Closet Land- the most prescient movie I've ever watched

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

Closet Land

Written and Directed by Radha Bharadwaj

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101597/

Video trailer link: http://www.videodetective.com/player.asp?publishedid=3368&src=big

Madeline Stowe, a writer of children's books, wakes one morning to find herself in custody- she's suddenly an enemy of the state, accused of subverting children by biasing her stories with political statements. Alan Rickman is her interrogator. The entire story takes place in the interrogation room. Actually, it strongly reminds me of the Next Generation episode where Picard is captured and interrogated by the Cardassians. I sometimes wonder if the Trek writer had seen Closet Land and gotten some inspiration from it.

This is a remarkably prescient story. The film was released in 1991, and it's my belief a great effort was made to disappear it quickly. I'm not sure it was ever even seen on the big screen in this country. They would definitely NOT be able to release it today- it cuts to the heart of what is happening in our country right now, and it would be called subversive to the point of seditiousness. It would enrage a great many powerful people.

If you can track it down, definitely watch it. It's frightening. It's true to life, especially now. To Washington, it's downright dangerous. The only time I ever saw it was in a movie rental store a couple years after its release. I had never heard of it, and I've never heard about it since.

Have you?

Addendum: After doing a bit of Google research, it appears it was never released on DVD, so you'll have to dust off the VHS tape player if you want to watch it.

[NVMojo]

1. thanks, I'm going to try and find it.

[arcane1]

2. are you referring to the Star Trek with "four lights"?

If so, I need to see this movie :)

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Yep, that's the one.

One of the most intense episodes they did. You get that same feeling throughout Closet Land.

[arcane1]

5. that one, and "Rightful Heir"..

are among the 2 best episodes of Trek that ever existed.. perhaps even the best of TV!!!

[NanceGreggs]

3. WOW!!!

I saw this film when it was first released, and over the years I've started to doubt that it ever really existed -- because I seemed to be the only person on the planet who had ever seen it.

Great movie, and I would urge all and sundry to check it out!

Thanks for posting this! Your timing in doing so is PERFECT!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. Glad to be of soivice!

It's a very unsettling movie, and I've been thinking of it a lot lately for reasons that are obvious to anyone who's seen it. I rather thought it would be an unknown treasure, and wanted to let those at DU know it exists.

[NanceGreggs]

8. Glad to be of "soivice"?

Thanks for speaking to me in my native tongue - but HOW ON EARTH did you know I was from Brooklyn, NY?

:rofl:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

10. I was speaking in "Three Stooges"

Woop woop woop woop woop!

:rofl:

[NanceGreggs]

11. Say, you guy ...

... why, I oughta!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[blogslut]

6. I need to see it again

I rented it when it first came out on video. Good flick.

[NYC]

9. It's a book, also.

Closet Land by Radha Bharadwaj, 1989. It's out of print, but the library may have it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007C70LI/qid=1142321971/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7005492-0971849?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=bharadwaj&as_q=radha&btnG=Search%C2%A0within%C2%A0results

Apparently, the author's husband worked for Amnesty International.

[Neil Lisst]

12. Wow. I was just thinking about this film a few days ago.

I was thinking about how the Bush administration is successfully controlling the extent to which major media will show the war, thinking about how they want to indoctrinate, and thinking of how arts threaten them.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. Just followed your link and browsed some of your comics

Most excellent!

:yourock:

[Neil Lisst]

15. thanks, PNS!!

I had forgotten the name of the film, so it's fortuitous you mentioned it. I was trying to remember if I have the film recorded, but couldn't recall the name. I thought I'd get around to looking up Madeline Stowe's filmology, but ... slipped my mind.

CLOSET LAND

I've got to watch it again soon.

[Mist]

14. I rented it from an indie video shop in the late 90s--it deserves more

recognition. It's available at Amazon on VHS, but the DVD is listed as "non USA format," whatever that means.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

16. DVDs are formatted by "regions"

according to where in the world you are. The USA is Region 1- if a movie is formatted for a different region it will not play on a Region 1 player. There are computer programs that can set up your DVD drive to play different regions, but you're not supposed to know about those. :evilgrin:

[Mist]

18. Thanx for the info--so that means our DVD players, which are almost

all made overseas these days, are formatted just for the USA? That seems so weird, but I know European VCRs and TVs are formatted differently from here. Why can't everything be formatted to play everywhere, I wonder?

[Hissyspit]

17. I remember it didn't get very good reviews when it came out probably

because a lot of reviewers in 1991 thought it implausible. :eyes:

[file83]

19. I saw this years ago - it left a big impression on me...

...made me realize how delusional interrogators can become in their paranoid search for "subversives". Life immitating art in this case would be when the FBI thought that some home video tape of some Arabs at an amusement park was really a "terrorist surveillance" tape. When the camera pans for 2 seconds past a garbage can, the wacko Fed's try to suggest that the camera man was thinking about placing a bomb in the trashcan. Like I said, life immitating art: interrogators can completely lose touch with reality when they let their imagination run wild.

On the other hand, not all interrogators are really in the search for truth - often times the ones that torture only want the detainee to confess so the interrogator can please his superiors. Other times they are simply sociopaths that enjoy hurting helpless people.

[Dunvegan]

20. I own a copy of "Closet Land" for just the reasons you give in review

It is a remarkable piece of filmaking and narrative.

A barren and isolated chamber of two.

Deeply engaging while terrifying in the intimacy of interrogator for the state and the fight for individualism and freedom within a tyranny.

To break against not to be broken.

Amazing astounding breath-taking little film.

Thanks for the thread...think I'll dust it off and watch again.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

21. Next day kick

:bounce: