Movie #1216 " A Stray" -- well it's that happy time: Milwaukee Film Festival 2016, and we saw three movies yesterday, and this was the first one, and it was just okay. (Incidentally, if it sounds intriguing to you, I do believe it is an offering at the Chicago Film Festival which starts very soon, check their website). It's about a muslim looking for direction in his life --- he's not found anything he is passionate about --- his family, friends and religion are just not that thrilling to him --- they don't seem to give him guidance. When he finally finds a job and starts to put some regularity in his life, a a stray dog comes into his life and he loses that job. We spend an evening and a day as he wanders the city trying to find his niche. I like the relationship he had with the dog (and the dog with him), but what I didn't like about the film was the missing information the viewer didn't get through his wandering.....whether it was due to muffled sound or lack of the subtitles occasionally (the whole film should have had subtitles) or missing dialogue or explanations, possibly faulty editing....whatever, there were moments and even whole scenes where I was left "hanging" ----and I wasn't the only one because there were four of us afterwards, trying to fill in the blanks; some we could, but others we couldn't. So overall, this was a good film viewing; I just wanted more info along the way. And I learned something I didn't know about his culture (he was somalian) --- they think dogs are impure and they shouldn't let dogs touch them --- if you have that info going in, might be easier to follow the film. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
A STRAY 2016
After burning bridges with friends and family, Adan has nowhere to go until the imam of a local mosque allows him to sleep there in return for work. But when Adan takes in a stray dog, he finds himself homeless again -- this time with a mangy charge.
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