Hurt Locker (2008)
Katherine Bigelow’s Academy Award-winning film starring Jeremy Renner as Sergeant First Class William James is a complex documentation of war at its grassroots. Based on war-time journalist Mark Boal’s experiences, the film tells the war story from the perspective of those who have seen it up close and personally – the soldiers. Renner, is a replacement in a three-member Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squad. Thanks to his maverick attitude and his non-conformist nature, he is considered reckless by his team members. The film browses through their life in Iraq where every moment is a tryst with death. Gripping screenplay, wonderful performances and nerve-wrecking scenarios, this comment on the ugly end of the war is a must watch.
Tere Bin Laden (2010)
One of the very few feature films made in India in the genre of political satire, Abhishek Sharma’s Tere Bin Laden is outright hilarious. This Ali Zafar-starrer is a blithe take on the subcontinental American dream and the ridiculous depths to which people here are willing to go to get a visa. Zafar plays Ali Hassan, a TV reporter at a local cable channel Danka TV. After several failed attempts to visit America, thanks to the mindset post 9/11, Ali is desperate to find a way. He realises his chance when he comes across Noora – a poultry farmer who looks like Osama Bin Laden. He makes a fake threat video to become popular. What follows is a ridiculous saga where FBI and Pakistani intelligence search for Laden, and finally, Ali and Noora release another video where Laden requests a cease fire to end the war.
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
The only non-fictional film in the list, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary by filmmaker and liberal political commentator Michael Moore. The film, made after the US intervention in Iraq, focuses on the irregularities in the election, functioning and decision making of the Bush administration. The film also comments on how the American media glorified the war and overlooked the facts which the people should have known. Moore also discusses the relationship that the Bush family has with the US government and the Bin Laden family has with the Saudi Arabian government and the Taliban over the past three decades. Labeled untruthful and propaganda by some critics, the film is the world’s highest grossing documentary. Moore, however, released a document stating the sources of his claims.
Khuda Kay Liye (2007)
An intense film from Pakistan about three characters in three continents who are affected by the misinterpretation of Islam and the wrong image of Muslims in the Western world. Mansoor and Sarmad are two brothers who are popular musicians in Lahore. But their fates are different as Mansoor pursues further studies in music and goes to Chicago where he is accused of being a terrorist and tortured in custody. Sarmad gets influenced by extremists and follows their path and gives up music. Mariam, a young British Pakistani girl is brought to Pakistan and forcibly married off to her cousin Sarmad and held captive in Northwest Frontier Pakistan. The Shoaib Mansoor film has Naseeruddin Shah, who plays a Mulla, is the voice of reason who states Islam is being misinterpreted by those who don’t understand it.
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
Set in the days that build up to America’s war in Iraq, this Bahman Ghobadi film is the first to be made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The film tells a sweet tale of Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) who is known in the village for installing dishes and antennae and his limited knowledge of English. He, along with a gang of kids, go about removing land mines. Satellite dynamic and strong personality makes him the gang leader. He falls in love with an orphan girl Argin who is seen roaming with an armless older brother who tries to foresee the future and an almost blind kid. The film puts forth a tapestry of life in a war-torn region where innocence still strives as Satellite and his friends find some moments of joy and respite among all the horror and chaos.
Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on September 14, 2012
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