The Isle of Flowers is simultaneously informative, evocative, and amusing. It follows the life of a tomato and the places it goes, all the way to the landfill, and shows the people it comes into contact with along this journey.
The name, "The Isle of Flowers," comes from the name of the dump in Brazil. This title is ironic because it hints to the viewer that they might be seeing a film about something beautiful. In reality, this piece has a much darker tone. Through images and words, the film interweaves shots of the dump, shots of where the waste origintates, shots of the typical American family and how they are tied to this waste, and does this in a way that draws connections between all of these things.
The language used is simple yet potent, and often sounds as though they are speaking about something scientific.
The thing that I found to be the most satisfying about this film is the way that it ties together information from every "subject" that a student would study in school and juxtaposes it in ways that force the viewer to make connections that they may not have made on thier own. This film should be required viewing for middle school aged students everywhere. This film does a fantastic job of bringing awareness to issues that many people do their best to avoid.
It is a portrait of our society, told in bold images and dry, honest words. The content is at times hard to come to terms with, but this is necessary in order to really get across the point of showing the connections between all of these different levels of humanity. Some parts of life are beautiful, some not so much.
This film has succeeded in creating a portrait of connections in society and of showing some of the often-ignored truths in a way that is hard to forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment