Unhealed Wound – Page 8 – Unhealed Wound

The White Ribbon [Das Weisse Band]

Written by Diana Paul on March 2, 2020. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on The White Ribbon [Das Weisse Band]

[Guest reviewer Barbara Artson, author of the novel Odessa, Odessa ] Director Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon (2009) opens in total darkness. We see nothing but hear only the elderly voice of a narrator: “I don’t know if the story that I want to tell you is entirely true. Some of it I only know by hearsay, and after so many years it remains obscure today, and I must leave it in darkness.” And so the schoolteacher narrator, now an old man, begins his rendering in a series of flashbacks, depicting the mystifying and horrific happenings that...

“For Sama”—A Letter to My Daughter

Written by Diana Paul on February 24, 2020. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “For Sama”—A Letter to My Daughter

For Sama is the most searing documentary about war that I have ever seen. Nominated this year for an Academy Award for Best International Film, For Sama presents some of the most unflinching war coverage and remarkable and courageous footage. A love letter to her infant daughter Sama, born in Aleppo, For Sama is a Syrian mother’s first-person account of the bombing of her beloved homeland over a period of five years. Aleppo, at the time, was one of the last strongholds resisting the Assad dictatorship. Waad Al-Khateab is the Syrian producer, cinematographer and hero of this...

“Clemency”–No Mercy or Absolution

Written by Diana Paul on February 17, 2020. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on “Clemency”–No Mercy or Absolution

What’s the psychological and moral cost to a society that administers the death penalty? That’s the question raised in Clemency, the winner of the Sundance drama award last year. So much more than a “death-row drama” , Clemency shifts the lens to the impact of bureaucratized human cruelty: a scathing portrait of the toll the process of administering an execution has on prison staff. We see how they are not executioners but bureaucratic cogs in a horrible machine of death. Sixty-something Bernadine (the remarkable African American actor Alfre...

The Report—An Exposé for Us All

Written by Diana Paul on February 10, 2020. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on The Report—An Exposé for Us All

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EIT)—is the focus of The Report, a provocative Amazon political thriller. A Senate staff researcher, Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) is assigned by Sen. Diane Feinstein (Annette Bening) to investigate detainees held by the CIA in “black sites”. A shameful chapter of American history unfolds , where torture was re-introduced as a legitimate tool in pursuit of national security. The Report employs flashbacks of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that are frightening and harrowing. Flashing back to 2001 immediately after 9/11, the anxiety...

Happy New Year 2020: The Year of the [Metal] Rat

Written by Diana Paul on January 5, 2020. Posted in Lunar New Year, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on Happy New Year 2020: The Year of the [Metal] Rat

Happy Chinese New Year 2020! The Buddha taught rats first, among the animals in the Buddhist pantheon, and rats rank first on the Chinese zodiac. Though people who follow Western animal symbolism do not consider the rat either adorable or auspicious, nevertheless the characteristics of the rat are considered spirited, witty, alert, flexible, and that of a survivor. The Chinese New Year will begin on January 25, 2020 with the final celebration on February 11. The Metal Rat Year is going to be a strong, prosperous, and lucky year for those who conduct financial research and follow through...

My Top 15 Movies and TV Series for 2019

Written by Diana Paul on December 31, 2019. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on My Top 15 Movies and TV Series for 2019

Here are the reviews I wrote this year with the criteria that they were available online or were at local movie theaters, although not necessarily under broad distribution nor widely distributed through move theaters. Of the 43 reviews, here are my favorites. Another difficult year to make my listicle. As in past years, both television and cinema have continued to produce phenomenal story-telling and intriguing characters. The following list is not ranked, only grouped by genre and date of review. INDIES and FOREIGN CINEMA 1) Lo and Behold–Reveries...