★ 6 / 10
Though I found this to be a bit
CinemaSerf
Though I found this to be a bit too rudderless for me, there are two quite differently compelling scenes in this documentary from Gianfranco Rosi that stood…
Though I found this to be a bit too rudderless for me, there are two quite differently compelling scenes in this documentary from Gianfranco Rosi that stood out for me. The first sees a young lad describing a wall of seemingly innocuous children’s sketches in his classroom that have altogether more sinister meaning, the second sees a group of men, clad in red, imprisoned in a fashion that reminded me of the conditions we might have provided for battery hens. The rest of the imagery here, accrued over some three years of filming, shows just what life in the “Caliphate” was like for communities, especially the Yazidi, across Syria, Kurdistan, Lebanon and parts of Iraq as the zealous and militaristic ISIS enforced it’s interpretation of Islamic law across a fairly expansive region of the Middle East. There’s no narration, just a series of observations that occasionally feature dialogue from amongst a population coming to terms with the ruination of their towns and villages. Though it does reference the excesses of their new authoritarianism, it’s the perilous emptiness of so many existences that are showcased here. People clearly have hope, faith, optimism and that’s quite impressive given the disintegration surrounding their society which is well captured by a photography that is both intimate at times and offers us scale at others. It does meander, though, and perhaps the thousand day timeline lacks for a potent focus. At it’s best, this is a poignant reflection of a life where religiosity and authority subsumed humanity and freedom, and where, despite that, life for many went on in as normal a fashion as possible, but I think it just needed more of a real-life, characterising, spine. It is worth a watch, though.
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★ 3 / 10
Beautifully shot, but 2/3 of the running time we don't get much more than that
JvH48
Nice images without context. These could have been observed anywhere, with or without a war or other threats around. Did I not have similar problems with Fire…
Nice images without context. These could have been observed anywhere, with or without a war or other threats around. Did I not have similar problems with Fire At Sea / Fuocoammare at Berlinale 2016?? My first thoughts at the time were that I saw nothing new and revolutionary. Other attendees made me doubt, however. The reactions of people around me forced me to re-think what impact such a documentary can have on the average viewer, apparently on them. What did I miss??
I've seen many documentaries around the same topic in 2016/2017, which causes a certain distance and some feeling that all this should be common knowledge already. Still, images like this seem to impress people. Maybe it showcases the term "impressionistic" I see in many reviews, something that I did not understand when explained at school, and still goes above my head nowadays. Viewers knowledgeable about the context seem able to connect the dots when letting these images pass by. I wonder how it would be received by someone who was not told beforehand what the central topic of conversation was.
Some of the images (1/3 as I mentioned before) can be understood without context, like the women mourning in a prison cell, the soldiers jogging/marching at dawn, soldiers surveying the environment from a shelter, stage players practicing their lines (quoting clear texts about the sorry state of their country), school children explaining their drawings, and so on. Those parts really were memorable. The other 2/3 went past me.
I sat it out through the end, but still do not understand the value of this documentary (if any). Maybe I just don't like kaleidoscopic movies, presenting a series of images/scenes that are not related to each other, not telling a story but merely painting an image where we are pressured to connect the dots and understand what the filmmakers try to convey. It is lost on me, in any case. Another explanation can be that I saw so many documentaries (part of IDFA, Movies That Matter, and other festivals) that are so much more illuminating and compelling, that this one in comparison does very little to pique my interest. It tells nothing new, and just repeats the obvious in a slightly different way but not adding any value. Leaves us with the nice images.
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TOMATOMETER
· 67 reviews
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AUDIENCE
6.6/10
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you're a world class cunt matthew2 get the vid and die you pos