20 Established 1961 Lifestyle Features Sunday, March 1, 2020 rom the Disneyland dreams of a poor judicial security in the prosperous Southeast FMexican family in the US to the fate of Asian city-state. Yet reality does not live up to Bangladeshi guest workers in Singapore, expectations, as many are employed by firms films at this week’s Berlinale have launched who shirk their responsibilities at the slightest searing criticisms of capitalism and global problem, leaving immigrant dreams of a better inequality. In “Los Lobos”, a young, recently life in tatters. Exploitation of the workforce, widowed Mexican nurse sets off for the US, however, is an issue which also affects people promising her children the very pinnacle of in their home country. the American dream - a trip to Disneyland. In his comedy “Eeb Allay Ooo!”, Indian Yet as penniless protagonist Lucia takes on director Prateek Vats tells the story of Anjani, work in a laundry, her two sons are left alone a young man from a New Delhi slum who in the family’s dingy bed-sit, dreaming up an earns little money and even less respect for imaginary world in order to escape the misery his job hunting the monkeys which are a of daily life. neighborhood nuisance. “As per statistics, 92 “The migrants who do the hard work are percent of the labor force in India works in the invisible ones,” said lead actress Martha the informal sector of the economy,” said Vats. Reyes Arias. Mexican director Samuel Kishi “People are desperate due to the lack of dig- Lopo shows the importance of cheap, immi- nified work, and are ready to do anything to grant workers for the economic production keep their current jobs.” “My film is the prod- French actor Omar Sy and French-Belgian actress Virginie Efira (Right to left) Iranian director of photography Bardia Yadegari, actor Kaveh of wealthy countries. “Immigration will not uct of a world which is hard to make sense of, pose on the red carpet upon arrival for the premiere of the film Ahangar, Iranian actresses Baran Rasoulof and Jila Shahi pose during a photocall be stopped by a wall,” said Lopo. “We need one where being a monkey is more liberating ‘Police’ (Night Shift) screened in the Berlinale Special Gala sec- for the film ‘Sheytan Vojud Nadaradí (There is no Evil) screened in competition at more opportunities in our countries, a bet- than being a human.” tion at the 70th Berlinale film festival in Berlin. the 70th Berlinale film festival in Berlin on February 28, 2020. — AFP photos ter social system.” “The big question is Making the unseen people visible is also about neoliberalism. Capitalism is like a big the aim of Nigerian twins Arie and Chuko monster.” Esiri in their first film “Eyimofe”, about a fac- even their lives, if you think about certain Based on real events, the film depicts an President Donald) Trump is doing right now tory technician who works without protec- journeys.” endurance contest in which participants using these current frustrations for his own Broken dreams tive gloves. “He is a victim of the country of attempt to win a pick-up truck by keeping agenda. “And what’s ironic about it is that The immigration issue is also picked up by which he is a citizen,” explained the direc- ‘Exploitation’ their hand on it for the longest time. people, in their desperation, will choose to fol- Lei Yuan Bin in his documentary “I Dream of tors, adding that their protagonist also has Finally, in “One of these Days”, German “When I first heard about this endurance low somebody who embodies this system of Singapore”. The film highlights the fate of the no chance to emigrate. “These people really director Bastian Guenther paints a vitriolic contest it felt to me like an exploitation of the inequality more than anybody else.” — AFP thousands of Bangladeshi workers who head have everything to lose by leaving Nigeria - portrait of American society, in which eco- poor,” said Guenther, while also warning of the to Singapore in search of work and better their families, their culture, their loves and nomic desperation becomes a spectator sport. risks of a drift towards populism. “What (US ome of France’s top stars of color have Sslammed the French film industry, accus- ing it of confining black, North African and Asian-origin performers to stereotypical bit parts. In an open letter on the eve of the Cesars - the French Oscars - they lambasted the “invis- ibility” of minorities both in front of the camera and behind it. The 30 signatories slammed the hypocrisy of an industry which this year invited the black American director Spike Lee to head the jury at the Cannes film festival while pushing black cre- A feminist activist holds a sign reading “I accuse Polanski and the Cesar awards” during a demon- ators to the margins at home. The letter, which stration outside the Salle Pleyel in Paris as guests arrive for the 45th edition of the Cesar Film was also signed by “La Haine” director Mathieu Awards ceremony. — AFP Kassovitz and arthouse favorite Olivier Assayas, said minority “actors, directors and producers were almost invisible” in France. Those that did land parts were often relegated to minor roles playing stereotypical characters, it said. “Actors of color are given insignificant parts which would never justify them getting a Cesar,” the letter complained. The call echoes the he “French Oscars” the Cesars cere- Polanski’s 12 nominations, the entire board #OscarsSoWhite movement in the US which Tmony began late Friday in a poisonous of the Cesars was forced to resign. began in 2015 and has spread noisily through atmosphere with Roman Polanski - social media. Eriq Ebouaney, the star of the his- ‘Blind hate’ Photo shows the poster of the last movie “J’accuse” of French movie director Roman Polanski displayed on a whose new film has the highest number of torical drama “Lumumba”, said that other than cinema in Paris. — AFP nominations — staying away because he Polanski told AFP that he would stay “a few exceptions like Omar Sy... when French feared a “public lynching”. Protesters chant- away because “what place can there be in actors of color get a role it is in a film about the ter warned, if the industry wants to avoid posi- feminists when it opened last year, with many ing “Lock up Polanski!” tried to storm the such deplorable conditions for a film about housing estates” in the country’s poor and tive discrimination being forced on it. “It is time branding the veteran a “sex criminal and rapist”. Paris theatre at which the ceremony was the defense of truth, the fight for justice, restive suburbs. to open the doors and the windows of French Polanski, 87, is still wanted in the United being held only to be pushed back by blind hate and anti-Semitism?” His produc- cinema,” it added. “Because talent, like emotion, States for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl police. Hours earlier France’s Culture er Alain Goldman said Friday that the film’s ‘Open the doors’ has no color.” in 1977. Just before his new movie opened in Minister Franck Riester said giving Polanski entire team including its Oscar-winning star Sy - best known for “The Intouchables” - The letter also pointed to the success of France, a French photographer claimed that he the best director prize for “An Officer and a Jean Dujardin would also be boycotting the was conspicuously absent from the list of signa- Mali-born Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated movie, had also raped her in 1975 - an accusation that Spy” would be “symbolically bad given the ceremony to show their outrage at the way tories, although he had earlier demanded “pro- “Les Miserables”, as proof of the appeal of films he strongly denies. The director told AFP stance we must take against sexual and sex- Polanski had been “condemned in advance”. found reform” of the Cesars. The French Oscars that properly reflect the minority experience in Thursday that he would not be attending the ist violence”. To make matters worse, on the eve of has been rocking from a series of crises since it France. The film, set in a troubled housing estate, ceremony for fear of a “public lynching” by fem- With the French film industry at war the awards, 30 cinema figures from minor- garlanded the controversial director Roman has 11 Cesar nominations, just one behind inists. The entire board of the Cesars was forced with itself over honoring the controversial ity backgrounds lashed the lip service Polanski with the highest number of nominations Polanski’s historical drama about the Dreyfus to resign earlier this month in the wake of the director - wanted in the United States for they claimed the industry plays to inclu- for his film “An Officer and a Spy”. “Urgent affair, when a Jewish officer was wrongly perse- controversy over Polanski’s nominations. — AFP the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in sion in an open letter, saying black, North measures on inclusion have to happen,” the let- cuted by the French army at the turn of the 20th 1977 - Hollywood star Brad Pitt also African and Asian-origin performers are century. The film faced calls for a boycott from snubbed the event having reportedly been mostly confined to stereotypical bit parts offered an honorary Cesar. French star in French films. top artistic positions at some of the world’s raising questions over future appearances in Adele Haenel, who is nominated for best The French press had called the ceremo- most prestigious concert venues.