The Italian

This is a movie that you can see when you are so down and I promise you that it will cheer you up and lift your spirit.

I noticed that during the whole 1 and a half hour -the length of the movie- the smile didn't leave my face

:)

Though the name of the movie is "the Italian" but it's actually a Russian one.

The movie about an orphanage home where kids living chaotic lives and waiting for couples to adapt them. The call the chosen one " the lucky ones".

And one day an Italian couple came to the place to chose a boy and they decided to have 6 year old Vanya Solntsev. The hero of the movie.

He was happy and everyone envied him . That's where the name of the movie came from " The Italian "

Everything changed when the mother of his old friend who was adopted previously came looking for her son. That will change the young boy's mind and he kept wondering

" what if my mother come to look for me ?" and he wanted to have a change of mind afraid that if he left with the Italian , she couldn't find him.

the mother of his friend

These questions and much more will change the sweetheart boy 's life and even at that young age he has a decision and stick to it no matter what.

the older girl who decided to help him.

Through the whole movie i was thinking of the blessing of having a family and someone who loves you especially a mother.

Years ago i thought of fostering a kid and it's still there. I was about to take that step a few months ago and then thought i will be able to by the end of the year if I was able financially , but now we have all these things about leaving the flat and the evacuation threat will still be hanging around our heads, I think it's the wrong time. Maybe in a few years inshAllah.

Being an orphan is not an easy thing. And i keep wondering why would people pay thousands of dollars to conceive a child -those with troubles- when you can adapt a child or foster them in easier ways. Happiness will go both ways.

It's sad knowing that what we see as an artistic work is the reflection of reality. The eagerness orphans have to be adapted by anyone, just to have a home,loving parents and being loved.

If you have the chance to see the movie go ahead and do it . And if you have some extra time read this article .

Watch the trailer- it has English subtitles-

Le Grand Voyage and Creation.

Last week, i watched two movies with different concepts and messages.

I could relate to the first one because I have seen and read about people like the guy in the movie.

But the second one was completely a different experience.

Le Grand Voyage

The film is a French/ Moroccan production . It discuss a relationship between a father and his son while taking an important and long trip. The father who wanted to perform Hajj ( pilgrimage) to Mecca decided to do it that hard way by taking a long trip through Europe and the middle east until he reaches the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

And since he can not drive and a problem has happened to his eldest son, he chose his younger son to drive him the long journey.

It's obvious through the trip and before that they don't have a good relationship.

Is it because the age difference? .

Is it a normal conflict between a father and his teenage son ?

In one of the scenes the son asked his father the question every one will think about. Why didn't you take the plane and in a few hours you will be in Saudi Arabia instead of this long and hard road trip ?. His believe is that the more you endure through your journey, the more you are going to be reward by Allah (God).

The father explanation about how the harder the burden, the greatest the reward is what I said at the beginning that I understand . I know lots of Muslim who would do it the hard way because they believe that the reward is greater.

The furtherest some people will go for what they believe is strange and a mix of respect and amazement.

The movie was shot so beautifully and even though they didn't shoot any scenes at Mecca but the way they mix their arrival and the hajj with a famous footage of Mecca was amazing.

I believed it completely.

This is a trailer of the movie

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Creation

This movie discusses the time of the life of Charles Darwin when he was about to write his famous book " The Origin of Species " .

Unlike what a lot believe , Charles Darwin was a good Christian and he have faith in God. But what will happen when his believe contradicts with his scientific findings .

The movie focus on his beautiful relationship with his beautiful young daughter "Annie" who had a tragic sickness. She seems to be the one who would of have continued in her father footstep. Her sickness affected him tremendously.

In most of the movie you can see his struggle with what his religion believe. His wife devotion to her religion and their silence struggle.

In church he would be wondering about what the preacher say and pray for and what he believes and struggles to spread to the world .

Will he risk his family , his children and the loving relationship with his wife for his work ?

or will he go away and publish his book and let his work be known to the world ?

You can not but feel his pain and agony through the movie despite what you think of his theory and what scientists believe now to be the truth about the origin of the human kind and the refusal of all religions.

But where will be if such scientists surrender to the pressure of society/ family or religion to not talk about what we come to believe in nowadays.

Paul Bettany was amazing in the role of Charles Darwin.

This is the trailer of the movie.

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Will you watch a movie even if it doesn't go with what you believes or even mocks them ?

Movies should come with a warning !!

Why ? cuz some will remind you with the horror in your life, with the pain and agony.

Yesterday, i watched the movie "brothers", a very normal movie which i insisted on completing, not knowing that the pain will be at the end.

The last 15 minutes of it was all our-my family- life happening all over again but this time you are having an out of the body experience . It was not the same reasons as the movie, but the same action. The screaming, breaking things, yelling as loud as you can and threatening of a drunken brother. And the rest of us will be there afraid, laying in bed, crying. While some can run, some might caught and an attempt on their life is done. In our present day you may think nothing was going to happen, but then you would not know if a drunken brother would really do it and stab you !!!. And when you have the chance to run, you just can't , you are frozen.

i used to wonder why people scream and afraid if they are threaten with being killed ?. I used to say ,so what if it's the end of your life then you are going to die but if it's not, you won't.

Until that day, about 12 years ago, when that knife was in my face and he said it. You will die if that key doesn't fit in the locker ?? what shall i do, i started trying them one by one but when i was left with only one key, i just froze and refused to try it, i was not courage , i was afraid and crying and wondering what if ?? .

I wonder why can not we have some button in our brain where we can just press and all is gone and wouldn't be there waiting for a movie or anything to flood all over again !!!

I will always hate this movie for reminding me of the many years of horror and pain.

Amreeka, it sukcs...so what? every place sucks.

The title is a line from the very beautiful " Amreeka" , the movie is about the life of a Palestinian woman who left to America ,or Amreeka as the Arab usually calls ,it with her teenager son at the time of the American invading to Iraq. It chronicles her live there with her sister , her sister's family and the barriers they face from language , different culture , finding jobs and the racism.
The movie, also, shows the beautiful face of many American who are willing to help strangers and make their lives easier :)


The movie reminds me of my post about the ( 6 girls who decided to runaway) and finding happiness . It's very tough decision to make to uproot your whole life and move to another different place but sometimes it's worth it.


If you have the time to watch it, then don't stop. it's worth it.


The movie end with the amazing song "passport " or "جواز السفر" in Arabic by Marcel Khalifa. It's one of the most beautiful poems of the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish, and here are the poem in Arabic and English

جواز السفر

محمود درويش

لم يعرفوني في الظلال التي

تمتصُّ لوني في جواز السفرْ

وكان جرحي عندهم معرضاً

لسائح يعشق جمع الصور

لم يعرفوني، آه... لا تتركي

كفي بلا شمسٍ،

لأن الشجر

يعرفني...

تعرفني كل أغاني المطر

لا تتركيني شاحباً كالقمر!

كلُّ العصافير التي لاحقتْ

كفى على باب المطار البعيد

كل حقول القمح،

كل السجونِ،

كل القبور البيض

كل الحدودِ،

كل المناديل التي لوَحتْ،

كل العيونِ

كانت معي، لكنهم

قد أسقطوها من جواز السفر!

عارٍ من الاسم، من الانتماء ْ؟

في تربة ربَّيتها باليدينْ؟

أيوب صاح اليوم ملء السماء:

لا تجعلوني عبرة مرتين!

يا سادتي! يا سادتي الأنبياء

لا تسألوا الأشجار عن اسمها

لا تسألوا الوديان عن أُمها

من جبهتي ينشق سيف الضياء

ومن يدي ينبع ماء النهر

كل قلوب الناس... جنسيتي

فلتسقطوا عني جواز السفر!

Passport

They did not recognize me in the shadows

That suck away my color in this Passport

And to them my wound was an exhibit

For a tourist Who loves to collect photographs

They did not recognize me,

Ah . . . Don’t leave

The palm of my hand without the sun

Because the trees recognize me

Don’t leave me pale like the moon

All the birds that followed my palm

To the door of the distant airport

All the wheatfields

All the prisons

All the white tombstones

All the barbed Boundaries

All the waving handkerchiefs

All the eyes

were with me,

But they dropped them from my passport

Stripped of my name and identity?

On soil I nourished with my own hands?

Today Job cried out

Filling the sky:

Don’t make and example of me again!

Oh, gentlemen, Prophets,

Don’t ask the trees for their names

Don’t ask the valleys who their mother is

From my forehead bursts the sward of light

And from my hand springs the water of the river

All the hearts of the people are my identity

So take away my passport!

The trailer of the movie

and Marcel's song

Invictus

Last week i watched Invictus, what interests me to watch the movie most is that it's about one of my few heroes, Nelson Mandela . The movie is good, not the best movies directed by clint Eastwood though. Matt Damon was great, but Morgan Freeman didn't convince me as Nelson Mandela. Maybe because Mandela is still alive and we can easily compare and this is, i guess, one of the few movies where they don't use an actor who would resemble the real person or at least try with the makeup and so. One thing was more than amazing to me in the movie, the songs. All of them .

The movie is taking its name from the short poem by the English poet William Earnest Henley whose foot was cut at a very young age.

That still didn't stop him from successfully pass the Oxford Local Examination as a senior student in 1867 and live an active life until the age of 53. talk about his powerful spirit at that time !! . Nelson Mandela had the peom written on a scrap of paper on his prison cell while he was incarcerated.

This is his powerful poem . (Invictus means unconquered in Latin ) :-

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

i just saw " Avatar". A long movie, but worth it if you are into sc-fi movies. The message of the movie was beautiful, first time you see a a sc-fi movie talking about other people out there without labling them ''evil'', actually it's us ''people from Earth'' who are the evil this time and we are fighting a battle that is not ours which remind you of our real life on Earth.

on Earth, we fight , kill each other and launch wars ,why ? . we have no respect for our mother "Earth" , no respect for different cultures and traditions, we want things to be our own ways. and the strong must rule the weak , we want what others have or else.... and we call this ruling the world, strong nations and weak ones. civilized societies and barbaric ones because we like labeling, little do we know that our mother is the one suffering , and when your mother is in pain you are going to feel it whether you like it or not. we do not how stupid are we.

sorry i driftied away from the movie :) . Well, if you have almost two and half hours of free time between your hands and love sc-fi, don't miss it.

And one last note, the technology used in this movie was AMAZING and James Cameron has done beautiful job with this movie.

The Blind Side

I just watching the movie " The Blind Side ". I was waiting eagerly to see this one , so you know when your movie doesn't meet with your high expectations !! . Well, it was a good one and there are some moments when my tears fall down, but other than that it's OK.

What i really like most about , is it that when we do good in helping someone and thinking that we might change the other person's life , it's actually ours that changed .

And what i like even more is that the movie is based on a true story.
Good movie but not a must to watch and surprised that Sandra Bullock was nominated for a Golden Globe for it , but who knows.....

Hope Amid Tragedy :)

I just watched the movie " Precious" and what a beautiful movie it is. It was dark at a lot of moments but you can see hope getting through these rays of despair and sadness . a great reminder that it's never too late, that you can get out of the worst situations. a reminder that your family are not necessarily the ones you were born to. A reminder that you can find love in the unexpected places. A reminder that no matter what happened to you by your parents, you still can be a good parent yourself. A reminder that people don't have to be having the same believes, values or life style to love you or you love them.
There are scenes where i couldn't but look away, cry and get my heart broken over them. But then there is this beautiful things coming to this girl and you know it and you know she knows it and i was just waiting for.

If you have the chance to see it , don't hesitate to do so :)

A Saudi "Super Bad"

a Saudi "Super Bad" !!

2012 and The End of the World

i just watched the movie 2012 and it's ok, the special effects made it watchable, other then that it's not that cool. and it's long movie, 2 hours !! why can not they say what they want quick ??
and again like all such movies i kept wondering about the end of the world, i know that some DO believe it's gonna be 2012 but i think it's silly, i dunno if that's cuz i really believe what has been said in the quran and hadith about it or it's just the cynical me !! .
and why do they have to keep implying in movies that things will be good and that good always prevail over bad, when it's not the case in life. right? le't be realistic, good people don't get the final good endings in real life , and life is not always beautiful and right doesn't always win against evil.
what i hate in these movies and horror ones are the cries and screaming of children, i know it's all acting but i think that no matter what kids shouldn't be put into such things even if they are false, i hate seeing kids crying even if it's an act :(

Paranormal Activity

i just finished watching the movie "paranormal activity" and i loved it a lot, it's a horror movie, and i am crazy in love with horror movies, especially ghosts, spirits, demons and evil. and this one is all about that. it's shot to appear is it's based on a true story and shot by the couples themselves.
have anyone seen a ghost before? a real one? or Jin ? . my mother can sense them sometimes , i remember when i was young i saw one. not recently though. wished to see one but don't want my wish to be echoed in my brain in case one of them read my mind and be gentle enough and show himself, lool, joking. but really do you believe in them ?
if you love such movies, go ahead and see it, amazing.

Antichrist

yesterday, i saw ''Antichrist'' , it was a very strange movie, i have never seen any similar movies, and when i say similar, i mean the way the movie shot .

the movie is about a couple who lost their child and the mother's grief.

it starts with a prologue and then chapter one, two and so on .... . it's a dark , full of gore moments , shocking and somehow disgusting.

the movie made me think about how can people very close to you be your therapist . I've never been to a therapist, though i wish . but is it easy, can they help you ? what if they were part of the problems i have ? . you know when i started this blog some days ago, i thought of telling some of my family, but then i changed my mind, i want to write about every thing here, about my deepest emotions and secrets , about things we can not tell to close ones, so by having them read my blogs, is like allowing them to go so deep in my heart and mind which i don't do usually. i know , have not write anything special so far but i will definitely.

also, in the movie, they were practicing grieving techniques . seriously, i never know about any techniques, i mean i was faced with tragedies in my life and those techniques could help a lot. :(

This is a poster of the movie and a trailer