Reviews

Wadja is a very interesting film that really opens the world up to Saudi Arabia on gender roles. Due to Culture and religion, as well as the Taliban, Saudi Arabia faced Sharia Law, which caused all of the gender inequality issues there is today. Wadja focuses on a young girl who is still in grade school and pursues a certain bike she has had her eye on even since she first sees it. She does everything she can to earn enough money for the bike and even gets the store clerk to hold the bike for her in his shop. Throughout the entire storyline, there were the never-ending hints at all of the gender inequality. A few I can think of right now are the differences between life at home and life outside of the home between the mother and the daughter. First of all, when Wadja and her mother are by themselves at home they are happy, and they are who they truly are and express themselves that way, but as soon as they step outside of the front doors to the house it all changes. Wadja is young and more of a courageous rebel, but her mother puts the veil on and applies herself to every other expected gender role in Saudi Arabia's society. Lastly, before or after watching this film, I recommend doing research on how the director had to complete this film when it came to directing and everything else while in Saudi Arabia.

Turtles Can Fly is a very good movie when it comes to explaining the conflict between Iraq and the United States. This movie focuses mainly on the viewpoint of children during the war. The movie takes place in Iraq, following the Kurds and the different villages they have due to being split up. As everyone knows or does not, the Kurds are the largest ethnic group without a nation. The main character Satellite is really the only boy in the whole village who is older than all the other boys. Every other boy except for the boy with no arms is much younger than Satellite, which is very odd. Satellite is named satellite for his ability to set up satellites for the neighboring villages and I guess he does a pretty good job at it. He is in love with a girl named Agrid who was raped and then had a child. She dislikes her child as she does not believe it is hers, and eventually ends up killing the baby after mainly countless trials. An interesting view point I saw throughout the film was the changing idea of the Americans to Satellite. At the beginning of the movie he was amazed by everything about the Americans, until they actually come and he experiences the pain from war. He hurts his foot on a land mine and after that just does not know what to do anymore as he feels there is no hope for him. I recommend anyone who is interested in this conflict to see the film.

Out of all the foreign films I have seen, this has got to be one of the best yet. Omar is a very powerful movie as it shows you the never ending loop of pain that is caused by becoming a collaborator. The director does a very good job of showing the struggle, as he also has made a different movie called Paradise Now, which has to do with the point of view of a Palestinian Bomber. The different looks from the two different movies give you a good idea of what is going on between the Israel government and the Palestinian leaders. Now, Omar is focused in the West Bank, and he keeps climbing walls to go back in forth between his house and his friend's house. At his friend's house is his lover. Omar is in love with a girl named Nadia, and I do not want to spoil anything, but the cops are very stingy, and they enjoy playing tricks on the people, especially Omar, for their personal gain. The plot twist is very interesting, as it changes the whole direction of the film. Now, the director has stated this movie is a love movie, which I would agree with, but I feel there is much more behind it. Such as the involvement the Israel government has in the West Bank and the amount of betrayal between different organizations/groups. I would definitely recommend this movie, as it is one of the best I have seen.

Paradise Now is the exact opposite of what you think the title is. For example, no one truly believes a film with the title of Paradise Now has anything to do with bombing. There is so much more to this story though past the bombing. It is not truly about what is bad and what is good. There is the feeling of I need to do this for myself, and what not. Anyways, moving on, the movie started off with a woman crossing one of the checkpoints, and it was a very serious scene in the movie. Any wrong move and it was over for her, as there are many guns pointed on her at all times. She is the past main leader's daughter of the rebellion. She chooses to hide from that, though, and does not support what her father has accomplished. She goes to pick up her car from what seems like a junkyard, and there she keeps running into Said. One of the main two friends is Said, and the other is named Khaled. The two friends are chosen for a bombing mission in Tel Aviv. From the start, Khaled is all about doing the bombing, but Said is not. This is due to religion when it comes to Khaled's reasoning. No one knows why Said is going through with it. Even after seeing the movie I still have no idea why Said ends up going through with the bombing, which occurs at a different time. The ironic thing is the roles between the two friends switches. Khaled stays behind, and Said carries out the bombing in Tel Aviv. There is a lot to see in this movie, but I will leave the rest of that up to you.

Tuya's Marriage is very interesting, as it looks at the life of Mongolian life in today's lifestyle. The story started with the ending, and then they all started to tell the beginning. I do not know much about the Mongolian lifestyle, but it seems like a very rural experience, that is met by the need for water. The main character, Tuya, is a herder of sheep, and they sell the sheep to make their money. One problem the family has is there is never any water around them, so they need to go and get it with their camel. That is quite the nuisance as they have to only use a certain amount, and once they are out they have to go and get more water. To solve this problem her first husband tried to build a well outside of the house, yet injures himself throughout the process. The well is not finished, and now Tuya has to do all of the work and take care of her two kids and her husband, as he is crippled now and can not work. Tuya goes and finds many suitors, once she finds the first one, it does not go well. The next suitor is named Shenge, and is very close with the family, as he tries to build a well outside of the house too. I will not get into too much detail, as you should see the movie to find out, but then it ends with no one knowing who Tuya really marries. It is the day of her wedding, and her first husband gets in a fight with Shenge and no one truly knows who she marries. I believe she marries Shenge, but no one knows for sure. I would recommend seeing this movie to someone if they are interested in the rural life of Mongolians.

Journey to the West is one of the most interesting films I have ever seen. Right from the start there was a lot of different things going on that I could not quite get a handle on. I am not used to watching anything like this type of movie. Obviously I do not know much at all about what the story is about and the importance of the story in China, but I would recommend it to a friend. Especially since there is a sequel that just recently came out in China, I may take a look at it when it is released in the United States. Back to the story though, it all starts with a little girl and her father, as he is then taken away by a man eating fish. Then various demon hunters come and that is when the story begins. They go through many different demons together, a fish, a hog, and a monkey. Eventually all of the demon hunters meet up and fight the monkey, and they all lose except for the main character. All of the others have made fun of his method of fighting the demons, and that method was somewhat through his beliefs. The movie is heavily influenced by Buddhism, as that is what eventually defeats the monkey. The main character then lives on as a Buddhist monk and travels with the three demons that he previously defeated, in a search for even more demons to take down. Then we get to the sequel, you will have to watch it to find out what happens next. Overall, a very interesting movie.

Dearest is a very good film that gives you the look on Child Abduction with a happier ending. This review will have many spoilers, but mainly focussing on what I thought was important. It all starts with a divorced husband and wife and their son. They argue with each other, and eventually, one day their son, Pengpeng is taken by an abductor who then brings him to a farm, which we later find out. The parents handle this just like everyone else would. They eventually join a group that helps with losing a child due to abduction, and that helps them cope with a joint feeling between the group members of remaining to search for their children. I am also interested to find out the number of families that actually do find their child after 3 years of searching. Anyways, when Pengpeng is finally found he does not recognize his parents anymore, and wants to go back to his abducted parent's home, which he believes to be his real home. You need to see the movie to know the rest, but I feel this movie did a great job explaining the whole process. The one thing I am questioning though is how Pengpeng's second Mom did not know of how she obtained the children that were brought to her by her husband. Dearest is a very good movie, and I recommend you see it.

Chennai Express is a very interesting movie. It is very different than anything else I have ever seen before. This is probably one of my first movies from Bollywood, but I will not think of Bollywood as this type of movie entirely. Now, the movie started off very slowly, and I was pretty confused with what was going on and it was pretty corny. The whole movie is corny actually. A few things to complain about are how the big guy at the end just decides to give up the girl when he traveled very far just to find her. Even that Rahul had the smallest of chances in the fight, that is simply impossible. The movie then went off on the train, and I guess the title of the movie is the name of the train company, I think. Rahul boasts about Goa and then as soon as he sees a pretty girl he instantly starts to just think of her and doesn't get off at the correct train stop. I guess he was being a nice guy, but it seemed very corny. All of the explosions were very comedic, and everything else was just a little too much to really enjoy the movie. The first half of the movie was incredibly slow, but I would say. It started to pick up after that and was seeming like an actual movie again. Despite my claim earlier about the fight scene, I enjoyed seeing the ending. Yet, the father also has all of these problems with Rahul and then sees him as a man because he keeps getting up when he gets hit. Then Meena and Rahul go away happily ever after. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone, but definitely would check out other movies made in Bollywood.

The movie, The Man from Nowhere is one of the best movies I have seen in the past year, that has to do with a foreign film. I guess it had something to do with all of the action, but I just really enjoyed watching it. There are a few moments where you have to think about it and try to come to a reality where something would actually take place. Yet, due to the main character's past and everything that he has gone through, it is really hard to tell just why he does everything that he does. To start it off, I will go with the relationship between the man and the prostitute's daughter. There will be many spoilers, but to carry on with my point... There are many different reasons for why the man chases after the girl after she is taken away due to her mother's involvement with the drug ring is South Korea. Etc... Anyway, I believe he does this due to the loss of his daughter and his wife. As they were taken away so abruptly, he never had a chance to save them. Yet, now he actually does have a chance to save the little girl that he somewhat sees his wife/daughter in. Despite this, the movie puts a view on the trafficking of body parts and the use of children. As no one would suspect a child to do anything harmful. They use this to their edge and due to that it is a huge problem. This movie is a 9 out of 10. I would recommend anyone watches it.

To start this all off, I would have to give Whale Rider a 8 out of 10 stars. The movie was a little hard to follow in the sense of not knowing much about Pai's family's culture, but that wasn't a very big problem. The story starts off with Pai's father in the hospital with Pai's mother, who is in childbirth. Pai's unborn brother dies with her mother, causing Pai's father to leave and go travel the world taking pictures. To me it was very surprising that a father would just leave his only daughter, especially after what occurred. Yet, I guess that is how he was to cope with the dramatic loss. I won't get too in depth about the rest of the story, but Pia's grandfather is looking for a new leader, and right from the start there are gender rolls that take place. Pia is not allowed to go for the position as the leader of the people, as she is only a girl. There is a constant love-hate relationship between Pia and Grandfather, yet it all ends towards the end. I won't spoil the ending, but it is very easy to get lost when it comes to why everything is happening. Besides that, Whale Rider is a very excellent movie, and I would recommend it to anyone. Before you watch it though, make sure to do some research on the movie and the people who are in it.

I thought this was a very good film when it came to showing off the mastering of martial arts, but It was very interesting to see how they showed it. The choice of choosing sex trafficking was interesting as it is a very odd way to show how to fight against someone else. The sex trafficking idea also puts that idea into everyone that watches this film's head about Indonesia. Every country around the world has something to do with sex trafficking, yes it is terrible, but I don't think it is fair to Indonesia to be shown in this way. Either way, the story line was very cheesy when it came to there being no guns and no cell phones. Although, that is expected, as the director is going to want to only have the film being based on martial arts and if there were guns, that story would be over very soon. Anyway, when it came to the main bosses, it was very odd the amount of blood that was pouring out of their heads whenever they fought. Now, I understand that whenever their is a major or minor hit to the head, there will be a lot of blood, but this was crazy. It was as if they had a huge hole in their heads. Another scene that I will critic is when Yuda runs into the man he met on the bus and after their fight scene when he is shot to death in the elevator. The amount of shots that were fired out of the two guards pistols, was crazy. It was very unnecessary, but then again, Yuda against bullets would not go down so well. Everything else was very good, I enjoyed the ending and how there was a transition between the young boy and Yuda. The one question I have leaving this film is what happens to the girl that Yuda saved. Overall, I give the movie a 7 out of 10.

Personally, I am thankful for the release of this movie, as it will open the eyes of everyone around the world to put an end to the terrible murder of Elephants. I did a school project after watching this film and found a lot more interesting information about this problem. One of my favorite parts was all of the undercover work. Everyone that was involved with finding who was in charge were amazing. Everything in the move matches up perfectly with all of my research, and there truly is no better movie that addresses this problem. Another reason to watch the film is mainly to put in perspective for people the amount of Ivory husks that are being traded illegally. The amount is so alarming, and just to picture how many elephants are being killed is outstanding. If the same pace of killing is kept, there will no longer be any North African Elephants, and the population will never have a chance again. As the movie addresses the problem many times as it now or never, it truly is. If nothing is fixed, then that will be the end for Elephants in Africa. Lastly, one scene everyone needs to see is when they burn all of the Ivory. Hopefully the ban on ivory trade works this time. Watch the movie!

Timbuktu was a very good movie. I liked many parts of it and there were only a few that I wish were a little bit more attentive to detail. As the ending had many different holes that I wanted to just know what happened next. There will be many spoilers in this review by the way. Obviously you will realize all of the anger that is building up in the main character and why it is. Everyone believes they can just come to Timbuktu and feel that they own the place. As he eventually kills a nearby fisherman after one of his most favorable cows walks into the fisherman's nets and is shot dead. The cow (GPS) was also pregnant, and was worth a lot to the family. He accidentally kills the fisherman, and then is put on trial by the Jihad believes that have taken over Timbuktu. Timbuktu is such a peaceful place, yet it is ruined by the militia groups that just come in trying to enforce the way they believe life should be lived. One of the greatest moments of the film was when all of the kids were playing soccer with no ball, as soccer had been banned by the leaders of the Ansar Dine. Now, back to the ending, it did not really make much sense to me. As the husband is killed when the wife shows up with a mysterious biker, as soon as that occurs the daughter is filmed running towards some random direction, and the son is also running. Then the film closes out. Although the ending was not completely clear, I thought it was a very good movie. I would recommend it.

I thought Fishing Without Nets was a very good movie. It was also very interesting when it comes to representing the Somalian citizens. I felt there was some kind of exaggeration for the depth of their situation. As the pirates turned on each other so easily, which I feel would not occur based on crew that is built and made from the people around the area. Many of the people that go on the mission as a pirate are the fishermen and the criminals. I still do not completely understand how the interactions are made, as someone just gets on the phone and after a while, the money is there. I just do not see very powerful countries talking to pirates from Somalia. Back to the main story line. The main character is a fisherman, and he has a wife and a child. He pays smugglers to get them out of the country, but he has to stay as he does not have enough money. He remains fishing, and eventually settles on becoming a pirate, as there are no fish in the sea any longer. The pirates find a boat, and there are only 2 French people on the boat, with no cargo. I do not quite remember the amount of money they were given, but eventually everything turns. The pirates turn on each other, and one of the French men are killed and the other is taken back to the shore. The main character is still on the boat when the plane drops the money. The ending is very questioning. As you have to figure out what happens next. I would recommend watching this movie.

Simshar is a very amazing movie that really makes you think about the immigration that is going on in Malta. There are many different opinions that look into the immigration, yet many of them are very biased. As everyone in Malta hates anyone that comes into the country on a boat or however they make it into the country. The story starts off with the Red Cross and they eventually travel out on boat to a fishing boat that went and picked up many different African immigrants that are trying to make it to Europe. They have to stay on the boat until the decision has been made as to where they will be placed, either in Italy or Malta. The decision was eventually made and they were transported to Malta, where there was an outrage outside of the camp, but throughout that whole experience the opinion of the Red Cross man was changed completely. He realized that the immigrants do nothing wrong, and they have to suffer throughout it all. This is not even the main story, as the main story focuses on the fishermen and their life. They illegally fish for tuna, and eventually sneak out with the dad, grandpa, son, and worker on the boat and go very far out. A fire starts in the engine, and the boat explodes. The grandpa is killed, and the others make it in the water. There are many rescue opportunities that occur, but none are successful until the end, where the son and the worker have died, and the dad is the only one left alive. Before this, an insane thing that completely changed my mind on immigration, is when a boat saw them in the water, but turned around as they didn't want to pick up any immigrants and stop their fishing operation. To me that is amazing, yet I understand. I recommend you see this movie.

A Screaming Man is a very slow paced movie, but I feel it is necessary to get the point across of all the emotion. I had trouble keeping up with the slow pace as I am used to movies that have something going on every five seconds. The movie starts off with Adam, who is the father of Abdel, and he works at the pool with his son. The hotel they work out is beginning to fire the older workers that do not do as much for the hotel, and Adam fears that he will lose his job at the pool. After his interview with the lady in charge of the hotel, he is confident that his place will remain the same at the pool. His son Abdel also speaks to the manager and becomes distant for the rest of the day to Adam, as Abdel soon replaces his father and becomes solely responsible for the pool. Adam is moved to the front gate. During all of this there is a war going on between the army and the rebels. Everyone is being forced to help the army either by money or giving up a son. Due to Adam's anger about losing his position at the pool, he offers his son up to the army. His son is taken and eventually Adam is torn apart as he realizes that Abdel has a girlfriend who is pregnant and that he tore apart the family. He goes to retrieve Abdel, but he is badly injured and eventually dies as they arrive to a nearby river. To me the ending means Abdel was killed by what Adam loves most, which is swimming, and now to pay for it he loses his son. I would recommend seeing this movie, Even though I just gave most of it away.

This film is very different from any American film I have ever seen. Yes, the director is from Jaimaica, and learned his film style in America, but the movie is not an American film. The story line is nothing like an American film either. There's a certain time line that is always followed throughout the film in America, yet you can tell that even though the Director learned film in America, it is a different style. The movie is taking different cuts throughout the whole film, and it is going left and right. You must pay a lot of attention to detail to understand what is going on throughout the film. At one moment someone is being killed and then there is a jump to the end, and then when you least expect it, you are back at the beginning on the story. The main point for this, I believe, is the importance to express the view of everyone in the film. I believe that everyone you see in this film will have their story told. Now to talk about the difference between Hotel Rwanda and Kinyarwanda, Hotel Rwanda is an American film as it follows the same exact story line of sadness then happiness. Then the Kinyarwanda movie is exactly what I have already explained. A very odd story line, but it gets the point across. To give everyone in the movie that does not have a voice in the world, a voice. I recommend that you watch this film, but as you watch it be very attentive towards the series of events.

Everything you could expect out of this movie comes at you. It is a very perfect way to show everyone what occurred during the rebellion. The story all starts when Paul is working at the Hotel and everyone that is there is somewhat very powerful and has a great influence on what goes on in the world. I was surprised seeing it was only a 4 star hotel. An anonymous voice is always heard on the radio that seems to be very angry and filled with revenge. Now, before you watch this movie, you should get a back story on the Rwandan Rebellion between the Hutus and the Tutsis. I'll help explain a little bit, but mainly, the Belgians came in and decided who was to be a Tutsi based on their looks and they were given their position instead of earning it. Due to this, the Hutus eventually had enough of it and the man on the radio said something about falling trees and then instantly the rebellion began. Every Hutu was instantly killing the Tutsis, all based on the separation that occurred only based on a different countries opinion. To me, this is ridiculous, but it is what it is. Another main point is the fact that no other country would get involved, or saw it as a huge problem that they needed to stop. Paul was left at the hotel and eventually it turns into a refugee camp for the Tutsis, now you will have to see the rest. It is a must see!

Innocent Voices is a good movie. I wouldn't say very good, only because I wasn't that intrigued with what was going on. Don't let that take away from the movie at all, it does a very excellent job opening the world up to the civil war that went on. Now to talk about the movie. I previously saw this movie while on a service trip in Costa Rica, and wasn't sure of it until the first few minutes of the film while watching it the second time. The civil war that was going on in El Salvador was very harsh on the people living there, but I don't need to tell you all about it, just watch the film. Chava, the main character, is a little boy that tells his story of the war. As the movie starts off, you begin to realize there is no father figure around, and the dad is off fighting the war on the "rebels" side. Eventually each day at school, a classmate is taken from the class, as they turn twelve, and is forced to join the army of El Salvador. While to keep from only showing violence and death, the story is told through happiness and hope. As well with moments filled with joy. Chava runs around with his friends and eventually finds his first love. Eventually the war gets so bad, his family has to leave, but I won't get too in depth about all the violence. Another great influence on Chava and the civilian population is the Church and the Priest. He has many powerful moments that express his feelings, and everyone else's in a very peaceful way. This was very unlike an American ending, as I wouldn't expect it to be anything else. As it's somewhat of a documentary, yet told though a child's point of view. I would recommend it.

Out of all the movies made outside of the United States that I have seen, The City of God is by far the best. It is so interesting how easily everyone is allowing violence in their lives. It also seems like all of the older people are able to see past the drugs and focus on making their living through an actual career. Especially since no one would live long enough to be older than 50 as a drug dealer in Rio. As they would eventually be shot, or taken over, which would also lead to them being shot. It was also interesting how big of a role masculinity is to everyone in the City of God. They believe you become a man when you kill and do drugs, yet that just turns you down the wrong path, which leads to death. The age group for the drug dealers and everyone else associated with the business is anywhere from 6 to 40. A main theme in the movie was love, as Benny, Lil' Ze's best friend is going to leave the slums with his girlfriend and go live on a farm. He is shortly killed, and then the girl instantly leaves the area and is never seen in the movie ever again. I have no idea where she went, but she was also the main girl in Rocket's eyes. The main character who eventually earns an internship at the paper as a photographer for taking pictures of LIl' Ze and his gang. The movie was very focused on death as well, as someone was dying every 5 minutes, or someone was doing drugs every 5 minutes. Rocket stays out of the drug war and only smokes marijuana, as everyone else is doing cocaine and shooting everyone else. It is a very happy ending for Rocket, but not so much for all of the drug dealers, as they are all killed and the "Runts" take over the drug business in the end.

The movie Brother, aka. Hermano is very amazing. It has a very slow start, but as soon as the movie reaches the halfway it instantly speeds up. The ending of the movie was the most surprising part, but I will build up to that. The two brothers are named Julio and Daniel. Daniel is adopted and brought into the family by the mom as Julio spots him in a pile of garbage one day. It was very heartwarming to see that, but also tragic that a mom would just leave their baby in the middle of nowhere in the trash. The older brother Julio is in a gang, oh and the gang is practically in control of the small city they are in. Yes, he is in a gang with his very close friend, which is also the goalie of the soccer team that they all play on together, which is also led by the gang. One day Daniel has his cleats stolen by punk kids in the neighborhood, and the goalie tries to get the cleats back by threatening the kids to go get them down from the telephone wire they are being hung from. The kids don't and he shoots them, in the crossfire, Julio and Daniel's mom is shot, to which Daniel witnesses the whole thing. He never tells Julio, which I wouldn't either, because it would just cause Julio to get into even more trouble with the gang. After this part of the movie it was very interesting how Daniel develops as they approach the final championship game, and he is somewhat standing up to the goalie telling him to stay away from Julio. The brothers are together with no gang influence and they go to a CFC tryout for the soccer professional soccer team. Julio leaves the tryout, but Daniel stays and later receives an offer to play for the club, but quickly says he won't without his brother. I completely agreed with this, as he wants to protect his brother from the gang and any other violence that he could get into. The final game comes and this is the most shocking part, the score is tied up 3-3 and Julio walks off the field saying congratulations, you got what you wanted, and then left the field. Which was his reaction to finding out Daniel has known who killed their mother. I didn't like how Julio reacted, he just needed time to realize that Daniel was looking out for him. The next play Daniel scores and they win the game. SPOILER!!!!! I, in no way saw this coming at all, but Daniel ran as fast as he could and kicked the goalie as hard as he could and killed him. All while Julio was watching. This was a very intense and surprising scene in the movie, and is very unlike any American film I have every seen. That is another aspect to show the difference between the two types of films. Due to the gang's influence in the soccer match, everyone on the field is practically shot, and Daniel is one of them. NOW HERE COMES THE BOOM!!!! There is a panning of the camera to the right, and it is in a professional soccer stadium. The face of Julio comes up after a large build in suspense. This ending was crazy, I had no idea that would happen. I expected Daniel to become the professional soccer player, and never thought he would kill someone else. This movie is a very interesting one. I would recommend it!

Una Noche is a very good movie. I'm not completely sure how much I liked it, but there was something to keep track of from the beginning of the movie to the end. *Spoiler Alert* Lila and Raul end up back on Cuba after they attempt to make it to Miami on their raft, but you could only pick up on that by understanding that the same girl that was on vacation in Cuba was on the Jetski that towed them onto the beach. It was a very sad and depressing ending, which reveals that it is everything, but an American Film. Lila, the sister of Elio, had to suffer the pain of losing her brother, Elio, and was still in Cuba. To me it just seemed like a complete waste of time and torture. A shark ate Elio, so Raul and Lila were hoping for the best as they only had a piece of their raft left over to float on. It was sad to think that Elio was suppressed by the people he hung out with to hide that he was gay the whole time. His crush on Raul was the reason for wanting to leave the country in the first place. Not every story has a happy ending, but it was definitely not this one. I would recommend it to all.

Even The Rain is a great movie that has many different bribes and change in character among the leads. I enjoyed watching the movie very much, as my eyes were always on the screen waiting to see what came next. For the most part everything was explanatory, but it was very confusing on who to decide was doing the right and wrong thing. The water company is charging the poor communities a very hefty bill, and the people revolt back at them by burning the bills and starting deadly riots. All of this is going on while Sebastain and Costa are trying to film their movie about Christopher Columbus and the Indians. It is definitely not an American film, as America was called out as one of the countries in charge of one of the water companies. I realized that every country has a different outlook on a world issue, and that not every country sees everything with the same point of view. I wouldn't have done anything different than the main characters in the film, as they did what they were meant to do in Bolivia. Which was to film their movie. Obviously I would have paid the actors more, as 2 dollars an hour just isn't enough to live, and it isn't enough to pay for the new water bill. The ending of the film wasn't surprising at all, it was very expected. Daniel (the main poor citizen) was in charge of the rebellion against the government and the water company, he jeopardizes the film as he gets put in jail. Which later leads to another bribe from Costa to the Police Chief. The film was very interesting, as Costa went back and saved Daniel's daughter from her life threatening injury, which was a complete development of character. Sebastian did the opposite, he left the area to bring the crew to another part of Bolivia to finish the film. As he developed into a film crazy director. You will have to see the ending for yourself, but it was very interesting, and a must see!

Sin Nombre is a beautifully filmed movie that involves gangs and Immigration. The movie starts off with a gangster named Casper, who has tattoos representing his role in the gang. Not having a family causes him to grow up with the gang and grow dependent on them. Later, he involves his brother, Smiley, in the gang, following the harsh beating for initiation into the gang. To fully become a member of the gang, one must kill a member of the opposing gang. Then the story line moves over to the main female character named Sayra. She has grown up not knowing her dad, until he has decided to take Sayra, her brother, and uncle to America. They begin the process by getting on a train from Honduras to Mexico. *SPOILER* After Casper kills the main leader of the gang, Lil' Mago, for killing Casper's girlfriend, Martha, the entire gang is hunting after him. Calling anyone they have connections to, and following him all the way to the border after he hops on the same train Sayra is on. They slowly become friends, which I thought was a little awkward at first, and then very heart-warming as Sayra jumps off of the train after Casper does. I thought that was a very horrible decision on Sayra's part, but it turns out she had the better outcome than her family. Casper and Sayra squeeze by and somehow made it to the border, which was very surprising. If anyone watches this movie, they will be very surprised by what the physical border between the states and Mexico actually is. It is a river, and nothing else besides patrol cars passing each spot every hour or so. ***SPOILER*** Casper gives up his camera to the man with the tube that will carry each one to the other side separately, which proves his connection to Sayra even more as that camera is all he has left of his deceased girlfriend. The gang catches up to them and Casper runs away to protect Sayra from them. Casper runs into his brother smiley, and he shoots him due to the gangs influence. The one thing that is different about movies filmed outside the United States, there is no happy ending. The only happy part was when Sayra made it to the United States and called her Aunt. I thought is was an eye opener to movies outside the United States, and to know that a movie can end without a happy ending is very different. Overall Sin Nombre is a must see movie. You will not be disappointed.