nokfrick

This is the first film that I have scored above 8 ever. The issue of political prisoners (usually charged on arbitrary and fake evidence, by brutal and barbaric regimes) is regrettably today more common both in numbers of innocent victims and regimes that use this hideous practice routinely. Because of the global diversification of the news coverage of the world, for the first time ever in the history of man, our knowledge is not constrained by the media of specific regimes and races etc., Hence we (the world) can view this malicious practice objectively and hence strip the foolish national and commercial propaganda of particularly the states or businesses that pretends to be "moral, honest, or civilized" out and view this practice objectively wherever it occurs.

From the above point of view, I must congratulate the director, script writer, actors in this movie. The dialogue (as translated during the dubbing process") is excellent, unemotional, but very direct, to the point and so constructed that the physical and emotional impact thereof poignant.

The brutality of practice of holding political prisoners is also excellently portrayed by the physical environment of incrassation, and the barbaric sadism of the captors and their officials.

What made this film exceptional is the absence of sentimentality of the events by just concentrating on the relevant facts.

Again, to the team that made this film I must express thanks and wish them well for the future.

I saw this film about 15 years ago, and then I understood that the film examines and analyzes the differences between the "fundamentalist" and the "social gospel" interpretations by the Catholic Church then. Since then the world and society have moved on, and viewing the film last night again, it almost feels as if very little fundamental progress in behaviour either by the religeous establishments or by society have been made. The greed, corruption and abuse of power in the name of an imaginary god by some, still continue as before, and the social demands, naivity, dishonesty in the name of another imaginary god still defy logic, honesty, and real compassion. Although many reviewers have considered this film as an attack on a specific church or dogma, I think this is a very superficial view of the more universal truth that those who can steal, lie and cheat with impunity will use any tool (including church, god, and religion) to do so, and in that way debase that tool to a form of criminality and eventually obliterate that tool for better or worse. History has also shown clearly that the so called "abused" are no better - probably equally corrupt and greedy if they get the chance to be so.

In the end, with the fading funeral service scene in the cathedral, and the total self-justification of all present, the film left me with the sad thought, that maybe there is still no place for any church and possibly any religion in this world - and that mankind may still require centuries to evolve into a specie that is capable to have a true understanding of life and selfless compassion.

Like the book on which the film is based, this film will also remain as a major analysis of the current mental and social evolutionary state of homo sapiens.

As the reviews on this website indicate, this movie is either highly recommended by some or passionately rejected by others. It almost seems as if the reviews for two different movies are mistakenly published together, and obviously I saw the film for the latter reviews. The tempo and length of this film are just totally unacceptable. To hold the attention of an audience for 100 to 120 minutes requires a much better script, a far deeper analysis of the central theme that the movie tries to address, and certainly if it is to be labeled a "comedy", it requires some real "humor". This film was tedious, lengthy, shallow in the analysis of the main theme (family relations in a competitive globalized world economy), and totally unconvincing in reflecting the reasonable behavior context of relations between a farther and daughter. The "in company" business discussions were just "gibberish", and perhaps the only theme that could have saved the film (the only reason why I stayed longer than 45 minutes in the theater) was the opportunity to analyze the "cultural" and "psychological" adaptation of the "deprived citizens" of a former communist system to the materialistic attitudes of citizens from a capitalist system. Unfortunately, this opportunity was missed by the Director of the film.

Missing out on this film is highly recommended.