Babel
I chose to watch the movie “Babel” which was made in 2006. The story of Babel takes place in many different countries, with many different people, but somehow their stories are all connected. In Morocco there is a goat farming family with two young boys who tend to the animals everyday. The father bought them a gun to protect the herd from predators, but the boys immaturely play with it and test its strength. Accidently, a bullet hits a tour bus and strikes an American woman (Susan) who fights for her life to survive while United States diplomats struggle to help her in a legally fitting way. Her husband (Richard) fights to help her and also to make sure his children are okay back home in the United States.
The children are being taken care of by their illegal immigrant nanny (Amelia) from Mexico. The nanny loves and cares for these children as if they were her own, but she was not expecting to have to care for the children for such a long period of time. Amelia was supposed to be relieved of the children by Susan’s sister because Amelia’s son was getting married in Mexico, but because of the shooting, the sister was not coming. Amelia was forced to take the children with her to Mexico for the evening while her nephew (Santiago) drove them back and forth. The wedding was splendid, but Amelia insisted on returning that evening because she wanted to children to be at home. She allowed Santiago to drive them, even though he was drunk, and when they tried to cross the border, their situation was too suspicious for border control so they were going to be detained. Because Santiago was drunk, he freaked out and took off into the United States desert. He drove off road for a while and dumped the children and Amelia on the side of the road. By morning, the three searched for help until it became so excruciatingly hot that Amelia told the children to lay in the shade while she searched for help. Upon finding help, she was arrested for the previous night’s misunderstandings and when she convinced the police to go find the children, they could not. Eventually they found them, but Amelia was deported back to Mexico.
In Japan was the story of Chieko who is a deaf school girl who is angry over the death of her mother. She is angry and destructive and living alone with her father who has been questioned in the death of her mother. When detectives come again for her father, she only assumes it’s regarding her mother’s death. Soon she founds out that they are questioning the fact that a gun registered in his name was involved in the shooting of a United States woman who is traveling in Morocco. All of a sudden, the four storylines are intertwined and there is a sense of unity evident.
