Hey folks, Harry here with two wonderful brief reviews from Capone, our man in Chi-Town! He puts out a question, wondering aloud how the Academy could ignore OSAMA for Best Foreign Film. Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the country of origin has to officially submit it to the Academy as their selection to be considered. This is the same reason that CITY OF GOD didn't get nominated I believe. Here's Capone...
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here scanning the nether-regions with a rundown of some films people need to keep an eye out for at their local art house (assuming you have such a thing). It may actually require you to read those little three-line, single-theatre blurbs in the movie listing section of your paper, and not the enormo ads with a big multiplex conglomerate’s banner above them. The good stuff is always worth searching for.
TOUCHING THE VOID
Documentary filmmaker Kevin Macdonald is a big fan of high drama. At the 2000 Oscars, Macdonald took home the Best Documentary award for his gripping work ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER about the terrorist event at the 1972 Munich Olympics. I knew exactly how it was going to turn out, but I was perched on the edge of my seat regardless. With his latest film, TOUCHING THE VOID, you’re even more certain of the outcome (since the death-defying subject of the film is the one telling his part of the story), but it doesn’t matter. This is not only the most suspenseful documentary I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen many), this is one of the great nail-biters in film history.
For those of you who are non-mountain climbers (I’m guessing a lot of hands are going up right now), TOUCHING THE VOID is the story of Joe Simpson’s miraculous 1985 climb up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, remain the first and only climbers to travel this route successfully (if you can call it that; they did make it to the top). The problems started on the way back down. Simpson landed on his right leg the wrong way and absolutely wrecked it, breaking it in ways that made me ill just hearing about. Rather than leave Simpson to try and get help (essentially assuring his death in the process), Yates uses two pieces of 150-feet rope to lower him down the mountain 300 feet at a time. Did I mention that this is the easy part of the trip down? What followed for Yates and particularly Simpson remains one of the most nightmarish true stories I’ve ever heard. Sub-zero temperatures, snow and wind storms, hidden crevices that seem to lead nowhere, and the obvious peril of simply falling all factor into this harrowing tale.
Director Macdonald has done this story the best kind of justice, despite exiting the conventional documentary style for large sections of this film. Since there is absolutely no footage or even stills of the actual events, the filmmakers stage reenactments of the climbing events. The best part of these reenactments is that they’re filmed in the actual locations Simpson and Yates were nearly 20 years earlier; in some cases (far away shots where faces are not clear) Simpson and Yates actually did the climbing themselves wearing the same clothes they did originally. The actors who play the two men don’t really do much more than climb, scream, and swear, since most of the audio track is devoted to Yates and Simpson (as well as a third man who waited for them at the base camp) retelling in great detail every aspect of this story. Since Simpson wrote a million-selling book about these events many years ago, and has gone on to write many more books about climbing since, it’s not surprising that his version of events sound the most polished. This is a good thing. His recollections on not only the actual events but on his mindset are what sets TOUCHING THE VOID apart from other disaster-oriented documentaries. The madness that sets in when you haven’t had water for days but you can hear it streaming under the glacier you’re walking on is described so vividly, I guarantee that every person in the theatre will get very thirsty.
Whether Simpson survived this ordeal clearly isn’t in question, but that didn’t stop me on a couple of occasions from saying to myself “There’s no possible way he can live through this.” The audience I saw this with was as quiet as I’ve ever sat with, and we were fortunate enough to have Simpson on hand after the screening for a Q&A, during which he filled in a few of the blanks about how much skins he lost as a result of frostbite, how long it took him to climb again, how bad he smelled at the end of this hell on earth experience, and how many times Hollywood tried to make a feature film of this story (at one point, Tom Cruise was set to play Simpson). With any luck, TOUCHING THE VOID is setting the stage for yet another year of high-profile, superbly made documentaries. I realize that this film may have already opened where you are. If it has, go see it. If it hasn't, go see it when it does.
OSAMA
Last year was not only a great year for documentaries, it was a banner year for some of the most depressing films I’ve ever seen. This is definitely not a criticism. Bad movies are only bad if they suck, not if they make me depressed. I’m not even talking about your classic Hollywood tear jerkers, I’m talking downright tragic films, including more high-profile works like HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG and MONSTER. But neither of these great works holds a candle (at least in terms of being oppressively downbeat) to the recent Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film winner from Afghanistan, OSAMA, the first film shot entirely in that troubled country since the rise and fall of the Taliban. This stunning achievement is not the kind of film you cry while watching; that would feel petty. The troubles the characters in this film are going through put your’s to shame, trust me.
Based on a true story and set while the Taliban were still in control of the region, this film tells the story of an Afghan woman who loses her job at the hospital where she works when it’s shut down by the Taliban. With her husband and brother dead and a rule that says women can’t walk the streets unescorted by legal companion, the woman and her 12-year-old daughter are essentially trapped at home unable to get food or supplies. In a desperate move, the woman cuts her daughters hair and disguises her as a little boy. I’ve seen similar story lines in other films out of the Middle East, but none that carried such an immediacy to it. The girl gets a job working with a grocer and is constant danger of being discovered. When the Taliban round up all the young boys in the area for military and religious training, you practically stop breathing with fear. One other boy knows the girl’s secret and tries to protect her identity, including giving her the very masculine name Osama, but eventually things take a terrible turn as her emotional state and maturing body give her away. I’m not giving anything away by taking you this deep into the story. There’s plenty more misery to follow, don’t you worry.
One of the other interesting things about OSAMA is the subtext. Not all of the Taliban members are portrayed as ruthless and evil (most are, but not all). Also, there’s a scene near the end of the film where prisoners, including a Western journalist and a sinful woman, are being sentenced in a Taliban “court.” These seem almost like throwaway moments, but their impact is inescapable when you find out what their sentences are. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that probably the bulk of the cast is made up of non-actors. If that’s true, I’m astonished at how strong the portraits are here. First-time feature director-producer-editor Siddiq Barmak (whose struggling acceptance speech at the Globes didn’t do him justice; I wish he’d had an interpreter) has done an admirable job drawing the performance out of his actors, but I’m guessing that their tears and pained expressions were there long before he showed up with his camera. But the greatest credit to OSAMA’s greatness is its young star Marina Golbahari. If you thought WHALE RIDER’s Keisha Castle-Hughes broke your heart, wait until you see what Marina does here. Okay, maybe you will cry.
I’m genuinely stunning that this film was not nominated for an Oscar, since I’m fairly certain it was the official Afghan entry. I realize some of you may have trouble actually asking for a ticket for a film called OSAMA, but you absolutely should make the effort to find the film and see it. Everything about this film is compelling and remarkable. The film is being released slowly across the country (it may even be open in some cities). In Chicago, it opens February 27 at the Landmark Century Centre theatre.
Capone
Click here to email me why Osama didn't get nominated!
