AFI FEST 2010: DON'T MISS PRECIOUS LIFE

PRECIOUS LIFE Shlomi Eldar (35mm; 90 min.)
Screens Saturday, November 6, 9:30 p.m., Mann's Chinese 3


“The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to go in that hospital…”

These are the words spoken by Israeli television war correspondent Shlomi Eldar that open his coolly devastating documentary Precious Life, in which Eldar sets out to raise awareness of the plight of tiny baby Muhammad, the third child born without an immune system to Palestinian parents Raida and Fauzi, and perhaps the third who will die from it. They seek help from Dr. Raz Somech in an Israeli hospital, an act which may indeed save their son’s life but which eventually foments suspicion and distrust among the family’s neighbors in Gaza over whether or not Raida and Fauzi’s sympathies have transferred to the Jews.


Precious Life is remarkable in many ways, not least of which for the profound empathy with which it manages to cut across political and religious lines, but for its simply complex humanity. Documentaries detailing the financial and practical difficulties of dealing with familial disease are plentiful and often worth spending time with, but in Precious Life the emphasis on the relationship between Muhammad’s family and the filmmaker Eldar necessarily becomes part of the picture and enriches it. It is his initial news reports that focus attention on the baby’s situation and inspire an anonymous donor to fund the entire $55,000 operation. Eldar then continues his involvement by securing his connections in Gaza to help facilitate the gathering of blood donations from 25 of little Muhammad’s cousins when it is determined that none of the baby’s three living siblings are a match for his blood type.

By this point the movie could have turned into a Michael Moore stunt, a rhetorical rallying cry wondering why both sides can’t just get along with its morally self-righteous director leading the viewer by the nose. But Eldar, following a natural pulse (his own and that of the film’s), resists such easy posturing. Muhammad’s cousin Sausana proves a match, but arranging her safe arrival to the hospital becomes even more difficult when full-on war breaks out, effectively closing off the checkpoint passage from Gaza into Israel. And when Sausana finally does arrive, the family spends agonizing months worrying over whether Muhammad’s body will accept or reject the graft that will bolster his immune system and save his life. It is here that Eldar’s sensitivity as a documentarian is best exemplified, for what emerges in Precious Life is not simply one personal story adorned with statistics and chatter. As described by Dr. Somech, in the transplant process initially the bone marrow graft reacts adversely to the patient, and at the same time the body tries to reject the graft because it experiences it as invasion by a foreign organism. There is, therefore, a struggle between two components which must coexist in order for the patient to survive, each with its own desires and aspirations. Indeed, within little Muhammad’s struggling body is discovered a potent metaphor for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself which helps translate the arguments from the abstract into a critically human dimension, a metaphor the medically non-conversant Eldar most likely could have never anticipated.


But even that discovery might feel almost too pat if it weren’t for what happens next. In a moment of repose as Muhammad heals, Eldar allows himself to be drawn into a conversation with Raida regarding how the Palestinian people look upon life, and he is horrified by what he hears. Raida is a woman who has grown up in a society where even the children speak as if they are doomed old men-- One child interviewed early on proclaims, “Whatever happens, praise be to Allah. Whatever happens, we’re dead already.” She tries, clearly uncomfortably, to explain to Eldar on camera that for her, death is natural, normal. She speaks from the same perspective as that matter-of-fact child when she says that for her people life is not precious, that from being surrounded by it every day they do not fear death, and neither do their children. And she loses Eldar’s sympathy altogether when she explains that she would rejoice if her little Muhammad could survive his current situation and live to become a shahid, one who dies for the cause of Palestine, presumably taking many Israelis with him.

Of course, Eldar cannot bear the thought of this child being saved only to one day become an agent of death for people who might every well be close to him. It's a credit to his courage as a filmmaker that he never backs away from his own anger, and given his history as a critical correspondent of Israel's own aggressive military policies it's no surprise that he shouldn't be hesitant to expose his own internal conflicts. But what is remarkable about Precious Life is how the rest of the film is dedicated to navigating that seemingly unchartable space between Eldar and Raida, and the Israelis and Palestinians, to coming to some kind of understanding of how people who so profoundly disagree could possibly help each other, love each other, live together in peace. The movie doesn’t pretend to have the answers that have eluded generations, and Eldar certainly, as a documentarian, a reporter and an Israeli, wears his qualifications on his sleeve. But awareness of these facts are not gained at the expense of Raida, who emerges as one of the most complex and compelling characters I’ve seen in a film, fiction or nonfiction, in many years. By the time she gives birth again, Precious Life has become less about saving Muhammad than about forging and maintaining the connection for this woman between the unfamiliar world of Israel in which she had spent several months but never understood. It’s a world so very different from the war-ravaged streets of Gaza that she calls home and to which she retains loyalty, a world about which she may very well teach her newborn daughter different things than what she has taught her other children in the past.

For the full schedule and more information on how to get tickets for Precious Life and other films at the AFI Fest, visit their web site. You can also see this review and many other festival film reviews posted at the AFI Fest blog.

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AFI FEST 2010: JANG CHEOL-SOO'S BEDEVILLED

The American Film Institute’s AFI Fest gets under way here in Hollywood this Friday, featuring classic programming curated by Guest Artistic Director David Lynch (including Rear Window, Sunset Boulevard, Lolita, Mon Oncle, Hour of the Wolf and, of course, Eraserhead) and a rich lineup of high-profile international films and under-the-radar titles from these and foreign shores. The gala premieres include Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, featuring acclaimed performances from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, Kevin Spacey in the late George Hickenlooper’s docudrama Casino Jack and Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech.

But outside the big ticket items, there are lots of international oddities and items of interest on the roster. The ones I’m most interested in are Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Werner Herzog’s 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jean-luc Godard’s Film Soicialism, Guillem Morales’ Julia’s Eyes, Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage, Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme D’or winner Uncle Boonmee Who can Recall His Past Lives. The good news: the ticckets are free! The bad news: They’ve been available since October 28 and most shows are already sold out. The semi-good news: the AFI Film fest office is releasing extra tickets for some shows at 10:00 a.m. on the morning of the screening of each film, so if there’s something you’re interested in, you’ll be in line like me. (The AFI Film Fest office is located on the third floor of the Highland and Hollywood complex directly across from the Chinese 6 Theaters.)

This year I’ve been lucky enough to see two of the festival’s featured attractions in advance, thanks to the courtesy of Doug Cummings, who heads up the efforts on the AFI Fest website. Doug asked me if I’d be interested in writing for the festival, and of course I was flattered and said yes. The films I was assigned were fascinating in different ways, one an unqualified, complicated success, the other a less-than-successful horror film with ambitions beyond its gory means. Tonight and tomorrow I will feature reviews of both films, Jang Choel-soo’s Bedevilled and Shlomi Eldar’s Precious Life, and the review of the Eldar documentary will also be published tomorrow on the AFI Fest web site. Thanks to Doug for making some of the festival available to me in advance and for allowing me the opportunity to talk about the movies and the fest as part of this weekend’s celebration of international cinema.

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BEDEVILLED Jang Cheol-soo (35mm; 115 min.)
Screens Sunday, November 7, at the Mann’s Chinese 3

**** THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ****

Hae-won (Ji Sung-won), a young bank executive, is witness to a street assault on a young woman in Seoul. From the safety of her car she sees the bloodied face of the woman begging for help, as well as at least one of her attackers, but she refuses to help and is later called in to identify the attackers when they are arrested. The stress of the situation (the assailants know who she is), combined with her own callous behavior on the job, prompts a vacation to an island off the coast of Korea where as a girl she spent time with her grandfather. But when she arrives on the island, she finds a brutal system in place where her now-grown childhood friend Bok-nam (Seo Yeong-hee) lives as a virtual slave to her violent husband, her husband’s sexually assaultive brother, and a strange matriarchy of women who demand her constant labor and dish out humiliation to her at every turn. As the woman’s situation becomes ever more dire, one begins to wonder much horror Bok-nam can possibly endure before either Hae-won steps forward or Bok-nam herself snaps into a violent frenzy of her own.

At first director Jang appears to be after some sort of comparative cultural critique of the suspicions urban and rural Koreans hold for each other—it is clear enough that patriarchal oppression and gender-based prejudice is perhaps as potent in the microcosmic island society (nine people, three of which are men) as in modernized Seoul. But when the plot unfolds more in the direction of an examination of gender relations, particularly the debasement of domestic violence, Jang’s strategy becomes far more simplistic all the while it wobbles on simple dramatic terms. Upon arriving on the island, Hae-won becomes a disruptive force of sorts, but an annoyingly passive one. She does little more than observe the various trials forced upon her friend, and often disappears during long stretches of the story which are increasingly devoted to capturing in lurid detail the minutiae of the vile abuse Bak-won endures with decreasing inner strength. Hae-won inspires suspicion from the old women who justify and protect the men in their barbaric behavior, but little else. At times I wondered where on this tiny island Hae-won might have disappeared to that it takes her so long to discover the true ghastly nature of what it is her friend is experiencing in her daily life.


Ji’s performance is so remote, however, that even when she gazes directly upon the bloody consequences very little empathy registers. This is, of course, in keeping with the character’s attitude which is familiar from the beginning of the film, but it serves to keep the audience at a distance from her as she becomes a more traditional “final girl” in the movie’s gruesome finale. Hae-won does strike up a sympathetic friendship with Bok-nam’s 10-year-old daughter, but even the child’s fate does little to stir the emotions of the audience’s alienated stand-in. By this point in the movie the audience should have much more sympathy for Bok-nam as she slips into a defensive madness, finally standing up for herself against the hardened faces and glassy-eyed stares of this “family” of harridans and brutes who have made her life such a hell, and very few will not feel some release in her lashing out at them. (Seo’s performance is certainly a sympathetic one, an acutely modulated descent from defensive innocence to despair and beyond.)

Jang banks on this release of audience empathy, but he misjudges the degree to which we want to revel in the bloodbath Bok-nam unleashes in her own defense. The first three or four of her victims are folks who, vile though they may be, are not responsible for any horrors or violence we’ve actually seen directed at her, yet their murders are carried out (by Bok-nam) and filmed (by Jang) coolly, efficaciously, with little sympathy or feeling. This strategy effectively articulates the degree to which Bok-nam has slipped away, but it also makes us turn away from her slightly even as it prepares us for even greater, more operatic horrors to come. Jang’s condemnation of domestic violence comes attached to a far-too-hearty reveling in the doling out of bloody justice, and his take on gender relations boils down to a startling misanthropy. Near the end, Bok-nam reacts to a simple altruistic gesture by wondering aloud, “There are kind people?” It’s a rhetorical question, and one wishes the director wasn’t posing it as guilelessly as this brutalized character does. By the time the movie boils down to its conclusion, which pits Bok-nam and Hae-won against each other in a clipped and rather badly staged showdown (compared to the relative elegance and clever use of the wide-screen frame that has come before), thoughts of gender and cultural critique have vanished amidst the screams and the arterial spray that is the real fascination of this disappointing and unpleasant movie.

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GREAT HALLOWEEN HORROR SCREENGRAB CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

"My brain hurts! My brain hurts!"

Whew! This one turned out to be harder than I thought. Some of the folks I thought might have been best equipped to handle this one threw up their hands early on, and only five contestants-- the winning five, as it happens—got more than 10 total correct. I tried to strike a balance between too easy and too difficult on the images I extracted, but I have seem to have erred on the side of the obscure, or at least the obscure image. At any rate, I hope you at least had the fun of teasing your brain and looking at a fun collection of screen grabs, if nothing else! And with this post I say my official good night and God bless to the Halloween season. Now, an entire month devoted to turkeys—uh, movies with turkeys in ‘em—Oh, forget it. Here are the names of the winners, followed by a visual key to the answers. The winners cited below should contact me at powser2@earthlink.net with their mailing address so that I might more quickly get your DVD prizes sent off to you! Congratulations, horror hounds! You have prevailed!

MATTHEW BRADLEY (18 correct)

JEFF@Sleepinheavenlypeace.com (17 correct)

DARREN GROSS (15 correct)

DAVE STEWART (13 correct)

JULIE MOVIEBABY (12 correct)

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In the immortal words of Lily von Shtupp, "I'm tired/Tired of pwaying the game/Ain't it a fwiggin' shame/I'm... so... tired/Goddamn it, I'm exhausted!"

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