apparently i didn't B quite the moment i was RB.
i am back. in fact, i've been back for 24 hours now. but it's also the philadelphia film festival this week. and i got my festival pass and free tote bag
though i missed a bunch of films earlier in the fest because i was away for much of the opening weekend, i saw two films last night after i got back: metallic blues and about baghdad. both were very good, although as different as two films could be.
"metallic blues" is about a couple of down-on-their-luck israelis who think they strike it rich when they get their hands on a vintage lincoln town-car limousine. except there's no market for a huge car like that in israel, so they blow their savings to ship it to germany to try to sell it there. as everything goes wrong with their scheme, the characters are haunted by german history. they are searched by the police when they pick up the car at the port of hamburg, and nervously eye what they think are gas lines and shower nozzles in the back room where they are patted down.
"about baghdad" is a documentary filmed in baghdad in july 2003 by an iraqi ex-pat who fled the country in 1991 and returned for the first time during that early month of the american occupation. it was really interesting to see the opinions of the iraqis on the screen. the film portrays a complexity of feelings about the american invasion you usually do not get elsewhere. in short, iraqi opinions were all over the place, although the majority seemed to be happy saddam was gone but wanted the americans to go immediately too. the american soldiers who were interviewed seemed completely unaware of what the iraqis were thinking or what a word like "occupation" means to them. lots of people talked about the future and it was pretty depressing to realize that all of the most pessimistic predictions turned out to be true and none of the more optimistic one's came about (e.g. american forces have stayed for more than a year, an iraqi insurgency developed, shi'a religious parties have emerged, electricity still is not completely restored, etc.)
i dunno if anyone out there would ever get the chance to watch either of these films, but, for whatever it's worth, both get the noz seal of approval.
