Hollywoodgate reveals much more about Taliban-ruled Afghanistan than they may have thought was possible (Film review)

  

Director-cinematographer-co-producer Ibrahim Nash'at and 

co-editor Atanas Georgiev at the post-screening Q&A

 

Hollywoodgate (Germany-U.S.A., 2023)

- Ibrahim Nash'at, director, cinematographer and co-producer

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Documentary Competition program

 

In recent years, film censorship has become more of a thing in Hong Kong than previously was the case.  Probably not coincidentally, we've seen a decrease in the number of Hong Kong films screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  (After all, I can think of a number of Hong Kong films that, while screened overseas, no longer can be screened in Hong Kong -- including one that had its world premiere at Cannes in 2021.)      

 

At the same time, many films (still) can be screened in Hong Kong that can't be screened in the countries that their filmmakers hail from and/or they were shot.  I think of offerings by such as Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi (two of which -- This Is Not a Film (2012) and Closed Curtain (2013) -- I viewed at previous editions of the Hong Kong International Film Festival); and, among those screened this year, the likes of Tatami, and this documentary work by Egyptian director-cinematographer Ibrahim Nash'at chronicling daily life in Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power there.

 

Hollywoodgate takes its name from a complex on the outskirts of Kabul previously occupied by the American military (or, it is speculated, CIA operatives).  Soon after the last American forces left Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban go in to see what's there -- and do so accompanied by Ibrahim Nash'at and his camera.

 

Granted permission to film in Afghanistan, albeit on pretty restricted terms, Ibrahim Nash'at's camera is officially trained for the most part on Mawlawi Mansour, a bushy-bearded Taliban commander who gets named as the Commander of the country's air force.  At great risk to his personal safety (threats to kill him if he misbehaves can be heard being issued by more than one Taliban member), Hollywoodgate's director-cinematographer also manages to capture a lot of other subjects in his frame.

 

Amazingly, Ibrahim Nash'at ended up managing to stay and film for a year in Afghanistan.  Over this time, one is able to see the Taliban evolve from guerillas to a more conventional military force; thanks in no small part to their reappropriation of an estimated US$7 billion worth of military equipment and supplie that the American forces left behind at complexes like Hollywood Gate.  (And while attempts were made to destroy equipment by the Americans, quite a bit of it were found to be repairable by the Afghans, including a rather alarming number of pretty impressive military aircraft -- transport helicopters, fighter jets, bombers, etc.)

 

Somewhere along the way, Ibrahim Nash'at also gained permission to film one of Mawlawi Mansour's junior soldiers, an officer named M.J. Mukhtar who, if anything, appears to have a stronger thirst for violence than his commander.  And also a looser cannon.  Yet the Egyptian documentary filmmaker stuck to spent time with him, including when M. J. Mukhtar drives around Kabul.  In so doing, he manages to film scenes from the car of everyday scenes, such as of people going about marketing -- which may be among the most chilling segments of Hollywoodgate thanks to the glimpses one gets of the terrible lot of women in the Taliban-controlled land.   

A the post-screening Q&A, Ibrahim Nash'at was asked if the Taliban had seen his documentary.  He replied that they had expressed no interest in doing so.  So the chances are that Hollywoodgate will never be screened in Afghanistan, and that probably is for the best.  As I could well imagine some members of the Taliban regretting his having been granted as much access as he was to film -- for what he managed to do is reveal a lot, a good bulk of which is chilling and also tragic indeed.

 

My rating for this film: 8.0.

An election postponement announcement to cap off a nightmare month for Hong Kong

Flowers for Stanley Ho's funeral; 

will there be any at Hong Kong's?

Okay, Hong Kong may not be dead yet but who knows 

when ballot boxes like these will get used again?

Earlier today came word that Carrie Lam -- who a recent Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) poll found to have an "approval rate [of] 18%, disapproval rate 72%, giving a net popularity of negative 53 percentage points, registering a drop of 7 percentage points since half a month ago, but the change is within the sampling error" --  was going to hold a press conference at 6pm.  Pretty every much everyone knew it was to announce the postponement of the Legislative Council elections -- something the powers that be had been telegraphing this move for days now (see my mentions of this back on July 20th and again on July 27th).  And so it came to pass.    

To be sure, there are some people who might have thought that after disqualifying 12 democratic camp hopefuls from taking part in the Legislative Council elections yesterday, the authorities felt confident enough that the pro-government/Beijing faction would prevail in the coming elections.  And this on top of the legislature already being fixed to favor the establishment by way of being made up of representatives of functional constituencies as well as geographical ones.

But I guess the Hong Kong government, its acolytes and/or its bosses no longer are under illusions after last November's District Council elections revealed how widespread the dissatisfaction with "the establishment" is -- and that the (previously) much vaunted "silent majority" actually favors the pro-democracy camp!  Put another way: the powers that be may have lots of power and tools to oppress people but they also know now that they have not won the hearts and minds of the majority of voters (and, for that matter, Hong Kongers in general).  And I honestly think that they're pretty fearful as a result.

As to the timing of the announcement that the Legislative Council polls will be postponed for a year (at the very least):  I can't help but think that they wanted to wait to mark the one month anniversary of the implementation of China's security law for Hong Kong with a bang -- to cap off what's been quite the whirlwind month of oppressive activity (which a number of sources, including the folks over at China Uncensored and a number of academics, believe are taking place because Xi Jinping's window of opportunity might be smaller than he would like).     

And no, I don't think there's anyone with a brain out there who is buying the suggestion that this postponement has anything to do with anti-Wuhan coronavirus measures (even though the third wave is indeed currently battling Hong Kong, with 121 new cases reported today and the death toll now up to 27).  After all, there's so much Carrie Lam could have done to prevent the pandemic from worsening -- including tightening quarantine and testing restrictions, if not outright closing the border -- but she has damned herself (and Hong Kong) by opting not to do so! 

Amidst all this, there's a piece of news that might got more attention if it had broke on a slower news day: the announcement by Hong Kong's top public prosecutor that he's stepping down, citing differences with Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng and being sidelined from cases under the new China-imposed national security legislation.  The full text of David Leung's  internal email to a colleague has been released and people are debating whether he quit because his conscience was pricking him or because of office politics.  But what is clear is that not everyone has been reading from the same page over in the government camp: and I don't (just) mean medical experts vis a vis the goverment officials overseeing health matters  (including the woman with a reputation for being quite the control freak)!

Two films showing different reactions to oppression at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (Film reviews)

The Empty Hands: bloodied but unbowed

 

Black Kite (Canada-Afghanistan, 2017)

- Part of the HKIFF's Global Vision program

- Tarique Qayami, director, scriptwriter, cinematographer and co-editor

- Starring: Haji Gul Aser, Masoud Fanayee, Hamid Noorzay, Hadi Delsoz

 

Ten years after a film adaptation came out of Khaled Hossaini's The Kite Runner comes another cinematic work set in Afghanistan with the word "kite" in its title.  Tarique Qayami's Black Kite tells the story about the son of a Kabul kite-maker who loved kites and passed on his love to his young daughter.  Normally, this would not be all that big a deal.  The problem is that, for a good part of his life and all of hers, they lived in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where kite-flying was crime punishable by death.

 

Like The Breadwinner, the other offering set in Afghanistan that I viewed at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Black Kite shows how idyllic this troubled country used to be as well as how terrible life there became.  It's noteworthy too that both films focus on the relations between parent and child, and how the imagination is enlisted to try to escape from everyday realities.   

 

But whereas The Breadwinner's lead character is a child throughout the film, the protagonist of Black Kite is shown growing from a young boy (played by Hamid Noorzay) to young man (essayed by Masoud Fanayee) and then a bearded older man (Haji Gul Aser).  Or, rather, Arian physically ages but he seems to stay rather child-like for much of the movie, to the point of seemingly unwittingly invite bad things to happen to him, and consequently makes its harder than one would like to whole-heartedly empathize with.  

 

At the same time though, it's hard not to not want to mourn for Afghanistan after viewing this film which conjures up enchanting images of the past, including a magically beautiful one involving lots of kites flying up in the Afghan sky, as well as shows scenes of menacing Taliban members hitting -- and, even in one case, shooting in the head -- women covered from head to toe in their burqa and the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.  And while Arian's daughter is in only a few minutes of Black Kite, it's enough to make this member of the audience want to cry when contemplating her seemingly inevitably dark future.

My rating for this film: 6.0

 

The Empty Hands (Hong Kong, 2017)

- Part of the HKIFF's Hong Kong Panorama 2017-18 program

- Chapman To, director and co-scriptwriter (with Erica Li)

- Starring: Stephy Tang, Chapman To, Yasuaki Kurata, Stephen Au, Dada Chan

 

The only contemporary Hong Kong production that I've viewed at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival (with the other Hong Kong movies being classic movies starring the great Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia), The Empty Hands had a theatrical run a few months ago which I somehow missed.  Since receiving five Hong Kong Film Awards nominations (for Best Actress, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Art Direction and New Director) though, there's now enough buzz about it to officially attract a "full house" crowd for its fest screening (though, as has come to be the norm, there still were some empty seats in the theater).

 

After being black-listed by Mainland China for his support of the Umbrella Movement, its director (and co-scriptwriter cum co-star) has reacted by making a very Hong Kong movie with: shooting done in some very recognizable Hong Kong locations (including the abandoned quarry at Lei Yue Mun); a cameo appearance by a pro-democracy politician; and a main character willing to shed blood to own a 1,200 square foot apartment in Wan Chai and harbour plans to sub-divide it into 10 units in order to make a killing in the real estate business.  And in what must be seen as a (further) "up yours" to Mainland China, Stephy Tang's Mari Hirakawa is a Japanese-Chinese Hong Konger whose Japanese karate sensei father (Yasuaki Karuata) raised her by himself after his wife abandoned the family.  

 

Shocked to discover after her father's death that he's left majority share of his karate dojo (which takes up the bulk of the space of their apartment) to former disciple Chan Keung (Chapman To) rather than her, Mari Hirakawa is startled into action when Chan Keung tells her that if she takes up karate again (after abandoning it in her youth despite having shown an uncommon talent for the Japanese martial art) and is able to last three rounds of a match against another female fighter, he'll hand over his share of the inheritance to her.

 

Stephy Tang reportedly trained in karate for six months for The Empty Hands, and her efforts look to have paid off tremendously in terms of her action scenes looking painfully realistic and respect having rocketed for the former Cookies member as a serious actress (since this film is actually much more of a drama at heart than martial arts actioner).  Together with the emergence of Chapman To as a directorial force to be reckoned with, this sends a message to those too ready to count Hong Kong cinema out: that there is fight as well as life still in it.

 

My rating for this film: 7.5 

From Hollywood blockbuster to uncommon animation at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (film reviews)

The way to the university auditorium that's 

one of my favorite HKIFF screening venues this year

Heat (USA, 1995)

- Part of the HKIFF's Restored Classics program

- Michael Mann, director, writer and co-producer

- Starring: Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Val Kilmer

A friend of mine recently complained about how many of the films I review on this blog are very hard to get access to over where she lives (in small town USA).  But she should have no problems being able to view Heat, the 1995 Hollywood crime drama that's probably raked in the most money at the box office of any of the Hong Kong International Film Festival offerings I'm viewing this year (and may well have had the largest budget too).

Al Pacino and Robert de Niro head a strong cast featuring many familiar faces and names (including Jon Voight, a teenaged Natalie Portman and a young Dennis Haysbert, who I now forever associate with 24's President David Palmer).  The former plays a Lieutanant Vincent Hanna, an LAPD detective leading the pursuit of a gang of skilled robbers headed by the latter's Neil McCauley, an ex-con who these days favors suits and the kind of confident demeanor and swagger that one associates with successful businessmen.

The cinematic remake of a failed TV pilot that Michael Mann had worked on, Heat clocks in at close to three hours long and features three sub-plots that look to flesh out the characters played by Pacino, de Niro and Val Kilmer by way of their relations to the key females in their lives.  While they do add dimensions to those characters, I still felt like the scenes in which they are shown interacting with the women in their lives are by far the weakest of the film.  For one thing, none of the female characters in this offering come across as anything but disappointingly one-dimensional.  For another, the best chemistry displayed between any two people in the movie occur in the too few scenes that have Pacino's Lt. Hanna and de Niro's Neil McCauley interacting with each other.

Where Heat really gets the adrenaline going and temperatures rising is in its detailed action scenes, which reputedly have inspired real life copycat crimes as well as the designers of one of the Grand Theft Auto video games.  Also elevating the film beyond that of an average actioner are the characterizations of McCauley and his team, notably explosives expert Chris (Val Kilmer), in such a way that you get to realizing that they may be hardened criminals who won't hesitate to kill on the job but nonetheless are men who want to do good for those they love, and the depiction of its nominal hero, Lt. Hanna, in such a way that it seems inevitable that the more intent he is to nail the bad guys, the more he'll neglect the females in the life and suffering he'll bring on them as well as himself.

     

My rating for the film: 8.0

The Breadwinner (Ireland-Canada-Luxembourg, 2017)

- Part of the HKIFF's Animation Unlimited program

- Nora Twomey, director

- Featuring the voices of: Saara Choudry, Laara Sadiq, Soma Bhatia, etc. 

At the Hong Kong International Film Festival three years ago, I viewed my first animated Irish film.  The Song of the Sea is the kind of the movie one would feel comfortable to bring children to go see.  But while The Breadwinner comes from the same Irish production house, Cartoon Saloon, as that magical movie which introduced me to selkies, I must admit to being rather startled to catch sight of young tykes in the audience of the HKIFF screening that I was at yesterday afternoon.

We're talking after all of a film that, even while it is indeed animated rather than 'live action', is set in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where women are liable to get beaten up if they venture out of their homes unaccompanied by men and a booklover who was a teacher in peace-time can end up not only missing a leg after being taking part in the war but also confined to a prison far away from home.

After her father is unjustly convicted, and with her mother (voiced by Laara Sadiq) and adult sister not allowed to leave their house without a man at their side, preadolescent Parvana (voiced by Saara Choudry) cuts her long hair short and dresses up as a boy to go out and do such as buy food for the household and become the family's breadwinner.  Her days are enlivened by her encountering and deciding to work in tandem with a former schoolmate who has similarly disguised herself as a boy (Soma Bhatia) and she helps banish away fears and nightmares before her baby brother goes to bed by telling him the fantastical story of a brave boy who goes off to confront a scary Elephant King.

But for every little triumph, and joy at discovering the many things she can do and places she can go when people think she's a boy, Parvana also experiences the kind of disappointments and setbacks that people shouldn't have to deal with at least until they grow into adulthood.  Put another way: there's no disguising that The Breadwinner tells a heart-breakingly sad tale, whose many injustices one will find oneself thinking of far more than any of the developments that we're supposed to be (temporarily) happy about; and this not least because it's so very easy after viewing this offering to imagine that there are so many real life equivalents of Parvana and her family out there in our troubled world.

My rating for this film: 7.0