Author Topic: Around The World in 80 Days  (Read 9005 times)

Bondo

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #70 on: June 20, 2020, 03:50:37 PM »
Lionheart (Nigeria)

Picked as Nigeria's first submission to the Academy Awards, it was summarily disqualified because it is predominantly in English (though there is still a fair amount of subtitling). That disqualification seems unnecessarily divisive considering that it probably would have been disregarded as not good enough to actually be nominated. It focuses on Adaeze (played by director Genevieve Nnaji) who is the director of logistics at a bus company run by her father. When her father falls ill, she is distraught when her father picks her uncle over her to run the show, but soon the two have to work to get out of a financial bind her father has put the company in.

It isn't clear that there is outright corruption in the story here, but certainly some underhanded corporate tactics from a rival. The premise naturally lends itself to a gender commentary about glass ceilings, and we also see the way certain characters they turn to for help in working out of the financial situation try to leverage that for sexual favors. These things are not particularly subtle. More interesting is the use of the non-English languages, representing two different subcultures, and the way knowing these languages proves vital both in foiling plots against interest and in establishing trust in business.

Bondo

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #71 on: August 02, 2020, 02:49:24 AM »
Jane (Tanzania)

Watched this a while ago and didn't write anything because I didn't have that much to say and it feels like a cheat entry for Tanzania. The natural point of comparison is The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, both about women ahead of their time in the man's world of science, and also somewhat braving it in the wilds of Africa in pursuit of their interest in animals. Though it is underselling it a bit to act like they were just the first women to it, as this kind of observational thing they did didn't seem to be a priority of male scientists, so in some ways it took women to really shine the light on this manner of research. I found the other film on the whole better than this one, perhaps because Jane Goodall is such a name that it becomes more of a star piece.

Bondo

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #72 on: August 02, 2020, 10:20:29 PM »
The Kite (Slovakia)

This Eastern European co-produced animated short (Chechia, Slovakia and Poland) at least isn't one where it technically qualifies but is dominated by Western production, but it doesn't have a distinct cultural stamp. A boy and his father play with a kite. Stuff happens that I guess is a metaphor for death and grieving, though that was a bit lost on me. Interesting enough stop-motion animation style and it is hard to get annoyed with a short film, but this kind of passed by me.

Bondo

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #73 on: August 05, 2020, 07:43:28 PM »
Shadows of a Leader: Qaddafi’s Female Bodyguards (Libya)

Going into this, I thought the unique thing it was exploring was that Qaddafi's bodyguards are exclusively female. I could thing of a number of reasons for that arrangement, few of them good. Turns out, he has male bodyguards too. The thing of interest here is apparently that there ISN'T outright gender prohibition, which I guess we'd expect because of how we perceive Islam? It goes into a bit the historical logic behind this element of equality and how it reverberates certain meaning out into the country. Notably Qaddafi was not a fundamentalist so it was a gesture that acted as a bulwark against the religious fundamentalists that might prefer his ouster. Of course, it isn't really a progressive society so things aren't exactly peachy.

The mere existence of this documentary is a bit of a feat because it was so unlikely to get permission to film. The live content of the film is mostly rigorously controlled, which the director subverts with narration suggesting the true dynamics going on beneath the surface. I'm sure that makes for a slightly less comfortable work than Qaddafi's people would have liked or authorized in hindsight, though it doesn't strike me as a particularly critical documentary by any standard in a free society.

Bondo

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #74 on: August 08, 2020, 09:07:15 PM »
Who Killed Captain Alex? (Uganda)

Technically, this is a terrible film. But much in the way that Be Kind Rewind or Me and Earl and the Dying Girl introduce joy in uber-low budget improvised filmmaking, one can get some enjoyment from the spirit. One added wrinkle here is the VJ, in this case Video Joker, who provides a kind of riff trax commentary track, sometimes commenting on the actions, sometimes echoing it, and sometimes acting as the film's hype man. I could see the film without that aspect wearing the viewer down. The VJ helps make it into a romp where without it one might be more inclined to analyze it in a serious manner.

The story itself involves Captain Alex and military/police commandos trying to take on the "Tiger Mafia." It is massively bloody (though not in a gory way because the effects are so terrible) and quite chaotic. I can't say I completely followed the plot, though the title gives at least one spoiler for surprisingly far into the film. I do think the ending perhaps tries to introduce some broader relevance that maybe sobers one about what otherwise felt like pretty isolated violence. At only marginally over an hour, this was a better experience than many so far.

1SO

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #75 on: August 08, 2020, 10:20:30 PM »
Who Killed Captain Alex? (Uganda)

the title gives at least one spoiler for surprisingly far into the film.

Is there a Mr. Who?

Bondo

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Re: Around The World in 80 Days
« Reply #76 on: August 09, 2020, 06:22:54 AM »
There is not, but Captain Alex is alive for most of the film, but is killed off screen.

 

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