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The Back of the World (2002)
Tomatometer
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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
Without preaching, pretension or ingenuousness, this documentary depicts the very real darkness of lives beyond nightly TV News or self-congratulatory Special Projects.
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.
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.
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.
What saves this deeply affecting film from being merely a collection of wrenching cases is Corcuera's attention to detail.
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.
The misery of these people becomes just another voyeuristic spectacle, to be consumed and forgotten.
La Espalda del Mundo. It's an evocative title that reinforces the second-class citizenship of director Javier Corcuera's documentary subjects.
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