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Category Archives: Drama

Tasuma, the Fighter

07 May

90m; Africa

Director: Kollo Daniel Sanou

Synopsis (NYT): Sogo Sanou (played with dignity and reserve by Mamadou Zerbo) is a veteran of the French colonial army who saw battle in Indochina and Algiers. Long retired to his tiny village, atop a rock-strewn hill in a distant outback, Sogo has been patiently waiting for his pension from the French government. But each time he makes the arduous trip to town, bumping his bicycle along dirt roads, he is met with blank stares at the government offices. No, his name is not on the list today. Maybe tomorrow.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Public Sector, Working Class

 

Tauw (1970)

07 May

30m; Senegal (Africa)

Director: Ousmane Sembene

Synopsis: A young unemployed man fends off accusations of laziness and makes a home for his pregnant girlfriend who has been rejected by her family.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages

 

Taxi to Timbuktu (1994)

07 May

51m; U.S.
Director: Christopher Walken

Synopsis (Icarus Film): Alpha is a New York City taxi-driver. He comes from Batama, a village in the poorest region of Mali, Africa, a country among the poorest on earth. Since the drought of 1973, there has never been enough rain – the rivers have dried up, the animals have died, the trees are gone and the fields have turned to desert. The men of Batama have gone abroad, hoping to earn enough to keep the women and children alive.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Transportation, Working Class

 

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992)

07 May

90m; U.S.

Director: Alastair Reid

Cast: Brian Dennehy, Jeff Daniels and Maria Conchita Alonso, Eli Wallach

Synopsis (IMDB): For a generation, the mobs main money machine was the Teamsters Union. When Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, the fight was on to see who could follow him. Jackie Presser was the son of a long time union board member and when he retired, Jackie was elevated to one of the most powerful position in the country; President of the Teamsters Union.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Drama, Transportation, Working Class

 

Teachers (1984)

07 May

107m; U.S.

Director: Arthur Hiller

Cast: Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams and Judd Hirsch, Morgan Freeman, Laura Dern

Synopsis (IMDB): A teacher overcomes his frustration in a high-school full of flunkies. As he attempts to educate his students, his attempts to help them gets him into trouble with the school board, which only adds to his problems. With the support of his students he beats the school board and his frustration.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Education, Public Sector

 

The Bad Sleep Well (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru) [1960]

07 May

151m; Japan

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Masayuki Mori and Kyôko Kagawa

Synopsis: A 1960 film directed by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. It was the first film to be produced under Kurosawa’s own independent production company. The film stars Toshirō Mifune as a young man who gets a prominent position in a corrupt postwar Japanese company in order to expose the men responsible for his father’s death. It is Kurosawa’s unofficial Hamlet, reportedly the director’s favourite Shakespeare play. It also doubles as a critique of corporate corruption. Koichi Nishi (Toshirō Mifune) wants revenge for his father’s death. Nishi is a complex man, playing the troubled Hamletesque character, who lets his father’s past destroy his own future. Nishi is the easiest character to draw parallels with Shakespeare’s play. Nishi seeks to avenge the unnatural death of his father. Maysayuki Mori’s performance as the evil Iwabuchi resembles Claudius. The only other clearly corresponding character between Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well and Hamlet is Horatio with Nishi’s accomplice. Nevertheless, the underlying themes of circumstance, revenge, and justice, connect the film and play. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Sleep_Well

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Industrial/Mine/Manufacturing, Working Class

 

The Battle of the Rails / La bataille du rail

07 May

85m; France

Director: René Clément

Cast: Marcel Barnault, Jean Clarieux and Jean Daurand

Synopsis: A story about French railroad workers who were part of organized resistance during the German WW2 occupation

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Transportation, War

 

The Best Typist in the World (El Mejor Mecanógrafo del Mundo) (2005)

07 May

18m
Director: Rafa Piqueras

Since he was a child, Ernesto Casanova always knew that he would be the best typist in the World. We’re in the 70’s, he’s 35 years old and he works for a lawyer’s office as a typist. He’s secretly in love with the office’s secretary. Life flows in a pleasent routine, but one day, Mr. Robledo, the boss, decides to introduce the technologic renovation in the office and he buy a new computer. Casanova thinks that this is the end.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Automation, Comedy, Drama, Romance, White Collar

 

The Price of Coal (1977)

26 Apr

U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Synopsis (Wikipedia): A two-part television production.  The first is comic, and deals with the preparations for an official visit by Prince Charles. The humour revolves around the expensive and ludicrous preparations that are required when there is an official visit from a member of the Royal Family. The workers recognise this and cannot take it seriously. Management recognises it but has to play the game. Special toilets must be constructed “just in case” and then destroyed after the visit. A worker is instructed to paint a brick holding up a window. On the eve of the visit the slogan “Scargill rules OK” is painted on a wall. The manager comments “When I find out who did that I’ll string him up by his knackers”. It is a surreal situation for many of the miners who obviously bear no love for Royalty.

The second deals with a pit accident where some men are killed, and attempts to rescue some trapped men. It is loosely based on the Lofthouse Colliery disaster in 1973.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Drama

 

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The Proud Valley (1940)

26 Apr

76m; U.S.

Director: Pen Tennyson

Cast: Paul Robeson, Edward Chapman and Simon Lack

Synopsis (IMDB): In a Welsh coal mining valley, a young man with a beautiful singing voice is called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice when a pit disaster threatens.

 
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Posted by on April 26, 2012 in Drama

 

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