Polish film by Jerzy Skolimowski EO is like a trek through modern Europe – with all its shades of black and white and gray – seen through the eyes of its protagonist, an innocent donkey. Inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au Hassard Balthazar, it took me back to another film that Bresson takes off his hat for in the classic—John Abraham’s 1977 Tamil film, Agraharathil Kazuthai ,donkey in a brahmin village,
Tamil film is rooted in caste politics, and it is quite like EO It’s also about inequalities. What does it mean to be ousted from power, to be a vulnerable minority in an authoritarian majoritarian world. In other words, as the movie itself says, what does it mean to have a donkey in a horse stable?
Two other films brought to the fore the plight and misery of humans at the festival EOWhat a donkey Both tell the story of human movement and its consequences, from the perspective of immigrants, about human loss in displacement, relocation and resettlement.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardens Tori at Lokita Set in Belgium and about the strong bond formed in exile between a teenage girl and a young boy, both of whom have emigrated from Africa. It’s about being a proxy family, finding solace in each other while being exploited in the world at large.
But how long will this bubble of comfort last? The Dardennes’ response is sad, restless and heart-wrenching, even when they are enraged and blame the heartless world.
of leonor cerail un petit frere There is also about the desperation of surviving in a foreign land. While the former is full of gloom, the latter is more like a sprawling epic that begins in the late 1980s and spans 20 years – from the time when Rose moved from Ivory Coast to Paris with her two sons, Ernest and Jean. Comes till today.
It describes all the things they gain and lose in going home, as individuals and as a family. In their search for a better life they are left with other kinds of gaps that are difficult to fill but something they must learn to live with. Conflicts are constant, discrimination and oppression only grow and mutate to take on new forms. Home, if at all, is not outside, but something they take in.
(This was first published in the National Herald on Sunday)
