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Reviews
The Forgiven (2021)
**SPOILER ALERT** Assisted suicide by delinquent boy
This film involves a transformation of the main character, Doctor David Henninger, whose life and marriage have not been going well. On his way with his wife to a weekend of debauchery at a villa in the Sahara Desert, David's car strikes and kills a Muslim boy, Driss, who steps out in the road trying to sell David a fossil. The incident was little more than an inconvenient accident to David and his wife. The boy's father compels David to accompany him to bury Driss. There, David has an up-close view of the culture, comes to recognize Driss as a person and develops genuine empathy for his father. Late in the film he confesses to his Muslim driver that he is 100% responsible for the "accidental" death of Driss. David was drunk driving, fighting with his wife in the car, and speeding. It was certainly not a pure accident as he had been telling the guests at the villa, his wife, the father of Driss and others. However, unbeknownst to David there was a second boy at the scene of the "accident." That boy had a revolver drawn and was hiding a short distance behind a rock. It seems likely, as one reviewer pointed out based on the novel, that they were planning a robbery, not a sale of the precious "Elvis" fossil reportedly worth $10,000. At the end of the film, David stops to "pay his respects" to Driss at the site of the "accident." Driss' delinquent friend steps out into the road holding the precious fossil. David and the boy exchange words. The delinquent boy draws his pistol. David emphatically demands that the boy shoot. The boy is shaking, but after several pleas from David to shoot, he does, and David lies dead in the desert. The boy leaves the scene and runs into the Sahara. Perhaps if David knew that there were two boys, and they had been planning an armed robbery, his level of guilt would have fallen short of requesting an assisted suicide.
White Lies (2013)
The lie leaves no way out
Born a Maori (a native New Zealander), Rebecca is pushed by her mother to pass for white. Rebecca marries a wealthy and powerful white man, who has no idea she is a Maori. The mother bathes Rebecca in a mixture apparently containing mercury, which was historically used to whiten a woman's skin. Vickers has been away on a long business trip of many months, and is due home shortly. Rebecca is pregnant with his child. She does not want the child - her deceit would be revealed. She thinks Vickers would go into a rage (perhaps a murderous one) if he found out his wife was not white. A possible way out is to abort the child, but the local doctor would then know her secret. Rebecca's mother enlists the help of a Maori medicine woman, Paraiti. Reluctantly, Paraiti performs a week long ritual to induce labor and Rebecca gives birth to a live daughter. Rebecca becomes attached to her daughter, and Paraiti begs her to come back to the tribe and give up her marriage to Vickers. Rebecca does not want to go back to living with the tribe and reluctantly gives the baby to Paratiti. On the day Vickers is to return home, Rebecca cuts her wrists and bleeds to death in the tub while her mother prepares her regular whitening treatment.