(Click on film's title to read SK's original review.)
Amazing Grace. Michael Apted's new film tells the stirring story of William Wilberforce, the English abolitionist who helped end the slave trade in 1807. Apted is concerned with people, not preachments, and keeps the account lively, helped by such actors as Michael Gambon and Albert Finney. (Reviewed 03.19.07)
Bamako. In the capital city of Mali a trial is held in an improvised courtroom--more of an inquiry, really--investigating the exploitation of Africa and Africans. It is all vitalized by the presences and force of the participants. A contrapuntal family story weaves throughout, helping the film's point. (03.19.07)
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams. That strange word is the name of a district in Sarajevo. There we encounter survivors of the relatively recent war and, in interweaving stories, we see how they are remembering and forgetting it. Relevant truth is crystallized in the lives of a woman and her twelve-year old daughter. (03.05.07)
The Lives of Others. Life in East Germany under the vigilant eye of the secret police, the Stasi. A Stasi captain, who thinks himself fervent, finds himself secretly involved with the people he is watching. Some of it is familiar in shape, but it is intelligent, pungent, smartly acted and directed. (02.19.07)
--SK
By Stanley Kauffmann