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February 12, 2014
Arts
X I ENTÉRTAINMENT
Ml 1 1
Screens Come to Life
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behind in conflicts like the Pales
tine-Israeli conflict. The film, oddly,
gives us almost no sense of the
women in this community, but it is a
true ministry of presence to the men.
(Plays Feb. 14 and 16)
I hope no U.S. filmmaker decides
to make a biopic about Lech Walesa,
the leader of Poland's Solidarity
movement, because it is way more
satisfying to watch "W alesa: M an
ofHope" (7). The film tracks the 19-
year period in which the young
Walesa rose from a simple shipyard
electrician into the leader of a move
ment that toppled the Communist
system in Poland.
I suspect that the politics here
may be a bit too complex to really do
themjustice, but the filmmaker wisely'
focuses on Walesa's ballsy person
ality and his relationship with his
longsuffering wife Danuta. The ac
“The Good Road," a film from India and one of last weekend’s
tor who plays Walesa bears an un
entries at the Portland International Film Festival, is about two
canny resemblance to the real hero
children lost in the Kutch desert of Gujarat and features three
and the film feels very grounded in
intertwined stories of journeys gone awry. PIFF continues
Polish culture and experience. Now
through Feb. 22. For an updated schedule, visit nwfilm.org.
if this fascinating film can just find
an audience here in the U.S. (Plays along with the color and the sense set in the 16th century. Kohlhaas is
Feb. 17 and 20)
of a sort of code that governs the a successful horse trader who gets
These films have completed their communities in this sparse area of into a conflict with a wicked baron
festival run, but are worth watch India.
which escalates into an all-out war
watching for on Netflix or a DVD
“The Good Road” also features
when the corrupt legal system of the
release:
a w onderful soundtrack with
tim e u tte rly fails to acco rd
' 'The Good Road" (7.5) isadepic- acoustic Gujarati folk music.
Kohlhaas's claim its fair due. A man
tion of a part o f Indian culture that
A ccording to Jon Savage's
of conscience who inspires loyalty
rarely makes it to American audi book, Teenage: The Creation of in his farmhands and community,
ences. It is set in the rural desert Youth 1875-1945, the concept of Kohlhaas refuses to drop his griev
roads of Kutch, a remote region of youth culture that now pervades
ances as expected of a man of his
Gujarat, and features three inter Western thought is a relatively new class and becomes a formidable foe
twined stories of journeys gone concept that evolved during those to the ruling class.
awry.
years. The U.S. docum entary
The film is less interested in the
The first story involves a middle- "T eenage" (7) gives us a visual
battles (a la Braveheart) and more
class city couple who, en route to depiction of that evolution, mak interested in the twistedjogic of the
their vacation destination, inadvert ing use of an effective combination
church and royalty of the time, which
ently leave their seven-year-old son of impressionistic archival footage
imposes on a man like Kohlhaas a
behind at a roadside restaurant. and first-person narratives chroni moral obligation to avoid respond
Their ordeal intersects with that of cling the experiences of teens in ing to wrong with violence. By that
a taciturn truck driver and his assis the U.S., Britain, and Germany dur twisted logic, Kohlhaas's efforts fi
tant, who are embroiled in an illegal ing those years. It charts the im nally move the ruling class to give
scheme. The two end up traveling pact of the emergence of child la him his due, but also to extract the
with the missing boy, and part of the bor laws in creating more of a di ultimate price.
film's charm is watching the boy vide between childhood and adult
Given the cancellations last week
worm his way into their companion hood and documents such move end, it will be especially important to
ship.
ments as the Boy Scouts, the Nazi check the Northwest Film Center's
The final story involves a young Youth, and various party trends,
website (nwfilm.org) for updates to
orphan girl who is trying to get to dance crazes, and youth move the entire Portland International Film
the city where her grandmother lives, ments that resulted in our now very- Festival schedule. More to come!
and encounters a strange and lovely pervasive sense of adolescents as
Darleen Ortega is a judge on the
community of young girls. The film's cultural drivers.
Oregon Court o f Appeals and the
handling of the menace underlying
Finally, U.S. filmmakers rarely first woman o f color to serve in that
this community is interestingly un make historical epics with the moral capacity. Her movie review column
derstated. The filmmaker has a de complexity of "Age of Uprising:
Opinionated Judge appears regu
lightfully subtle approach to devel The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas'' larly in The Portland Observer. You
oping these characters and the (6.5). Danish heartthrob Mads can f i n d h e r m o vie b lo g a t
ominous dangers that beset them, Mikkelsen stars in this French film opinionatedjudge. blogspot. com.