Author: Rosalynn Try-Hane

Everyone wants to know who they are and where they come from or so suggests the film Lion. It is based on real life events of Saroo who gets separated from his older brother and unintentionally becomes one of the hundreds of thousand lost children in India. Lion follows his odyssey to find himself and touches on universal themes of family, integration and loss.

In 1986 The little 5 year old who doesn’t listen, falls asleep on the train and gets taken across India from his little village into the teeming, anonymous metropolis Calcutta. 25 years later and he wants to find the family lost to him burning inside his soul. In the second half of the film themes of finding yourself, integeration, race are all covered but the pace is lost and it becomes too self aware. Whereas the first part of Lion is frenetic, heart stopping film and this is what packs the emotional punch. The viewer feels as lost as little Saroo. In the scene where the policeman in Calcutta asks  him what his mother’s name is. He replies  Mummy. In that one moment your heart is ripped from your chest as you watch hope evaporate in the hot, Calcuttan air.

Sunny Pawar plays Saroo as a child and his scenes with his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) carry the entire film. Dev Patel as the older Saroo with his girlfriend Rooney Mara are nice.  Nicole Kidman plays adopted mother Sue Brierley alongside David Wenham who plays John Brierley give solid supporting performances.

Lion is directed by Garth Davis and he does a fine job. The script is solid and the ending is not as predictable as it would seem at times, there are definitely a few twists.  The problem is the second half of the film.   Are we a product of our environment and even if it’s a good one, is it enough? Do we always need to know where we come from? These are some of the questions asked and for the most part answered in the film. It’s fine to change the tempo but the scenes where the adult Saroo falls into despair are just too long. A little ruthless editing would have gone a long way. The first and second half of the film feel disjointed  and the soundtrack is jarring – what started off as a really interesting and non linear biopic falls flat. It is thought provoking and you spare a thought for all those lost children who might never their families. Dev Patel plays the role solidly but he just doesn’t elicit the same emotional impact as the child actor who just lit up the screen.

It is nominated for 6 Oscars including best picture and supporting actors for Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel. However for me the young Sunny Pawar should have been nominated. Without his stellar performance in the first half of the film, this would have been a very nice but dull real life story.

Lion is out now in cinemas across the UK.

Bitter Harvest tells the story of a little known part of history, the Holodomor. This was Stalin’s deliberate policy of starving Ukraine to feed mother Russia or the Soviet Union as it was then called. During the Holomodor it is estimated that between 7-10 million Ukrainians were killed. The story is told through the doomed love affair between Yuri and Natalka, showing the desperate struggle of survival in the countryside and then the idealistic young men heading to the city thinking Stalin’s brand of communism was for all.

Yuri (Max Irons) who’s illustrious family tree contains warriors although he is more lover than fighter. He wants to be an artist and is bewitched from a young age by Natalka (Samantha Barks). The Russian occupation begins and Yuri’s father is killed during a rivolt. This pivotal event encourages Yuri to head off to the capital although Natalka stays in the villae because her mother is ill. Will the lovers be reunited and can the uprising succeed and defeat the Russian troops occupying Ukraine?

The film should be applauded for shining a light on the holodomor, an event most in the West will not be aware of. This film’s spotlight on the holodomor now provides a basis for understanding Putin’s current aggressive strong arm moves against Ukraine. Artistic licence is an important tool for filmmakers to provide drama and keep the viewer engaged but sometimes it can go too far. In Bitter Harvest the fact that everyone speaks with a posh English accent throughout, although I did a hear a stray Welsh one during the film, is frankly odd for a film of this calibre. Also the script is thin, wafer thin – even the presence of Terence Stamp with his deep, glowering stare cannot save Bitter Harvest. At times it felt as if it was trying to emulate David Lean’s 1966 masterpiece, Dr Zhivago, although it didn’t even come within a whisper of it.

Bitter Harvest is released in cinemas across the UK on Friday 24 February.

The cambridge English dictionary defines legacy as “something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time.” So, keeping that in mind lets talk about 24: Legacy. 24: Legacy sticks to its tried and tested formula – one big plot, lots of confusing sub plots and the trusted voice over stating that all events take place in real time and each episode covers one hour of that day. Phew aren’t you glad that it’s not all change. There’s also Miranda Otto as Rebecca Ingram character – remember her from Homeland.

We’re introduced to  Sergeant Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins) who, 6 months ago, led an elite squadron of US Army Rangers in Yemen . His Squadron successfully killed terrorist leader Sheik Ibrahim Bin-Khalid. He might have thought job done. Wrong. The Sheik’s people are in the USA and they’ve killed most of his squadron. Indeed the opening scene is of the terrorists rifling through an all American home looking for a strong box. What? No one seems to know what a strong box is. They kill with impunity until they meet our hero, Carter. By the end of the pilot we know what a strong box is and why it’s so precious. Yet our hero isn’t whiter than white (I couldn’t think of a better pun) he stole his brother’s girlfriend. OMG. Oh, there’s more but why don’t you watch to find out what that is. Forget all of that will he be able to save the day – he’s only got 23 hours left!

Lots is going to made of Kiefer Sunderland’s character, Jack Bauer, being replaced by a black actor. Coincidentally Kiefer Sunderland is an executive of 24: Legacy. But he wasn’t replaced – this is a different type of 24.  As I said earlier this is a legacy.

The real issue or question here: is this new 24 Legacy binge worthy? Lets face it who has time to watch it every week just save it up and binge on the weekend. It’s fine. It does the job just don’t compare it to what has gone before as hard as that may be to do. Also, is it diverse because there are now a number of black actors in it – not really replacing one for another doesn’t make it diverse nor having Jimmy Smits running for president of the USA. If it was going to tell the story differently then possibly but this is 24. Yeah it may be right on the money with all the Arab politics going on right now and a certain new President Trump with his Executive Orders but this is television, let’s not get it twisted.

I’ve already seen the second episode and it is good. There’s enough to keep me interested just about and the writers know that. But at the end of the day if you miss Kiefer you miss Kiefer.

Watch 24: Legacy  this Wednesday 15^th February at 9pm on FOX