#class diaries

The plot follows Somu (Sriram), an affluent NRI who returns from the US for a reunion with his schoolmates in India. When his childhood sweetheart Chandini (Avika Gor) doesn’t turn up, Somu continues his search for her. 10th Class Diaries  

[seen @ 7th OLHAR DE CINEMA INT'L FILM FESTIVAL - Special Exibhitions, Curitiba - PR, Brasil]

It was impossible for me to detach this movie from a previous one that I'd seen on the festival, which is my last post (Camocim). Here are the paths of three women, whose lives where stained in different levels. Lives respectfully exposed on camera, and as in Camocim, politics are the tying knot: they are ragdolls thrown around in the cells of decaying state institutions. Prison, adult public school, orphanage (not quite the exact word - but a temporary residence for a minor who chose to flee its house). Their poor condition and poor education is the trade currency in the hands of corruption in this country. But here in this picture there is a petit and shy stream of CHANGE. That is the people's power. First, because we see the 1st woman, a mother who is injustly incarcerated, trying to read and understand and un-weave the brazilian Constitution. To grab a right that is her, but made so difficult and so unreachable that is used against her. Her will to study is her eagerness for the truth and that is BEAUTIFUL. Second, because with see a lawyer (also a woman), who choses to work humanly for humans - without getting rid of the numbers and long words that form the mechanism... but wearing those lenses, still being able to see the character as a being whose dignity is vanishing. Thirdly, the way of the education. Teachers are shown in the way they need to be shown again: with autority AND passion. With hopes that all will be better after class. Here I praise immensely the choices of Maria Carolina and Igor, the directors, for this living breath out of ignorance.

Class Diary (Diários de Classe)

Dir.: Maria Carolina da Silva e Igor Souza

Brazil, 2017