Capone's Art-House Round-Up with A UNITED KINGDOM and STARLESS DREAMS!!!

Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a few films that are making their way into art houses or coming out in limited release around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…


A UNITED KINGDOM
A wonderful trend in the last year of film has been the uncovering of long-forgotten (and sometimes, virtually unknown) stories about ground-breaking achievements that have quite literally changed history. While movies like LOVING and HIDDEN FIGURES have unearthed chapters in America’s past that were not featured in history books, it’s almost inconceivable that the story featured in A UNITED KINGDOM has slipped from collective British consciousness since the events caused the significant upheaval of two nations.

The film starts out as a not-so-simple love story, set just after World War II, between a Botswana-born Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo from SELMA), a law student studying in London, and typist Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike from GONE GIRL). Soon after they fall for each other (with the expected pushback from both her family and pretty much anyone passing them on the street), he gets word to return to his homeland and take his rightful place as king. Not wanting to leave Ruth behind, the two get married in Britain, and Seretse brings her to Bechuanaland (currently known as Botswana) as their new queen. The move probably would not have gone over well in either nation regardless, but in Bechuanaland’s neighbor nation of South Africa, apartheid was just beginning. In addition, there was a serious push to separate the races in Bechuanaland as well, as it was effectively a British colony under British law.

What follows is a series of appalling and state-sanctioned actions, imperial bullying, and just bad dealings, all done in the name of racism and a desire to keep Bechuanaland on a tight leash due to the possibility of valuable mineral mines. Director Amma Asante (A WAY OF LIFE, BELLE) and screenwriter Guy Hibbert (EYE IN THE SKY) lay out one soul-crushing scene after another, with British government lackeys (played by the likes of Jack Davenport and Tom Felton) pitting Seretse against his uncle, who wishes to take power away from his nephew for daring to bring a white woman in to rule their country. But by doing so, he’s falling right into Britain’s plan to divide and conquer their country.

The film doesn’t work until Oyelowo and Pike sell the romance, which they absolutely do. She is clearly terrified when she first moves to Bechuanaland with him that no one will accept her, and she stumbles through several attempts to win the people over. But eventually her commitment to their cause against the British and their king wins them over, especially when the British trick the king to come back to London and then refuses to let him leave, keeping the couple apart for a great deal of time. But this section of the film when they are separated features some of the movie’s best moments, especially with Ruth developing both routines and friends among the women that are now, for lack of a better word, her subjects, but she treats as equals who have a great deal to teach her.

Director Asante does a solid job keeping the complicated political wheelings and dealings clear and easy to understand. There’s a great deal of double-speak and talking around what is clearly a way for the government to institutionalize racist policies without admitting to doing so. The film falls short it placing some of the blame for the situation on Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s doorstep, but there are plenty of other bureaucratic weasels at whom to point the finger. A UNITED KINGDOM and the story of this couple and what they achieved is undoubtedly one worth remembering and being retold. I wish the film was coming out at a time of year where it wouldn’t get lost in a sea of awards contenders and be given a chance to shine in a less crowded field, but the fact that this tale is being told at all is a good thing in and of itself.


STARLESS DREAMS
“Eye opening” doesn’t even begin to describe my reaction to director Mehrdad Oskouei’s STARLESS DREAMS, a deeply revealing documentary that takes a look inside an all-female, mostly juvenile prison in Iran, that houses everything from murders to girls who have simply run away from home after years of abuse. As much as their crimes may be vastly different, their stories are shockingly similar as patterns emerge of Iranian girls and women being treated as something less than human, subject to physical and sexual abuse, and called liars if they call out their abusers. Oskouei negotiated for years to get permission to film inside the facility, and the resulting footage is as raw, painful and honest as you can possibly imagine.

This prison is not like those you see in American films. There are no roving gangs beating up the weakest inmates. These young women pray together, some share their common histories and even joke and brag about the crimes they’ve committed, ranging from common thievery to drug dealing and prostitution. They all seem to have individuals that haunt them in the outside world and make them afraid to return and live the normal life they so desperate crave. Some pray for death, others simply want to remain locked up and safe rather than return to the world of hurt they are sure is waiting for them at home. We see some talking on the phone to relatives who never want to see them again, and all the false bravado comes crashing down into a shower of tears.

But as we hear one story after another in carefully extracted interviews, it becomes clear that something about the oppressive society (which is considered fairly liberal for the region) has given these girls few choices in how to deal with the injustices they are being dealt on a daily basis. One young woman is in jail for killing her father, and when you hear her heartbreaking story, you’ll understand why. This is a place where a man’s life is legally worth more than a woman’s, and victims of abuse are given almost no means of reporting or getting protection or justice from those (usually family members) abusing them.

As devastating as STARLESS DREAMS can be at times, director Oskouei never forgets to give us examples of the undying spirit that so many of these girls have. Being around others who identify with their plight gives them courage and the ability to laugh and joke again. But the filmmaker also searches the corners of the facility to other young women who don’t join in during lighter moments in the prison. They hide in the darkness or stare out the window, with nothing and no one around the console them. There is no shortage of suffering on display, but there are fleeting moments of hope when families come together at unexpected times to protect these girls. I know STARLESS DREAMS sounds heavy, and it is. But it’s a deeply enriching and unforgettable portrait of survival, and a undeniable plea for change and help.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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