naina, thanks for bringing this to our attention. i'd guess that a lot of us overlooked it when the nominees were announced.

Obviously, I haven’t seen the film yet, so I’m going to refrain from giving any snarky judgment or speculation of my own. If anyone has had the chance to see it, I’d be curious to hear reactions

apparently - according to this guy who reviewed it in the imdb link you provided - the movie sucked

But compare to the films cited above, "After the Wedding" is nothing but an irritating, empty conceit. The story is so ridiculous, so corny, and so idiotic – that watching that film is bordering on being a victim of a Chinese water torture… Yes, it's beautifully shot, good acting – but the story is so bad, and so unconvincing – that any American soap opera shines in comparison.

i'd rent it anyways.

While I’m at it and for what it’s worth, I hereby declare a moratorium on any such filmmakers entering India (or any Third World country, for that matter) in hopes of preventing any further culturally condescending journeys into the white man’s heart of darkness.

we should all learn from the jews who started goldman sachs. they didn't whine about not making partner at morgan stanley. they just went ahead and beat the white shoes at their own game.

or we should learn from bollywood, who doesn’t try to be hollywood. make your own films if you don't like the west's. should we really be surprised that every western film about india has a white protagonist. whites are just as tribal as the rest of us.

but if you take my advice you'll end up like goldman, sitting at a desk interviewing a wasp trying to get into the club. and the world will be at peace.

i think that's the actor (villain) from the latest bond movie right?

um, i didn't see pramod anywhere...

Let's protest at the Danish Embassy --- I am feeling objectified.

Scandinavian socialist, that is probably as appalling as you possibly could be. I speak from personal experience.

Yuck.

ahem, i noticed =)

http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004137.html#comment114762

Oops, apologies Sonia. Sorry I didn't catch that earlier. :)

In addition to this, Blind Dating is comming out with anjali jay , eddie kay thomas, and chris pine. It looks funny..but for some reason its an independent film, so iono.

This is off the topic but anyways. The other scandinavian movie I saw - "Green Butchers" has the same guy as a butcher who killed of humans and sold their meat as chicky wickys, whatever that means. That one also won many nominations and awards but a very weird movie with no point. Anwyays, back to the topic, based on the trailer and the comments on IMDB, this one too looks wacky. Not going to watch it....

So what's all the commotion? The clip posted doesn't even have scenes of him in India. People are upset coz a movie has a European living in India for some time? He's working at an orphanage and that's a bad thing? Clue me in.

I saw the movie a few months ago and really liked it. It came out here in Europe a while back (unlike Nam-a-sake, which I have to wait until May for). The scenes set in India were indeed cringeworthy -- totally one-dimensional, full of stereotypes and clichés, white-man-feel-good-for-doing-good-for-the-macacas kind of thing. But if you can ignore that (!), the rest of the movie is good. The film's writer/director Susanne Bier's previous film Brothers (also with a sort-of desi angle with part of the movie set in Afghanistan) is also good, with the same sort of caveat about portrayals of non-whites. I can totally understand not wanting to see such films precisely because of such portrayals. But what the hell, it gives us something to crow about, sahi??

I saw the film last week. I agree with koffee verkeerd that the Indian scenes in the movie are one-dimensional, and 'cringing' was my first reaction. But after thinking about the movie over some time, I don't think showing the poverty was supposed to somehow represent India, but the director seemed to have used it as a convenient juxtaposition to the Danish life and family that needs him too later in the movie. I'm still not sure what the director was trying to say with the movie, but to me, the movie showed that 'loss' and/or pain are relative to the environment. But in the end, I guess she did "use" India by only showing the misery in it, which may just confirm the beliefs of some occidentals.
In response to MoS, you're right, the main character working in an orphanage is not a bad thing, it's a wonderful thing, and I don't think the movie furthers the idea of "white man saving" the helpless Indians at all.

The description of the main character in the movie "After the Wedding" reminded me of the true life story of Carlos Duran--a Spaniard who ran an NGO in Kolkata. His story, as much as I know of it has drama, intrigue, movie stars and involves the Indian Govt.

I had posted about this story way back in 2005 when he was deported from India.

Carlos Duran--founder, director of Sabera Foundation (Kalitala) had been deported without any kind of notice. The Sabera website is "under construction". He was married to a young Indian girl who he met when she started working at the foundation. At the time he was deported, she was pregnant. She couldn't leave the country as someone had to be there to take care of the girls at Sabera. There was no reason reported for the deportation.

There was a note about conflict between the US and Kolkata braches of the Kalitala Foundation over which branch should control the money. Carlos wanted Kolkata to control the money. Money became a bigger issue as bigger and bigger names became supporters of Sabera--including Melanie Griffith, Penelope Cruz and Ricky Martin. The Spanish connection going back to Carlos and renowned Spanish singer/songwriter/producersinger Nacho Cano with whom he founded Sabera.

It seems like a lot went down in 2002.

The Telegraph reports that "Following a rift, Cano and Duran split, after which Griffith and Cruz allegedly snapped ties with the foundation."

Full post here.

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