Rebirth of a Nation

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2009)

Slumdog Millionaire is a great movie: it has pathos, it has freshness, it teems with truth and authentic life. It is an amazing portrait of today's India, a poor country becoming one of the top players in the global economy. It is the Rebirth of a Nation: I am not afraid to remind the names of Griffith and Eisenstein in the context of this movie. Well, the difference here is that the rebirth of the nation is done through individuals acting on their own: millions of individuals struggling with extreme poverty, with corruption, with criminality, with a police that is brutal while stupid, finding support only in themselves, in their ambition and stamina, in their power to believe in ideals. I said Griffith and Eisenstein; I am thinking also at two great Brazilian directors, Salles and especially Meirelles (no wonder, as Brazil is another poor country becoming a top player in the global economy).