L'Île aux merveilles de Manoël

This is a nugget of a TV film about a 6-year old, his dreams, his family, fate, past and future. Better than the Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy and his two "Goopy gyne" films. Why? Ray had used novels/stories of other individuals; Ruiz uses his own original tales. Use of magic realism, Chilean politics, a fish named Jeremiah (the Biblical prophet who mourned the fall of Jerusalem--read Chile here). Lovely performances. This is a 3 part TV film and I have only seen the first part (55 min). Hope to see the next two.

This Portuguese mini-series is extremely rare. There was a translated version shown on Australian TV only once. If you can, try to find a copy of this broadcast. Its worth it.

This three episode series comprises the adventures of a young boy. They each play out like a fairy tale. The mood is very light and dreamy. The stories are great and very unique. The first two episodes are fairly straight forward, but the third is quite hard to understand. It doesn't really matter though, because the mood and the visuals are what makes the them so good.

Its hard to describe... the series is not action oriented, but it is fast paced. It left me with the feeling that, even though I had just watched it, I had heard these stories as a child and were remembering them years later. This is definately worthwhile. If you ever get a chance to see Manoel on the Isle of Marvels, do it. Its a shame to let this series fade into oblivion.