'Songs from the Nickel':
'The Nickel' is a not so fashionable - to say the least - street in downtown Los Angeles, far from the more famous districts in town.
In this neighbourhood one however find a lot of interesting people, having lived a rather rough life but on the same time, in many cases, gained a life wisdom they like to share with others.
Alina Akrezeszewska has made a documetary about these different personalities and it's a very charming story about people, sometimes being multi-talented and perhaps to sensitive to live in the ever spinning world going round and round.
As I've met people being more or less 'outcast' in Stockholm when working with my social aid work many years ago, I know that the encounters with people that the 'ordinary' society looks down on, can be much more interesting than the meeting with 'the ordinary in the ordinary'.
The director stayed afterwards answering questions from the audience and she told us that it took some time to gain the confidence of the residents before being able to interview them in order to realize this film.
She lived in one of the hotels in this area and got herself some 'mentors' and 'guardians' introducing her to the other inhabitants and this facilitated her work.
Was she scared when living in this suburb among people more or less regarded as outcast?
No not to much, not least after the above mentioned 'guardians' kept an eye on her.
On the other hand, most people living in this area are people having been hurt by society and one shouldn't generalize, saying that people leading this kind of life are dangerous in general.
I would say, form my own experience, that among people with drug problems or social problems, having confronted many difficulties in life, one often find the most intelligent and interesting individuals, not among the 'ordinary' persons on the street, living a socially more acceptable life with a work, a house, a car and loans!
The most dangerous people we find among those having most economical or political power but they are dressed well and respected because they are rich and succesful, not at all a reliable criteria, as we know.
Many of the persons depicted in this documentary were really interesting characters, having thought and reflected a lot but unfortunately not being able to transform their thoughts into a succesful or prosperous life.
'The Nickel' is a not so fashionable - to say the least - street in downtown Los Angeles, far from the more famous districts in town.
In this neighbourhood one however find a lot of interesting people, having lived a rather rough life but on the same time, in many cases, gained a life wisdom they like to share with others.
Alina Akrezeszewska has made a documetary about these different personalities and it's a very charming story about people, sometimes being multi-talented and perhaps to sensitive to live in the ever spinning world going round and round.
As I've met people being more or less 'outcast' in Stockholm when working with my social aid work many years ago, I know that the encounters with people that the 'ordinary' society looks down on, can be much more interesting than the meeting with 'the ordinary in the ordinary'.
The director stayed afterwards answering questions from the audience and she told us that it took some time to gain the confidence of the residents before being able to interview them in order to realize this film.
She lived in one of the hotels in this area and got herself some 'mentors' and 'guardians' introducing her to the other inhabitants and this facilitated her work.
Was she scared when living in this suburb among people more or less regarded as outcast?
No not to much, not least after the above mentioned 'guardians' kept an eye on her.
On the other hand, most people living in this area are people having been hurt by society and one shouldn't generalize, saying that people leading this kind of life are dangerous in general.
I would say, form my own experience, that among people with drug problems or social problems, having confronted many difficulties in life, one often find the most intelligent and interesting individuals, not among the 'ordinary' persons on the street, living a socially more acceptable life with a work, a house, a car and loans!
The most dangerous people we find among those having most economical or political power but they are dressed well and respected because they are rich and succesful, not at all a reliable criteria, as we know.
Many of the persons depicted in this documentary were really interesting characters, having thought and reflected a lot but unfortunately not being able to transform their thoughts into a succesful or prosperous life.
'Holy Rollers' is the story about a group of Hasidic Jews who are smuggling ecstacy for a Israeli drug dealer in Brooklyn.
The story is built on a real event.
Sam Gold (Jessie Eisenberg) is a young man faced with an arranged marriage and it's nothing he appreciates. To this comes that his father and the local rabbi has decided that he should become a rabbi. One could of course commit suicide for less than that!
Fortunately(?) his neighbour Yosef (Justin Bartha) introduces him to the local drug dealer Jackie (Danny A. Abackaser) and henceforth his life will not become the same again, not for long.
This is a story about how easy it can bee getting in to a business being very profitable but more or less immoral, not least when one are raised in a very restricted moralizing way, as is the case with Sam.
He was for the first time in life experiencing freedom and a life in luxuary but also a very dangerous life, of course.
The film also displays how superficially we judge people, in this case the personel employed at the customs who to a large extent let them pass because they wear the traditional orthodox jewish clothes, something one take advantage of from the drug dealers side.
In the end the saga ends a bit like the sagas of the Grimm Brothers but the film as such does not leave any lasting memories.
The story is built on a real event.
Sam Gold (Jessie Eisenberg) is a young man faced with an arranged marriage and it's nothing he appreciates. To this comes that his father and the local rabbi has decided that he should become a rabbi. One could of course commit suicide for less than that!
Fortunately(?) his neighbour Yosef (Justin Bartha) introduces him to the local drug dealer Jackie (Danny A. Abackaser) and henceforth his life will not become the same again, not for long.
This is a story about how easy it can bee getting in to a business being very profitable but more or less immoral, not least when one are raised in a very restricted moralizing way, as is the case with Sam.
He was for the first time in life experiencing freedom and a life in luxuary but also a very dangerous life, of course.
The film also displays how superficially we judge people, in this case the personel employed at the customs who to a large extent let them pass because they wear the traditional orthodox jewish clothes, something one take advantage of from the drug dealers side.
In the end the saga ends a bit like the sagas of the Grimm Brothers but the film as such does not leave any lasting memories.
Das letzte Schweigen:
This film deals with many different issues not least moral ones.
It starts of with two men seeing a young girl on her bike following her on a small road in the forest. One of the men attacks her, rapes her and kills her.
The other man stays in the car, being frightened by the action of his friend or acquaintance or maybe living out his fantasies from within.
We jump ahead in the story, more than twenty years later, meeting the two men again but this time during other circumstances.
Again a young woman disappears and different people having been involved in the former disappearance, directly or indirectly become involved in this process too.
The questions posed are many and some of them could be:
What responsibility does the perpetrator have for acknowledging the fact that he or she has a desire for children and is prepared to abuse and even kill them to satisfy him- or herself?
What responsibility does parents have in order to avoid a development like this?
What responsibility has the therapeutic society for an event of this kind?
What responsibility has - in this case - the friend who stays in the car, not intervening in what's happening to the young defensless woman/girl?
How does the police act and do they prioritize this kind of matters etc etc?
Even if the film does not present any definitive answers - as their are no such answers - it tries to depict the fact that an act like this affects a lot more people than just those directly involved and that it createas wounds so deep that they never seem to heal, neither on a individual level nor on a societal.
Director: Baran bo Odar.
This film deals with many different issues not least moral ones.
It starts of with two men seeing a young girl on her bike following her on a small road in the forest. One of the men attacks her, rapes her and kills her.
The other man stays in the car, being frightened by the action of his friend or acquaintance or maybe living out his fantasies from within.
We jump ahead in the story, more than twenty years later, meeting the two men again but this time during other circumstances.
Again a young woman disappears and different people having been involved in the former disappearance, directly or indirectly become involved in this process too.
The questions posed are many and some of them could be:
What responsibility does the perpetrator have for acknowledging the fact that he or she has a desire for children and is prepared to abuse and even kill them to satisfy him- or herself?
What responsibility does parents have in order to avoid a development like this?
What responsibility has the therapeutic society for an event of this kind?
What responsibility has - in this case - the friend who stays in the car, not intervening in what's happening to the young defensless woman/girl?
How does the police act and do they prioritize this kind of matters etc etc?
Even if the film does not present any definitive answers - as their are no such answers - it tries to depict the fact that an act like this affects a lot more people than just those directly involved and that it createas wounds so deep that they never seem to heal, neither on a individual level nor on a societal.
Director: Baran bo Odar.
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