the bongobundos

Around the Oscars

Gotta watch Das Leben der Anderen. And Del Toro's Labyrinth, which I haven't had the chance to watch yet. Both films seem to be fairy tales in which the evil of absolute power is portrayed; in the former as a gentle (unintentional) metaphor of what is to come for Western democracies under the self-imposed burden of global war; in the latter as a crude war of fantasy versus reality when reality is found intolerable.

The horror of Del Toro's small piece of reality is so seemingly unreal that is taken as fantasy, as an exaggeration, when not as pure exhibitionism of cruelty and madness. The actual reality of after (Spanish) civil war cruelty and madness can easily be taken thus as a casual background and not as the direct consequence of its (untold?) context; the fears and persecutions of a totalitarian regime and the paranoid surviving games peasants are forced to play within it. Del Toro's seeming inability to make his story translatable to actual terms, or to make the viewer identify himself ideally within the story, is probably due to his falling for tricks and monsters, which seem to have gained the protagonist role.

On the other side, the gray world of Florian Henckel depicts a scary, easily adaptable portrait of puppets in a play whose very activity represents the passive acceptance of horror. A passivity that "begins to crack", as Amir highlights, thus allowing the players to move away from the horror that has provoked it in the first place. The message is atemporal; the metaphor unintended. But Florian Henckel does not want to leave the viewer at a point of indefinite hope; he resolves and resumes the opened crack by giving color to the gray world: Es ist für mich. The abysmal difference among both realities arrives as a slap on the face.

But well, I never write as much about films that I have actually seen. Among those, Little Miss Sunshine is an unpretentious masterpiece that no one should miss. And Javier Fesser's short film, Binta and the great idea, is an extraordinary African tale, just a bit moralistic for picky sensibilities, but definitely worth the half an hour it takes to find out about the great idea that Binta's father carries on in a piece of paper. The link goes to the original version, in French, with Spanish subtitles (sorry about that; anyway, don't miss it if you can get it in any understandable language). The other Spanish nominated short movie, Éramos pocos (We were a few), probably even harder to find with English titles, constitutes an incredibly funny fifteen minutes shot of just three characters; a young guy, his father and his grandmother: When the mother leaves the house, tired of the tyranny of the men, they rescue grandma from a geriatric asylum and bring her home with them. The title itself is a humorous description of the movie as well as an untranslatable game of words: the familiar ironic saying "Éramos pocos y parió la abuela" -we were a few and grandmother got pregnant- may need though no further translation. Watch it -if you can.

And last, being in love as I am with Forest Whitaker -since the times of Smoke to Ghost Dog-, it is just a pity Peter O'Toole had to let go his chance of getting the gold after his impressive work in Venus; if anyone should ever want to know what acting is all about, O'Toole's interpretation is a must.

Gestures for Iran

"Internal pressure on the Iranian regime; support for proponents of democracy and human rights in Iran. There is no other answer.

There is only one thing that the outside world can do, and that is to tell the regime: 'We are serious about supporting the people who are inside Iran who are against you'. That is the only thing that will make Mr. Khamenei and everybody stand down. Because nothing else ruffles them. The only thing they are really scared of are the people themselves".

Reza Pahlavi

We, the bongobundos and the Spanish troupe we represent, support the proponents of democracy and human rights in Iran and will never compromise on any issue that is against their interest.

But words are not enough. As Reza Pahlavi has also said, "it is needed to actively look for practical ways of making those words and messages actually make a difference on the ground". While we (and hopefully you also) look for ways to make that difference, allow us this gesture. Not much, we know, but we expect it to be repeated far and wide.

ReWed

Alfonso and Maria got wedding-happy and so they came to Spain to celebrate once again. As far as it goes it seems they really enjoyed it this time, almost as much as the first one anyway.

I'll try to bring soon some impressive skiing crashes, featuring Alfi, Maria and Elisa, from our latest trip. And also some normal pictures; me and my influenza couldn't do better this afternoon. But there is some good material down there, or at least that's my perception so far -and that of my dripping nasal mucus.

Back in real life my Remington has been conveniently cleaned up and works and sounds even better than before. The same happens with Elisa -I mean, not that she has been cleaned up, you understand-; she is working harder and doing better by the day at the University.

And well, the world keeps spinning, with that nauseating effect now and then that is almost becoming familiar.

Later y'all.