Day: July 29, 2013

The Toll of Human Trafficking: LFM Reviews The Trail from Xinjiang @ The Asian American International Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. The combination of an authoritarian government and a strict religion ought to make Musa a scrupulously law-abiding citizen. Unfortunately, he is one of many disenfranchised Uyghurs impressed into pickpocket gangs. Filmmaker Chen Dongnan captures the tragic human stories of those derisively referred to as “Xinjiang thieves” in the documentary short The Trail from Xinjiang, which screens during the Enduring Encounters programming block at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Like many youths from Xinjiang, Musa was lured to the big city with false promises. He quickly found himself involuntarily immersed in a world of petty thievery and drug dealing (by fellow Xinjiangnese). His friends Ali and Little Musa seem to have a more natural aptitude for crime, but that is not exactly a blessing. Between the three of them, they will experience the worst of nearly every imaginable urban pathology, including drug addiction, AIDS, and violent crime—everything that does not exist in China according to government propaganda.

Chen set out to humanize the marginalized Uyghurs, so she largely maintains her focus on Musa and his friends. Yet, Jiaquan, the founder of the Anyang Anti-Pickpocket League, emerges as the film’s most intriguing figure. Viewers might initially see him as Anyang’s answer to George Zimmerman, patrolling the streets with his twenty League volunteers. However, as Jiaquan came to recognize Musa and his accomplices, he started to sympathize with their exploitative circumstances. It is obviously a heavy commentary on Chinese social services when the Xinjiang thieves’ vigilante-nemesis becomes the closest thing they have to a social worker-advocate, but such is the state of things. Frankly, his story seems ripe for a full documentary follow-up, particularly in light of the film’s concluding “where are they now” recap.

At thirty-six minutes, Trail has more tragedy and raw, cautionary depictions of vice than scores of full length exposes. It is a decidedly humane exercise in muckraking, but it is still not for the squeamish. An unflinching film that puts viewers squarely in Musa’s shoes, The Trail from Xinjiang is highly recommended for China watchers when it screens this coming Thursday (8/1) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the 2013 AAIFF’s Enduring Encounters short film program.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on July 29th, 2013 at 12:21pm.

LFM Reviews The Past is Still Ahead @ The 2013 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York

From "The Past is Still Ahead."

By Joe Bendel. It remains unclear whether the suicide of poet Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was staged by the Soviet NKVD or merely the result of their constant threats and intimidation. Frankly, it hardly matters—Stalin and his obedient secret police are morally culpable, either way. Playwright Sophia Romma squarely faces the truths and tragedies of Tsvetaeva’s life with a new production of The Past is Still Ahead, mounted as part of the 2013 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York.

As a small girl, Tsvetaeva met the Tsar at the opening of what would become the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, founded by her father. Obviously, none of that would stand her in good stead with the Soviet regime. Tsvetaeva married Sergey Yakovlevich Efron, who became a prominent White Russian Officer. He was also half-Jewish. Those were probably more than enough strikes against Tsvetaeva to brand her a class enemy, but her epic verse honoring the White resistance essentially closed the book on her. Yet, at Efron’s insistence, Tsvetaeva returned to Russia, predictably enduring a dire existence of internal exile.

As the play opens, Tsvetaeva has little illusions regarding her limited future. Increasingly resigned to her fate, she is visited by visions from her past, including Efron, her domineering mother Maria Meryn, and her lovers, the guileless Osip Mandelstam and the scandalous lesbian poet Sophia Parnoc. Yet, it is the memory of Rainer Maria Rilke, the soul mate she only knew through their correspondence, that offers her the greatest comfort.

Although Past portrays Tsvetaeva’s life in impressionistic fragments, it incorporates decades of Soviet history, accurately reflecting the chaos and oppression of the era. The unequivocal depiction of the Party’s anti-Semitism is particularly eye-opening. Likewise, Tsvetaeva’s anguished memories of Moscow’s post-Revolutionary famine dramatically illustrate the human costs of ideology.

From "The Past is Still Ahead."

While little of Tsvetaeva’s actual verse is heard throughout Past, it nonetheless celebrates the power of language. This is most certainly true of her scenes with Rilke, which tantalizingly imply how their shared literary sensibilities might have led to greater fulfillment. However, given the relatively short running time, it seems like Past devotes more than enough time to Maria Meryn and her severe piano lessons. In contrast, it seems strange her friend and champion Boris Pasternak never enters her reveries, especially given his continuing literary prominence.

Regardless, Alice Bahlke gives a remarkable performance as Tsvetaeva. A smart, sophisticated portrayal that also conveys how brittle and profoundly damaged Tsvetaeva became, Bahlke makes it impossible to hang any pat label on Tsvetaeva, like “victim” or “counter-revolutionary,” which is clearly the whole point. Tosh Marks is also quite engaging as Rilke, Mandelstam, and Efron, developing some real stage chemistry with Bahlke in each role.

Having debuted at Mayakovsky Academic Theater in Moscow with subsequent stagings produced in New York, Geneva, and Montreal, Past is now being presenting with its first all-American cast. They do well by Tsvetaeva’s story. An intelligent piece of theater, featuring stand-out work from Bahlke and Marks, The Past is Still Ahead concluded its MITF run last night (7/28) at the Jewel Box Theatre.

Posted on July 29th, 2013 at 12:20pm.