I had the great expereince of watching two films at the Pan African Film Festival. I also had the opportunity to visit the mall and see all of the wonderful items on sale. I took my mother with me, she loves watching films from other countries.
The World Unseen is a film that was written and directed by Shamim Sarif author of the novel on which the film is based. The movie follows the story of two Indian–South African women who fall in love in the racist, sexist society of apartheid South Africa in 1952. Featuring excellent performances from leads Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth, the movie is a charming, well-crafted period drama done right. The film opens with the vivacious Amina, owner of the Locomotion Café as she fixes up her shop. Amina dresses in men's clothing, defies the local police as they come in to harass the Africans working in the café, and generally takes no nonsense from anyone. Shortly thereafter, the viewer is introduced to Miriam, a pregnant, subservient housewife living with her family in nearby Cape Town. When her husband allows her to travel to the café one day, Miriam meets Amina, and the sparks (along with a few pastries) fly. Miriam soon moves to the countryside, and the ever-handy Amina offers to build a garden in her yard. Amina uses the experience to get to know Miriam, bonding over evening tea, discussing her grandmother (a rape victim who was thrown out of the family) and the oppression of marriage and apartheid. When Amina hints at her sexuality, testing the waters, Miriam is conflicted. Inspired by Amina's independent spirit but unsure of how to proceed, she stalls. Amina displays her nonconformist spirit at a family dinner, much to the mortification of her traditional grandmother, who orchestrates the event to showcase Amina as a marriage prospect. Amina again shows her stripes when she defies the police and protects Miriam's visiting sister-in-law from arrest, saving the day for Miriam's family. Miriam's own defiance and strength begin to surface when she tries to save an injured African man. Unfortunately, her husband doesn't share her progressive attitudes. He begins treating her with increasing paranoia and violence, even as he carries on an illicit affair with his brother's vampy wife. Throughout the drama, Amina and Miriam slowly fall for one another. The sexual tension and chemistry are palpable as long glances give way to lingering touches, and finally, a kiss. The central dramatic question from this moment forward pits Amina's boldness against Miriam's love for her family and her place in the world as she knows it. The World Unseen is on its own by commenting on the culture. Both actresses do great work in representing the highly traditional Indian community, and it is only complicated more by the apartheid-era South Africa’s and the racism and sexism make it that much more difficult to defy the norm as well.
I loved this film, the story is great, it is sincerely a story of love and the accomplished vision on love and resistance in an intolerant world. It was as well my mother’s favorite movie. She absolutely wants to own this movie and see it again.
The other film we saw was a feature called, Desires of the Heart. This film is from Togo, it was released in 2005, it made its Los Angeles Premiere this year at the festival, and it was directed by Obanikoua Messa. Desires of the Heart is a film entirely in French, but it is very easy to follow with the subtitles. The film concentrates around four main characters; Jean, Carole, David (Jean’s father), and Jean’s mother. The film starts out with different scenes, showing Jean and Carole in their teens going out on dates. The film then suddenly cuts to Jean giving Carole a cell phone for her birthday, with which he later learns that she is also dating his father. David, Jean’s father has constantly been unfaithful to his wife. Jean knowing that Carole and his father are going to meet, calls his mother and lets her know the where and the when. The mother then goes to confront David, and this scene was incredible, the wife starts fighting with Carole and even tears off her wig, which sends the whole audience into a roaring laughter. After this scene there is a cut to Jean and Carole again on several dates, but now it is ten years later. They get married and the wedding scenes are long, it introduces us to their customs and traditions. It then cuts to Jean and Carole in their new home, which was given to them by David, Jean’s father. Soon after we learn that Jean has to go to Europe for business and he leaves Carole alone. David, knowing that Carole is alone he pays her a visit. He wants to resume the relationship they had started when she was younger, nut she refuses numerous amounts of time. David insists so much that she finally caves in and they have sex. This sinful act leads her to her doom. The next scene is of Jean getting off a plane, getting home. He arrives to find Carole extremely ill, and he gives her money to go see a doctor. She goes to the clinic and she finds out that she is not only pregnant with her father-in-laws baby but that he has infected her with H.I.V too. Carole fearing her husband will not forgive her calls David and tells him to come to the clinic. He goes and he finds out that he is also H.I.V. positive which causes him a heart attack. His wife and son, Jean come to the hospital where they find out that Carole and David have betrayed them. Jean on learning the news goes into a crying frenzy; I have never seen a man crying this much in any U.S. film. Moments later both he and his mom take an H.I.V test and they both come back negative. The following scene had to be one of the most memorable ones for me. It started with them learning that they were negative and they started singing thank you Jesus. The whole audience was laughing and even singing along with them, I guess I would also thank Jesus if I were in their shoes. In the end Jean and his mom forgive David and even Carole.
This film was great! The storyline does start out slow but it picks up great. It was extremely enjoyable to watch and sad at the same time to know that men like David do exist, and I did feel sorry for poor Carole. The cinematography of the film is basic and it is not a high budget film, the music that plays with each different scene is played to set a certain mood which does a good job. The scenes are long and there are moments where nothing is said in words but with facial expression to express what the character is going through. I highly recommend this film, and hopefully it will be released on DVD.
The World Unseen is a film that was written and directed by Shamim Sarif author of the novel on which the film is based. The movie follows the story of two Indian–South African women who fall in love in the racist, sexist society of apartheid South Africa in 1952. Featuring excellent performances from leads Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth, the movie is a charming, well-crafted period drama done right. The film opens with the vivacious Amina, owner of the Locomotion Café as she fixes up her shop. Amina dresses in men's clothing, defies the local police as they come in to harass the Africans working in the café, and generally takes no nonsense from anyone. Shortly thereafter, the viewer is introduced to Miriam, a pregnant, subservient housewife living with her family in nearby Cape Town. When her husband allows her to travel to the café one day, Miriam meets Amina, and the sparks (along with a few pastries) fly. Miriam soon moves to the countryside, and the ever-handy Amina offers to build a garden in her yard. Amina uses the experience to get to know Miriam, bonding over evening tea, discussing her grandmother (a rape victim who was thrown out of the family) and the oppression of marriage and apartheid. When Amina hints at her sexuality, testing the waters, Miriam is conflicted. Inspired by Amina's independent spirit but unsure of how to proceed, she stalls. Amina displays her nonconformist spirit at a family dinner, much to the mortification of her traditional grandmother, who orchestrates the event to showcase Amina as a marriage prospect. Amina again shows her stripes when she defies the police and protects Miriam's visiting sister-in-law from arrest, saving the day for Miriam's family. Miriam's own defiance and strength begin to surface when she tries to save an injured African man. Unfortunately, her husband doesn't share her progressive attitudes. He begins treating her with increasing paranoia and violence, even as he carries on an illicit affair with his brother's vampy wife. Throughout the drama, Amina and Miriam slowly fall for one another. The sexual tension and chemistry are palpable as long glances give way to lingering touches, and finally, a kiss. The central dramatic question from this moment forward pits Amina's boldness against Miriam's love for her family and her place in the world as she knows it. The World Unseen is on its own by commenting on the culture. Both actresses do great work in representing the highly traditional Indian community, and it is only complicated more by the apartheid-era South Africa’s and the racism and sexism make it that much more difficult to defy the norm as well.
I loved this film, the story is great, it is sincerely a story of love and the accomplished vision on love and resistance in an intolerant world. It was as well my mother’s favorite movie. She absolutely wants to own this movie and see it again.
The other film we saw was a feature called, Desires of the Heart. This film is from Togo, it was released in 2005, it made its Los Angeles Premiere this year at the festival, and it was directed by Obanikoua Messa. Desires of the Heart is a film entirely in French, but it is very easy to follow with the subtitles. The film concentrates around four main characters; Jean, Carole, David (Jean’s father), and Jean’s mother. The film starts out with different scenes, showing Jean and Carole in their teens going out on dates. The film then suddenly cuts to Jean giving Carole a cell phone for her birthday, with which he later learns that she is also dating his father. David, Jean’s father has constantly been unfaithful to his wife. Jean knowing that Carole and his father are going to meet, calls his mother and lets her know the where and the when. The mother then goes to confront David, and this scene was incredible, the wife starts fighting with Carole and even tears off her wig, which sends the whole audience into a roaring laughter. After this scene there is a cut to Jean and Carole again on several dates, but now it is ten years later. They get married and the wedding scenes are long, it introduces us to their customs and traditions. It then cuts to Jean and Carole in their new home, which was given to them by David, Jean’s father. Soon after we learn that Jean has to go to Europe for business and he leaves Carole alone. David, knowing that Carole is alone he pays her a visit. He wants to resume the relationship they had started when she was younger, nut she refuses numerous amounts of time. David insists so much that she finally caves in and they have sex. This sinful act leads her to her doom. The next scene is of Jean getting off a plane, getting home. He arrives to find Carole extremely ill, and he gives her money to go see a doctor. She goes to the clinic and she finds out that she is not only pregnant with her father-in-laws baby but that he has infected her with H.I.V too. Carole fearing her husband will not forgive her calls David and tells him to come to the clinic. He goes and he finds out that he is also H.I.V. positive which causes him a heart attack. His wife and son, Jean come to the hospital where they find out that Carole and David have betrayed them. Jean on learning the news goes into a crying frenzy; I have never seen a man crying this much in any U.S. film. Moments later both he and his mom take an H.I.V test and they both come back negative. The following scene had to be one of the most memorable ones for me. It started with them learning that they were negative and they started singing thank you Jesus. The whole audience was laughing and even singing along with them, I guess I would also thank Jesus if I were in their shoes. In the end Jean and his mom forgive David and even Carole.
This film was great! The storyline does start out slow but it picks up great. It was extremely enjoyable to watch and sad at the same time to know that men like David do exist, and I did feel sorry for poor Carole. The cinematography of the film is basic and it is not a high budget film, the music that plays with each different scene is played to set a certain mood which does a good job. The scenes are long and there are moments where nothing is said in words but with facial expression to express what the character is going through. I highly recommend this film, and hopefully it will be released on DVD.
2 comments:
Hi Arlene,
I had seen this film in the program and couldn't see it because of the time it was showing, so I was really happy to read your review. The two main characters, as you describe them so well, seemed to portray a lot of depth and complexity by the actors who portrayed them. And the story of Indian-South African women is about a culture that I wouldn't have thought of finding in South Africa...but, why not? Your apt description of the relationships between the characters certainly added to my curiosity about what happens in the end...which you smartly left out in your review. What did you think of the cinematography and quality of the film? I'm hoping to see it on DVD somewhere, sometime.
Hi Arleen,
It sounds like you and your mom had an excellent time at the festival. I was very happy to read your rave review about the film, "The World Unseen". I had really hoped to make that showing, but was unable to do so. You did a great job in your description of the characters, their families (and relationships to them), and in identifying the significant societal challenges these two women faced. I believe the two things that impressed me the most about your review, in addition to the kudos just mentioned, were first, the way in which you told us about the more tender moments these two women shared, in such an open, honest, manner - the way in which you described how they fell in love, if you will, and secondly, the fact that your mother wants to own this film. Gotta love it! Great job! I look forward to locating this film and watching it in the future based on your review.
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