World Views

The world of film is hermetic, but this does not mean, that the real world is excluded from the big screen. World Views is a series of films, which focus on current political issues, and bring distant conflicts to our close attention.

In 'Indignados', we accompany an African immigrant to an EU in crisis, where she observes a generation, which takes to the streets against indecisive politicians and unpunished financial barons. The same activism is presented in 'Diaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood', while an immigrant is again at the centre of the story in 'Terraferma', where a Sicilian fishing family saves a pregnant boat-refugee from drowning. The family is confronted by the dilemma between public law and private morality. The gardener, Omar, also meets problems with the judicial system, this time French, when he, in spite of highly questionable evidence, is found guilty of the murder of his boss, in the authentic story, 'Omar Killed Me'.

The theme is equally serious in 'Where Do We Go Now?', from Lebanon, even though the religious tensions are treated with humor. The great strength of 'Land of Oblivion' lays in its powerful images of the lifeless region around Tjernobyl.

'Just the Wind', from Hungary, shares the same theme as Slovakian 'Gypsy', and needs no further introduction, while the French-Phillippine hostage drama, 'Captive', is self-explanatory in terms of its title.