Change Your Image
efishbin
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Salam Neighbor (2015)
Salam Neighbor (2015)
Salam Neighbor could be received in a few ways. We, as viewers, could see two white Americans invading and exploiting a refugee camp. In this case, it would be fair to criticize their intrinsic flaws as white Americans abroad who, in some situations, did not know the proper ways to behave. They did not sleep in the camps, they brought in lots of supplies and probably would have been able to leave quite easily had things turned badly. However, another way of seeing this documentary is to commend the two documentary makers' intentions and focus on what the end result accomplished. The goal of this documentary was not to make the perfect film about every kind of struggle each different kind of refugee can and will face in a camp. It, as stated, wanted to focus on the women and the children of the camp. It is fair to criticize this as portraying the "perfect victim" but they explicitly talked about how women and children are the ones who need the most help so I did not have as much of a problem with this choice.
The documentary was not so narrow in focus, though. The economy of the refugee camp was shown. It was explained that while the planners of the refugee camp were trying to build a temporary camp settlement, the refugees themselves have been trying to build a city. This was a powerful sentiment that exemplifies the creativity and relentlessness of many of the refugees. While relocating was devastating for all and nearly destructive for many, the refugees who found ways to create and explore different avenues of opportunity was inspiring.
The film showed the centers for women and children, where support groups and daily activities are offered. These places are essential to the quest for normality for refugees. The story of Raouf and his school being bombed revealed to the documentarists that there are many hidden traumas among the refugees. I think they were able to appreciate the community-aspect of the camp a little more after seeing the group meetings in these centers.
A central teaching in Islam and in other religions is to support and be kind to your neighbors. When the documentarists arrived at the camp, it did not take long for their neighbors to come and help them set up their tents, make food, get to know each other and more. The documentarists were welcomed into the homes of many refugees, and essentially welcomed into their lives. The refugees shared deeply personal stories, played games, and ate food with the documentarists despite having nearly nothing.
Refugees are people who are displaced from their home countries and are people who are in need. And while support for refugees around the world is limited, the refugees in this camp supported the documentarists as if it was their duty. How long will it take for countries around the world to reciprocate?
Welcome (2009)
Bem-Vindo / Welcome (2009)
To be stuck in a "camp system" does not always mean you are confined to the borders of a fence or walls. In Bem-Vindo, Bilal could not escape the restrictions in France and was not able to go onto a better place of settlement. He was truly stuck, putting him in a position of desperation. Because he was willing to do anything to get to England, he viewed the impossible as not only possible, but as a necessity. Swimming across the Channel became more than a lofty mission for Bilal, it became an obsession.
The movie had a few scenes that seemed in line with the historicity of Bilal's situation. He mentioned being tortured by the Turkish Army, saying that they had put a bag over his head for eight days. Also, a troubling situation that was depicted in the movie was the fact that neighbors could not always be trusted if you tried to help out a refugee like Bilal. When Mr. Calmat took in Bilal, Calmat's neighbor reported him to the authorities and got him arrested for aiding a refugee.
The scenes of the refugees lining up for food and living in the woods were also noteworthy. There seemed to many complicated relationships between the refugees themselves. Some were very supportive of each other, whether it was because they were from the same town or not was not always said. However, there were tense relationships that built up because of financial struggles. Anytime money was involved, controversy followed. When Bilal could not keep his bag on when they were first attempting to get to England, another refugee wanted Bilal to reimburse his lost bribe to be on the truck. When they were brought in and registered in the system, they had to give fingerprints and were also marked with a number. This is similar to other camp systems at different time periods around the world, and sometimes refugees would have to mutilate their fingerprints to avoid being caught a second time under the same identity. As shown in the film, the first offense is much less serious than the second.
Bilal never got to England, and the movie succeeds in showing the harshness of a refugee's life when they are stuck somewhere in the middle of their journey. The refugees would not be returned to their home country's if caught, but the standard of living in places like Calais and the opportunities available were far less than what they would be in a city like London.
The Way Back (2010)
The Way Back (2010)
The beginning of the film contains the most valuable and accurate historical depictions. In the first scenes, we are shown how family members were coerced into informing on their spouses, or parents, through means of torture. The gulag system not only tore apart families by physical distance, but through emotional trauma as well. The guilt of being responsible for a loved one's imprisonment is imaginably as tormenting as the gulags were.
The scenes that took place in the gulag showed the hostilities of Siberia's climate and the unforgiving nature of the criminal prisoners who ran the show much like the Kapos did in concentration camps. The film did well to highlight the different kinds of prisoners who ended up in the gulags, ranging from political prisoners, to convicts and even on the rare occasion, an American.
As the escaping group got further from the gulag, the film became more and more about surviving in the wild than about a significant historical event. Of course there were people who escaped and many who met their end in the surrounding wilderness. But the 4,000 mile walk depicted seems to have been an unique exception or perhaps an impossible dream at best. The journey, though, illustrates what is better than being in a gulag. They were willing to risk the unknown in the wilderness rather than stay and die in the gulag as prisoners. The escaping group took ownership of their lives back, and for some, their deaths too.
Purely as a film, it was a compelling story told in an engaging way. I appreciated the many different kinds of prisoners that had their characters expanded upon and a voice given too. Not often is a criminal prisoner seen as much more than a criminal, and I thought that Valka was a crucial character to the film.
Come See the Paradise (1990)
Come See the Paradise (1990)
While the main plot line focuses entirely too much on the love story between Jack and Lily, there are some parts of the film that make it worthwhile.
There was some redeemable aspects of the film. The setting shown after the Japanese were put into the camps was particularly powerful. We were able to see the vandalism and racism targeted at them during the weeks before internment, as well as the ghost towns left behind when they were forced out..
Some of the stereotypical responses of people who are put in camps were displayed in this picture. The father, an older man with a great sense a purpose before internment, completely lost his way in the camp. In Santo Tomas, where Americans were interned in the Philippines, there were similar instances of important men crumbling under the camp setting. The mother, who was not allowed to become a citizen of the United States, was told she could not help make camouflage military nets, even though she just wanted to be doing something and was not working for pay like her daughters. Though boredom is not the worst thing a person interned could experience, it shows how restricted they were. She simply wanted something to do but was not allowed because she was Japanese. The son, Charlie, developed a deep connection to his ancestor's homeland of Japan though he had never even been there and spoke little Japanese. The targeting and persecution forced him to embrace and learn more about his heritage and ultimately return to Japan. And opposite him was the son, Harry, who joined the U.S Army and died in service. Harry, a rational man who tended to err on the side of caution, did what he thought was safest for him, though it turned out to be the cause of his death. The different outcomes of these characters shows the ways people can react to internment, even within the same family.
As If I Am Not There (2010)
As If I Am Not There
History often offers strong accounts of the past. But, it isn't uncommon for one story to be the main narrative while others get left behind and forgotten. That is where the arts can fill in the gaps. In "As If I Am Not There," an unspoken story is shown in a complex and moving way.
Samira, the main character, experiences horrors during her encampment. Victim of multiple rapes by more than a couple assaulters, Samira struggled in finding a way to take ownership of who she was. Many of the women she was imprisoned with responded to their rapes in different ways. Samira, after the first attack, went silent and was in shock. She was so stricken with fear that she simply could not function. Eventually, she transitioned to establishing more control over herself and who she was being victimized by. She tried to be her natural self, wearing makeup and "looking like a woman." Some of her encamped allies judged her for this, saying she sold herself out. Samira got the attention of the Captain and became his next victim. The complexities of their relationship are beyond fathomable. She was in no position to consent, as there is no such thing in a camp. His position of authority and the reminder that he could kill her at any point was surely the driving factor in their relationship. She was obedient to him in exchange for respectable food, whatever she could manage to steal from his house and simply to give her a better chance at surviving the war. This is called "survivor sex" and is most definitely still rape.
Eventually, Samira becomes pregnant and we see the way she looks into the eyes of her child. She could not possibly love her child because of who the father is, and culturally, her family must have been ashamed had they survived the war. War tore her life apart, and changed the course of her life forever. Luckily, she found refugee in a country like Sweden, but she could have been displaced and put in another camp in the outskirts of Sarajevo. The effects of this war have not yet subsided and her experience in the camps, along with the thousands of other victims, will never disappear.
La vita è bella (1997)
Review
Despite some obvious historical inaccuracies such as the number tattooed on Guido's forearm (which only happened at Auschwitz) and the nearly impossible survival of his son, La Vite e Belle is a truly beautiful story that is set in the worst of places. When thinking of what everyday life in a concentration camp is like, positive emotions don't generally come to mind, yet Guido's courage and creativity, along with the sacrifices he made for his son, makes us feel something different than just sorrow. Part of what makes death in concentration camps so horrible is that the individuals who are killed are stripped of ownership of their deaths. Guido, from the start of the camp and perhaps the war, had extremely little chance at surviving. Even with his established personal relationship with the physician prior to encampment, Guido, nor any camp subject, could have leveraged his way out. This was shown when the physician told Guido he needed a moment alone with him. Viewers and Guido together sensed this is his best and, likely, only chance at survival. Yet when the two had a moment in private, the physician merely sought the answer to a riddle who could not crack. Ultimately, while frantically searching for his wife who he believes is about to be shipped away to her death, Guido gets himself caught and is marched off into a dark alleyway to meet his death. His son, hidden away, saw the guard pointing his gun at Guido and ordering him to march, but Guido did not show fear even in the face of death. He was able to maintain the facade he had constructed for his son, much of which lived and became real through him until the end. Only in the moments away from his son could he show fear and hopelessness. At work while moving anvils, he was ready to give up and fall, but he saw his son in the factory and immediately was able to push through the day. Later on, he was carrying his sleeping son over his back and approached a mound of dead bodies. His reaction revealed his first and only priority throughout his time in the camp - that his son could not see the atrocities occurring. Guido continued to face the mound and backed away slowly, not turning around so that his son would be facing the victims and be exposed.
Though happy stories like this one are not real, the emotions portrayed pay a great tribute to the victims of concentration camps.