Day 3: The Tenets of National Socialism

Relatively quick recaps - I'm dog tired, and need to get this out before I forget everything by morning.

Jar City

Or as I've been calling it, CSI: Rejkyavik. Icelandic murder mystery. Pretty good as these things go - the lead was quite good, and the whole thing held together nicely. Apparently it was the most popular Icelandic film ever - seen by 100,000 people! Which doesnt seem like a lot, until you realize that the country only has a population of 300k.

Ulzhan

The anti-Borat. Man actually goes to Kazakhstan, wandering around on foot, motorcycle, and horse, attempting to exorcise inner demons. Road movie, of sorts. Wierd mishmash of languages spoken by the actors - despite a German director, the primary language of the film is French, and people will break into English or Russian at odd intervals.

Terroni

Not only am I a world-renowed film critic, but I'm also a noted gourmand. No. Fer serious.

Terroni isnt a movie - its a restaurant. Italian in character. Reasonable prices, excellent food. Pasta's made fresh daily. 3 locations in Toronto. Recommended. Tell 'em I sent you.

The Counterfeiters

Part one of todays theme - the Nazis. Odd choice, eh? Anyways, this is your standard "men in concentration camp do whatever they need to, to survive" film. The variation this time is that the inmates are the tools in a German plot to forge British and American currency.

There's some depth here (is it better to save ourselves and forge madly, or save the world and sabotage the efforts), but not a heck of a lot. Watchable.

My Enemy's Enemy

Part two. A documentary on Klaus Barbie the so-called Butcher of Lyon. Quite good - I knew a decent amount about his wartime exploits, but not really what he'd been up to afterwards.

Turns out the enterprising fellow set himself up as an advisor (political, and ahh... information retrieval technologies, if you get my drift) to right-wing strongmen in Boliva. He more or less had tacit approval from the Americans, who were looking for virulent anti-communists as a bulwark to Communist incursions in Latin America.

Now. The Americans didnt exactly approve of his plans for a Fourth Reich in the Andes with the rest of his Nazi buddies, but good help is hard to find.