My Country My Country 2006

Laura Poitras. A documentary portraying life in Iraq during months preceding elections under American occupation of Iraq. This is a fine film which is educative about ground realities of that country.

The Oath 2010

Director: Laura Poitras. This is a gripping documentary, about the minds of the people behind the hoods. The middle-east houses much fear, hatred and passion. Religion is the powerful brew which hooks and welds large numbers of people on a sub-continent. Ofcourse, it is mixed with oil, power and geo-politics--a holy mess, indeed. It tapers into a drab story narrated by an eloquent taxi driver. Needs to be seen.

The Theory of Everything 2014

This is a romantic biopic about Stephen Hawking. It succeeds in present the iconic scientist as a human being courageously confronting a crippling disease. Even more than the very human portraiture, it is nice to see British society at its civilized best. The locale is the green verdure of a hallowed academic institution, with manicured time weathered stone architecture and lush greenery.

Citizenfour

Director: Laura Poitras. This is a documentary about Edward Snowden, the whistle-blower who exposed the widespread surveillance of the online activity of millions of citizens. The film raises the question of the limits of the power the state does or should exercise over citizens. If one has the fear that everything one does or says is being observed, it obviously puts limits on discussion, which is a limitation on freedom and democracy. Extremely terse and gripping as a spy thriller, this is a necessary watch for the sake of things one needs to be aware of, if not paranoid about.

Ida 2014

This film is shot in gloomy b/w. Ida, now in her twenties, a Polish Jew by birth, raised in a convent, is about to be formally inducted as a nun. She sets out to discover her past with help from her sole surviving relative, Her family was murdered, apparently for their house., She locates the burial site, digs out the bones, to inter them with some respect, a symbolic act of love for her parents she never saw. She has no taste for a normal life, and walks back to the convent. The film has an autumnal beauty, resonating with the memory of the terrible past. The tall tree trunks, mute witnesses, are shrouded in mist, the houses squalid and the restaurants swept by gloomy jazz. How quickly the world changes! The dream of the holocaust followed by Stalin has receded, like past plagues.