sorana_necula_reset

The modern history of Afghanistan is a tapestry rent and torn by invasions and internal conflict, both political and religious. Through it all, Afghanis have struggled to define what it means for them to be a united people.  A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear  elegantly captures the essence of this tumultuous cultural narrative, with all its existential angst. To traverse the fractured mind of Farhad, the protagonist and narrator of Atiq Rahimi’s latest novel, is to glimpse the broken soul of a battered and confused country. The backdrop of Farhad’s story is Afghanistan prior to the 1979 Soviet invasion, a time when internal politics are in upheaval. In 1973, a coup toppled Afghanistan’s constitutional monarchy, only to have the new ruling regime fall five years later after another coup.  A series of bloody wranglings for power ensued, and while the communist Hafizullah Amin eventually emerged as president, his reign was short.  The Soviet Union invaded the countr...

USA continues its rather remarkable winning streak with "Fairly Legal," an energetically delightful dramedy about a San Francisco mediator played by Sarah Shahi, which premieres Thursday. Shahi, last seen on the short-lived but wonderful "Life," is Kate Reed, a former attorney so unpredictable she wears Christian Louboutins but lives on a boat and so frustrated by the law that she becomes a mediator. As such, she uses her considerable capacity for empathetic diplomacy to help people solve their own problems — in early episodes these include corporate mergers and the size of parking spaces — outside the stuffy and legally hamstrung court system.       The anti-lawyer lawyer show. It's a nifty trick by creator Michael Sardo ("Wings," "Caroline in the City") and a terrific idea — to neatly detach all the human elements that make courtroom dramas so delicious from the increasingly worn-thin "objection, your Honor" scenes. Not that ...

Mademoiselle Chambon  is a 2009 French film, directed by  Stéphane Brizé , with a screenplay adapted from the novel of  Éric Holder . It was awarded a  César Award for Best Adaptation . Empty The simplest of stories can be elevated by first-rate acting and directing. Consider Stephane Brize's "Mademoiselle Chambon," a French film that achieves a subtle but devastating impact. It tells a familiar story of an extramarital romance, but what makes it unusual, especially among French films, is that the couple spend most of the movie fighting rather than surrendering to their attraction. Think of it as a latter-day "Brief Encounter," another repressed romantic classic with lots of classical music on the soundtrack. The film will earn fine reviews wherever it plays, but given its deliberate pacing, this may not be enough to captivate a restless American audience.   Jean (Vincent Lindon) is a construction worker happily married to Anne-Marie (Aurore Atika). Bu...