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Udju Azul di Yonta (1992)
An important and interesting film from Guinea-Bissau
The Blue Eyes of Yonta is a 1992 film by Flora Gomes from Guinea-Bissau. It revolves around Yonta, a young girl who is in love with Vicente, a family friend and an independence war hero. Another man Ze secretly admires Yonta and anonymously sends her a love letter with a poem copied from a Scandinavian book. This letter is how the movie gets its name.
The film gives us an idea of how the African filmmakers of the time had limited resources and budget and resorted to a safe and simple style of shooting. The plot is straightforward, and most of the scenes have been shot on the spot from a single angle.
Aside from the main plot of the film, it beautifully portrays the thoughts, lives and struggles of the people during the period by giving significant screen time to small talks and daily conversations. For example, in the scene when Ze tells his uncle he got a job, his uncle says how he used to load crates for Portuguese and was overjoyed with independence thinking his life would change. But even after 20 years, his 'achhe din' didn't come. In another scene, a person talks of his 'European dream', but is told how "all Africans do in France is sweep the streets". The daily problems with power cuts are shown in various scenes throughout the film. In this sense, the movie is a nice window to understand the lifestyle in the African countries post-independence.
The film felt a little comical in a few scenes like the eviction of Santa from her house and the dance scenes in the club. The children, especially Yonta's brother, make the film more cheerful through scenes like the unwrapping of the received gifts and the closing sequence of the film, where they dance away beside the swimming pool.
Vicente is also an interesting character. He is critical of the people around him who seem to have forgotten the war. In the very beginning of the film, he criticises the timber driver for not understanding a commemoration. Towards the end, he becomes angry with Yonta, saying she has "replaced ideals with clothes, cars and discos" and forgotten how the country was born.
Overall I found the film much more engaging than I expected, primarily due to curiosity to learn about the lifestyle of the African people and also the (mostly) cheerful setting of the film.
Zhantai (2000)
A well-crafted Time Capsule
Platform by Jia Zhangke is a movie set in the 1980s which follows a group of performers who grew up in a period of cultural, social and economic changes in a small town China. Though it follows a loose plot, it contains a lot of episodes which portray the changes that took place during the time. These changes were not specific to performers, but the general public as well.
I found the movie really instrumental in gaining more insight into the lives of Chinese people during the period. The changes in clothing, hairstyles, music, and pop culture can clearly be seen in the movie. In fact, there are a lot of scenes which felt were explicitly added to focus on these things. A few examples include the scene where a man scolds Mingliang for wearing Bellbottoms, and one where Mingliang's friend who left the town comes back with a radio, introducing the people to the new pop music.
The change hugely affected the performers, who went from performing Maoist drama to "The All-Stars Rock 'n' Breakdance band". The film reveals the inhuman contract that the workers had to sign to get work, which disregarded the value of human life. The film also showed how seriously the people took the One Child Policy.
The style of the film is a mix of soothing in some parts and a little gloomy in others. The film is contemplative in nature, and I found it a little slow and less engaging in some parts, like spanning the camera across the city, and showing a man smoking a cigarette for about 20 seconds before cutting the scene. However, most of the other long shots actually gave the brain just enough time to think more about the preceding scene without losing attention, which includes most of the points I am writing. A few prolonged shots, especially ones with music, worked as a pleasant stimulus for the viewers emotional connect with the film, like one where Chang Jung does contemporary dance while a song plays on the radio. This style has the ability to invoke nostalgia in the audience, which is what makes it powerful.
A lot of economic changes in the lives of the people reminded me of stories I've heard from my parents. The arrival of electricity and later television, people going out more to restaurants, and increasing construction work. These changes were common to India as well. In fact, a crowd gathering in a room to watch TV reminds me of stories my mother tells me of her family owning the only TV in her village.
I believe that the film can serve as a nice time capsule for the period it is based on. Zhangke has given the audience an excellent piece of history to preserve.
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
A Powerful and moving drama
Salaam Bombay! (1988) by Mira Nair is one of the most powerful movies I've seen in this course. A tribute to the children living in slums of Bombay, the film is a stunning and brutal depiction of their daily struggles and hardships. Despite being aware of lives in the slums, I found the movie much more eye-opening than I'd thought.
The film mostly revolves around Krishna, who comes to Bombay to earn 500 rupees to pay for his elder brother's bike he has burned in his village. In Bombay, he lives in a slum in a red-light district, under the mentorship of Chillum (a drug pusher and addict), selling tea for a living. The film shows his friends, crush, and others like Baba, the local drug dealer. It is documentary-styled, with multiple non-parallel episodes, slowly progressing the plot forward.
The film explicitly displays problems like prostitution, drug addiction and child labour and raises sympathy for the children as well. The honesty, openness and realism for these topics is something not seen in the classic Bollywood films of the time. Scenes like wedding scene subtly portray the ignorance of the wealthy for the poor children, and reminded me of the Oscar winner 'Parasite'.
Coming to the question of who in India or abroad would've likely watched this film, I believe that with the plethora of movies available in Bollywood during this time, Indians would have been reluctant to watch this film (considering the lack of superstars, and the film being non-entertaining). The nature of denial in people may also contribute to Indians not wanting to watch this film. Furthermore, such films might have received a lot of attention abroad, mostly from people who wanted to learn more about the widely (in)famous slums of Mumbai. The critical acclaim this film received might also have boosted the popularity of the film abroad.
I also found the movie strikingly similar to the Italian neorealist films. The daily struggles, professional and non-professional actors, scenes using negative misdirection (for ex. When Baba jerkingly lifts his daughter while standing near balcony), theme around children and the portrayal of relationship between child and parent (Manju and her mother), all these elements found in the film were common in the neorealist films.
Personally, I found the film much more enlightening than I would have liked it to be, making me ask various questions to myself, which is what makes this film different from the other films I've watched in the course. During these times when Coronavirus is spreading rapidly, and the government is especially concerned about such slum areas (like Dharavi), I believe the film can give people a nice peek into the lives of the people in these areas.