SFIFF: Black Friday And Shape Of The Moon

Sundance awarded Shape of the Moon ("Stand van de maan") director Leonard Retel Helmrich the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary category. The second part in an unfinished trilogy (which began with "Stand van de zon," which we'll translate as Shape of the Sun) about life in modern Indonesia, it's a verite piece that delves deeply into the struggle of Rumidjah, a christian mother who's sons have converted to Islam.

Black Friday, on the other hand, is an epic thriller that represents itself as the "true story" behind the horrific riots of December, 1992 and the reciprocal bombings which followed the next March. The movie begins and ends with the quote "An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind" from Mahatma Ghandi, though more telling was the quote from the lead detective Rakesh Maria (a world-class star turn by actor Kay Kay, who we'd like to see crossover like Chow Yun Fat): "Everybody who has nothing better to do than fight in the name of religion is an idiot." That line got a smattering of enthusiastic applause from the secularists in the audience.

The two films approach their core subjects -- religious intolerance -- on very different levels. Helmrich's documentary is lyrical and very personal, presenting the struggles of single family against the backdrop of a rising tide islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia. The prodigal son of the family, Bakti, is easy to relate to as he struggles with unemployment, marriage and his relationship with his mother. He is ambivalent if not outright dismissive of religion, but finds the message of the imam irresistable not on theological grounds but on geopolitical grounds. He converts to marry a beautiful young woman, but even his mom admonishes him "Why don't you be a good muslim and give up drinking."

Black Friday, on the other hand, works with characters at the top levels of government and international espionage. With great scope, it reveals the relationships between smugglers from Dubai (which looks a lot like Los Angeles), state-sponsored islamic extremists in Islamabad and eastern Pakistan, and India's justice machine who work under the rule of a Hindu nationalist goverment. Still, it humanizes the small-time hoodlums who perpetrated the crime while villifying their leadership in the form of Tiger Memon, who is portrayed as manipulating the very real grief and anger over the 1992 anti-Muslim riots to achieve vengeance for the destruction of his business interests.

We found it interesting that Black Friday opened with what looked like a stamp from the Indian equivalent of the MPAA, and wondered what that meant for the story in terms of censorship and point of view (in fact, the movie's release was delayed by the courts in Mumbai). We didn't feel the film pulled any punches, though, and they certainly didn't mind the depictions of torture during a few interrogations. One of the hoodlums has his hand beaten to a pulp, and in grisly the following scene must sign his confession with his bloodied hand. We worried that it played a little too much to the audience, who we're sure wanted to sate their desire for revenge and might take comfort in the rough treatment of the bombers. Still, it seemed to be sinking to the level of the criminals.

In both films, the photography is wonderful. The quiet shots of Bakti at market with his friends, or Rumidjah at home with granddaughter Tari are graceful and intimate. The title of the film is repeatedly alluded to visually, as well as diegetically -- the name stands as a question to the family, who are struggling make a choice the cross or the crescent. A crescent moon appears over Pakistan during the training of the Black Friday bombers, as well, where the religiosity inflamed by the experience of rape and murder at the hands of Hindu mobs is molded into the violent ideation of jihadism. Even Tiger Memon's pious anger seems believable at a meeting between Muslim gangsters and the Pakistani secret police, when the camera focuses on actor Pavan Malhotra explaining his sentiment behind the attack: "After this, they wouldn't dare look a Muslim in the eye."

While Shape of the Moon uses its lingering pace to help connect the audience to the subjects and indirectly describe the sense of longing in the character's lives, it's a snappy 92 minutes. Whereas Shape of the Moon just barely conforms to the traditional story arc, Black Friday is split into five distinct acts, and the fifth act is furthered divided into five episodes, and the entire film is nearly two and a half hours long. Still, it's an exciting film with lots of action and scope, so it doesn't languish.

Both films lament the erosion of the notion of secularism, and scoff at the attempts of theologues to manipulate the emotions and desires of normal people to meet their own ends. Neither condemn Islam, Christianity or the Hindu faith, but both look askance at the rhetoric that spews from church and community leaders that would seek to divide populations against each other. We're left with the idea that sectarianism, in the end, can only lead to disillusionment at best and violence at worst. It's certainly a lesson Americans would do well to learn.