Pitfall ("Otoshiana")

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Starring: Hisashi Igawa, Sumie Sasaki, Kunie Tanaka
Year: 1962

A miner and his young son go to a village in Kyushu where the miner has been told he'll find work, but it's a ghost town, save for one woman. The miner is murdered by by a man in a white suit and white gloves. What follows is a story of bribery and intrigue, investigations, a frame-up, and a ghost who wants to know why, all of which meet in a story of realism and the surreal. Throughout all of this, the miner's child is a silent witness.

Comments: This film is hard to describe, but it features Teshigahara's intense, complex visuals, and somewhat surreal story telling. It predates Teshigahara's "Woman in the Dunes", which Steve and Zhanna watched again and found even more impressive than ever before. Also watched "The Face of Another" ("Tanin no Kao"), a later Teshigahara film about a man who gets a new face after suffering horrible disfigurement from an industrial accident. That film, and all its themes of identity and role of individuals in society, is particularly poignant given the recent advances in facial transplants. Still, if you have to see one film of Teshigahara's, or even one film at all, see 'Woman in the Dunes."

Highly Recommended.

My Father, My Lord ("Hofshat kaits")

Director: David Volach
Starring: Assi Dayan, Ilan Griff
Year: 2007

A respected rabbi is forced to come to terms with the demands of his faith and the welfare of his own family.

Comments: The film is incredibly powerful. The film has been likened to an allegory of the biblical story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, except in this story the ending is not as happy. Amazing performance by Griff, the rabbi's son, whose sweetness, innocence, and doleful eyes captivate the film. Hebrew title of the film literally means "Summer Holiday."

The filmmaker, David Volach, was one of 19 children (can this be true?) having grown up in a Hasidic community, but abandoned it when he was 25 to study film.

Highly Recommended.

Urga

Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Starring: Vladimir Gostyukhin, Badema, Bayertu
Year: 1992

The Mongolian shepherd Gombo lives in a yurt in Inner Mongolia with his wife, three children, and mother. They are content with their uncomplicated rural lives but Gombo wants his city born wife to bear a fourth child. A Russian truck driver named Sergei is stranded nearby, and finds his way to their house, where he and Gombo become friends despite their language and cultural differences.

Comments: We watched a version without subtitles (Zhanna translating for Steve in realtime)in which Mikhalkov does his own voiceover translating the dialog from Manchurian to Russian. This is kind of a weird way to watch a film, but it worked. The film explores the relationship between Russia and Manchuria over the ages from the political level to human level. Beautiful images of pristine Manchuria, which according to a recent article, is rapidly changing due to global warming and the increased grazing of goats to supply the global market for cheap cashmere (goats pull the delicate grass from the roots, as opposed to sheep which leave the roots undisturbed).

Somewhat Recommended.

Siddhartha

Director: Conrad Rooks
Starring: Shashi Kapoor, Simi Garawel, Romesh Sharma
Year: 1972

The story of a young Indian, Siddhartha who embarks upon a journey to find the meaning of existence. Based on the novel by Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha, played by Shashi Kapoor), is born in the rich family, begins a serahc for the meaning of life that takes him through periods of harsh asceticism, sensual pleasures, material wealth, then self-revulsion and eventually to the oneness and harmony with himself that he had been seeking. Siddhartha learns that the secret of life cannot be passed on from one person to another, but must be achieved through inner experience.

Comments: Shot on location in Northern India, the film features work by noted cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Simi Garewal's appearance in the film as the courtesan Kamala caused controversy in India, in particular because she appeared nude in one scene; the Indian Censor Board, at that time, did not even permit on-screen kissing in Indian films. The locations used for the film were the holy city of Rishikesh and the private estates and palaces of the Maharajah of Bharatpur.

Recommended.

You don't Mess With the Zohan

Director: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro
Year: 2008

Zohan Dvir works as an Israeli Special Agent and lives with his parents in Israel. He wants to give up this life full of dangerous encounters with Palestinians. While in the process of apprehending a Palestinian activist known simply as the Phantom, he fakes his death, hides in a dog-kennel on a plane bound for New York, and decides to try his hand as a hair-stylist. He finally gets his shot working at a Palestinian-owned hair salon in New York, but his past catches up with him.

Comments: Steve wanted to hate this movie, but he couldn't help laughing. The stereotypes of Israelis in NY are sharp and in exquisitely bad taste.

Recommended.