Myanmar Diaries (Ned/Mya/Nor)
Ukraine, unfortunately but understandably from a western point of view gets most of the airtime when it comes to news reports, but another conflict, predating those events by over a year, still continue apace further east. The military coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi from power at the start of February last year has seen the country's infant new democracy throttled in the cradle. For the inhabitants, it's a daily onslaught of thumping on the door in the middle of the night, snatched family members, and thousands of deaths. The civil disobedience movement, growing organically out of this, made of a ragtag of civilians brave enough to bang pots and pans, stand unarmed against groups of military police, or even join the guerillas hiding in the countryside and outright bring the war back to the military's door, give a fragile hope for the future
Myanmar diaries is a powerful window into this horrible world in which to exist. Created anonymously by Burmese filmmakers, it intersperses acted scenes in small rooms; small vignettes showing life's twisted and broken under occupation, and captured phone footage of protests, attacks, shootings and more. Though you know the former is acted out, the scenes gain additional weight because you know the situations they depict went on a thousand times, perhaps behind the curtain of that cramped flat you just saw as a mass beating of protesters took place.
Not for the faint of heart, but a much needed light shining on yet another atrocity as the pendulum continues to swing further to the right. 7.5
Climate crises (plural) is pretty undeniable now with half of Pakistan under water, regular and searing forest fires in the Americas, and of course the Arctic ice thawing at an unprecedented rate. It's depictions of these kinds of international incidents that precede the main meat of this film but somewhat surprisingly, and a little disappointingly, it settles on two relatively small and local fights, in the UK and Germany, connected by a common threat of open cast coal mining, and Clumsy, a beringed climate activist who lends his time to protesting both of them. For the UK, a small village in the Tyneside Pont Valley is under constant threat of reopening a once underground mine as open cast, a fight that has waged between the residents and banks, the coal mining company looking to get at a rich seam of black gold, for the past 30 years. Germany however has the largest open mine that has quickly spread across the site of the formerly huge Hambach forest, of which now only 10% remains. Even so, the company in charge eats ever further into it and unsatisfied with even that, uses draconian laws to evict residents in any village if they so much smell coal beneath.
Starting with an almost cozy tale of locals and activists coming together to sit and sing and make banners progresses to higher stakes and more dangerous situations; treetops and rabbit holes become the last outposts as armoured police increasingly lose control of the situation and lives of the activists themselves become chips on the table. As businesses leverage their best lawyer talent to push slowly forward skirting around the limits of the law we see just how much both sides are willing to go. What starts small becomes much bigger and a study on just two small examples of the worldwide move to a direct action approach. An inspirational film that I will be introducing to my kids. 8
Alcarràs (Spa/It)
The Solé family, spread across three generations spend countless summers happily picking fruit in their orchard home in the Alcarràs. Centuries old orchard trees produce bountiful harvests that provide a livable income for them, at least until now. The market trading value pushed downwards by the big buyers is compounded by news that the current head of the nearby Pinyol family - whose grandfather rewarded the Solés for hiding them in the war with a verbal agreement that the land was theirs to farm - is not much of a fan of traditional farming - or traditional handshake agreements - and likes the look of what is legally if not rightfully his land after all, covered in solar panels.
Alcarràs is a moment in time where a family must adjust, and it's told deftly with room to study the effect of change on the three generations; the youngest children play happily around the stressed parents with little understanding of the politics at work, only to gaze in confusion at the outcomes that affect them; the teens are torn between the need to have a familiar baseline in their life and the opportunity to rip it up and find something new. In the middle, father Quimet is stuck in his own ways, too young for retirement but too old for reinvention, watching helpless as his life shakes and crumbles around him and no-one seems to be entirely on his wavelength. Rogelio, grand father to the flock seems to be able to have the calm to see the coming changes and not have the will to fight them. Still worse, their friendly auntie and uncle who come over for meals and get togethers, see advantage in a deal, and seem to be taking matters into their own hands.
It's a beautifully shot, bittersweet film of the loss of a way of life, it's situation recalling themes from both the earlier climate film and my own personal situation with the politics of neighbourly land ownership. But it did feel overly long, and the use of nonprofessional actors, though providing a sense of authenticity, did mean it went a little unfocused here and there. 7
Mediterranean Fever (Pal/Ger/Fra/Cyp/Qat)
The Leeds Palestinian Film Festival is not something I was familiar with but it's been going on quietly in the shadows of LIFF for nearly a decade now. As a joint collaboration, this feature about strange and unlikely friendships was also the launch film of the LPFF.
Waleed is depressed, and we don't know why. He has been suffering clinically for.. maybe ever and is just existing. Therapy is no help and his days just revolve around sleeping, feeding the kids, and not writing his book. Variety comes in the form of Jalal, a brash, arrogant man with loud dogs and louder music tastes, but who at least gives Waleed something to take his mind off the emptiness. Jalal becomes more interesting still when it becomes clear he's mixed up with some unsavoury types who want their loan money paid back with interest, but is Waleed just after a creative writing inspiration, or something darker..
Though billed as a comedy, the laughs are sparingly applied in favour of a dark undertone that rises to the surface in the final act as things come to a head. Amer Hlehel is capable as Waleed, his ability to stare the pants off his subject matter tells of the dark thoughts within, eventually eclipsing Ashraf Farah, who plays Jalal with an initial arrogance that softens in aghast as the two parts swap places. A good, solid film that explores some of the darkest reaches of the mind. 7
For this week, that's all I can manage but with a following wind and an understanding partner, maybe I can fit a few more in next week.
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