18 May 2013

Film review: The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005) by Byambasuren Davaa, ****

Synopsis

From the director of The Story of the Weeping Camel comes another captivatingly beautiful story of nomadic family life in the endless expanse of the Mongolian landscape. While taking a walk, six-year-old Nansaa finds a little black-and-white spotted dog in a cave along the cliffs. She names him 'Zochor' (or 'Spot' in English) and takes him home with her. But her father tells her to get rid of him because wild dogs attack the sheep. When her father goes on a long trip to the city to sell sheepskins, Nansaa keeps the little dog, who becomes her trusted companion. One day she loses track of him in the tundra and, while searching for him, encounters an old nomad woman who tells her the legend of the the cave of the yellow dog… Mongolian with English subtitles; UK Exclusive Director Interview.


Review

This film is highly instructive because it takes the viewer into the most intimate life of a nomadic Mongolian family. It is not really about a dog. There are no professional actors but a real family living its normal life. We can see the immense spaces of Mongolia and get a glimpse of its traditions. At the same time, we see how modernization is changing the country, with technology affecting kids' education, transport and the availability of information. In my vew Mongolia is changing for the better, and I don't understand those who criticize change and would like to hold on to a backward and obscure past.

Very useful to prepare a trip to Mongolia.

Buy your European DVD here



Get your US DVD or BD here

05 May 2013

The National Museum of Maldives (second visit)

Today it's my second visit to the Maldives National Museum. I came here for the first time in 2009, and I wrote about this visit in my book (in Italian) on the Maldives and in this blog. Actually I did not quite come here, as in 2009 the museum was still housed in its old premises.

The National Museum of the Maldives was inaugurated on 19 November 1952, by the Prime Mnister Mohamed Ameen Didi, in the Usgekolhu, the last remaining building of the old Sultan's palace. It was an old building, inadequate for a modern museum.

Construction of the new (current) museum began in 2007 and it was inaugurated by then president Nasheed on 25 July 2010. The new building is a donation from China.

The museum houses artifacts as well as shells and corals, symbols of the Maldivian cultural as well as natural heritage.

There is a hard to find book on sale, probably the only one about the Museum of Malé, Maldives. Printed in 2010, just after the new museum gifted from China was completed, and before the tragic events of 8 February 2012, when almost all of the pre-islamic items in the museum were destryoyed by islamic fundamentalists.

The then president Nasheed had just been deposed and a wave of fanaticism shook the capital. A group of fundamentalists broke into the Museum and destroyed everything that was associated with the rich pre-islamic culture of the islands.

The book contains short descriptions of most items on display and color pictures of many of them, including some of those destroyed, some irreparably. As such it is bound to become a rare document, even tough not all objects are represented here.

President Nasheed at the Museum inspecting
 now destroyed pre-islamic scultpure (photo by Wearetraveller.com blog)

You can contact the Museum or the Ministry of Tourism and see if they will mail the Museum's book ((2010), edited by Nasheema Mohamed and Ahmed Tholal) to you as it does not seem to be available online and at bookstores.

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture
Heritage Department
Malé
Maldives

You can buy my book on the Maldives here (in Italian)


11 April 2013

Film review: Not one less (1999) by Zhang Yimou, *****

Testo italiano di seguito

Wei Minzhi
Synopsis

Not One Less, Zhang Yimou's (Raise the Red Lantern) tale of an adolescent substitute teacher in a rural Chinese village, cast entirely with non-actors and shot on location, is an astute example of censorship politics. It can be difficult to bypass political censor in China, especially when education is concerned.

Taking on touchy issues with a veneer of can-do spirit and happy-ending fantasy, his film is at once rousing and eye-opening.


Review

A great film about the transformation of China since the 1990s, when money becomes more important than ideology. A small village can't afford to build a good school or hire a good teacher, or even buy enough chalk for that matter. A teenage substitute teacher displays much more economic drive than professional responsibility or political enthusiasm. Wei Minzhi is a stubborn young woman takes the initiative in working hard for her salary of 50 yuan, which she is to receive if she can fulfill one important condition...

She persuades her class to work in a brick factory to raise funds so she can go to town and search for a missing child. The kids show much more propensity to work for money than to perform in flag raising and goose stepping ideological ceremonies.

See my selection og movies on China here on this blog.




Sinossi

In un lontano villaggio della campagna cinese, dove le strutture sono modeste e il livello di vita è molto povero, il maestro Gao deve assentarsi per un mese per andare ad assistere la madre gravemente malata. Per sostituirlo il sindaco sceglie Wei, una ragazzina tredicenne senza alcuna esperienza d'insegnamento. Prima di partire, Gao raccomanda a Wei di fare in modo che nessun allievo si ritiri da scuola durante la sua assenza. Con la promessa di un compenso di cui ha molto bisogno, Wei si appresta ad affrontare un compito che però si rivela molto difficile: i bambini sono irrequieti e spesso preoccupati per le molte difficoltà che vivono in famiglia. Quasi inevitabilmente dunque una mattina il piccolo Zhang, i cui genitori sono fortemente indebitati, lascia la classe, scappa dal villaggio e va in città a cercare un lavoro. Wei non ha esitazione e decide di andare alla sua ricerca. Nel panorama urbano confuso e disordinato, Wei affronta situazioni del tutto sconosciute. Alla fine una rete televisiva viene a conoscenza della sua storia e ne fa oggetto di un servizio specifico. Zhang allora ricompare. Quando tornano al villaggio, la troupe li segue e insieme porta una serie di oggetti raccolti grazie alle donazioni. Per la scuola si aprono nuove prospettive. Intanto i bambini scrivono sulla lavagna con tanti gessetti colorati.

Recensione

Un eccellente film sulle trasformazioni della Cina a partire dagli anni novanta del XX secolo. Il denaro diventa più importante dell'ideologia. Quando il maestro della scuola di un piccolo villaggio parte per andare a trovare la madre morente, il sindaco non ha i soldi per pagare un supplente. Non ci sono soldi neanche per i gessetti per la lavagna. Con la promessa di 50 yuan viene assunta una giovanissima supplente tredicenne, motivata più dalla somma di denaro che dalla vocazione di insegnante. Ma per guadagnare i 50 yuan c'è una condizione importante che la piccola Wei deve soddisfare...

Lei ci si dedica con tutte le sue forze. Quando un alunno scappa, lei convince gli altri a lavorare qualche giorno in una fabbrica di mattoni per guadagnare il denaro necessario alla ricerca del disperso. I ragazzi sembrano più propensi a lavorare per guadagnare che a cimentarsi in marcette e cerimonie a carattere ideologico. La Cina cambia rapidamente...


10 April 2013

Recensione: Magnitudo Emilia (2013) di Annalisa Vandelli e Luigi Ottani, ****

Sinossi

Magnitudo Emilia esprime la grandezza di un'Emilia colpita al cuore da un sisma che ha fatto tremare anche lo sguardo delle persone sulle cose, mutandolo per sempre.

La giornalista e scrittrice Annalisa Vandelli, insieme al fotoreporter Luigi Ottani, si sono posti una domanda che è allo stesso tempo una sfida: come si racconta la devastazione della propria terra e della propria gente? Gli autori rispondono così: "Questo libro vorrebbe essere un microfono della terra, dell'urlo straziante che ha interrotto le nostre abitudini. Così abbiamo lasciato che il racconto si raccontasse da sé, senza porci limiti nella ricerca e seguendo piste imprevedibili. Abbiamo lasciato che un incontro tirasse l'altro, come pure i territori e gli eventi, così da non dominare una storia ma da darle la libertà di costruirsi, di esprimersi. E da qui la struttura del libro, calcolatamente casuale (...). Questo libro non si conclude col nostro lavoro, ma comincia da esso, perché il lettore ha un ruolo fondamentale, diventa autore nel fare sue e continuare queste storie o suggestioni. E allora questo libro ha l'ambizione di creare anche identità intorno a sé, di sostenere o affiancare lo scatto d'orgoglio che emerge e che non deve essere taciuto".


Recensione

Un centinaio di fotografie in bianco e nero costituisco l'ossatura di questo commovente volume. Le foto testimoniano il coraggio e la perseveranza delle genti emiliane colpite dal sisma, ma anche il grande sforzo di solidarietà dell'Italia intera. Un libro di grande formato che rende giustizia alle fotografie, che sono accompagnate da testi ben amalgamati ed istruttuvi.

Il libro è stato presentato oggi, ad un anno dal sisma del 2012, presso la Galleria 28 di Francesca Anfosso, a Piazza di Pietra, a Roma.

Compra il libro qui oppure contatta la Galleria 28.


07 April 2013

Book review: Good to Eat. Riddles of Food and Cultures (1986), by Marvin Harris, *****

Eating injera with hot spices at Lalibela, Ethiopia
testo italiano di seguito

Synopsis

Why are human food habits so diverse? Why do Americans recoil at the thought of dog meat? Jews and Moslems, pork? Hindus, beef? Why do Asians abhor milk? Harris leads readers on an informative detective adventure to solve the world's major food puzzles.

He explains the diversity of the world's gastronomic customs: what appear at first glance to be irrational food tastes turn out really to have been shaped by practical, or economic, or political necessity. In addition, he sheds wisdom on such topics as why there has been an explosion in fast food, why history indicates that it's "bad" to eat people but "good" to kill them, and why children universally reject spinach.

Good to Eat is more than an intellectual adventure in food for thought. It is a highly readable, scientifically accurate, and fascinating work that demystifies the causes of myriad human cultural differences.


Review

This is a highly readable account of why the world's diverse civilizations eat what they eat; why peoples in different parts of the world grow to abhor certain readily available foodstuffs; and why they usually don't eat each other.

The starting point of the book is man's generalized craving for animal food (meat, fish, milk, eggs), because it is a source of more and better proteins than vegetarian alternatives. Only soybeans approach animal food in this respect, though plant food provide indispensable fibers. Despite the evil effects of too much meat, grain eaters tend to live less. Top primates, including man, tend to be omnivorous, an obvious advantage over animals dependent on fewer food categories.

Harris explains why Indians don't (by and large) eat beef, though they did in the past. It was at the time of Asoka (3rd century B.C.) that once widespread animal sacrifices were stamped out to prevent loss of animal plow-pulling power, dung and milk. And yet, beef is eaten in India and calfs are regularly slaughtered when not needed.

In the Middle East, the problem with pork is not so much its being prone to carry disease in hot weather or if not cooked properly: that is not unique to pork or to the Middle East. Pork is a staple in hot climates from the Indian ocean to the Pacific. It is the fact that in Middle Eastern circumstances pigs need extra shelter, water and lots of plant food that humans themselves can eat. Pigs are sometimes seen as dirty, but given enough water they are anything but. In Papua, women will sometimes breastfeed a pig if somehow it gets separated from the sow.

Horses were banned from the grill in the middle ages because they were more useful alive to be mounted in war. A war horse was worth more than a slave. later, horses never became a main source of meat because cattle and pigs are far more efficient producers of proteins.

Dairy products are not eaten by most peoples in East Asia. They can not digest lactose. Why? Because the condition of their agriculture never required as much plowing as elsewhere and therefore not as much milk producing animals.

Most people in the world eat insects. Europeans and Americans are the exception rather than the rule. At least now: the ancient Greeks and Romans did eat cicadas and grasshoppers. That's because for us it is less efficient to chase insects than raise animals in a farm as a source of food. There are billions of insects out there to provide us with proteins, but they are small and mostly hard to get.

And the book goes on, discussing at great length why people, by and large, don't eat one another... but I'll leave that to the reader to discover in the book!

Highly recommended.

Buy on Amazon




Recensione italiana

Racconto molto leggibile sul perché le culture del mondo si sono sviluppate in modo molto diverso fra di loro. Il libro spiega perché mangiamo quello che mangiamo e perché aborriamo quello che evitiamo di mangiare.

Il punto di partenza è che il genere umano generalmente cerca cibo di origine animale (carne, pesce, uova) perché è fonte di proteine più che il cibo di origine vegetale, anche se le piante ci forniscono le indispensabili fibre. I primati più sviluppati, tra cui noi umani, sono onnivori, un evidente vantaggio su altri animali che sono dipendenti da un numero più limitato di fonti di nutrimento. Nonosante il danno che viene dall'abuso di carne, e culture che mangiano solo vegetali tendono a vivere meno di quelle onnivore.

Harris spiga perché in India (di solito) non si mangia carne bovina, anche se ciò avveniva in passato: i buoi servono di più a tirare gli aratri, e forniscono latte e sterco combustibile. indispensabili per le culture di quel paese. E comunque i bovini vengono macellati e mangiati in India più di quanto appaia a prima vista.

Nel medio oriente, il problema del maiale è che consuma molta acqua, che lì è scarsa e quindi preziosa.

I cavalli erano banditi dalla tavole nel medio evo perché più utili in guerra. Un cavallo poteva costare più di uno schiavo, e maiali e bovini fornivano la carne necessaria in modo più efficiente.

In Asia orientale non si mangiano latte e formaggi. Quei popoli non digeriscono il lattosio. Perché? Harris spiega che il tipo di agricoltura prevalente lì, a differenza che in India, non richiede aratri (e quindi buoi) e quindi i bovini diventano iù convenienti come fonte di carne che di latte e formaggi.

La maggior parte dei popoli del mondo mangia insetti, spesso perché, pur essendo piccoli e non facili da catturare, sono economici e non richiedono conoscenza di allevamento.

Il libro spiega anche perché gli umani, in genere, non si mangiano a vicenda, ma questo lo lascio scoprire al lettore...

Altamente consigliato!




04 April 2013

Film review: Mahler on the couch (2010), by Percy Adlon, ****

Synopsis

Devastated and confused by the discovery that his beloved wife Alma is having a passionate affair with architect Walter Gropius, controversial composer Gustav Mahler travels to Holland to consult with Sigmund Freud, who is on vacation in Leiden. Feeling humiliated and betrayed, Mahler initially refuses the couch, but when Freud wheels a camp bed into the room, he has no choice.

Fiery yet full of humor, their encounter stretches into the night as Mahler vividly recounts his seduction of Alma Schindler, 19 years his junior, the beautiful darling of Vienna's arts scene. Alma and Mahler fall madly in love and marry, but he frustrates her ambitions to be a composer in her own right. When one of their daughters dies, their marriage begins to fall apart...



Review

The subject matter of this film is most interesting: a musical genius married to a stunning socialite who lives in Vienna at the time of the Belle Epoque. Their life is studded with money, fame and intellectually rich encounters. Especially gifted is Alma, who is at first subjugated by Gustav but later ends up calling all the shots. Gustav Klimt and Walter Gropius are only the most immediately recognizable giants with whom the mahlers cross their path.

It has been correctly pointed out that the film does not do justice to Mahler, whose immense artistic stature only gets short shrift here. I tend to agree.

Acting is good and so is the choice of costumes from the time.

The film is in German only, with English subtitles.




24 March 2013

Film review: Namesake (2006), by Mira Nair, ****

Synopsis

Namesake is a Bollywood drama by Mira Nair, based on the best-selling novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. Ashoke (Irfan Khan) and Ashima (Tabu) are a young couple who are brought together in an arranged marriage and soon leave Calcutta to seek their fortune in America. Before long, Ashima gives birth to a baby boy, and pressed to choose a name, they dub the infant Nikhil (Kal Penn), though he soon picks up the nickname Gogol, after Ashoke's favourite author. By the time the child is old enough to attend school, he insists upon being called Gogol at all times, and he displays little interest in his Indian heritage.

Several years on, Gogol has decided he wants to be called Nick (and is now played by Kal Penn) and has become a thoroughly Americanised teenager, openly rebelling against his parents, smoking marijuana in his room, and dating Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), a preppy blonde from a wealthy family. Ashoke and Ashima are uncertain about how to deal with their son's attempts to cut himself off from their culture, but Nick begins expressing some uncertainty himself when he meets Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson), a beautiful girl who also comes from a family of Indian expatriates.


Review

Multiple stories in this film. Indian immigration in the 1970s, with a bright young engineering student who finds opportunities at M.I.T., the dream university for many scientists around the world. What a coincidence, I went to M.I.T. in the seventies, same university and same decade! Some of my classmates and best friends were just like Ashoke!

Also a touching family love story, with the problems faced by parents of adolescent kids in every country.

The strong role of the family bonds in Indian culture is a message not to be missed, and from which we in the West have much to learn.

I found the puzzlement of the American born kids when they go back to visit India the most entertaining and amusing part of the film.

Everything rotates around the quirky name that Ashoke has chosen for his son, and the meaning of this name which only becomes clear to the son after his father's death.

See more of my reviews of films about India in this blog.

Buy your European Region 2 DVD here



For the US buy or download here




Buy the book here




21 March 2013

Film review: The Proposal (2009), by Anne Fletcher, *****

Synopsis

When high-powered book editor Margaret faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she's actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew, who she's tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. Stars Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Malin Akerman, Betty White, Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen et al.


Review

This is funny, fast, even moving. While the ending is predictable (what else could it be after all?) the way it's worked up is not. A feel good movie for sure, but there is also a moral of the story. I don't know if the author of the director Anne Fletcher of The Proposal meant it, but for me it is: always keep an open mind on what life might bring to you from the most unexpected corners, and be ready to catch it on the fly.


European version DVD



US version


19 March 2013

Film review: Casablanca (1942), by Michael Curtiz, *****

Buy the poster by clicking here
Synopsis

Casablanca: a French colonial city during WW II: still governed by unoccupied Vichy France, with a daily flight to neutral Portugal, from where ships sailed regularly to America. A city easy to enter, but much harder to leave, especially if you're wanted by the Nazis. Such a man is Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American in love with Victor's wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart. Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo's transport out of the country and bitter Rick must decide what counts more...

The film is bursting with memorable quotes!


Review

So much has been said about this film that it would be presumptuous of me to add anything. I will try to sum it all up in one question, however. Casablanca is about a fundamental choice some people have to make at some crucial point in their lives. The question this film leaves us with is a difficult one. What is more important: finding love or fighting for freedom? 

Rick, the eternal cynic who did not stick his neck out for anyone, chose to fight for freedom. I am not sure what I would have done. Perhaps I would have chosen love. Maybe I am a wimp, or maybe I take freedom too much for granted, as I never had to fight a war for it.



17 March 2013

Film review: Escape from Alcatraz (1979), by Don Siegel, *****



Synopsis

One of Clint Eastwood's two most important filmmaking mentors was Don Siegel (the other was Sergio Leone), who directed Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara and this enigmatic, 1979 drama based on a true story about an escape from the island prison of Alcatraz. Eastwood plays a new convict who enters into a kind of mind game with the chilly warden (Patrick McGoohan) and organises a break leading into the treacherous waters off San Francisco. As jailbird movies go, this isn't just a grotty, unpleasant experience but a character-driven work with some haunting twists. --Tom Keogh for Amazon



Review

This is a great movie that entertains with lots of suspense while telling the real story of three inmates who pulled off the only successful escape from the notorious Alcatraz prison.

Eastwood is his usual self: cool, smart and cynical to the extreme, but also human. Highly recommended. Other supporting actors contribute to a great film.


Buy your European disc here



Buy your American disc or instant video here (PAY ATTENTION NOT TO BUY REGION 2 DVD FOR US)