Albawaba.com - Amman
The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, (29th March - 5 April 2001), brought its program of challenging and provocative films and videos to London for its sixth annual run at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley this spring.
The opening night on Thursday 29 March was introduced by the American film “Before Night Falls” - Julian Schnabel, in English and Spanish with English subtitles.
Unquestionably, Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas was one of the major talents to have emerged from the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s. Running afoul of the Castro regime as both a political dissident and an openly gay man, Arenas was harassed, imprisoned and physically abused - all the more so because he managed to smuggle out and publish his works abroad. Adapting Arenas' brilliant, posthumously published autobiography, painter and film director Julian Schnabel magnificently captures the style and flavor of Arenas' writing, with brief, intensely vivid scenes that evoke a succession of remembrances. The film boasts a remarkably strong cast, with an Oscar-nominated performance by Spanish actor Javier Bardem as Reinaldo, who embodies both the strength and vulnerability of a man for whom, as he wrote during his New York exile, "there is really no solace anywhere."
The festival included the Iranian film “Doors Open”, the American film “Trade Off”, the British short film “Pester Power”, the Afghan/Italian film “Jung: In the Land of the Mujaheddin”, the Iranian film “The Girl in the Sneakers”, the American film “George Washington”, the American film “Children Underground”, the British film “Caravan of Death”, the British film “A Greek Tragedy”, the German film “Escape to Life”, the French film “Terrorists in Retirement”, the Dutch film “Behind Closed Eyes”, the French film “Lumumba”, the British film “Like Father”
the British film “Bread and Roses” and the Iranian film “The Girl in the Sneakers”.
Lebanon participated in the festival with the film “Around the Pink House”.
The film is built in the popular district of Matba'a by a rich man as a token of love, the pink house was abandoned at the beginning of the war, hit by many shells and greatly damaged. After the war's end, two families have settled there illegally: The Adaimi's and the Nawfal's. The country is going through an economic boom, and the old shell- shocked buildings are being torn down to make way for a large reconstruction program. The arrival of Mattar, the new owner, surprises both families. He tells them he intends to keep the facade of the house but will remodel the inside into a commercial center. He gives them ten days to move out. This event divides the district and little by little, two groups form. On the one side, those who favor reconstruction and the economic boom, and on the other, the two families and their friends. The district resembles a battlefield. Each inhabitant lives his own tragedy, often verging on the absurd. The house is a distorting mirror of the current reality, where each one finds his memories or loses them when facing the ruins of the pink house.
Israel also participated by the film “Borders” Nurit Kedar and Eran Riklis - documentary in Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles. The film talk about the arbitrary lines that are drawn between countries, designed to protect, separate and denote the sovereignty of those nations. In this riveting documentary, Kedar and Riklis record several of the most emotionally charged stories across the borders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It is a world of paradoxes - of profiteering, violence, death, prostitution, love, smuggling and war. Borders portrays poignant personal accounts and testimonials from those whose lives have been forever changed by the artificial barriers of Israel and its neighbors: the shell-shocked veteran who visits the site of his affliction, the "shouting fence" that is the meeting point and only form of communication possible for a Druze family torn apart by politics, and a mother who lost her family and "adopts" a soldier.
Palestine participated with the film “Nazareth 2000” - Hany Abu-Assad - documentary in Arabic with English subtitles.
Returning to his native city just months before the new millennium, filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, captures the daily, idiosyncratic beats of Nazareth - a city both Christian and Arabs consider one of the most sacred in the world. Today, 72 percent of the inhabitants are Muslim, but most of the land is owned by Christian institutions - a situation that causes great tension. Set against the background of the riots surrounding a square that both Christians and Muslims lay claim to, Abu-Assad allows his story, NAZARETH 2000, to unfold through the eyes of two cynical, funny and wise gas station attendants who have been working at the service station for decades. Their comments on the political and social conditions of their city paint both a tragic and subtle image of its inhabitants.
The closing night witnessed the British film “Injustice” - Ken Fero and Tariq Mehmood –documentary in English.
In 1969 David Oluwale became the first black person to die in police custody in Britain. Many others have died since then. None of the police officers involved have been convicted for these deaths. In this documentary, the families of these victims ask "Why not?" This is a blow-by-blow account of the relentless struggles of the families as they find out how they lost their loved ones in extremely violent deaths at the hands of police officers. Four women - Shiji Lapite's wife, Brian Douglas's sister, Ibrahima Sey's cousin and Joy Gardner's mother - lead the fight to get the officers responsible prosecuted. Each family is met with a wall of official secrecy and the film documents how they unite and challenge this together. The documentary uses powerful exclusive footage filmed over a five-year period and witnesses the families' pain and anger at the killings. It documents the fight to retrieve the bodies for burial, the mockery of police self- investigation and the collusion of the legal system in the deaths. The film asks why an accused killer in a police uniform is not judged by the same standards as the rest of society. “Injustice” documents the horrific loss of life at the hands of the state and it's attempts to cover up these killings. The police have been responsible for hundreds of deaths and have walked free. The families of the dead want justice and they will not stop until they have got it.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
