Still Searching

After worship on Sunday we made the dash to Toronto so that we could watch two films which were part of the Toronto International Film Festival. We arrived back in Belleville at 1:00 AM, an endurance test which will probably not be repeated! The second film we chose in advance, but the first was chosen for us in that daughter Jocelyn, who works for TIFF, gave us the tickets which had been passed on to her.

This movie, The Search, is a remake of a 1948 film of the same name. The original was about a nine-year-old boy, a survivor of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, searching for family after the war. The 2014 version is set in Chechnya during the largely ignored conflict between the Russians and this small state seeking independence. There have been two wars, and this one began in 1999.

The film is brutal in its depictions of Russian violence against the Chechen people, mostly innocent civilians. There is a nine-year-old boy in this story as well, and he searches for his older sister and infant brother after their village is invaded and destroyed. All of the acting is good, but the boy who rarely speaks is mesmerizing in his expression of a wide range of emotions.

We agreed afterward that the film is a reminder of how dependent we are on the media to be aware of the violence and conflict which rages around the world. I doubt many of us were all that aware of this Chechen war when it was unfolding. We were also drawn into the drama of this family and the pain and trauma experienced by children.

There was a brief scene of the teen sister fervently praying that she might be reunited with her brothers. She is a Muslim, as the majority of Chechens are, and while we see her engage in certain ritual motions, she is offering a universal cry for help to the God she worships and trusts. It was a touching moment.

Was there too much violence? Well, it wasn't pretty, but we were both moved by the story and felt that we left with a new perspective on a forgotten conflict. That's part of the power of film.

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