Abouna and the gaze

During the screening of Abouna I found myself “gazing” more so than in other films.  In Abouna, the cinematography, limited dialogue and language barrier pushed me to focus more on the visual.  My eyes had to always be on the screen so that I wouldn’t miss out on anything.  Whereas, in other instances I can [...]

Abouna

I rarely watch movies with subtitles, mainly because I think the translation takes away some of the essence of the dialogue. While watching Abouna, I wished constantly that the subtitles were close to the actual meaning, while marvelling at the same time at how some of the words sounded so much like Hindi words. I [...]

Scoptophilia and Abouna

I thought it was really interesting to watch Abouna through the lens of scoptophilia.  I really liked the cinematography of this movie and thought that it was beautifully shot.  There are multiple long distance shots of the two boys that are particularly intriguing.  Because they are shot from so far away, the viewer gets a sense that [...]