Paradise Behind the Wall
Its been a long time since my last entry. I've been busy with my PLs. Thats Preparation Leave - for people who dont know. Its kind of a mini-holiday for us engineers. This is the time when the actual studies begin.
Two weeks into it and I yet havent started! No surprise. However, I had occupied myself with certain other stuff. For example this film festival that went on. I knew about it when half of the festival was over. So, I could only catch the last three days of the festival! But I am not complaining. Those 3 days were all worth the hassle. I got to see 4 of Majid Majidi's films at the 5th Asian Film Festival, Mumbai.
Man, is he brilliant! Amazing screenplay, direction and sound engineering! I started with Children of Heaven, which was also the first film I saw at the festival. His method of ending a film is amazing especially with the symbolism used. This film ended showing goldfish as the symbol for Hope and Prosperity.
The next day, I saw two films "The Lone Flower" and Majidi's "Baran". The former was quite a good film however incomparable Majidi's work. The Majician, as I call him now, showed an amazing set of subtle expressions through his actors. The title character, for example, doesnt speak a word in the entire film but conveys a lot through her expressions.
The next film by Majidi, that I saw, was "The Father" which was a story of a boy, who had lost his father. He became the sole provider for his family and hence went travelling for money. When he returns, he sees that his mother has married another man. This infuriates him. The story goes about showing the relation between this boy and his step-father. By the end of this film, I saw a startling connection between the 3 films.
Majidi, starts his films by showing a money transaction with the opening scene showing hands. However, he ends his films with an image of water. This observation led me into thinking why he did that. My interpretation was that he want to bring his protagonist from the lowly level of money and materialism to a much higher level of purity as that of water!
Thinking about this connection, I went to see the next of his films. "The Willow Tree." A story of a man who had been blind for most of his life but a sudden turn of events makes him regain his
sight. It is a story about the mental conflict that he has between the world that he had imagined as a blind man and the real world. Again a mixture of subtle expressions and actions make this film a collector's item. Analysing this film, I however realised one point. The observation that I had made earlier wasnt applicable here. Majidi had started this film with "water" as the symbol and ended with "paper." Thinking about it for a while, I figured that his character had already been at the level of water, the purest form. However, I still am confused about what the paper symbolizes.
If you have an interpretation, please comment.
Anyway, after that, I got back to studying for my German language examinations. I finished with the exams yesterday and am awaiting the result. So, Aufwiedersehen!.
Two weeks into it and I yet havent started! No surprise. However, I had occupied myself with certain other stuff. For example this film festival that went on. I knew about it when half of the festival was over. So, I could only catch the last three days of the festival! But I am not complaining. Those 3 days were all worth the hassle. I got to see 4 of Majid Majidi's films at the 5th Asian Film Festival, Mumbai.
Man, is he brilliant! Amazing screenplay, direction and sound engineering! I started with Children of Heaven, which was also the first film I saw at the festival. His method of ending a film is amazing especially with the symbolism used. This film ended showing goldfish as the symbol for Hope and Prosperity.
The next day, I saw two films "The Lone Flower" and Majidi's "Baran". The former was quite a good film however incomparable Majidi's work. The Majician, as I call him now, showed an amazing set of subtle expressions through his actors. The title character, for example, doesnt speak a word in the entire film but conveys a lot through her expressions.
The next film by Majidi, that I saw, was "The Father" which was a story of a boy, who had lost his father. He became the sole provider for his family and hence went travelling for money. When he returns, he sees that his mother has married another man. This infuriates him. The story goes about showing the relation between this boy and his step-father. By the end of this film, I saw a startling connection between the 3 films.
Majidi, starts his films by showing a money transaction with the opening scene showing hands. However, he ends his films with an image of water. This observation led me into thinking why he did that. My interpretation was that he want to bring his protagonist from the lowly level of money and materialism to a much higher level of purity as that of water!
Thinking about this connection, I went to see the next of his films. "The Willow Tree." A story of a man who had been blind for most of his life but a sudden turn of events makes him regain his
sight. It is a story about the mental conflict that he has between the world that he had imagined as a blind man and the real world. Again a mixture of subtle expressions and actions make this film a collector's item. Analysing this film, I however realised one point. The observation that I had made earlier wasnt applicable here. Majidi had started this film with "water" as the symbol and ended with "paper." Thinking about it for a while, I figured that his character had already been at the level of water, the purest form. However, I still am confused about what the paper symbolizes.If you have an interpretation, please comment.
Anyway, after that, I got back to studying for my German language examinations. I finished with the exams yesterday and am awaiting the result. So, Aufwiedersehen!.
posted by Apurv Kulkarni at 7:04 AM
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