Megann Horstead
Social Media Editor
Meg’s tip: A slew of hugs for a film that looks at healing an oppression-filled world.
Directed by Dr. Farrokh Asadi, “Judith” premiered to U.S. audiences on Feb. 24 as an epic adaptation of a Bertolt Brecht play.
Asadi’s “Judith” was first brought to life at the 13th annual International Brecht Symposium held in Brazil in 2013. The core of the film carried out its beat when Asadi appeared at North Central College to show and discuss the project.
Asadi, director of “Judith,” founded in 2005 the Epic Players of Chicago Theatre, a nonprofit, culturally diverse, nonpolitical, nonbiased and nonreligious group of theatre lovers dedicated to the aesthetic and scientific nature of the theater. To this end, “Judith” maintains this connection.
In terms of the film, Judith, the central character, is a Jew facing oppression and making plans to seek refuge in another country. Through the experimental process, the film follows Judith’s journey.
The film, much like the play, draws upon both the arts and sciences to convey story. It then strives to remain true to much of the original episodic story. Even so, the film takes the idea of oppression a step further by adding universal and contemporary elements to draw connections to the audience.
At the conceptual level, sometimes it is hard for people to disassociate terms, such as Nazi, from the period in which it is thought to reflect. The same can be said of a term such as “ghetto.” This film seeks to curve this understanding.
From the first scene to the last, the movie, much like an experiment, seeks to explore a question regarding what is rational in a corrupt world.
Despite the pressing topic of the film, which is to explore how people are divided, attempts to support the film’s substance yet foster universality in its experiment translated well to audiences from the scenic aesthetics to the manipulation of the camera.
The film screenwriting is one area that when it had its punch, it did that with force; but so did the acting. The use of exaggeration exhibited in pausing reflections reminds the viewer of the style Brecht made famous.
In terms of fluidity, the film strives to convey a sense of that. The music score, for example, drew out this quality. What could have been a series of isolated steps in an experiment came to flow together as one in the end.
All in all, this film will make you think. But, if you come away having made personal connections, perhaps the less oppression will have its mark and the more healing will have its place.
