49. 13 Rosas (2007)

¡No pasarán!

It has been two days since the three Russian women, known as the punk band 'Pussy Rioters', were sentenced to two years imprisonment for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.  In a trial which has captured global media attention, provoking protests around the world (including the arrests of protestors in Marseille, France for wearing Balaclavas and breaking French law for having their faces covered in a public place), the right to freedom of expression and female political activism have taken centre-stage.  The woman, who carried out their protests in coloured balaclavas, faced the judge in every day clothes.  Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the 22 year old philosophy student pictured above, wore a T-Shirt with the slogan 'No Pasasran!' throughout her trial and during her closing speech.  

This slogan recalled a movie I had seen a few months back about 13 young women in Spain who were prosecuted and convicted without evidence for political activism in the aftermath of the civil war (1933-1936).  The women were politically active before Franco came to power, protesting  through the dissemination of leaflets and through advocacy.  They were arrested, interrogated, and jailed in las Ventas prison, until their execution in August 5, 1939.  The film directed by Emilio Martinez Lazaro follows the stories of seven of these young women, who sing and play in the jails until their show trial and subsequent deaths by firing squad. 

The reason I linked Pussy Riot to the women was due to the 'No Pasaran' slogan.  During the Spanish Civil War, one of the leaders, Dolores Ibarruri Gomez, also known as 'la Pasionaria', used it in her famous speech during the Siege of Madrid as a rallying call to resist Franco's forces. 

Women are often depicted as the victims of war, raped and forcibly displaced, with little room for politically agency.  The Pussy Riot band and women in history such as la Pasionaria and 13 Rosas demonstrate the fundamental roles young women have played in calling for a more just and free society. 

Television Lawyers

 Who inspired you?

Today the Guardian Newspaper has a feature on lawyers on the television screen.  The article lists twelve top lawyers from programmes including: Silk, North Square, Kavanagh QC, The Good Wife, Rumpole of the Bailey, Perry Mason, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, The Wire, Breaking Bad and Engrenages.  The authors argue that 'Lawyers don't only join the profession for the intellectual challenge, the chance to right wrongs, and the money. They also do it because it looks good on TV'.  

The Guardian published a similar article in 2008 - Take 10: TV lawyers - featuring mainly the same lawyers and programmes.  The list included Barry Zuckerkorn from Arrested Development, Petty Hewes (Glenn Close) from Damages and a couple of other lawyers from Boston Legal and Law and Order.  

The list contains a healthy number of lead female lawyers.  It would be nice to see more Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Asian lawyers on the list as Lucy Liu seems a little lonely as the lawyer and ferocious judge in Ally McBeal. 

Representation on screen matters since fictional legal systems and worlds often shape our notions of the law before we become law students and practionners.   According to Orit Kamir, in her book, Framed:  Women in Law and film, films (and television): 

create on-screen fictional legal systems that execute judgment, pursue justice and construct social subjects and communities both on and off-screen.  At the same time, such law films may pass cinematic judgment on these “legally constructed” individuals and communities and on the judgment and justice their fictional legal systems demonstrate and execute.  A film can be read as passing such cinematic judgment when, in addition to portraying an on-screen fictional legal system, it offers alternative cinematic constructions of subjects and societies, of justice and judgment.  In its cinematic judgment, a law film may echo the worldview encoded in its fictional legal system, allowing legal and cinematic mechanisms to reinforce each other in the creation of a community and worldview.  Alternatively, a law film may constitute a community and value system that criticizes or undercuts those supported by its fictional legal system.  Moreover, as a rich, multilayered text, a law film can perform both these functions concomitantly, through different means and on different levels, evoking complex and even contradictory responses toward social and legal issues presented on screen.

Law films and the depiction of the law on screen are therefore of import to lawyers interested in the interplay between popular culture, images and the law.  But representation on screen not only relates to fictional legal systems but also to social categories such as gender and race.  This has been a key focus of feminist film studies, and in the works of authors such as bell Hooks.  Films and televised depictions of female lawyers help to construct this category.  The absence of certain men and women from these programmes is therefore problematic, meaning young people may not be able to envision themselves in those positions. 

48. The Night of the Pencils (1986)

La Noche de los Lapices

During the Argentine 'Dirty War' from 1976-1983 the military forces carried out a systematic campaign against certain parts of the civilian population.  As a part of this systematic attack, on the 16 September, 1976, ten students aged between 16 and 17 years old were kidnapped in La Plata.  This event is known as the 'night of the pencils'.  The the students were tortured, raped and subsequently 'disappeared' comprising the estimated 30,000 persons disappeared by the military.  

Hector Olivera's 1986 film is based on the testimony of Pablo Diaz, one of the two student survivors.  In 1985 Diaz gave his testimony during the Trial of the Junta in Buenos Aires.  This trial prosecuted those most responsible for crimes committed by the Junta (including Videla recently prosecuted and convicted of crimes against humanity).  Diaz's testimony was then turned into a book, which formed the basis of the movie. 

The movie tells the story of Diaz and three other students held in illegal detention centres by the military.  The film graphically depicts their plight (including the rape as torture of one of the female students).  An important movie which forms part of the collective memory of the Dirty War in Argentina.  Recommended. 

47. In my country (2004) *

A South African Story of Truth, Love and Reconciliation 

How does a country deal with mass atrocity?  How does it transition from military dictatorships or apartheid to a democracy?  How do victims receive justice for the crimes committed by regimes of terror?  In South Africa, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up so that victims could tell their stories and that the perpetrators could ask for forgiveness in return for amnesty.  Perpetrators had to fully disclose their crimes which had to be committed under superior orders and for a political motive.  

In my country, gives the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings the Hollywood treatment. Starring an international cast including, Samuel L Jackson (as Langston Hughes the Washington Post reporter), Juliette Binoche (as Anna Malan, an Afrikans poet), and Brenden Gleeson (as De Jager, a perpetrator) the film was directed by Englishman, John Boorman.  Adapted from the book of the same name by Antjie Krog, the movie is based on some of the stories of the 21,800 victims who testified during the hearings.  

Using the relationship between Hughes and Langston as a vehicle to explore different aspects of the trials and the idea of 'truth' following their affair, the movie provides outsiders with an introduction to Ubuntu, the hearings and some of the horrendous crimes perpetrated during apartheid.  

46. Alexandra (2007) *

Alexandra is a slow moving Russian film about a grandmother (Galina Vishnevskaya) who travels to visit her grandson, posted in Chechnya.  Denis, an officer in the Russian army, has been engaged in fighting for the past seven years.  Through the old woman's wise and discerning eyes, the film illustrates the youth, loneliness and futility of war.  Young boys become men, in masculine, dirty and violent environments devoid of love or comfort.  At one point, Alexandra leaves the stifling heat of the barracks to visit a local market and befriends some Chechynian women. A woman called Malika invites Alexandra to her house to rest.  She states that whilst men can be enemies, women when they meet are immediately like sisters.  The two women become friends in the short period.  

The film is touching and the barren landscape is strangely beautiful.  Highly recommended.  

45. Divine Intervention (2002) *

Yadon Ilayeyya

Life in Palestine is not all martyrdom, gunfire and poverty.  Elia Sulieman's Divine Intervention provides us with an insight into everyday life in Palestine in an ironic and comic manner.  Santa Claus runs up mountains, a man waits for a bus that he knows will never come, lovers meet at the Israeli checkpoint for dates, a female assassin combats and defeats a host of soldiers in a ninja-esque scene (awesome), neighbours throw garbage into each others lawns and so on.  These are just some of the snippets of life Sulieman (who stars in the film) presents to us for contemplation and amusement.

An art film, silent in parts, sad and funny, this cinematic depiction of Palestine is unique.  

44. Death in Gaza (2004) *

Death in Gaza tells two stories.  The documentary opens with the tragic death of the director and cameraman  James Miller.  In the final days of shooting in Rafah - on the southern strip of Gaza - Miller was shot and killed by the IDF.  The film ends with the footage of the killing taken by a local TV crew.  At first the IDF claimed that the journalist had been caught in cross fire, however, they retracted their statements following clear video footage showing that there was no gunfire coming from the Palestinians.  Waving a white flag, with TV clearly marked on his vest and helmet, Miller died in his attempt to bring the stories of the children of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  

The second story and the objective of the documentary is about the effects of the conflict on children.  Miller never got the chance to interview Israeli children, however, through interactions with children in the West Bank and Gaza, the film provides an account of the everyday lives of some of the poorest children caught in the conflict.  Some of the children have lost many members of their family, whilst others have a desire to be martyred for the cause. 

A sensitive film on the effects of war on the children of Palestine. An Emmy award winning documentary running 80 minutes the film is worth watching.