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Reviews
Much Loved (2015)
A very realistic portrayal of the lives of prostitutes in Morocco, but gets repetitive at times.
This movie is about life of prostitutes in Morocco. Every fifteen minutes, someone f**ks someone. And there are some amazing things about it. The movie, by sheer means of visual storytelling, conveys how prostitutes can be loved, raped and abused, just like anyone else, even when all the three actions, on a physically level, are just sexual acts. You also get to see prostitution as just any job. You also see the challenges with this particular job - the boycott by family members and neighbours, feeling of loss of power with powerful clients / police etc. This movie offers a fine, realistic glimpse of the life of prostitutes in Morocco, portraying a very neutral look at their lives. You relate to them on many levels (good days at work, bad days at work, cracking jokes with friends, finding support and solace in friends in times of despair etc.).
Above are the things that I liked, but there are issues with the movie too. There are passages which feel either repetitive or longer than they need to be. As a feature length movie, it falters many a times in the 'pace' department. It just keeps randomly slowing down, now and then and that's some major turn off, for a movie that otherwise has so much visual stimuli to turn you on, quite literally.
Flocken (2015)
One might not like how the movie ends, but one cannot ignore the consistent gripping impact the movie has on the audience.
This Swedish movie revolves around a school girl and is set in a small village where she lives with her mother and sister. I saw the movie in Goa today, as part of the International Film Festival of India. The director Beata Gårdeler was present to introduce the movie at the festival, but weirdly, the organizations did not care to arrange for any Q&A after the movie got over.
Flocken is a powerful movie where everyone has acted brilliantly. The movie starts off with a neutral (or rather happy) feel to it, and then as it progresses, you can see things getting darker and darker. By the time it ends, you are left with a depressing feeling. You want to enter the story and make things right for yourself. You feel outright bad for the girl (who is dealing with getting raped by her classmate; and very few people believe her). Surprisingly, no one is shown as a clear villain in the movie. Everyone's point of view is presented in subtle ways (and more so, in cinematic ways – by use of visuals more than dialogues). Overall, this is an example of fine cinema. One might not like how the movie ends, but one cannot ignore the consistent gripping impact the movie has on the audience. Good job Beata!
Bébé tigre (2014)
Definitely a good movie but so much potential to be better.
Bebe Tiger is one of those indie fiction movies that have a very documentary movie feel to them. I saw it yesterday in Goa (India) as part of the International Film Festival of India. The movie is about the life of a young refugee in France. Another movie around refugees that I had seen just few weeks ago was a movie called Deepan (both these movies are doing their rounds in film festivals and are yet to release commercially). Both the movies are essentially about bringing out the day to day lives of these refugees and yet, they generate such different emotions. Personally, I liked Bebe Tiger better. It was more subtle and the focus on plot was minimal.
Because I don't like to talk too much about the plot in my movie reviews, let me just focus on the things that left an overall impact on me as a member of the audience (so that those who haven't yet seen it, can decide if they want to see the movie or not).
Bebe Tiger is a fast moving movie. Almost feels like an editor's movie. Because the focus is not too much on the plot, the fast edit actually helps keep the pace just right. I also loved the acting by everyone (and the lead actor did total justice to the role). The visual language throughout the movie is very consistent. And I think that is the only real problem with the movie. Nothing really happens. Things happen of course, but they are too mild to distract you from the idea that what the film-maker really cares about is for you to feel how Many (the young refugee from India) feels on a day to day basis in France. And so, though I liked the movie, it left me with a slightly hollow feeling of something amiss.
Bottomline - definitely a good movie but so much potential to be better.