La Ley de Herodes

Doesn't matter if we understand politics or not, we can't ignore it. We are all taught in schools that Corruption is bad but later this corruption becomes our reality. We move on by complaining against corruption or accepting it. But here we have an option to sit back and enjoy the satirical comedy of this Mexican film "La Ley de Herodes".

Somewhere around 1940s in an interior village of Mexico, Juan Vargas (played by Damián Alcázar) an innocent & well behaved janitor of PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional- a political party of Mexico) was elected as a mayor to bring development & justice to the people of this village. Now begins the main politics where director Luis Estrada portrays how the system of corruption can change a normal person to a beast.

None other than Damián Alcázar can bring the character of this newly elected mayor so much real & entertaining to the audience. The story unfolds how this man transforms into a gruesome person & he himself becomes the law of society.

People from any part of the world can relate to the basic corrupted culture of politics that has been shown in this movie as no country exists without corruption. Even the sense of humor used to criticize the then ruling party of Mexico (PRI) is stupendous. Here in one interesting conversation, Eduardo López Rozas who plays the character of a doctor, asks an american "Do you think democracy is the solution of Mexico?".

To know the funny & satirical response watch the trailer below:

A MUST WATCH!!!

Un cuento chino

Imagine yourself being lost in an unknown place with no money, smartphone etc. where people speak in a different language you don't understand. So what you can do?

Un cuento chino

Before you start thinking in your mother tongue, here is an Argentine movie "Un cuento chino" that narrates the journey of a Chinese man who is lost after landing at the airport of Buenos Aires, where he doesn't speak nor understand Spanish language neither do the native people speak Chinese.

While watching the film I was imagining that if the audience don't speak Chinese & Spanish language, then watching it without subtitles would bring different interpretations. At the same time, this film has different point of view for the Chinese (mandarin speaking) audiences who can't speak Spanish.

Director Sebastián Borensztein has comically & emotionally created a bonding between the two countries of China & Argentina through a protagonist character Roberto (played by Ricardo Darín). He is a lonely man & owns a machinery shop. He maintains a strict daily routine & has a rare hobby of collecting bizarre news from the newspaper where coincidentally a Chinese story of a cow falling from an airplane & killing a lover on the boat was one among his favorite. One day he discovers a helpless Chinese man Jun (Ignacio Huang) near the airport, being robbed and left without anything except an address tattooed on his shoulder. 

Roberto (left) & Jun (right) sharing sign language

One cannot enjoy the movie with subtitles because it will ruin the real essence of this movie. Actor Ricardo Darín has taken the story to a different level by delivering the final interpretation to the audience. 

"Es una película para los amantes de idiomas" --- Those who don't speak Spanish, they can copy & translate this sentence in google. If you pause for a while & choose not to, then it will live for long just like the Chinese dialogues in this movie that I don't understand at all but it creates my own interpretation of human emotions.

Corazón de León

Love has no boundary, no language, no limitations. It is universal in a way that we can fall at any point of time. Whether we watch Hollywood movies of Woody Allen, Bollywood romantic movies or Bengali movies like "Devdas", we enjoy feeling it from our heart.

Every ambition has to pay, so does love. At some point of our life we all fall in love without thinking or judging much but rather we develop a feeling that comes from inside. Here Ivana Cornejo (Julieta Díaz) a successful lawyer, develops a feeling for León Godoy (Guillermo Francella) an architect, in this Argentine movie "Corazón de León".

Heart Of Lion

But what is so special about this couple?

Here the protagonist character, León, is un enano i.e. a dwarf & Ivana falls in love with him irrespective of their differences in height.

"Me fatlan 40 centimetros, pero es nada grave-- It lacks only 40 cm nothing much" says León on their first meeting at a restaurant. Ivana is surprised to meet him as she has created an imaginary portray of this man based on a telephonic conversation they had before.

Now the story outshines our common belief that we generally follow like- LOVE at FIRST sight, FIRST impression is the LAST impression, bla bla bla... At first it gives us a clear scenario where we can sense that nothing will work out between this mismatched couple. Dating is out of question. But the spectacular narration of this romantic comedy film by Director Marcos Carnevale, slowly unfolds the emotional feelings of Ivana for this man León. The more we enter into the film, the deeper we encounter the character of this man as a father, friend & lover surpassing his height. 

LOVE is like a dream. We don't realize it in the beginning until we wake up in the middle, not being able to complete the journey.

  

PADRE NUESTRO

This Spanish film is the directorial debut of Mr. Christopher Zalla, a Kenyan-born, Spanish speaking New Yorker. It is based upon an incomplete story of betrayal & identity theft that connects with very different characters.

PADRE NUESTRO

A 17 year-old Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola) who doesn't speak english, is starving & roaming around the deserted street of Brooklyn, where the lights of Manhattan's skyscrapers behind him blinks silently. He is searching for his father whom he had never met before. He was robbed on his way to New York when he was smuggled from his native land of Mexico. He was carrying a letter of his deceased mother along with his father's address and his photo.

While searching for his father, he strikes up an uncertain relationship with Magda (Paola Mendoza) a homeless prostitute and a drug addict, who agrees to help him locate his father in exchange of money.

The film starts with Juan (Armando Hernandez), a thug, fleeing from a local gang of Mexico before boarding a truck to be smuggled to New York city where he befriends with Pedro & robbed his personal belongings of his mother's letter along with his father's photo and address on the way while he was asleep. 

Juan, the impostor

The movie cuts back and forth between the two illegal Mexican immigrants-- One who is in search of his father Diego (Jesus Ochoa) an angry dishwasher and the other who manages to reach him with the stolen identity of Pedro.

At first Diego resists himself to believe Juan's lies but slowly it comes as a challenge for Juan to convince him with his charming & cunning behavior. The slow bonding between Juan & Diego creates an emotional mood like what a father & his son could experience where as Juan is after something else.

Pedro on his battle to earn daily wages with other illegal immigrants 

On one hand, Pedro who is the real son, is experiencing harsh reality on the shabbier street of New York city depending on a prostitute where as on the other hand, Juan is after something while discovering what a father could be like.

At any moment, the truth can destroy the house of cards, that are built upon numerous lies. One can find anything on this planet if he/she searches for it.

So what the final denouement would be like?? ... can't be guessed so easily     

  

El próximo oriente (The Near East)

Love has no language. It can be felt anywhere & anytime. Love has no boundary unless there is any intervention from the person's cultural background or past.

El próximo oriente

In this film, a Bangladeshi expat Aisha (played by Spanish actress Nur Al Levi) in Madrid, gets pregnant & later ditched by a Spanish guy (played by Asier Etxeandia) living next door. Her father runs a Bangladeshi restaurant without liquor in the menu because of the religious issue.

Director Fernando Colomo takes the story to a different level where the brother Caín (played by Javier Cifrián) of the Spanish guy who ditched the Bangladeshi girl Aisha,  starts helping her after she tried to commit suicide. Though it sounds serious, things move on in a comical way when Caín starts impressing her father & agrees to marry her by sacrificing his own religion but casually. He makes it clear to Aisha, that this marriage is meant to help her out of depression and family conflict. Slowly this comical and complicated relationship converts into a romantic one.

Being Bengali, I find these British actors playing Bangladeshis very different. I can't relate their way of speaking Bengali language and acting with ours. Something is missing--"HACE FALTA" -- that's how we say in Spanish.

Comparing this film with an American film "OUTSOURCED", the story is different but the cultural intervention of both the countries- America and India,  makes it more or less clear to watch. where as on the other hand "El próximo oriente" missed out the cultural intervention of Spain & Bangladesh, which is important for this context of the story. Apart from showing religious differences, the film didn't show much about the culture of Spain and as a result it creates some questions among the audiences.

The story is good and funny to enjoy. The Spanish actors have delivered impressive performances on screen that hold the story altogether. But for the Asian audiences, the film misses out the spicy flavor because the script involves the culture, language and comical relationship between Spain and Bangladesh.