Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven is an Iranian film directed by Majid Majidi. This film follows a young boy and his little sister. The young boy is sent by is mother to go get his sisters shoes from the shoe repairer in this town. On his way back he misplaces the shoes and they were taken by accident by a trash collector. When the boy gets home he doesn't want to tell his parents he lost the shoes because they are too poor to get another pair for any of them. He tells is sister that he will find the shoes but in the mean time they switch shoes throughout the day so she can still go to school. The boy ends up being late to school and getting in trouble because they are switching shoes. While the little girl is at school she sees another little girl wearing her shoes and follows her home. They go to get the shoes back but decide to leave. the boy and his father go to find work in the suburbs gardening and they make some money but get into a bicycle accident on the way home. The boy tells his father that he should use the money to buy his sister some new shoes. Not thinking is father has enough money to get the shoes, he enters a running competition where if he gets third place he will get a new pair of shoes and give them to his sister. He tries so hard to get third place but gets up winning the whole marathon, by that is not what he wanted. The audience gets to see two new pairs of shoes on his fathers bicycle but the boy has no idea he got them new shoes. The film ends with the boy cleaning off his blistered feet in the water feeling defeated because he couldn't get his sister shoes.

The theme of this film is friendship. the bond that the boy and his sister have is a strong one. Even though he lost her shoes, she never told on him even when she had no shoes to go to school with because she didn't want him to get beaten by their father. Throughout the film they all are going through hard time and they live in a poor area but they are still there for each other though the entire film.

I really enjoyed this film because it showed the wonderful relationship they had for each other. There want much going on in the film but you got a real sense of how these people live and  the struggles they go through everyday just to survive. The relationships throughout the film really make you feel for the characters and want them to overcome all of their struggles.

Moolaade

Moolaade is a film from Sengal directed by Ousmane Sembene. This film is centered around the practice of female genital mutilation. A local woman in the village is known for protecting girls from having to go through this practice. When girls are about nine, their mothers send them off with a particular group of older woman who prepare them for the cutting. Most girls in the village who go through this die because of an excess amount of blood or infection. A group of girls run away from their mothers to Colle for protection. Colle keeps them safe in her home but she is up against everyone else in the village who believes the girls need to go with the elders. As the film goes on, Colle is shown protecting these girls in any way that she can against the elders because she believes that it is not right to put them through this horrible, unnecessary act when most girls die because of it. One of the girls are taken away from Colle by her mother and taken to the elder woman, she ends up dying because of the cutting. Colle is taken to the elders to defend herself and she is beaten in the middle of the village by her husband in front of everyone. All the woman who are on her side are telling her to stay strong and the elders are waiting for her to break down. Colle survives the beating and saves the girls from going through this horrible act. This film shows the reality of what goes on in the world to these innocent girl everyday, dying for no reason.

There are feminist themes throughout this whole film. These girls are being tortured for no reason other than the men want them to be pure. These girls are dying everyday by the horrible ritual that has been going on for way to long. Half of the woman in the village believe that these girls need to have this done and the other half don't. Colle stands up for all the girls in the village who can't protect themselves.

Even though the content of this film is very deep, the film is directed beautifully. It really makes you feel like you are living there life with them and going through this with all the woman in the village. As the audience, you want to protect these girls just as much as Colle does. This film opened my eyes to what these girls really are going through and how dangerous it really is for them.

Tsotsi

Tsotsi (2005) is a South African film directed by Gavin Hood. This film follows the life a Tsotsi who lives in the slums of South Africa and has to find any way possible to survive. He is a young man who has made a name for himself as someone not to mess with. His friends follow in and do anything that he says, even if they means killing an innocent man on the subway. Tsotsi goes into the rich neighborhood to steal a car but ends up shooting a woman and taking her car which ends up having a baby in the backseat. Instead of leaving the baby to die, Tsotsi takes him back to his hut and tries to take care of him. Knowing that the baby needs to eat, he takes to baby to a womans house in the slums and makes her feed him at gun point. Tsotsi keeps going back to the woman and begins to have feelings for her. The baby changes Tsotsi and makes him realize that there is more to life than just a life of crime. Feeling bad he takes the baby back to the parents house and doesn't argue when he is being arrested. He made a complete turn around in his life because of this baby.

The theme throughout the film is redemption, Tsotsi learns throughout the film that he doesn't need to use force to get what he wants and that there is more to life than what he has know for so long. He learns so much about what its like to take care of someone else and see how much the real mother and father of the baby love it so much they would do anything to get their baby back.

I really enjoyed this film. I loved seeing the change in Tsotsi and how the audience was not sure if he was going to give back the baby but when he does you really feel for Tsotsi and realize how hard his life really is. Even though he seemed like a bad guy to everyone else around him, you realize that he had to be that person to survive the life around him.

Central Station

Central Station (1998) is a Brazilian film directed by Walter Salles. Dora is a retired teacher who now writes letters for the people coming in and out of the station because they are not able to write letters to their families and loved ones themselves. Dora comes across Josue and his mother who are writing a letter to his father whom they haven't talked to in a long time. After coming back twice to write a letter, Josue's mother is hit by a bus outside of the station leaving Josue alone in the world. Dora, who only is concerned about herself at the time, takes in Josue but the next day sells him to a foster home. Feeling horrible about selling him she goes back to get him. They both run away in fear of Josue getting taken away again. Dora and Josue go to try to find his father and along there journey they come across many obstacles  By the time they find Josue's older brothers, Dora and Josue are extremely close and realize that they both need each other in a way they did not expect.

The themes in this film are friendship and trust. Dora begins this film only being concerned with herself and her regular life. When coming across Josue, she realizes that she needs to help this little boy find is father and not just leave him on the side of the road. Josue wants nothing to do with Dora either, he fights her every chance he gets to get away from her and find his father alone. As they spend more and more time together they realize that they need each other and are better off having met each other.

This film takes you through the relationship they have with each other, through the ups and the down. We get to see how they go from wanting nothing to do with each other to not wanting to leave each other's side. Both of the characters change dramatically throughout the film and it is nice to watch that transformation in this film.

Strawberry and Chocolate

Strawberry and Chocolate (1993) was directed by Tomas Gutierrez and Juan Carlos Tabio. This film is about a young student in Cuba named Diego who is a communist and very involved in the politics in Cuba. He meets a man named David, who is against everything Diego stands for but befriends Diego. they hang out all the time and David gives Diego books to read and alcohol that cannot be found in Cuba. The film follows their relationship together, they argue all the time about politics and David wants Diego to be his lover not just his friend. We see them go up and down in their relationship throughout the film. Davids best friend convinces him to spy on Diego about what he thinks about the government, as time goes on he really feels for Diego and hangs out with him everyday. David gets involved with Diego's neighbor and even through all the drama they become great friends in the end.

The theme in this film is how unpredictable a friendship can turn out to be. David did not expect to learn so much from Diego and become such good friends. They both learned so much from each other, David learned to be creative and think out of the box. Diego learned to be a little more cautious but still live life to the fullest.

I thought this film was very heart warming. The relationship between David and Diego was a touch one but in the end they became life long friends. The best scene in my opinion was the last scene because it mimics the scene when Diego came up to David on the park and it shows how far they have come and how strong their relationship really is.