Hollow City [Angola, 2004]

 

N’Dala is a homeless young man forced out of his native town of Bie into the big city of Luanda by civil war. He was taken in by a Catholic orphanage, but he wanted no part of it and ran away to fend for himself on the streets (why he makes this decision is puzzling and it’s never really explored.) His first day is spent meandering and he sneaks into the beach tent of an old fisherman who later discovers him, feeds him and becomes a friend to him. N’Dala also meets Ze, a kid a few years older than him who shows him the ropes in the big city. They sneak into movies, they smoke cigarettes, they do chores for prostitutes and swindlers in exchange for food and shelter. N’Dala badly wants to go back to Bie, but it’s not an option and his hanging around with the bad guys eventually catches up with him. It is remarkable how good of a job non-professional actors that are children do in the film. That being said, it didn’t do a lot for me as a film. I understand that it’s important that films like this be made, but this one didn’t grab me at any time as there was no real narrative or character development. You kind of feel like you’re just peeking in on brief segments of someone’s actual life.

Waiting For Happiness [Mauritania, 2002]

Sometimes a film feels like it’s about nothing, even if you know what it’s really about. Waiting for Happiness is one of those films where you feel like you’re peeking from behind a curtain and peering into someone’s life rather than watching a narrative feature. I don’t require a strong narrative for enjoyment. I have some episodic films that rank among my favorites. That being said, Waiting for Happiness didn’t do a lot for me.

What you have here is a young man, Abdallah, that is emigrating to Europe soon and he’s come to spend time in his mother’s coastal town before his departure. He sticks out like a sore thumb in his Western dress. He also doesn’t speak the local dialect and has a hard time understanding people and being understood.

Most of the film is him silently observing his surroundings: a woman outside his door teaches traditional song to a young girl, an elderly electrician and his child apprentice buzz around the town fixing things, a would be emigre washes up dead on the beach. Those things are pretty interesting and kind of drive the film, but there’s too much disconnect…too many episodes that reveal nothing and go nowhere…like the Chinese immigrant singing karaoke to a single woman in the back room of a restaurant. I’m sure the filmmaker accurately captured life in this seaside town with its peculiar beauty of desert on the edge of the ocean, but there wasn’t enough going on for me to become engrossed. Even at a relatively short 96 minutes, the film dragged on. I could see myself liking other films by Abderrahmane Sissako as I liked elements of the film a lot (and it was gorgeously shot), but this one just didn’t do it for me despite it having picked up a lot of international awards.

Daratt [Chad, 2006]

Oddly enough, this is the second movie from Chad that I’ve seen this year. I saw the excellent A Screaming Man a few months ago and when starting this film project, I thought I might have to break my rule of only using films I’d never seen before, but it turns out that director Mahamat Saleh Haroun has directed several full-length features which are available in the US on DVD.

In Daratt, we find Atim, a sixteen year old living with his grandfather. Chad has just announced a general amnesty for everyone involved in their long civil war. They claim the cycles of violence have gone on too long and that more violence and retribution aren’t going to solve anything. Atim and his grandfather are outraged by the lack of justice and his grandfather soon instructs Atim to take his father’s gun and to go to the city and to kill Nassara, the man who killed Atim’s father before he was born.

Atim is from the provinces and it takes him a while to find his footing in the city, but he eventually does. He tracks down Nassara, who runs a bakery, and gets a job at the bakery. Atim has several opportunities to kill Nassara, but Nassara is attempting to mentor Atim and to teach him a trade. Atim’s conflict between avenging his father and making a better life for himself is what the film hinges on.

Daratt is good, but Mahamat Saleh Haroun has grown quite a bit as a filmmaker and I would recommend A Screaming Man over it if you’re only going to watch one film from Chad.

On a peculiar note, I found that this film, along with Opera Jawa were both commissioned in celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday.

Barakat! [Algeria, 2006]

This was another case of choosing a movie due to easy availability. Another one found at the local library. Until this film, the only Algeria related movie I’ve seen is The Battle of Algiers, which is one of my favorite movies ever (probably top ten material or better.)

Set sometime in the 1990s in civil war embroiled Algeria, Barakat! is the story of Amel, a westernized doctor whose journalist husband has gone missing…presumably because of stories he’s written. Amel, and one of her friends, an older nurse named Khadidja set out to find Amel’s husband based on a tip Amel received about his abduction from a neighbor. Amel and Khadidja are constantly harassed and chided (no to mention even briefly kidnapped) during their journey for being immodest women (e.g. driving without an accompanying male, wearing pants in public, not wearing headscarves, etc.) Regardless of what is thrown their way, they defend themselves and won’t back down from the countless obstacles put in their path.

After having their car (and shoes) stolen, they stumble upon the rural home of an old widower. The kind old man feeds them, provides them shelter and clean clothing. After they fail to find a taxi that will return them to their city, the old man drives them on his donkey cart. It’s an atypical road movie, but one that I enjoyed very much. It’s slow pace certainly won’t be for everyone, but it’s message is powerful: war is absurd and the women of Algeria were having to fight a war within a war for their own dignity. Amel is strong and feisty and I loved her as a character. Khadidja had literally participated in and fought for Algerian independence against the French. That generational difference also led to several clashes between Amel and Khadidja. It’s a quiet movie, but a really thoughtful one and one I heartily recommend to patient viewers.

TRAILER: Barakat!

Here’s a fun bit of trivia I found after doing some research on the film: Rachida Brakni, the actress that plays Amel is married to French soccer legend Eric Cantona.