Cultural crossroads and conflicts
Brother Gordon
Fredrick Johnson / USA / 2005 / 27 min.
Gordon is an African–American who grew up in Harlem with his mother, later joined the army and fought in the Vietnam War. Today, instead of attending war veteran rallies, he helps drug addicts from all over the world kick their habits and find peace in the Thamkrabok monastery in Thailand. The stories of drug abuse told by each patient differ as much as their respective languages. Many locals are addicted to opium because it was the ubiquitous, and only, cure for all ailments and pain in their villages. For most of those who hail from Europe and the US on the other hand, heroin provided an escape from personal problems. Each person receives the same treatment and everyone has the same chance for a complete recovery. Brother Gordon's own story is testimony that simple life in a Buddhist monastery is open to people of the most diverse fortunes and origin. Though his expressions, intonation and gestures belong to the streets of Harlem, his words of truth and forgiveness are those of a Buddhist monk.
Kontakt: brothergordon@gmail.com
Buisness with souls
Iva Kúšiková / SR / 2005 / 30 min.
When he was a boy, he wanted to be like Vinnetou. He wanted to help the weak, he wanted to have a horse and a gun like he had. Since 1990 Marian Kuffa has been the head of a christian Institute which is focused on helping the ex-prisoners, ill, disabled, homeless, orphans, single mothers… They trust him and he became their loving father, brother, friend.
Kontakt: marek@lux.sk
The Giant Buddhas
Christian Frei / Švajčiarsko / 2005 / 95 min.
The Taliban were happy. They had destroyed something that could never be rebuilt. It was gone forever,” says Taysir Alony, an Al Jazeera TV reporter and one of the few foreigners to witness, and the only one to film, the destruction of the 1500 year–old monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, by the Taliban in February 2001. The action was condemned throughout the world. Alony supplies one of six intriguing voices in the new documentary by Christian Frei, author of the Oscar–nominated 'War Photographer'. Combining several narrative lines, Frei's beautifully crafted film uses the Bamiyan statues as a starting point on a fascinating journey exploring the boundaries between spirituality and religious fanaticism, the ancient and the modern and the local and the global. Frei weaves together a colourful and moving tapestry that ultimately reflects the Buddhist saying: “Everything changes, nothing is permanent.” With some excellent photography by Peter Indergand, this monumental, yet quietly contemplative – and at times very funny – film is as much a quest for questions, as a search for answers.
Kontakt: christianfrei@gmx.ch, www.giant–buddhas.com
Linda & Ali, Two Worlds within four Walls
Lut Vandekeybus / Belgicko, Francúzsko, Katar / 2005 / 94 min.
Linda and Ali met in the 1980s while at university in Arizona. Linda was a Catholic, Ali a Shiite Muslim. Today they live in Qatar and have six daughters and one son. Twenty years on, even though Linda converted to Islam because of her husband, it seems the distance between their respective worlds is even greater. While Ali goes to work, meets his colleagues and goes out with them every night, Linda lives only for the household and the kids. Even if she did have a little free time, religious rules do not afford her much freedom to use it. Without manipulating reality, filmmaker Lut Vandekeybus compellingly portrays the strict division of this society into the world of men and the world of women. Drawn to a football match by the noisy crowd, his camera surveys the scene without finding a single woman. A fence divides one of the city squares – boys play volleyball on one side, girls stand on the other, permitted only to watch. Although one might come across a similar situation in non–Muslim countries, here the law forbids the presence of women on the wrong side of the fence. Although the story of Linda and Ali portrays an effort to surmount cultural differences, it also confirms that if only one person in a relationship makes a sacrifice, problems will persist.
Kontakt: khadouj@glo.be, catleclef@doc–co.com, www.doc–co.com
Justice a Agadez
Christian Lelong / Francúzsko / 2004 / 78 min.
In the Nigerian town Agadez, order is not only maintained by the police and the official law courts, but also by another judiciary, stemming from the traditions of the Tuareg and the Koran. Director Christian Lelong chose seven cases to symbolize the seven days of the week, placing his camera as a silent witness in 'the court room'. The judge, sitting in an armchair one level above the plaintiffs who stand on an old worn carpet, presides over all manner of grievances. Authority is the Cadi's main instrument in adjudicating cases of unfair trading, debt and debt collection, theft and false accusation. Rather than passing judgements, he uses deduction and comes up with unsubstantiated arguments and proofs. The sessions are reminiscent of myths about wise rulers who solved cases by posing riddles, which revealed the virtue of one party and the malicious intentions of the other. Cases concerning marital disputes tend to be more complicated. In contrast to other traditional Islamic courts, in Agadez, women can also demand their rights. In the most serious cases, divorce is not entirely out of the question.
Kontakt: ch_lelong@cinedoc.fr, www.andanafilms.com
Muslims Among Us
Václav Křístek / ČR / 1998 / 19 min.
In 1998, Václav Křístek made a documentary about Muslims living in the Czech Republic. In the era of growing distrust of the EuroAmerican world towards Islam, his film gives impression of an undistorted look at the religion free of any political ambitions. The director visits Islamic centre in Prague and the improvised prayer room with his camera where he finds other than just Arab Muslims. Vladimír Sáňka is a Czech geologist who adopted Islam as one of monotheist religions that accepts all prophets. Muslims who fled to the former Czechoslovakia from the Saddam regime, where they finished their studies and founded families, chose similar tolerant approach. Their Czech wives converted to Islam. But they adopted only the religion, not the dogmatic opinions and regulations of radical Islamic movements. Their faith is not an impediment to their multicultural lifestyle that enables them to celebrate both Ramadan and Christmas.
Kontakt: telexport@czech–tv.cz, www.czech–tv.cz
The Roma soap opera
Marek Poláček / SR / 2004 / 30 min.
Father Peter Bešényei has been working with the Roma in Eastern Slovakia since 1990. After a 14 year long labor he has reached some results. Not many, but at least some. His work is exceptional as majority of the Roma focused projects in Slovakia has failed. Peter Bešenyei admits that he wanted to give up many times, but there always have been some little things to motivate him to continue, for example getting some sweets from a child. One day at the Poštárka settlement, where desolation and absurdity of everyday life is in sharp contrast with a dull and artificial Spanish soap opera – the highlight of the day.
Kontakt: marek@lux.sk
Vierka
Miroslav Janek / ČR / 2005 / 76 min.
While preparing the musical „Gypsies go to heaven“, singer and musician Ida Kellarová was searching for an interesting female voice. When she heard a recording of Vierka Berkyová, a talented Roma girl from a poor Slovak family, she decided not only to give her a role, but also to help further her career. She moved the many members of her family from the extremely meager conditions of the Slovak countryside to her house, looking after Vierka and preparing her for a new life with an acceptable standard of living. Their harmonious coexistence continued until Ida Kellarová started to run out of money. One day, when the time came for the members of the Berka family to stand on their own feet, they disappeared, apparently without a trace... Documentary filmmaker Miroslav Janek takes an objective stance in telling a story of mutual trust and disappointment from two different points of view, recording the further fortunes of the family and showing the possible ways of dealing with the exceptional talent of little Vierka. This remarkably vivid film may be approached as a commentary on the development of inter–personal relations or the different attitudes to the Roma community, but also as an interesting insight into the world of music. Compelling to such an extent that it draws the audience into its gripping storyline, inviting more questions than simply where the family ended up and how little Vierka is getting on...
Kontakt: verbascum@email.cz, www.verbascum.cz
