Short trip home

I am in NYC, came home this Monday for my JET interview, which is a program organized by the Japanese government to attract English Teachers from English Speaking nations around the world to teach English in Japan. I interviewed for a International Relations Coordinator Position, I think it went well. I came home and found that our house was remodeled with a new wall put up right in the middle of our living room, it was a really strange sight, but cool. It feels strange to walk into a house that you've lived in for over twenty years and to find that it suddenly looks like its grown, like a person would. Anyhow I am enjoying my time home, I'll be returning to Germany at the end of the week and I will have a lot of work to catch up on.

The Berlin Film Festival just finished on Sunday and I must say that it has made my Berlin experience. I am still very much sleep deprived being that I woke up at 5:30 every morning and went to sleep around 12:30 every night; but it was definitely worth it. The experience reignited my passion for film making. I was pretty amazed that I could watch 4-5 movies back to back and not feel bored or tired; I thrive on imaginative worlds and alternative realities, I realize that I’ve always been this way. I’ve tried to reject this part of me since coming to Stanford, but in the end I don’t think it makes much sense to do so. The desire was to try and be more like other people, to fit in and to want the things that everyone else wants, namely, power, money, and prestige. Sure those things are interesting and somewhat attractive, but if I had it my way, I’d live in my own dream realities of my choosing 90% of the time and only have to deal with the world 10% of the time. I see film making as my attempt to bridge the two, and I see that as a necessity because I am after all living in this world and I don’t want to pull myself out of it completely.

Armin

Armin- Bosnian, Croatian, and German production.
Directed by Ognjen Svilicic.

Armin is an international production between Bosnia, Germany and Croatia about a father and son’s journey from their small village in Bosnia to Zagreb, the capital Croatia, in an attempt to secure a part in a film. This seemingly simple plot turns out to yield a depth of emotions that extends into the realm of national consciousness and identity.

Upon arriving in the capital, Armin begins to feel at the same time overwhelmed and intrigued by the landscape of the city. His father in all his optimism offers to spend far more than he can afford in order to make their stay in the capital feel even more grand and special. There first night in Zagreb and the two end up in a McDonalds; the father is stunned by the cleanliness of the restaurant and compares it to a hospital.

Like most father-son movies that involve a team effort to achieve some goal, Armin’s father is exceedingly proactive in promoting his son and ensuring his success at the audition. He buys a round of whiskey for the people working on the film in the hotel’s bar despite coming from a modest village in Bosnia. He even spends a few evenings with a German man working on the film drinking and chatting despite their inability to speak the same language.

The son, throughout their stay in the capital, acts as the voice of reason constantly reminding the father that they are not wealthy and that they do not need to prove themselves to be otherwise in the capital. However, there is a part of him that wants to succeed and that part comes out of him when he begins to practice his lines for the audition. On the day of he ends up waiting and waiting and is eventually told that he looks too old for the part. Upon hearing this, his father barges his way through to ask them to reconsider; he is finally able to convince them to hear his son showcase his accordion playing skills. All seems well and good until the son suddenly freezes and drops to the floor in the middle of singing and playing a Bosnian folk song. The sickness seems to add only insult to injury; all their hopes are dashed. The following day, the director calls the father and son back in as they are about to leave the hotel; he asks them if they would be willing to share the story of his son’s sickness in a documentary about the war in Bosnia. The son immediately rejects the idea despite the promise of money; the father asks his son to step outside and briefly reconsiders. In the end he says that everything up until now has been fair and square and that he would like to leave it at that. He says goodbye and with his son returns home.

This movie reminded me a great deal of Chen Kaige’s movie Together with You. Both movies center on the relationship between a father and son and the pursuit of a better life through stardom. However, in the end both movies leave the audience with a pleasantly warm feeling upon seeing a bond between father and son that is founded on mutual love and a desire to be together in truth and sincerity rather than focused on the pursuit of success. Armin is especially moving and poignant because the father and son are very much defined by their humble home in Bosnia; they are not big city people and they do not have money nor the type of personality that would put money before human relationship. Armin strikes a chord with that part of human nature that desires, above all else, anything that is truly human and warm and the audience is fortunate enough to experience this through father and son.

Pas Douce - Passing Shot

French film directed by Jeanne Waltz.

Passing Shot is a surprisingly complex emotional drama of a woman who, in a failed attempt to kill herself, ends up shooting an innocent teenage boy. The protagonist, Frederique, in an ironic twist of fate ends up having to nurse the boy back to health at her hospital. As the movie progresses, the reluctant and enraged boy begins to develop a soft spot for Frederique; the sentiment is reciprocated by Frederique as she gradually overcomes her inability to be near the boy without fainting.

What made this movie particularly engaging for me was the psychological complexity of the characters. Frederique is a nurse who is eerily unafraid of the dead; she also happens to be a champion marksman. From the beginning of the movie she is portrayed as a character that is emotionally distant. She has a broken relationship with her father, the person who taught her how to shoot; and her boyfriend tells her that he has found another woman, which is what prompts her to attempt to take her own life. The audience never really gets a complete picture of her emotional state before she shoots Marco, but we do get a sense of how her relationship with Marco brings her to the point where she willingly admits to the police that she was the shooter.

Marco is an emotionally sensitive teenager whose mother moved from France to Portugal to start a career of her own; when she finds out about her son’s condition, she rushes back to be by his side. However, Marco outwardly rejects his mother’s love and affection. He lashes out at Frederique and all the other nurses that attempt to take care of him. Despite his attempts, Frederique eventually manages to get through to him and earn his trust and affection.

The plot seems extremely staged in the sense that the same woman who randomly shoots a boy in the forest ends up being the nurse that has to take care of him. However, the strength of the movie lies primarily on a relationship that is borne out of seemingly unrealistic chain of events. The uncertainty as to whether or not Frederique’s secret will be found out becomes the driving force of the plot. This uncertainty is what gives depth to her relationship with Marco. Throughout the movie the audience is wondering to what degree Frederique’s guilt influences her relationship with the boy Marco.

The movie has a number of exceptionally well acted scenes. One scene that I found particularly moving was the scene right before Frederique goes to confess to her crime. Marco has already found out about her secret and angrily tells her to get out of his room as soon as she tries to enter. She walks over to his bed, with Marco in bed and his friend by his side, and begins to apologize and explain her actions. At the moment when Frederique says that she was attempting to shoot herself, Marco’s face changes from one of anger to one of compassion. Tears fall from her eyes as she realizes it was her luck that Marco took the bullet instead of her, because she did not want to die. At that point she goes to leave and Marco tells her that no one is forcing her to confess. She acknowledges that and she walks over to hold his hand; the moment seems to last forever and it is in that moment that we understand that Marco has forgiven Frederique and that she has accepted.

Berlinale - Film Festival Day One and Two

Today was the second day of the film festival. Yesterday I watched four movies and today I watched three for a total of seven. I was going to try and watch five today, but then I realized that I have to get up at six in order to get tickets for Sunday. The Film Festival is overwhelming. There are movies playing in like fifteen different theaters at any given time. On top of that, the films tend to be of different lengths so that sometimes I'll have no time to get from one film to the next, while at other times I'll have anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. All the films that I've watched have been pretty good, aside from these two documentaries that I watched, one about this artist Nikki Lee and the other one about this amusement park/carnival in Vienna called Prater. I think documentaries are tough to watch if you aren't really interested in the subject matter, whereas a narrative film usually follows a set pattern that the audience is familiar with. So far I've been staying away from the big Hollywood blockbuster's and have been focusing mainly on International films that I wouldn't be able to see back in the States. Anyhow, I'll keep this blog posted on the movies that I watch and try to provide reviews of some of them.

On a side note, it has been snowing these last couple of days; as a result, Berlin has been incredibly beautiful, kind of like a winter wonderland.

Cyprus !

Here’s an update on my life. Last week our entire group had the opportunity to visit Cyprus for a few days. The trip was more of an educational trip than a touristy one. The alumnus that generously pays for the entire trip is named George Will; and he allows the Stanford in Berlin campus to travel to a newly admitted EU member country each quarter. So Cyprus, the island is a divided one, in that respect it resembles Germany; Northern Cyprus is Turkish and Southern Cyprus in Greek. It was controlled by the Ottoman Turks for about 300 years until the Ottoman Empire fell around 1911 and Britain took control. It remained a British colony until 1955; one thing that I found incredible was the English fluency throughout the island. Perhaps it is the result of being colonized for over forty years or perhaps it might have to do with the fact that tourism is one of there main sources of revenue, but whatever the reason everyone from the local deli owner to the local pizza guy down the street can speak enough English to get you where you need to go. Amazing. Since 1955 the island gradually escalated into what my good friend would call a “hot mess.” Once the British left, all hell broke loose. The Greeks started vying for Enosis, which is the Greek term for unification with Greece, their assumed motherland. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem if the entire island were Greek, unfortunately there is a sizeable Turkish population living in Cyprus that did not and still don’t care to be reunited with Greece. To make a long story short, in 1974 there was a coup where a military junta overthrew the legitimate government in the South and started wiping out Turkish Cypriots left and right. It got to the point where the entire Turkish population was forced onto about 3% of the island (the island itself is only 40x100 miles) Eventually Turkey’s military intervened and stopped the rebel group and reestablished order. All was well and good until Turkey decided that it wasn’t going to leave; the Turkish Cypriots, with the protection of the Turkish army, established the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a border was put up and it was only in 2005 did they allow Cypriots to cross the border. When we were crossing from the South to the North we got to walk through three military blocks: first came the Greek military, next came the UN military and finally was the Turkish military; kind of like a multi-colored Oreo. The UN tried to negotiate terms for reunification in the last decade or so, but what became known as the Annan Plan failed to be adopted by both sides even after five provisions. The North wants a guarantee that they will have a federation where they are essentially partners with the South in all functions of the government; the South wants the Turkish military to leave because they see it as an illegal occupation and will not settle for anything less than that. What made the situation even more complicated was that Cyprus joined the EU as a divided state; basically the South, recognized as the legitimate government, gets all the trading benefits of being in the EU, while the North gets no international recognition and trade blockades that have severely hindered their tourism and resulted in a total halt in their citrus exports—the effect is an overabundance of oranges lying around on the streets, I kid you not.

Having heard impassioned representatives from both sides, I am at an impasse in deciding which side to root for. I’ve come to the conclusion that the political situation is just way too complicated for it to be simply about one side being right and the other wrong. But aside from political matters, the nation is gorgeous. They have summer-like temperatures literally three-quarters of the year. Cypriot food is like a mix of Turkish and Greek food with a little of their own kick to it. They have amazing cheeses and also do quite a number with pork and lamb (I only tried a little, I’ve pretty much given up eating meat) I would definitely recommend the country if your into touristy stuff and you want to visit a beautiful island that is also really interesting and culturally diverse. We got to visit this Greek Orthodox nunnery that was apparently visited by Barnabus and Paul the prominent Christian Apostle—their trip to Cyprus is actually recorded in the Bible which was really fascinating to read and then experience.

I have quite a few pictures to put up but I will put them up tomorrow.

The Berlin film festival is starting on Thursday. I am basically going to be living in Potsdammer Platz, the place where all the action is happening. It is like a film lover’s heaven. I will try to remember to eat and breathe. Wish me luck ;)