My June Movie Selection

Although I had an impressive movie stack waiting for my, this month I was relatively disorganised in this respect. I had a consistent menu of political documentaries that will probably use on different articles regarding the Middle East and therefore my interest for artistic takes was rather limited. However, I succeeded to watch some good/interesting ones, out of which I am happily sharing a very limited selection:

Ana, mon amour by the Romanian film director Călin Peter Netzer sounded very foreign to me. At first, as in fact I knew what it is all about. Only that the name of the book it is based on has a more local-sounding female character - Luminița, less fancy for an international audience - as it is based on the book by the Romanian author Cezar Paul Bădescu.

It´s about a young love, between two young people coming from very different geographies and social backgrounds, with a noteworthy psychoanalytical take. The main actors play very good, representing the naive innocence of the youth and all is interesting until the characters, all of them, are talking like vilains. A reminder of why I mostly refuse to read Romanian young literature: the language is so dirty and gratuitous that I don´t feel any interest in proceeding further to read and understand the story. I understand the catharsis of such an approach to language, but why do people need to behave kin such an aggressive way, especially parents and children? No idea if this is how really people talk there with each other, but such an exchange, in artistic terms, does not bring anything to the story. Also, it got lost a lot in translation because - thanks Gd - there are no equivalents for some of the curses and swear words. 

 

With a foot further in the former Communist world, I recommend an excellent documentary by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker: Karl Marx City. Two decades after her father committed suicide, Petra Epperlein is back to the nowadays Chemnitz - once Karl Marx City, although the philosopher never put foot there - to search the truth about his past. Was is a Stasi informer, as some anonymous letters he received after the reunification assummed? Why exactly did he killed himself? Was it somehow connected with the dramatic political changes taking place in Eastern Germany, especially in relationship with the infamous secret police?

It is a very honest and direct search for a truth, reading between the lines of the political oppression, the family credo and realities created by the secret police.

Although the characters and the story was very much out of my comfort and intellectually pleasure zone, I can´t refuse myself the pleasure of watching a Fatih Akin movie. Gegen die Wand/Head-On is a tragi-comical meeting between a 40-year old alcoholic loser and a young lady with suicidal tendencies. She marries him to get rid of the family pressure. He´s accepting because life cannot go any better anyway, but she gives him that sparkle that will make him alive again. As all Akin movies, it offers a more diverse sight into the Turkish community in Germany while it resonates with universal longings and stories of hope and survival.

Hopefully, will be able to make soon a richer movie wrap-up, but that´s happening when the weather is gorgeous and I live in a place where sommer does not last more than 2-3 full months. Need to catch up with life a bit, that´s it!