Manda Bala
(2007/City Lights/WEA)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Documentary: C+
Imagine a
story of corruption involving frog farms, a program that was supposed to help
people being robbed of $2 Billion, kidnapping, bodily mutilation and reproductive
surgery and you have Jason Kohn’s Manda
Bala (2007) covering the deepest corruption in Brazil, including K&R,
kidnapping and ransom. It is a serious
story with nightmarish implications, one that needs to be told.
Though we
get that story, too much of the 85 minutes is spent focusing on too much frog
footage and more graphic footage of reconstructive ear surgery than is needed
to tell the story, while good footage in the extras should have stayed in. The result is a documentary that looses too much
of its punch at the expense of also losing serious political points. This has happened with such documentaries
before, but is always unfortunate and annoying.
It is worth a look, but expect comic moments intended and not.
The
framing of the image is one of the oddest we have ever seen on DVD,
anamorphically enhanced at 2.35 X 1 and softer than a new production should
be. However, it is in the upper half of
the screen in something we have only seen before when George Lucas tried this
with letterboxed editions of Return Of
The Jedi. It can be disorienting,
but is passable at best and the expanded black bar at the bottom is used for
subtitles. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
is better, though the audio is not perfect.
Extras include those noted deleted scenes and an audio commentary by
Kohn and his producers.
- Nicholas Sheffo
