Oscars 2016: Best Foreign Feature.

Last night voting for the 88th Academy Awards - the Oscars 2016 - officially closed.

So I've decided to treat you to a look at the Best Foreign Feature category. Almost a competition within the competition this of course is the category where traditionally the hardcore international politics takes place.

I should start though with a movie that has been horrifically mis-classified;

Room: This tells the story of a teenage girl - Joy "Ma" Newsome who is kidnapped and held prisoner for many years. This is of course is inspired by cases such as that of Josef Fritzl in Austria in 2008 and the Ariel Castro case in the US in 2013.

The movie begins with Joy having already been a prisoner for 7 years and become the mother to a 5 year old son. The first half of the movie sees Joy trying to protect her son - "Jack" - by convincing him that there is no world outside of their captivity and the abuse they both endure at the hands of the kidnapper is perfectly normal.Then Joy and Jack escape and the second half of the movie becomes about their attempts to re-integrate into mainstream society.

Therefore Room is the UK's annual attempt to muscle in on the Oscars party to see how I am being discussed. "Ma Joy" is obviously Her Majesty the Queen of England and I can either be the little boy Jack or the abuser "Old Nick" depending on how you view the world.

What is so disappointing about Room is that it refuses to admit that it is a British movie instead trying to pretend that it is a co-production between Canada and the Republic of Ireland. Canada is obviously part of the UK Commonwealth Realm and has the Queen on England as its Head of State. The Republic of Ireland is most certainly not a member of the UK Commonwealth let alone the Realm.

On Friday (26/2/16) the Republic of Ireland will go to the polls in a General Election. That election will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Uprising that started the civil war that freed Ireland from British occupation. Choosing this moment to announce that Ireland is once again under the British jackboot doesn't strike me as the most sensitive thing Britain has ever done.

Embrace the Serpent (Columbia): This tells the story of "Karamakate" - a Shaman and last surviving member of a tribe of Indigenous Indians in the Amazon Rainforest - at two points in his life. During the first in 1909 he embarks on an expedition with a German scientist to find the rare "Yakruna" plant which is said that have special healing properties. Having not found the plant Karamakate embarks on the same expedition again in 1940 only this time with an American scientist.

The movie obviously explores the rich biodiversity of Rainforests and their vital role for life on earth as "The Lungs of the World." It also explores the lives of the people who live indigenously within the Rainforests.

These issue were of course central to the big argument between the US and Brazil over the inclusion of the Reducing Emissions Deforestation and Degradation Plus (REDD+) program at 2015's COP21 Climate Change Summit. The fact that the movie is set in Columbia's part of the Amazon Rainforest also serves to highlight that the Amazon Rainforest is not exclusively within Brazil making it an example of a cross-border, common resource.

As part of the argument between the US and Brazil over REDD+ it was exposed that the actor Charlie Sheen in HIV+. I'm sure it's just a translation issue but in that context the movies title - Embrace the Serpent - sure sounds like a sexual innuendo to me.

The rest of the category is dominated by war. Particularly the current war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups;

A War (Denmark): This tells the fictional story of Claus M. Pedersen who commands a company of Danish soldiers in Afghanistan and his family at home in Denmark. Following a particularly brutal battle with the Taliban Pedersen and the men under his command are accused of committing war crimes.

Featuring actual Danish veterans of Afghanistan amongst its cast this movie is very similar in style to the very quotable 2008 US TV mini-series "Generation Kill" which features "Oz" alum Lee Tergesen among its cast. The intention being to produce a very realistic portrayal of war including its boredom and confusion rather than just its gore and glory.

The movie provokes lots of discussion about the nature of war crimes. As with civilian crimes these exist on a sliding scale from petty misdemeanours such as taking cap badges from dead enemies as trophies right up to capital felonies such as rape and murder. Crimes Against Humanity such as Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing actually occupy a level far above that of the most serious war crimes.

The movie also poses lots of extremely difficult moral questions about how easy it can be to slip into war crimes during the heat of battle and whether it can ever be acceptable to tolerate war crimes.

Theeb (Jordan): This movie centres around a young Bedouin boy - "Theeb" - living in the Wadi Rum desert in what is now Jordan in 1916.

One day Theeb follows his older brother - "Hussein" - on a expedition to guide a British military officer on a reconnaissance mission against the Ottoman Empire. During the expedition they are attacked by bandits who kill Hussein and the British officer. Theeb is then forced to join forces with one of the injured bandits so the pair can survive the desert and make their way back to civilisation.

Essentially a coming of age drama with Theeb suddenly thrust from childhood into the adult world the movie has the western feel of other Oscar nominated movies such as "The Hateful Eight" and "The Revenant." It also shares the desert locations of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "The Martian."

The historical period in which Theeb is set is of huge significance to the current war against ISIL. It was the Ottoman Empire's - the last Islamic Caliphate - decision to fight alongside the German Empire during the First World War and their eventual defeat that led its collapse of the the formation of the modern nations of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Jordan under the "Sykes-Picot Agreement."

The Sykes-Picot Agreement did originally create the nation of "Kurdistan." However when the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour - who also happened to be on the board of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now British Petroleum - BP) - discovered how much oil there was in the region the deal was scrapped and Kurdistan was divided up between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

What the British officer is trying to find in the movie is a strategic railway line belonging to the Ottoman Empire so he can sabotage it. The Syrian/Turkish border city of Kobane which was the site of the truly epic battle between ISIL and the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in late 2014/early 2015 takes its name from the German word "Bahn" meaning "track." It was the railway track that runs through the centre of the city that was used as the new border between Syria and Turkey.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement or more accurately the associated "Balfour Declaration" also laid the groundwork for a Jewish state that eventually became Israel. Although it's the Palestinians who seem to get all the headlines Israel's treatment of its Bedouin population is far from great either with the areas they live being denied official recognition and basic services such as water and electricity.

That's a rather brave topic to bring up in conversation at the Oscars.

Mustang (France): This is the semi-fictional story of five orphan girls growing up in modern day Turkey.

One summer's day they decide to play by the lake on their way home from school and are joined by some teenage boys who they innocently play with. 

As rumours of the girls whoreish behaviour spreads throughout the village their uncle demands that they are withdrawn from school and locked away in the family home. There the girl's grandmother decides that they are to be married off as soon as possible.

The eldest girl - Sonay - defies her family to marry the man she chooses only to be forced to suffer the indignity of a virginity test. The next eldest girl - Selma - is forced to marry the man who was chosen for Sonay and is miserable as a result. The third eldest girl - Ece - is raped by her uncle who also passes her around his friends before she commits suicide. After also being raped by the uncle the two youngest girls - Nur and Lale - finally manage to escape.

The movie is of course a metaphor for the increasingly repressive atmosphere - particularly for women - that Turkey's President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice & Development Party (AKP) has created in Turkey. The movie's director - Deniz Gamze Ergüven - was born in Turkey before her family fled to seek refuge in France.

To give you an idea of how topical the issues raised in Mustang are US President Barack Obama's February 3rd (3/2/16) visit to a Mosque in Baltimore, Maryland caused me to get into an argument with two Turks on Twitter.

On the one hand there was a male AKP supporter going by the charming screen-name "FuckIsrael" who argued that girls as young as 8 years old should be forced to wear the Hijab to protect them from being raped. On the other hand there was me and a Turkish woman who had sought refuge in the US arguing that perhaps instead Turkey should lock up the men who want to rape 8 year old girls.

In the great post-Super Bowl hangover I put them both on mute and sort of forgot about. In many ways that was a shame because I certainly had plenty more ammunition for the fight.

For example back in December 2015 the Lebanese women's rights protest group "Kafa" staged a fake wedding between a 12 year old girl and a man in his fifties. In the cities of many European Union (EU) nations and US states if a man stood on the streets proudly introducing the child he was about to have sex with it would probably provoke a riot. However you will be shocked by how many Lebanese instead chose to congratulate the man; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-OYqm7n0WE

If the same stunt had been performed in Turkey the artist would probably have been jailed for "Insulting Erdogan."

Son of Saul (Hungary): This is the fictional story of Saul Auslander a Hungarian Jew who in 1944 is forced to work in the Sonderkommando unit at Poland's Nazi death camp Auschwitz. A real thing the Sonderkommando unit's job was to remove the bodies from the gas chambers and take them to the ovens to be burnt.

One day Saul finds the body of a young boy he believes to be his son. Overcome with grief Saul hides the body and embarks on a search for a Rabbi within the camp to give his son a proper Jewish burial. As part of this search Saul joins with a resistance movement amongst prisoners who are planning a rebellion against the guards. This serves as a device to travel throughout the camp telling the story of daily life and of the other prisoners.

The main theme of the movie is the quest to retain ones humanity and identity - in this case Jewish identity - amid the overwhelming horrors of genocide and ethnic cleansing. As we are once again in the grips of such grave crimes against humanity these issues are again all too topical.

However Son of Saul is a movie that always seems to be on the verge of collapsing under the weight of its own cynicism.

Back in 2005 Kate Winslet who is this year nominated for best supporting actress appeared in the UK TV Sitcom "Extras" playing an exaggerated, pantomime version of herself. The big joke was that she was appearing in a movie about the Nazi Holocaust because she really wanted to win an Oscar and if you do a movie about the Nazi Holocaust you're guaranteed an Oscar.

Rather proving they're in on the joke in 2008 Kate Winslet made the movie "The Reader" about the Nazi Holocaust and promptly won an Oscar.

Towards the end of Son of Saul the resistance movement escape Auschwitz, set up camp in the forest and plan to fight alongside the Russian partisans against the Nazis. This is the plot from the 2008 Oscar nominated movie "Defiance."  

That tells the true story of the Polish Jewish Bielski brothers who escape the Nazis by setting up camp in the forest. Eventually the brother's camp attracts fleeing Jews from across eastern Europe and becomes a thriving but hidden Jewish community. Members of that community including Zus Bielski - played by Liev Schreiber - and Aseal Bielski - played by Jamie Bell - go on to fight against the Nazis alongside the Russian partisan.

I can't recommend seeing Defiance enough mainly because the true story it tells is just so incredible. However it is an example of an intelligent war movie. Not only does it include dramatic battle scenes but it also includes well rounded characters through which the complexities of the human condition are explored.

I think it is really the type of movie that it's joint lead Daniel Craig wanted to make when he signed up to play James Bond. Having seen the two most recent Bond movies I think it's easy to realise why he's starting to get a bit p*ssed off with it.

What bothers me most about Son of Saul though is that along with Poland Hungary has never been forced to face up to its Nazi past. For example Poland is likely to sue me for daring to suggest here that Auschwitz Death Camp was and is in Poland. As a result both Poland and Hungary seem committed to repeating the mistakes of the past becoming closer to Nazism by the day.

Son of Saul is part funded by "Claims Conference" which is an organisation dedicated to suing Germany and Austria but primarily Germany for compensation for Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust. As such the whole thing does feel like a nation - Hungary - that has not faced up to its Nazi past using the Holocaust to attack a nation - Germany - that has faced up to its past.

The current big problem that the EU has in dealing with the refugee crisis is that Nazi tinged nations such as Poland and Hungary are constantly blocking Germany's attempts to find a solution. Hungary has already filed a legal challenge to block refugee quotas and actually while I've been writing this they announced their intention to hold a referendum on the issue. It won't pass.

So yeah, I'm kind of getting the impression that the Academy didn't run this one past the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in advance.  

16:10 on 24/2/16 (UK date).