SONITA - HOT DOCS 2016 Review By Greg Klymkiw - Teen Rapper Tale veers into jingoism

Sonita (2016)
Dir. Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
Starring: Sonita Alizadeh

Review By Greg Klymkiw

It's not surprising that Sonita won the Audience Award during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, playing to rapturous applause. Even within the rarefied conclave of American Liberalism, the thing that's most troubling about the film would have skipped right over the heads of most Americans.

First, the positive. The film is a superbly made story about the title subject, a teenage Afghani refugee living under the aegis of a charitable organization in Iran which provides shelter and schooling to kids who were hustled away from Taliban rule for a better life. Sonita and her siblings have lived in safety, but have done so at the expense of being separated from the rest of their family who've remained in Afghanistan for many years.

Director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami not only paints a vivid portrait of life in Tehran, but manages to do so with slicker than usual production value. Both the cinematography and sound are first-rate, delivering an extremely palatable presentation of life in a repressed country like Iran - one which seems like a bastion of free speech compared to Taliban-influenced Afghanistan.

Sonita's music is a real treat also. It often dazzles and moves us with her passion, skill and promotion of both social justice and equal rights for women. (There's a music video, which Sonita essentially directs, which will inspire considerable happy gooseflesh.)

Sonita is a hugely talented singer-songwriter who has found her calling in rap music. She sings about women's rights with verve and passion, but even Iran (as seen in this year's Raving Iran) strictly forbids music which is not government sanctioned, nor does it allow women to sing. Sonita must pursue her dreams in secret.

The most urgent conflict occurs when Sonita's family in Afghanistan is appalled that she's singing and they begin the process of bringing her back home in order to be sold into the slavery of a forced marriage. This sequence is nail-bitingly suspenseful. Though there is some talk that director Maghami's financial intervention to buy Sonita some time crosses over into "journalistic" heresy, this hardly seems to matter since we're dealing with the life of a deeply passionate and extraordinarily talented young artist.

Though the suspense ratchets up even more skillfully during the final conflict in which director Maghami again intervenes, a very sour taste begins to foul the proceedings since it involves Sonita potentially being saved by the evil corporate imperialism of a country that has caused all her problems to begin with, and in fact, all the problems associated with extremist middle eastern terror that plagues the world.

For anyone who accepts that America has dug its own grave and continues to dig graves for the rest of the world, much of the goodwill the film builds up has far too much potential to render it as little more than lunkheaded Argo-like American propaganda.

I can see why American audiences lapped this up. Alas, it left me cold as ice.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: *** 3 Stars

Sonita is a FilmsWeLike (FWL) release, its Canadian Premiere is at Hot Docs 2016

RAVING IRAN - HOT DOCS 2016 Review By Greg Klymkiw - Iranian House DJs Risk Death

To Rave Or Not To Rave?
To Die Or Not To Die?
Choices Galore for House DJs in Iran!

Raving Iran (2016)
Dir. Susanne Regina Meures

Review By Greg Klymkiw

The genuinely brilliant House DJs Anoosh and Arash create the kind of heavenly pulse-pounding sounds which raise the level of rave music to interstellar heights. The commitment they bring to their artistry is beyond obsessive which, is probably a good thing given the hypnotic beats they etch aurally like a kind of Jackson Pollock x2 on a mixing board. Then again, obsession amidst repression seems to be a life-skill that Iranian artists must have hardwired into their very DNA.

Anoosh and Arash should be stars.

And in a sense, they are, but their celebrity remains deep in the underbelly of the rave scene in Tehran, Iran. To be public in a country that views their music as unholy enough to warrant prison, torture and death is tantamount to suicide. Even working underground is enough to flirt with the aforementioned indignities of pain and eradication.

It's a wonder, then, that filmmaker Susanne Regina Meures captured their harrowing story using hidden cel phone cameras and other surreptitious means to chart an important story of creation under attack.

Given the means of production, the film is raw, ragged and grainy. This seldom detracts from one's appreciation for the picture and does, in fact, contribute to the mix of the artists' creative energy with the frustrating, maddening and often downright terrifying risks they and their fans undertake.

Iranian House DJs Anoosh and Arash risk the
wrath of Allah's self-proclaimed gatekeepers.
Allah, though, would love their music and artistry.

All around them we see armed police and willie-inducing checkpoints. Dark alleys in circuitous labyrinthine back streets and deep, dungeon-like basements are their domain - where, like the undead, all rise with the setting of the sun and scurry into their coffins with its rising. Better they should scurry into them of their own volition than risk being blasted into them from the end of an Iranian peacekeeper's gun.

The film gives us a rare insider's view of the creative process, the raves themselves and the frustrating lengths Anoosh and Arash must go in order to manufacture their album. When they're invited to the largest, most prestigious House Music Festival in the world in Switzerland, dangerous, heartbreaking decisions await them.

In Iran, making a decision might be DEADLY.

From staging a massive secret rave in the desert to the chillingly suspenseful process of leaving Iran, filmmaker Meures is with them all the way.

And so are we.

Such are the joys and sadness cinema can create. When they reflect life, as in this brave, bold documentary, it's all the more edifying.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ***½ 3-and-a-half-stars

Raving Iran makes its International Premiere at Hot Docs 2016

SPECIAL FLIGHT - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Fernand Melgar's powerful feature documentary about Switzerland's systematic racism perpetrated against people of colour who seek political asylum is the opening film of the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) "Human Rights Watch 2012" which feature nine films that tell stories of oppression and corruption from around the globe.

Special Flight (2011) dir. Fernand Melgar

***1/2

By Greg Klymkiw

There is so much evil in this world that the last place one expects to find it is in Switzerland. This is, after all, a country that has had a long-honoured tradition of peace-building and has remained staunchly neutral in times of war - so much so that the country has not officially been at war since 1815. The country is not only home to innumerable health, human rights and philanthropic organizations, but is the birthplace of the Red Cross.

Based, however, on its record of witch-hunting political refugees living within its borders, rounding them up systematically, incarcerating them in a prison-like detention centre and worst of all, playing horrendous mind games upon these people to get them to willingly leave, I can only conclude that Switzerland is as capable of evil as horrific as the countries that threatened to persecute and/or annihilate these people in the first place and that will do so if and when they are shipped back.

Even worse, is that Switzerland's aggressive actions against political refugees is steeped clearly in racism. The vast majority of these hapless souls are people of colour.

All this said, given Switzerland's less-than-stellar record of harbouring the financial fortunes of corporate criminals and Nazis, perhaps this isn't all surprising.

And frankly, where there is such an over-zealous sense of "neutrality", one will find bureaucracy of the most inhuman and pernicious kind.

For me, Special Flight, is mainly about bureaucracy and how it conducts the dirty work of politicians and other white-collar criminals in a "clean" manner. As always, bureaucracy is all about nest-feathering, doing one's cog-like "duty", providing endless buffer zones to deflect responsibility and keeping one's hands clean. Aside from the clean hands bit, the workings of bureaucracy are like any evil totalitarian regime.

And watching the plight of this group of political refugees is like watching sick, slow, mind-numbing psychological torture - perpetrated by Totalitarians who pretend NOT to be Nazis.

The movie follows the lives of several individuals in Switzerland's Frambois Detention Centre. On the surface, this is a place that adheres to many of the values one normally equates with Switzerland or, for that matter, any reasonable democratic state.

The detainees are treated with relative dignity, they're well-fed, provided clean accommodations, wages for any work they do within the walls of the centre, visitation privileges with family and friends, recreational facilities, sporting and cultural programs and, friendly, humane treatment from the wards of the centre.

But, they are prisoners.

Appallingly, many of these refugees have been peacefully living in Switzerland for years - working, paying taxes, paying national health fees, holding legal drivers' licences and even identity papers. Many of them have married Swiss citizens and had children. They are, for all intents and purposes, fine, productive, law-abiding citizens of the country and only a small minority of them have engaged in aberrant/illicit activities.

They have been rounded up, often "innocently" during minor moving violations and the like, immediately thrown into the detention centre and forced to wait there until they get a hearing before an immigration judge to assess their refugee claims. This takes months to years. They are torn from their homes and families and kept as prisoners of the state.

And I reiterate, they are primarily people of colour.

This is so clearly a racist action.

And it is evil.

Their human rights ARE being violated. They aren't being physically tortured, but the psychological torture is extreme and, I'd argue inhuman.

The film follows one group of detainees. We see their lives in the centre, the burgeoning friendships, their relationships with their wards (guards), visits with family and lawyers, recounting of their individual tales that forced them to leave their countries and move to Switzerland in the first place and their actual trials in immigration court.

Prior to their court hearing, they are counselled to peacefully accept the decision of the court if it doesn't go in their favour. In fact, they are counselled in this manner on numerous occasions before and after court. If they are deported, they do have the right to refuse boarding the plane - however, they must be handcuffed, driven to the airport and taken to the gates. There and only there can they refuse. And even there, they are given more counsel as to why they should cooperate.

And what, pray tell, is the reason they are given to cooperate? Well, if they don't, they will be taken back to the detention centre to wait even longer - not for an appeal, but without warning, to be hauled out of the centre and put on a "special flight".

The "special flight" is not in any way, shape or form special - it's degrading and inhuman - and will, in fact, single these political refugees out to officials in the countries that persecuted them in the first place.

I have not even begun to scratch the surface of this abomination. The film will leave you shattered and demoralized that any of this is going on at all in the "free" world.

What we see, finally, is example upon example of the most ludicrous bureaucracy foisted upon these people and what is especially maddening are how the bureaucrats do their jobs. They are cogs. They have one job and one job only. They will only deal with the job at hand. They will listen to nothing else from their charges unless it specifically relates to the job at hand - which is almost always devoted to booting these people out of a country they've lived in for years.

Special Flight is jaw-droppingly shocking and all the more harrowing as it depicts a form of "polite" persecution and thinly veiled racism.

The nightmare these political refugees find themselves in is to be placed in the care of a system that inspires its bureaucrats to repeat words over and over again that are not too dissimilar to words we've heard from war criminals.

"I have a job to do" is their mantra and it always - ALWAYS! - sounds like those chilling words, "I was only following orders."

"Special Flight" is part of the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) "Human Rights Watch 2012" which feature nine films that tell stories of oppression and corruption from around the globe. It is playing for one show only on Wednesday February 29 at 8:00 PM. For a full list of films, descriptions and to buy tickets, visit the TIFF website HERE.