REFLECTIVE PERSONAL ESSAY

Assignment 2

SIDDHARTH
PGP/22/422
Being an ardent fan of foreign-language movies, I was particularly interested in
watching some new films. I have had exposure to films from Japan, Israel, Italy in the
past and it is always a great exercise to get a glimpse into life of people in other
countries. Having gone for foreign exchange program in Italy, I was curious whether I
could relate anything I witnessed during those 3 months to the films shown.
The journey started with Innocent Voices which was really beautiful and showed the
impact of civil war in El Salvador, how capitalism was ruining the lives of innocent
children all over the world (middle east Asia, Latin America, Africa). The effect of the
ideology of violence penetrating the very innocence is shown when the child soldier
becomes highly alienated from his friends is seen spewing venom. Perhaps this loss of
childhood is the greatest tragedy of war, for it not only affects those who face it
contemporary to their adulthood, but also scars an entire future generation.
When it comes to suffrage one usually thinks about the struggle of women in USA and
UK but through the journey of Nora, a housewife in small town of Switzerland fighting
for voting rights for women in The Divine Order. Women has been always deprived of
this right till mid-20th century. The movie “The Divine Order” has perfectly portrayed
this situation. It has reflected some of the realities of societies where household chores
is performed only by women and the idea that women should not be given voting rights
and any seats in the parliament. It has shown a struggle of women to such rights along
with maintaining balance their role of being mother, housewives etc.
The problem for women does not end here. Even after getting voting rights and political
seats, they have to still suffer while performing their duties. In the documentary named
“The Invisible War”, we can see that how women in the military were sexually harassed
and they were still looking for justice. The women were raped, dragged and beaten by
their male counterparts and still no action was taken against convicts. The shows how
the independent Judiciary system fails to recognize the justice for women.
Not only women even the homosexuals suffer a lot in this capitalist world. In the movie
“Yossi and Jagger” it can be seen that Israel soldier is very masculine and courageous,
which is reflected from their mandatory policy of military service for both man, woman.
Israeli also chooses to go jail instead of joining military. Their Jews religion is most
conservative and are against menstruation. This film describes that love should never
be a secret

The story of migrant Afghan workers in Iran who are employed to keep down costs is
shown in the movie “Baran”. This story was a powerful depiction of the plight of the
migrant workers in Iran. Only Iranians had the paper, work permit, passport which is
very important in Iran because that can be sold in black. The condition for Afghanistan
refugees is very bad. For me the craft of storytelling was a great exercise in this film. It
was also a beautiful representation of a love that develops. It moved me because, the
anguish of the love was not channelled in depressing destruction. It was instead the
sweet love of a young man for the first time in his life. When everything in life revolves
around just one woman, it is a wonderful exhilarating experience and the most ecstatic
of emotions are aroused.
There are also factors like nationalism, war which ruins human life. People give their
lives just in the name of nationalism. This is perfectly reflected in the movie
“Caterpillar”. Film also tells the story about fascism – when economy collapse, there
is a rise in right wing ideology. Chinese treated very badly by Japanese. Xenophobic.
According to me, the movie is a strong critic of nationalism, patriotism and also
relentless. Wife had the duty to look after the returned officer who had no hands, no
legs – such a critic of patriarchy. In movie, woman is burdened with patriotism. The
scene where she was cleaning shit and nationalism music played in background which
give her motivation to “serve”. For me this film shows that war, fascism is evil. In the
end there is dance with death, which is also beautifully portrayed.

In this capitalist world the rape, crimes murder is common. The movie which support
this is “The secret in their eyes”. The film is about crime of rape, murder that has been
talked about for 25 years. The film is a metaphor for Argentina. Investigative officer is
guilty of not been able to solve the crime. To get over the guilty, starts writing the novel
in his old age. In the movie, the husband is deeply in love with the dead wife; that
represents the resilience of people of Argentina. They have gone through nearly 65
years of military dictatorship. Thousands of people disappeared, raped. According to
me the movie is also about the power. Suspect of rapist also joins the military
dictatorship, which shows power of military dictatorship. Film shows that Argentina is
very restless; they really haven’t come to terms with things. Plot clearly implies that
Argentinian society has been in limbo. And only when the past is confronted and dealt
with; can be move ahead.

Capitalist world seems to be rewarding. You are going to job, earning good amount of
money and spending it. However, it’s not true. The people in bid to get more power and
money can murder anyone. This is actually the truth of capitalism. The movie “Funny
Games” shows how the wealthy family is harassed and beaten to death by two boys.
The violence is clearly depicted through this movie. The movie was very unsettling with
the kind of violence shown which was not very aggressive but very protonating. It was
like a disease which was moving house to house, like in the start when the couple were
greeting their friend and at the end it was another of their accomplishes across the lake.

The class divide is something which is prevalent everywhere in the world. In India one
can see through the eyes of caste but in western and other Asian countries one will have
to use another pair of eyes. In the Korean movie “Parasite” how a poor family is dying
at the end of the movie but the rich/upper class were still thinking or disgusted by the
smell of the poor family which resembled the poor people. It raised the question who is
the parasite in the society. And made me think how would poor or low caste would react
in India. In the Mexican movie “la Zona” how the rich people were fighting to save
their rights and not subjugate to the police outside of their control. It reminded of all the
activities which rich people take to benefit them like lobbying, using the money o get
out of situations and using their power.

What kind of activities war make you do, what movie can be better than “Incendies”
based out of war in Lebanon. The war out of hatred made Abou Tarek do such a heinous
crime that one can never forget and forgive to oneself. The major part is how Nawal
and her children accepted the truth. The mystery was so unsettling that it really made
me shiver and still for couple of minutes, I couldn’t think of much after the movie and
could not

In the movie “Les Invasions Barbares”- It shows about Canada and US and clash of
systems. 9/11 happened so called Invasion of barbarians, Great example of anarchism.
Capitalism, US will be threatened very frequently from now on because of deep crisis
in capitalism. Christianity is the heart of the critic of the film. About importance of
friends. Cover s series of complex topics including death, family, sexual politics,
Catholic Church, Canada’s healthcare system, drugs, labor union, law & order, global
politics. Also telling about importance of history to understand what is going in world
today. 1960’s sexual represented in memories. At the end metaphor of library. About
continuous search of love. It sorts of complete the entire course of Globalization and
Culture bringing all the pieces together.