Film: The Turtle's Rage

I nearly didn't go to this, this evening. I heard that the secret cinema was, for once, letting us know what film they were showing! and it was the Grand Budapest Hotel, whose trailer is very funny, and which looks very good. Now, this was previewing this week, in the British Film Institute only. So, of course, by the time I came to it, it was sold out. And next week it's only showing on Sunday, when, of course, I'm in Ireland. So this showing was very tempting. But the problem is, they don't tell you where it is until you've booked. And the event timing is supposed to run from 6 - 11pm, which is quite late, and I don't know how long it would take to get back from wherever it is, and I have work in the morning. And the ticket price, including booking fee, is over £57..

So, in short, I went to The Turtle's Rage instead. Showing at Riverside Studios, I certainly knew it would be easy to get to - five minutes by bus, off-peak. It's highly rated on IMDB, and the description, of the daughter of a Palestinian exile seeking to find out more about her father and about Palestine, sounded interesting. The "turtle" of the title is, of course, her father, who disappeared to Palestine when she was 12 and came back some time later, and lived in the basement, not talking to anyone. Retreated into his shell, you might say. So the film is about her attempt to understand what's going on.

I hope she did, because I didn't. The more I think about this film, the less satisfied I am with it. Her father comes across as a crochety old geezer, mad at everyone, even comparing the Germans (they now live in Berlin) with the Israelis. Very gradually, through the film, his reasons for doing what he did - and what he actually did - are revealed to us. Even so, you have to guess a lot. Like, when he and his daughter travel to Gaza to see his sister and he fails to get in, does he eventually succeed? Is that his sister who's interviewed sporadically throughout the film? Who is the older woman? Who are all the other people, probably family members, that we see him with? They are never introduced. Most of the time, I hadn't a clue what was going on. The director doesn't seem to find it necessary to tell us, happy to leave it as an impressionistic mishmash. And as for finding out about the wider Palestinian question, as it says in the summary, I saw no evidence of that whatsoever. This is the second documentary about the Palestinians, made by the child of a Palestinian refugee, now living in Europe, that I've seen this week. The first, A World Not Ours, I found much more satisfying.

Of course, I didn't say any of this in the survey I filled out as I was leaving. :-) But honestly, it is a good film - maybe a 7.5, rather than the 7.9 IMDB has given it - and it was upon reflection that I thought of what was wrong with it. It is interesting. But I prefer the other, as I say.

And so back to Ireland tomorrow, hopefully without the delays I had last time, which led to me spending half the weekend in Heathrow! The storms seem to have died down anyway. I had the devil of a time doing my film list for next week, there were so many new entries - and so many highly ranked! But if I do go to a film on Monday - which seems likely, given that the only seats left for A Taste of Honey are still of the £50 variety - then my choice is likely to be Non-Stop, which is pleasantly highly rated. Stars Liam Neeson as the saviour of a planeful of people who are under terrorist threat. Also stars Michelle Dockery and Lupita Nyong'o (goodness, she's everywhere all of a sudden!) as flight attendants, and Julianne Moore as a passenger, and therefore potential suspect. Watch this space..