Chekist

Chekist(1992)
Dir:Aleksandr Rogozhkin
Country:Russia

A small Russian town in the early 1900′s is the backdrop for this deeply disturbing film about a group of communist revolutionaries called the cheka-men who spend their days rounding up their political rivals for execution. The majority of the film takes place inside the basement of a charnel house. We are witnesses to execution after execution as people are killed with rapid expediency and professionalism. Men, women and children are forced to strip, stand against a wall, and then are shot. When the dead are removed, five more are brought in and the atrocity is committed again.
There is not a moments reprieve from the brutality as director Rogozhkin plants the camera and the story inside that basement. I found his examination of the assassin’s mindset most interesting. Early on, the cheka-men seem indifferent to their jobs, but as the film winds down, we see that all the killing has slowly begun to erode their very souls. Igor Sergeyev is amazing as the ambitious chekist who finds himself caught up in a machine of death that he helped to create and slowly losing his mind. The film is like passing a car accident on a highway, it’s horrible and you might not like what you see but you can’t take your eyes off of it. A disturbing film that is hard to forget.

Under the Hawthorn Tree

Under the Hawthorn Tree(2010)
Dir:Zhang Yimou
Country:China


Zhang Yimou's highly anticipated film, which is adapted from a popular novel of the same name from Ai Mi, harkens back to the innocence of the 1970's in presenting this pure and moving tear jerking love story, set in 1975 in a small village in Yichang City, Hubei Province. The story is of an unfulfilled romance between Jingqiu and a young man named Laosan during their “zhiqing” days towards the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Zhiqing refers to young urbanites who were sent to the countryside during that turbulent decade. Jingqiu, who had had a difficult life after her father was labeled a right-winger, met the handsome Laosan, who had a promising future because of his high-ranking military officer father. The couple fall in love, despite the gulf between their backgrounds. The only question remains is if their romance ever become fulfilled.

Homero Manzi, a poet in the storm

Homero Manzi, a poet in the storm(2009)

Dir:Eduardo Spagnuolo
Country:Argentina

Bio-pic which chronicles the life and work of one of its greatest poets, Argentine, author of famous tangos such as "Malena", "South" and "Barrio de tango".

The story unfolds in a narrative plot where the historical time and social conditions and becomes in stock and fictional scenes, real-life recreation of Homero Manzi Añatuya from his childhood, his adolescence in the neighborhood of Pompeii as well as maturity facing the glare of the Buenos Aires upper class by the foreign culture, especially the French. As an important radical political approach does not hesitate to President Perón, who recognized as representative of the people of the underclass and the poor of the country.



Homero Manzi is part of national and popular art movement of the early century and rescues in his poems the suburb where they mixed poor European immigrants and newly arrived countrymen to the city.

With a memorable performance of actor Carlos Portaluppi, like Homero Manzi, the film recreates in his band, 28 of his tangos like "Old Blind", "Romance de barrio", "Che bandoneon. Choreographed tango shows, theatrical scenes, film images that Manzi filmed as "The Gaucho War," "My poor dear mother," "The Last Payador", "Pampa Barbara."

His life, his passions and his true love. His tangos back to the screen not only as a document of his work, but as lines of opinion that are combined with fictional scenes, showing that the work of Homero Manzi is a reflection of what was his life, his feelings and convictions .

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