“The Girl Who Cries”
Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante took the story of Chorona, a supernatural figure from Latin American folklore, who is in mourning for her dead children (sometimes murdered by her), and gave it a political implication in this film that refers to the recent history of the bloody guatemala An elderly general who is being tried for the genocide of an indigenous tribe during the repression of the communist guerrilla, sees his home and family persecuted by La Llorona, whose two children were killed by the troops, in the form of a young servant who went there. to work. Subtle and increasingly oppressive, “A Chorona” is much more a film of ghostly atmospheres and suggestions than of frights, shocks and terrors, as conventional as they are obvious.
“The Blue of the Kaftan”
Nina and Halim, the characters in the new film by Maryam Touzani, author of the beautiful “Adam” (2019), have a caftan shop in a city in Morocco. Nina is seriously ill and her husband is a perfectionist craftsman who works by hand and refuses to use sewing machines, so there are many delays and customers are starting to get impatient. So they hire a talented young apprentice to help them. Touzani films the most intimate aspects of this story with sensitivity and modesty, while she praises the characters’ love of traditional crafts. However, “O Azul do Caftã” becomes predictable after a certain point and the homosexual subplot, although contained and discreet, still gives the impression of being dictated by current agendas.
‘Integral Kinuyo Tanaka-Part I’
The second woman to direct films in Japan after Tazuko Sakane, the popular and prestigious Japanese actress Kinuyo Tanaka (1909-1977), who was directed by names from Kurosawa to Mizoguchi and Ozu, made six films between 1953 and 1962 in the classic format. melodrama (almost always in modern environments, and showing the wounds opened by the war in Japanese society) to tell stories in which women occupy the central place, with themes as diverse -and some daring for the time- such as the condition of a prostitute, prejudices, stigmatizing diseases such as breast cancer, or the desire for love fulfillment. Part I of this ‘Integral’ dedicated to him and exhibited in Ciudad Alvalade, is completed with the first three, “Carta de Amor” (1953), “A Lua Ascendeu” (1955) and “Forever Woman” (1955).
“Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom”
It’s in China that the new live-action Asterix and Obelix movie is set, the first of its kind not to be based on an album (or albums) by the French duo created by Goscinny and Uderzo. In it, Princess Fu Yi, daughter of the Empress of China, dethroned and imprisoned by a usurper, manages to escape to Gaul and asks the two intrepid Gauls to help her save her mother. In addition to directing and playing Asterix (Gilles Lellouche succeeds Gérard Depardieu as Obelix), Guillaume Canet also helped with the script, written in collaboration with Julien Hervé and Philippe Mechelin. Also with Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and the footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic. “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom” was chosen by the Observer as the movie of the week and you can read the review here.
Source: Observadora
