(Aberdeen News / November 3, 2011) |
The Global Lens films being shown this weekend pay tribute to the “soul of cinema” and offer a modern-day parable of good and evil.
The films “A Useful Life” and “The Light Thief” were the official submissions to the 2010 Academy Awards by their countries of origin, Uruguay and Kyrgyzstan.
“A Useful Life” stars real-life Uruguayan critic Jorge Jellinek as Jorge, a devoted employee of a Uruguayan movie theater. Even after 25 years, he “still finds his inspiration in caring for the films and audiences that grace the seats and screen of his beloved arthouse cinema,” says the synopsis. “But when dwindling attendance and diminishing support force the theater to close its doors, Jorge is sent into a world he knows only through the lens of art -and suddenly forced to discover a new passion that transcends his once-celluloid reality. Stylishly framed in black-and-white with brilliantly understated performances, Federico Veiroj's sly and loving homage to the soul of cinema is a universally appealing gem and knowing charmer about life after the movies.”
The film has a running time of 63 minutes.
“The Light Thief,” written and directed by Aktan Arym Kubat, focuses on Mr. Light, a humble village electrician who devotes his compassion and ingenuity to destitute neighbors in a wind-swept valley of Kyrgyzstan.
The character, the synopsis says, is “played with wry humanity” by Kubat.
According to the publicity material, the trusting Mr. Light “strikes a suspect bargain with a rich developer running for local office, as unemployment threatens the survival of the community. Stoking a dream to supply wind-generated electricity to the whole valley, the modest visionary comes up against an increasingly dark cloud of corruption in this affecting tale of solidarity and ordinary decency amid the injustices and hardships of a changing world.”
“The Light Thief,” which runs 80 minutes, is told in the Kyrgyz language. In “A Useful Life,” the characters speak in Spanish.
Both films have English subtitles.
