Critics of social media can suck it. While social media may have changed the ways in which our society communicates with each other, I’m pretty sure its positive impacts completely outweigh its negative ones. David Dusa’s politically based romance film, Flowers of Evil, is a testament to the power of social media and how it has become ingrained in our global way of life.
Set immidately after the controversial 2009 elections, Anahita (Alice Belaidi), a beautiful, smart, and wealthy 24 year old Iranian student, is sent to France by her parents to escape the violence that has erupted in Tehran. As a result, she must rely on her laptop and the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to keep track of the events occurring in Iran and to find out if her friends and family are still alive.
Enter Rachid (Rachid Youcef), a lower class laid back French-Algerian bellhop who’s passion is parkour infused dancing. The traceur attempts to impress Anahita with his YouTube videos and eventually becomes her French tour guide of sorts. Rachid could care less about politics but is eventually drawn into Anahita’s obsessive struggle as he tries to form a relationship with her and eventually begins to understand why she cares so much and why its important for the students involved in the green movement to expose the government’s brutality to the world.
I found the movie to be rather cute despite its lack of story within the first 20 minutes and one really weird scene involving romantic facial blood smearing. It was interesting, depressing, violent, cute and romantic and it shows how crazy events can bring people together. Rachid is this quirky guy who is able to liberate Anahita, a young adult who has never known what it’s like to be free, given this opportunity in Paris she has allowed her to enjoy the fruits of life and it leaves a warm feeling in your heart, though one must wonder if Rachid is being used because he is the first free person she has encountered outside of Iran.
What I really enjoyed about the movie is that our only look into the violence in Tehran is through real footage captured by the citizens actively fighting on the streets. The footage is taken from YouTube, Google Video and messages from Twitter making the movie feel much more authentic. This is where David Dusa really succeeds in trying to connect the audience with Anahita’s personal pain and why it is so difficult for her to be in Paris rather than helping in Iran. The music was good as well, it did a nice job complimenting every situation that we, as outsiders, are brought into.
As for the downside, I did think the movie was kind of boring and most people will find it so. It had its quirky and cute moments but it was very slow. As someone who does parkour, I really was interested in seeing a bit more of it rather than just the same dance moves over and over again but hey, you can’t always get what you want.
Flowers of Evil is a slow, and at time tedious drama, that’s very cute and romantic in nature. Its the result of a collision of two radically different worlds and what happens when the impact is made. It helps bring the west a real perspective on how a brutal regime can take its toll on citizens who can actually manage to escape the real violence.
Rating: A tedious romatic drama about what can happen when two very different worlds collide (6.7/10)
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