Abouna (2002)
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crushing, sad story, pleasantly told. the pretty super-saturated photography and the ali farka toure score were enough for this to be a nice experience for me. there were some over-quick fades on the score that were jarring, but he also had some real aggressive cuts that were very effective so i appreciated how he used a pleasant score in a kind of unpleasant way. the real strength here is haroun’s shorthand storytelling method - most of the bad stuff happens in the ellipses and he focuses more on how the characters are getting past it. and all the turns felt very real to me, as crazy as they got towards the end. the last act i found pretty impactful and sweet.
as strong as i found his storytelling shorthand i thought his emotional shorthand was too limited or simple. there are some nice moments between him and his brother, but no real elated moments that hit true - just that part early of them running across the town with no specificity to it. the same with his girlfriend - that shot of them on the motorcycle is nice, but lacked any real specificity compared to the moments he finds to tell the story. or maybe it’s more happy vs. sad than story vs. emotion.
