[Marxism] The Hollow City

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Like the antique gas-guzzlers that ply the streets of Havana, neorealism--a 
film style that was fashionable around the same time in history--still 
chugs along in underdeveloped countries. There is a good reason for this. 
Like post-war Italy, the economies of Latin America, Africa and Asia breed 
exactly the same sorts of social contradictions.

Now available in video as part of First Run Features superb Global 
Initiative series 
(<http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/glc1.html>http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/glc1.html), 
"The Hollow City" tells the story of a homeless boy named N'Dala (João 
Roldan) who struggles to survive in the streets of Luanda, Angola in 1991. 
Made in 2004 by Angolan director Maria João Ganga, it is a welcome addition 
to African cinema and a measurable sign of cultural progress in a country 
devastated by civil war and imperialist meddling. It incorporates many of 
the elements of the neorealist genre, from the use of mostly untrained 
actors to a plot revolving around the everyday struggle of poor people to 
survive.

Just after the plane carrying N'Dala and other survivors of an UNITA attack 
sets down in the Luanda, he breaks away from the Catholic nun looking after 
him and heads for the street. As he strolls along aimlessly, his sole 
source of amusement is a toy car attached to a string that he has 
constructed himself out of tin cans and wire that he drags along. He dreams 
of returning to the Bie province but events conspire against him.

He is fortunate enough to meet Zé early on. Zé is a few years older than 
him and wise to the vagaries of the Luanda streets. They take part in a 
series of escapades that might remind you of Pixote, another Lusophone 
film. One step ahead of the law, they sell cigarettes on the streets and 
drink beer at local dancehalls when adults are not watching. Even if they 
were watching, it is doubtful that would make much difference. Zé's 
"godmother" is a prostitute who expects him to perform housework in 
exchange for a meager allowance. Her boyfriend Joka is a mechanic by day 
and a burglar by night.

"The Hollow City" is not really plot-driven. Its main satisfaction is 
watching its young, untrained actors develop a kind of warm and brotherly 
relationship when everything around them is cold and exploitative. Although 
the citizens of Luanda pay lip-service to Angola's revolution (they refer 
to each other as comrade), this is very much a world in which ideals count 
for very little.

Marxist scholar Mike Davis has made a breakthrough in trying to understand 
this new world that he calls "planet of slums":

Likewise Kinshasa, Khartoum, Dar es Salaam, Dhaka and Lima grow 
prodigiously despite ruined import-substitution industries, shrunken public 
sectors and downwardly mobile middle classes. The global forces ?pushing? 
people from the countryside­mechanization in Java and India, food imports 
in Mexico, Haiti and Kenya, civil war and drought throughout Africa, and 
everywhere the consolidation of small into large holdings and the 
competition of industrial-scale agribusiness­seem to sustain urbanization 
even when the ?pull? of the city is drastically weakened by debt and 
depression.<http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR26001.shtml#_edn20> At the same 
time, rapid urban growth in the context of structural adjustment, currency 
devaluation and state retrenchment has been an inevitable recipe for the 
mass production of slums. Much of the urban world, as a result, is rushing 
backwards to the age of Dickens.

Full: 
<http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR26001.shtml>http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR26001.shtml

Like men and women who created the neorealist films that inspired "The City 
of God," director Maria João Ganga seeks to humanize the lives of these 
slum-dwellers, the wretched of the earth. Despite the grimness of the 
subject matter, the film is enlivened by African music--including a film 
score by the great Manu Dibango--and a poet's eye for the streets and 
beaches of Luanda.

Highly recommended.


--

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