the things these kids see!

Will you believe me if i say that a 12 year old year boy from Iran and a 14 year old one from Mexico taught me what even John Donne- the metaphysical mystic, failed to do. Well, Ali and Mariano opened out new frontiers of death for me. Now i know it is more than what we might ever fathom , yet with these children lie something that made me see what i had never before done.

Do not think that these are miracle kids who had a close encounter with death, it is cinema that brought us together.

Through Sergio Tovar Velarde's "Aurora Boreal" I met Mariano who taught me that " a person who looks for something runs the risk of finding it" He was looking for death. He was documenting his last days hoping to testify to the world that he is unwanted and unloved and will not be missed by anyone. Triggered into desperation by an accident which makes him responsible for his brother's retardation, Mariano feels that there is nothing left to live for expect perhaps...(That is in the movie) To put it short life is never what it seems and the twists it can create are indeed twists.

Ali in Farzad Motamen's "Music Box" has another dilemma. He lives with his father and grandfather and yearns for the love of his dead mother. We are plunged into the mystery when Agent Maleki, the agent of death appears before the boy and begins talking to him. From that point on his life takes a new turn. Now he can sense death. He fights with it when it comes to his grandfather and reconciles to it when it is his own turn. His fearless acceptance of the inevitable is gifted with love and life.


Both films render death in unique ways , by the use of leit motifs. In "Aurora Boreal" it is the phenomenon by the same name.Auroras, sometimes called the northern and southern (polar) lights are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar regions.The Cree people call this phenomenon the "Dance of the Spirits."The Inuit people of Alaska tell the traditional tale of their ancient ancestors who are seen in the rippling movements of the northern lights. They say that the "shadows" within the display are relatives and friends who have gone to the sky and march along or dance to remind the living people of their presence. When the dogs bark and howl at the sounds of the aurora borealis, it's said that the dogs recognize their one-time companions in the colorful display. In the film it helps Mariano negotiate with death even though he complaints that the people who said that suicide was bad never advised him against it.


The music box, a parting gift from Ali’s grandfather, is used very expertly in the film. Etched on the lid of the music box is the famous painting, “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo. The hand of Adam reaching out to that of God –an exquisite imagery on the concepts of Life, Man and God. This image is used many a times, especially when Ali’s father is in the hospital worried sick about his son who is in coma, and also when they are united after his recovery. The music box bonds the three as Ali also leaves the same for his dad.

Both these aspects become the Leit motif to foreground death as a continuity of life in another form and not just an end.

It is indeed difficult to render the abstract notion of death, but both the films have done justice to it. Music Box even makes death seem desirable. Aurora Boreal hints at the mysteries that lay in the path to death, becoming a testimony of life well lived.


Now when i think about death it the green eyed agent or the exquisite lights that lit up the firmament that come to me. thanks to these kids i will die with such beautiful thoughts. well as for cinema even death dies here! Is this what Donne meant when he stated " DEATH THOU SHALL NOT DIE"