Tomber pour Ali

I highly recomend! Even though I personally could not recognise a strong central point, but there were many interesting aspects and juxtapositions of a great value In this film. It was a warm film with closely observable and felt feelings and emotions. Sincere.

A Gay/Queer film from Lithuania - a place I never imagined it could come from and it is superb. The two main actors who play the Lithuanian corporate lawyer and the Syrian refugee are both excellent, and their mutual knowledge of English (most of the film is in English) posed no problems for me. In fact, as a long part of the film is set in Belgrade, a sort of no-man's land for them, it seemed to me totally normal that sometimes they stumbled with a word or two. But now a brief and no spoilers account of the story. The lawyer seems a sort of snobbish, sexually arrogant gay man, leading his life almost uniquely among his gay friends. On a website he meets a Syrian man in Serbia. Leaving his comfortable and sometimes callous life, he goes to Belgrade in search of the man he met online. There in a St. Paul of Damascus way he 'finds' his human goodness and does everything in his power, despite obstacle after obstacle, to get the refugee to more understanding country. Eventually he does it his way, and the ending, improbable to some, was heartbreakingly beautiful. As a film it is finely made and each detail counts. If there were superfluous scenes I did not see them, and above all it is an eye opener in that it tackles a controversial subject bravely and I just hope it heralds more films from our Eastern European neighbours. A solid 10 for a very fine film.

Couldve been better if the real issue was presented. I fell asleep after 30 mins so i have to rewind and yet still not getting the whole point of the movie. It would be nice to hear them use the Lithuanian language instead of English.. A lot closer to "Label Me" but Label Me was far better and high quality with the direction, storytelling and acting..

I just watched Advokatas (The Lawyer) with English subtitles throughout. This is important as I would have had to have given up if solely the Lithuanian parts were subbed. The story was fine, but the actors were grim, mainly because they were not particularly fluent in English (90% of the film was in English) and it looked as if they had learnt their lines parrot fashion. There was very little expressiveness or emphasis where you would expect it. I'm not sure some of them knew exactly what the meaning of the words they were saying actually was, in particular the lady artist who was getting a divorce and who really was the pits.

There were a couple of sub-plots that I was not sure about. Why were they there? The trans angle and then the dropping of the court case and then the divorce. Digressions are fine, as long as they mesh somehow with the main theme.

The Syrian refugee expressed some overtly political views that were propaganda straight from the terrorist groups that attacked Syria. I found this distasteful, especially as he emphasised at one point that there were gay clubs and cafes in Syria before she was attacked, something I can testify to the truth of from my time there. There was tolerance and relative freedom, but he launched into a diatribe against President al Assad who'd presided over this liberal atmosphere. I found it very odd and not justified.

For the ending, you have to suspend your critical facilities. In real life their scam wouldn't have worked. However, in view of what had come before with the official agencies and the time constraints of "The Lawyer" to get back to his job, the film had to end somehow. At least this way brought a wry smile.

I honestly can't give this more than a four but have to say I watched all the way through and wasn't really bored at all. The main plot held my attention. It was just the dialogue and the way it was spoken that was the problem.

The movie about minorities among minorities. Touching scenes, unexpected turns of plot. I had to feel and survive a lot while watching it. And it reached some deep places of mine. Makes you smile, cry, wish and support.