In collaboration with Babel
IF YOU WANT TO BE UNDERSTOOD... LISTEN.
Babel unfolds as a beautifully crafted and utterly enthralling tale of coincidence, crossed wires and cultural misunderstanding from the highly acclaimed director Alejandro González Iñárritu. It follows the parallel lives of apparently unrelated people from across the globe who are caught up in the events triggered by a tragic accident.
When a married Californian couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) lose their son, a chain of catastrophic events is detonated causing the lives of strangers in Tokyo, Morocco and Mexico to collide. Iñárritu successfully creates an aesthetically rich kaleidoscope of awe-inspiring imagery as we travel at disorientating speed between inter-connected stories set in Tokyo, Morocco and Mexico.
As Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi), a deaf but highly sexual young woman, drifts along the bustling streets of Tokyo, the film depicts a beautiful, modern city whose electric atmosphere is only amplified as the sound drops out to a hypnotic silence. The man-made physicality of this metropolis sits incongruously alongside the adolescent girl's youthful antics, and Iñárritu's camera conjures imagery that will leave a lasting impression.
The time spent in neon-lit Tokyo is in total contrast to the barren aridity of a poor village in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Here we are introduced to a hard-working goat herder who gives his sons a hunting rifle to protect the family's flock from jackals. When a single, careless gun shot rings out across the desert it triggers a series of events that have a global impact. By hitting an American tourist on a passing bus, a tragic accident suddenly becomes perceived as a terrorist attack. And from this point on the remote beauty of the Moroccan landscape becomes threateningly alien to the panicking Western tourists.
Meanwhile, the friction between American and Latin cultures is explored when a women and her nephew (Gael García Bernal) attempt to cross the border into Mexico with the two children in her charge. The rough-hewn beauty of Mexico and the vibrant energy of its people stands in stark contrast to the comfort and wealth of middle-class California.
The diversity of the countries and people featured in Babel combine to create a magnificently rich pallet of languages, cultures and geography. From the desolate mountains of Morocco to the hysteria of Tokyo and fractious border between Mexico and the United States, Iñárritu paints a portrait of a divided world where listening more and exploring more are the only answers.