|* cinema. Black Night Film Festival 2005. Poff.
Do you know why I love the end of the Fall term? As a normal student of course I just hate the workload, deadlines and exams, however, there is such a perfect reason to enjoy life during this time. And the reason is
the Black Night Film Festival aka POFF in Tallinn. This year it happens from the 2nd till the 11th of December.
There are a number of movies from the Middle East countries presented:
- 20 Fingers (Beest Anghosht) Iran, Great Britain 2004
the issues of men and women within the confines of the traditional and family life in Iran - Earth and Ashes (Khakestar-O-Khak), Afghanistan, France 2004
the old man’s journey to find his son, the story takes on the nature of a parable of desperation caused by destructive loss, and of the need and ability of the human spirit to face the horrors of war. - Iron Island (Jazireh Ahani) Iran 2005
a fast-paced tale about poor people in the Persian Gulf living aboard a sinking oil tanker - The Unwanted Woman Iran 2005
reveals opposition and clashes in relations - Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhta Ham Parvaz Mikonand) Iran, Iraq 2004
a refugee camp on the Turkish-Iraqi border where Kurds have fled from the surrounding villages. This is the other face of war, full of blood, fear and pain, which can turn a child’s heart to stone - Magia Russica Israel, Russia 2004
Fjodor Chytruk is one of the greatest Russian animators. The movie moves between the sights and sounds of Russia, and into the animated films. - To Take A Wife (Ve Lakachta Lecha Isha) Israel, France 2004
The story revolves around the home and the family, and describes the three days of preparation for the Shabbat - Waiting For The Clouds (Bulutlari Beklerken) Turkey, France, Germany, Greece 2004
Drawing on the novel Tamama by Yorgos Andreadis, the story takes place in the 1970s in the Turkish fishing village of Trebolu on the shores of the Black Sea, not far from the Soviet border
|* music. 'La Ya Amman' - Song condemning the terrorists attacks
Before I wrote that Moustapha Akkad died in the terrorists attacks in Jordan. Thanks to the blog
Mental Mayhem I come upon the
link to the Song "
La Ya Amman". The song is performed by several Jordanian singers (Zein Awad, Nany Petrao, Fadi Ghassan...) and condemns these attacks.
It is possible to
download the song here. And now there has been a video made for this song, you can
download it here.
|* cinema. Three Kings (1999)
In a war without heroes they are kings Troy Barlow: Are we shooting?
Soldier: What?
Troy Barlow: Are we shooting people or what?
Soldier: Are we shooting?
Troy Barlow: That's what I'm asking you!
Soldier: What's the answer?
Troy Barlow: I don't know the answer! That's what I'm trying to find out!... I think this guy has a weapon! Yeah, he does!
Shoots the guy, comes closer, sees that the guy had a white flag. Personally, I think there is the right time for everything. I know for sure that in the year 1999 this movie was made, I wouldn't be able to understand it, yet enjoy. Recently I came upon "I heart Huckabees" by
David O. Russell and went to movie database to check for his works. Guess what? I found out that "
Three Kings" my brother liked so much many years ago, is not actually a stupid-hollywood-action movie. Now that I watched it, I can say the crew did a great job! Sharp dark humour, great plot, dramatic moments mixed with hard action and irony, what more to wish?
The story goes back to 1991, when USA libirated Kuwait and declared that the war was over. People are happy, journalists are there to cover the celebration story, soldiers are drinking like hell, dancing and singing "I love this land. God bless the U.S.A.!" But next day, while arresting more Iraqies, they found a map in on Iraqi guy's ass! Well, later on rumours claimed it was in his penis. Or ear. Or nose! Maj. Archie Gates (
George Clooney) goes to a "proctology" tent and gets a deal with the soldiers who have found the map. Four of them go and search for the bullions (not the little cubes you make a soup from) in the secret bunker. To make the story short, they did find the gold, but they also saw hundreds of people suffering, Iraqi Shiite civilians who have risen against Saddam Hussein, have been promised help from USA and abandoned. I think you already guessed what happens next: our brave three soldiers cannot just stay away with their gold, they try to help and save!
Basically, it is a movie about soul transformation of these guys. They got into Iraq, didn't do much, were supposed to be send back already, but went for the gold. Saw injustice, changed their "necessity", tried to help, failed in some way, in some way succeeded, but definitely looked over their beliefs and got educated on the true and selfish reasons of USA for war.
Thanks to the lecture of James Thurlow "Media Criticism" this term, I've learned what inoculation is according to Roland Barthes in his essay "Myth today" and "Operation Margarine". Well, this movie is a perfect example of inoculation.
While making a small research on this movie before writing a review, a came upon interesting facts.
- First, all the movie was shot in Arizona, and the director even sent two guys sectretly sneak in Iraq to take photos of the real area in order to find the best places in USA to film it.
- Then, do you remember the scene with the torture of Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg)? Well, he wished to get into role and asked to make it for real! Respect.
- I was laughing when I saw the propaganda leaflets with pictograms the USA oficer used to make Iraqi soldiers surrender. I was surprised to know they are actually the real ones used in the Gulf War! It reminded me the leaflets for American soldiers I came upon in the Internet searching for the Kurdish-English dictionary.
- The film was banned in Iraq.
- On the official website of the movie you can find a special presentation, "HOW TO SHOOT A SCENE WHERE YOU BLOW UP A HELICOPTER WITH AN EXPLODING FOOTBALL." The feature includes a detailed shot list, storyboards, production photos and sketches.
Moments to remember? Here we go:
- Cow being blown by the mine.
- Explanation of how a bullet tears into the gut. Or lungs being sqeezed by the air pressure.
- Milk truck shot through and the milk just pours outside, Iraqi people drinking it from the ground.
- Children running through the mine field and Mark Wahlberg running after them to stop (reminded me the scene from "Turtles can fly", movie from Iraq, where the child is so close to step on one).
- Sadam's soldier telling about his son being killed by USA troops while bombing, and his wife lost her legs. That makes a great impression on the Wahlberg. In fact, I so much liked how Mark played in this movie! I can say that his character somehow partly transfered to the new "I heart Huckabees" movie by the same director, where he played the guy being totally depressed by the cruelty of this world and strongly against usage of oil.
What else? An American football ball turned into a bomb and being thrown at the Sadam's helicopter, Bang!
And Gucci bags! Oh yeah, man, Gucci bags full of gold!
|* dance. art of Belly Dancing.
What image pops up in your head when you hear “Belly dance”? Mystery, exoticism, erotica, seduction… ? Girls dancing in the sparkling light apparels, tempting clinking sounds of coins on their belts and the atmosphere of relaxing and pleasure. That is a true delight to watch a skilled minx hypnotizes you into fairytales of 1001 nights with the dance.
However, neither language in the Middle East uses the name of any part of the body. In Arabic this dance is called "
raqs sharqi" and in Turkish - "
Oryantal tansi". The translation of both terms is "dance of the East", or "Oriental dance". Calling this form of dancing a "belly dance" might be considered vulgar by many Middle Eastern people.
As the history goes, the origins of the Oriental dance are in North Africa, the Middle East, and as far east as Iran. Some say it might have been used to support childbirth.
In the beginning the Oriental dance was performed primarily in family-oriented events like weddings, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs (don't be surprised, Jewish families did it too!), and other occasions. Outsiders were rarely given any opportunity to witness it.
During the 19th century, Europeans became fascinated with "the Orient" and the word quickly spread that the dancers were one of the must-see attractions.
Whether they enjoyed the dancing or despised it, the exotic appeal of something so very different from their own homeland held a sort of fascination for them. Although previously the local women had danced only for family celebrations and community events, they discovered a new market for their talent: foreigners.The nightlife in clubs for the Oriental dance spread first in Cairo, Egypt, in the 1920's. Soon the same clubs also appreared in Beirut, Lebanon. Tourists wanted to spice up their lives with something exotic and thus musicians and dancers market flourished.
But enough of facts, what do we have today? Sometimes people still wrongfully regard "belly dancing" as similar to stripping, but luckily there are not a lot of those people. We have numerous places to learn the Oriental dance and, in fact, to keep fit doing it.
Have you ever tried belly dancing? If you did, you would probably know that it requires a very good stomack muscles condition. The first time I tried it, I couldn't move my hips, they were not shaking! I felt like Miranda in one of the Sex and the City episodes, when she complained to Carry that she would never be a girly woman, because her hips wouldn't pump. Finally, I had to practise every day for several weeks my stomack press in order to get my belly shaking.
The accident happened with
Susan Sarandon while she was practising the erotic dance moves for her new film 'Bernard and Doris'. Apparently she tried too hard and injured her back. That's again indicating that it is not so easy as it seams. Or that if you are 59 years old, it's better not to risk, even if you are a movie star.
P.S. places to learn Oriental dance in Tallinn, Estonia:- Ehitajate tee 109 a
tel 56637350, Maria
on Saturdays at 14.30
|* celebrities. Angelina Jolie in Pakistan
Angelina Jolie and her boyfriend
Brad Pitt spent their Thanksgiving in Pakistan. Jolie has been the UN Refugee Agency's goodwill ambassador since early 2001. Her four-day mission in Pakistan will help to focus world attention on the plight of over three million Afghan refugees.
After the actress visited the devastated parts of the disaster zone, she was so shocked that she decided to consider adopting a child there. Jolie, who has already adopted two orphans - a boy Maddox from Cambodia and a girl Zahara from Somalia, finds it to be a special thing: "There's something about making a choice, waking up and traveling somewhere and finding your family".
The actress is very worried about the future of more than three million Afghan refugees, who are still sheltering in Pakistan 25 years after war forced them to flee their native land.
"They’re very far out and they are very concerned about the winter coming", Jolie reminded.
By the way, during her visit, Jolie paid respect to the traditions of the place and was wearing
salwar kameez and
dupatta on her head. It is nice to know that apart from being rich and famous, some movie stars are concerned about tragedies in the world and try to help.
This photo I found to be rather interesting. Here Jolie climbs aboard a bus carrying Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan during her visit to the Kacha Gari refugee camp in Peshawar (Reuters Photo). Looks like her training for both Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith movies is not in vain.
Find more pictures
-here-
|* architecture . Zaha Hadid and Phaeno Science Museum in Germany.
On Friday, November 25, there was a big opening of a grand Science Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The Science Center, Phaeno, is the first of its kind in Germany and presents to the visitors mysterious strangeness ruled by a system of structural organization. As it is said in the official press release, the building is structured in such a way that it maintains a large degree of transparent and porosity on the ground and an artificial crater-like landscape allowes diagonal views to the different levels of the exhibition-scape.
This entire alien-like wonder is designed by
Zaha Hadid, a female independent practitioner among today's most elite architects.Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, Hadid received her degree in mathematics from the American University in Beirut and studied at the Architectural Association in London, where she won the Diploma Prize in 1977. Upon graduation Hadid became a partner in the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, where she worked with influential architects
Rem Koolhaas and
Elia Zenghelis. Establishing her own practice in London in 1979, she soon gained international attention with her controversial winning entry for the Peak International Design Competition for Hong Kong in 1983.
Hadid was the only woman included in the Museum of Modern Art's 1988 Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition. Her first physically-realized project, the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany, spinned her career to a new phase. This small structure, which has been characterized as "frozen motion," reflects Hadid's frequent use of unusual shapes to integrate a building with its environment.
Some other works:
Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Arts, Cincinnati, Ohio
Center of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
I was trully amaized by her design and innovative ideas, as Hadid is consistently pushing the boundaries of architecture and urban design and experimenting with new spatial concepts. And last, but not least, in 2004 Zaha Hadid became a
Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize marking the first time a woman has been named for this 26 year old award.
more info on Zaha Hadid and her project can be found:
* on
her official website* in the
Online Media Kit from the Pritzker Architecture Prize website*
ARCspace.com
