Monday, June 7, 2010

El baño del Papa

"In Melo, a poor Uruguyan country village near the Brazilian border, several men earn their living from contraband, mostly transported on bicycles. One of them, Beto, is getting too old for heavy freights but hopes to a earn a motorbike. The idea is to build and charge money for the use of a proper lavatory at the occasion of the first-ever papal visit to Urugay, as is holiness is expected to pass trough Melo where he may be cheered by hordes of Catholic Brazilians."
-KGF Vissers (www.imdb.com)

"It is 1988, and Melo, a Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. Numbers begin circulating: hundreds of people will come, no thousands say the media. To the poor citizens of Melo this means one thing: pilgrims in need of food and drink, paper flags, souvenirs, commemorative medals. Brimming with enthusiasm, the locals not only hope for divine blessing, but above all for a small share of material happiness. Petty smuggler Beto is certain that he’s found the best business idea of all: “The Pope’s Toilet”, where the thousands of pilgrims can find relief."
-Wikipedia

Waking Ned

"Jackie O'Shea, a resident of the tiny Irish coastal village of Tully More, discovers that one of his neighbors has won the lottery - the question is, who? It takes some doing, but Jackie figures out that the lucky person is none other than his new best friend, Ned Devine. Unfortunately, it turns out Ned is in no position to collect the jackpot, which totals almost 6.9 million Irish pounds. So Jackie and his real best friend, Michael O'Sullivan, try to figure out a way to share in Ned's good fortune - after all, Ned would want it that way. But things get a lot more complicated than either Jackie or Michael could have anticipated."
-Eugene Kim (www.imdb.com)

"
Waking Ned (titled Waking Ned Devine in North America) is a 1998 comedy film by English writer and director Kirk Jones. It stars Ian Bannen, David Kelly and Fionnula Flanagan. Kelly was nominated for a Screen Actors' Guild award for his role as Michael O'Sullivan. The film is set in Ireland but was filmed on location in the Isle of Man. It was produced by the British studio Tomboy Films and distributed by the American company Fox Searchlight Pictures."
-Wikipedia

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tsotsi

"In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer."
-Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (www.imdb.com)

"Tsotsi is a 2005 film written and directed by Gavin Hood. The film is an adaptation of the novel Tsotsi, by Athol Fugard. The soundtrack features Kwaito music performed by popular South African artist Zola as well as a score by Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker featuring the voice of South African protest singer/poet Vusi Mahlasela. Set in a Soweto slum, near Johannesburg, South Africa, the film tells the story of Tsotsi, a young street thug who steals a car only to discover a baby in the back seat. The film won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. Tsotsi was the inspiration behind the Tamil language film called "Yogi" starring director Ameer Sultan."
-Wikipedia