‘Sadr's South’ portrays followers of the Shia religious leader Mogtada al—Sadr in the holy city of Najaf. who is shown violently enforcing Islamic law by assaulting market traders allegedly selling alcohol. The concluding segment ‘Kurdish Spring' deals with a Kurdish farming family near Arbil in the north. where an elder predicts that Iraq itself will be divided into three parts. whilst an unseen voice replies ‘How can you cut a country into pieces? With a saw. Along with the remarkable access gained by Longley to his subjects. what makes /rag in Fragments so distinctive is its impressionistic and at times lyrical imagery that's captured on high- definition video. We come to expect the worse. so that when clouds of billowing black smoke are revealed to be emanating from brick ovens. we feel temporarily relieved. Somehow a semblance of everyday life is maintained. yet. as a passer—by so presciently observes of the foreign occupation. ‘If it is like this in the beginning. what Will the end be like.' (Tom Dawson) I Fi/mhouse. Edinburgh from Sat 77— Thu 22 Mar.

BIOGRAPHY DRAMA

FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS

(15) 121 min 000

Director Steven Shainberg broke plenty of taboos a few years ago with his sado-masocliistic love story Secretary. and he's clearly been emboldened to create an even more outre romance in Fur. It's hard to imagine. however. that the estate of Diane Arbus were too thrilled when they saw Shainberg's uber—weird mm {2' to the celebrated photographer. which is anything but the straight biopic they might have enVisaged. Shainl'x2rg's film is rooted in New York. 1958. and projects a strange fantasy about how Arbus found her creative groove. but there are no actual Arbus pictures on show. and Nicole Kidman makes little attempt to resemble Arbus. Instead. Shainberg throws his heroine into a truly bi/arre love triangle invoIVing her staid husband Allan (Ty Burrell) and her mysteriously masked neighbour Lionel (played by Robert Downey Jr in a hirsute make-up job) every time he's on screen. Creeping out somewhat shamefacedly after being firmly ignored in the awards season. Fur offers a deliciously perverse evocation on 1950's female repression set against a kinky sex fantasy. Kidman doesn't have much to go on in such a daft 'beauty and the beast' scenario. but while Shainberg's film is too long—winded and silly to fully engage. its visual style makes it a genuine curiosity. If we learn anything from this kooky love story. it is

to ask to read the script if Shainberg ever comes knocking and offers to make a film in tribute to your life. (Eddie Harrison)

I Selected release from Fri 7 6 Mar.

DRAMA OLD JOY (15) 73min ooeo

Less is more in this ruefui and sensitively observed study of male friendship undermined by the passing of time. Written and directed by Kelly Reichardt (River of Grass. Ode). and accompanied by a melancholic Yo La Tengo soundtrack. Old Joy follows two thirtysomethings Kurt and Mark (played respectively by the Bonnie ‘Prince' Billy singer Will Oldham and Daniel London). who head out of Portland one weekend into Oregon‘s Cascade mountains.

The plot to Old Joy could be scribbled on the back of an envelope: a pair of old friends. who haven't seen one another for a considerable period of time. and whose lives have drifted far apart. drive into the Mount Hood forest area in search of a remote hot springs. They get lost. camp out overnight. and the next day find their destination before heading back to the city.

Reichardt skilfully conveys the awkwardness and hesitancy between her two protagonists. Their conversation is strained. Willi the married Mark. concerned about impending fatherhood. the more reticent indiVidual. It's the hippyish. pot— bellied Kurt. who reminisces about 'transformative experiences. presents his own take ()l‘. ;.istr()pliysi(:s. and recollects his dreams. Over a campfire he confesses that. ‘I miss you Mark. I miss you real bad. I \.‘.’('lllt to be friends again.‘

Old Joy also connects the personal to

the political. Mark and Kurt listen in despondent silence in the car to the progressive radio station Air America. where callers give vent to the despair felt by those on the Left in Bush's America. It's not just the friendship of

these particular two individuals that may

be coming to an end. the film suggests. it‘s the vanishing of alternative ways of IiVing. lTom Dawson)

I Fi/mhouse. Edinburgh from Fri

23— Thu 29 Mar.

DRAMA ROMANCE. STOMP THE YARD (12A) 114min 00

After the death of his younger brother. LA street dancer DJ (Columbus Short) avoids blame and recrirnination by enrolling in the historically African— American Truth University in Atlanta. Georgia. Once there. however. he finds a whole different type of performance dancing going on in the frat houses. But will he become the master of this new form and show the young snobs in the frat houses how it is done. or will he just chase the girls?

Set in some weird parallel universe where the souls of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks can be equated with a few tasty moves in a ‘krumping‘ arena. Stomp the Yard is both appalling and jaw dropping (while being mildly watchable).

All good intentions aside (the film has a very curious and earnest message about honouring your heritage). Stomp the Yard is essentially Charles Stone lll's 2003 varsity street drummer flick Drum/ine without the oilskins. Throw in uneven measures of Spike Lee's School Dam and John Singleton's Higher Learning and you've a get a wooden vat of steaming cliclxés.

(Paul Dale) I General release from Fri 23 Mar.

BIOPIC DRAMA AMAZING GRACE (PG) 118min 00

Ania/ing Grace tells the story of how William Wilberforce (loan Gruffudd) persuaded the House of Commons after a series of attempts to end the slave trade in the British Empire. Alas. the subject matter is far more interesting than the execution. Slavery has been a topic imbedded in cinematic history since DW Griffiths' 1915 Klan recruitment epic The Birth of a Nation. Director Michael Apted acknowledges Britain‘s historical acguiescence to slavery while foolishly relegating the harsh realities of slavery in favour of rather staid criticism of the internal workings of the British parliament.

Hindering the story even more is an irrelevant love story between Wilberforce and Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai). The heroes are nearly all white. The only black character is prominent freed slave and author Oloudagh Eguiano (Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour making his acting debut) who rather conveniently dies of sorrow mid way through a parliamentary campaign. On the plus side is the performance of Albert Finney as a reformed slave—trader who wrote the hymn ‘Ama/ing Grace'. It's a film bogged down with staid dialogue that reeks of horse manure.

(Kaleem Aftab) I Selected release from Fri 23 Mar.

Name Gerard James Butler

Born 13 November 1969. Glasgow. Scotland

Background Raised by his divorced mother in her hometown of Paisley. and Canada; Butler studied law at Glasgow University but allegedly gave up on that career after losing his job at a firm just a week before he was ready to practice professionally. He was later discovered as an actor in a London coffee shop by Steven Berkoff, who cast him in a production of Corio/anus. Butler made his film debut in Mrs Brown. in which he played fellow Glaswegian Billy Connolly‘s younger brother. He subsequently alternated between bit parts in blockbusters Tomorrow Never Dies. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, and bigger roles in quality British dramas One More Kiss, Dear Frankie. But it was the American TV movie Attila (in which he played the Hun) that was Butler‘s big break. Following that. he starred in the film version of The Phantom of the Opera, to the chagrin of fans of Michael Crawford. though Andrew Lloyd Webber was reportedly happy with the actor's rock'n'roll vocals (Butler used to front Glasgow rock band Speed). What’s he up to now? Butler's playing King Leonidas. the starring role in the CG-heavy, super violent blockbuster adaptation of Frank Miller‘s graphic novel 300, which dramatises the battle in 480 BC between a handful of Spartan warriors and the might of the invading Persian Empire.

What he says about 300 ‘lt’s almost like somebody who was there and witnessed the battle went to sleep and dreamed the whole thing again. because a lot of it is very representational. A lot of it exists in the imagination. so it allows us to take it so much further. It's an incredible story, but it‘s not a documentary. It's full of passion and politics and brutality, all existing in this hyper-real world.‘

Interesting fact Butler's just finished filming Butterfly On A Wheel. a kidnap drama in which he stars alongside former James Bond Pierce Brosnan. Butler, who had a small role opposite Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies. was a strong contender for the role of 007 before Daniel Craig was cast in Casino Royale. (Miles Fielder)

I 300 is on general release from Fri 23 Mar. See preview, page 4 7.

155—129 Mar 2’00." THE LIST 43