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What if you wanted to go back home but you can't because your home has been taken away by the Israeli government. You have an American Passport but you want a passport from Palestine. But by an agreement with the Israeli government, you can't be given one. You have the plot behind the film Salt of this Sea

This film was very had to judge by the audience reaction. The crowd members who were pro-Palestine, loved the film. Those in the crowd who were pro-Israeli, hated the film.

I fall in the Pro-Israeli camp and really thought that the film portrayed the Israeli's as monsters and the Palestine's as saints. I put this first in the review because, the reader, needs to know about any luggage that the critic brings to the film that he is going to review.

We are introduced to Soraya, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, makes a decision to return to her ancestral home in Palestine while trying to recover her exiled family’s money from the British Palestine Bank. When she tells the truth to the Israeli security she is only given a two week visa. Once she enters Palestine, she tries to ind out where home is but where her grandfather grew up, is now in Israel's control and she can not get their from where she is. Soraya tells everyone that she wants to live in Palestine and no one can figure out why. The people that she meets want to leave their homeland and never return.

The film then deals with how she gets her exiled money back and she gets to visit her grandfathers home. The film then deals with her anger that her family had to lose this house and how life in unfair to the Palestinians and how her new lover can not leave his city legally.

The film takes the side of the Palestinians and here is where the film lost me. It showed only one side of the conflict and makes it look very slanted towards the Israel's control of certain lands.

The film ends with Soraya telling the security forces that her American passport is actually a Palestine one. The do not believe it and because she has out stayed her 2 week visa and we see her being deported at the end of the film.

For this film to work, one has to actually feel sorry for Soraya and I never could justify any feelings towards her. She acted like a spoiled American and the film never could recover from it. No matter how hard she tried she never looked like or acted like a local that she was so much trying to achieve in this film.

After the film was over the polled crowed was split into the 2 earlier camps that I had earlier talked about. You will either love this film or you will hate it due to the main topic of the film.

The polled crowed gave me no middle ground in this film and I feel that that the final review of this film. If you believe in the Palestine struggle, then you will love this film. If you side with the nation of Israel, then this film was fail for you on so many levels and you need to pass on Salt of This Sea when it comes to a cinema near you.

What if, for a class assignment, a high school student puts himself into the news story about a man who plants a bomb in his pregnant girlfriend’s luggage. Also, imagine that the high school students inserts his dead parents with those in the real story, his attempt to deal with his parents death leads to falsehoods and misplaced ideas and beliefs. If this idea interest you then you have the idea of what Adoration is all about.

To be honest I had no real idea about this film, It was playing at the same cinema that I had lined up for my PIFF and the plot sounded somewhat interesting. I soon realized that I might have a good film on my hands when the Canadians that I met there could not believe that I had a ticket for this film.

I had never heard of the director Atom Egoyan before, so this review of the film is my first film of this director. The film opens up so nicely with a boy talking to his dying grandfather. You see him recording the conversation and you can see love their. You are then shown the same boy at school, slowly going mad about an article that he has to translate in French Class. He starts over and is late in translating the story. He tells his teacher that the lady in the story was his mother and that his father was the one that sent his mother on that airplane and that he was in his mothers womb. She tells him that he should tell the class. The students then tells the class his entire story and how angry he is with his father for trying to kill him and his mother. He then states this is why he is living with his uncle.

All of this was within the first few minutes of the film and the crowd around me was gasping and could not believe what they were seeing at the PIFF. At this time, I was not sure what I was watching but it sure had my attention.

For the next few scenes you see that the above story was a lie and you are not sure why the story is being told. Please watch for the scene with a Muslim neighbor and the uncle, you can see the hatred in his eyes and maybe, just maybe, this above lie was now the truth.

What I liked was the chat rooms and the realness of these rooms. You saw pro and con for the story and then the story starts to spread outside the little community and into the real world.

We are then shown the teacher getting fired for telling the student to run with the lie and when her car is illegally parked, it is the uncle that shows up to tow her car. You then see a 5 minute tow with the teacher asking that the car be towed father away and the pay rate goes up so the uncle is all for it. She then talks the uncle into lunch and then she tells him that she is the teacher that convinced his nephew to spread the lie. She later invites the uncle into her apartment and the twist of the film becomes very clear on why she asked the student to tell the lie and why it will effect the rest of the film.

Another thing that I liked about the film was that one never knows what is coming next. The fans of Atom were really enjoying the film and they told me later that they never saw coming what happened in the film. When the film was over the audience clapped for a few moments and the crowd that I was able to ask questions to about what we had just saw, loved the film and they gave it very high praise.

Please see the film Adoration when you get the chance.

Grade: A

What if you went to preform for the soldiers of your country and you had never sen war before? Would you know what to do and would you even believe it when you saw it? If not, then welcome to the movie The Tour

Once again I had no real idea what I would be watching. The brief synopsis about the film stated that it was set during the 1990's Civil War in Serbia and that the film was a joint Serbian/Bosnia And Herzegovinan film. This alone was the deciding factor of me wanting to see this film and I am glad that I did. I saw a very different film that the one that I was expecting.

What surprised me the most about the film was the great acting of the actress Mira Furlan for those who only remember her for her work on Babylon 5 or Lost need to see this film and remember that she was once described as Yugoslavia's answer to Meryl Streep. Every scene that she was in made it better and you see her try to save a life in the film the insanity of the war is clearly shown upon her face.

The Director of this film Goran Markovic once again does a great job with what he is given to make this film. He tried to show all 3 sides on the Serbian War with style and grace. He showed that all of the sides in the war were human and just wanted the insanity to stop.

The film starts with actors complaining about their play in Belgrade and that their director is an idiot. They are much more concerned with the card game that is going on that anything else. Then they are given a chance to make some real money and to be paid in German Marks, if they agree to go to the war front and preform for the troops. So the actors decide to go and see the front for themselves but what they see shakes them to their believes and then they all start to ask the question why?

What I liked about this part of the film was that their was a doctor that was from the same city as the actors, Belgrade, and that once the actors trusted him, the war took him away and they could not believe it. Also, watch for the commander's reaction to the actors when he finds out that they are from Belgrade and this commander blames the entire war on anyone from the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade.

We next see the actors trying to leave the war by foot but are soon captured by the Croatian forces and then forced to walk through a minefield. The Serbian Army then captures the Croats and the Army leaders ask the Croats why did they make his favorite childhood actors walk and try and clear a minefield. He then grabs one of the Croats and makes him walk and try and clear the field. This is where Mira Furlan really shines as an actress when her character tries to save a life and can only helplessly watch as another man dies in this war.

The actors are finally on the road back to home when they soon are captured by the Bosnian Muslim Army. Their commander immediately recognizes the 3 famous actors and even tells one of them that you were my hero growing up as a child and that if he had even asked for his sister, he would have gladly given her to him, without any questions asked. In the end, he lets the return home to Belgrade.

After the trip is over, the actors have changed and they are not sure what else to do.

The audience reactions were well received at the PIFF for the screening of this film. Many told me that they could not believe that this was a good film and that one of the actress looked very familiar.

Please see Turneja or "The Tour" when you get the chance. Grade. A

What if your favorite song from your childhood would be the exact story of your life? Would you even recognize it as you were singing it? Would you even want to admit it? Welcome to 12 Lotus.

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT REVIEW. I really had no idea what I was going to watch when I sat down to see this film. The only 2 bits of information were the Pusan International Film Festival short description and a very bad review on IMDB. (The IMDB review stated that half of the screening audience in Japan, walked out of the film) I can honestly say that no one walked out on the 12 Lotus showing at the PIFF.

We are introduced to a little girl by the name of Lian Hua. Her main goal in life is to one day become a Getai singer and to sing her favorite song "12 Lotus" before the Getai crowd in Singapore. Her father, who is a widower, has told her over and over again that, The can be no love without pain and that their can be no pain without love. This message sets up the rest of the film.

One is never sure what you are seeing when you see this film. Are you watching a musical with all of the musical numbers that were in this film? Are you watching a bad tale of love=pain as her father had told her? Or are you watching a sad music video with her life going exactly as the song has foretold? The PIFF crowd seemed to believe that it was all 3 and they enjoyed the film for it.

When you see the real lie of the film and how our lotus never recovers from it. It just makes you that much sadder when the final note is shown upon her life and the movie. i kept looking for "Welcome to my Nightmare" by Alice Cooper to play in this film because one the lie happens you slowly see the slide into insanity and the lotus is never the same.

END SPOILER ALERT.

The film is shot to make her life into a long musical video and also a look into madness. Please go see the film for a true look at both.

Grade A.