SAVING FLORA
Watchable. The circus and sentimental music both give the impression it's happening a century ago. Wrong. Mobile phones indicate the present day. Luckily the film exhibits little nostalgia for the bygone era of circus. Instead the strongman plays a little role in the plot later on. The elephant has a dotted face which looks weird in close-ups. The muscled acrobat woman and the girl doing a sideways split are more convincing. Luckily most of the story takes place in the countryside, with occasional awe-inspiring sights. Unfortunately, in one scene the kids ride the elephant against a huge Moon backdrop, mimicking the iconic scene from "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" in a tacky way. At least the elephant isn't flying. Poachers are called "hunters" which is a complete confusion of terms. The whole film is on the sad side.
THE GRUDGE
Watchable. Total rubbish. When Sam Raimi ("Evil Dead") re-works the Japanese classic, he uses the famous tropes like the estate agent and the bath, the staircase, connection to Japan but also jump scares, plenty of slimy corpses, some with maggots, some creaking at movements. The plot starts like a crime case but leads to nowhere. It's chaos with Christian propaganda - the religious guy doesn't enter the house so avoids the horror. The finale implies a sequel but one of the music pieces from the movie: "Too Many Times" sums up the production best.
IT MUST BE HEAVEN
Recommended. A smart, tongue-in-cheek depiction of a kind of paradise - Elia Suleiman, acting as himself, displays in a sequence of incidents he quietly observes what peace in the Middle East would look and feel like. Many such events are intricately choreographed. Each neighbours' conversation or strangers' encounter as well as the police reaction represent imagined peace to a humorous effect. It also highlights how badly Palestinian reality is connected to the police, air raids, planted bombs. The satire extends to the vision of Palestine in the eyes of onlookers from France and the US. Gael García Bernal has a cameo as a... movie director. Beautiful Arabic music, including the great hit of "Arabiyon Ana" by Yuri Mrakadi - to which even I have bellydanced to several times, extends till the end of final credits.
The Polish title changes the meaning of the original unfortunately.
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