finzan
kairat
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NAVIGATORS OF THE DESERT / AL-HA'IMUN
Nacer Khemir, Tunisia, 1984; 95m
A young teacher travels by rickety bus to a small, remote village lost
in a vast sea of Saharan sand. There he witnesses the village men wander
off aimlessly into the desert, as though entranced by some mysterious
curse. Through the eyes of a girl, he is lured into a strange world
where fantastic figures materialize out of wells while bands of
children race through labyrinthine tunnels. NAVIGATORS, like Mogul
miniatures, unreels in a spiral pattern, to the strains of an Andalusian
chant; it is like a sandstorm that, for an instant, borrows the shape of
a story. . . .
Mon Sept 24: 6:30; Wed Sept 26: 8:45
Fri Sept 28: 6
THE REALM OF FORTUNE / EL IMPERIO DE LA FORTUNA
Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1986; 132m
The grotesque, startling opening of THE REALM OF FORTUNE confirms
Ripstein as Bunuel's spiritual heir. The ingredients are all there:
obsession, mystery (a withered hand wrapped in a rag), lust, violence
and irrational behavior, chance, superstition, greed and exasperation.
In this black comedy of the rise and fall of the peasant Dionisio Pinzon
(town crier to cockfighter to master gambler), Ripstein takes us on a
bizarre journey to a sordid, oppressive, almost hallucinatory world of
passionate gamblers and women who have nothing to love. The original
story was adapted by Paz Alicia Garciadiego, who in the following years
would become Ripstein's most important collaborator.
Mon Sept 24: 8:30; Thurs Sept 27: 6:30
Fri Sept 28: 8
FINZAN
Cheik Oumar Sissoko, Mali, 1990; 107m
"A passionate and convincing plea for the emancipation of African
women." - The New York Times
Several important African films have dealt with the status of African
women within rapidly changing societies, but none more powerfully than
Sissoko's Finzan. A young widow, Nanyuma, resolves to fight against
tribal custom and thus refuses to become the wife of her brother-in-law,
the village fool. In an effort to stop her rebellious ways, a father
sends his daughter, Fili, to the countryside so that she might "learn"
her proper role as a woman; there, she is forced by the local village
women to undergo a brutal female "circumcision." Sissoko brilliantly
weaves together these parallel stories of women's struggles, showing how
what he sees as the misguided effort to create social "stability" is
actually tearing contemporary African society apart.
Tue Sept 25: 6:30; Thurs Sept 27: 9:15
KAIRAT
Darezhan Omirbaev, Kazakhstan, 1991; 65m
". . .KAIRAT was a breakthrough film from an unknown country in the world of
cinema. Taking its title from the film's lead character and the actor
who plays him, KAIRAT follows a young man's initiation into life in the
big city. Leaving the vastness and isolation of the Kazakh steppe,
Kairat arrives in chaotic Almaty to study at university. Expelled for
unruly behavior, he decides to train as a bus driver. At a screening of
Herzog's Woyzek (a tragic romance set within a hostile society directed
by one of Omirbaev's favorites), Kairat meets a young woman he has
noticed on his bus route. . . . Shot in black and white, with the economy and
control which would continue to mark Omirbaev's style, KAIRAT introduced
an important new talent." - Toronto International Film Festival Catalog, 1998
Tue Sept 25: 8:45; Fri Sept 28: 4:15
ON THE BEAT / MINJING GUSHI
Ning Ying, China, 1995; 102m
Ning Ying confirms her singular talent in this cheeky, deadpan look at
everyday life in a police precinct of Beijing. The new cop on the beat
bicycles the back alleys of his district where the "granny police" are
old busybodies keeping tabs on their neighbors, and where major crimes
are (non)events like an occasional drunk or a man arrested for selling
porn photos of women in swimsuits. The film's great tour-de-force is a
Keystone Kops-like chase of a possibly rabid cur. ON THE BEAT is an
excellent example of the new "urban" cinema that began to emerge from
China over the past decade and that we explored at the Walter Reade this
past February.
Wed Sept 26: 6:30; Fri Sept 28: 2
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