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he film features several different storylines , all of which intersect periodically throughout the film. Jean, a restless teenager who yearns for freedom , tells his sister-in-law Anne (Juliette Binoche) about his dissatisfaction with working on his father's farm. Jean suddenly throws a piece of garbage at Maria, a Romanian woman sitting on the side of the road. Amadou, an African boy, tries to get Jean to apologize and then winds up in a scuffle with him . The police arrives and blame the African. Michael Haneke juxtaposes different characters' different lives belonging to different social classes. Haneke gives us insights into the various lives that have intersected in modern city. We witness an equally racially charged encounter at the end of the film. A man (Arab) begins to harass Anne in a metro. She moves to the other end of the subway car. He follows and sits down beside her and then spits in her face. This is a film about race,culture ,urban rage and alienated identity. But then Haneke's films are not so straightforward as well. Haneke loves to play with our assumptions of reality and he does it well in Binoche's scenes ,some of which may also be scenes from a film her character is making.
The Kannada film dealt with the lives and the customs of the Madhwa community. Samaskara directed by Pattabhi Rama Reddy was a path-breaking attempt in Kanada as far as parallel cinema is considered. A Brahmin named Narayanappa dies suddenly. He used to drink liquor and kept a sudra mistress. He disobeyed the traditions of Brahmin actually. Now there is a discussion about his cremation in the community, and the Acharya (Girish Karnad) ,the head of the Brahmin community fails to answer it. He reads the holy books, but they do not provide any solution. Meanwhile Acharya sleeps with Narayanappa's mistress and then he feels guilty about it and runs away from his place. The film gives a beautiful count of the political,social and moral issues involved in the funeral rites. However this film becomes repetitive after a certain point. Still overall this film is a must watch for film-lovers.
Mother and Son is a 1997 Russian film directed by Aleksandr Sokurov , depicting a relationship between an old dying mother and her young son. It depicts one-day in the life of a grown son and his elderly,ailing mother. The son must gently lift his mother and carry her from place to place. Their speech is slow and heavy , as though even the act of speaking has become an effort for them. Forget speaking-even breathing is an effort for both mother and son ,so heavy does their existence weigh upon them. From time to time, there is a far away train or a sail on the sea , emphasizing further their isolation from the rest of the world. It is difficult to find a film that has captured the sense of intimacy and communion between a parent and an adult child. Everything happens slowly in Mother and Son . Sokurov introduces a shot , and instead of cutting quickly to another angle , holds it on the screen, inviting us to feast on the image to find our own dreams and meditations and yardstick inside it , to perhaps recall our own parent-child relationships. Sokurov distorts his images to suggest the heightened , dreamlike reality of the dying mother and son. While the dialogue is kept to an absolute minimum , the soundtrack is extremely expressive and is an essential element of the work- the wind, the sea, the "music" of the earth , provide a brilliant counterpoint and commentary to what is seen.
