Two different documentaries that will surely make you glad to be in America or at least a country not going through violent power-grabs…
Winter on Fire…By far the more dramatically propulsive of the two, but–strangely–the less interesting one to me personally only because I’m not as interested in the Ukraine as I am Afghanistan. This doc takes place during riots in the Ukraine and is about as compelling a portrait of this story as you could imagine–the doc shakes with a “you are there” realism that Hollywood movies can only try for–but still…I just can’t get fired up about Ukraine/Russian relations for some reason. Grade: B
Tell Spring Not to Come This Year…This doc follows the training of the Afghanistan military and has been criticized for a less…active approach to capturing the life of its subject. But even if the film may be more inert in terms of action, it is just all-around more fascinating as we see the real struggles for the Afghani people, like being caught between an Iranian-backed central government that will kill them for collaborating with the Taliban and the Taliban killing them for collaborating with the central Army. I hate to admit it, but sometimes a critic’s personal interest in a subject (or lack of it) does color their judgment, particularly with documentaries. Grade: B+