The Miracle
Director: Mahsun Kirmizigül * Cast: Talat Bulut, Mahsun Kirmizigül , Senay Gürler , Meral Çetinkaya Tansel Öngel, Cezmi Baskin , Mert Turak , Ali Sürmeli , Zafer Alpat (2015. 136 minutes)
Set against a remote Kurdish mountain countryside in Turkey, the film narrates the story of a committed teacher whose intervention brings a big change in the lives of a mostly illiterate people living in a world where bandits are revered. Sometime in the 1960s, a school teacher named Mahir, living comfortably in Izmir with his wife and two daughters, is transferred to a remote Kurdish settlement. Mahir entrusts his family to his father-in-law and, after crossing two mountains on foot, arrives in the primitive village. The wary village men greet him with cocked rifles, thinking that he is an intruder. Mahir gains their respect and love when they discover that he is a teacher. He promises to educate everyone on condition that girls are also allowed to attend. They agree. With little money to spare, he dupes his wife over phone claiming that he is kidnapped by bandits demanding a large sum of money as ransom. With the money and the participation of the people, he builds a school hall. The mountain bandits also join to help. Among his pupils is a deformed tetraplegic named Aziz, one of the sons of the village chief. He is an outcast mocked and teased by all except his parents. Mahir takes pity on the young man whose only companion is his horse. He undertakes to teach him to speak and write. The prevailing custom in the village is that the elders fix marriages for the children. Contrary to their hopes, Aziz’s elder brothers are married to ugly women. Aziz gets a beautiful bride when his father saves a man from being shot by his enemy and in return is promised the man’s daughter Misgin in marriage to Aziz, to the shock of everyone. The marriage takes place and Misgin suffers from her crippled husband’s weakness and the mockery of his brothers and the village in general. Mahir is their support and help and believes in Aziz. He saves him from suicide. Misgin and Aziz run away to the city, followed by the teacher. The film ends many years later when the totally transformed Aziz is taken back to his home for an emotional reunion.
The Cross and the Switchblade
Director: Don Murray * Cast: Pat Boone, Erik Estrada, Jacqueline Giroux, Dino DeFilippi, Alex Colon, Jo-Ann Robinson, Gil Frazier (1970. 106 minutes)
David Wilkerson was a famous Pentecostal Pastor and founder of the Teen Challenge to rescue teenage drug addicts in the 1960s. After graduating from the seminary, Wilkerson moved to New York, leaving his family behind, with the intention of working among the juvenile delinquents and drug addicts, while living in a beat-up car. His initial attempts to reach out to the violent teenage gangs are met with discouragement from the authorities and mockery and cynicism on the part of the violent delinquents. During the trial of a gang of street fighters, he tries to appeal to the court to give him a chance to speak to the accused, but is mistaken for a gangster and sent away. But he refuses to give up. He gets the support of a black girl named Little Bo. The street-smart Bo introduces him to the underworld of drug addicts, gang wars and prostitution. The main focus is on Nicky Cruz, a gang leader. He goes to visit Cruz to tell him of God’s love, which is met with mockery and threat. Cruz even slaps him and offers to cut him up, when David tells him that, even if he were cut into a thousand pieces, each piece would still declare that God loves Cruz. Cruz sends his drug addict girl friend Rosa to kill David, but Rosa finds love in the pastor’s family and tries to struggle out of her deadly addiction. When she comes to Nicky to tell him of the good intentions of David, he gets all the more angry. Meanwhile, in one of their street rumbles with the opposing gang, Nicky’s gang is defeated and his attempt to punish one of his fellows ends up in an unintended death, leaving Nicky deeply guilty. With the support of the police, Pastor David organizes a revival meeting for the troubled youths. Two gangs try to heckle and fight. David makes a passionate sermon on the love of Jesus. He tells them that love is the gutsiest word in the English language and they need guts to be different. His words drive home to bring about a great change in the youth. Later on, Nicky Cruz would team up with David to start Teen Challenge center to engage in the mission of saving troubled teens from the streets.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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