Worldwide Short Film Festival -- Int 9

I took my wife to a WWSFF showing -- International 9, Sundancing, at the Innis Hall Theatre, in Toronto. The films we saw were previously previewed at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. My wife has declared that I will never take her to see such bad films again. We have different tastes. I didn't find any of them bad -- stupid maybe -- ineffective maybe -- artsy fartsy maybe -- and one was definitely disturbing. If you don't want to know what the films are about, don't read any further, as I'll be giving away spoilers.

Small Town Secrets -- This was a personal film of Katherine Leggett. She grew up in small town USA -- USA the good, where her parents had deep secrets that they kept from most, including their children. At an early age, Leggett's parents divorced. Mom shared a home with another single mom. Eventually, the women cut a door between their rooms. What Leggett didn't know until later, was that her mom was a lesbian, and her partner had moved in with her. Together, they raised their children. Another shock would come later on in life when Leggett found out that her dad is gay, and he moved in with his partner. The story is told via a webcam chat between Leggett and her parents. OK, personal story -- touching at points, but it lacked a lot of emotion. I didn't really care.

In The Morning -- The movie was brutal. It starts out with a young Turkish woman being raped on the street as she's walking home alone. Her rapist tells her she shouldn't be alone, proceeds to rape her, as she first struggles, then sobs. He tells her she's pretty at the end. The painful act is depicted. The minds of such men need examining -- preferably after their brains have been extracted. She's pretty? You raped her you bastard! Don't tell her she's pretty -- that's telling her because she's pretty, you had to brutalize her. I don't understand the mind that would commit such an act.

The brutality of the film hardly stops there however. The scene is followed by a group of men discussing the dishonour that was done. The father says his friends no longer visits. The men all agree that something must be done about the dishonour visited upon them, they're just debating the 'what' and 'who' of it. The father insists that his son must restore the family honour, as he's thirteen years old, and will not face stiff punishment from the law. It's finally agreed, and the father borrows a gun to give his young son.

We then see the young woman that was raped. She's doing chores at home. Her young brother is about to leave the house, and there's tears in his eyes. You know he's going to do his duty. She doesn't know. She tells him to be home in time for supper. He turns and shoots her repeatedly. She dies. He collapses in a corner crying.

My reaction would have been typical of most. I was shocked. I shouldn't have been, after having read the recent post from aka.alias on honour killing. I know what honour killing is. It's this really fucked up belief by some men that when their women are raped or even looked at the wrong way by men, that their honour is lost and the only way of restoring it is by taking the life of the women in question. There is nothing honourable about it. I've thought about my reaction, my surprise, and it has a lot to do with my cultural upbringing. As I was watching the movie, I was thinking vengeance. I was thinking revenge. The woman being raped was in pain. Something was being stolen from her that could never be given back.

Go back to the scene where the family men are discussing the dishonour that was dealt to them. From my cultural point of view, they were plotting revenge. But it wasn't the case. The family men were discussing very openly the murder of another family member. The dad was passionate about the murder of his little girl. She had dishonour him by allowing herself to be raped. That's a fucked up culture. It's fucked up when a father doesn't love his child -- when a father treats his daughter as nothing more than a thing -- at best property. Did he ever love her? Does he have capacity for love, other than for himself? He obviously doesn't love his son either. How can a man want his child murdered after she was hurt? Did he ever held her as a baby, lovingly in his arms? Was she ever precious to him? If he had loved her -- if she was his daughter -- he would want to kill whoever hurt her. He would want to remove any pain she's ever felt.

If it's a cultural thing, that's a fucked up culture. You people -- and you know who you are, you fucking primitives -- you've never going to progress beyond shit you've been wallowing in for the last few thousands of years until you leave such stupid ideas behind. You have a culture that will die because you're not changing -- if you don't care for or value the lives of you children, you have no future. If you don't care for or value the lives of your females -- the ones primarily responsible for the sustaining of your people, you will all die. You're all living on the glory of the past. You've done nothing great since the glory days thousands of years ago. Those of you who have accomplished anything, has done so individually -- you have not accomplished much as a society. It's because you have a fucked up society.

The movie was based on a true story that occurred in 2003. The young woman in question was sixteen-years old when her life was taken. She was pregnant.

It's Like That -- This was an animated film, narrated by three children who were interviewed over the telephone. They were detainees in one of Australia's Immigration Detention Centres. At times, it was difficult to understand the children -- nevertheless, it was clear that the kids were being held somewhere behind bars, and they were unhappy about it -- unhappy about being separated from family. It was a sad story -- although the film could have done with the context upfront, instead of leaving it to the end.

The Youth In Us -- This film tells the story of a young couple who are in love with each other, but the guy will eventually pull the plug on the life support system for the girl. It's a sad, unhappy movie -- bittersweet maybe, because you don't find out until the end that the girl is paralyzed and on life support. The film was effective -- but not something I want to see again.

West Bank Story -- This was a hilarious short. It's a parody of the West Side Story. It's a musical comedy about an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian girl who are in love with each other. It's also the story about the rival fast food joints: Hummus Hut and Kosher King. It was very, very entertaining.

Berocca -- This movie was weird. Perhaps it had meaning, and if it does, and somebody gets it, drop me a comment. I didn't get it. It follows a disabled salesman and his autistic son as they travel the backroads of Northern England. There wasn't a plot to the movie -- just a series of events. I chalk this one up to artsty-fartsy bullshit.

Staring At The Sun -- This was more of thriller? SciFi? A man is obsessed with knowing his future. He finds someone who can tell his future, but the answer isn't given to him -- he eventually forces the answer -- only to find out that the answer was that his death. I saw that one coming. I think I've seen that movie on a Twilight Zone episode before.