Impasse



= Impasse =

Impasse is an Academy award nominated picture and currently one of the most well-received pictures of all time. The foreign picture presented much controversy over its subject matter, but that controversy guided it to land the record high total for any NC-17 rated film. Impasse received top marks from all the top critics, and it went on to collect 6 Academy Award nominations, though it only won one. The film was universally acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time, but it met an upset at the Academy Awards, losing best picture to war/drama Nam. This caused much controversy from top reviewers. Though it did not win best picture, the film went down in history as one of the most well received pictures of all time. Its popularity gave it the top viewed by critics percentage that year with 21% to Nam's second place 18%, though it only landed second on the critical consensus of Year 30. Some connections with the story drew it to that of Broken Childhoods, which was nominated for best picture three years prior to Impasse's release. Impasse was the last of the Foreign Frenzy, a period that began with Broken Childhoods in Year 27 in which a foreign language film was nominated for best picture. Preceding it were: Broken Childhoods (Year 27), Hitokiri (Year 28), and Ragdoll and Onara's Spellcast (Year 29).

= General =

Directed By: Soffia Coppola

Genre: Drama/Foreign

MPAA Rating: NC-17

Budget: 18 million

Composer: E.S. Posthumus

Tagline: Islam is Perfect. Muslims aren't.

Release: September 12, Year 30 (limited); October 3, Year 30 (wide)

= Cast =

Tulin Ozen - Najida Abad

Nora Armani - Sheeba

Ayelet Zurer - Fatema

Penelope Cruz - Fadwa

Gura Argavua - child Fadwa

= Plot Overview=

Impasse takes place on an hypothetic Afghanistan circa 2010. Najida Abad's (Tulin Ozen)is a afhgan primary schoolteacher whose life orbits around her devotion to family and religion. One day, a bombing at her school explodes into a chain reaction that will make her a recruit in a vanguard extremist feminist movement lead by the mysterious Sheeba (Nora Armani). As a result of the kidnapping to the resistance facility, Najida losses her memory and is simply referred to as Ms. Abad. As the years come by, Ms. Abad suffers a thraumatic brainwashing by being open-eyed to the irrefutable realities/suffering of Islamic woman, from the mandatory use of burqa to public tortures. However, the arrival of a reporter, Fadwa (Penelope Cruz), changes her dimensional view of life, and maquinates her desire to run from the facility. A horrendous choice made by Sheeba will therefore and until the very end oblige them to escape to the mountain ranges. There, the true human nature of both terrorists and of Najida will show as they are because of the progressive desperation and madness derived from isolation. In the grand finale, a truth will spare Najida from the imminent militar siege and of death, a truth lying in the deepest of her mind: a promise and a sacrifice made twenty years ago.

= Plot =

Impasse takes place on year 2010. Taliban regime has, again, over rule the democratic government of Afghanistan, instituting a radical-religious dictatorship (with terror and Islamic fascism as its pillars). To the point of mandatory veiling, strict laws against women, a regime of terror and oppression, and much worst than the one you see in the newspapers, because it’s not the same as being there. However, the iron grip of tyranny had loosen with the years passed. Woman nowadays have been faced with globalization. As an observer commented, the so-called woman revolution, crushed for two millennia, is a powder-keg scorching to blast. In this story, it explodes. In this story about change, the consequences of misunderstanding, and the fate each human being decides to make as own, it’s going to bang hard.

The movie starts with a countdown from 15:00 minutes, following the very last day in the life of Najida Abad (Tulin Ozen), a smart, devoted Muslim woman. Najida takes her son to school, where she works as a teacher. 10:00Even though she’s got an I.Q. of 220, being a woman had limited her options to the point of a forced marriage, a poor living, and a dim future for her child. 5:00 minutes left. Najida is called by the school director, who is cloak under the burqa (veil that covers face and body). An intense chat, unable to be heard, follows as time runs out, to the point Najida breaks into tears. -Will you do it?, asks the director. Najida, still trembling, accepts. The countdown gets to 0:00 and the school explode with rage. Deafened, Najida walks in time to see her bleeding son die. Black-out.

Najida wakes up in an open car trunk wrapped up in dried blood. She has lost every past memory. She is taken to an old abandoned facility in the mountains ranges. Najida is fearful of terrorists, but is greet by the woman in charge, Sheeba (Nora Armani). Sheeba simply tells her she had been saved from a terrorist bombing, and that, in a nutshell, they are not terrorists in the commonsensical of the word. They are a feminist organization against Islamic oppression. “You will in time agree with our rational ideology, Ms Abad. I warn you, this is a place for change. If you, in any form, slow change, you are useless to Islam”. Najida is not listening; she is too afraid about the lack of a veil in Sheeba’s head. To look at a woman without veil is to look at a naked person, masculine in androgynous ways. From now on, Ms. Abad (who doesn’t remember her name) is going to contribute to the movement instructing girls into a new educational plan aimed to create a new social scheme.

Ms. Abad is recluse in a tiny room of white torn walls. She spares her time writing to her mother (at least she remembers having one), scared to go outside. Sheeba calls for her and introduces the other members, nearly all also without veils. Ms. Abad can’t look at them. There are three more. Fatema, deaf, kind-like, no more than eighteen; Laila, dried uterus, mature, hateable. The third is a veiled figure in a corner of the rusted facility that doesn’t speak at all. In time, these three figures are going to be Ms. Abad’s only remindment of adult humanity, because Sheeba is going on an expedition to the mountains. In time, Ms. Abad would forget she was once Najida Abad, that she was virtually a genius, that she had a son, that she lived in the XXI century, but she will only know she is a member of the Feminist Islamic Revolution (F.I.R).

-Why does woman receive half the bequest men do? Why does woman can be punished, raped, legally murdered, subject to tortures so outdated, with an obsolete thinking ruling their lives? Why can them be publicly executed at the stadium, as a national sport, or stoned to death, as a sort of morbid fun? And nobody moves to act. Nobody, in two thousand years, had opened their eyes in protest. That’s the difference between us and them. We are the change, the needed, soreful, vital change.

Ten years later Ms. Abad is a dishearten, unveiled teacher in the same facility between the arid dessert and the mountain range. It had been so long ago her entrance in the circle of revolution, that she had forgotten there is an ever changing world outside the rusted doors of the facility. She had forgotten she was once a citizen of that world. She had forgotten how a man looks. Her past beauty is just reminiscence, as nowadays she’s dried out into a consumed soul full of hate towards Islam fundamentalism.

The bombing at the village of Orgen, in January 2010, killed virtually “every single” human being on the area, and shaked the Taliban regime. Activists worldwide striked against them, calling an end to national genocide. The Taliban were overthrown and an elite call for the hold of power. Fadwa (Penelope Cruz) is the divorced Spanish wife of one of these leaders. She is a rich western woman of Islamic origins, unable to understand the real problems Muslim equals are still suffering. The new regime had done nothing to their situation. In other words, if you’re not rich and a woman, you are a legal blank. However, Fadwa, who is a prolific journalist, receives a call from an unknown voice claiming there was a survivor in the Orgen bombing, and if she’s interested in a big story. As the money from her divorce is running off, Fadwa accepts and travels to an abandoned facility in the rocky regions of Afghanistan with a group of correspondents.

Ms. Abad educates girls that have been neglected by Islam. She misuses her intelligence capacities to formulate a post-socialist ideology, where rhetoric sexism is inverted. The little girls are no more than ten years old, the ages perfect for brainwashing. Girls are made to hate the system to the point of refuting the teachings of God and the Qur’an. Their childhoods robbed, they are mostly orphans or terrorist attacks survivors, and they become dangerous of judgment. Their thoughts are poisoned by the much more radical figure of Sheeba, who had just returned in time for the “press conference” she had herself arranged.

When Fadwa and Ms. Abad met, two worlds collide against each other, and the impasse that is bound to end their lives starts shaping. Fadwa’s figure of beauty, modernism and veil at the same time is such a psychological smack to Ms. Abad she realizes how stupid her ideas of violent feminism are, and rediscovers the world she had thought lost, between the white walls of her jail. Fadwa proves to be a dynamic, sincere woman who stays with the revolutionaries for a month, befriending Ms. Abad. She is the one who retells Ms. Abad of her gone name, and so Najida Abad starts to remember her past life and concludes she had more freedom in the oppressive world of Islam rather than in the facility. She and Fadwa spent their time shaping an interview that will catapult the F.I.R to the world, just as Sheeba has planned. However, half way Fadwa realizes Najida is a hostage, and fearing for her friend’s health starts filming another video at Najida’s room, this one exposing Najida as an oppressed -Give the West veils and tears. They will bomb your way out” Fadwa explains with a laugh. The interviews are rehearsed to appeal dramatically, in fluent english (quickly learned by Najida).

Sheeba finds out her plan has inverted when she becomes more involved with the interview. She is not a stupid, and spies enough to deduce what the two are up to, but she doesn’t speak at all. The last night she faces Fadwa with a violent argument. -You make us look like terrorist, when we are not terrorists! You-are-a-stupid-western, not even a woman... Grow a v***** first! Suffer as we do! You tell me we are oppressed, and yes… we are, but not nearly as you! Muslim woman do not care how others look at them! We do not starve to death to look different! We… we are not submissive to fashion or to comments! At least, we have a soul! With real problems! We are real slaves! Women who do not care about sh**! And you… you are a sh**. Sheeba takes Fadwa and a male cameraman to a naked wall outside the facility, and calls all the girls. Out of her mind, she grabs a SMG and stains the wall red shooting Fadwa until her body deforms into a skin bag of bones and flesh. The little girls can’t leave as Fatema and Laila block the way. -These are our enemies. People who do not give a sh** for you. People who are going to abuse of you as soon as you soften out. And this… this is the worst of them all. The cameraman is shot on legs and arms, forced to eat sand and rocks, and finally “Fatema, the grenade!” into the mouth. “You know how a man looks inside? It is all blood and evil!! They are not better than us! We are not evil. It is what the F.I.R is all about. As good as it gets!”

Najida tries to escape, but is reduce to a crying lump in the floor by Laila. Afterwards, the facility is evacuated. The group withdraws to the nearby mountain caves. Najida Abad will never again see the sun or feel the breeze. Before leaving, the youngest girls are killed to avoid inconveniences. Najida is able to save a two-year old, hiding her in her robes. As most girls, she lacks a name. Najida decides to call her Fadwa.

Through the following ten long years, Najida Abad will lose all contact with the modern world, doomed to live without light. She is going to forget how life is outside the cave, and though she will slowly remember everything, it will be useless because a cameraman could escape the genocide. F.I.R had become a threatening terrorist group to the eyes of humanity. A single mistake had cost Najida any chance of a normal life, as she’s documented as member of the organization. However, the caves are well-installed, strengthen with metal walls and lighted by dim roof lamps. This was the reason Sheeba gone on her expedition. She and the other three constantly meet at a locked room, a sound-proof red door at the end of the hallways stopping anyone from entering. The small girls have depth bedrooms in the mountain grotto. Nobody knows the exit of the labyrinth except Sheeba. She had grown strength to continue the teachings, and periodically a new generation of Muslim woman is let out to fight against injustice. In order to survive, Sheeba is forced to “rent” her girls to depraved men. Najida had kept Fadwa away from the other girls, and lied to Sheeba that the girl is named Sheeba, for her, to gain her favor and to not rent her. Fadwa (most known as Sheeba) receives personal teachings from Najida about philosophy and literature in a way not even a university teacher could explain so clear. She constantly dumps all her bitter remorse and guilt to Fadwa, hoping of her as a daughter that won’t make the same mistakes. Fadwa is forced eventually to live with the other girls. She is very smart, and soon discovers they have lost any trace of femininity they so call of possess: they are rough, vulgar potential machines of annihilation.

The life of Najida and Fadwa stuck in a mental impasse. Najida is forced to continue the ideology while Fadwa is forced to learn it. They live a double life in darkness as mother and daughter; tutor and pupil. Both dream of an escape. Radical feminism for women has proved more oppressing than radical Islamism. Maybe, maybe, women don’t need a violent change. But they shut beside Sheeba. Technically, the situation can’t last long. Constant “earthquakes” shake the caves, spreading continuous terror between the girls and women. Najida can’t make much of the situation: the small bits of information revealed by Sheeba are coincidently convenient towards her. She starts doubting whether they are terrorists or not, and if they are, what else has Sheeba lied of?

As the story and life of Najida Abad fades (around the time the first girls are found death on their beds, their wrists bleeding) she gets intimately close with Fatema. Regretting being next to her for twenty years and never talking at all, she finds in the finished Fatema a beacon of hope. Fatema, now torn and much older she really is, has finally set, thanks to the solitude of her soul, to her real nature: kind, caring, adorable. Both communicate without speaking, in the sweet language of memories. The sad story of Fatema strikes Najida’s sick heart, which years had dried. She wanted to become a famous writer but was forced to accept guilt for her sister’s crime, supposedly adultery. It was at the peak of Taliban regime. Her punishment has been never to hear Allah again. Her inner ear was shredded with an ultrasonic sound. Her family, ashamed, abandoned her. She was forced to live alone, until Sheeba found her. And Fatema walks alone through the endless, silent hallways, trembling with a morbid desire, waiting, as everyone else, for her death.

At the same time, Fadwa finds the third veiled woman in the corner, and a friendship starts. Fadwa has never seen her face, but the sweet words coming from the rags assure her the woman is a good person. The woman speaks plausibly about the history of Islam and women, and how the relation was doomed since the first day the Prophet was born into existence. It’s true, tough, than in Islam women enjoyed more rights. These rights were outdated in time. -Why can’t I see you? -If you see my face, you will never want to see me again. However, Fadwa starts noticing the woman regularly gets into periods of insanity when she starts talking alone, and follows her to the depths of the caves. There, in the dark abyss of the earth, away from life and from the growing world, two hundred female lie in wait, oppressed by the silence of their hearts and by the stillness of the freedom they were once promised as paradise.

During the last year of her life, Najida Abad questioned her actions during these- twenty? - years. She had wasted her life in a fantasy, to weak of will to let it go. Will she, one day, decide to act, as someone had proclaimed so long ago, against the oppression, no matter whom? Will she stain the tinned walls of the cave with Sheeba’s blood, as she had stained the wall with Fadwa’s? Will she, Ms Abad, Najida Abad, continue the vicious cycle of death, the impasse of violence, that had been carried on by humanity eternally, aside from sex, race or nation? And if not, Fadwa, will she be condemned to continue the cycle? When she, Najida, dies, will she turn over, ignore the warnings, and continue the fight, the battle that was, now thinking carefully, lost since the start? Will either of them be the “needed, soreful, vital change”? -Because they are condemned to survive in the world, because in the true thinking it is discover the world was made by Allah for the suffering of the most and the joy of few. (The Third, veiled woman)

And the morale of the movement finally collapses, when Laila is found death, her body bleeding, her eyes staring at the darkness she so fiercely believe as change, wrapped up in blank bloody sheets, strangled along her tiny room, her legs shattered against the rocks. It is the finale of the impasse. And her story would never be known, whether it’s tragic or infamous, except for Sheeba. And Sheeba starts to fall also, when the girls, now skeletal, convulsive woman, those who had survived and were let out to fight injustice, return defeated to cry bitterly at her feet, -You lied to us, Ms. Abad. The world is not the same one you’ve teach us. It is not the place with hate you told us about. We are happier there. It’s a place better than this hell. If we have come here, it’s to stop this madness. You are besieged by military forces. This is the end… And they break down in tears, and Najida and Fatema and Fadwa, and all the others join them, and they can’t continue because Sheeba crushes their heads with the rocks, and a river of blood runs freely through the caves, putrefying their lost hopes. And one last day Sheeba calls Najida for a private discussion. Najida can’t stand it anymore. Twenty years or so of the same are enough to rage feelings, even in the sweetest minds. -Give it up. Sheeba, we are lost. Your dream is over. And Sheeba, smacking the metal, -Ms. Abad, I have grown tire of your attitude with the years. I tried to reason, I taught you everything, and I have opened myself to you. No person, no living person, knows me better than you. I am sincere with these thoughts -I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS! We all could’ve had a future! We were young, but you've ruined us. It’s not about the veiling, or Islam, in the end it’s about you and your inability to at least, at least, battle, at least, but you mourn inside this hole, you break bodies and minds and lives for nothing and you’re coward enough not to admit it... Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever!! -…I better would had never bombed you away. Ungrateful, stupid b****. And in no time at all Najida Adab remembers the whole lot, the village and her son. -You weren’t there. -Oh! Yes I was, Najida. Yes I was, I was there, just like we are now, sitting one in front of the other, I was your school director, and you accepted to help the F.I.R. You accepted to everything with tears of joy: you accepted to live isolated, you accepted to my plan even though I told you, repeatedly, that the outcome was unsure. When I informed you of the situation, you were apparently desperate for a way out of your marriage; I don’t remember much of it. You even accepted to let your son die… You and I are not so different after all. -You told me of the bomb seconds before. What could I do… -…You know how it feels turning Channel 3 on, and the first thing you watch is your daughter being shot in front of ten thousand people? Inaugurating a football match? How it feels to come from a family of raped, holy, women? To be forced to let a stranger stick his rightful penis, right here?! his is not suffering. Yours was not suffering. But I am a monster created from suffering and Islam. I am not a terrorist-I am a human being, and if all great men (men!) who had asked for change are called terrorists, then count me as one!

Two days later. The mountain shakes one last time. The metal linings crack down, and the bombs throw by the military start to bury them underneath. Sheeba grabs weapons and equips the remaining girls with them, and for the first time commands them outside. -If this is the end, if we have to die, do not let history forget us! Najida begins to search for Fadwa and Fatema. In her way she finds Fatema stomped by a rock, dead with her arms around the ears. She can’t do much because Fadwa appears in front of the red door, calling her. What Najida discovers will be the last great revelation of the impasse. She finds a radio room full of old televisions, with piles of VHS. The shaking has stopped and she’s attracted by one in which it is noted, typewritten, “Hostage awakens awareness against oppression”. Only one TV is still working, and the video she starts watching is extremely familiar, because it’s the one she and Fadwa rehearsed ten years ago. The video survived, and was spread worldwide so strikes and organizations were funded to help her. She wasn’t a documented member of F.M.I, as Sheeba had made her believe. She was for ten years the symbol of lost liberty, the hostage, and the reason military forces were bombing the caves wasn’t to kill her. The video, Fadwa’s last action while she lived, had saved her, as she had once promised. And now, looking at the newborn Fadwa, the remindment that her friend will never die, and breaking in tears, she starts running away, outside into the world. But Fadwa isn’t following because a shadow in the corner caught her attention. It is looking at them with a ragged veil. The tired voice directs to Fadwa “Close your eyes. If you look at my face you will never want to see me again. Ms. Abad, please”. Najida covers Fadwa’s eyes just in time as the woman falls to the dim light of the lamp. A face, such a horrible face, eaten alive by burns, marked by scars and sores, the unmistakable features of syphilis, whose insanity had infected the brain of the poor woman, convulses for a last time, and finishes. The impasse has finished.

Following the trait left by Sheeba, Fadwa is the first to see the sun. (The camera blanks out during the entire scene) Fadwa, who had never seen a real light, is blinded. Najida can’t see anything as well. Someone takes Fadwa away, and she’s left against the violent light. Then she starts to see. The first thing Najida Abad sees as she is born into a new life, into the world, into the light, is the corpse of Sheeba at her feet. She is not the terrible monster Najida remembers. And the corpses of women and girls. And of Fadwa. And a helicopter.

And Islam change during the course of the seventeen years Najida Abad was hostage, from January 2010 to 20th July, 2027. The religion had forever reformed. Veil is not mandatory. This came from pacific, constant efforts. And Najida returns to her village, not as a world hero or survivor, but as a free woman, not freed by the estate or by Islam, freed because she lives in reality. There is no more Cave. And no matter what she lived, no matter what she suffered, are past memories only present in her mind, and the impasse that was her life is finally over, an impasse that had taken with it many dear things that are now a forever reminder, at least to her, of the deadly word: change. And if ever a reminder is to come to her nightmares, it is the image of Sheeba on the ground, so weak, so different of the monster she had fear in the darkness.

Because in Afghanistan woman are more than veiled ghosts; they are human beings.

= Reception =

Impasse was a gem amongst top reviewers. In fact, the film was one of the best received films of all time, and it received appraise far beyond expectations. The film currently holds the record for most number one mentions by top critics, with over six, though the film only placed second on the Year 30 critical consensus.

Among top reviewers:

USA Today - I was shock this was made. True Hollywood can say bad things about Christians, but any other religions they get in trouble. Well this got made. This was very hard to watch, but the acting was very good. The cinematagraphy was good to. Though it was a bit to harsh for me though. (3 out of 5 stars)

New York Times - This film gave me the Sweet September feel, but it completely incinerated that film and expectations. The story was told brilliantly and the aspects and messages of the film were handled on a extremely great level. I loved every minute of it. One of the best films this decade! (Number one film of the year)

Boston Globe - "Well I must mention that this film began looking alright. It did pick it up a notch, but I never got into the movie. The performances were alright, the script was good, and the direction was good. This film could have done better, but it’s still good enough." (25th of the year)

Orlando Sentinel - “I can overlook the seemingly subtle flaws in this masterpiece.” (8th best of the year)

Lima Post – “My own personal favorite, because it was a story suffering to be told. Thank you Sofia Coppola, and thanks both of you, deep from my heart, thank you Tulin Ozen and Nora Armani.” (2nd of the year)

Variety – “Never has a film wowed me so much. This film is like sex and candy. They coincide so well together and they give you ultimate pleasure, and though this film is dark at its core, Impasse delivers that same ultimate pleasure. Impasse creates one of the finest films of all time.” (Best film of the year)

Tournament of Films – “Impasse-number one movie of the year!”

Premiere Magazine – “When Magpie said that if people liked Sweet September they would like Impasse I got afraid since Sweet September is one of my original "bashes." But luckily my worrying was for naught since Impasse is an emotional, topical, dramatic, though flawed film. The main flaw Impasse has is that sometimes it focuses so much on certain themes and social issues that it loses sight of the characters as actual people and instead labels them as plot/thematical stereotypes or caricatures. It's probably the defining trait of this filmmaker: He is fine with sacrificing normal cinematical conventions and necessities to further the social themes or visual style. Some parts of this film are great, some are needless and blah, some are fine, so this rank seems like a good enough spot.” (19th best film of the year)

Extravaganza – “This film is beyond perfect. It tops every film this year in each and every way. Incredible all around.’’’ (Number one film of the year)

St. Louis Dispatch – “Tulin Ozen shines as Najida Abad in this wonderful, wonderful film directed by Soffia Coppola. Very graphic and very emotional.” (2nd best film of the year)

Indianapolis Star – “This is a great example of what a perfect film should be. One of the ten greatest film ever created.” (Best film of the year)

Smart-E Celebration – “A very disturbing, yet brilliantly compelling film that was very well thought out and planned. It shows its NC-17 rating, but it's still good.” (12th best film of the year)

Entertainment Weekly - "The majority of movies, even the ones we consider extraordinary, have the marks of Hollywood and entertainment all over them. "Impasse" consists of nothing but human emotion and fiery passion, making it one of the most heartfelt motion pictures in the past decade." (Number one film of the year)

Time Magazine – “Impasse may not be perfect, nor is it the best film of the year, but it is a damn fine one. Damn fine indeed.” (16th best film of the year)

New York Journal – “One of the greatest movies of all time! No joke. This blows away the competition. Many leagues better than any similar picture. Absolutely OUTSTANDING! Worthy of a Best Picture WIN. The story isn't flawed, and neither are the characters. It moves at its won pace and gives you a chance to understand and know the characters. It is really one of the greatest movies of all time. An instant-classic.” (Best film of the year)

Impasse averaged a 97% rating on RT based off of 132 votes. Its RT rating was the highest of the year, even higher than Nam which averaged second with 96% and Complicated Conviction which averaged 93% in third.

= Box-Office =

Opening Weekend (Limited) - $125,291

Opening Weekend (Wide) - $6,993,931

Domestic - $32,119,033

Worldwide - $55,673,634

= Awards =

Academy Awards
Best Picture

Best Director-Sofia Coppola

Best Actress-Tulin Ozen (WIN)

Best Supporting Actress-Nora Armani

Best Original Screenplay

Best Makeup

Golden Globes
Best Director-Sofia Coppola

Best Actress in a Drama-Tulin Ozen (WIN)

Best Supporting Actress-Nora Armani

Best Screenplay

Best Score-E.S. Posthumus

Best Foreign Language Film