La Cage Doree or On being a foreigner

The Golden Cage is exactly what we are all looking for; ready to give up freedom for comfort, security and quality of life. Quality of life stands for things we can own, not abstractions. Being bohemian is not declared as a component of high standards of living, so freedom, is ruled out of the equation. Freedom is not of this world anyway.

So, you actually have to choose between the following two: do you want to be poor (in a crisis-struck or plain poor country) or do you prefer being a foreigner (anywhere else)? This is the burning question of our generation. It has always been for me, coming from one of the so-called countries of the south. Classified as rebellious, lazy, irresponsible countries.

Tabu (2012)

All the serious matters have already been talked about, when it comes to the big FIPRESCI winner in this year's Berlinale (which is the critics' award, for those who never heard of it), a Portuguese film entitled Tabu. I will agree in the pastiche statements, the various references to early cinema that produce an unknown hybrid genre (nothing like The Artist, even if it bears some similarities), even though I try hard to stop judging images through those cinema aficionado eyes for a while.