Monday, May 19, 2003
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By Gautaman Bhaskaran
One of the festival's early favourites is 23-year-old Samira Makhmalbaf's ``At Five In The Afternoon'', shot in post-Taliban Afghanistan. It paints the nation's misery — with the American disinclination to build it up adding to the prevailing chaos and confusion — through the lives of three ordinary individuals: an old tradition-bound cart-driver who still believes in Mullah Omar and Osama-bin-Laden, his very modern daughter who aspires to be the country's president, and his daughter-in-law whining away her life. Samira, who is the daughter of the well-known Iranian movie-maker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, comes to Cannes for the third time. Her ``Apple'' was in competition and ``Blackboards'' and her latest, ``A Certain Regard'' are also in Competition. Although ``At Five In The Afternoon'' was scripted by Mohsen, along with Samira, the film may not be a high point of cinema, but it certainly is a forceful attempt to tell the world all about Afghanistan's wretched condition. With prejudices galore — men turn around and face a wall if they see a woman without a ``burkha'' — Samira's work tries to say that all is not lost, and that especially women can be catalysts to progress and change. Her protagonist — a non-professional actor whose husband has been missing since the American bombings and who now teaches in order to support her three children — conveys both the pain of living in a male-dominated community and the pleasure of harbouring the free spirit of a woman who dreams of becoming the Afghan President. With some stunning visuals, Samira's strong point, she frames the tragic plight of a race out to suffer because of the follies white men commit. ``At Five In The Afternoon'' has many of the ingredients needed to turn out a powerful piece of cinema, but as perhaps Samira herself knows, there is always the danger of her work resembling a documentary, because of the approach she has chosen. If Samira's picture is a poignant reminder of a country torn apart by misplaced Western ambitions, Gus Van Sant's ``Elephant'' gives us a hint of a malaise which may be a result of this aspiration. ``Elephant'' is a take-off on the Columbine massacre in the U.S., and it captures an usual day in a school that turns into a shockingly unusual one. At the beginning of the film, we see students go about their routine: three girls are complaining about their inquisitive mothers, one boy is taking pictures, another is dating a girl...till the disturbing finale hits you with a kind of speed and ferocity that it leaves a viewer shaking with anger. Van Sant's effort also has a docu feel, and that is because it deals merely with the events and not the causes. This leaves each one of us to interpret why a couple of boys behaved the way they did that particular day. What is scarier is the serenity, the calmness on their faces as they go about killing friends and fellow students. Are these two so disenchanted with life that they seem completely detached from any kind of bond? Well, we can only guess, and Van Sant wanted precisely this. Maybe, he is seeking answers from his audiences.
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