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Movies / Upcoming / The Back of the World
The Back of the World

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The Back of the World (2002)

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73 %
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Reviews Counted: 11

Fresh: 8

Rotten:3

Average Rating: 6.7/10

Rated: Not Rated

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:May 24, 2002 Limited

Synopsis: A gripping and unflinching documentary that examines three different lives of people who share one painful and tragic fate, life lived "in the back of the world," dominated, tortured, and stripped... A gripping and unflinching documentary that examines three different lives of people who share one painful and tragic fate, life lived "in the back of the world," dominated, tortured, and stripped of basic human rights and dignity. Guinder Rodriguez is an 11-year-old toiling in the stone quarries outside of Lima, Peru. Impoverished and subjected to dangerous and deadly working conditions, he lives in a shack with his family while dreaming of becoming an accountant. Mehdi Zana is a Kurdish man in exile, living in Sweden while his wife, Leyla Zana, the first woman elected to parliament in their city of Diyarbarkir, serves a 15-year prison sentence for speaking Kurdish and wearing the Kurdish flag during a parliamentary session. Mehdi, the former mayor of Diyarbarkir, reminisces about their political joys and defeats in Kurdish Turkey, while painfully reminding the viewer that the Kurdish people are a nationality without a country. Thomas Miller-El is a death row inmate in Texas who has been on death row since 1986 and has had ten execution dates that have not been carried out. He is interviewed, along with the family members of fellow inmates, while the prison warden readies for another man's execution. THE BACK OF THE WORLD is a shocking and deeply profound collection of stories that resonates with the stark horror and pain of the its subjects' shared conditions. This film was screened in March 2001 at American Cinemateque in Los Angeles as part of a festival of contemporary films from Spain. [More]

Starring: Guinder Rodriguez, Mehdi Zana, Leyla Zana, Thomas Miller-El

Starring: Guinder Rodriguez, Mehdi Zana, Leyla Zana, Thomas Miller-El, Thomas Rangel

Director: Javier Corcuera

Director: Javier Corcuera
Screenwriter: Fernando León de Aranoa, Javier Corcuera
Producer: Elias Querejeta

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Reviews for The Back of the World

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1 - 14 (sorted by date)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Jonathan Holland
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out

No review available.

comment Comment
07/17/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
05/13/05
Apollo Guide

Without preaching, pretension or ingenuousness, this documentary depicts the very real darkness of lives beyond nightly TV News or self-congratulatory Special Projects.

Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | comment Comment
08/22/03
Donald J. Levit
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

An unflinching look at the world's dispossessed.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
06/27/02
Megan Turner
New York Post
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
06/11/02
AV Club

Peruvian born Corcuera takes viewers on a journey to the 'back of the world,' where the voiceless outcast and poor on the planet are given the stage to speak.

Full Review Source: WBAI Web Radio | comment Comment
06/01/02
Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

But the power of these [subjects] is obscured by the majority of the film that shows a stationary camera on a subject that could be mistaken for giving a public oration, rather than contributing to a film’s narrative.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
05/27/02
Jon Lap
Apollo Guide

An extraordinary documentary that poignantly engages our sense of justice and spurs us on to a fresh sense of our unity with all suffering people.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
05/26/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

What saves this deeply affecting film from being merely a collection of wrenching cases is Corcuera's attention to detail.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
05/24/02
Leslie Camhi
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What the film lacks in general focus it makes up for in compassion, as Corcuera manages to find the seeds of hope in the form of collective action.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
05/24/02
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The misery of these people becomes just another voyeuristic spectacle, to be consumed and forgotten.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/24/02
Dave Kehr
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

La Espalda del Mundo. It's an evocative title that reinforces the second-class citizenship of director Javier Corcuera's documentary subjects.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
04/14/02
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
 
 
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