A very controversial Brazilian film following the very violent exploits of Rio de Janeiro military police special forces, it reminded me a lot of situations I’m familiar with as a fellow Latin American.

Apologies for embedding the Brazilian Portuguese trailer to those of you who might not understand the language, but the English one is ridiculous, corny, and gives you completely the wrong idea about the pace, style and atmosphere of the movie.

Finally had the chance to watch this French-Belgian-Moroccan co-production, and wasn’t disappointed.   The film tells the story of a contingent of North Africans who fight for the liberation of France in the Second World War.  The plot and psychological environment is quite interesting as they are quite patriotic for a homeland they have never seen (a scene of them singing the Marseillaise and the Song of the Africans is quite stinging), but are still treated like second-class citizens.

It is very refreshing to watch a WWII movie that doesn’t follow the typical American conventions, that’s for sure, even if I really like Saving Private Ryan.

I watched this movie on a plane recently and was very pleasantly surprised.  Without giving away the essence of the plot, I can say that the first 5 minutes are the best, most touching opening sequence I have seen in a movie in the past 5 years at least.

I watched this Polish movie on TV last night, that deals with the time of the Soviet military presence in Poland and their impact on the lives of 4 people.  While I will not divulge the plot, it was very dramatic but what really caught my eye was the political and historical background of the whole movie, from the 60’s to the present day.

Warning, spoilers do follow.

A bit of  2001: Space Odyssey feel to it, with themes of cloning, evil corporations and the nature of humanity (watch for the moment when the computer/robot cries).  Another great example that great science-fiction movies don’t need to have exorbitant budgets.

Sci-fi with a strong social commentary and immigration undertones is right up my alley.  The fact that it’s set in South Africa, has great special effects and is set in a very rich and intelligent universe is of course a plus. What’s not to like? I won’t spoil the movie in the first paragraph of this blog post (you are more than able to read about it online), so go and see it. Now.

That it’s become an absolute classic of our time already 2 weeks after release doesn’t hurt. The social critique of the movie was driven home for me in a post by Inti of Alt1040 (quoted and translated below):

It is no secret that ignorance and fear easily make us racists.  The lack of knowledge of the lifestyles of people of different races and nationalities, together with the fear that we might feel for “possible” aggressions are the best nurture for intolerance [...] outside of all logic and humanity.  Ignorance and fear that are themselves based in prejudice and distorted values.  When we know more about other people and find a reflection of ourselves, this fear should disappear together with any racist or xenophobic attitude.  What happens when ignorance and fear have a justification and there is no way to clear these obstacles?

Finally watched this Oscar-winning movie.  Set in the slums of Mumbai, the plot is very well built, and the soundtrack and camerawork are just excellent.  Even though it has its very tragic moments, it is quite an uplifting movie, unlike Amores Perros & Cidade de Deus.

Give it a try if you haven’t yet.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Juan García Esquivel lately.  Imagine my surprise when I found this mashup with 2001: Space Odissey, one of my favourite movies.

What happens when you mix George Soros' "The Age of Fallibility", Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World" and Mexican movie "Y tu mamá también"?  You end up realising that in the end they might not be so far away from each other.

Basically, their main tenet is that absolute truth is non-existent and we can only reach approximations.  Furthermore, we have to be aware of this fact whenever we are constructing our visions of reality, as assuming they are "true" will only cause us several problems: with the policies and attitudes followed by society, with our use of science and technology, and with our understanding of ourselves.

On a recent flight I saw Charlie Wilson's War, and it brought to the silver screen (or LCD, in this case) a couple of interesting points.  We already knew that for the Soviets the invasion of Afghanistan was an equivalent of the Vietnam War for the Americans, but I didn't know that many details (still sketchy, after all, it's only a movie) on the American covert operations there.

The movie is funny and well-paced, but one thing that I would have liked to see more is a better job at bringing home the point that some of the "freedom fighters" of the 80's became the "terrorists" of the 2000's due to neglect.

Interestingly enough, I remember some of the newsclips shown in the film, even though then I was a small kid.