It is like a sharp sword that exposes the evils of the capitalist countries against the African people in broad daylight. - "The Immortal Gardener"
The Immortal Gardener is a suspenseful drama film based on the novel of the same name by American writer John Le Carré, and actress Rachel Vichy won the 78th Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant performances in the film.
When it comes to director Fernando Merrills, many people may not be familiar with him, he is the Brazilian director who sensationalized the world film world in 2002 with a "City of God", and the spirit of daring to touch socially sensitive subjects has become Merrills's personal label. After three years, the accumulated work "The Immortal Gardener" once again focuses on social reality.
The film tells the story of Justin, a mild-mannered diplomat, who falls in love with and marries Tessa, a brave and responsible female journalist. After the marriage, Justin found that Tessa was preoccupied and increasingly estranged from him. Despite the rumors, Justin still trusts the love between the two.
When Tessa was shot dead in a lake in Kenya, Justin decided to go out of all kinds of pressure to find out the truth about Tessa's murder. As his investigation between the three continents deepens, a vicious incident in which a Western pharmaceutical company uses ordinary people for drug experiments in Africa gradually surfaces, and Justin becomes the next target of the murderer.
The film continues the unique style and narrative talent revealed by Merrills in "City of God", in which the characters that continue to emerge, the shaky images, the complex information, time, space, and character relationships are all flashed in a short picture. Merrills fully demonstrates his ability to freely enter and exit time and space, carefully lay out details, and skillfully weave narrative networks, giving the audience a lively and warm audio-visual samba.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, the film is freely organized in non-linear chronological order, fragmentary seamless editing and weaving narrative network</h1>
The director's approach is relatively unique, deliberately cutting off the integrity of the storyline, setting up a suspense plot, throwing suspense and doubts to the audience, and weaving the narrative through the interaction with the plot of memories in the present, bringing a somber atmosphere and special sentimentality.
Photography is also quite individual, a lot of use of abnormal angles to shoot, fade in and out, always in motion of the lens to give people a confused, chaotic, close to the real look.
(1) In the first half of the film, a suspenseful murder case is laid out on the surface of the story
The mild-mannered Justin is a diplomat at the British Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and he likes to play with flowers and plants in the garden on weekdays. His wife, Tessa, is a straightforward journalist who believes that everything in the world is fair, and for this reason has offended the dignitaries around her husband.
In Africa, she showed more love and compassion than her husband for those who suffered, and she had conceived a new life, but she was still busy on the African land, trying to help everyone. Such a beautiful woman was killed on a trip to the slum with Arnold, a local black doctor, and Arnold did not know where he was.
The police believed it was a love killing, and the media reported that "the diplomat's wife was killed by a black lover", and the pain of bereavement and gossip entangled Justin like a poisonous snake, but the gentleman from the diplomat has been painfully maintaining etiquette and demeanor, burying the piercing wounds deep in his heart. This plot is the surface of the overall story structure, and under the careful design, it presents an opening statement full of suspense.
In addition to Arnold's main suspense, there are other suspicious points, such as during the autopsy, Justin's boss Sandy, who is an outsider, is nervous, but Justin comes to comfort him; Tessa ridicules the Kenyan minister of health at the banquet for embezzling donated drugs, which offends many people; the 15-year-old girl dies in the hospital, and Tessa says that she was murdered.
Many doubts flashed by, turning Tessa's death into a suspicious sinus. It can be said that the director's suspense film narrative has made enough efforts, the interaction between reality and memory is interspersed, perfect and smooth, and the suspense setting is uneven and rising again, wonderful.
(2) The film breaks the narrative tradition of fixed types and performs a highly superimposed intuitive performance with changes in narrative style and structure
The film uses a news report to lock time and space in Nairobi, kenya's capital after Tessa's death, and unfolds the core of the story's subsurface with Justin's carefully considered investigation as a clue.
The director's narrative strategy is to integrate the different depths of the structure into the same linear story, the deep love between Justin and Tessa is undercurrent of dirty and mysterious political conspiracy, and Justin's investigation of the conspiracy is always flashing the power and light of love. So that the audience is always in the vortex of romance and suspense, constantly satisfying the audience's desire to explore the truth of the conspiracy, and then experiencing the spiritual shock brought about by firm love.
Justin traveled non-stop to different countries to meet many people related to the truth, and after painstaking and dangerous forensics and investigations, he discovered the murder of his wife and the huge conspiracy behind the whole incident - the British pharmaceutical company with a deep international political background is using these patients to conduct human trials of new tuberculosis drugs under the pretext of providing medical assistance to Kenyan patients, resulting in the inexplicable deaths of hundreds of patients.
Tessa was also killed precisely because she insisted on making these plots public, and driven by huge economic interests, senior government officials, along with those interest groups, acted as executioners for money and murder, killing many innocent African people and strugglers like Tessa who tried to expose the truth.
However, they underestimate the power of love, and Justin gives up the comfortable life of the world, becomes brave and fearless, and even if she is tracked, monitored, and intimidated and beaten, she still follows in Tessa's footsteps and tries to help her fulfill her last wishes. Justin's love for Tessa does not only stay at the level of memory, but directly presents the love in his heart in the image, with deep and delicate emotional performance, let us see the innocence and courage under the firm love.
Justin also went from being a small gardener obsessed with gardening to an immortal gardener who removed evil "weeds" from the world.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Second, the film uses vivid and full characters to show the sadness and sublimation of unwavering love</h1>
The journey of true love in the film is Justin's journey to the heart of love, a sublimation of love, derived from a broad love, love for African people, love for individual life, and love for peace and justice.
(1) Tessa: A brave and fearless whistleblower
Tessa and Justin know each other, follow him to work in Africa, mingle with the local residents of Kenya, and use her kindness and fearlessness to become a sincere friend of the African people. She cares about the work of international rescue organizations and has the courage to expose all kinds of cats in the aid.
In the barren lands of Kenya, Tessa, along with arnold, a local doctor, discovers the secret of the pharmaceutical company: knowing that the new drug has serious toxic side effects, but can't wait to get it back into the lab for experiments that could take years, but instead does dangerous experiments directly on the people of Africa to exclude the drug-resistant groups, in order to quickly get new drugs that can be brought to market.
Because of her deep love, Tessa does not want To put Justin in danger, does not want him to violate his usual rules and old-fashioned style, Tessa hides a lot of evidence from him. She is not afraid of any threat, puts aside her personal love and happiness for the time being, and strives for justice and truth for the vast number of African people in the most courageous and fearless spirit.
The profiteering and violence in the film is like a hell, not only the plundering of poor areas in Africa by Western powers, but also the pulling of people into a bloodthirsty circle. Under the vicious circle of profiteering and violence that devoured the African people, Tessa died a tragic death in this desolate land.
(2) Justin: From gardener to great fighter
Originally a cautious and gentle British diplomat, gentlemanly, reserved, and acting according to common sense, Justin represented the style of British diplomacy at the time: silence and tranquility. His greatest hobby is to be a gardener, to keep his little garden neat and comfortable, to become a pure world without weeds.
Tessa gave him the beauty of love and the peace of family, but also brought him a lot of confusion, he did not understand why Tessa could talk to the black doctor so much, but he was tight-lipped about himself. It wasn't until Tessa's tragic death, after learning the truth of the incident step by step, that she understood Tessa's good intentions: she loved him, so she didn't want him to be in danger, but she was born with a sense of justice, so she had to carry out those dangerous actions.
After Tessa's death, he discovered his wife's affection for him, Tessa was his home, and Tessa's death made him feel homeless. Tessa's love and death make Justin grow, and under Tessa's inspiration, he desperately travels around the world to collect evidence, complete Tessa's unfinished ideals, and also discover the unknown dangers of this world.
Driven by interests, politicians, drug dealers and arms dealers collude with each other to trample on the African land and achieve their ulterior motives. Led by love, Justin, who is close to the truth, has also become bold in exposing conspiracies to protect african people, growing from a small gardener to a warrior like a lover, fighting for the justice and well-being of all mankind, until he gives his life.
In the film, deep love encounters sadness, as the giver of love, the people who devote themselves to justice are killed, and in the reality of mercenary interests, they are lonely warriors and defenders.
The movie "The Immortal Gardener" carries a strong sense of reality, a cone pierces the blood of the truth, reveals shocking practical problems for the audience, leads the audience's soul beyond the shackles of time and space, and asks the ultimate question of life: Does goodness need a reason? Does it take motivation to do good?
Through the dedication and sacrifice of the hero and heroine, the film tells us that although there is resistance to doing good, like Mother Teresa who touched the world in real life, Tessa and Justin's reasons and motivations for doing good come from the most precious treasures of human nature - love and conscience.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the film not only throws out a social problem that needs to be pondered, but also conveys the power to actively fight against evil</h1>
There is a saying in the I Ching: The house of good will have a remnant, and the house of evil will have a remnant. That is why people are afraid of "good is rewarded with good, and evil is rewarded with evil" and are devoted to good deeds.
However, in The Immortal Gardener, the angelic Tessa is brutally harmed, and doing good does not necessarily lead to good results, but evil brings real benefits and irresistible temptations. Good deeds can often only rely on self-discipline to seek spiritual comfort, which one is easier for people to choose? The director puts human nature and good deeds into a desperate situation, causing the audience to think and decide.
The film clearly unveils the hell on earth on the African land for the audience, and also throws out a question that needs to be dried away from tears and seriously considered: when hypocrisy and atrocities can bring benefits and good deeds may hurt themselves, it is not so easy to be good.
The main characters in the film are all faced with a contest between good and evil, and on the way to good, they are all struggling to tug-of-war with themselves.
Tessa is trapped in the net of the truth and struggles to move forward, and she is also the only person in this film who insists on justice and goodness without any reason to involve her own interests. In the real world intertwined with evil deeds, Tessa's good deeds lead to her own tragedy, and it is this power of retrograde love that deeply moves the audience.
The closer Justin gets to the hardcore truth of the event, the greater the resistance to doing good, and he needs a reason. Before Tessa's death, Justin was just a diplomat who liked to hide in the garden and play with flowers and plants, and he didn't want to intervene in other people's lives because he felt that he couldn't help anyone. Justin can avoid doing evil, but doing good seems to require more motivation.
After Tessa's death, Justin slowly changed, and he blamed himself for not being able to help the African child escape. The driving force behind his final ability to do good lies in his sincere love for Tessa, and he wants to return Tessa's innocence.
The Immortal Gardener is about the ugly conspiracies that take place in Africa, but it also presents us with a magical land, a place of hell and heaven on earth, with amazing enthusiasm and exuberant vitality. The passionate samba on the African land and the orthodontics of the children running are showing the endless vitality of the African people.
Surviving in desolation but still thriving may be another form of compensation for a troubled Africa. Any misfortune of the same kind will be reflected in people, and all good deeds will become the pride and well-being of all mankind. Only by respecting the right to live of the same kind and controlling greedy desires with kindness and love can the world achieve a win-win situation of harmonious development. And this is also the realistic enlightenment that the movie brings to us.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
From indisputable to angry resistance, Justin in the film understands immortal love: saving one person is to save the whole world, and helping a person is the brightest light in the night sky.
"The Immortal Gardener" constructs a firm spiritual world with deep practical care and humanitarianism, and the ultimate concern for human nature and compassion leads us forward in the muddy reality with solemn questions and hope for goodness.