March of Millions ( 2007)

March of Millions is the international English title of the multi-award-winning three hour German Television film Die Flucht ( The Flight)

War movies being my favorite genre, over the years I have watched several movies pertaining to the 2nd world war. Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, The longest Day, The pearl Harbor, Letters from Iwo Jima etc etc give you various glimpses of the world war from various parts of the globe. 

"March of the Millions" caught my attention since it was dealing with a part of the history which I was not too familiar - the impact of the war on East Prussia ( now called eastern Poland ) and the atrocities of the Red Army.

The vast and beautiful East Prussia was the eastern most part of the German empire and was quite peaceful through the war. This region was mostly inhabited by aristocratic estate owners who led the life of luxury and ease.

However, life got difficult for them when it was evident that Germany was losing the war and the Russian Red Army was fast capturing the eastern front of Germany.  The people of East Prussia were expecting the German soldiers to defend them from the approaching Red Army . They soon realized that  the German soldiers were abandoning their posts and it was unlikely  that they would standby and defend the inhabitants of East Prussia. 

It was during the Christmas of 1944, in the peak of the winter ( temperature around -20 degree C with about 30 cm of snow) that thousands of people left their homes and belonging and started the trek towards west Prussia. the atrocities of the Red Army was spreading rapidly.  This journey was particularly tough on the children and the elderly. Several children died of hunger and sickness. The dead were quickly buried in the snow and the rest of them continued their journey. 

Several hundreds could not come to terms with leaving all their belonging and fleeing. They landed up wasting precious time and the red army caught up with them. The Red Army was ruthless with them. Even women and children were not spared. Hundreds of women were raped, killed or deported. 1 out of 4 women could not survive the trauma. Several Children were left orphans. 

The " March of Millions" is the story of Lena, countess of Von Mahlenburg ( Maria Furtwangler) who is called back to her home in  Prussia from Berlin owing to her father's poor health. In-spite of the war torn Europe, things seem clam and peaceful on the surface. The only element of war was the french prisoners of war working in the estate and led by the temperamental Francois ( Jean Yves- Berteloot). 

On the outside things don't look good for Germany and there is a subtle undercurrent of unrest and panic among the people in the estate. Being close to the eastern border leave them feeling vulnerable. Given her father's poor health, Lena takes on the mantle of running the estate and standing by her people.

Lena's family is friends Von Gernstorffswith, another aristocratic family. Lena consent to marry the eldest son on the family even though she does not really him and the younger son of the family is in love with Lena contributing to some family drama.

Finally ad-mist the mounting tension, general confusion and disagreements, Lena decides to take her tribe including the prisoners of war and flee.  Her sick father decides to stay back and shoots himself before the Red Army can get to him.

 

They encounter several of hardships on the way, but Lena continues the journey with single minded determination of protecting her people and taking them to safety.

This movie is made in 2 parts. Part One is before the journey and the part two focuses on the journey. 

The movie goes to show the mental turmoil , sentiments and the fear of the people o.f Prussia during the attack by the Red Army. The vast expanse of the snow clad land and the hardship endured by the migrating population is well captured. The movie does give one a decent glimpse of this episode of history.

However, I felt that the movie dealt with the topic only on the surface. The inhumane atrocities of the Red Army was not captured in depth. The part 2 of the movie was made a little lighter with some Romance thrown in. the. story could have been told much more intensely.

Verdict :- 6.5 out of 10. Definitely worth watching at-least once.

The Good Road (2013)

The " Good Road" first caught my attention when it was pitched against "Lunch Box" as our country's submission for the best foreign film category in the academy awards. I quickly put it done in my " To watch" list and forgot about it. Recently during one of my random visits to the Music store, I chanced upon this movie. Thankfully it came with subtitles.

The "Good Road" is a Gujrati film by first time director Gyan Correa who has gathered most of his film making expertise while making commercials. But the movie surely   does not have any of the gloss that can be  associated with typical TV commercials.

The movie has three intervening story-lines which takes place in the highway 378 which runs along the Rann of Kutch.

David and Kiran (Sonali Kulkarni), a city dwelling middle class couple are on a holiday along with their son Aditya. Accidentally their son Aditya is left behind is a obscure street side dhaba while the parents continue their journey on the highway. The parents realise this miss after several kilometers and this starts a massive search.  Pappu ( Samji dhana Kesariya ), a poor truck driver is struggling to make his ends meet. He comes across a proposal to combat this. The plan is to stage his death so that he can claim the insurance money which is substantial. Poonam is a little girl on the highway trying to reach the village of her grandmother. She lands up taking shelter at a Cloths dyeing center which doubles up as a street-side brothel at night. The three stories intersect with each other at some point in the movie. Reminded me of Babel.

Aditya is found hanging around the dhaba by Pappu's boss and he forces pappu to take him along to the next diner.

Correa has experimented with several non professional actors to give an authentic feeling. Samji Kesariya who played the role of Pappu the truck driver is a truck driver in real life as well and with next to negligible exposure to the world of Cinemas. Thankfully Pappu is taciturn by nature hence his dialogues are cryptic in nature.

 The cinematography was note worthy. The beautiful arid Gujrat landscape and the rann of Kutch leaves a lasting impression.

Lunch Box was probably a better made movie, but the natural acting of some of the real life characters, Amithaba Singh's cinematography, the simple yet unique story line definitely makes the "Good Road" worth the travel.

Verdict :- 6.5 out of 10. Watch it for an unique experience.

The Song of Sparrows (2008)

 

The Song of Sparrows is a  Iranian movie directed by Majid Majidi.

Majid Majidi with the help of this movie takes you on a beautiful journey of life. It portrays a poor Iranian family, their love and commitment towards each other, their aspirations and hopes and their struggles with life. There is the presence of a quite dignity, traditions and warmth.

Set in rural Iran, the movie traces the life of Karim ( Reza Najie), an ostrich farmer. He lives with wife Narges ( Maryam akbari) and his 3 children (2 daughters and 1 son).  One day an ostrich escapes under his nose. Karim gives it a chase but the ostrich eludes him and this episode costs him his job.

Sometimes when things go wrong, it goes wrong all the way. Karim's daughter Haniyeh damages her hearing aid which cannot be repaired. A new one costs a lot of money which is scare with Karim.

Karim rides his motor cycle to Tehran to replace his daughter's hearing aid and get mistaken for a cabbie. He lands up giving a ride to a business man and in turn discovering a lucrative earning opportunity. Thus begins Karim's new life. He puts in a lot of enthusiasm in his work and fights against various hurdles. On the side he regularly starts picking up junk from the city and bring it home. It begins with an antennae for the television, a frame for the window and the pile keeps growing. 

Karim's son Hussein ( Hamed Agazi) is obsessed with growing fish. He and his friends clean up the community pool for the purpose. He is convinced that he can become a millionaire that way.

The city life catched up with Karim and he starts to get possessive and greedy....

This movie has a soul and an absolutely realistic performance.

* Was nominated for the Berlin International film Festival

* Iran representative for best foreign language film in the 81st academy awards.

Verdict :- 9/10. One of the best movies that I have watched in the recent times.

Adam (2009)

I came across this movie accidentally while scouting the list of available movies on board a long flight. There was something catchy about the excerpt and I decided to watch it.

Adam is a charming romantic movie written and directed by Max Mayer.  This is a typical boy meet a girl kind of a movie but is likely to leave a lump in your throat.  

Many a times in life you come across couples that are totally unusual but absolutely in harmony with each other. 

Adam is the story of one such couple called Adam (hugh Dancy ) and Beth ( Rose Byrne ). 

Blessed with good looks, an engineering degree, decent job and a upper west side apartment,  Adam could be any women's dream boy. But Adam suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism which has severely effected his social skills.

Adam lives with his father and leads a quite life. After the death of his father, Adam is left alone expect his only friend harlan ( Frankie Faison) who is truck driver and his obsession for astrophysics.

Adam has a new neighbor in Beth who is a school teacher and gradually a friendship develop between the two. Initially Beth is totally perplexed and wary about Adam's behavior . But gradually Adam brings her up to speed wtih  Asperger's syndrome ( It's little strange though that School teacher Beth seemed oblivious to autism ) and his limitations. slowly Beth figures out how to deal with Adam whose brains are incapable of feeling empathy and hence begins the endearing romance.





There is a bit of complications thrown in the form of Beth's parents Rebecca and Marty ( Amy Irving and Peter Gallaghar ). They get worked up about Beth breaking off with a suitable boy and is going around with Adam. There is a court room situation involving the parents that is slightly cut off from the central theme of the movie.

The movie skims through the issues faced by people with Asperger's syndrome but does not dive deep into. Instead, the focus is on relationships. Hugh is British and Rose an Australian. But both had the perfect accent and looked good together.

"Adam" won a prize at the 2009 Sundance film festival .

Verdict :- 6/10  A feel good movie and endearing lead actors.

The Conjuring ( 2013)

 

Directed by James Wan, The Conjuring is a supernatural horror movie. This is not my most preferred genre but the theatrical trailer and the review messages posted on Facebook was compelling enough to conjure my interest in the movie.

The publicity of this being a real life story definitely adds to the allure..

This is a simple horror story with the age old formula of a haunted house infested with spirit, creaking doors,  eerie sounds and jumping ghosts. If you are a fan of this genre, you will not have to make too much efforts to guess what happens next. But there was some beauty in the predictability as well...

Conjuring tells the story of Ed and Lorraine (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga) who are world famous paranormal investigators who are called to help a family who are terrorized by some dark presence in their secluded farm house. Forced to confront a powerful dark entity, they find themselves caught in the most challenging case of their life.

The first half of the movie sets the tone. A lively American family of 5 children and a dog moving to a large secluded country house with rundown garden, creepy cellars and possessed dolls. Perfect recipe to build up a horror movie.

Though the storyline is not dramatically different, the beauty of the movie is in its simple execution. Its study build up of suspense with sudden scares and eerie silence adds to the bone chilling experience.There were moments where you could feel the entire theatre holding their breath for something to happen.

 

Unlike the typical movies of this genre there was no cheap camera tricks or indulgence is grossness which was a blessing.

Contrary to the Facebook reviews where people spoke about not having slept a couple of night.....I must confess that this movie did not impact my sleep patterns. Yes!!! I will probably think twice before playing hide and seek.

Verdict :- 7/10. Must watch if you are a horror movie fan. Not for the weak hearted.