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Stockholm My Love (2016)
Not a travelogue!
This film is certainly not a drama, nor a musical (as the IMdB genre tags have it), though a dramatic event and music are central to its purpose. And it's not 'easy viewing'. It's been described here as boring and pretentious, and such a description cannot easily be dismissed. And yet, at the end I decided it had been time well spent, though perhaps a little less time might have been adequate for its task. Some of the images are very beautiful indeed and relate to the fact that the narrator (and only character) is an architect. She uses her reflections on certain places in Stockholm (especially churches) as a way of coming to terms with her involvement in a fatal road accident. Such a coming-to-terms is a slow and often repetitive process, and although at times the film is turgid, it ultimately feels meditative and redemptive.
Absurdistan (2008)
You'll come out smiling - and thinking.
This is a delightful film, and left me with a smile on my face that lasted quite some time. Like all good comedy, it must not be taken too seriously, though it deals with some very serious issues indeed. Even if the film was made in Azerbaijan, the story is certainly not 'about' a Muslim country as such, of whatever style. One of the couples does have a large picture of a mosque above the marital bed, but some scenes are in what appears to be a Christian church, albeit devoid of overt symbols, and, in one, some of the women cross themselves with holy water. But these references to religion are incidental: the film is not to be interpreted in realistic terms. It is allegorical and is simply about people, no matter where they live. A jaunty score nicely reinforces the comedic mood.