NFF news

You may be getting tired of my daily film festival digest.. but.. the Empress does not care. It's her blog... heh.

Last night, I saw "Paradise is somewhere else," an Iranian film about a young man who wants to go work overseas and pays the money to a dealer to get out of the rural part of Iran, near the Pakistani border. He's heard of people having alot of success in the Emirates and wants to leave his sheparding life behind. They hire a replacement and he pays the money.. then his father is murdered. In an erie glimpse of close(d) communities, they elders arrange to have the poor, migrant shepard they hired framed for the attempted murder of the engineer (who the family thinks murdered the father).

As Eidak escapes into Pakistan - the only one trying to get in - he runs into Gol Mohammed's younger sister. We see him at the end of the movie running back to face his fate.

I also saw "Sunset Story," a documentary about a retirement home for political progressives in LA. A bunch of liberal old people... oh boy...

The film was really really good though. We follow Lucille and Irja and listen to their stories and how they reached their conclusions. Lucille snapping at Irja for forcing her to celebrate Jewish holidays ("You are more Jewish than me!" Lucille snapped - she being of Jewish origin.) Irja admitted that Communism would never work because it was too easily turned into a dictatorship. We see them protest different things. But the best conversation of the entire movie...
Irja: Don't you think they should pay the workers [of Sunset Hall] more?
Lucille: Yes, they should.
Irja: Where would they get the money? That's the problem.
Lucille: They could raise the rates.
Irja: Are you going to suggest it?
Lucille: No!

Ahhh... make everyone else pay more.. but not me. Give me more money.