Day: March 17, 2015

By Joe Bendel. There is plenty of mock in Kaouther Ben Hania’s hybrid-doc, but the attitudes it depicts are embarrassingly real. In 2003, an unknown assailant drove through the streets of Tunis, slashing the buttocks of women who were not sufficiently “modest” in their dress. One Arab Spring revolution later, the so-called Challat is still regarded as a cult hero by a significant number of Tunisians—all male and Muslim, of course. Ben Hania set out to find the slasher in a traditional documentary, but official road blocks forced her instead to make a true-in-spirit examination of the Tunisian national character in The Challat of Tunis, which screens during the 2015 Socially Relevant Film Festival.

At least eleven women were attacked by the Challat. The “at least” caveat is important, because the Tunis police do not exactly encourage reports of sexual violence. If you suspect they might blame the victim, you don’t know the half of it, but Ben Hania saves their real life testimony for the final act. Most of the narrative is devoted to her semi-fictional pseudo-Michael Moore style search for the unpunished perpetrator. Circumstantial evidence points to an unemployed misogynist named Jalel Dridi, who adamantly takes credit for the slashings. Initially, he is quite convincing, but Ben Halia eventually starts to doubt some of the details of his story.

Let’s not sugarcoat it. There is something deeply pathological about a society in which people want to be known as violent criminals who prey on women. Dridi might be a fraud or an actor in a put-up job, but there are plenty of men-in-the-street responses to him that speak volumes about Arab Muslim attitudes towards women. For instance, one imam endorses his Challat video game, because it grants points for slashing disrespectfully dressed women, while deducting from players’ scores if the assault women in suitably oppressive garb.

Some of the comic bits are better developed than others, but they all reflect highly problematic social iniquities and double standards. Ben Halia even shows an aptitude for broad Apatow style comedy when Dridi buys a “Virgin-o-meter” to test his unlikely new girlfriend. However, the film really knocks the wind out of the audience when Ben Halia dispenses with her hyper-real narrative to interview two of the Challat’s extraordinarily brave victims on camera. Their stories of lingering physical and emotional pain, as well as the humiliation they experienced at the hands of the police, make the blood run cold.

There are a wealth of telling moments to be found in Ben Halia’s street interviews, such the unusually candid coffee house patron who initially argues Muslim prejudices for the attacks, but walks it back as an “Arab” thing when his cronies object. Clearly, nobody (no man) in Tunisia wants to forthrightly deal with Challat attacks and the lasting cultural effects, which is why Ben Halia’s film is such a bold poke in the eye. It has some odd moments, but there is always method to her madness. Strongly recommended, The Challat of Tunis is by far the feature highlight of this year’s SRFF when it screens this Thursday (3/19) at the Tribeca Cinemas.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on March 17th, 2015 at 9:35pm.

By Joe Bendel. Incidents of Muslim cab drivers refusing service to blind passengers with guide dogs made headlines in Minneapolis and Saskatchewan, but the resulting hand-wringing would have baffled Iran’s theocrats. Dog ownership is forbidden in Iran (under pain of 74 lashes), because canines are considered “unclean” accordingly to Islamist teachings. However, it is not as if dogs no longer exist in Iran. Sadly, when a decent henpecked Iranian husband accidentally hits a stray with his car, it causes a moral dilemma he is powerless to resolve in Bahram & Bahman Ark’s short film, The Unclean, which screens during the 2015 Socially Relevant Film Festival.

Naser probably never had a hope of seeing the poor dog as he was driving home through Tehran’s poorly illuminated streets, but he sure felt the sickening bump. Not the type to hit-and-run, Naser bundles up the bloodied animal and somehow manages to get him to a veterinary clinic. Unfortunately, it has no in-patient facilities, leaving Nasr two choices. He can either have the dog put down or he can have him treated, but he would have to find a safe place for him to recuperate. Obviously, his gossip-sensitive wife will never allow an unclean animal in the house. Nor will his anyone else in his limited circle of acquaintances.

As his namesake, Naser Hashemi’s performance is absolutely devastating, in a quiet, unassuming sort of way. He straightforwardly and viscerally conveys the anguish of an everyman who tries to act humanely, but is undermined by ideology and circumstance, yet will carry the resulting sense of guilt nonetheless. Frankly, this film is a tragedy for both man and dog.

Unclean might sound relatively small in scope, but it makes a powerful statement. The film’s low-fi nocturnal look also rather appropriately fits Naser’s long dark night of the soul, giving viewers a sense of how menacing the streets of Tehran can feel during the late night hours. It is the sort of film that hits you on a gut level, but it might be too much for sensitive dog people to take.

There is also quite of bit of harrowing imagery in the festival’s other Iranian short, but Yahya Gobadi’s animated Tears largely decontextualizes the time and place, making it more of a timeless fable. Nevertheless, it depicts the traumas of war quite vividly through the eyes of a child (who gets little help from the surviving adults around her after her parents are killed in a bombing raid).

Stylistically, the animation of Tears is somewhat akin to the more grounded passages of The Wall. Visually, it is distinctive, but Unclean is a far more personal and directly immediate film. Highly recommended, Unclean screens Sunday afternoon (3/22) at the Quad Cinema and the well-meaning Tears screens this Friday (3/20) at the Tribeca Cinemas, as part of short film programs at the Socially Relevant Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on March 17th, 2015 at 9:35pm.

By Joe Bendel. This film was made possible by Google Earth and made necessary by the Chinese Communist Government. Most people of good conscience understand that the occupying Chinese powers have sharply curtailed Tibet’s political and religious freedoms. However, the extent to which state-backed enterprises are currently despoiling the Tibetan environment remains a largely under-reported story. Canadian filmmaker Michael Buckley concisely and cogently exposes this systematic abuse in the short documentary Plundering Tibet, a selection of the upcoming 2015 Socially Relevant Film Festival in New York.

Obviously, it is difficult to gain access to Tibet, especially if you have a history of speaking out against the Communist occupation (and if you don’t, perhaps you should ask yourself why not?). Even for those already within the country, many of the pertinent sites are forbiddingly remote. That had provided them a measure of protection, but with advances in technology, Chinese consortiums are now better able to access and extract remote mineral reserves. In many cases, like the recently discovered lithium deposits, the rapidly escalating value of Tibet’s natural resources now more than covers the cost and effort involved in their appropriation.

Needless to say, Tibetans receive no compensation from such plundering. That would be bad enough, in a conventionally venal way. However, Tibetan Buddhism celebrates the divine in the natural world and specifically recognizes many of these sites as sacred holy places. This is not simply exploitation. It also constitutes desecration.

Buckley lucidly but forcefully establishes the full significance of China’s policies of plunder, highlighting several especially egregious cases. Given his reliance on Google Earth, the look and the feel of the film is sometimes comparatively less cinematic than the standard issue-oriented documentary, but what choice did he have? At least he is able to illustrate his indictment with visual evidence. As a result, the film is quite convincing.

What is happening in Tibet is a crime. Even those who do not consider themselves environmentalists should be alarmed by this state-sponsored defilement, out of respect for Tibetan cultural and religious traditions. One of the clear highlights of the Socially Relevant Film Festival (and one of the few selections mercifully not trying to gin up false pity and outrage), Plundering Tibet screens this Tuesday (3/17) at the Maysles Cinema.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on March 17th, 2015 at 9:34pm.