To A Land Unknown

 Two Palestinian migrants in Athens plot a route to Germany so that they can set up a restaurant. 

‘How does it feel, ah how does it feel?

To be on your own, with no direction home

Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone’ 

They have not a lot so they survive by robbing people that don’t have a lot themselves. Malik a 13 year old boy attaches himself to them so that he can go to Italy, where his aunty is. They persuade Tatiana, a Greek woman, to take him to Italy. There are then other schemes to make money, taking it from others that don’t have much, and then deal in prostitution and take drugs to take the edge off things. 

‘When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose’. 

These are the people in boats that live in one country that’s destroyed, go to another that’s destroyed, end up with nothing in Athens and then have the carrot of unlimited capitalist wealth dangled in front of them. What would you do? How would you survive? Don’t put your cap or your husk of bread down else it’ll be stolen, I’m not telling you that I would do it.

The Sense of an Ending

 An adaptation of the Julian Barnes novel, not that I’ve read it. It’s the story of Tony who’s reminded of the relationship he had with Veronica while he was at university in the 60s. She subsequently left him to forge a union with a school friend of his, Adrian. So 40 years later Tony receives word that Veronica has died and has left him something. The story leads us to how this affects the relationship with his ex wife and daughter, and how Tony deals with all of this. 

Now I’m not sure if the novel is in the first person, but I suspect it is. There are revelations that come in the story from Tony’s point of view. I like the way the story unfolds, how you’d let go of the small revelations first and then the bigger ones as you become more comfortable with the past.
I think that the title refers to how unfinished business can have an effect decades after the events. If it’s left too long though then you may end up being the only character that wants to revisit the event. Others may have dealt with it already, in fact they probably have. 
I found the film intriguing.

Heretic

 After Paddington 2; Hugh Grant oozes evil again. I could listen to him talk for hours, he has the most wonderful voice. Here he menaces two Latter Day Saint Sisters, as to what his motivation is, that becomes apparent throughout the film. 

I was reminded of Jesus of Montreal, which got me into a lot of trouble once. Anyway in the theological discussion, blueberry pie, and a mellifluous Englishman is a very well told story that maybe lacks in the exploration of motivation when all is said and done. Maybe that’s the mystery though. 

There are philosophical discussions that I will go over in my head for a long time, that’s if they’ve not been implanted as part of the magic act. The question and discussion about iterations was interesting, and about memory as well. Are we just recalling the memory of doing something, what are memories anyway? Line of the film has to be ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ ‘That was Spider-Man’ ‘No it was Voltaire’. There is blood and gore, and is that necessary? I don’t know. I did enjoy the film at least.