You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Pachalafaka

Okay, the title's a bit of a cheat, because I'm going to talk about a few films associated with the Middle East and Israel, rather than Turkey. But seeing as I was considering using "The Sheik of Araby", you should consider yourselves lucky. (If anyone is actually still reading this apart from Giffy. :)

But first, I want to point out that I chose not to try and squeeze another movie in today, despite finishing at the early hour of 9pm. Instead, I came home, with the intention of tidying up for a while and then going to bed early. I've managed the first one pretty well; I'll keep things short so I have a shot at the second. :)

***

The films - Blind Flight, Control Room, Checkpoint, Persons of Interest and Lost Embrace.

Blind Flight was a biopic focusing on Irish teacher Brian Keenan's experiences of dealing with being a hostage for more than five years, and his relationship with the English reporter John McCarthy who was his companion for more than four of them. I thought it was good - I enjoyed it, and it humanized his captors while still showing the brutality that this sort of situation can bring out in people. I strongly doubt that I'd do anywhere near as well in the same situation; I'm too inclined to "go along to get along", for a start.

This film provides an interesting contrast to both Persons of Interest and Checkpoint. In the first, simple interviews with people of Muslim faith or Middle-Eastern ancestry about the arrests and detentions that they and their families suffered was intercut with Ashcroft declaring that they would use any excuse to arrest people they suspected, including spitting on the streets or obscure local laws. In fact, in many of the cases mentioned, people were simply arrested without charges and put into solitary confinement (without even being questioned) for months on end. One hopes that they were never shared the risk Keenan ran of summary execution, but when you've had your other rights stripped away, I doubt you're feeling sure about anything. Ashcroft... reminds me of Imelda Marcos, in a way; the same mixture of absolute moral conviction, excellent public presentation, and underlying looniness. Scary stuff - especially since there was a bit at the very end showing how these things were still going on in 2003, when the film was made.

Checkpoint, on the other hand, inevitably reminded me of the classic Stanford Prisoner/Guard experiment. The different attitudes between the conscripts and the border police, the pointless ritual humilation of the Palestinians - I want to emphasise that the humiliations often weren't malicious, but they seemed... stupid. For example, guarding a point in a road in the middle of nowhere just inconveniences people travelling legitimately - anything that can be circumvented by having a terrorist get out of the car around the bend, jog cross-country, and meet up with the car further on is something not worth doing. Persons of Interest was fear turned stupid; Checkpoint showed, in many cases, that stupidity institutionalized. And many of the Israelis seemed to know this, and dealt with it in different ways - some worried that they would look bad on camera, some tried to point out the bad things that were happening that made these measures necessary, and some openly dehumanized their subjects. You heard, "Let them wait" a number of times - the power to choose the time when things will happen is actually quite a big deal.

Lost Embrace was a lot lighter than any of these. An Argentinian whose mother is a Polish Jew wants to escape the mall that has framed his life up to this point by getting a Polish passport and going to Europe. His father divorced his mother and left to fight for Israel in the Yom Kippur war, and he resents having been deserted. I should emphasise that the film is actually quite upbeat, despite the fact that the economy is in the toilet being one of the constants throughout the film. I'd say one of the main themes of the movie was people's tendency to see what they assume is there, and avoid asking questions because they'll probably hurt - and how important it is to be able to admit you were in the wrong. So maybe there is another way these films are linked, after all.

***

Picked up my international driver's permit, had my eyes checked, chose a pair of frames - I'm getting closer and closer to actually being ready to go overseas in a month's time. Maybe I'll even see my flatmates a bit more before then.

Posted by svend at July 30, 2004 12:42 AM