JOURNEY OF HOPE
SWITZERLAND/TURKEY 1992
One of the saddest, yet, one of the most poetic films I have seen.
It is a political film, which deplores the system to which many people are
attached, and the fact that there isn't much which can really be done about it
all, ... what some of us will do for a chance at a piece of a dream.
For south/central Americans, the dream land is America. For the many Kurdish
peoples stranded, and stuck in the middle of three hostile countries, the dream
land is either Germany or Switzerland, the richest countries in Europe. The
price they pay to get to one of those places, is anything they can. The sad part
of it all, is that so few of them actually succeed, and their lives are ruined,
forever, with or without their family.
A Kurdish farmer makes a decision to get rid of his farm, and go for the dream
land. He has received a letter from his cousin in Germany, who will soon get a
job in a factory which has promised to hire him. He takes his wife and one of
his seven children (the oldest, a boy) with him, and the travels begin.
By the time his travels end, the film stops, leaving us to guess what, and how
it will eventually turn out. All said and done, there was a cousin, or a
relative of some sort who didn't really exist, and the letter was fabricated
the farmer had some money) with the intent of having the money taken away by
someone,... unclear whether it is 'mafia' like connections or simple people who
prey on the misguided ones. Once the 'vision' of success and future have been
aroused, there is little anyone can do for this man. He is gone.
He travels through Italy, with a fake passport, and goes through various places
until he gets to the high Alps, the pass into Switzerland. Here,
the people who have brought them this far are having problems agreeing with each
other, and the crowd has to peddle their way on foot, in the snow, in the night,
to get to 'freedom'.
I'll leave the rest to you.
It's the plight of all immigrants, and if you went to school in southern
California like I did, and worked part time in restaurants to pay for the
books and buses like I did, you found out that half of the dishwashers are
Mexican and also very illegal. The same thing happens in Texas and New
Mexico. They go through the same process, although, they have succeeded
where 75% of them have failed. They know it. But the others don't. I even knew
people who every once in a while would bring in one or two for a thousand
dollars each ( I couldn't prove it, though the person drove a Cadillac and the
border guards don't check out rich looking American blondes driving Cads )
and a few Mexicans who told me how much they paid, which they are usually told
to keep secret or their friends and families will never come, for the privilege
to come to this country. Believe you me, when all you have is hell, you will pay
the price for a piece, even if a taste, of real freedom.
It's worth it . And hopefully something will work out in the future.
Funny what people will do for a dream, isn't it???
This film has incredible music. If you like European style jazz, listen to
Norwegian TERJE RYPDAL's music ( from EOS ) and Swede JAN GARBAREK's music
( from EVENTYR ) all over this film. It makes the mood of the film so rich
in quality, that it is a bit overbearing. The cinematography, combined with this
music, is really something to behold, and probably the main reason why
this film won the OSCAR as the best foreign film of last year. I think all
actors are Kurdish, and the director is a Kurd, who had a student visa to get to
Europe,... which means he is from a better to do family.
5 GIBLOONS
Director:
XAVIER KOLLER
Written by
Xavier Koller and Feride Cicekoglu
Cinematography by Elemer Ragalyi and Galip Lyitanir
With
Necmettin Cobanoglu, Nru Surer, Emin Sivas, Yaman Okay, Mathias Gnadinger,
Dietmar Schonherr
Super Point:
Music Produced by Manfred Eicher from his ECM jazz label archives, with various
songs from Terje Rypdal, Jan Garbarek, Shankar, and others.
Please email me with questions and/or comments
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