NEXT TO LAST FILMS from the Black International Cinema, Berlin

In addition to Dar He and Africa:  the Beat, there are three other films that I saw at the Black International Cinema festival in Berlin that bear special mention.  These are Askoo, a short film from Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Ali Hashemzehi:  Shahde Sang/the Nectar of Stones, another short from Iranian filmmaker Sattar Chamani Gol:  and A Manina Dos Ojhos Grandes/Girl with Big Eyes, a feature-length dramatic narrative by Cape Verdian filmmaker Alexis Tsafas.

Askoo is a 25 minute short fim that has been in several documentary film festivals.  It was shot in Baluchi with English subtitles.

It is about a man and his camel.  The man in question is a camel dealer.  Apart from his herd, he has one camel that is both his mount and companion, and that is Askoo.   

His relationship with Askoo is somewhat like what, in other parts of the world, you’d expect to develop with your dog, or perhaps more appropriately, with your horse in the days when horses were a primary means of travel.  Because the camel dealer spends most of his time alone in semi-arid regions with his camels, his relationship with Askoo is very important to him.

At work on "Askoo."  Filmmaker Mohammad Ali Hashemzehi is on the right.

And there is history involved in this relationship. As the film develops, we learn that there has been a major conflict between our camel dealer and Askoo.  At the very end, in an off-hand way, we are finally led to understand the reason for this conflict.

The movie is charming.  There is the interesting, “exotic,” side of seeing what life is like for a camel dealer in the backlands of Iran, but the hints dropped about the conflict are what really draw us in.  My one major criticism of the film is that there was something important lost in the translation.  (What in the world is “brambles?”)  As a parting note, Askoo the camel certainly has big, beautiful eyes.

A scene from "Ashkoo."

The second film, Shahde Sang/the Nectar of Stones, is also by an Iranian filmmaker.  It´s in Kurdishm, with English subtitles.

This 25 minute short film takes us up a steep, rocky, barren mountain with three men set on getting something that is, we are led to understand, still available on the cliff face.  It is a long journey they make, and at the end of it, one of them (who is doing this “for the last time”) must be hoisted up to the middle of the cliff face by the two others.   

Plenty of drama here:  will the two tire and let their friend drop down to certain death?  Will the bees (yes, halfway up the cliff’s face, he encounters a bee’s nest) sting him so badly that he lets go of the rope?  Will this, his last journey, end in his death or in his getting what they came after?

Askoo the camel with the films´lead, the very personable camel dealer seen from the back.

We only learn more than halfway through the film, and much of the way through the dramatic cliff-hanging part, what they are after:  honey, made by bees that have their nest… in a hole halfway up the cliff.  To cut to the quick, yes, he gets the honey without dying.  His companions lower him back down to safety, and the three of them…consume all the honey that they just spent most of the day getting, at the risk of the life of one of them.

It is quite humorous in sections, happily, by intention.  Would I ever go through all that for a feast of honey?  No way.  And in places, the drama was a little forced.  But:  did I enjoy the film?  Absolutely.

Note that I was unable to contact Sattar Chamani Gol, the filmmaker responsible for this film, and so don´t have any photos related to him/her or the movie Shahde Sang/the Nectar of Stones.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about a film from Cape Verde.  This will be the last film we´ll cover from the Black International Cinema, Berlin.