the italian

do you know why i did not become a colonel?

because i don't lick asses

i think the italian was quite a nice show. simple, moving, engaging. while it doesn't achieve any spectacular breakthrough as a film, what i really like about it is that it focuses on telling a story that is part of this world, that we can understand, rather than being all flashy and gimmicky.

the story- 6 year-old vanya's search for his mother, reminds me of gitta sereny's the german trauma, the part about social workers trying to reunite kids from eastern europe.

kids separated from parents(under any circumstances) + east-west divide = dilemma

what do you really do? give the kids a better life by letting them go west, or reuniting them with their birth parents? it is not a simple question to answer.

i am really interested in stille sehnsucht, a german film about a young mother who loses her daughter in the bosnian war, but finds out that she is still alive and goes in search of her, who is living happily with her new family in germany.

the scenarios may be a little different, but i think these works largely revolve around the same theme. thus, it is kind of interesting to see the different perspectives with regard to the issue.