Cecil says: We wanted to see Julia Blue partly because we had planned to travel through Ukraine in 2014 on our overland journey to Australia, but had to cancel because of what was happening in the Crimea and the east of the country. But I also always like the drama genre when it involves a journalist at work in places that have hit the news – it’s the kind of film like The Year of Living Dangerously, that used to inspire me to be a journalist one day myself.
It also happened to fit in with our schedule in Glasgow so
we could go straight to this film from another morning screening earlier.
It was great to see a Ukrainian perspective on things,
especially as the country has been out of the news in the West lately, but the
Troubles are still ongoing. Having said that, this was very much a
coming-of-age film with Ukraine really the context rather than the subject-matter
for the film.
Budding photo-journalist Julia helps out at a rehab hospital
for men wounded in the war, and there she meets and falls for a guy from
Donetsk. The film is a sweet portrayal of developing romance, where Julia is
the main focus, she has girly catch-ups with a fellow student, a boy back in
her village who fell in love with her years before, and her application to go
to Germany for a full-on photo-journalism degree.
She has a big decision to make, tossing up between her
romance and her career. It’s the classic dilemma nearly all 20 year olds come
up against, so brought back memories of my own conflicts over such things back
in the 80s.
But it resonated for me also because of so many reminders of
things we saw when doing that overland journey to Australia. The pot-holed
roads reminded me of Uzbekistan; the buses and taxis were reminiscent of the
same in Romania or Georgia; the buildings could have been anywhere we visited
in the ex-Soviet Union; and the family dinner in the rural village reminded me
of our own invitation to a family in Azerbaijan.
I couldn’t help noticing that the ‘parents’ looked so old,
but were probably actually younger than I am even now, but that can be as much
to do with clothes and hairstyle as it is actual ageing.
So I enjoyed this film as much for the memories and thoughts
it provoked in me as for its actual content. Having said that, it did make me
think that coming-of-age movies were few and far between when I was coming of
age myself. I can only really think of American Graffiti, as being contemporary
to my life, though I didn’t even drive at the time and had none of those tribal
things that were depicted in that 1970s classic.
No, I liked Julia Blue, and it was nice that the producer
and director were there for a chat afterwards in the bar. They did really well
with crowdfunding for this film, as the credits showed at the end. I wish there
were more films like this on the circuit, too.
***.5
Bea says: An altogether very nice film about a young woman in her twenties breaking away from tradition and expectations (her friend's marriage symbolising that very strongly indeed) and forging her own, more adventurous path.
Like Cecil, I enjoyed the scenery and reminders of our own travels through that part of the world, but this film also gave me pause for thought about some of the conflict-ridden times of recent history - in our part of the world this kind of storyline (help out at a military hospital, meet an injured soldier) belongs to WW2 period films, perhaps occasionally to Vietnam or maybe Afghanistan (don't think I know of any though), but for many parts of the world this is very current to a young person's experience. This is why it is important to see international films...\
***.5
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