NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio [2009)

Film directed by Andreas Pichler.

https://thoughtmaybe.com/natos-secret-armies/

Reference point:

http://www.journalof911studies.com/resources/2014GanserVol39May.pdf

Formed in 1956.

The year after the Warsaw Pact (Comecon [1955]).

A legitimate fear.

Let me be unequivocal.

In my opinion, communism is bad.

One might even say evil.

But no one should be killed or tortured for their political beliefs.

A crime must be committed in order for rule of law to come into play.

It is not a crime to hold naive theories (like communism) on what is a good economic system.

A Marxist can only be punished insofar as they promote the overthrow of the government.

I do not think Joe Biden was duly-elected.

But I am not calling for him to be overthrown.

That is not my place.

I could play no role in that.

The only entity which could overthrow Joe Biden’s regime would be the U.S. military.

They should do what they think is right.

They do, however, have an obligation to NOT FOLLOW illegal orders.

Would all orders emanating from a President who was not duly-elected be illegal?

I would think they would be.

But it is not my role to decide that.

Our military will either let us suffer and cease to exist as a country (under the criminal leadership of Joe Biden), or they will make their voices heard.

Every time our military follows an order of Joe Biden, they are making the choice that that order is legal and valid.

And that is their choice.

History will judge them.

It is not my place to give the military advice.

Even though they work for me.

And Joe Biden also derives his (stolen) power from me.

I repudiate Joe Biden.

He is not the legal President.

But what can I do about it?

Here’s what I CAN’T do about it.

I cannot act like a Marxist and encourage the overthrow of the government.

I don’t encourage that.

But I do encourage our military leaders to think.

I do encourage our military leaders to take the situation and condition of the country into consideration.

And I do encourage our military leaders to be abreast of the “irregularities” (to put it nicely) of the 2020 election.

It is up to them to decide what to do.

If they think they are following legal orders by carrying out the commands of Joe Biden, then there’s not much I can do about that.

Joe is right.

We the people would need nukes and fighter jets.

But we the people will only allow our rights to be infringed UP TO A POINT.

An unjust law is no law at all.

Natural law.

I reserve the right to peacefully protest and to utilize my First Amendment rights of free speech.

I wish Biden well.

I hope he keeps us out of WWIII.

I wish he would get us out of NATO.

But I know he won’t.

Because he’s a corrupt moron.

I hope the 2022 midterms actually happen.

I hope Bill Gates doesn’t unleash a smallpox attack.

I hope the 2022 elections are actually free and fair.

I believe the 2020 elections were neither free, nor fair.

Trump won.

I am very disappointed with Trump’s stance on the COVID vaccines.

I am also quite disappointed that Trump called Zelensky a hero.

But it doesn’t change the fact that Trump won.

Would I vote for Trump again?

I don’t know.

I voted for him two times.

I might prefer Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, RFK Jr., Robert Malone, Joe Rogan, Alex Jones…

I think any of these people would make a fine President.

And I am liking Tulsi Gabbard more and more.

Which brings us to NATO.

NATO is clearly (CLEARLY!) at fault in the Ukraine war.

NATO precipitated this war.

And the presence of the USA in NATO is unnecessary.

Being in NATO is an unnecessary danger for the United States.

NATO should not even exist anymore (because its enemies…the USSR and the Warsaw Pact alliance) no longer exist.

NATO is no longer a force for peace.

Was it ever?

That brings us to our current film.

Years of Lead.

Anni di piombo.

Italy.

Guido Salvini.

Good guy.

CIA using groups like Ordine Nuovo (fascists) in Italy.

New Order.

New World Order.

Britain wants to maintain that MI6 are choir boys.

P-26.

But what about SHAPE?

And SACEUR?

Gladio (Italy) reported (“responded”) to SACEUR.

It is GOOD to know how communist revolutions work.

It is GOOD to stop them before they happen.

But it is VERY, VERY BAD to murder innocent dumbasses who are wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.

And it is even worse to indiscriminately bomb banks and train stations to scare a population into not voting communist.

The formula was:

-NATO-led (right-wing) stay-behind networks commit terrorist attack on behalf of US/NATO

-attack blamed on leftists

-population avoids voting for communists out of fear

Children were killed in these operations.

Bombings.

Mass shootings.

All blamed on leftists.

And most (if not all) carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups under orders from US/NATO.

P26.

Switzerland.

Felice Casson.

Good guy.

Daniele Ganser (whose article I posted near the top of the page).

Good guy.

Italian intelligence may have stolen the 2020 U.S. election.

Via the military/satellite company Leonardo.

In the days of Gladio, the prime mover within Italy was SISMI.

Military intelligence.

Italy.

Switzerland.

Belgium.

Germany.

But Italy was hit the hardest.

Along with SISMI (which no longer exists per se), another suspect would be VSSE of Belgium.

Only the Vatican’s intelligence agency is older than VSSE.

VSSE is the CIA of Belgium.

Belgium also has a military intelligence organization (GISS).

Strategy of tension.

Look it up.

It dominated the USA in the years after 9/11/01.

And it has dominated the past two years of COVID (with biological warfare [disguised as a naturally-occurring pandemic] replacing higher-intensity forms of terrorism).

The W. Bush administration denies that the USA had anything to do with the terrorism of the stay-behind networks (like Gladio) which they set up in all NATO countries following WWII.

Yeah, sure.

This same Bush administration says it’s just all “made up” by the Russians.

All evidence points to the various security services in Europe (Italy, Belgium, etc.) protecting these stay behind networks from prosecution when they committed these acts of terrorism.

So the Bush administration was (in 2006) relying on an implausible deniabilty.

It’s possible, but highly unlikely, that the United States didn’t participate in these terror activities.

And it is even less possible that they didn’t know about them and condone them.

It remains to be discovered just what just the U.S. and NATO played in this terrorism.

There is no question that NATO/US set up these stay-behind networks.

And there is very little question that these stay-behind networks committed acts of terrorism upon European civilians.

Indeed, the original mission of these stay-behind networks appears to have changed from “use in case of emergency [a Soviet takeover of Western Europe]” to “use for any purpose which will cause Europeans to fear communist political candidates”.

This violence should not have been committed.

When children are killed (as they were by a bombing in Munich at the Octoberfest), then the end does not justify the means.

Try telling the father who lost his young son and daughter to that bombing.

The girl was ripped open by the bomb.

The boy had bomb fragments which went through his head.

They both suffered.

They did not die instantly.

They both spoke to their father.

The girl said, “Please help me, father.”

The boy said, “I’m ok. I’m just cold.”

They both died soon after.

And that father had to live with that grief.

All so that communists would not be voted into power in Western Europe.

Bullshit!

FUCK THAT!!!

SDRA8 in Belgium.

Absalon in Denmark.

TD BDJ in Germany (where a former Nazi, Gehlen, was head of post-war German intel).

LOK in Greece.

Stay-Behind in Luxembourg.

I&O in Netherlands.

ROC in Norway.

Aginter Press in Portugal.

Red Quantum in Spain.

P26 in Switzerland.

Özel Harp Dairesi in Turkey.

AGAG in Sweden.

Plan Bleu in France.

OWSGV in Austria.

The name of the Finnish version is unknown.

Italy.

Giulio Andreotti.

Vincenzo Vinciguerra.

Licio Gelli.

Propagada 2 (Masonic lodge).

Nazis and fascists in South America.

Operation Condor.

CIA-backed Nazis in Ukraine.

Lebed.

Stepan Bandera.

Azov Battalion.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi.

The second or third richest person in Ukraine.

A Jew.

Who supports (and funds) the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604

IMG_7897

Now why would a Jew support an anti-Semitic (goes without saying) Nazi group?

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS60927080220150505

IMG_7898

SISMI was preceded by SID.

Let’s get into the hideous details.

Piazza Fontana bombing.

Milan.

17 dead.

88 wounded.

Bomb went off in an agricultural bank.

Two farmers had just closed a deal with a bank manager.

Does that sound like the kind of target leftists would hit?

A bank for farmers?

No.

But that wasn’t the only bomb of the day.

Other than the 4:37 p.m. bombing of the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura, there were three other bombings that same afternoon in Rome and Milan.

AA11.

UA175.

“AA77”.

UA93.

Four in a day.

There was a U.S. Navy officer (David Carrett) indicted for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing by the aformentioned Guido Salvini.

A US/NATO intel official (Sergio Minetto) was also indicted by Salvini.

The CIA coordinator for northeastern Italy (Carlo “Uncle Otto” Digilio) was likewise indicted by Salvini.

The head of SISMI (Sergio Siracusa) was charged by the aforementioned Felice Casson.

It seems the Piazza Fontana investigation was obstructed by SID (SISMI) director General Gianandelio Maletti (a P2 Masonic lodge member).

Neo-Nazi/neo-Fascist Franco Freda got life in prison in 1979 for the bombing.

As did Giovanni Ventura.

As did Italian secret agent Guido Gianettini.

All three were then acquitted on appeals in 1981.

Freda and Venturi still each got 15 years for bombings they committed in Padua and Milan.

Gianettini was acquitted in 1982.

All defendants acquitted in 1985 (including alleged conspirators Valpreda and Merlino).

Two members of the Italian secret services went to jail for misleading the investigation.

Now what possible reason might they have had for doing that?

I don’t know…maybe because the bombers were working for them???

Gian Adelio Maletti got one year in prison.

Antonio Labruna got 10 months.

For the death of 17 people.

But in 1987, here comes our good friend from Operation Condor.

Stefano Delle Chiaie.

Tried for the Piazza Fontana bombing.

Acquitted.

By 2000 it had come to Delfo Zorzi.

He received life in prison for the bombing.

Carlo Digilio received immunity in exchange for information.

Zorzi was then acquitted on appeal in 2004.

U.S. intelligence knew about the Piazza Fontana bombing (and the Piazza della Loggia bombing five years later in Brescia) before they happened.

But they did nothing to stop them.

Why?

This sounds awful similar to what the CIA did in South America with Operation Condor.

In Brescia, it appears that the target was even more stupid.

Why would right-wing false-flaggers bomb an anti-fascist protect?

That makes no sense.

France was the only member of NATO to ever withdraw from the alliance.

And if they had been smart (which they evidently are not), they would have stayed out.

But they didn’t stay out.

Nevertheless, SHAPE was forced by France’s withdrawal in 1967 to move to Mons, Belgium.

The Brabant massacres.

The Brabant killers.

The Nivelles gang.

De Bende van Nijvel.

Les Tueurs fous du Brabant.

Delhaize grocery stores.

28 deaths.

Burglary.

Etterbeek. 1981

Theft.

Dinant. 1982

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Maubeuge (France). 1982

Armed robbery.

Wavre. 1982

Death of policeman.

Armed robbery (restaurant).

Employee tortured and killed.

Beersel. 1982

Robbery.

Murder of taxi driver.

Brussels. 1983

[car found in Mons {SHAPE}]

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Rixensart. 1983

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Uccle. 1983

Armed robbery (grocery store).

One employee killed.

Halle. 1983

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Houdeng-Gougnies. 1983

Armed robbery (textile factory).

One worker killed.

Temse. 1983

Service station robberies.

More murders.

Armed robbery (restaurant).

Owner killed.

Ohain. 1983

Armed robbery.

One customer killed.

Beersel (again). 1983

Armed robbery.

Two owners of shop killed.

Anderlues. 1983

AND THEN IT ALL STOPPED?!?

Nothing in 1984.

Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).

Three people killed.

Braine-l’Alleud. 1985

Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).

Five people killed.

Overijse. 1985

Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).

Father, mother, and daughter killed in the parking lot.

Son ran back into the shop and was shot at point blank.

Eight deaths today during this robbery.

Aalst. 1985

Buckshot in 12-gauge Winchester pump shotguns was a rare type similar to a former Belgian special forces unit called Group Diane.

SDRA8.

SDRAVIII.

S.D.R.A. VIII.

In Greece, there was CIA coordination with General Lucian Truscott.

LOK is Greek special forces.

There is some evidence they were involved in the Greek military coup of 1967.

This coup happened one month before national elections.

There were 10,000 arrests in this coup.

This ushered in the Regime of the Colonels which lasted in Greece from 1967-1974.

A secret NATO army in Greece appears to have been named Red Sheepskin (or Operation Sheepskin).

Arms cashes of the stay-behinds were found near Arnhem, Netherlands.

Operation Gladio again connects to Operation Condor by was of Stefano Delle Chiae.

In Spain (where many Nazis hid out before fleeing to South America).

We also find another connection to Vincenzo Vinciguerra.

William Colby is the only CIA Director that I like.

-PD

drugs [2021)

We are finally catching up with Pauly Deathwish.

Here on his sixth album, drugs.

Good psychedelic surf start.

The romance must have seemed possible.

Christian trappings.

A great opening track.

Psychedelic Christianity.

Think of those private press releases from the ’60s and ’70s.

I’m hearing the joy and gravity of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.

The breakdown of this song “An Ocean of Cough Syrup” is where it’s at.

Maybe a bit of Kevin Ayers.

Wasted innocence.

After the party.

The party at the end of the world.

Certainly song lyrics reminiscent of Wayne Coyne.

Sonic Youth.

Yummy Yummy Yummy.

Pop psych.

Monkees.

Maybe the romance has faded.

Tabloid.

Even Dire Straits.

Walk of life.

Track 2 with acrobatic chord changes.

Music school.

Straight-up Fort Leavenworth presentation.

A pop song about biological warfare, economic warfare, psychological warfare, and divide/conquer.

This is some serious shit.

Not sure whether to call Billy Bragg or Glenn Greenwald.

This is the kind of shit that wins Nobels.

So maybe we are hearing the new Dylan here.

Imagine if Thom Yorke actually had something to say.

The bends.

Lift.

Leonard Cohen.

John Cale.

Anthemic.

This dude is definitely right-wing.

I guess you could say.

Imagine if Bob Dylan was actually in the John Birch Society.

That’s what you get here.

Hey, take it or leave it.

Ezra Pound!

But this dude is all about ‘merica.

And i got no problem with it.

Climax.

Constitution of the USA.

Time’s up.

“memes at the ready”.

Information warfare taken into the realm of head music.

Songwriting.

This guy is a danger…to the lame liberal establishment.

THIS MOTHERFUCKER HAS RELEASED 7 ALBUMS THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!

Kraftwerk.

Jon Spencer.

Martin Rev dipping Copenhagen.

Ministry?

Butthole Surfers?

Dabbling.

“Latinas for Trump”.

Wow.

Track 3 is a trucker song.

Set in Switzerland.

With production like Nigel Godrich.

It’s a long track.

But enjoyable.

Drum machine and acoustic guitar.

And funky clavinet.

Jerry Reed.

Amos Moses.

Yodeling!

FUcking hell.

Haven’t heard this since Jerry Lee.

Dwight Yoakam.

Chris Isaak.

But this is the kinda shit cognizant about There’s a Riot Goin’ On.

Spaced cowboy.

Travelogue of Swiss sites from cinema history.

I have a feeling this guy would drink Klaus Schwab’s blood.

This conspiracy platter is fine listening.

Variety.

French/German.

No Italian.

Except Cortina d’Ampezzo.

No Romansch.

Motorik.

NEU! meets Gram Parsons.

Who is/was this “Swiss Alps Truck-Driving Gal”?

Cosmic funk.

Like French band Air.

Great bassline.

Dancy filler track of highest quality.

Mike Lindell needs to hear this shit.

mark_packet.

recieve_good.

What if Wayne Coyne and Dave Fridmann actually made songs that spoke to something larger?

They’ve hit it occasionally.

You gotta have Jesus in your heart.

Brian Eno first four records spun out again and again.

Cornelius.

Stereolab.

And WHAT THE FUCK?!?

Delta blues?

Country blues???

Yes, indeed.

“COVID-19 Blues”.

Like late-period Dylan.

Seriously.

If Dylan passes, this dude is next up.

I know it sounds implausible.

Communism used to be risqué.

Now the tables have turned.

Paul Joseph Watson needs to hear this shit.

The human condition.

Dr. Steve Pieczenik needs to hear this song, “COVID-19 Blues”.

This is Stax.

Muscle Shoals.

Atlantic.

Booker T.

But with that San Antonio twist.

Pauly Deathwish from the Alamo city.

Augie Meyers.

Flaco Jimenez.

Is Trump still the President? 😉

When was this written?

Why that move to Bedminster?

Cabinet meeting.

A unifying song.

Like “Dixie”.

Ask Abraham Lincoln about “Dixie”.

Masked and anonymous.

QAnon line as money shot.

Sweet harmonica.

Linn drums.

Beck.

Loop.

It don’t matter.

This record rocks the Walmart parking lot.

GUITAR SOLO!

Jimmy Vaughn.

B.B. King.

Richard Manuel tickling the ivories.

Band brown album.

Call Q.

Call Mojo.

Call Uncut.

Side two for all you vinyl lovers.

“Let’s Get Creative”.

Floyd delay.

Sexy song.

J. Spaceman.

Jeff Tweedy.

Kid A.

Really special production.

Which just goes to show that anything can be done with an iPhone.

Except privacy.

Tim Cook cocksucker.

In shitty record store.

Radiohead were our Beatles.

Or their Beatles.

Now many friends have left.

You can’t say White Lives Matter.

Can someone please tell Pauly Deathwish this?

Not that he SAID it.

Because he didn’t.

Trail of Dead.

Which makes sense.

Read this motherfucker’s bio on Spotify.

No slouch.

I happen to know some extra details which I may divulge at a later date.

Lots of training in music composition.

Multiple touches with Nadia Boulanger.

Sexy song.

T. Rex.

Bolan.

Jonny Greenwood.

Scott Pilgrim.

Edgar Wright needs to hear this shit.

No cap.

Dead ass.

Trans.

Neil Young.

Dead Man.

Thurston Moore needs to hear this shit.

Funny mention.

Watch the water.

August 20.

Rollerskate Skinny appreciation society.

St. Johnny.

Boo Radleys.

First Stereolab album.

Grandaddy.

Harvest drums.

Like it!

Like a Sonic Youth country album.

Made in a barn.

Nothing Ween about this shit.

Except for the trucker song.

Which is funny as fuck.

This dude definitely a QAnon.

“Midnight Rider”.

Paul Revere.

One if by…two…

Mercury Rev.

Suzanne Thorpe.

Applied memetics.

Oh shit.

First Eno record.

Desert island.

THIS is impressive.

Turns out to be motto of 4th Psychological Operations Group (4thPOG) at Fort Bragg.

The PSYWAR just got real.

Vietnamese ghosts amplified.

But this is Chinese.

China bio attack.

Fauci through China.

Focus on Peter Daszak and his absurd opera-singer brother.

There is going to be hell to pay.

Q-uantum of solace.

PCAPs.

Obviously, Pauly Deathwish loves the instrumentals from Bowie’s Low.

This is a constant touchstone.

Trance.

Meditative techno.

Ugh.

When the bass drops in on “Verbum Vincet ’72”.

Who was Q?

Who is Q?

Was Q a psychological operation?

From whence might it have emanated?

Roger Waters.

Hell to pay.

Criminal networks wiped off the face of the earth.

Peking opera.

Sue me.

LeBron James is a worthless cocksucker.

I think I would get along with this Pauly Deathwish guy.

8964.

We have it all…in Utah.

“Bluffdale” like Marquee Moon.

Meets chiptune.

Super Marquee Moon.

Even a bit of John Bonham.

Good drum sound.

Dubstep?

Riots worldwide.

No vaccine passports.

Here’s where BLM and MAGA come together.

Don’t vax us, man.

A unifying event.

The real racists are the totalitarian Democrats.

Am I doing this right?

Pepe Lives Matter needs to hear this shit.

Klaus Voorman bass.

Leave it in.

Smacked out of your gourd.

Phil Spector murdered by the Rona.

Lee “Scratch” producing The Clash.

People want to sleep forever.

Sleep through this global nightmare.

Gotta wake up.

But the reality is crushing.

So God gives us solace here and there.

Black ark.

Meandering.

Oar.

Moby grape.

Hal Blaine back in the barn stoned on some world-class shit.

Nodding.

Space-age.

Astral weeks.

Nick Drake.

Ending album on serious note?

“Cotton Ball Soup”.

Will the masses win?

Against the vaccine passport bastards?

Montreal.

Where’s GYBE?

No heroes can be found.

Where’s Thom Yorke?

Radiohead?

Bob Dylan?

WWIII.

iTunes.

Spotify.

-PD

Clear and Present Danger [1994)

Donald Moffat as George Bush Sr.

Colombia.

Where drug cartels are called “right wing”.

And there are communist guerrillas.

And a national state apparatus involving military and police.

And an ongoing conflict.

Marxist insurgency?

Yes.

But far more complex.

I’ve a feeling there have been many cynical reasons for “fighting Marxists” down in cocaine-rich Colombia.

Donald Moffat as Ronald Reagan.

A little.

Doddering.

Old.

But dead ringer for Bush.

56 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_conflict

Bill Barr how many years at CIA?

What positions?

DDI?

DDO?

No record.

Gap between General Robert Cushman and General Vernon Walters.

Gap between John E. McLaughlin and Admiral Albert Calland.

Hugh Price, David Cohen, Jack Downing…unclear.

Big gap between Greg Vogle and Elizabeth Kimber.

Sneaky bastard.

Reward.

Stay alive.

Street.

Ambush.

Hawaiian shirt.

Meet in Panama hat.

Cortez is really the killer.

DGI.

Czech.

StB.

Che Guevara in Moscow.

Lourdes SIGINT station.

Paper bomb.

Cellulose.

CIA hacks U.S. Congress.

CIA hacks CIA?

Who dares wins.

Knock knock jokes.

What kind of spymaster would take such risks?

Pieczenik.

 

-PD

 

 

Beynelmilel [2006)

Wow 🙂

What a beautiful and perfect movie!

The International.

Yes, we are back to Turkey.

But this film is very much about the passions of youthful revolution.

Is Trump a revolutionary?

Of course.

Was George Washington a revolutionary?

Of course.

But the strain of revolutionary verve in this film is that of communism.

I don’t hate communism.

I don’t hate anything.

But I think some things are not so good.

With communism, I mainly criticize it on an economic level.

Have I read Marx?

Not very much.

But I’ve read enough Debord to get the late-60s version of Marxism.

I would argue that Debord, one of my three favorite writers, was at his best when he was NOT talking about Marxism.

When he goes off on Marxist tangents, he loses me.

I find it boring.

And, as I’ve said, I object to it on economic grounds.

I have a college degree in music.

[which will be very important in reviewing this film]

But I have an advanced degree (above and beyond that) in business.

Am I a genius of economics?  No.

But I questioned.  I was skeptical.  I studied Marx.

And I found the capitalist system to be the best system.

It is, by no means, perfect.

And so why, then, do I like Guy Debord?

Perhaps no one in history hated capitalism more than Guy Debord 🙂

I respect Debord because he was a brilliant social critic.

I do not agree with his economic assumptions.

I do not agree with his Marxist assumptions.

But when it comes to a critique of capitalism (which is the underpinning of globalism), no one has found the flaws like Debord.

No one has completely dismantled the matrix in which we live (the “spectacle”) quite like Debord.

And so his book The Society of the Spectacle is essential reading in my opinion.

At least the first few chapters.

As I said, Debord gets a bit bogged down in Marxism and loses his poetic divining power concomitantly.

But let’s discuss this film.

This is, by far, the best Turkish film I’ve ever seen.

Granted, I think this is only the fourth I’ve ever watched 🙂

But this is really a special movie!

Wikipedia says that it is set in a small town near Adana.

For that, I will say hi to the American soldiers at Incirlik Air Base 🙂

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for representing the United States.  Thank you for your service.  We love you and we pray for your safety and happiness!

It is true.

I love our American troops.

Most of my life I did not appreciate these wonderful people.

I took it for granted…

“Somebody will do that job…”

But in my older age, I respect these soldiers very much.

But let us shift back to this film.

First, let us thank the two directors:  Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Muharrem Gülmez.

They have made an almost perfect movie.

Really, this film is so, so good!

But you must be warned, my dear friends:  it is simple.

It you are looking for a complex, confusing film, then you will be disappointed.

Such that, you must be like a child–like a youth to appreciate the naïveté of this masterwork.

So I would say this:  it’s a bit like a Turkish version of Cinema Paradiso.

Do you see what I am getting at?

It is poetic.

The mise-en-scène is a bit like what we might expect from Claude Monet (were he still alive).

It is loving.

Large swaths of color.

And, perhaps most quintessential, it is unassuming.

Down to earth.

There’s no condescension in this film.

Come as you are.

First movie you’ve ever seen?

No problem 🙂

It is that sort of loving masterpiece!

It is set in Turkey in 1982.

Cassettes 🙂

80s-style clothing.  The Turkish version 🙂

A junta is in place.  A military government.  Martial law.

And one band of musicians gets rooked into being a “marching band” (of sorts).

But these are folk musicians 🙂

They don’t play brass instruments.  They don’t play the sousaphone.

So it is a very steep learning curve (which sounds a lot like Charles Ives in its beginning stages) 🙂

But let’s get to the most important point.

“I fell in love with the actress/She was playing a part that I could understand”

[Neil Young]

Yes.

Özgü Namal.

Just two years younger than me.

She is the star of this film.

Amazing facility as an actress.

But really just a glow–a vibrance in her every gesture.

Here is someone who is glad to be alive 🙂

And it made me glad to be alive!!!

But let me tell you the other star:  Cezmi Baskın!

This man!

He has no Wikipedia page in English, but he is a wiseman.

A humanist.

A saint of an actor.

A craftsman.

He plays the bandleader.

And his daughter in the film is Özgü Namal.

Umut Kurt does a very good job as the young communist.

And, hence, the title of the film:  The International.

“L’Internationale” 🙂

The most famous of communist anthems.

Yes, dear friends, it is that melody written in 1888 by Pierre De Geyter which is the MacGuffin of this film.

The whole plot hinges on it.

Derrida would call it the brisure (if film were a text).

To deconstruct.

The hinge.

I will say this:  the struggles in this film are very real to this day for the people of Turkey.

I would say our communist character would probably today be a member of the CHP party in Turkey:  Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi.

The Republican People’s Party 🙂

Which is funny because in the U.S., the Republicans (whom I support…more or less) are conservative or “right wing”.

So, yes:  the CHP is “left wing”.

But as I say, this is a very fine film.

It shows very much the love which a father can have for his daughter.

It shows the sacrifices which parents make for their children.

Parents will even die to save their children.

This is a funny movie, but it has this tone of seriousness as well.

Actually, the whole film is like a brilliant joke 🙂

It starts very serious…

But the it becomes festive and ridiculous!

Most of all, there are so many poetic camera shots of Turkish life.

Little things which we don’t see in America.

So an American can learn some of another culture.

But also, we see that people all around the world have similar worries and dreams as us.

Well, I don’t want to tell you too much.

I will just say that this is well-worth watching.

It is a bit long, but I watched it in two installments.

And the subtitles are good 🙂

Anyway, it is on Netflix streaming in the U.S. currently as Beynelmilel.

I am so glad I found this film 🙂

Güle güle

 

-PD