The Third Journey (China)

Power kills, and absolute power kills absolutely… Iris Chang

Xiu Xiu (1998), by Joan Chen

My name is Quen, and I was born on October 1, 1975. I live in Chengdu and my father sews clothes, and he works at the factory with Mr. Yue Lu. My mother also knows Mr. Lu because she often speaks about her time when she like Xiu Xiu, Mr. Lu’s daughter, was sent down to grow rice. My mother received her permits to return to our village, but she tells me of the unfortunate story of Xiu Xiu who did not. It is May 29, 1989. And my uncle who is a student talks to me about democracy. He also tells me that the government will hurt me, and that I should fight them. That night I go to bed, but I cannot sleep. I believe I am valuable. And I believe that it is okay that I am a girl who is valuable. It is not right for me to have to worry about unemployment, domestic violence, sex-selective abortions, having to abandon my girl child because may chosen husband my not value girl children, or be forced into prostitution and trafficking if my family could not provide for me. I would rather commit suicide. But I have decided that if I must die, the quiet way will not make a statement. But if I joined the protest On June 4, 1989 at Tiananmen Square, I could die with others who must have democracy now. My death would make a statement to the world. I am a peaceful person, and I do not believe in publically misbehaving. However, the death and victimization of Xiu Xiu must and will not go unrecognized

The Second Journey (India)

Hatred is not essential for nationalism. Race hatred will kill the national spirit… Gandhi

"Earth" (1995), by Deepa Mehta

Earth was a remarkable film about the independence of India from the British in 1947 and the price it paid as a result. Two reviews were introduced for this movie: Earth Unforgettable by Zaminae Ansari and Earth by C.J.S.Wallia. Although both reviews critiqued the movie well, I preferred Earth by C.J.S Wallia. This review was sobering as was the subject matter it discussed. From the beginning to the end, the movie failed to explain and depict the severity and ramifications of India’s independence from Britain’s rule after it had kept the peace between the Muslism, Hindus and Sikhs for over a hundred years. This review did not paint a rosy picture, and it did not compare the confusion of a child to that of a country, which included religious leaders, bourgeoisie, and government officials. It did not see it a love story or a romance amid the chaos. I agree with Wallia when he/she asserts that a child of that age could not comprehend or explain to others on a superior level exactly what was happing to her country and how it would affect her. This fact is proven when an angry mob of Muslim men come to kidnap her Hindu nanny. The family’s Muslim servant lies to the men telling them that the nanny has left. However, the narrator betrays her nanny and places her family’s life in peril for frozen ice-cream on a stick. Furthermore, she does not understand that the ice-cream man is in love with the nanny but is incensed because his love is unrequited. This is a very complex story. Wallia also believes that(Metha thru)the narrator could not explicate the poignant issues about the subject because she does not understand the cultural and historical facts about the people involved. What I enjoyed the most was Wallia’s statistical data about on one group of the people and her incorporation historical research when validating her point of how Metha was misinformed and embellishing. Unlike some, I agree with Horace when he wrote that entertainment should be two fold, enlightening and informative.

The First Journey ( Macedonia)

With a shriek birds, flee across the black sky, people are silent, my blood aches from waiting ... Mesha Selimovic.

“Before The Rain” ( 1993), by Mancheviski

Before the Rain (1993), written and directed by Macedonian Milcho Mancheviski, is a foreign film attempting to depict the issues that Albanian and Macedonian people face. It is the story of photographer who can not seem to figure out where he belongs and what he should be doing. It is divided into three parts that are chronologically misplaced. The movie itself appears to be not well thought out in the fact that the out-of-order segments could not reconnect even if they were placed in the correct order. This is not “Pulp Fiction”. The movie itself defies time, truth, and logic. The segments are labeled “Words”, “Faces”, and “Pictures”. In “Words”, a young monk (Kiril) for unknown reason has taken a vow of silence among other monks who are speaking. One night, he returns to his bedroom to discover what looks like a young boy who turns out to be a young Albanian girl (Zamira) who has murdered a very important Macedonian man for unknown reasons. Rather than report her to the head monk, he lies to everyone and protects her. He falls in love. When armed Macedonians come looking for her, they terrorize the monastery, but the head monks swears that she is not there. When he discovers that Kiril has lied, he expels them both from the safety of the monastery. However, they both are captured by armed Albanians, who are lead by Zamira’s grandfather who is angered by her actions that may start a war. Her grandfather brutally beats her while others watch. He tells Kiril to leave, and out of fear, Zamira tries to flee with him, but her brother shoots her in the back. In “Faces”, we have Anne, an agent in London, who has begun a love affair with a photographer that she represents. His name is Aleksandra. He is Macedonian and he has shown her some pictures of the murders of Kiril and Zamira. She is moved, but refuses to commit to him because she has not divorced her estranged husband. Frustrated, Aleksandar leaves London to return to Macedonia. Anne invites her husband to dinner and tells him that she is pregnant by him but wants a divorce( Why tell him if you want a divorce?). While they are setting there, a Yugoslavian gets into an argument with an enemy. The enemy leaves and returns to the restaurant with a gun and kills many innocent people including Anne’s husband (No need for a divorce now). In “Picture”, we see Aleksandar in Macedonia and he goes to his village. He is looking for his high-school sweetheart whom is now an Albanian widower with one child (Zamira, how she was killed by her brother is beyond me... maybe a step). Zamira’s mother and grandfather bring Aleksandar up-to-date on current events. He is saddened by the barbarism that is the norm. He discovers that someone has stuck pitchfork into his cousin for unknown reasons. He finds Zamira in a barn and tries to save her from being killed by his cousin’s cousin. The cousin demands that she be turned over to him for the crime, but Aleksandar insist that justice should provide a fair trial. He assaults his cousin and leaves the barn with Zamira, but while walking away he is shot down. And she runs way. ( How did he get the photographs of her and Kiril Dead?)
Before the Rain
By DEBORAH YOUNG

Variety,1994

"Rain," the first feature directed by Macedonian-born helmer Milcho Manchevski (now a New York resident and director of music vids), is also the first film made in the newly declared republic of Macedonia. Bordering Greece (which hotly disputes its very name), Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia, the mountainous country is shown in danger of becoming the next Balkan bloodbath. But unlike many observers who blame the war in former Yugoslavia on political pressures, Manchevski depicts senseless ethnic hatred as endemic to the region.
Film is divided into three parts. In "Words," the young Greek orthodox monk Kiril (Gregoire Colin), living in an ancient monastery, shelters and hides an Albanian girl, Zamira (Labina Mitevska), even though they can't understand each other's language. A band of machine-gun-wielding roughnecks bursts into the monastery looking for her, claiming she killed their brother. Kiril and Zamira escape together, but are intercepted by the girl's Muslim relatives. They shoot her down in cold blood, rather than let her go off with a Christian. After the aching beauty of the Macedonian landscape with its monasteries, churches and people who appear lifted from another century, the modernity of the second episode, "Faces," comes as a shock. Anne (Katrin Cartlidge), who works in a London photo agency, is torn between her Macedonian lover Aleksandar (Rade Serbedzija), a Pulitzer prize-winning war photographer, and her sweet, boring husband Nick (Jay Villiers.) Before she can make up her mind between them, Aleksandar takes off for Macedonia andNick dies in an absurd shoot-out in a restaurant.
"Pictures" takes the story back to Macedonia and brings the threads together. Aleksandar returns to his native village, where he's determined to spend the rest of his life forgetting the horrors of taking photographs on the front line.
But the rumblings of war have already infected the once-peaceful Christian villagers: they treat their Albanian neighbors, who are Muslims, as enemies now. Trigger-happy boys with automatic weapons bar his way when he goes to see his boyhood love, Hana (Silvija Stojanovska). Pic owes part of its disturbing magic to its challenging structure. All the events seem to take place at the same time, until the surprising and clever ending. Without beating around the bush, "Rain" accuses the people themselves of starting a fratricidal war, rather than politicians or mistakes made by the U.N. The Macedonian part has an urgency that spills over into the London sequence, where a normal restaurant becomes the site of a massacre. It suggests that no war is limited by man-made boundaries, and no place is so far away that it is safe from danger and violence. There is a piercing sadness in the fanaticism of hating one's neighbor which "Rain" captures very clearly. The monks who have sheltered Bosnian refugees tell the blood-thirsty avengers to turn the other cheek. "We already have," they reply. "An eye for an eye.""Might is right.""He's not one of us -- I'll cut his throat.""It's time to revenge five centuries of our blood." Actors have a strong iconic presence, in which faces are as important as speeches. Dialogue is kept to a realistic minimum. A passionate soundtrack by Anastasia provides a powerful driving force in the film. Manuel Teran's breathtaking cinematography imparts a tragic natural beauty to the landscape which, the film implies, may soon be torn apart by war is shot down.