Cinema, window to other worlds

Cinema is the window to other worlds, real or imaginary. For me, going to the cinema is not just for entertainment but also an educational experience, an intellectual adventure. It is a hassle-free trip to different parts of the world without the complex currency exchange rates, countless airport checks and language barriers. Cinema is my regular escape to faraway places, like the former Iron countries who are coping with life in the new EU to the brothels in Bombay, the Dead Sea, to Tibet to see a weeping camel to life in an industrial Canadian city. And other exotic places that’s fine on celluloid but too distant or difficult to visit. Cinema truly promotes cross-cultural understanding.

Fortunately, living in Vancouver means being exposed to international/world/foreign cinema all year round. If still thirsty, there are countless international film festivals in Canada. Luckily, there’s an audience for foreign movies with English sub-titles. Canadians are more prone to watch sub-titled movies unlike Americans who either don’t want to read or can’t read the English sub-titles. The mass or intellectually challenged American viewers are missing a lot in not getting to know about life other than their own.

Living in Canada means a steady supply of films from around the world on a regular basis, all year round. This means that many of us will not be stuck with American shopping mall features (Guess Who, The Pacifier, Miss Congeniality 2, Hostage, Constantine) and moronic stereotype movies for the brainless (Ice Princess, Man of the House, Son of the Mask, Are We There Yet).

Here’s a sampling of world cinema in multi-cultural Vancouver, now showing in several cinema houses.

• Senegal Africa – Moolaade’. Ordinary life in a West African community. It tells the story of a woman who offers asylum to four young girls fleeing a circumcision ceremony. The film captures the colors and textures of traditional life.

• Quebec, Canada – Memories Affectives. A man with amnesia searches for clues to his identity. Haunted by images from his childhood, he begins to piece memories that would perhaps best be left forgotten. It stars top film actor from French Canada, Roy Dupuis.

• Calcutta, India – Born Into Brothels. Though the director is American, the documentary captured the sordid, poor, dirty, hand-to-mouth existence of picture-taking children whose mothers work as prostitutes in Calcutta. This film won an Oscar for best documentary.

• Czech Republic - Up and Down. A Robert Altman-type comedy drama about a pair of smugglers who find an abandoned child. The setting is today’s Czech (mainly Prague) and its examines family structure and social issues, including immigration. The film also explores the crises between inherited and desired destinies. At times satirical, but mostly realistic, the storyline gives ample opportunities to portray racism, xenophobia and the confusion in a post-Communist life.

• Germany - Downfall. Popular art house actor Bruno Ganz stars as Adolph Hitler. It’s focussed on the Nazi dictator’s mental/emotional state in the final weeks of World War II. Swiss-born Ganz is riveting as Hitler and portrayed him with occasional humanity. Downfall brings to life eye-witness accounts of those inside the bunker during Hitler’s last days.

• Israel – Walk on Water. In what looks like a commercial political thriller ala Hollywood, the clever scenario blossoms into a deeply moving, intelligent affirmation that peace can be achieved in the world. Along the way, the viewer gets to know some basics about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Germany’s dark war legacy and homophobia in macho-oriented Israel. You will also get a tour of Germany, Turkey and scenic Israel. Walk on Water is an outstanding contemporary journey through conflicting ideologies and histories.

• Pakistan – Silent Waters. Set in 1979, the film follows the ordeal of a widowed Muslim woman who invests high hopes in her handsome, lovable teenage son, only to discover that he has joined a group of Islamic fundamentalists. The Muslim clerics worked on the young man’s feelings of inferiority and emasculation at the hands of the women in his life. (Sounds familiar?)