At this time, the Darney brothers did not have the extreme style and emotional rendering power they later did, and they did not frantically put the camera on the actor's face, so that the audience and the characters were anxious, breathing together, suffering together, and despairing together. In terms of narrative, it has not yet formed a minimalist style that later focuses on the character's emotions and details of the action, and discards all the life fragments other than the characters. Therefore, in terms of emotional mobilization and rendering, compared with "Rosetta" and "Son of Others", the tension is slightly less. The empathy, immersive sense of substitution and synchronization brought by handheld photography is not so strong. . However, as the early works of the Darney brothers, it can be seen that in the process of groping for their own style and when they are not absolutely confident, the selection and exploration of the story theme is quite large, through the role identity and racial differences. Reveals social environment and ideology as well as class issues. Critically, this film is among the best in the Darney brothers' work.
Illegal immigration is an extremely common social phenomenon in developed regions in Europe and the United States. People from poor, backward, war-torn and turbulent regions smuggle to developed countries by land or water, seeking stability and a new life or trying to realize the American dream of "closeness". No matter how many "just" people you have heard chicken soup remarks, no matter how much you advocate freedom and equality, you can't change this. This is a division of people into three or six. Nine worlds. Take a look at these illegal immigrants in the film, their filthy living environment, their life trajectory with no prospects, their dignified living conditions, and even if they die, there is no such person. If the black laborer who fell from the building to avoid government inspection died, he asked Yigo to take care of his wife and children. Facing the death of a black man, 15-year-old Yigo is completely different from his father. This is also the core conflict point of the film. Yigo has transformed from an outlaw who lived under his father's wings and followed his father to manage and arrange illegal immigrants. A man who needs to take responsibility for a tragic family. He could have covered up the truth with his father, which he did in the first place. Buried the body with his father and deceived the wife of the deceased with his father, but the morality and morality in his heart made him anxious, hesitant, self-blame, eager to confess, and looked at being blindfolded. The woman in the drum. There's always an element of moral dilemma in the Darney brothers' films, which is the trump card of the Darney brothers' dramatic tension. The father made a rape scene to try to drive away the woman and the child, and he made up the lie of the husband in Germany to try to send the woman and the child away. And Eggo finally completely betrayed his father under the influence of his moral conscience. He drove the woman and the child away from his father, but he still did not tell the woman the truth, and he did not dare to accept the consequences of telling the truth. He and the woman carrying the child wandered helplessly on the street, because the child was sick and went to the hospital, but because the money was not enough to see a doctor, it was a black cleaner who also came from Africa who helped her and gave her money. She was alone under the bridge with her baby on her back and waiting for Egg when two white racists on motorcycles urinated on her from the bridge and knocked over her luggage. She found a black magician to seek fortune-telling about her husband's whereabouts, and was told that she would die in a foreign country. All the help she received in this modern reinforced concrete city was from blacks, and the injustice and violence she suffered all came from whites. The Darney brothers have added many fragments of life other than Egg to enrich the content and depth of the film, which is both critical and highly interpretive. In order to take care of women and children, Egg even sent a message to his father. He fought and tied his father's feet with iron chains. Conscience and responsibility gradually took over the high ground in the dilemma of family love. At this time, the biggest suspense was when he would tell the truth. Egg used his golden ring to buy train tickets for his mother and daughter, and when he was about to separate at the train station, he finally told the woman the fact that her husband had died. There was no crying, no anger, the woman just lowered her head and hesitated for a moment, turning around and going back the way she came, she couldn't go anywhere, because it was the same everywhere. The film ends with the backs of the two leaving. The telling of the truth did not bring about an emotional climax, and the ending in "Son of Others" also has the same effect. The awkward silence sums up all the tension that came before it, and the inner tension beneath the calm is the most fascinating aspect of Darney Brothers' film.
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