I'm in awe with 'realist' films, especially the one that actually works such as this one. In the climax track shot of walking through the city at night, how do they stage all the noise, the dog, the cars, the everything? It's crazy that i'm super impressed by how organic and realistic it is. Which is odd, because usually i go to movies to see how clever a filmmaker can be with twisting reality. But this was clearly magic to have been able to present a simple act (walking) in a simple composition (face dead center), with all of the familiar elements of nighttime in the city, and brought it all together to heighten the experience of this girl carrying what it seems like, all the worry in the world. It brought me back an almost childish/immediate feeling of being afraid walking alone at night, but of course compared to film, i've never walked alone at night with that much at stake.
But this is where the movie is most successful, the film presents you with people living in a type of harsh system that i can't imagine here living in the states. But the feelings and emotions that are portrayed are universal, the feeling of being young and afraid, feeling of sneaking behind the law, risking something for your friend , feeling of regret. And in this film the moral compass is clear, they know the system is unjust and they do things out of love and care for one another.
But for us here in the states, where government and law has seeped itself into everything, where we don't sometimes realized our own systematic oppression, how much of our sense of right/wrong is driven by government and the law? how much of it is actually driven by love and passion for real people?
