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BEYOND THE MOVIE :

The Color of Paradise (1999 - 90 minutes, NR) - The Grandfather (1999 - 145 minutes, PG)

by Raymond Teague

These two exquisitely photographed, hauntingly beautiful and touching films, respectively from Iran and from Spain, clearly show that finding true meaning and value in life is a universal quest.

The Color of Paradise

"You are both seen and unseen," viewers are told at the beginning of The Color of Paradise, the story of an eight-year-old blind boy unwanted by his father. The film was written and directed by Majid Majidi.

Indeed, we see the young boy, Mohammed (Mohsen Ramezani), first at his school in Tehran and then at his family's rural home, and we become readily absorbed in his material world and cares.

But it is the unseen that truly captures our hearts: Mohammed's understanding ear to the birds, his communication with nature (reading the alphabets of nature as quickly as he punched out Braille transcriptions), his reaching out to know the omnipresence of God, and his efforts to follow the woodcarver's instructions "to see with your heart."

Mohammed's lesson for us is that the unseen is more powerful and important than the seen. The disturbing events of the young boy's life are put in perspective by what he instinctively knows and feels. While Mohammed cannot see the colors of the world, he sees the essence and the color of paradise.

Two women, both seniors, at the showing I attended said that the ending of the movie is purposefully ambiguous. But when the movie is viewed from a spiritual perspective, the ending has no ambiguity. Life for Mohammed takes the same turn as it does for his grandmother - and for them the color and the light of paradise are not ambiguous but are a natural part of existence.

The Grandfather

In The Grandfather, directed and co-written by Jose Luis Garci, the aristocratic Don Rodrigo (Fernando Fernan-Gomez) learns the spiritual truth of family ties.

After the death of his son, Rodrigo is obsessed with knowing which of two girls born to his daughter-in-law is actually his granddaughter. He lives in a culture that greatly values blood ties and hereditary lines, so he desperately wants to know his true heir.

However, Rodrigo eventually discovers that family ties are more than most people often think, that family actually involves soul connections and the recognition of unconditional love within another and one's self.

A second theme running throughout the movie, voiced every so often by a friend of Rodrigo's, is "Life is a dream." The observation poses intriguing questions: If life's events are somehow dreams, how are we supposed to react in the dream? What is the purpose of the dream? How can situations that seem so real be dreams?

Rodrigo brings up two more questions: "Where is good? Where is evil?" Within a "dream" of life, what is good and what is evil? Perhaps, the movie seems to suggest, good and evil are what we make them, depending on our perspective or consciousness.

For example, Rodrigo's concept of family determines whether or not, to him, a situation is "good" or "evil." As his perspective changes, his labels change, with dreamlike rapidity.

The unfolding "dream" of life provides opportunities to increase our realization that we are one with the omnipresence of God - without boundaries of any sort, including nationalities and families - and that we can all see the color of paradise when we are truly looking with our spiritual eyes.

Copyright © 2000 Raymond Teague