Oakland University Lebanese Club Presents the Film-ZOZO
Thursday, March 6th, 6PM
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Where:
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Oakland University-Varner Recital Hall
2200 North Squirrel Road
Rochester, MI
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Cost:
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| Free and open to Oakland University community and their friends. |
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Movie:
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On the verge of fleeing war-torn Lebanon for Sweden, the 10-year-old title character of this Swedish drama loses his parents to a rocket attack and his brother to armed soldiers. Gradually making the trip by himself, the boy (Imad Creidi) is welcomed into the arms of his grandparents, but finds that trying to fit in with his Swedish classmates is another sort of battle. The film's first third struggles with misguided attempts at magical realism, made worse by overpolished camerawork. However, when it shifts from war-is-hell to school-is-war, the film gains dramatically, thanks in no small part to Elias Gergi's performance as Zozo's boisterous grandfather.
After a group of older students affirms Zozo's outsider status with a beating, Grandpa storms into the headmaster's office, insists that the children solve their differences mano a mano, and then tries to wrestle the headmaster into submission. Embodying the tragedy of a man in love with life but at war with the world, Gergi propels the film into deeper territory than its central metaphor--schoolyard violence as microcosm for worldwide conflict--would allow.
The climax likens Zozo's fantasy of violent retaliation to the blind, meaningless onslaught that killed his family--an honorable point, but one that seems to make the movie a little smug. Or maybe I'm just partial to war films in which the challenge to walk away isn't as easily met as one would think. (John Behling)
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Contact:
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Rami Haddad: 248-761-2692
Please, plan to be there on time. Coffee and Baklava will be served after the movie.
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