Day Night Day Night

I like the movie but it needs to have a part 2 so that we can know what happened next

source: Day Night Day Night

Within twenty minutes of the film's beginning, I was in agony, but I didn't necessarily think my discomfort was due to bad film-making. It was extremely uncomfortable to see this woman go through mundane activities in a hotel room, without any music or distraction, knowing what the film would be about. That style of cinematography really made me feel as though I was "inside" the girl's experience and feeling as she felt. I even had to pause it a few times in order to regroup. The scene with the video was hilarious- I laughed so much, partly due to nerves, because I was so relieved to rise above my discomfort and into a moment of blissful absurdity. But as the movie progressed, it was just more of the same mundanity, and it became less interesting over time. I do not always favor narrative storytelling- but for this film in particular, I wanted to understand her character, where she came from, what happened in her life that drove her to become the person she is. The film is about a very black-and- white, well-defined political subject- a female suicide bomber throughout what is supposed to be the last day of her life. So this story's displacement from personal history (aside from a phone call to family, and a photo of her caucasian brother) feels mismatched. The snippets of her whispered prayers were very interesting, and I wanted more. I enjoyed the characterizations and mannerisms of the people who loan her change, which were revealing of subtle interpersonal dynamics on the street. Also, the man who harasses her- he is a stereotyped young African American urban male. When she jokes about a "bomb," it is like one stereotype meeting another, and that made me laugh. It is poking fun at stereotypes, though we never see a real person beneath them. I really wanted that realness to show through alongside the mocking. I eventually found myself fast-forwarding through large chunks of the DVD, and still understanding exactly what was happening. By the end, I was just begging for the film to be over. Although I must say, I really enjoyed (and again, agonized) the way the film ended. I won't give that away, but it really left me wondering.

Mention films about suicide bombers, and movies like Syrianna and Paradise Now comes to mind. Films that try to explain the rationale behind the driving force of these persons dedicated to destruction and murder, and while those stories had the usual male bombers, Day Night Day Night took on a more interesting angle, and looked at the role of female suicide bombers - those that don't really fit the usual security profile, and are usually deemed as lower risk of being detected before they execute their plan. In her first fictional feature, director Julia Loktev takes a long hard look at the journey of a 19 year old girl played by Luisa Williams. Attractive, petite,you won't understand why she has to do what she wants to, and the story doesn't explain. This is almost in parallel to real life, where you read reports of the aftermath, and are presented with little clues to their background. Loktev weaved a tale from seeking out the terrorists, meeting them, going through their rites and procedures, before being accepted for the mission, complete with the making of the video, and the fit up of the device. Most times you don't get to see much, as the camera angles are extremely tight and full of close ups, to accentuate the waiting, and to allow you to focus on the girl, and her thoughts, and her apprehension, despair, and a host of other emotions. I thought Loktev too took quite a neutral stand in not stereotyping the bad hats, that indeed it can be anyone, people from abroad with different cultures, or the home grown and bred haters of society. And that is true because terror can come from anywhere. This is not an easy movie to sit through as it's deliberately slow and nothing much really happened. But as a movie that attempts to narrate the process from civilian to combatant, this fictionalized account will probably be as close as you can get.

"Day Night Day Night" was awful. The first 80 minutes of "Day Night Day Night" contained "maybe" a combined total of 5 minutes of dialog and I don't think it had that. The rest of the 95 minute "Day Night Day Night" was filled with tiresome white noise, background noise, showering, sleeping, eating, a self manicure and self pedicure and so many more monotonous activities. It was pure insidious humdrum monotony. The only positive was that "Day Night Day Night" did capture the pure monotonous (notice a theme in the use of the word) repetitiveness of a suicide bomber as she waits, prepares, waits and waits even more in what surely had to be complete and total boredom. During all this, the arduous and even torturously tedious monotony is transferred onto the viewer over and over and over again. It was extremely disappointing not to have used some of the 90 plus minute film to explain why or how she became a suicide bomber. Was she unhappy? Was she "brainwashed" or coerced? It didn't require 90 plus minutes of monotonous viewing to convey the tedium as she prepared herself.

Day Night Day Night is disturbing and scary, in a good way. Julia Lorkev has done an awesome job showing the emotions, inside battle and thoughts of a suicide bomber right before action, in a minimalistic way. She has wisely chosen the actress, the locations, the desaturated colors (especially in the first half). I especially enjoyed the closeness and the intimacy of the movie through its filming style. The other point that I noticed is the the way Loklev used some life routines (such as eating) and the contradictions they sometimes make, in such an artistic way to captivate such deep feelings. It is captivating, beautifully shot and definitely not an easy movie to watch.

contains spoilers. Fantastic example of low budget film making. The finished product looked up and above the money spent. The tight camera work compensated for the reality of 'unpaid' extras and a limited choice in location. The crisp, digital sound design increased the tension in a film that isn't driven by dialogue. The subject of a suicide bomber after you take her nationality, religion and background out of the equation is more perplexing. You have to look at the phenomena that is blowing oneself up, along with a whole lot of other people, as purely the insane act it is. The trade off is believability in the character without some sort of motivation from her past as to why she would commit such a heinous act. The actress was good in the whole. You knew what she was planning fairly early on so she had a long way to carry it. I just didn't buy it. Worth a look though, for the backpack specialist and his assistant/translator and also the mouthful of noodles.

While indeed this movie is slow paced and we finally have no clue of the real motives of the main character, I think that's clear enough. She probably lost her parents, eventually her brother and/or a boyfriend somewhere in Palestine or Irak, I'd say. The point is to make the viewer, for 90 riveting minutes, face what it's like to be desperate enough to become a suicide-bomber and thereby raise this ultimate question : what the hell went wrong with our foreign policy to generate such monsters ? I think it's time for self-analysis and admit that for a 95% catholic country, we have forgotten Jesus words, eventually generating more bloodshed around the world than our own "enemies", spreading each day a little more hate against ourselves. It's time to stop : drop the backpack, and let's have a serious conversation !

Plot summary (as minimal as possible) An American white woman prepares - as we slowly but certainly learn - for a suicide mission. We follow her closely during each step of the process. Giving away any more information about the elements of her preparations would be a spoiler, I think. The way the camera does not allow the woman to leave the frame makes this a very intimate portrait. Every shot is so clear, so devoid of any distracting elements. As the theme of suicide bombers is very contemporary, it seems clear to what the sequence of actions will lead. Exactly this keeps the suspense high until the last minute of the movie, I was on the edge of my seat, almost constantly. It is of course a bit of a bizarre experience: being so intimate with a woman who is about to commit something so violent and so evil. You feel with her as she undergoes certain unpleasant parts of the preparations, yet you wonder: why, why? The movie gives some hints, but no clear answer, I have not yet seen 'Paradise Now', but this movie pretty much has the same premise, I guess. Except here we follow. a white woman in the US, instead of two Palestine men in Israel. For many (like me) western viewers this must be very confrontational and scary. When I watched Sin City - totally different genre - for the second time within two weeks, it wasn't as interesting as I hoped. The images were so clear and clean and the story so easy to follow: there simply not so much new to see. For me, this movie will probably fall in the same category: because of its clarity, good for a very exciting first view, not so much for repeat viewing. I can recommend this to anyone who likes beautifully, tight shot and tense story that puts your mind to work: 9/10.

At first I thought this would be the bomb in the cafe scene from "The Battle Of Algiers" stretched out into whole movie. Even though it had some of the slowest pacing I've ever seen, I managed to watch it all the way through. It's a very subdued emotional portrait of a suicide bomber. Kinda like the passion of "Joan of Arc" but with less context. Minimilist and realist less is more, at least for me a lot of times get's old quick, but here it generates a good deal of suspense and tension. Not for everyone, due to the pacing. But patient viewers, more interested in human pathos than political exposition, might appreciate it.