The Watchlist: Movies about sovereignty and freedom
The English
Let's start with the emotional darling of the lot.
The English (Hugo Blick) is a limited series set in the late 1800s. In it, a wealthy English woman, Lady Cornelia Locke played by Emily Blunt, is seeking revenge for her dead son.
After a rude introduction to America, Lady Cornelia conscripts an unwilling companion: a recently discharged Pawnee scout - a group of Native American soldiers from the Pawnee tribe who fought with the American army against other Native-American tribes - named Eli Whipp (Cheske Spencer).
The mission is simple: travel across treacherous terrain in search of revenge. As our duo encounters challenge after challenge - including an eyelid-less bandit - their attachment grows into a beautiful unconventional love.
Sandwiched into the layers of the main plot are the character’s background stories. Because of their hauntingly tragic pasts, our heroes have nobody to live for until they find each other. From astrology and Native-American mythology, there is a lot of emphasis on fate and destiny.
I love this series. It's a throwback to western movies, not just because of its wild American setting, but also because of its dialogue and the breathtaking composition. Arnau Valls Colomer's cinematography is grand with ultra wide shots juxtaposed against close-ups of some of the best acting on any screen. The visual language, which is rich in texture and colour works in tandem with the script to transport the audience into the world of 'The English'.
The music score is a mix of modern instruments and old movie sounds. Think 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' theme song mixed in with the score from a Christopher Nolan movie: It rhymes with the filmmaking and is a reminder that this isn't your typical western story.
The damsel in distress trope is blown out of the water in an amazing sequence right in the middle of the series – you can’t miss it.
The series serves as a meta-narrative to highlight the abuse endured by Native-American tribes, the injustice in the erasure of that abuse, and the deliberate degradation and minimisation of Native-American culture and dignity in film.
These six meaty and satisfying episodes will leave you thinking, and if you are like me, crying after the final credits are over. Watch it on Showmax.
https://youtu.be/UC6HUZsvCtM
Star Wars Movies and Andor
I first watched Star Wars when I was in my early teens. My foray began with the episode 1 to 3 chunk, from the early 2000s: the lesser episodes. The grandness and the sci-fi of it all ticked all the right boxes.
Fast forward a few years to my bored twilight teen years. I was on a long holiday, and I had no prospects for fun. There was nothing to watch on TV, what's changed?
Anyway, I had a bootleg DVD with a million and one movies, without any warning along came Episode 4: A New Hope which was the first Star Wars movie released; Episodes 5 and 6 quickly followed. To say my mind was blown would be playing down the dopamine hit that was my nerd trip into the 1970s.
In the original Star Wars trilogy, we follow our reluctant hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil) as he is thrust into the rebellion against the evil Empire. He discovers, adventure the meaning of family and the importance of choice. He becomes the Jedi he was destined to be, and we witness one of the biggest fetes in filmmaking history.
After nerding out to the first trio of movies, I settled into back-burner fandom. The franchise was revived, and the story moved on with sequel after sequel. I, however, felt that the story was complete and didn't watch the new releases.
And then one day, not unlike my bored discovery of the first movies, I decided to watch Rogue One. I wasn't disappointed.
Rogue One is the story that immediately precedes first Star Wars movie. The story is simple, compact and complete: If you haven't watched Star Wars you can jump into this movie, enjoy it and exit the entire Star Wars affair.
https://youtu.be/frdj1zb9sMY
Andor
So, when I heard that Disney was making a prequel series on Rogue One's lead character Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), I was thrilled.
Andor is to Cassian Andor what the original Star Wars trilogy was to Luke Skywalker: his hero's journey. We watch Cassian grow from a local thief in a forgettable place to an important participant in the resistance to the Empire.
Beyond that, this movie is about the sacrifices people make when fighting for freedom from totalitarianism.
https://youtu.be/-3RCme2zZRY
"I burn my decency for someone else's future" Luther Rael's monologue, delivered by Stellan Skarsgård, is a wonderful example of the themes that make this show work.
Find Andor, and Rouge One, and, hey, while you’re at it watch the first 6 episodes of Star Wars.
https://youtu.be/cKOegEuCcfw
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After Yang Kogonada's exploration of the meaning of life
The past is tricky thing to get at, it exists, if one is to believe scientists, as permanent moments captured in the amber of space and time.
I have, over and over again, watched videos explaining the concept of time. You can’t go back in time; you can only travel forward. However, if something has happened it cannot be erased. If you could look back at a specific moment in space and time, you’d see the past as it occurred. Memory on the other hand is tricky: it is subjective and changes all the time.
‘After Yang’ is a movie about a family who live in an AI-integrated future. Yang (Justin Min) is a human-like android bought by Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) to act as a caregiver and cultural aid for their adopted Chinese daughter, Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja).
One day, after a rather rigorous dance battle, Yang shuts down. Jake takes Yang from one repair shop to the next in search of a remedy, but his options and hope diminish over time. All the while, Mika is in mourning; she appears to be the only one who is truly alive to the gravity of Yang’s loss.
Once restoration is deemed impossible, seconds-long snapshots of Yang’s memories are given to the family. These snapshots, they are told, are what Yang deemed worth saving in his limited memory.
Jake and Kyra, mostly Jake, watch the snapshots. They see Yang in his previous life with his previous family, and they see themselves through his eyes. Yang’s three second snapshots are tender and incredibly moving. Kogonada crafts a contemplative point of view for Yang. He is always on the outside looking in with curiosity and tenderness: A quality Justin Min pulls of perfectly.
It’s in these memories that the movie truly comes alive. ‘After Yang’s’ tone before the discovery of the memories is one of stillness. The calm aesthetic and an introverted performance by the actors, lends the movie a zen-like vibe. A counterbalance to the stillness is the propulsive pacing of the story; each answered question leads to a new mystery or new character depth or new thematic insights.
Yang’s memories are childlike in their simplicity; his gaze is one of purity and admiration. In his memories, the air flows and the sun shines. There is a preciousness in Yang’s memories that echoes an emptiness in the family’s life.
Watching Yang’s interpretation of his life, and his family awakens something in Jake. Jake is pensive, lonely and searching for something, be it in his work with tea or his quest to save Yang. One gets the feeling that something is missing in Jake’s life, and that the missing piece is only just out of reach.
At some point Jake asks Yang’s friend, Ada (Haley Lu Richardson), if Yang ever wanted to be human. A question she dismisses as human minimalism, but one that reveals Jake’s desire: He wants to know what constitutes a meaningful life.
Yang is present in the moments he shares with his family, even more than Jake or Kyra whose everyday distractions, and human limitations take them away from their daughter. Taking into account Jake’s question to Ada, maybe Jake and Kyra are disadvantaged by their humanness. As human beings are we disadvantaged by the high value we attach to our limited perspectives?
“There is no something without nothing.” Yang says this to Kyra in one of her memories. To die is to have existed, to have lived.
Yang’s death opens up the family. His memories don’t just serve as a demonstration of his service and reverence for the family, they are a reminder that as you are searching for life it’s happening all around you.
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The Watchlist: Beautifully Filmed Black Skin
I had an epiphany a few years ago. I realised that I had never seen beautiful dark skin on the silver screen: skin that is representative of the nuances of darker skin tones.
It sounds insane, considering that we are in Kenya.
Cinematography is a tricky thing. Translating what is in the mind's eye of a writer, director, or director of photography into moving images is tough. Images often tell a magnitude of lies from height to weight and even skin tone.
I started watching movies and TV with cognisance in the mid-90s. At that time, there was a boom in Black-American TV shows; from Moesha and Sister Sister to The Wayans Bros, there were black faces all over the small screen. In movies, Will Smith's star was in ascent, and Denzel Washington's leading man status was in top gear. I saw Black people all the time on the screen, and they seemed okay-looking.
The 2010s were a sort of renaissance in Black film and TV in Hollywood, with shows like Insecure, Chewing Gum, She's Gotta Have It, and Atlanta getting serious funding, and therefore, access to the tools needed to film Black skin properly.
In Africa, the Nigerian film industry is omnipresent, and independent African and Africa-based films have been on the rise; Supa Modo, Rafiki, Timbuktu and Mediterranea are a few examples.
So, what does it take to film Black skin properly? This video on the history of filming dark skin and this video on the human effort to correct this issue do a better job explaining the topic than I ever could.
While the above movies and serialised TV shows are well-shot, these following movies are the ones to watch to get an appreciation of what good cinematography and good direction can do. Enjoy!
If Beale Street Could Talk
This is American director Barry Jenkins third movie, and his first after winning the best picture Oscar for 'Moonlight'.
This is also the movie that inspired this article.
Adapted from James Baldwin's novel of the same name, If Beale Street Could Talk is the story of the injustice meted out to Black men by America's criminal justice system. The movie follows a young couple, Fonny, and Tish, as they fall in love with each other and then get separated when Fonny is falsely accused of rape. Their families work to get him released, but sinister forces are working to keep him in jail.
Every frame in this movie feels like a picture. Hues of browns, greens and yellows work in concert with Nicholas Britell's moving score - listen to the stand out song here and watch this video by Brittel explaining the creation of the score-, and delicate camera movements that make the movie feel like a seamless well choreographed dance.
Watch If Beale Street Could Talk on Netflix.
https://youtu.be/31uw3MPZMAc
The Last Black Man in San Fransisco
I love this movie. This is an original story by lead actor Jimmie Fails and director, screenwriter Joe Talbot that is semi-autobiographical.
The story is centred on Jimmie's obsession with the house he was partially raised in and his efforts to restore a way of life now gone.
Shadowed by his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors), Jimmie seeks to restore the house, and through an unintended legal circumstance, he moves into the house.
The movie deals with themes of childhood abandonment, male mental health, male friendships, gentrification, and the failure to launch or Peter Pan syndrome, where people fail to transition into adulthood.
This movie is tender. It takes a loving look at the flaws of the lead character. He is on a break from reality, a prolonged break but a break nonetheless. His family is frustrated by his choice to obsess over the house instead of building a life, but they are largely aloof or absent.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco is as beautiful a movie as you are ever going to see.
https://youtu.be/C0FnJDhY9-0
Honourable mentions are Lovecraft Country and Moonlight both available on Showmax.
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