ThomasKus

The Earl of Sodor is returning to Sodor and needs the engines to help him create a big surprise. All the favourites are here plus a few new engine faces and the story is true to the spirit of the original books yet big enough to keep the action going for a proper movie. The format of the TV series is essentially extended into a (short) full length movie with added songs and a clear emphasis on positive values like "working together". For grown-ups there are historic references to Stevenson's Rocket but generally the target audience is preschool Thomas fans who will not be disappointed. My two year old son was impressed and I was easily entertained enough to enjoy our first cinema outing together.

This is no doubt one of the most moving documentaries I have seen in a long time. The story of a family who decided not to bow to pressure, not to run away, not to give up in the face of the most horrendous state brutality speaks for itself and I find some of the criticisms voiced in other reviews hard to stomach. It is not Mugabe and his oppressive regime that need to be explained, it is the fact that his system is allowed to continue without much international challenge that is abhorrent. The courage of Michael and Ben in making this documentary, in continuing with their case and in showing the real face of Mugabe and his small but brutal elite is worth noting and remembering.

As someone who grew up in the East German era depicted in this film I have of course two advantages - the language and the personal experience. The Lives of Others deals with a topic that had infiltrated East German lives to a still unknown degree and it is to the credit of the film makers that they have tackled this in a remarkable way. The story centres around a Stasi officer who is put on the trail of a writer and his intellectual friends. With time he becomes gradually absorbed with their lives eventually turning from interrogator to protector. The script is tight, the atmosphere both bleak and electric, the acting superb and the sets full of accurate details that give this film an air of real authenticity. That there is dramatic over-expression of certain aspects of Stasi working is inevitable but does make the film a little unbelievable at times. It is worth remembering that the director is West German and presumably had no personal experience of living in East Germany hence the film sometimes feels like expressing how West Germans imagined life in East Germany. However, this is perhaps not a bad thing as it makes the film more accessible to Western audiences and I have no doubts that the Oscar was well deserved. It is worth watching for the insights into both East German state and intellectual thinking of the 1980s and the story itself is gripping enough for two hours of good cinema.