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In the autumn of 1939, Heinrich Harrer, the famous Austrian
mountaineer, and his countryman Peter Aufschnaiter, set out to climb Nanga
Parbat, one of the highest peaks in the Himalayas. The self-centered
Harrer, whose sole pre-occupation was the achievement of fame and glory,
would experience an emotional awakening on his fantastic journey that
would take him from the heights of conquests to the depths of internment
in a British prisoner-of-war camp, then from escape and a harrowing
two-year trek through the Himalayas to the mysterious Tibetan city of
Lhasa. As a stranger in a strange land where few westerners have ever
visited, Harrer was befriended by the young Dalai Lama, and was asked to
tutor the religious leader in English, geography and the ways of the
Western world. He would eventually spend seven years in Tibet, during a
period of tremendous political upheaval in that country, graced with
friendship and the spiritual enlightenment of the young Dalai Lama. |
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Shot on the border of Iran and Afghanistan, Kandahar is a politically urgent story of a young female journalist named Nafas who escaped Afghanistan with her family but must return and race against time in an attempt to rescue her sister. The sister, maimed by an exploded landmine and distraught over the constant persecution simply for being a woman, has written to Nafas vowing that she will commit suicide by the next solar eclipse. Nafas must disguise herself as an Afghan wife by wearing the traditional head-to-toe covering of the burka in order to find her sister in the Taliban-controlled city of Kandahar. The film is inspired by the real-life experience of actress Nelofer Pazira, who plays Nafas. In 1989, she fled her homeland of Afghanistan and later received a similar letter not from a sister, but from a long-time friend who wanted to end her life.
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"The Fog of War, the movie
that finally won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar, is a
spellbinder. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in
the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling
viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history. Employing a ton of
archival material, including LBJ's fascinating taped conversations from
the Oval Office, Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to
the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. McNamara
himself emerges as--well, not exactly apologetic, but clearly haunted by
the what-ifs of Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War
II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions than he answers.
The Fog of War has the usual inexorable Morris momentum, aided by
an uneasy Philip Glass score. This movie provides a glimpse inside
government. It also encourages skepticism about same."
--Robert Horton
Amazon.com |
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"The first movie produced by Afghanistan filmmakers after the fall of the Taliban, Osama is a searing portrait of life under the oppressive fundamentalist regime. Because women are not allowed to work, a widow disguises her young daughter (Marina Golbahari) as a boy so they won't starve to death. Simply walking the streets is frightening enough, but when the disguised girl is rounded up with all the boys in the town for religious training, her peril becomes absolutely harrowing. Golbahari's face--beautiful but taut with terror--is riveting. The movie captures both her plight and the miseries of daily life in spare, vivid images. At one point, her mother is nearly killed for exposing her feet while riding on the back of a bicycle; for the entire scene, the camera shows only her feet, with the spokes of the wheel radiating out behind as she lowers her burka over them." --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com |
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Regional Events |
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April 22-23, 2005 Carbondale, IL "Concerts of Irish music and dance. Saturday's Celtic Fair highlights Celtic crafts and merchandise, music, dance workshops, storytelling and children's activities. Admission charged to some events." -- MidwestLiving.com |
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