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Reviews
Intre revolutii (2023)
powerful intimate homage to women living in repressive worlds
I saw the movie at the movie festival in Montreal, and stayed after for the discussion with the director. A thoughtful director of a powerful movie. The movie is a work of love and respect for women in repressive societies, but also more than that. The movie is structured around reading the letters (reminding me of Chantal Akerman's movie, Letters from home) wrote to each other between 2 women, one Romanian, the other Iranian, read on the background of social political events in both countries, mirroring each other's stolen dreams and revolutions. The story is constructed in the imagination of audience, an intimate powerful homage to women, their power, voice and inner force, who, even if repressed, are not victims in their inner worlds.
La nana (2009)
excellent character study
This movie has absolutely nothing to do with therapy, but there is something that happens here between 2 characters (2 maids) that is at the core of what good therapy does.
The movie is an excellent character study, showing the slow internal transformation of Raquel. The acting is impeccable, magnificent. It was interesting and surprising for me to notice in myself how my sentiments toward the main character are shifting through the movie. It made me reflect on how the way we respond to each other's bitterness can built up even more suffering, or it can help heal.
On of the most touching movies I saw, can function well as a psychological thriller or a comedy.
Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt? (2021)
a magical reminder of simplicity and love
Composed as a fairy tale and happening in our times in Georgia from Eastern Europe, though not the real Georgia, but an imagined one, where people are benevolent, and dogs are important characters, and all that happens is contemplation of time, love and simplicity. And with the sadness of quiet awareness of the deterioration of environment and political landscapes. A beautiful music score and a good reminder of what art could be when is not in the capitalist discourse.
A magical movie that I will come back to, again and again. After watching the interview of the director I could see that the movie is a mirror of his very kind soul.
Black Hollow Cage (2017)
amazing, unique, a dream, magical atmosphere, very creative
I absolutely loved this movie, and I looked for it many times after I first saw it in a festival.
The atmosphere of the movie is mysterious, sad at times and on the edge of miraculous and hilarious at other times. This is an exercise of imagination, a visit into a place that is both impossible as story, but so possible and painfully real as metaphor of working through grief and tragedy.
The movie tells you things in the way your dreams tell you things, and the movie changes you in the way your dreams change you. It is definitely not for people looking for a linear narrative, or for people who hate ambiguity. Though I will add, if they will dare to engage this movie will do a lot of good to exactly these people.
Colectiv (2019)
some images will stay imprinted in your brain
The documentary started in the aftermath of a deadly fire in a Romanian concert club, and continued as a political thriller of investigative journalism, unveiling rooted corruption with terminal consequences. A sad reminder of reasons why, many of us nostalgic Romanians immigrated, but also a warning for people everywhere, this can happen in any country and with the same terminal consequences. Some images in this documentary will stay imprinted on your brain, and some people you will see will inspire deep admiration.
As a Romanian I know the development of things after the events in the movie, and this makes everything even more sad, but also relevant and important, and makes me wonder, how much of this do we need to endure until we finally wake up as a nation?
I.
Întregalde (2021)
social horror
A kind of horror movie, but the horror is subtle and social, is about time passing, performative philanthrophy, poverty and alienation gap between generations and social classes, a Romanian movie. Understated and very well acted. One of the main actors is not a professional actor, he seems to just bring his personal life and story on the screen. The scene of the washing is a touching sensitive and gentle moment, of pure humanity. The director is exploring sensitive issues without judgment, as an anthropologist, Not for people who are looking for entertainment or fast speed developing stories. Recommended for people who have attention for minimal human stories, the ones almost unsaid.
The Singing Detective (1986)
healing of childhood rooted trauma
I thought I was watching a movie with a moody atmosphere about a writer-singer-detective living in between reality and hallucination. It ended up being a masterpiece about the psycho-therapeutic process, flowing through free associations, dreams and memories, and ending up with healing of what it was childhood rooted trauma. Beautiful, touching, frightening at times. This is a movie about the fragility of little boys, who rest hidden in bodies of big men. When cynicism and misogyny become compassion and vitality, life force, there is healing. I film on the film list of therapists, and all people interested on childhood trauma and healing.
1 (2009)
Mesmerizing, immersive
This is a movie about the soul that happened in your dream.
To really benefit from it you need to engage with it through your imagination and unconscious. A police procedural movie, where the crime is the reality, that reality that can't be controlled by the ideology, the state or other man made systems of control.
Happî awâ (2015)
Bergman meets Romer
Giving a feeling of Bergman meets Romer, this movie is very intimate, and quietly leaves deep traces for long after seeing it. About the ambiguity of love, power of friendship, transformation and intimacy, an emotional journey.
Rökkur (2017)
unique unsettling atmosphere
Ambiguous, hunting, unsettling, painfully sad and tormenting at times, this movie is psychologically true in terms of capturing the inner world of characters lost in past trauma and broken love, all contained in the space of shivering beautiful icelandic landscape.
Play for Today: Penda's Fen (1974)
A healing movie
I call this a Healing Movie, because it puts one in touch with parts of the self that might have gotten lost. I wish I saw this movie when I was 18 years old.
"I am nothing pure. My race is mixed. My sex is mixed. I am woman and man. Light with darkness. Mixed. Mixed. I nothing special. Nothing pure. I am mud and flame."
"Child be strange, dark, true, impure, and dissonant.
Cherish our flame.
Our dawn shall come."
Penda's Fen, by David Rudkin.
Clearcut (1991)
the most beautiful movie about the natives
Maybe the most beautiful movie about the natives, with their beauty, pain and mystery. A relevant movie for these times, interestingly made in Canada by a Polish director. A movie without a resolution but with a big wound in the middle of it.
Under the Shadow (2016)
valid exploration of trauma
The horror frame was very appropriately used to explore the trauma of the war between Iran and Iraq, as well as the trauma of being a woman in an autocratic patriarchal regime. Inspired from Iranian mythology, the ghosts of this movie are so well done that you feel the demons of oppression from deep inside your psyche. This is not the movie where the man saves the day.
Mantagheye payani (2021)
cinematic poem that stays with you long after it's over
Not a regular cinematographic language, but a poetic multi-layered story, about the deterioration of internal (the mind, the soul, the personal future) and external (the forests, the politics, the climate, the world and the worlds). This is not a story that happens in an imaginary future, to someone else, in the safe compartment of a movie. This is a warning.
Koko-di koko-da (2019)
surreal parabol for grief
I imagine this movie will resonate the most with people who are capable to go in deep painful corners of grief. It was sinister and sublime, lynchian and overall just beautiful. This movies does what fairy tales used to do.
Tesnota (2017)
Thoughtful and unforgettable
This movie is amazing and thought provoking, though difficult to watch at times. But no more difficult to watch than real life, real life of people trapped in wars they didn't create, women trapped in family roles decided for them, real life of small communities divided by identity wars where there is disregard and cruelty for the other just because they are part of another "tribe". There is a real footage of gruesome violence by Chechen militants that brought a lot of critique and controversy. The fact that people complain about this only shows their privilege: they have the power to complain about seeing that in the safety of their environment, on a tv screen. Real people who grew up witnessing and living through that don't have any power to complain about it.