Chaos

Description

CHAOS is a rousing and daring tale combining aspects of pulse-pounding melodrama with loopy battle-of-the-sexes comedy. Helene and Paul, a bourgeois couple, are rushing to a dinner engagement when they see Malika, a young prostitute being chased by three men. As the thugs attack the woman, Paul immediately rolls up the windows and speeds off. Full of remorse, Helene tracks down Malika in the hospital. As Helene nurses Malika through her recovery, she realizes that her life has been changed forever. She can never return to her selfish husband and son.

Malika tells Helene a shocking story. She ran away from her family after her father sold her to an Algerian businessman. Homeless, living on the streets, she was turned into a sex slave by a vicious criminal organization. In the tense final act, Helene joins forces with Malika in an elaborate and daring scheme to double-cross her pimps and get both her freedom and her revenge.

Customer Reviews:

Girl Power! Way Cool Movie.......2007-01-10

This movie was a surprise. Without telling too much of the story, it is an adult comedy. Want to learn French? It is a very good learning tool if you want to learn the French of today. Nice example, uses everyday slang. Some of the subject matter is a little strong but Life is Stranger than Ficiton.

An Odd and Brave Movie.......2006-04-16

This is odd and ultimately endearing film combines gawky physical humor with weighty material regarding the roles of women in Muslim and French cultures.

By the time the credits rolled, I was willing to forgive the film's more implausible plot twists, partially because it is a brave movie. The director was willing to shine a light upon the forced subservience of women in Muslim society, and to a degree, in "modern" French society as well.

Sex Slavery in France and How to Beat It.......2006-01-28

This movie is one of my favorite films. Radhika Brakni is terrific as a young, beautiful Moslem girl who escapes her father's plot to sell her in marriage to an older man only to find herself kinapped by a sex slavery ring. Using her wits, she uses her sexuality (and knowledge of men) to get rich and hides these funds from the pimps. When they find out, they attempt to beat her to death.

When a French male collides with the girl on the road, he ignores her danger - thus leading to the terrible beating. The wife of the driver (Helene) is haunted by the apathy of her husband (and her son) so she tracks down the endangered prostitute and nurses her back to health.

Now, it's a game of cat and mouse as the thugs try to recapture
the heroine, and she joins up with Helene and her mother to escape the brutal kidnappers. In the end, the criminals get their due...and the men in Helene's life are "left out in the cold."This is a chic flic so women everywhere will love this film. It has a very satisfying ending as the prostitute cleverly engineers her revenge. Notwithstanding the positive ending, the movie makes the viewer painfully aware of the heart-rending condition of girls trapped, misled, and kidnapped into sex slavery. Thereforethe film serves as an expose of the social nightmare of sexual slavery. It certainly motivated me to get involved to fund those humanitarian projects assisting women escape real slavery throughout the world. This is a great film with an important societal message. Don't lose the opportunity of seeing it.

Three Cheers for the Women!.......2005-11-06

This is a riveting story centering upon the relationship of portions of French and Arab society to its women. The protagonist is brought up in a French-Arab household and is subject to all of the clichés that this signifies . . the treatment of women like slaves, selling girls into marriage (after first showing the buyer their teeth, like buying a horse), subject to beatings on a whim, the lack of humanity paid to these women by those who are supposed to help them, even when they are man-handled by others. And of course, the insincerity of all of this, and the utter lack of any moral scruples of these men towards their women, as Malika notes that after buying her "family" motorbikes and other presents, they will forget their distaste towards her.

The French men in this movie are disgusting, and morally corrupt, but of a different nature and magnitude of the other males in the story. All, in all, it is the women who are the heroes and if not entirely without blame certainly they outshine the men. There is not one man who is anything but contemptible in the entire movie, and the ending provides a feel-good experience that I expect is not gender-specific. Some of the scenes in the movie are hard to watch, but its conclusion makes up for that.

Chaos - a feminist film? NOT!.......2005-09-11

Can overwhelming guilt result in redemption? It often can and in this film, the gradual awakening of an unconsciously and morally oppressed Parisian woman acts as a catalyst for the emancipation of others - mainly women but hopefully some men as well.

Some have said that this is a feminist or "woman's" film. It is in the sense that women play central roles in their own awakening. But it is so much more. It is a human film, a story that dares to reveal the sordidness of Muslim religious traditions that betray love and trust within families and destroys outsiders as well. The filmmaker has taken pains to develop the story so that its credibility never falters. A young Algerian Muslim woman demonstrates that even though she has been betrayed as a matter of course by her family she resists, endangering her life, and never losing sight of hope and freedom.

Not a moment goes by that this film is less than engrossing. Its power envelops and its twists and turns are believable. The viewer will be enriched for having experienced this film, and though it may anger some Muslims, its message is one that should be taken to heart by this community. And the French lackadaisical self centeredness is shown naked in its materialistic chaos. Hard hitting and honest filmmaking.

Average customer rating:

How the Innocent Suffer When Law and Order Breaks Down ...
"Hell is in my heart."
Very Good

Rachida
Starring: Ibtissem Djouadi , Bahia Rachedi , Hamid Remas , Rachida Messaoui En , and Zaki Boulenafed
Director: Yamina Bachir
Manufacturer: First Run Features
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0006Z2NKO
Release Date: 2005-03-22

Customer Reviews:

How the Innocent Suffer When Law and Order Breaks Down ..........2006-12-28

This fascinating film takes a look at life in Algeria during the 1990s when the government was undergoing transition and change. Terrorism was rampant and life for the majority of civilians was tenuous and insecure.
Rachida is a teacher in her mid-twenties who loves her job and has strong opinions about justice and civil rights ... She is cornered one day, by thugs who want her to take a briefcase that contains a bomb to the school. Of course she refuses. This happens out in the open streets, but no one comes to her aid. The terrorist and his accomplices surround her, one takes out a gun and shoots her in the abdomen. She is left lying on the sidewalk ... bleeding. The shooters flee ... Someone comes to her rescure and calls for an ambulance. A crowd grows larger as curious people push to see what happened ...

Rachida's mother sits on a bench in the hospital ... weeping softly ... waiting to here if her daughter lives or dies, as they operate to remove the bullet in her abdomen. Luckily, Rachida survives and awakens. She calls out for her mom, who is allowed to spend a few minutes with her. Her boyfriend visits as she is recovering. She learns her assailant was a former student. She can not fathom why he would shoot her ... After her release from the hospital, Rachida and her mom plan to leave their apartment home in the city and go to a small town in the mountains. They fear for their safty, believing that if the terrorist group knows Rachida survived she would be targeted for death, as she would recognize her assailants.

Rachida and her mom move to a small home in the mountains. They maintain a low profile and are visited at first only by a female relative who provided this safe haven for them. Rachida applies for a teaching job locally and becomes established at the local primary school. Again the problems from the city spread to the countryside. Terrorists set up roadblocks to shakedown drivers on the winding roads to this mountain village. They make surprise raids on the village ... The elderly and shop keepers are leery ... Young children are warned to stay away from strangers ... One beautiful girl escaped her captors and made her way back to the village. She suffers ostrasizement by her own father due to a cultural prejudice. The women take her back and care for her ... as she is pregnant from having been raped. Several children are the offspring of such events and cared for by local women ...

One night during a wedding celebration ... the terrorists strike again. The sad and tragic outcomes of this raid are superbly depicted. This film shows the viewer how very senseless and cruel terrorism is. It provides a visual witness to carnage, destruction and desolation that results from ill spent energy ... when the opposite could be true as the same energy could be used to build peace, harmony, and a stable nation. The film is most highly recommended. Erika Borsos (pepper flower)

"Hell is in my heart.".......2006-04-02

"Rachida" an Algerian film directed by Yamina Bachir Chouikh explores the affects of terrorism on a young teacher. On the way to school, Rachida (Ibtissem Djouadi) is surrounded by a group of terrorists who demand that she plant a bomb at her school. When she refuses, she's shot at point blank range. Although Rachida recovers, her psychological scars remain. Realizing that Rachida may be a potential target, her mother decides to move from Algiers into a remote village for safety, but it seems that violence is inescapable.

"Rachida" doesn't glamorize terrorism--neither does it waste any time on humanizing the terrorists. Instead its focus is squarely on the innocents--those people who are working and struggling to make ends meet when suddenly their lives are ripped apart by violence. The village Rachida and her mother move to is subjected to frequent raids by a youthful thuggish gang of violent, well-armed terrorists. Rachida's experiences are emblematic of the terrorist unrest in Algeria in the 90s (over 100,000 lives were claimed by terrorist violence). The villagers are easy pickings for the terrorists who swoop in and conduct armed raids, slaughtering and raping as they fancy.

"Rachida" is obviously not a high budget film, but nonetheless, this film is all that's right in foreign cinema these days. Ibtissem Djouadi delivers a moving portrait of a young woman who struggles to maintain her human dignity in the face of inchoate, senseless violence. While the film touches on the fact that the terrorists are members of the Islamic Salvation Front, the film also focuses on the victimization of women in a patriarchal society that views women as property. One young girl, for example, is forced into marriage while the young man she cares for is constantly run off by her father--another young girl is raped by terrorists and ejected from her home as she's somehow considered to blame for what happened to her. Scenes of great beauty (there's a fantastic wedding party sequence) are juxtaposed with scenes of senseless cruelty, but the film is subtle, and doesn't plant any unrealistic political speeches in the mouths of its characters. For those who watch the DVD, "The Director's Statement", and the section "Film in Context" should not be missed. This is a marvelous film, and by its conclusion, Rachida's question remains: "Where was all this hate buried?" In French and Arabic with English subtitles--displacedhuman

Very Good.......2006-03-13

I have to say that watching this movie once and lingering on its setiment, its message, its cinematography and its agenda really made me like it. It follows the life of a school teacher in Algeria (North Africa) and how she manages to cope through being a victim of terrorism. It is not only a powerful conceptual movie in regards to what is going on in Algeria in the mid 90's where fundamentalists wanted to change the government structure, but also it was very nice just to observe how Algerians live day to day. I will never forget this movie. If you are into independent films that have meaning and also a cultural aesthetic, give this a try. Its not what it seems, although I highly appreciated it.

Average customer rating:

Girl Power! Way Cool Movie
An Odd and Brave Movie
Sex Slavery in France and How to Beat It
Three Cheers for the Women!
Chaos - a feminist film? NOT!

Chaos [Region 2]
Starring: Vincent Lindon , Catherine Frot , Rachida Brakni , Line Renaud , and Aurélien Wiik
Director: Coline Serreau
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000067FAW

Customer Reviews:

Girl Power! Way Cool Movie.......2007-01-10

An Odd and Brave Movie.......2006-04-16

Sex Slavery in France and How to Beat It.......2006-01-28

Three Cheers for the Women!.......2005-11-06

Chaos - a feminist film? NOT!.......2005-09-11

DVD:

DVD

DVD