Change Your Image
yuri-feldman
Reviews
Joyeux Noël (2005)
Progressive propaganda instead of portrayal of history
On the cinematographic side - beautiful shooting, great acting, mostly decent screenplay. On the content / message side - complete primitivism, plain propaganda, no attempt even to reflect the complex reality of the time: common soldiers are portrayed as human and mostly peace-seeking, driven by war-mongering egotistical elites, the film goes to great extents to make this point, including a brutal and absolutely out-of-place incendiary speech by a church of England cleric at the frontline equating the war with a crusade, completely misportraying the actual reasons for that horrifying war - thus doing very bad service to remembering, and only serving for advancing the authors' political views on modern reality. Like in the "Lifes of Others" incident, which was refused cooperation by Hubertus Knabe, the director of the Stasi Victims' memorial on the grounds that the film was a fiction, a misleading mis-portrayal of reality posing to be otherwise - so is this movie, only in a possibly more subtly and thus harmful way.
Banished (2015)
Next to nothing to do with Australia and its actual history
Plot completely fabricated, could be set on the moon for that matter - which is a shame actually because the real history is both known and much richer, more engaging, and educating - both on ethical and historical level. The real history in this case is just a much better plot than this one.
Being set in Australia (where none of this ever happened) and brutal as it is, the series can actually also be considered a slur both towards the settlers and perhaps even the English culture in general.
That said, technically this short series/long movie is well-played and well-shot - a nice wrapper for a sub-standard content. Really, a shame.
Jenin, Jenin (2003)
Brainwashing disguised as documentary
In 2021, the writer/director Bakri lost a libel/defamation case in the Israeli court for the false/misleading portrayal of the conduct of Israeli soldiers in the Jenin battle during operation Defensive Shield in 2002. The court deemed the film and the particular scenes as "propaganda" and "a lie".
Consequently, the film was banned from commercial screening in Israel.
Anyone who believes the film is "objective" or "informative" should re-check very carefully their sources of information.
Relatos salvajes (2014)
Excellent
Split into 6 short (~20 minute) stories, perhaps challenging the common notion of a movie in a dense modern style of short and fast, spans all that cinema has to offer really (hence classified as a comedy, drama and a thriller at the same time): those who look for easy entertainment will find a roller coaster of emotions, which can also be interpreted as grotesque humor. Those who want to dig a bit deeper might find a much finer line of humor tinged with sometimes bitter auto-criticism of the individual and the society (Pasternak, The Strongest, Rats, The Proposal), but above all - (deep buried) optimism and celebration and joy of living (Bombita, Wedding). For those who wish to take the most of this movie I'd suggest coming in a good condition to concentrate, and setting aside a couple of hours after the movie to reflect and discuss.