apart for 17 years. They had been displaced by the strife in Angola. Walter came to the US to establish a place for them, but because of visa issues, Esther and Sylvia were in camps in Tanzania. Walter has been driving a cab and lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.

Certainly they are happy to see each other, but there is great awkwardness from the time apart. Walter is now very settled into American culture. Esther, on the other hand, is very much a fish out of water. During their time apart, Esther has become very religious with the zeal of an evangelical Christian. Sylvia, as a teenager, easily begins to fit into ‘the culture, and becomes attracted to expressive dancing. But the kind of dancing she is doing goes against her mother’s understanding of proper behavior. The film is divided into sections that feature each person’s journey in rebecoming a family.

There are other issues besides learning to fit in to the culture that create problems. Esther’s ties to the church, to which she sends large donations, create friction between her and her husband. Walter was not faithful to Esther through all those years; he has created a home with another woman.

A key activity in this film is dancing. For Sylvia, dancing becomes her source of identity and belonging. Between Esther and Walter, dancing has always been a source of intimacy and togetherness. That makes it all the more troubling when we know that part of Walter’s life in the US was going to dance clubs where he would meet his other woman. At times dancing becomes the focal point for the conflicts within the family, but it is also the place where they might find healing and hope.

Farewell Amor is available in theaters (where open) and on VOD.

Photos courtesy of IFC Films.

Cuties – Growing Up Fast

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Yes, Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties (Mignonnes) has created a great deal of controversy. I wouldn’t categorize that controversy as a tempest in a teapot, because the film does revolve around the sexualization of young women, but in a reflective and critical manner, not in an exploitive or abusive manner. In fact, the film suggests an outrage about this just as strong as the Twitterverse’s demands of boycott. The film, however, addresses the issue by asking us to empathize with the young characters, rather than turning away and ignoring what is happening.

Amy (Fathia Youssouf) is a Somalian immigrant living with her mother and two brothers in a poor section of Paris. They are observant Muslims, going to the women’s service at the mosque, hearing how evil it is for women to bare their bodies. Her father has returned to Somalia with plans to bring home a second wife. The planning for the wedding falls to Amy’s mother and the family matriarch. Amy is expected to participate, even though she feels abandoned and rejected.

 New in her middle school, she is attracted to a group of girls (Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, and Myriam Hamma) who want to win a hip-hop dance contest. Amy begins to work her way into the group, and eventually begins dancing with them. Yes, the dances are mildly suggestive, but as Amy and the others begin to see other more risqué dancing videos online, Amy instigates making their dances even more so. When they begin posting their videos on social media, the affirmations are intoxicating. Here, Amy finds the kind of attention she misses at home.

Cuties is a painful coming-of-age story. At home, Amy has learned that in her world women are disposable. Even though she and her mother will still be in the home with her father and new wife, it is obvious that they are not enough. They are being relegated to second-class status. The worlds of the mosque, home, and society are acutely at odds.

A large part of that conflict involves the meaning of being a woman. At home Amy gets two lessons on womanhood. The first is when she has her first period, she is told she’s now a woman. The other lesson is when the matriarch tells her that the way to become a woman is to prepare the food for her father’s upcoming wedding. But society has many ways of teaching that women are sexualized, and the way to get approval and love is through that route. It is a lesson that young girls see often.

There are parts of this film that are hard to watch. The increasingly sexualized dancing is the film’s way of rubbing our noses in a culture that may not officially promote that behavior in children, but certainly is willing to tolerate it, possible even think it’s cute that they want to be so grown up. When Amy gets approval and affirmation along the way, she wants more. Eventually she will push too far.

It is also hard to watch the way Amy must deal with a life at home that will never be fulfilling. The place of women in her ethnic world is belittling. We don’t want that world for her any more than we do the sexualized world she is entering.

The film is about a world in which children (especially girls) are encouraged in many ways to grow up to fast. What “to grow up” means varies within cultures and societies. But adolescence is always a challenge for these children who face challenges of identity and belonging. Can we really expect eleven year olds to make the proper choices when faced with so many voices and images? The film serves as a strong reminder that left to their own choices, calamity is near at hand.

Finally, I want to address the widespread denunciation of the film by those who haven’t seen it. It’s my understanding that what created the controversy was an ill-advised publicity poster used by Netflix (which Netflix later apologized for and admitted was inappropriate). Certainly that poster gave an impression of the film that would suggest it would be offensive. But often posters (or even trailers) do not capture the reality of a film. The way the condemnation of the film went viral suggests that we live in a world in which people don’t want to make their own decision, but will just pass on what people who yell the loudest have to say. Cuties is actually a very clear indictment of a society that sexualizes children. That is the voice that needs to be heard.

Photo courtesy of Netflix.

Song Without a Name – A Steep Climb

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Life is hard for those on the edge of society. It is often made harder by official indifference of authorities. It is even worse when the authorities feel free to take advantage of such people. Melina León’s film Song Without a Name shows just how such injustice can take place.

Inspired by real events, the film is set in Peru in 1988. There is economic chaos with astronomical inflation. But for Georgina and Leo, an indigenous couple in the Andes, life is lived day to day. Leo is a traditional dancer, Geo sings traditional songs, and they get by selling potatoes on the street. Geo is pregnant, and when she hears a radio ad about a clinic that will provide free medical care for expectant mothers, she takes the long bus ride into Quito for an exam. When she goes into labor, she takes that long bus ride again, gives birth, and encouraged to sleep. When she wakes up, she’s told the baby is at the hospital, and forcibly ushered out of the clinic. When she returns the next day, the clinic is gone. It was part of an operation to provide black market babies for adoption abroad.

On her first visit to the clinic, there were children jumping rope in the courtyard. As the jumped they chanted, “Single, married, widowed, or dead, divorced mother or not, you are worthless.” That rhyme reflects the official indifference that Geo encounter when they report the kidnapping to authorities. The police ask for her identity number, and when she doesn’t have one, she’s asked how they know who she really is. It seems to end any caring by the police, because to them she is a non-person.

It is only after she goes to a newspaper and finds a journalist willing to investigate that we discover that this is an ongoing concern that has official protection. But even when it is brought to light, there is likely nothing to be done about finding Geo’s daughter.

The film is an interesting mix of this story, and a look at the life of indigenous people such as Leo and Geo. The film begins with Leo and others dedicating his new dance clothes, and a celebration of dance and song. Those folkloric interludes show the richness of life that they share in, even if their everyday life may seem a struggle. For those who treat them as “worthless”, these scenes are a statement of the great value they actually have.

The songs are also very much tied into the grief and pain that Geo is going through. Lyrics include, “Time is the longest distance between two places”, “I don’t want to die alone far away”, and “Express bus, where are you taking me”.  These all reflect Geo’s emotional turmoil. The height of this is when we hear her sing a lullaby to her absent daughter. The emptiness she feels is palpable.

The cinematography of the film (which is done in Black and White with a 4:3 aspect ratio) places us in a world with steep landscapes. Geo and Leo navigate those difficult ascents and descents day by day. Their life is a constant uphill climb. Theirs is a precarious life. But others have their own uphill battles, as we see in a subplot involving the journalist as he enters into a relationship with an actor in his apartment building. Being gay also puts him on the edge of society, even though he has a respected professional position.

I first saw this last year at AFIFest. It’s interesting that when I recently watched it again, I made almost as many notes as I did with the first viewing—and mostly about other things I was noticing. That speaks to the abundance this film provides at a variety of levels. It is a blend of  emotional, spiritual, visual, and aural components that invites us to consider the lives of those we may see, but not truly see.

Song Without a Name is available on Virtual Cinema through local arthouses.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

Gloria Bell: Dancing through Life

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Middle age is tough. When you are Gloria Bell, however, you handle it with verve and joy.

In Gloria Bell, the English remake of his 2013 film Gloria, director Sebastian Lelio casts the luminous Julianne Moore in the lead role. Gloria leads a happy life. She’s divorced but on good terms with her ex. She’s involved in the lives of her children and grandchild. She has an office job that she seems to enjoy and girlfriends to confide in and laugh with. She also loves to dance, spending her evenings at dance clubs.

It is at one of these clubs that she meets Arnold (John Turturro). They make eye contact on the dance floor and from there the romance begins. Arnold comes with lots of hurts and complications from his own recently ended marriage and these will play out in sad, yet frustrating ways throughout the movie. We are rooting for both of them and are never really sure whether their lives will come together in a happy way. Both Moore and Turturro give sensitive and true-to-life performances. Youth is a complicated time in life, but Gloria Bell shows that mid life is every bit as daunting. Between Arnold’s needy family and Moore’s sudden change in circumstances (terrible neighbour, daughter moving to Europe, friend losing her job, son unable to stay in his apartment), they find that they have unexpected challenges to cope with. Will their budding love offer strength for these changing situations?

Gloria’s life is also chronicled by her daily drives. Karaoke-style she belts out whatever song is playing on her playlist and the music is always a reflection of her current situation in life. The songs are all golden oldies and add an 80’s vibe to the movie. It was a bit heavy-handed linking the music to her status but Moore looks so convincing as she sings along off key, it’s hard not to find it charming.

Julianne Moore is truly magnificent in this role. Her acting is subtle and nuanced. In the worst of circumstances she keeps her character even keeled and moving forward. These are skills and coping mechanisms that you learn with age. When she needs to make a bold statement she nails it. When she is happy she radiates joy and delight. Other than fitting her with overlarge glasses (to age her?) Moore looks like a woman barely into her forties, rather than mid-to-late 50’s woman that she is portraying. Even with an amazing supporting cast, this movie belongs to her.

So, if you are a fan of Julianne Moore (or have lived through a few crises yourself) this is the movie to see.

Gloria Bell is in theatres now.

Hail, Caesar – Golden Days of Hollywood a la Coen Brothers

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“Would that it were so simple.”

The Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar is an entertaining look at the old Hollywood Studio System with a load of insider references. (I would love to have a Cliff Notes type of resource to identify all those references.) But like nearly all of their films there is more here than just the good time we have watching it.

Set in the 1951 at Capitol Pictures (the same fictitious studio as in their film Barton Fink), the film spends a day following Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), the studio head, as he spends his days and nights dealing with one problem after another: a starlet being taken advantage of by a photographer, the choreograph film extravaganza star (Scarlett Johansson) is pregnant but unmarried, rival twin gossip columnists (Tilda Swinton) out for a scoop, a singing cowboy (Alden Erhenreich) who has been pushed into a high society role under an acclaimed director (Ralph Fiennes), and the kidnapping of the star (George Clooney) of a biblical epic (from which the film gets its title) that is nearly done filming. All of this gives the film a chance to look at the various film genres of the day. If you’ve wondered how the Coen Brothers would have made a Gene Kelly dance film or an Esther Williams swimming number, you get a glimpse in Hail, Caesar.

Because Mannix is so good at solving the never ending stream of problems, he is being recruited by Lockheed Corporation. They offer him more money, better hours (he never seems to sleep, and only gets a few moments with his family), he would be working for national security rather than dealing with the crazy Hollywood scene. It seems like a no-brainer, but he is hesitant. A clue as to his reasons might be seen in the way the film is bookended by two trips to confession. This is a daily occurrence for Mannix where he confesses minor sins (like lying to his wife about quitting smoking). He is trying to be a good person, even though he may be skirting some of the morality of the day. When he seeks the priest’s advice about changing jobs, the advice the priest gives him is “God wants us to do what’s right.”

That is very close to the essence of many of the Coen Brothers’ films: what does it mean to be a good person. Among their earlier films that look at that question are Raising Arizona; Fargo; The Hudsucker Proxy; O Brother, Where Art Thou; The Man Who Wasn’t There, and A Serious Man. In these films people do things that may or may not be good. It always seems to come down to that advice from the priest of doing what is right. That is the issue that Mannix faces in everything he does. It is then up to us to decide if he succeeds in being the kind a man he wants to be.