Sanoskai7 Blog

Algiers, 1957. A brutally tortured man has just tipped-off the whereabouts of Ali La Pointe to French officials. La Pointe is one of the last surviving members of the National Liberation Front (FLN), an organization dedicated to freeing Algeria from the colonial grip of France. Now let's quickly jump to the next scene where where Ali La Pointe, a woman, a boy, and a man are hiding as French forces arrive. Their hiding place is discovered and the four are ordered to surrender or die. The moving camera stops on Ali's tense face, blurring out then focusing again- only this time we are now in 1954 Algiers and Ali is just a petty crook, unknowingly on the way to becoming an important anticolonialist figure. That is just the beginning of this great drama/documentary that focuses not just on Ali, but the whole cause he was involved in.
From 1954 to 1962 you witness the Algerians hard struggle for independence, the rise and fall of the FLN, and their very controversial techniques to achieve freedom, such as bombing and shooting authorities. And all without a foot of newsreel or documentary.
Being an obviously anticolonialist film, you would think that such gritty facts would be omitted to keep this a straight forward movie of good versus evil with nothing blurring the line between the two. In this film that is surely not the case. The fine line between justice and terrorism is erased and the cost of this conflict is equally heavy on both sides. You see teenagers shooting officers in the back, authorities torturing the guilty and innocent alike, women carrying bombs in baskets.. all to the music of Ennio Morricone and the director of this superb film, Gillo Pontecorvo.
This is a movie you should surely watch, unless you are sensitive to the subject matter.

This is one of my favorite anime films! Based loosely on his own massive manga masterpiece of the same name, Katsuhiro Otomo's anime classic absolutely embodies a dirty, troubled, apocalyptic world in every scene. Set in neo-Tokyo in 2019 after a mysterious cataclysm 31 years ago in 1988 (when this movie was released), the plot seems simple enough: after Kaneda's fellow motorcycle gang member friend Tetsuo is injured in an accident involving a strange kid, their worlds are turned topsy-turvy. Tetsuo, after developing telepathic powers, becomes a super powerful, homicidal maniac, with absolute chaos following him everywhere he goes. He obsessively searches for Akira, a mysterious telepath even more powerful than him, who may or may not be alive. Kaneda joins up with a girl named Kei and an anti-government terrorist group to find Tetsuo... and answers. Don't be fooled; this isn't your average action-packed apocalyptic flick. It's surprisingly deep and rich with detail. Themes and symbolism representing social unrest and collaspe, corruption, evolution, revolution, delinquincy and the fear of wild youth, and especially sudden, violent change- all of that crammed into a 2-hour movie which, for some, may be too hard to swallow in one sitting. Be warned, this isn't any cute Studio Ghibli Japanese animation (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's raw, violent, profane, and at times very sickening. And the ending maybe flat-out confusing! But with amazing detail in the animation that was revolutionary in its time, mind-blowing symbolism, a great plot, and a catchy soundtrack (Kaneda's Theme IS the BEST!) this film is definitely a must see!