Monika’s Pensieve

{FILM DIARY}
Afghan Star (UK, 2009)
Seen: Friday, 8th May 2009 (cinema, Planete Doc Review)
Runtime: 87′
Director: Havana Marking
Production House: Aria Productions, Roast Beef Productions, Redstart Media
Plot: A look at today’s Afghanistan through the Afghan version of “Pop Idol”.
Trailer

Impressions In Short
Probably the best film I’ve seen in terms of showing what life in today’s Afghanistan is like. It’s [...]

{FILM SPOTTING}
Heaven On Earth (Canada, 2008)
Polish Distributor: None as of yet
Director: Deepa Mehta
Cast: Preity Zinta, Vansh Bharadwaj
Plot: (from nowrunning.com)
Set in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, “Heaven in Earth” is the story of a Ludhiana girl Chand (Preity Zinta) who moves here after marrying Rocky Grewal (Vansh Bhardwaj) only to find herself locked in a loveless [...]

{FILM SPOTTING}
Slumdog Millionaire (UK/France, 2008)
Polish Distributor: Monolith Films (27th February 2009)
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Dev Patel, Irfan Khan, Anil Kapoor
Production House: Celador Films
Plot: (from imdb)
The story of how impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik became a contestant on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be A Millionaire?” — an endeavor made without prize money in mind, [...]

So this was the last day of the festival for me this year…
Pärnography
Impressions In Short
It probably wasn’t the best of ideas to come in late for the film :] I felt a bit lost for about half of it. Would have helped also if I had known a bit more about Estonia’s history - other [...]

Friday was a busy day (4 films), but a good one - no major disappointments :)
Secrecy
Impressions In Short
Very professionally made documentary. Some excellent interviews.
Some Details
It’s a very well-made documentary. Mainly it consists of interviews with people who were at one time or other involved with government policies to do with keeping certain information classified. There [...]

American Military Intelligence and You!
Impressions In Short
Small, funny, sarcastic film.
Some Details
Basically, the director took the style used in films made during World War II to train US soldiers and made his own propaganda film of a totally different nature. It’s not the most amazing film ever, but there are some wonderful, very sarcastic lines which [...]

In the end I didn’t go to see Donkey in Lahore today, was just too tired and too busy *sigh* Not that I should lament too much about it - having bought 12 tickets I won’t exactly be film deprived this week :]
Anyway, Saturday reviews…
Be Like Others
Impressions In Short
Fascinating topic, average film.
Some Details
I don’t think [...]

Belated post, I know :] As planned, I saw three films on Friday…
Full Battle Rattle
Impressions In Short
I thought it was excellent :) A very clever way of approaching the subject matter of the war on terror.
One of the biggest strengths of the film IMO is that it’s very difficult to suss what the directors’ opinion [...]

{FILM SPOTTING}
The Warsaw Film Festival starts on Friday, so it’s high time I looked into what they’re showing and choose something - a task which is not as easy as it sounds (on top of which I’m feeling a little guilty right now - I should be correcting the documentation of my degree project rather [...]