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Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Copa America 2011: Costa Rica

Entry #6 of the Copa America 2011 Book & Film Festival.

Book: Cocori by Joaquin Guteierrez


Cocori is a thoughtful children's book set in Costa Rican locales of a lush jungle and a beach. Young Cocori’s life is changed when he comes across a young blond girl who presents him with a rose. Unfortunately the rose withers after a day leaving a sad Cocori to question its quick demise. In order to seek an answer, Cocori leaves home without telling his mother and heads deep into the jungle. Along the way, he befriends animals who are willing to accompany him in his quest and who suggest that an answer for the short life of the rose might originate from two of the oldest animals of the jungle, the alligator and the snake. But those two aged animals have no answers for Cocori who instead finds his answer closer to home. There are a few illustrations in the book which are useful in portraying the main animal characters but there is no illustration of the little girl. Overall, a change of pace from the remaining books read as part of this spotlight.

Film: Cold Water of the Sea (2010, Paz Fabrega)


The film contains parallel stories of seven year old Karina (Montserrat Fernández) and a woman Mariana (Lil Quesada Morúa) going through a difficult time in their lives. The two are separated by a few decades in age but both are misunderstood by those around them and in a way are suffering a slow death. When Mariana first encounters Karina, the young girl tells Mariana that she has run away from home and claims she was abused by her uncle. Mariana and her companion Rodrigo (Luis Carlos Bogantes) are concerned about Karina and want to look after her but the following morning, they are surprized to find Karina missing. Mariana cannot get Karina out of her mind and those thoughts unhinge Mariana. After this point, the film is depicted in a manner which makes the two females appear as reflections of each other. One can imagine Karina would grow up as Mariana, and looking at Mariana one can see shades of Karina.

Paz Fabrega’s camera shows the natural beauty of the ocean but also points at the danger that the beach can contain like in the form of snakes. The title refers to the fact that the cold water causes sea snakes to leave their water habitat to instead seek warmth in the sandy beaches. The snakes are not shown to bite Karina or any of her friends but in one scene, Karina mentions she was bit by a snake only for her claim to be dismissed by her uncle. The snake bite could be another story made up by Karina like the abuse claim because no scenes are shown to verify her words. Instead, the young girl’s expressions lay a seed of doubt in viewers. Such scenes of doubt are common place in Cold Water of the Sea as are scenes which don’t fit in with the story of either female such as those that point to the changing landscape of Costa Rica’s coast, such as the selling of land to foreigners for building hotels or resorts. Overall, the film leaves plenty of contemplative room for audience to make up their mind regarding what is going on but there are some ideas which could be better etched out. Still, the film is worth a look and Paz Fabrega is a director to keep an eye out for.

Copa America Campaign

Costa Rica decided to send a young Under-23 aged team to the Copa because of the senior team’s commitments in the Gold Cup. So that meant the entire purpose of Costa Rica’s presence in Argentina was to give their youngsters much needed experience for future tournaments. In that regard, the young Costa Rican team gave a good account of themselves by narrowly losing 1-0 to Colombia before running circles around Bolivia with a wonderful 2-0 win. Jole Campbell was a real discovery for the Ticos in the Bolivia game and scored the second goal. Campbell’s pace was also on display for the final group game against Argentina but Costa Rica never stood a chance against a Messi inspired Argentina team who won 3-0 but could have scored more goals. Still, Costa Rica narrowly missed making the quarter-finals and were only edged out on goal difference by Paraguay for the second of the best third team spots. Costa Rica can call their participation in the Copa a success and Campbell’s display is already drawing interest from both Arsenal and Manchester United.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Calgary International Film Festival 2010, preview 1

The 2010 Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) kicks off in less than 2 weeks time. The film selections continue to grow in technical and artistic strength each year and this year the festival has some amazing films on display, with the Mavericks competition category showcasing some of the best films of the year. Last year, Mavericks contained some worthy films such as Karaoke (2009 Maverick winner), Be Calm and Count to Seven, Everyone Else and Fish Eyes but this year's selection is much stronger than the 2009 list.


Manuel di Ribera

This visually stunning film is a fascinating mix of Lisandro Alonso and Bela Tarr yet is completely original. The lonely journeys of Manuel, conducted with the aid of boats, has touches of Alonso (from both Los Muertos & Liverpool) while the mostly grayish/dark environment and the drunken locals' distrust of Manuel feels similar to Tarr's The Outsider and Satantango. Also, the film brilliantly plays with the concept of reality by having two almost similar scenes of an event incorporated into the film -- one real and one imagined. The audience is left to figure out what the reality is.

Note: The isolated Chilean island seems to echo the island in the third short of Andrés Wood's Historias de fútbol.

The Intern

Clara Picasso's sublime film cleverly uses a Buenos Aires hotel setting as a springboard to examine wider issues, such as male-female power games and the thin boundary that exists between private and public life. Not a single minute is wasted in the film's brisk 64 minutes. Almost at each 20 minute segment, the viewer has to track back to the previous segment to get a clue as to mystery or relationship tussle taking place on screen. The end result is an engaging film.

R

Stand by for the one of the most brutal and dark films of the year!! The tag 'dark film' is easily thrown around but in the case of R, the tag is entirely justified. The film makes last year's wonderful Un prophète look like a feel good happy film. Besides being completely savage, R is intelligent and that is demonstrated by a clever perspective shift two-thirds into the film which shows the similar hierarchies of two rival gangs.

The Robber

A highly entertaining yet intelligent film. This film is an example that an accessible film can be made without clichés or spoon feeding the audience. The two highs of running and robbing give Johann’s life meaning and it is clear these habits will eventually take a toll on his life. The entire film is defined by fast movement, shown by Johann's marathon runs or his perfectly timed car getaways. Remarkably, the story is not fiction and based on a real life character.

Hunting & Zn

This powerful Dutch film shows how a complicated relationship can be strained when lies and a pregnancy enters the equation. Like last year's brilliant Everyone Else, this film is bold enough to look at the nasty side that exists in all relationships and thereby causes the audience to get deeply involved with the film. As a warning, pregnant women or couples expecting a child might want to brace themselves for an emotionally challenging film.

You All Are Captains

This fascinating award winning black and white film demonstrates that even an improvised film needs a structure to make the work engaging. The film's first 20 minutes feature a filmmaker teaching school kids how to use a camera. The filmmaker has no script or goal in mind and a result, frustrates his students who are puzzled by the filmmaker's motives. After the kids complain, the filmmaker is replaced with another director who gives a structure thereby letting the film's brilliance shine through. The ending of the film in color puts the whole work into perspective including the first 20 minutes. A film and filmmaker to watch out for.

Lucky Life

Lee Isaac Chung deserves a lot of credit for making a poetic film that deals with cancer in such a tender manner that one never gets the sense of impending death that will take over one of the characters. The film is more concerned with mood than specific details as most of the conversations appear to be improvised and not scripted cinema, which adds to the film's fluid flow. The film has a very cool mood around it and when the characters meet each other, there are smiles and tender moments throughout reflecting the strong friendship that exists.

Cold Water of the Sea

This Tiger Award winning film (Rotterdam) adds an artistic layer on top of an accessible coming of age tale. The parallels between a young girl and woman is interestingly shown as the two characters form reflections of each other. The beautiful landscape of Costa Rica contrasts the internal struggles of the characters.

Putty Hill

A unique and interactive film that blurs the line between documentary and fiction. The interactive aspect is executed by having the actors in the frame stop what they are doing and look towards the camera to answer questions by an unseen interviewer. And once they are done answering the questions, the camera steps back and films the action.

And finally, this year there is a Canadian entry in competition -- Snow and Ashes. It is a film that I am looking forward and is the only one that I have not previewed from the 10.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Oil & Latin America: Three Films

Before Oil

Film: Caribe (2004, Costa Rica, Director Esteban Ramírez)

Pristine beauty. Calm waters & beautiful coastlines.

This is the untouched beauty of Costa Rica that the camera in Caribe returns to on multiple occasions to remind us what would be lost if the proposed oil drilling mentioned at the film's beginning would go through.

The story of the oil drilling/explorations off the coast shown in Caribe are based on a real episode in Costa Rica's history. In the film, before the oil drilling could start, explorations were made to determine how much oil there really was underneath the ocean. As part of the process, the oil companies exploded bombs in the seabed. This scared the fish away and the town's fishing supply was depleted. The town of Limon mainly survived on two income sources -- fishing and tourism. The environmentalist groups feel that once big oil moves in, tourism will take a hit and cripple the local economy. The groups turn to the locals to raise their voice and stop the oil companies.


One of the most respected town members is Vicente (Jorge Perugorría),

who owns a banana plantation. But his business is in danger of collapsing after a new European tax on Costa Rican fruit exports makes his supply less profitable to his exporters.

There may be more to Vicente's contracts getting cancelled and the audience is given an indirect hint. Vicente is told that because of the new European tax, the exporters only want to deal with big plantations and not independent producers. This could be an indirect way to force the local people out of a job thus making the lure of big oil and its promised jobs seem as the only option to move forward.

Vicente is torn between his principles to help fight the oil companies and the need to keep his business alive. The money offered by the oil companies to get his support is too tempting to turn away. Equally tempting is his wife's sister. The stress and madness lure Vicente away from his beautiful wife (below) into the arms of the sensuous sister.

Even if the oil issue was not around, a few early clues do indicate that Vicente would still have cheated on his wife. But the timing of his betrayal are interesting as they coincide with the arrival of the oil corporations which threaten the peaceful environment, while the new arrival of the long lost sister threatens his perfect marriage. As a result, both the paradise in his mind and around him are shook up.



When Oil arrives

Film: Le Salaire de la peur (1953, France, Director Henri-Georges Clouzot)

In Caribe the locals eventually fight away big oil and save their land. But that is not always the case. Most times, the promise of new jobs and money allow oil companies to easily move in. The town (or city/country) then depends on oil as the main source of income. Other industries may collapse as young & old rush to work for the oil companies.

At the start of Wages of Fear, we find men languishing in a sleepy un-named Latin town. Oil is the only work around as men earn their money working in the oil fields. There are plenty of foreigners who work in the town and want to save enough money to eventually leave one day. Mario (Yves Montand) is living the happy life between work and chasing a woman.

His good friend Jo (Charles Vanel) arrives in town for the sole purpose of earning money. We can tell he is not allowed in this place as just before he heads for immigration, he slips money in his passport. This ensures his passport gets stamped, without even a glance at the pictures of people on the wanted list.


Jo discovers an old acquaintance in the American boss of the Southern Oil Company (the initials SOC point towards the real life Standard Oil Company) and heads to ask him for work because he really needs the money. But he is told that things in this country are strict and Jo can't get work because of his past.

Things are quiet in town with work progressing at a slow pace until an emergency stirs things up. A fire at a remote oil field kills a few people and requires to be controlled before it threatens to rack up more financial losses. One way to curb the oil fire is to use explosives around the wild gushing oil station. For that, nitroglycerin has to be used.


Notes:

  • Interestingly, Daniel Plainview uses this same tactic in There Will be Blood. And some of the shots of a man against the backdrop of black smoke reminded me of Plainview.



  • There is an interesting shot of three naked natives watching the oil fire. The three natives simply stand by looking at the fire and are told by the oil operator to go away but seeing that the locals don't understand his words, he walks away in frustration.

    In Caribe we see the local natives getting upset at the plans of big oil as that would threaten to take away the land they have lived on. One can infer that the three natives shown in Wages of Fear used to live on or nearby this land which is now being used by SOC.




  • Since the remote oil site is a few hundred miles away, it is a tough job to get nitroglycerin there because a spilled drop of nitroglycerin can kill an individual. On top of that, there isn't proper equipment and none of the trucks have shock absorbers or safety features to safely transfer this dangerous explosive. So the American bosses decide the only way this can be done is to get two trucks to carry the dangerous good there. They only need one truck load of nitroglycerin but two will be sent out in case one doesn't make it. One of the owners wants to pay the drivers "peanuts" but the American boss refuses to short change the drivers since they are going on a suicide mission. So the wage is set to $2000 dollar. Oh, and to avoid any problems the drivers will be hired from outside the union.

    Plenty of men show up wanting to get this deadly job because of the money.

    Eventually 4 men are chosen (including Mario) and once again Jo is shut out. But mysteriously, the German driver chosen does not make it to the 3 am departure time and magically Jo appears to take his place (it is clear that Jo did something to make the German disappear).

    As to be expected the journey of these 4 men and two trucks is tension packed and full of dangerous obstacles. The trucks have to go at a certain speed otherwise the potholes on some of the roads could cause the explosives to go off (hmm, the idea of not going above a certain speed limit reminded me of the concept in Speed).


    Some of the obstacles include a giant boulder in the middle of the road which has to be blown up using a pinch of nitroglycerin, a shaky bridge which the truck has to back onto in order to make a tricky turn and an oil lake.


    I believe there is a newer DVD copy of this movie but I found an older DVD in the original French language and no subtitles. But thankfully, three important sequences in the film are in English -- the meeting between Jo and the American boss, the discussion of the oil field fire and explanation of the dangers of the nitroglycerin transfer. This is all the information I needed because after the 45 minute mark when the two trucks head out on their mission, the tension of the situation kept me riveted and I hardly noticed time pass by or the fact that I could not understand most of the words. Such is the power of the images, the editing and camera work that words can't compete with the beauty of what is put on screen.

    Plus there are plenty of scenes which are just wonderful to watch. One such sequence involves Mario and Jo sitting in the local bar when Luigi (another person who gets picked to be one of the 4 drivers) asks the barmaid to dance.

    Mario is upset as this is the woman that he likes.

    Jo decides to stop the music.

    At first Luigi is startled but within a second he continues singing the song and dancing, much to the delight of the other patrons who clearly support Luigi.


    Nothing fancy about this scene but it is so free flowing and full of life.


    Some side effects of oil..

    Film: Keepers of Eden (2007, USA, Director Yoram Porath)

    The oil lake shown in Wages of Fear shows one of the side effects of oil pipelines and drilling is that oil could accidentally spill over. It becomes more dangerous when this spilled oil finds a way into a water supply. The documentary Keepers of Eden shows nauseating scenes of the harmful effects of oil tainting fresh water supply resulting in skin diseases and sores in people who use the water source. The areas shown in the film are some sections of the Amazon in Ecuador.

    Keepers of Eden shows that the blame not only lies with big oil but with a government that rushes to allow oil companies to move in. In Caribe Vicente tries to argue that there are ways for oil companies to be "eco-friendly". Ofcourse, he did not believe that himself but he was speaking those words because he needed the money from big oil. He eventually decides that he can't sell his soul but what the film showed was that in certain circumstances even a proud local like Vicente was willing to forget the environment because of the money offered. And that is the problem really. Oil means money. Why else was Daniel Plainview so eager to drill in There Will be Blood and switched over to oil exploration from gold/silver hunting? And when the bottom line is money, then sadly the environment and other safety measures take a back-seat. A few years ago, the cause of the environment was put forth and it seemed that someone would listen. But as each passing day goes by and the price of oil dominates the media headlines, it is hard to believe that events/scenes shown in Caribe & Keepers of Eden won't continue to repeat themselves.