Reviews

The movie Wadjda, directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, is the story of schoolgirl Wadjda, who studies in the religious school for girls in Saudi Arabia. In the movie at a first glance you might think that she was depicted as a person who has small deviant behavior, because in the movie she wears sport shoes, speaks loudly at school, sells different bracelets, uses different postcards for football players, helps his friend date with guy, hides the secrets of other girls in front of the headmaster, has a friendship with boy, listens to western music and does not afraid of to say what she things. Even if she breaks numerous social norms, it does not mean that she is anti-protagonist, in contrast, she is a girl who wants equality and freedom. She just wants to have bicycle and be a friend with Abdullah. The movie covers several important social topics: inequality, friendship, motivation, love, family problems, polygamous relationships and social norms in Saudi Arabia. Social inequality. It is seen from the beginning of the movie that women should always wear clothes that totally cover their body and face, except their eyes. They should not talk loudly, because men could listen their words and it would be a shame. Women can not speak and have friendly relationships with boys. Women are not allowed to ride even bicycles, and this action is showed as an action which is not intended for girls. Whereas, I did not see such restrictions for men, they could wear whatever they want, they could speak how loud they want, they even could get married second and third times without any permission and consent with their wife. Friendship. I liked the story of friendship between Wadjda and Abdullah. There was nothing shameful, just a story of friendship between two school children. Despite social norms about the friendship between boys and girls, those two became very good friends. Abdullah always was ready to help her. Abdullah went with her to look for the driver in faraway areas and gave her his own bicycle to teach her how to ride it. It was a really cute story. Motivation. I think the motivation is one of the most important and well-disclosed topics in the movie. The film shows the importance and challenges of having motivation and dream. The dream of Wadjda was to buy a bicycle to ride on it with his friend, but all people, his mother, headmaster said to her that bicycles are not for girls. Despite that, she started to earn and collect money to buy the bicycle for herself. She decided to take part in the Quran reading and knowledge competition. In the beginning, she could not read properly and did not have right pronunciation. She decided to be the part of religious club to practice her skills. Wadjda spent her own money to buy video quiz game to learn numerous concepts about Quran. One of the problems that she faced during the learning process is her shyness in front of the huge auditoria, because she could not cite the words of Quran melodiously. She could memorize all the words of Quran but could not cite them melodiously. However, at the end, she was able to overcome her fears and win the contest. I was very offended when the headmaster decided to not give Wadjda her winnings, because Wadjda wanted to buy the bicycle. On the other hand, this moment shows the honesty of Wadjda, because she could just lie and receive her money, but she said the truth, for which, unfortunately, she was punished. Love. Despite the problems in the family, her mother and father tried to not to show it to their daughter. Even if their marriage broke up in front of her eyes, her mother could support her daughter, who was unjustly deprived from her winning. Instead of buying beautiful dress, her mother decided to buy new bicycle for daughter to cheer her up. In my opinion, this moment illustrates that in spite of your personal problems it should not affect to your love and relationships with other people, especially with children. The movie did not have any technical mistakes, or some kind of cinematic miracle, but its content was unique, its soundtrack was marvelous, and its acting was great. The movie could show several important social problems, like inequality, love, and motivation, but, more important it showed that how it is important for people to feel the warmth and love of people close to you. The movie also emphasized an interesting point that people who do something that somehow violates social norms are not always bad people. I think this is what the director really wanted to show in her movie that there is nothing wrong with being different from others or having other desires and dreams, at least until it does not hurt others; that you should always work hard and follow your dreams, even if you are just small girl living in the society which strictly follow social norms.

The movie "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring" (2003), directed by Ki Duk Kim, is a true masterpiece, that covers philosophical ideas, like life cycle and attachment to things and people. The movie shows different life stages of young monk, who was raised by older one. In all scenes, they live in the temple, which is located in the middle of the lake, surrounded by mountains and fosters. In the first scene (Spring), boy tied a stone to the fish, frog and then to the snake. It is not clearly shown his motivation to do so, and I am not sure that he intentionally wanted to harm them. He was very young, and it is more likely that he did it because he found it interesting and amazing. However, our actions should not harm others' lives. The Buddhist monk saw his action and harshly punished his disciple by tying larger stone to his back. He wanted to give him lesson and said that he should release all animals from the stone, and if someone is dead, then "you will carry the stone in your heart for the rest of your life" (m. 16:08). Fish and snake were dead. The facial expression of disciple in these moments was priceless and very emotional. I had the opinion that he might have trauma for life. It was not clear for me, why the teacher did not help these animals; he saw everything and did nothing. I hope he might find other ways to teach him a lesson without harming animals and disciple's psychology. In the second moment (Summer), the disciple meets a young girl and falls in love with her. He decides to go after her and renounces monasticism. His teacher said: "Lust awakens the desire to possess. And that awakens the intent to murder." (m. 47:38). He was right, at the end the disciple murdered her because of her desire to be with another man. This moment illustrates that nothing is forever, the love, desire, feelings, people are all temporary and leave all of us soon. In the third moment (autumn), the disciple flees after murdering and returns to the isolated temple to his Buddhist teacher. The movie in this scenario raises another important question. The Buddhist monk said to his disciple: "Sometimes we have to let go of things we like. What you like, others will also like!" (57:34-57:41 m.). We can not affect to the feelings and desires of others. When we want something or someone, our emotions take hold of us, and we stop to think rationally. As a result, the desire will turn into obsession, and in this moment the obsession turned into killing the person, whom he loved. As Buddhist monk assumed, everything is temporary, and we can not control others' desires, and we sometimes can not even control our own desires and emotions. The best way in such cases is to let go of our desires and loved ones, especially when it is not mutual. I do not clearly understand the ending of the episode, when the Buddhist monk decided to commit suicide. I had some assumptions: he wanted to atone because of his poor education to his disciple or maybe he wanted to free his body and everything. Then, he was reincarnated to the snake. Reincarnation is one of the important concepts in Buddhism. In the fourth episode (Winter), the disciple returns to the temple after the jail and again became the monk. He tied the stone and climbed to the top of the mountain with this stone. The possible reason is that he wanted to let go of the guilt, which started in the beginning of his life, when he tied the stones to animals. I think this guilt haunted him all his life up to this moment. In the beginning of this episode, woman left the child in the temple. Monk decided to raise a child as a monk. The next episode, called Spring, is one of the most important episodes in the movie, because it shows the cyclical nature of life. Child repeats the actions of the disciple in the beginning of the movie, but instead of tying stones to the animals, child puts the stones in their mouths. It shows that everything in life repeats. The only thing that we can do is to help others not repeat our mistakes. I am very curious to know how the monk would decide to educate the new disciple. Will he choose the same method as his Buddhist teacher or another method?! We could help others live a decent life. In other cases, as its theme shows, everything will repeat in this life and spring will start again. In this movie, I liked everything: the content, soundtracks, the acting, nature, animals. It was interesting to see some concepts and elements of Buddhism through the life of the disciple. That is why my rating for this movie is 10/10.

The movie "Inside Mecca", directed by Anisa Mehdi, shows the history of Hajj, its importance, traditions, rituals, emotions and problems that people might have during their trip to Mecca. Hajj is an Islamic pilgrimage, where around 2 million people from more than 170 countries come each year to Mecca. The movie shows the story of 3 people from United States, South Africa, and Malaysia, who decided to make pilgrimage. They were from different race, nationalities, and social backgrounds, but they were united by the fact that they were Muslims. The movie did not just provide additional information about the Hajj, but it shows what it really is through the eyes of these 3 people. The movie emphasizes the significance of Hajj for Muslims and points out that each Muslims should visit it once. However, the movie also illustrates that making pilgrimage to Mecca is not an easy process and requires good health and solving many bureaucratic issues to get there. It also shows the personal and general problems that pilgrims face. One of such personal issues was the story of Fidelma from Texas, the USA, because she was raised in Catholic family and her conversion to Islam created some tensions in her family. She also had some problems to prove that she is Muslim and to get her visa. Another pilgrim Khalil from South Africa also faced some problems, because people around him treated him differently because of his color. The third pilgrim Ismail, the entrepreneur from Malaysia, did not face any gender or race problems, but had some personal spirit issues that he needed to solve for himself during his pilgrimage. He also lived during the Hajj like everyone else, slept in the tents and wore Ihram which shows that all of us are equal in front of the God despite our differences in social status, gender, or race. The movie also shows common problems for majority of people. Most of the people, who decide to visit the Hajj, should be ready for transport problems, severe climatic conditions, dust, 2 million of people, and the collapse of crowd in some cases. There was a moment where it was seen that people without good economic conditions slept outside of the tents under the stars. It is possible to understand them, because as it is said in the movie, it costs about 2,500 US dollars to receive the full package for this trip. There are also some additional services for VIP guests, where everyone could make their life more comfortable for additional payment in the tents. Fidelma O'Leary points out "I don't know why anyone would wanna go spend a week with three million sweaty people in the heat of the desert unless they really were doing this for the love of God" (13:19-13:30 m.). This moment perfectly illustrates that people despite the uncomfortable conditions are ready to overcome them to be closer to the God. The movie shows that the government of Saudi Arabia are doing good job in making pilgrimage more accessible and comfortable for ordinary people. For example, they have constructed more than 100 000 special white tents to accommodate more than 2 million people during the Hajj. The government also designed and "built a two-tiered pedestrian walkway" (48:01 - 48:05) to facilitate the access to commit Satan stone ritual. The walkway really improved the condition, because fewer people began to die in the crowd collapse during the ritual. The walkway allows them to throw stones to attack the Devil in the first and second floors. The ritual relates to the story of Abraham who throw such stones to the devil to drive him away. I would give the movie high ratings, but some technological problems, associated with filming, changed my mind. The movie had good soundtracks, but their volume was too high during some moments, and it really distracted me from the content. Another problem was related to the interference inside the movie. I do not know why but there were few interferences, like moments between 15:24-15:56 minutes, and these episodes ruined the impression about movie. Moreover, I did not like the part, where it is shown how people killed ships and they skinned them. I understand the importance of the ritual, which is related to the history of Abraham, but I believe this moment of killing could be missed. I know that movie was shot almost 20 years ago, but with modern technologies I hope that it is possible to make some changes with its video and audio problems. To sum up, I really liked the content of the movie, because the movie through the life of 3 pilgrims could show the problems that people might face during the Hajj. It also showed their personal problems and stresses. In addition to that, I get a lot of new information about Islam, Hajj and its rituals. However, I still believe that some technological problems should be improved or made video editing again. In general, my rating is 8/10.

The movie Islamic Art: Mirror of the invisible world, directed by Robert H. Gardner, shows how Islam emerged and what role it played in the life of humans in different continents. I think Robert Gardner did a great job in showing the beauty of Islamic World, its religious buildings, objects, gardens, and the genius of people who created them. The movie was informative, and the images of great and famous buildings, and objects encouraged me to google them during the movie to get additional information about them. D. Fairchild Ruggles, historian of Islamic history and art from the university of Illinois said, "I do not have to read Arabic to appreciate the purity of simple black script on a white background on a plate." (4:19-4:28). In my opinion, it was one of the core ideas of the movie, that you might be from different nation, country, use different language or have different religious faith, but you could appreciate pure art, because Art, as a religion, does not have borders and language. The history of Islam started in 610 in Mecca, when the prophet Muhammad received the words of Koran from an angel. One of the oldest Islamic buildings that was constructed was the Dome of Rock. The shrine is located in Jerusalem, the city which "provided the backdrop for a development" (Berkley, p. 82). The building was one of the first signs of emergence of new religion and culture. The use of calligraphy and the inscription of all around the building that emphasized that "Say: God is one, God the eternal, he has not begotten, nor is he begotten, and there is no one comparable to him" (Berkley, p. 81-82) definitely separated it from other religions, especially from Christianity, where God was viewed as tripartite (7:24). Even if all mosques had the same purpose, and almost same specializations inside, there were used different styles, techniques and materials to construct them. Each building showed its uniqueness and represented also changes that it took from the new environment. For example, the mosque in Cordoba, constructed by the order of Abd al Rahman, used "the hypostyle mosque of Damascus as his blueprint" (22:29-22:32). In addition, there were also used new type of columns, called Visigothic columns, which were widely used in Spain of that time. It was something new that was acquired from another culture and increased the dimensions of buildings. The Mosque Suleimaniye, constructed by the greatest architect of Ottoman Empire Mimar Sinan, was inspired by another magnificent building of the city, Hagia Sophia. "Sultan Suleiman and his architect Sinan tried to outdo what was there before" (30:11-30:14). It is true that Mosque Suleimaniye had a little bit different dimensions, and proportions, but the, in general, they had the same design. This is another example of how Islam adapted new technologies and techniques and design of another culture in construction of new building. I remember the time that I have spent in Istanbul, and seeing Hagia Sophia, Suleimaniye Mosque, and Blue Mosque. They truly impressed me. I was astonished by the spatial effect when I entered inside. I was surprised and could not understand how it was possible to construct the buildings of such dimensions several centuries ago. I was amazed by its interior and external decorations, frescoes and writing styles. I remember that I caught myself thinking that it needed it required not only skills and knowledge, but also painstaking work of dozen, may be even hundred of workers to construct such beautiful buildings. Except them, it was also impossible to build them without enormous wealth. The movie shows that in the world exists splendid Mosques that were built in the absence of huge investments. One of them is Djenne Mosque in Mali. It was made from simple materials, like mud brick and timbers. Despite its simplicity it is not inferior to other mentioned above buildings in terms of beauty and elegance. Its outside design reflects "Old West African tradition", but "the inside has all the elements" of Islamic culture. (32:27-32:36). For example, they built 99 columns, each column for each name of the God. (32:52). The depiction of animals in sculptures, everyday objects, textile industry, painting art symbolizes the importance of role of nature in Islam. Different stages of flowers, "princely animals" such as lions, falcons, griffins, represent the beauty of image. One of the possible reasons of why Islamic people depicted nature in their products may be because of the God's words in Koran: "To know me, know my creations". (47:42-47:47). Another part of the nature that played an important role in Islam is water. Water is the symbol of purity; all Muslims were needed to wash their hands before the pray. Sometimes it required engineering skills to bring this water from distant place to Mosque. The documentary movie is absolutely fantastic from which I received a lot of new information that I did not know before. The information was not conveyed just as a lecture, but as a combination of examples of great objects, their history, opinions of experts and calm music. The movie showed that Islamic Art always is in the process of development. It took a lot of innovations from other culture in building their objects, and they also invented their own new style. I am personally convinced that movie could convey its main topic that you should not belong to Islam to appreciate its Art.

The movie Andrey Rublev is considered as one of the most impressive movies in Russian cinematography. Taking into account that in 1960s the technology in the sphere of cinematography was not advanced, Andrei Tarakovsky could create the real image of Russia in 15th century with its decorations, clothes and emotions of really suffering people. The movie covers different heartbreaking themes and really challenges the emotions of people, because it is impossible to see the cruelty, violence, rape, assault, torture, treachery and treason without any empathy. The movie is not only about the life of one of greatest medieval painters of icons, but also about the formation of Russian nation and its religious belief to the God. I was truly impressed by three moments in the movie. First one, even if I have watched movie few days ago, I still can not forget the smirk and mockery of Tatar's leader. The smile in his face appeared after his understanding that the brother of Vasliyi did not just show them the road to the city, but also was ready to kill and rape his own nation to achieve the power. The smirk illustrates the treason of Vasiliyi's brother and the victory of Tatars not only in the city of Vladimir, but also in most parts of the Russia, because the city Vladimir opens the direct road to Moscow, which, in my opinion, was the real aim of Tatars. This moment shows the political and military situation of Russian nation of that time. The second moment that I liked in the movie was when Andrey sits in the middle of corpses and tries to understand everything that happened. He looks to his own work that was destroyed by the soldiers of mix troops. He looks to the Cathedral from inside and can not understand why human beings committed such cruelty in such religious place under his frescos. For the person, who find his purpose of life to serve God and all people in the world, it was difficult to accept the reality. However, the violence in the Cathedral made him question his purpose of life. In this moment, I would like to mention an outstanding role Anatoly Alekseyevich Solonitsyn, who played Andrey Rublev, who was able to fully convey the emotions of a person whose psyche was slightly shaken after all he went through. Third moment that I have found really interesting in the movie was the moment in the end when people started to seek a person who could cast and forge a bell. Young boy Boris begged to help them to cast the bell, he said them that he knows the secret of casting the bell that his father left him. Boris helped them to construct the bell, however, in the end he admits that knows nothing, he did not know any secret before. This moment I find very interesting, and it is still, I think not just for me, mystic for me. How young unexperienced person who did not know anything could manage all workers to construct such huge bell. Ringing a bell makes people happy, they start to smile and congratulate each other. I think it was the first moment in the second part of movie, where Andrei Tarakovsky showed people without suffering. This moment illustrates that in such tragic and dark times people in Russia find their consolation in religion and in faith in God. This moment also shows the reaction of Andrey Rublev to everything that happened. He again started to talk with people. The actions of Boris, who in his young age was able to take the initiative in his own hand and make a masterpiece bell for Russian nation of that time, made Andrey Rublev think that he shouldn't stop believing in people and God. Boris's heroic and mystical action made Andrey Rublev draw again. The sound effects were another masterpiece. The sounds of burning fire, splashing water, the movement of wood details of bell, and the sound of wind made me feel like it is reality, not a movie. I think that Andrei Tarakovsky could perfectly convey the movement of nature and animals: the movement of wounded horse, flying birds (I think they were geese), the movement of tree leaves and trees in the middle of fire. Andrei Tarakovsky did magnificent job with just only 900 000 rubles. I think it is really small amount of budget even for his time, because he could recreate the image of XV century with remarkable clothes, nature, and sound effects. To be honest, when I have read the name of the movie, the first thing that came to my mind was that it would be another ordinary movie about the life and work of artist. However, actually Tarakovsky was able to convey the reality of XVI century, the emotions and tragedy of ordinary people. Movie allows us to understand that we should not lose our faith in God and people. That is why my rating for this movie is 10/10.