Feminism vs tradition and the patriarchy in Mariam Khatchvani's Georgia-set drama, DEDE

Primitive, filmed in a beautiful location, and said to be based on a real-life situation taking place in 1988, as the Georgian Civil War began, DEDE, the 2017 film directed and co-written by Mariam Khatchvani, takes a number of unexpected turns, even as it purloins themes from Romeo & Juliet, the Sabine Women, and maybe every backwoods-set, honor-above-all-else, Eastern European/Eurasian movie ever made.

The film also proves an oddball mix of the modern (that stylish red dress our heroine tries so hard to get her hubby to compliment) along with the strictured and provincial (traditions that are awfully difficult to understand, let alone countenance: an engagement -- no, not ring but bullet. How sweet!).

The theme of budding feminism going up against traditional patriarchy, Georgian-style, is given quite a workout here. Ms Khatchvani, pictured at right, is deliberately, I suspect, filming in the same primitive style of the setting of her movie, as exposition couples with somewhat stilted performances and dialog, so that we always get the sense that, despite the relatively modern year, we're still in some kind of far-off, nearly ancient locale. What keeps us going during this somewhat languorous film are two things.

First, the interesting performers: George Babluani, shown above, as our heroine's first great love, a sexy, slow-burn guy who's great at staring; Natia Vibliani as Dina (below, with child), the put-upon girl at the center of all the male wrangling; and literally all the supporting performers who seem equally adept and real.

Secondly, the visuals here, thanks to the gorgeous locations, can often be breathtaking: There's one scene in which villagers carry lanterns/torches in the night on one side of the screen, even as the salmon-colored sunset hits the peaks of the mountains on the other. One question, however: Is Dede, the movie's title, somehow short for the name Dina, our main character? If not, what is its connectuon to this film?

From Corinth Films, in the Georgian language and running 97 minutes, Dede hits home video on DVD and digital streaming (via Amazon and iTunes) this coming Tuesday, June 30 -- for purchase and/or rental.

DVDebut for one of the year's best films: Maysaloun Hamoud's IN BETWEEN

Below is TrustMovies' original review of a film 

that arrives on DVD this coming week. 

If you didn't catch it in theaters, 

now's your chance. It's a winner.

A terrific melodrama all about the evolving place of women in the Muslim world -- particularly that special Muslim world that exists within the state of Israel -- IN BETWEEN, the first full-length film from Budapest-born Maysaloun Hamoud -- is an impressive piece of work in several ways. It offers a look at three very different Muslim young women, each coming to grips with her own needs and desires that conflict with those of her parents, religion, and "tradition." Yet in Israel, for all the other problems that state presents for Muslims, these women are allowed to dress as they wish, become successful in careers usually reserved for men, and choose their significant other out of love, lust or just plain compatibility, rather than the more traditional, "arranged" manner.

Ms Hamoud, shown at left, wrote and directed her movie, and she succeeds equally well in both endeavors. Her dialog is smart and on-target while visually, she and her attractive, talented performers, in addition to the well-chosen locations, camera-work and editing, keep us not merely engrossed but pretty much swept along in all of the growing and mostly fraught goings-on. The filmmaker not only brings to fruition her story and characters, she also leaves them (and us) at an almost perfect moment of ironic, double-edged success: "in between," indeed. The movie's final frame is as memorable as any I've seen in a long while.

The leading characters here are Leila (Mouna Hawa (above), a successful, high-powered lawyer who'd like to meet the right man; Salma (Sana Jammelieh, below), an artist supporting herself as best she can, with an arranged marriage in store, even though her sexual preference is otherwise;

and Noor (Shaden Kanboura, below), a chubby, sweet, and highly traditional young woman about to marry an even more traditional jerk. When Noor moves to Tel Aviv in order to be closer to her school where she studies, and then in with the other two women, change begins to occur.

How this change happens and our characters evolve is particularly believable -- well conceived and executed, via the work of Hamoud and her actresses. Each of the women's stories is brought to fine life, and how they are interwoven is exemplary.

We see and empathize with the interplay of the desire for greater freedom, the needs of family, the demands of the workplace, and the place of men -- lovers (that's the very sexy Mahmud Shalaby, above), fiances, and fathers -- in all this.

The look we get at Arab night life in Israel may surprise you, but I don't doubt that's it's relatively authentic. Ditto the family scenes with both Salma and Noor. (There's a scene near the finale involving Noor, her father and her fiance that is quite surprising and moving.)

By the time we get to that final, wonderful moment of what is perhaps -- no, absolutely -- a victory, I wouldn't go so far as to call it Pyrrhic, but Ms Hamoud makes it clear that this is anything but complete. In Between is must-see for film-goers interested in the changing roles of women, particularly those in the Middle East.

From Film Movement, running 103 minutes and in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles, the movie opened theatrically in the USA in early January and hits the street on DVD this coming Tuesday, May 1 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Maysaloun Hamoud's IN BETWEEN explores Muslim women and what change has wrought

A terrific melodrama all about the evolving place of women in the Muslim world -- particularly that special Muslim world that exists within the state of Israel -- IN BETWEEN, the first full-length film from Budapest-born Maysaloun Hamoud -- is an impressive piece of work in several ways. It offers a look at three very different Muslim young women, each coming to grips with her own needs and desires that conflict with those of her parents, religion, and "tradition." Yet in Israel, for all the other problems that state presents for Muslims, these women are allowed to dress as they wish, become successful in careers usually reserved for men, and choose their significant other out of love, lust or just plain compatibility, rather than the more traditional, "arranged" manner.

Ms Hamoud, shown at left, wrote and directed her movie, and she succeeds equally well in both endeavors. Her dialog is smart and on-target while visually, she and her attractive, talented performers, in addition to the well-chosen locations, camera-work and editing, keep us not merely engrossed but pretty much swept along in all of the growing and mostly fraught goings-on. The filmmaker not only brings to fruition her story and characters, she also leaves them (and us) at an almost perfect moment of ironic, double-edged success: "in between," indeed. The movie's final frame is as memorable as any I've seen in a long while.

The leading characters here are Leila (Mouna Hawa (above), a successful, high-powered lawyer who'd like to meet the right man; Salma (Sana Jammelieh, below), an artist supporting herself as best she can, with an arranged marriage in store, even though her sexual preference is otherwise;

and Noor (Shaden Kanboura, below), a chubby, sweet, and highly traditional young woman about to marry an even more traditional jerk. When Noor moves to Tel Aviv in order to be closer to her school where she studies, and then in with the other two women, change begins to occur.

How this change happens and our characters evolve is particularly believable -- well conceived and executed, via the work of Hamoud and her actresses. Each of the women's stories is brought to fine life, and how they are interwoven is exemplary.

We see and empathize with the interplay of the desire for greater freedom, the needs of family, the demands of the workplace, and the place of men -- lovers (that's the very sexy Mahmud Shalaby, above), fiances, and fathers -- in all this.

The look we get at Arab night life in Israel may surprise you, but I don't doubt that's it's relatively authentic. Ditto the family scenes with both Salma and Noor. (There's a scene near the finale involving Noor, her father and her fiance that is quite surprising and moving.)

By the time we get to that final, wonderful moment of what is perhaps -- no, absolutely -- a victory, I wouldn't go so far as to call it Pyrrhic, but Ms Hamoud makes it clear that this is anything but complete. In Between is must-see for film-goers interested in the changing roles of women, particularly those in the middle east.

From Film Movement, running 103 minutes and in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles, the movie opens tomorrow, Friday, January 5, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema. It has already played practically the entire rest of the country either at festivals or theatrically. To view all past -- along with a couple of future -- screening dates, simply click here and scroll down.

Elite Zexer's Sundance winner and Ophir-nominated SAND STORM opens at Film Forum

An Israeli film that's all about Bedouins, their traditions and halting attempts at some kind of modernity, SAND STORM is original, exotic, fiery and humane -- often simultaneously. What we see happening has the air of something centuries old, even if the plot pivots on how a daughter's cell phone is coincidentally answered by her mother. Taking place mostly in the home of a family in a tribal village in Israel's Negev desert, the film centers on that mother and daughter, both of whom are chaffing at the bit of Bedouin patriarchy.

Part of the movie's surprise and fascination comes from the fact that it seems very different from so much else we've seen come out of Israel -- narrative- or documentary-wise. As written and directed by a filmmaker new to me, Elite Zexer, shown at left, it immediately tosses us in media res and then let us fend for ourselves in figuring out what is happening and why. We do, and pretty quickly, although I suspect folk who live in this part of the world may have a stronger connection to the traditions and mores of the characters we see.

The mother of the family (Ruba Blal, above) is having to prepare, most unhappily, for her husband's wedding to a new wife, while her daughter (Lamis Ammar, below, right), we soon learn, is carrying on a forbidden romance with one of her university peers (Jalal Masarwa, below, left).

Dad (Haitham Omari, below, right) is a handsome but ineffectual man, who, as his wife and daughter both point out, is constantly explaining his actions by saying that these are things he "has to do." Everybody here -- women and men alike -- appear to be abused by their own traditions and the patriarchy, though the women, as ever, have it worst. We get the sense that education is the force that is helping to unite Bedouins, and yet this unity, which has brought together the daughter and her boyfriend, is also what is creating out-of-tribe relationships -- a no-no in this culture.

Love vs arranged marriage, family ties vs tribal ties, banishment and sacrifice -- all of this pits mother against daughter against father, with escalation heaped upon escalation. When, toward the finale, one character tells another, "There's nothing for you here," we realize that this judgment could apply to literally everyone on view.

Sand Storm could be an unrelentingly sad and difficult movie, but Ms Zexer fills it with such marvelous actors and has given them a screenplay that goes just far enough to fill the audience's understanding without over-explaining anything. The film's final scene, in fact, is completely silent. But it is hugely meaningful, presaging unfortunately what may come for the next generation.

In what may be be the movie's most telling moment, dad's plump and pretty new bride, above and below, implies to the daughter that her own situation as the newbie here is nothing to be pleased about. We never learn the details, but it becomes suddenly clear that there is probably "nothing for her here," either.

This "I have to" attitude, expressed by dad but also by so many other characters in their own way, is what allows -- and disallows -- so much that has and will continue to happen.  The movie is certainly feminist and anti-patriarchy, but it lets us see how these traditions -- large and small -- suppress everyone on view. At the wedding ceremony, for instance, certain women (I am guessing they are the former and now-tossed-away wives) must wear fake mustaches. Gheesh.

It is no surprise that this film won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Fest, and that it was also nominated for twelve -- count 'em -- Ophirs (the Israel's equivalent to our "Oscar"). Because it won six of those, including Best Director and Best Film, Sand Storm becomes automatically designated as Israel’s official submission to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film. It is a winner in every way, and we shall look forward to whatever Ms Zexer tackles next.

Meanwhile, Sand Storm, from Kino Lorber, in Arabic with English subtitles and running just 88 minutes, has its U.S. theatrical premiere tomorrow, Wednesday, September 28, in New York City at Film Forum, where it will have a two-week run. The film opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal on October 7. Elsewhere? Perhaps--once word-of-mouth generates.

Parade's End -- an acquired taste. (Scroll down for the companion review of Downton Abbey)

This post is written by our "Sunday Corner" 

corresponent, Lee Liberman

Parade's End (BBC/HBO), a psychological drama, and cream puffy Downton Abbey (PBS) treat the effects of world war and industrialization on tradition-bound Edwardians, especially on women. Parade's End, in 5 episodes based on novels by Ford Madox Ford, is a tougher go; it takes a few takes to dig itself into your heart, but the payoff is far more interesting -- you feel world war shaking the ground and savor a bit of well-earned joy as the parade ends. Despite excellent reviews here, the series, directed by Susanna White, slipped under the radar quickly but was widely celebrated and honored across the pond.

Tom Stoppard (prolific playwright, screen-writer) can't have had a simple time distilling Ford Madox Ford's four-novel series because the work unfolds in non-linear fashion, jumping around dizzily. Written close to the period, the novels were called by poet W.H. Auden and others 'great', but they aren't easy -- as though Ford meant his work to be as contrary as he made his characters. The first go at the mini-series is also off-putting. I didn't get into it until the re-watch; then became engrossed in the story of the protagonists and also their being metaphor for the bloom being off the rose of the aristocracy. It did help to know where the story was headed before focusing on how the words and actions of the characters contribute to the synergy of the whole.

The antiheroes of the drama are Christopher and Sylvia Tietgens, a miserably-married aristocratic couple whom anyone will recognize who has encountered a relationship in which the parties don't get each other, talk past each other, relentlessly disappoint, and make each other angry or depressed. Yes, toxic, but Christopher and Sylvia turn each other on -- he thinks she is "glorious" and his braininess and impeccable taste have spoiled her for other men. Sylvia wants to keep her husband but cannot help repelling him. Duty compels him to wear the hair shirt: 'I stand for monogamy and chastity and not talking about it,' he says. Benedict Cumberbatch (at far left) is so quietly, deeply expres-sive that Christopher's suffering is palpable -- his 'romantic feudalism', his nostalgia for a time of 'rights, duties, and supposed orderliness' (Julian Barnes, the Guardian, 8/2012) making him a dinosaur in his own time. (Press here for Barnes's rich analysis of Ford's characters.) 

Sylvia (the beautiful, formidable Rebecca Hall, above, right), acts out the narcissism of the aristocracy with the seductive charm of a sociopath. Her mother (Janet McTeer) calls her manipulative behavior 'pulling the strings of the shower bath'. Christopher, an intellectual savant, shoulders the guilt and unhappiness of an aristocracy that is becoming anachronistic. Although brilliant, he nevertheless courts failure through one self-deprecating act after another. He works at the Imperial Department of Statistics and perfectly predicts the outbreak of war. But when asked to manipulate data, he quits, deeply offended, and joins the army. Through the war years, Sylvia's sadistic antics and Christopher's own self-effacement conspire to ruin his reputation. He is banned from his club and sent down to a combat unit at the front.

Appearing early but not often in the story is young, brainy suffragette, Valentine, (Adelaide Clemens, below, right), middle-class daughter of a classics professor and journalist mother (Miranda Richardson at her most winsome). Christopher and Valentine meet for the first time on a golf course where she and a friend are demonstrating for the vote among 'fat golfing idiots' (whose own view is that suffragettes are whores and deserve to have their bare bottoms spanked). Christopher chivalrously foils arrest of the girls by heaving his clubs in the way of a police officer who is giving chase. In this and later brief chaste encounters, we see the exact opposite of mutual repulsion. Christopher and Valentine "get" each other, make each other think, and disagree amiably. Their fresh good will is hope for the future, but he is not ready to shed his old-fashioned honor.

Honoring the rules of the 'parade' of the social elite (aggressively flouted by Sylvia), Christopher does not take up with Valentine until the war has dragged on, his parents have died of disappointment, and Sylvia has exhausted him with histrionics. The last straw is her having the ancient tree at Groby Hall felled because it darkens the parlor. (Groby, the Tietgens family seat in Yorkshire, is 'older than Protestantism'.) In a decisive change in behavior, Christopher dismisses Sylvia with an unforgiving stare and throws a log from the old tree on the fire. Peace is declared, the troops are released, and in the final frames Christopher is at last happy as he finally joins his heart with Valentine.

More British acting elite add depth to the parade, among them are Rufus Sewell, a batty cleric; Rupert Everett, Christopher's older brother (above, left), who lives with his mistress and wants no part of Groby; and Anne-Marie Duff (below, left) as whiny Edith, a middle-class snob who has snared Macmaster, (Stephen Graham, below, right), a writer, to enhance her social climb among the literati.

Parade's End is streaming on HBO; it's worth the work.

***********************

Compared to Parade's End, the PBS series DOWNTON ABBEY is the soap opera version of the cracking Edwardian facade during and after WWI. Created by Julian Fellowes, shown below, Season 5 has ended and season 6 ordered -- could be the place to stop.

Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), hapless head of the aristocratic Crawley family, broods over the inability of his land-rich, cash-poor estate to support itself. Fortunately his modern daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery) is able to walk the line between appreciating papa's decency and prodding him toward running the estate like a business. The growing assertiveness of women in the new century is punctuated by daughter Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) running off with the chauffeur, cousin Rose (Lily James) falling for a black jazz musician followed by snagging a Jewish banker-- at least avoiding an interracial scandal.

But an hour special that ran on PBS at the start of Season 5 spelled out the premier obsession of this series: 'The Manners of Downton Abbey' (for sale at PBS). The host, Alastair Bruce, historian and consultant, bobs about the film set adjusting posture, bits of dialogue, and scene to assure perfect replication of the ballet of manners that dictated daily life of the Edwardian elite upstairs and staff downstairs.

Bruce explains that the aristocracy were so traumatized by contageous disease and the violence of the French Revolution that habits of restrained physical contact and emotion even among family solidified into protocol. The Edwardians enveloped themselves in a complexity of nuanced formalities, insulating them from change. Dowager Countess Violet (Maggie Smith, below), Butler Carson (Jim Carter), and Lord Grantham keep the flame, resisting slippage of the status quo.

There are few if any story lines in Downton that do not revolve the Edwardian code in one way or another. One stays tuned to find out what's coming next (or what Violet will say next). Soap opera is geared to the gossip gene or the ginned-up fear response as plots charge to and fro, anticipating a favorite character's horrible dilemma. All the talk, tears, wit. joy, grief at Downton Abbey are skin deep. In season 5, the only character whose painful struggle (with his sexuality) makes us care is Thomas, the devious under-butler, played by marvelous actor Rob James-Collier (below), who is owed lead roles as soon as possible. There is something behind those eyes, and you want more.

DA's success is aided by "camp and class", said one reviewer; it surely is beautiful and fans feel elevated by its British toniness (reputedly some royals tune in). Perhaps one more season is enough, though, as plots are repeating themselves and going stale. It is quite a contrast to feature-film who-done-it, Gosford Park, also scripted by Fellowes. But Gosford had director, Robert Altman, who, like great writers, make us care about the inner life and motivations of characters. Taking place during a weekend gathering at a country estate, a murder is committed by a character whose pain we begin to understand and share as the crime is solved. At Gosford Park, as in Parade's End, we are slowly drawn into the inner lives of a number of characters. Parade's End and Gosford Park can be mined over and again; repeat visits to Downton offer thin gruel.

Downtown Abbey Season 5 will be available for a short time on line at PBS. Only the first four seasons are available on DVD in the NTSC version compatible with our DVD players, but for those who own an all-region player, the UK version of Season 5 is now for sale. (It can't be long before Season 5 is available here, too.)

Open Roads: Q&A with Paska/Turturro on REHEARSAL FOR A SICILIAN TRAGEDY

At the Q&A following the FSLC Open Roads premiere of the Roman Paska's and John Turturro's new documentary REHEARSAL FOR A SICILIAN TRAGEDY, the two men were in fine form before a very appreciative audience who took to the film like kittens to their mother's milk.  Highlights of the questions and answers appear below.

First out of the box:  How did you come to make this movie? Paska explained that he had been performing puppet shows in Palermo, Sicily, and from there brought back a book for his long-time friend Turturro. "We started talking then about the possibility, just a vague idea, of doing a movie -- as Sicily still has this tradition of puppetry (below). When the opportunity finally arose, we did it."

How much did you plan before-hand, and how much just happened in the editing process, one audience member asked? "The plan for the film was there," the two men told us, "but you still have to see what works -- and what does not."

Doesn't your movie seem to go against the usual mafia thing that we see coming out of Sicily, another person queried? "Not where I come from," said Turturro adamantly.  (His grandmother appears in the old photo, below).  "That's not what I know. What you see in our film is just as true about Sicily as is anything else." (This statement received quite a round of applause from the audience -- clearly appreciating the opportunity to see something about Sicily that was not Mafia-related.)

"Those young girls were fabulous!" noted another audience member, referring to the passel of beautiful adolescents seen in one section of the film. "How many of them did you interview?" The two men compared notes and concluded, "Around fifteen, finally. Turturro mentioned how much fun it was to be in the presence of young girls for a change, since in his own family, there are only boys.

Who made the puppets that we see in the film? "Some are old and inherited. The puppet master Mimmo Cuticchio is also the armor master, and his brother has become a principal sculptor."

What old film is it that that we see in your film, in which Peter Ustinov appears?  The two men told us the name (I girovaghi) and director (Hugo Fregonese) from 1953 -- although, according to the IMDB, the year was '56.

What was the reaction to the film in Italy? "It received a very strong, positive reaction," noted Turturro. "One anti-mafia judge told us that it reminded him of the world he knew as a boy growing up."

What were your favorite parts of the film? Paska demurred: "That's hard to say." Turturro told us that it was initially difficult for him as a performer because he is more used to playing a part, being someone else, rather than playing himself. "So this was not easy for me. It took a while to warm up to it, but I liked working with all the girls."

Does the film have U.S. distribution yet? "No -- but we are looking."

Why set the film in the locale that you did? "We chose to film in places relevant to our theme: Puppetry and its past."

TrustMovies' review of the film appears here (click and scroll down) -- in his complete round-up of films in this terrific annual series.  Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy will screen again Wednesday, June 9, at 6:30.