I watch the movie “the Visitor” from the comforts of my Silicon Valley home. Couple of days later Mumbai is attacked by terrorists. Do not look for a connection between the two, for there exists none. That said, the movie presents what could be seen as very early phases of our (US) journey toward an eventual Orwellian Society. The attacks in Mumbai could be seen from one vantage point as the result of (India) having seriously false pretenses to a utopian future.
the Visitor is a very poignant movie that raises questions about racial profiling, dehumanization of the plight of aspiring immigrants, and finally, the possibility of participation from the average American to improve this plight. Orthogonally, it so subtly and beautifully presents the pain that a life of no moorings and no passion can inflict on a person. As the lead protagonist (played by Richard Jenkins) says:
I haven’t done any real work in a very long time. I pretend, pretend that I am busy, that I am working. .. I am not doing anything.
Here is an actor who we might recognize as having seen in scores of movies and yet not be able to name one. That notwithstanding, a subtler and yet such an impactful performance I have not seen in a while. Richard Jenkins is the listless Prof. Walter Vale, who over the course of the movie finds a cause and a passion to possibly start living again.
Without going into a full review, one of which you can see on the IMDB site, or adding to the list of spoilers, a question that seems to be asked in the movie (also, summarized by the tagline Connection is Everything) is what do we become when we lose the connectedness to the humans around us. Is a person entering (or wanting to enter) your country a mere document record on a computer? Is the peson, however useful or not he might be to your society, not a person anymore if he does not have the coveted A# (read, greencard or the like)? Though nothing along the lines of seeking asylum or facing deportation, I can however relate firsthand to being treated as a mere number from my own experiences with immigration.
The preview clip above ends with:
you can live your whole life .. and never know who you are .. until you see the world .. through the eyes of others
.. and, this is shown somewhat metaphorically by Prof. Wale taking easily to an exotic percussion instrument, after years of sleepwalking to nowhere on a piano.
Some noteworthy moments in the movie:
- There is a scene toward the end when the large backdrop of the US flag fades into a blank white canvas and a minute or so later, the subway drumming of Prof. Wale blacks out with the moving train. The visual messaging to me was that our lives exist somewhere in between the black and the white.
- Hiam Abbass (as Mouna Khalil) is classy and charms you every time she is in the frame. Surprisingly, I did not squirm at the mushiness of the suggested habibti angle – as reel as real it is not – between her and Prof. Wale.
- “How do you know what it feels like to be here inside (the detention center)?”, asks Tarek Khalil
Changing subjects, I expanded my horizons. Learned about Fela Kuti. Per wikipedia:
Fela was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick. HMV ranked him #46 on a list of the top-100 most influential musicians of the 20th century.
Let the Visitor make you take part! (visit www.takepart.com site. seems to be a good mission)
![Yíhé Yuán, del Sol [2/2]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7018/6598785693_871de66fff_s.jpg)
![Yíhé Yuán, del Sol [1/2]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6598770751_501e709ac3_s.jpg)
